The Complete Illustrated One Page Bulletproof Diet (Upgraded Paleo)

Great visuals. Easy to follow and remember. We all owe you a huge debt of gratitude for this.

Excellent work. Thanks.

@leon Thanks! This is indeed cross-over from the research in my book. So far, the physicians & health experts who review the book say it’s great advice for everyone. I’d say that 3/4 of the things a pregnant woman can do to be optimally healthy apply to anyone looking to optimize their health. My next book will talk about what the rest of us who aren’t pregnant can do to be higher performing and more resilient in our health.@Marion – You’re welcome!@Justin – Much appreciated. Over time, I’ll link these to blog posts explaining why they are the way they are. Every single item on this graph is there based on a combination of fatty acid analysis, toxin levels, amino acid content, etc. Pastured chicken fat is still mostly omega-6 PUFA, which is just bad news. In the upcoming book, we say that if you’re going to eat chicken, toss the skin as chicken fat is not good for you. But if you’re eating grass fed red meat, keep the fat. Chicken isn’t nearly as good for you as other meats. However, the caloric deficit thing is a vicious rumor that has broken many people’s thyroids as they try to lose weight on a caloric restricted diet. Taubes pretty much nailed the science in “Good Calories, Bad Calories” but I biohacked my way to understanding that calories are a nearly insignificant piece of the healthy & fast weight loss equation. Evidence: I eat 4-5,000 calories per day on this diet, I don’t work out more than 10 minutes a week, I sleep 5 hours a night, and I’m on airplanes every week, yet I have a 6-pack. My VLDL is 10. My HDL is 81. Triglycerides are 48, etc. @Halfmanhalfgeek, the only recipe online so far is for Bulletproof Coffee. I’ve developed a bunch of them over the years, and some of them are simply amazing. I will get around to posting them over time. Coming soon: Ice cream that boosts hormone levels enough that if you share it with your significant other, you can pretty much bet on “getting some…” Most of what I eat is a variant on “meat + vegies mixed with fat” but that gives you amazing options.

Dave, what’s your take on post workout carbs? Most ‘muscle building’ material I’ve seen indicates that insulin release is a necessary component of getting nutrients to muscle cells (as well as fat cells) so that if you are looking to gain muscle it is important to eat carbohydrates after lifting.

Hi Dave, you recommend piracetam in one of your talks. I’ve found one website I can order from that seems somewhat legitimate, but I was wondering if you know any good sources. Email me at [email protected] if it’s better not to post here.

Dave, not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but I know you are king of supplements also. In addition to eating a healthier diet, do you have suppliments to suggest to boost the immune system? My thoughts are related to international trips, where you can be exposed to more “bugs” you are not used to, and have risks of accidently being exposed to water that is not healthy (Mexico, Russia and India are countries I have in mind regarding this). I was curious if there were ways to “turbo charge” your immune system to reduce risk of getting sick on such trips. thanks! All this info is great!

@Kent – Post workout carbs are, in a word, evil. They will escort nutrients into cells because they raise insulin. Insulin has the same effect as “Insulin-like growth factor” (aka IGF-1) which is related to growth hormone functions. Muscles will grow because you rely on insulin instead of IGF-1. It’s a short-term hack that unfortunately sabotages you in the long term. Carbs after working out will tilt you away from growth hormone and testosterone production and toward cortisol and estrogen production. They teach your body to burn carbs or protein preferentially instead of fat. Carbs are low-octane, making 2 ATPs for every one burned. Fat makes 28 ATPs. If you teach your body to burn carbs, it will preferentially burn protein (muscle) by turning it to glucose before fat. If your goal is massive muscle growth, you can use carbs and put on some serious fat and muscle simultaneously, then shed the fat and keep the muscle, which is a very 1990′s approach. A more useful way to maintain general health and build muscle without gaining tons of fat is to use the Bulletproof Diet, which will keep your hormones and brain working optimally, regardless of how much (or how little) you exercise.

If the goal is 50-60% of calories from healthy fats that implies that healthy fats are full of nutrients. Could you expand on this? Also, what keep fats down the gullet from becoming fat around the waistline?

Kevin – Thanks for responding. I understand what you mean. I know fats are full of energy – i.e. calories – but so is sucrose. That doesn’t make drinking a soda a good dietary transaction. My question was about nutrients. Other than fatty acids what am I getting to benefit my body and have a healthy metabolism by eating “healthy fats” and taking the calorie hit? Vitams/Minerals/Amino Acids, etc.? In quantity or just in trace amounts? And again, what keeps fats down the gullet from becoming fat around the waistline?

