Day 16 - Fat - the old enemy • Carl Gottlieb

Published On: May 27th, 2013/Categories: Carl's Transformation/3.2 min read/

Day 16 – Fat – the old enemy

Day 16 of Nick Mitchell‘s 12 Week Body Plan transformation and my attention turns to my diet once again.

Day: 16
Date: 27/05/2013
Workout Day: 14
Weight (lb): 164.2 (7.6 lb loss)
Body Fat %: 14.8 (1.8% loss)
Health: Fine

Today I spent some time going through my food diary, looking at the different metrics and macro ratios to make sure I was keeping track and staying on course. Everything looks in order, but the one thing that surprised me was the fat and calorific values of some meats. Being on a low carb diet means you’re unlikely to get any significant calories from anywhere other than fat and in my case this was mainly from red meat. There is a common view that high fat levels are required on a low carb diet to maintain fat loss. I’m sceptical of this since focusing on adding fat intake usually creates a significant increase in calories which will do little to help fat loss. An important point is to keep an eye on what cut/form of meat you’re eating.

To compare:

A 100g fillet steak has 119 calories, 20g protein, 4g fat (A ratio of 5:1 of protein to fat)
A 100g rib-eye steak has 200 calories, 19g protein, 14g fat (A ratio approaching 1:1 of protein to fat)

So the takeaway point is to remember that all steaks, meats and macros are not equal. Don’t let a slight oversight on food selection write off a day’s progress. By the way, I’m not for one minute suggesting animal fat itself is in any way bad. In fact it could be argued that most nutrition comes from within the fat we eat. Fat is no longer our enemy, but sometimes a higher fat intake is not helpful, and my current diet is such an example.

In terms of training I had a day of chest and arms, which again was relatively straight forward, simple, tough on the pecs, biceps and triceps but not really exhausting. I feel a bit guilty when I enjoy these workouts more but it’s only natural, and it’s gratifying to see that the pump is mostly still there despite my lack of glycogen.

With a bit more free time today, I also wrote a new article for the website on respect between figures within the fitness industry. Please have a read here.

About the Author: Carl Gottlieb

I'm the trusted privacy advisor to leading tech companies, helping them gain maximum advantage through the right privacy strategy. My consultancy company Cognition provides a range of privacy and security services including Data Protection Officers, in-depth assessments and virtual security engineers. Get in touch if you'd like to learn more.