# How to Lose Fat — The Quick Start Guide

**The one-sentence version:** Stop eating seed oils, eat real food (including carbs), lift weights, walk daily, sleep well, and be patient.

---

## The Big Idea

Most diets fail because they fight your body. You starve yourself, your body panics, slows everything down to conserve energy, and the moment you eat normally again the weight comes back — plus extra.

This approach is different. Instead of forcing your body to burn fat through starvation, you fix the thing that's actually broken — your metabolism. Once your metabolism is working properly again, your body sheds excess fat on its own because it no longer needs to hoard it.

**The catch:** It's slower than a crash diet. But it's permanent, and you feel better the entire time instead of worse.

---

## What's Actually Making You Fat

It's probably not what you think.

The biggest dietary change of the last century isn't sugar or fast food — it's **seed oils**. Soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil. These cheap industrial oils are now in virtually every processed and restaurant food. Your grandparents barely ate them. You eat them at almost every meal.

Here's what they do:

1. **They block your body from burning sugar properly.** Your cells literally can't use glucose efficiently when these oils are floating around in your blood. This is called the Randle cycle.
2. **Your blood sugar rises** (because you can't burn it), so your body pumps out more insulin.
3. **Insulin tells your body to store fat.** More insulin = more fat storage.
4. **Your metabolism slows down.** Your body temperature drops, your energy drops, your thyroid slows down.
5. **You get hungrier** because your cells are energy-starved even though you have plenty of fuel stored as fat.
6. **The cycle repeats**, getting worse over time.

The cruel irony: you're carrying excess fuel but your engine can't use it properly. Seed oils have gummed up the works.

---

## The Plan — 5 Simple Rules

### Rule 1: Cut Out Seed Oils (This Is the Big One)

**Throw away:**
- Soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil
- Margarine, vegetable shortening, "vegetable oil"
- Any cooking spray made from these oils

**Cook with instead:**
- Butter or ghee
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil (for lower heat)
- Beef or lamb tallow

**Why not lard?** Pigs and chickens are what they eat. Conventionally raised pigs are fed corn and soy, so their fat ends up full of the same omega-6 PUFAs you're trying to avoid (~15-25% PUFA). Cows and sheep have a special stomach (the rumen) that converts PUFAs into saturated fat before it reaches their tissues, so beef and lamb fat is always low in PUFA (~3-4%). Stick to ruminant fats (beef tallow, lamb tallow, butter) for cooking. Lard from pasture-raised pigs is acceptable but still higher than tallow.

**The hard part:** Seed oils are hidden in almost everything — salad dressings, sauces, bread, crackers, chips, chocolate, restaurant food, takeaways. Start reading labels. If an ingredient list says "soybean oil," "canola oil," "sunflower oil," or "vegetable oil" — put it back.

**Restaurant food** is the hardest. Nearly all restaurants fry and cook in seed oils. You don't need to become a hermit, but cook at home more often and when you eat out, choose grilled/roasted options and ask what oil they use.

This single change — eliminating seed oils — is more important than everything else combined.

### Rule 2: Eat Real Food (Yes, Including Carbs)

**Eat plenty of:**
- **Fruit** — any kind, as much as you like. Bananas, oranges, berries, apples, mangoes. Fruit is not the enemy.
- **Potatoes and root vegetables** — baked, roasted, mashed with butter. Sweet potatoes, carrots, beets.
- **Eggs** — one of the most nutritious foods that exists. Don't skip the yolk.
- **Meat and fish** — beef and lamb are ideal (their fat is naturally very low in PUFA). Chicken and pork are fine for the protein, but their fat is high in omega-6 if conventionally raised — so don't save the drippings for cooking. Choose leaner cuts of pork/chicken, or buy pasture-raised. Fish (salmon, sardines) is great.
- **Rice** — white rice is fine. Simple, cheap, easy to digest.
- **Dairy** (if you tolerate it) — full-fat milk, cheese, yoghurt, butter. Not the low-fat versions.
- **Bone broth or stock** — great for your gut, joints, and metabolic balance. Gelatin from bones contains glycine (which your body needs) without tryptophan (which in excess produces serotonin — a stress hormone that promotes fat storage). Modern diets eat mostly muscle meat and skip the bones and connective tissue, which throws off this balance.
- **Honey** — a surprisingly good sweetener. Use it in tea, on yoghurt, wherever.