Dave Coles – As far as micronutrients go, it really just depends on what you eat. With this diet you will be eating lots of animal fats from healthy animals, which contains all of the fat soluble vitamins such as Vitamin A, D, E, and K. You will also be eating a complete amino acid profile as most animal products have complete proteins. There is also no restriction on the amount of vegetables such as spinach (which have high amounts of potassium, magnesium, calcium, etc) so if you eat these types of vegetables you should be fine. To your second question, this is more completely answered if you read the book Dave Asprey recommends (Good Calories, Bad Calories) or the same authors follow up book, ‘Why We Get Fat – And What To Do About It.’ Without getting into all of the detail, the quick summary is that accumulation of fat on the body is primarily a disorder of how much insulin we secrete, not an issue of how much we eat. The idea is that if we rebalance our insulin levels, then any calories we eat will be burned by the body very quickly, so it will never become body fat.

@Kent – you use up glycogen pretty fast. Even Dr. Sears on the dated Zone diet got major improvements with Stanford’s swim team when he added more fats – and those were omega 3/6 blends, not the good stuff (butter, coconut oil). That said, eat some yams if you’re worried. Just soak them in butter first. @halfmanhalfgeek – D3 is vital by itself. Top recommendation. GSE is a natural antimicrobial that stops yeast, bacteria, and some parasites. I only use it when traveling to strange places now, but used it daily for several years when getting better. Overuse can cause slower P450 (liver) function, but that is not a concern at normal levels.@Kent Ross – High fat diets & insulin sensitivity – high in what kind of fats? MCT oils have a different effect than hydrogenated cottonseed oils. “High fat” is meaningless without knowing what kind of fat. It’s like saying “high liquid” without knowing if you’re comparing Coke to water.@Sheilagh – mushrooms aren’t too low carb, they fuel yeast growth in the body, and most varieties that are common are tied to smooth cell wall proliferation. Medicinal ones, in medicinal quantities, are probably fine, and can be super immune stimulating.@Elizabeth U – Cheese concentrates the denatured casein (inflammatory) and the toxins from the fungus that makes cheese and the mycotoxins from the animal feed. It is almost universally inflammatory. Yogurt – raw – is probably fine but pasteurized is not a health food by any measure. If you want bacteria, take a pill. Instead of milk, try coconut milk or undenatured whey protein. Raw milk is not illegal in many states – whole foods sells it in California for instance. But raw dairy is a luxury; pasteurized grass fed butter is the most important by far.@ChrisYeh – Rock on my friend! Time for dinner soon. Sashimi? @DaveColes & Kevin Beckford – we have neither gullets (we’re not birds) nor furnaces (we’re not coal-powered robots, although that would be kind of cool.:) We’re amazing biochemistry factories that break foods into usable components, some of which are ingredients to make ATP via the Krebs cycle. We don’t burn it into ash. We don’t fart smoke, and we don’t poop ash. If a calorie is a calorie, which is the dominant belief, then why don’t we all eat wax, which is very high calorie per gram, and would provide our “energy” requirements? Because the only variable that matters is what we do with the food we eat, not how many calories are in it. Fat is higher calorie per gram than sucrose. Kevin is right in recommending Taubes “Good Calories, Bad Calories” for an exhaustive explanation of why the composition of what you put in your “gullet” is far more important than how much. High caloric density healthy fats give the liver energy to detoxify things better than lower caloric density foods. Europeans who lived with Eskimos on 100% meat for 2+ years have NO scurvy. Scurvy is a disease of carbohydrate consumption, not lack of vitamin C consumption. There is simply no such thing as a “calorie hit” as Dave Coles describes. There is an insulin hit and a glucose hit, however. You need to eat some meat too, not just fat. Meat has everything you need in it (after all, you are made of meat, which is concentrated vegetables mostly anyway) @Molite, microwaving is bad as it heats some areas (very small ones) in food to incredibly high temperatures, which completely denatures proteins in the vicinity, making for inflammatory food. Microwave only plain water. Or use a kettle like I do! @Tubalard – You’re right. I made all this crap up, including the 1000+ references that are going in to my book. The one Wiley is publishing. My hot Swedish physician wife who also eats this way and co-authored the book actually doesn’t even exist; she’s really a sock-puppet. From Nigeria. I made all these graphs up while I was getting high from freebasing McDonald’s milkshakes and soy powder. That video of me at the BIL conference was actually an actor, because I weigh 1200 pounds now and have a horn growing out of my forehad. Yes, I have pictures of my 6 pack. Are there any other parts of my naked anatomy you’d like me to post? I have size 16 feet if you’re into looking at those too. Sometimes I wear sexy wool hiking socks… As for verifying caloric expenditure, I was CTO of Basis, a 24/7 heart rate/activity/calorie monitor that uses way more data than a pedometer like Fitbit. But I don’t claim to measure my caloric expenditure because that’s junk science without a university grade caloric expenditure lab. You need to know your temperature, the room temperature, air speed, humidity, activity levels, heart rate, breath gas mix going in and out, altitude, etc. to accurately know caloric burn. Those laughable numbers you see on health club machines are there to make you feel good. They are stupidly inaccurate. Calories in minus calories out is a mean, fake equation designed to increase the perceived value of crappy low calorie food and hours of cardio on expensive machines.As for how I verify my caloric intake, I have a digital scale with gram-level accuracy. Yesterday my morning coffee had 90 grams of grass-fed Kerry Gold in it, which is 84% fat, and 90 grams of coconut oil, and 2 Tbs of MCT oil (just the capric and caprylic triglyceride MCT parts…) Then I had 5 eggs for lunch with butter, avocado, and jalapenos. Large size, pastured, no grain, orange colored yolks. And 2/3 lb of grass-fed beef, plus asparagus (didn’t bother weighing it) with 3 Tbs of Kerry Gold and 1Tbs MCT oil. Dinner was 1.3 lbs of extra-fatty grass fed lamb. Had some coconut-collagen protein powder from http://www.upgradedself.com, 2 raw eggs, a scoop of 20 g whey, and some smoked salmon too. You do the math. I don’t weigh every day because after a certain point, it doesn’t add any more useful information. My 27 year old business partner Andrew, who will be blogging here soon, carefully tracks his calories and is on the program – has been for 2+ years. More data and confirmation there.

