Restricting protein and eating a lot of sugar raises the metabolic rate because there were periods in mammalian history where calories were abundant but protein was scarce.
If an animal eats many more calories than they burn, bad things generally happen; for example: fatty liver develops. If an animal gets too little protein, other bad things happen, such as muscle atrophy or immune dysfunction.
When mammals only had fruit to eat, with their “normal” metabolic rate, mammals had to eat so many calories that they should have gotten a fatty liver before eating enough protein. But they didn’t. Evolution solved this.
The solution evolution used was to raise the metabolic rate when the animal eats protein deficient food, so they can reach protein sufficiency without killing themselves from caloric overload. This works through the hormone FGF21, which is induced by protein-deficient overfeeding of fat or carbs. This mechanism is conserved among nearly all mammalian species, and human studies suggest we haven’t lost the hormonal response ourselves. Besides, some monkeys are fruitarians and somehow get enough protein to be super jacked – they must be eating a ton of fruit (without getting fat).
Seed oils do many horrible things to our metabolism. One thing that even organic, cold pressed seed oils do is make fat cells more insulin sensitive while not affecting muscle cells as much: that is, your fat cells accept more calories and grow more than muscle. They make you fat.
Omega 6 fats, the primary component of most seed oils, is used by the body naturally as a precursor to inflammatory signals. Eating seed oils gives the body more ammo to cause inflammation. If you fry seed oils, the fat becomes oxidized and converted into the raw inflammatory signals.
Drugs like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, or aspirin are known as “COX inhibitors.” COX is an enzyme that converts Omega 6 fats into inflammatory signals. Frying oils at high temperatures may spontaneously convert the Omega 6 fats into molecules that look like these inflammatory signals (isoprostanes). That is – fryer oil is pure inflammation: the anti-aspirin.
Alcohol is metabolized into a reactive molecule called acetaldehyde, which causes hangovers. Breakdown products of seed oils look like acetaldehyde (namely, 4-HNE), and are detoxed by the same system as alcohol metabolites. Fryer oil also pre-forms these substances. The anti-alcohol abuse drug, “antabuse,” blocks the breakdown of acetaldehyde, giving an instant hangover to the user if they have any alcohol. Antabuse also stops seed oil metabolism. Seed oils will eventually put you in a perpetual “hung-over” state if you store enough of them in your fat, because they overwhelm detox mechanisms.
The honey diet is basically keto with sugar w of fat. Certain high protein carnivores like Shawn Baker are basically not in ketosis despite eating zero carbs, because they eat super high protein diets, and protein can turn into glucose in your body. True ketosis – where you are getting nearly all your energy from fat and not from protein – works remarkably like the honey diet, where the metabolic enhancing hormone FGF21 is induced and metabolic rate increases.
The main difference that I see is that keto is more satiating, so you eat slightly less food. The honey diet is less satiating, but the hormonal response is stronger, so you eat more food naturally and still lose weight.
The maximum metabolic rate increase comes from sugar. The liver is the organ that sends the signal to the rest of the body to increase the metabolic rate in response to protein deficient carbs or fat. Sugar targets the liver more directly than starch, so the liver sends a bigger signal. MCTs would do a similar thing in a protein deficient context – they should enhance a moderate protein keto diet.
Nope! Exercise is not needed, but I have noticed that I do more non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) on the honey diet than others. I wouldn’t change anything about exercise in the honey diet except maybe drink juice at the gym.
Protein much above 1-1.5 g/kg hasn’t really shown any benefit for muscle mass or body fat percentage – this corresponds to like 0.5 g/lb as optimal. Above that, your metabolism slows, people seem to run into issues with fatigue and brain fog, and there are some potential issues with chronic activation of mTOR/suppression of FGF21 that may shorten lifespan. For longevity, the lower (but sufficient) amounts of protein seem optimal, but ultra low protein is also bad. I feel strongly that 1-1.5g/kg (0.45-0.7 g/lb) is best, and above or below just worsens your disease risk and makes you feel worse.