**A note on vegetables:**
- **Cook your broccoli, kale, and cabbage.** Raw cruciferous vegetables contain compounds (goitrogens) that slow down your thyroid — the exact opposite of what you want. Steaming or roasting them fixes this.
- **Don't rely on spinach for minerals.** Spinach contains oxalates that bind iron, calcium, and zinc so your body can't absorb them. It looks nutritious on paper but delivers much less than you'd think. Romaine, cos lettuce, and arugula are better choices for salads. If you like spinach, cook it — that reduces the oxalate problem.
- **Soak or cook beans and grains properly.** They contain phytates that block mineral absorption and lectins that can irritate your gut. Soaking beans overnight, pressure cooking them, and choosing sourdough bread or white rice (phytates are in the hull) sidesteps these issues.
- **Watch out for phytoestrogens.** These are plant chemicals that mimic estrogen in your body. Excess estrogen promotes fat storage and inflammation in both men and women — in men it converts testosterone to estrogen (driving belly and chest fat), while in women it creates estrogen dominance over progesterone (driving weight gain, fluid retention, and increased cancer risk). The main sources: **soy milk, tofu, and soy protein** (very high), **flaxseed** (very high), and **beer** (hops contain one of the strongest phytoestrogens known — the "beer belly" isn't just about calories). Fermented soy like natto and miso is less of a concern and has other benefits — it's fine in moderation.

**A note on water and tea:**
- **Filter your tap water** if you live in a fluoridated area. Fluoride is a thyroid toxin — it was literally used as anti-thyroid medication before modern drugs existed. Distillation removes it completely (~99%+), reverse osmosis removes most of it (~90-95%); standard Brita-type carbon filters don't remove fluoride at all.
- **Watch your tea intake.** Tea plants soak up fluoride from the soil. If you drink 4+ cups of black or green tea a day, you may be getting a significant dose. White tea, herbal teas, and coffee are lower-fluoride alternatives.

**Don't be afraid of:**
- Carbs (they're your body's preferred fuel)
- Saturated fat (butter, coconut oil — these are stable and safe)
- Salt (your body needs it — under-salting raises stress hormones)
- Cholesterol (your body makes its hormones from it)

**Avoid:**
- Anything with seed oils in the ingredients (the main thing)
- Ultra-processed packaged foods (they almost always contain seed oils)
- Fried takeaway food (cooked in seed oil)

**Don't count calories.** Eat until you're satisfied. Three proper meals a day. If you've been dieting and restricting for years, you may need to eat more than feels comfortable at first — your metabolism needs fuel to recover.

### Rule 3: Move Your Body

**The priority order:**

1. **Walk every day** (30-60 minutes). This is the foundation. Morning walks in sunlight are ideal. Low stress, burns fat gently, improves insulin sensitivity, regulates your sleep. Breathe through your nose.

2. **Lift weights** (3-4 times per week). This is more important than cardio for fat loss. Muscle is metabolically active tissue — the more you have, the more energy you burn at rest, even while sleeping. You don't need a fancy program. Squats, deadlifts, presses, rows, and pull-ups cover everything. Start light, learn the movements, add weight gradually.

3. **Occasional intense bursts** (1-2 times per week). Sprints, hill runs, bike intervals, or a hard circuit. Keep it short — 15-20 minutes. This powerfully stimulates your body to build new mitochondria (the energy factories inside your cells).

**Avoid:** Chronic long-distance cardio (running an hour every day). This elevates stress hormones and can suppress your metabolism over time. Walking + weights + occasional sprints is superior.

### Rule 4: Sleep Properly

This isn't optional. Bad sleep wrecks your metabolism:
- Raises stress hormones by 37-45%
- Makes you insulin resistant (one bad night is measurable)
- Increases hunger hormones
- Blocks growth hormone (which helps you burn fat and build muscle)

**The basics:**
- 7-9 hours per night
- Dark room (blackout curtains or an eye mask)
- Cool room
- No phones/screens for an hour before bed (or use night mode / blue-blocking glasses)
- Get morning sunlight (10-30 minutes after waking) — this sets your body clock so you sleep better that night
- Consistent bed and wake times

### Rule 5: Get Sunlight

Sunlight does far more than make vitamin D:
- It directly boosts your mitochondria (the energy factories that burn fat)
- It releases nitric oxide from your skin, improving blood flow
- It sets your circadian rhythm, improving sleep and hormone cycles
- It reduces stress hormones

A major study following 30,000 women for 20 years found that avoiding sun exposure was as dangerous as smoking.

**Practical:**
- Get outside in the morning — no sunglasses for the first 10-30 minutes
- Get midday sun when possible
- Don't burn — build up gradually, cover up before you go red
- Don't slather yourself in chemical sunscreen daily (the chemicals are absorbed into your blood and are endocrine disruptors). If you need sun protection for extended exposure, use mineral sunscreen (zinc oxide).

---

## What to Expect

### First 2 Weeks
- You might crave processed food as you adjust
- Energy might fluctuate
- If you've been dieting hard, you might feel like you're eating "too much" — that's your metabolism waking up
- Sleep often improves quickly

### Weeks 2-6
- Energy stabilising — fewer afternoon crashes
- Hands and feet warmer (sign of improving metabolism)
- Digestion improving
- Mood improving
- **The scale might not move much yet** — don't panic. Your body is rebuilding.