@Kevin, just checked it out. I even saw Posterous give me their VC fundraising pitch last year. The lack of threaded comments just sucks now that Bulletproof Executive has become this popular. There is no way to add threaded comments from Groups to this blog; I’d have to start another. I’m thinking it’s time to switch to WordPress. It would give me a blogroll without needing Flash, so I could ditch that awful flash app on the home page. Thanks for the prodding!

At 4,000 calories per day (the low end of the range David eats daily) 60% healthy fats is 2,400 calories (not hard to do since the oils are so calorie rich) and protein, at 20% of intake, is 800 calories – a good 12 ounce beefsteak will see to that. But how to I manage 800 calories (the last 20%) in vegetables daily? Eat 2.6 avacados every day? There are 59 calories in a pound of bok choy – if I ate 10 pounds a day I still would’nt reach 800 calories. Any advice?

Dave – I’m assuming it’s fair to say that we should not be striving to have 4000-5000 calories like you do, but to eat the right kinds of food until we feel satisfied. Everyone’s metabolism is different so there seems to be no need to force extra butter down if you are full of energy without it?

Dave – you mention that you had sushi for dinner. Is that with or without rice? If with, brown or white? What’s your take on eating a bit of rice as long as you have plenty of fish with it?

Great to see another paleo diet biohacker out there who doesn’t rely on the whole “caveman did it” mantra:)While in general I completely agree about excess carbohydrates, I do think quality matters more than quantity, even here. A ton of carrots and broccoli is obviously not the same as Cheerios and PopTarts, and people like the Katavins have been eating a fairly high amount of carbohydrate and living just fine. They get all of their carbs from tubers and leafy greens, with almost no fruit, and there is even some research showing that the carbs are first converted into MCT’s, and then burned as fuel.LDL is actually still a pretty poor metric. While its still nice to know, there are both “small dense” LDL and “big puffy” LDL. Sorry for the lame terminology, but the “big puffy” ones are the ones that have been show to be slightly atherosclerotic. I’m really glad you focused so much on the role hormones play in all of this. They really are the deciding factor in most health indicators and results:)Thanks for the excellent work man!

Great site Dave!

But, I have one question. Is it more cost effective to go for the High-Performance Protein powder or the Collagen Powder? As with High-Performance you get the whole shebang with Collagen too, whilst Collagen is just by itself.

What for you personally gave the most benefits? And is it ‘overkill’ to take both?

btw, Bulletproof coffee is fantastic! (As if you didn’t already know.. haha)

Dave: Is Himalayan pink salt the equivalent of sea salt?

Dave , nice site you have here. great information backing up the fact that a calorie is not a calorie. What we eat can drastically alter the bodies response. I am on a slow-carb lifestyle and feel great. I’ll tell my readers at to check out your site. Cheers! Jamie

Awesome info Dave, after tweaking my diet i am almost 100% bulletproof and have noticed a massive difference in energy levels and are leaner and lighter than i have been for 13 years, thanks for that. Couple of questions, my partner is struggling breaking old eating habits and wanted to know weather its an all or nothing diet, will following it 70 percent with the huge increase in good fats especially the butter still be a good thing? Will the diet be sensible for our two year old son?

Great work on the chart, I am sharing it with everyone I know. I would like to know where Turbinado or “sugar in the raw” would be one the sugar chart. I use Stevia and Xylitol occasionally, but prefer sugar in the raw.
Thanks
Brent

Dave, peanuts are bad? Say it isn’t so!

