We think it’s much better to train
yourself in healthful eating from the
beginning, while the motivation to lose
weight is strong. Use the Perfect Health
Diet for weight loss from the beginning,
and the odds of long-term success will
be higher.
Here are the most important steps in any
weight loss program.
1. Eliminate omega-6-
containing oils, replacing
them with butter and coconut
oil; reduce omega-6 fats by
getting protein from beef,
lamb, and seafood; cut
fructose intake by eliminating
added sugars and getting
carbs from safe starches.
Excessive intake of omega-6 fats may be
the primary cause of the obesity
epidemic, and fructose from added
sugars and toxins from grains are
contributing factors.
Eliminating these
foods will go a long way toward fixing
any weight problem.
In their place, eat:
• Meats: beef, lamb, salmon,
shellfish.
• Oils: coconut milk, butter.
• Safe starches: white rice,
potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro.
2. Eat normal PHD amounts
of carbohydrates and protein;
restrict fat.
Carbs and protein are nutrients and they
are not stored in the body, so eating less
of them will lead to malnourishment.
Fats are stored in the body—it’s all that
stored fat that you’re trying to get rid of!
—so you don’t need to eat much fat. If
your diet is fat-deficient, any needed fats
will be pulled from adipose tissue. As
long as you continue eating some
seafood for omega-
3 fats and liver and
egg yolks for fat-soluble vitamins and
choline, you can reduce fat quite a bit
with no risk of malnourishment.
Therefore, the weight loss version of
PHD is very similar to the regular
version, only tweaked slightly to reduce
fat:
• Instead of using 2 to 4
tablespoons of fat or oil in
cooking and sauces, use at most
1 tablespoon per day. Instead of
a large dollop of butter or sour
cream on a baked potato, flavor
it with a small pat of butter plus
vinegar and salt.
• Replace fatty meats with
somewhat leaner meats. When
you have ribeye steak, instead of
eating attached fat, trim excess
fat.
You’re still eating the same PHD
foods, and they should still taste
delicious. Quantities shouldn’t be much
different than a normal diet, since you
still need the same amount of carbs and
protein. A diet with 500 calories from
carbs, 300 calories from protein, and
500 calories from fats (primarily via egg
yolks, liver, seafood, beef or lamb, and
coconut milk) is the minimum caloric
intake consistent with proper
nourishment.
3. Be well nourished. Eat all
the supplemental foods we
recommend, plus our
supplemental vitamins and
minerals.
When you are hungry, eat.
Malnourishment is a cause of obesity.
Nutrition must be sufficient to enable all
bodily tissues to heal and function
properly.
A nutrient-dense diet reduces
appetite. So for good health and rapid
weight loss, be sure to make nutrientrich
foods such as eggs, bone broth,
liver, shellfish, potatoes, tomatoes, and
green leafy vegetables a part of your
diet. Get every major nutrient into its
peak health range.
4. Do intermittent fasting.
Every day, confine your food intake to
an 8-hour feeding window. Inducing
autophagy by fasting will help defeat any
obesity-inducing bacterial and viral
infections and will also promote
beneficial metabolic adaptations. To
support circadian rhythms, the feeding
window should conclude around sunset.
During the sixteen-hour fasting
window, allowable foods are:
• A spoonful of coconut oil or
MCT oil when hungry
• A bowl of tomatoes and greens
in bone broth, lightly salted or
vinegared
• Calorie-free beverages such as
water and coffee
Coffee can be flavored with a spoon
of coconut oil. The
MCT oil or coconut
oil is ketogenic and supports autophagy
during the fast. It also applies the
Shangri-La Diet idea of eating tasteless
calories during a fast to lower appetite.
The soup provides nourishment with few
calories.
5. Enhance your circadian
rhythms.
Go out every morning about 7 A.M. for
ten to twenty minutes of light activity in
the morning sun. In the afternoon, get
some sun on bare skin and more light
activity. The goal isn’t to burn calories:
it’s to reset circadian rhythms. So have
fun.
At night, avoid exposure to bright
light. Sleep in a darkened room; invest
in opaque drapes.
6. Normalize your thyroid
function.
It is impossible to be healthy and
difficult to lose weight with a
malfunctioning thyroid. Hypothyroidism
is underdiagnosed and undertreated.
The first step toward normalizing
thyroid function is toxin removal and
supplementation of iodine, magnesium,
and vitamins C and D, along with
consumption of selenium-rich and
copper-rich foods. If these are not
sufficient to restore thyroid function,
supplemental thyroid hormone
(obtainable with a doctor’s prescription)
should be considered. Aim for a TSH of
1.0 or below.