### Months 2-6
- Steady energy all day
- Noticeably stronger from the weights
- Clothes fitting differently — waist shrinking even if the scale hasn't moved much
- Body temperature rising (this means your metabolism is speeding up)

### Months 6-18
- Sustained, visible fat loss
- Significantly better body composition (less fat, more muscle)
- Much higher energy than before
- This is where it gets exciting — the metabolic repair is really kicking in

### Year 1-3
- The toxic fats stored in your body from years of seed oil consumption are gradually being replaced with healthy fats. This process takes 1-3 years.
- Many people notice a "second wind" of improvement around this time
- Body composition continues improving
- The changes are permanent because they're driven by a genuinely healthier metabolism, not by willpower and starvation

---

## How to Know It's Working

Forget the scale (or at least, don't obsess over it). Better signals:

1. **Body temperature.** Buy a simple oral thermometer. Take your temperature when you first wake up (before getting out of bed) and again in the mid-afternoon.
   - Waking: 36.6-37.0C (97.8-98.6F) is good
   - Afternoon: 37.0-37.2C (98.6-99.0F) is good
   - If your temperature is rising over weeks, your metabolism is improving. Everything else follows.

2. **Energy levels.** Steady energy without crashes or caffeine dependence = your metabolism is working.

3. **Waist measurement.** More useful than scale weight. Measure at your navel. Check monthly.

4. **How you feel.** Sleeping better? More energy? Warmer hands and feet? Better mood? Less hungry between meals? These all point to metabolic recovery.

---

## Common Questions

**"Can I still eat sugar?"**
Yes. Sugar from real food sources (fruit, honey, a bit of white sugar in your tea) is not the villain it's made out to be. The real problem is seed oils blocking your body's ability to handle sugar. Once you remove seed oils and your metabolism improves, your body handles sugar just fine. Whole fruit is particularly good — no study has ever shown harm from eating fruit.

**"Won't butter and coconut oil give me heart disease?"**
The idea that saturated fat causes heart disease has been seriously challenged by modern research. Multiple large studies involving hundreds of thousands of people have found no link between saturated fat and heart disease. Saturated fat is actually the most stable fat — it can't go rancid or oxidise like seed oils do. Traditional populations eating high-saturated-fat diets (French, Masai, Tokelau) had minimal heart disease.

**"This seems too simple."**
The biochemistry behind it is complex (there's a detailed document for that — FAT_LOSS_GUIDE.md). But the practical application really is this simple. Most of the complexity in modern nutrition advice exists because it's trying to optimise around a fundamentally broken diet (one full of seed oils). Remove the seed oils and the body largely takes care of itself.

**"What about keto?"**
Keto forces your body into emergency fat-burning mode. This works short-term but suppresses your thyroid (slowing metabolism), raises stress hormones, and if your stored fat is full of seed oil PUFAs (it almost certainly is), you're flooding your system with toxic fats. Brief overnight fasting gives you most of the benefits of keto (autophagy, some ketone exposure) without the downsides. You don't need to eliminate carbs.

**"I've been told I need to be in a caloric deficit."**
You need to burn more than you store, yes. But the way to do that sustainably is to speed up your metabolism (so you burn more at rest) rather than eat less (which slows your metabolism). Someone with a fast metabolism eating well loses fat effortlessly. Someone with a crashed metabolism eating 1,200 calories is miserable and stuck.

**"How is this different from every other diet?"**
Most diets focus on restricting something — calories, carbs, fat, meal timing. This focuses on removing a toxin (seed oils) and restoring normal function. You're not fighting your body. You're giving it what it needs to work properly. The fat loss is a side effect of a functioning metabolism.

---

## The Cheat Sheet

Stick this on your fridge:

```
DO:
  Cook with butter, ghee, coconut oil, beef tallow, olive oil
  Eat fruit, potatoes, eggs, beef, lamb, fish, rice, dairy
  Favour ruminant meat (beef, lamb) — their fat is naturally low PUFA
  Cook your cruciferous veg (broccoli, kale) — raw suppresses thyroid
  Filter your tap water (distillation or reverse osmosis removes fluoride; Brita doesn't)
  Lift weights 3-4x per week
  Walk every day
  Sleep 7-9 hours in a dark room
  Get morning sunlight
  Eat enough — 3 full meals a day

DON'T:
  Cook with seed oils (soybean, corn, sunflower, canola)
  Cook with conventional lard or chicken fat (high PUFA from feed)
  Eat ultra-processed packaged food
  Eat fried takeaway food
  Starve yourself or count every calorie
  Do hours of cardio instead of lifting weights
  Rely on spinach for minerals (oxalates block absorption)
  Drink lots of soy milk or eat lots of tofu (phytoestrogens mimic estrogen)
  Eat flaxseed regularly (very high in phytoestrogens)
  Drink lots of beer (hops = potent phytoestrogen)
  Drink unfiltered fluoridated tap water (fluoride suppresses thyroid)
  Drink 4+ cups of black/green tea daily (high fluoride — try white/herbal)
  Stay up late on your phone
  Avoid the sun
```

That's it. Do these things consistently for 6-12 months and your metabolism — and your body — will transform.

---

*For the full biochemistry behind this approach, see FAT_LOSS_GUIDE.md and METABOLISM_AND_AGING.md.*