Hi Dave – I just stumbled on your blog and must say I am blown away. I signed up and got your welcome emails. One question I have – is there a secret handshake I must learn to get the 2.0 pdf mentioned? The link sent in the email is titled v1.1 – or does the .1 actually mean 2? hehe

I have been doing the bulletproof diet for 3 weeks and prior to that been doing paleo at about 80% strictness. My diet seems to breakdown to about 60% fat from grass fed butter, and coconut oil, 15-20% carbs from veggies, and 15-20% from grass fed meat. I am desperately trying to lose about 10 pounds and have not lost any weight since becoming “bulletproof” I am wondering if anybody has any suggestions. The only thing I will occassionally cheat with is maybe 2tsp of sugar in my coffee the odd morning, otherwise I have been very clean???? Not sure if i need to try something else

I, personally do not think this is an ideal diet strictly from a body composition perspective. I think it will work fine for a beginner or someone trying to cut (although I’d increase the protein), but not for someone relatively advanced trying to bulk. I’m 220lbs@8% (but tall) and I’ve tried every diet there is, but have never had success with low-carb bulking. Bulking with carbs this low will probably not permit you to gain much muscle. Also, as far as sugars go, I eat ridiculous amounts of sugar post-workout (well, waxy maize) and it does not cause me to gain fat at all. This all in mind, it is possible that this diet is optimal for anti-aging, functioning on low sleep, and/or consistent mental alertness. My diet is much more cyclical, which results in insulin and energy spikes. The result is that I have energy for my workout, but perhaps less energy during the day. The bottom line is that I think there are trade-offs. This, however, is almost exactly the diet I planned to start when I was fully satisfied with my body composition and just wanted to start maintaining. It’s a lot easier than what I’m doing.

I found your site only a few days ago, but have been totally engrossed in the podcasts and all the info you have to offer!

I’ve been trying to think of ways to adapt the bulletproof diet to my own preferences. My only hang-up so far is bread. I love the texture, and am trying to find a suitable yeast-free recipe using rice flour. What are your thoughts on rice flour, and are there any special considerations of which I should be aware when choosing a product?

Hi, I am currently trying out the diet and it works pretty well so far!

One issue though: as I’m not from the US, I’m not very comfortable about interpreting “USDA-defined servings” so I’m not sure whether I’m eating the appropriate amounts or not (my metrics: weight = 60 kgs, size = 1m73, age = 26 years old)

Would it be possible to get an equivalent in terms of mass? Like which mass of healthy veggies/fat/animal proteins/fruits I should get everyday?

Many thanks!
Mony

I’m perusing the web regarding various diets. Regardless if it’s the Atkins, Bulletproof, Acid/Alkaline, Celiac, Paleo, they all seem to have one thing in common:

Wheat is bad for you. Weight gain and even autoimmune disorders have been attributed to it.

Many of the above diets can be extreme, but if people just cut sugar and wheat from their diets, it improve health considerably for so many people.

Hey Guys

I have been getting into doing a lot of wok-food and asian in general. Do you guys have any clear knowledge on the different types of noodles.

I realize that most of them must be pretty high in starch, similar to regular pastas, but I was wondering if you have ever heard of or seen any that are low-starch and carbs?

But even if they are made of rice and low starch, it would be in the no-no range since it’s refined!?

thx

What about Dr. Kruse stating to avoid coconut/MCT oil in the winter?

Ok here is my major question.. Where do excess calories go? My understanding of biochemistry and limited understanding of human physiology says that if you eat a digestable calorie that calorie is going to do one of a limited number of things.
Case 1: Gets absorbed by the body and used in metabolism (whether that be in protein synthesis, cellular respiration, or one of the other myriad of things our bodies use energy for)
Case 2: Gets absorbed by the body and stored as a lipid for future use (clear evolutionary advantages to why the body would do this)
Case 3: (very limited/negligible) feeds intestinal.. ehh.. critters (mostly good I suppose)
So where do any excess calories go? I find it hard to believe that you body is willing to just let the precious things go out the other end, so if not fat? Where? I’m not trying to shoot this down, just curious is all.

Are pickles or olives ok? or I guess more generally speaking, if it’s not on the list, should we assume it’s not on the BP diet?

2012 update?

What about a Pea Protein supplement?

I use the Now Brand Pea Protein which uses Non-GMO vegetable protein and the amino acid profile is higher than the Whey proteins I have seen.I know Whey Concentrate is best, but if it is a grass-fed Whey version, it is very expensive and difficult to find. I assume this is better than a non-grass fed regular Whey Protein Concentrate powder.

To avoid overcooking has anyone used a Sous Vide (Hot water bath) or is there another recommended way to cook fish, beef and lamb?

Hey Dave,
whenever you guys update for 2012 could you include a “Safe starch” section to give a better idea of starches to choose based on toxin levels?

We want the update!!!