Snow and Thoughts on Bulletproof Coffee
/It's currently snowing in our part of the world. Lovely Mate and I are happily hunkered down, not needing to be anywhere or do anything. It's a nice snow. Although pretty deep, it's light and fluffy. Our power is on, we have loads of streaming options for our over-the-top, world's-largest-tv and a fire going. Plenty of supplies on hand. Not the "bread, milk and toilet paper" cliche that the South is known for at first mention of snow. No, we have bacon, heavy cream, mayo, ribeye and Maker's Mark. (That last is for me. He's all about the coffee).
And in regards to coffee, I've gotten lots of comments and questions about so called 'bulletproof coffee'. It's a concoction of coffee, and usually butter and/or coconut oil and/or cream. I wrote and made a video on the topic, here. I like bulletproof coffee. It's rich and tasty and extremely satisfying due to the very high fat content. It's also extremely dense, calorically. Due to the very high fat content.
All good, right? After all, the ketogenic (low carb/high fat) diet is all about fat, isn't it? It's right there in descriptor written in the parentheses! But hold up a second. The fact that when one follows the ketogenic diet, carbs are low and fat is high doesn't mean fats are limitless. It is more to differentiate that this is not a high protein diet. Protein needs to be moderate. (For how much is moderate, there's a formula that makes my head hurt, based on weight of lean body mass in kilograms.) For me? I eat about 3-4 ounces of protein most days. All of it from fatty sources like bacon, eggs, ribeye, sausages, cheeses, etc.,
The point is, keep carbs to about 20g per day, protein moderate and the rest is, by default, fat. If one only eats when hungry, (the most challenging part for me, as I speak to here) it won't necessarily translate into loads of fat in a day. Just that the fat percentage will be higher than the other two macronutrients (carbohydrate and protein). Somehow there's gotten to be an idea out there that one has to load up on fat, as if eating thousands of calories of fat will trigger weight loss. No, the key is to lower carbs to the point that our systems start burning body fat for fuel. If we over eat - or drink - dietary fat, our body needn't turn to our reserved fat stores for fuel.
That said, bulletproof coffee can be a boon or those who need a good meal replacement. But if you're not getting the results you want, even with low carbs, look to whether you're fueling your body from without or from within.
Now, to binge watch some tv on this cold, snowy day...
