24 Comments
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Ministry of Truth's avatar

It seems to me that one major problem with many dietary intervention then is the drastic changes in carolie intake, especially when people inevitably fall off the wagon due to cravings and extreme hunger. A very slow and deliberate approach with reverse dieting up to a reasonable amount of energy is then to be preferred, but it will probably take a lot of time to fix metabolism. Makes GLP-1 even more enticing, especially for people who never experienced a metabolism working at optimum.

I'm also wondering what would have happened if Billy wasn't physically active. At some point fidgeting probably isn't enough.

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Andy's avatar

I used to eat constantly and massively every day, and I did this for years. In the end I was very very fat and very sick. So I would say there is a context where this applies, a context I do not fit in.

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bbcascabel77's avatar

Wait till he is a bit older. Won't be working so well for him then. He will then notice the damage he is doing to his body now. 6000 calories and mainly from junk food - what could go wrong?

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Matt Quinn's avatar

a - he stopped that in 2006.

b - high metabolism is great for longevity

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bbcascabel77's avatar

a -why did he stop if it was so great ??

b - really? says who? - studies/data??

c - caloric restriction is great for longevity.

d - fasting is the omnipotent healer.

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Billy Craig's avatar

Hi Matt, Sorry I’ve not replied, genuinely haven’t seen a message from you, but I’ve had a manic few months travelling for some sports events in Europe. Currently working on a project that’s taken me away from my own site and places to write, but I’m more than happy to fill in any blanks or chat to you.

Be well

Billy

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Matt Quinn's avatar

AWESOME!

I'll email you directly.

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Dave's avatar

Man wish this guy was measured in a lab, so many questions. Like, I'm told the 400lb+ club also eat constantly but that doesn't seem to help them either. And in regards to his physical activity how did he maintain recovery and healing without steroids.

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Chris Highcock's avatar

This also reminds me of what natural bodybuilder Ian Duckett has written about nutrition in his sub stack here https://open.substack.com/pub/ianduckett/p/ducketts-nutrition-blog-40a?r=tqz8c&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false

"John would slowly build up the athlete’s lean - clean food consumption in the offseason- keeping tabs on body fat with a calliper test he developed.

Eventually they would be eating 6 or more thousand calories from lean protein and clean carbs a day. By the time a show prep came along they could get ripped dieting for shows on 4000 or so calories."

He encouraged the use of MCT oil too which in the Peat world is another way to build the metabolism.

He also encourages you to fix a baseline diet, a uniform day of eating that you repeat.... that is Billy Craig's consistent eating.

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Chris Highcock's avatar

The other thing your conclusions - the micro dosing honey bit - made me think of was the idea of adding coconut oil during the day which has been done by @thermobolic on X in an effort- successful - to boost the metabolism.

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Inverted Reality's avatar

You can’t eat calories.

That’s it, it’s all I wanted to say.

Have a nice day.

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Chris Highcock's avatar

This sort of comment adds nothing. It tries to sound smart, but I am left wondering what their point is. He ate food. The food he ate contained energy. Whether all the energy per gram of food is totally accurate is irrelevant but the point is that he ate food with energy in it. Lyle McDonald wrote about this here : https://bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/what-are-calories#Calories_as_a_Proxy_for_Nutrients_and_Food

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Inverted Reality's avatar

Even though I only wanted to say 'you can't eat calories', especially for you, Chris, this explanation. What it adds to the conversation; it makes people aware that you can't eat a calorie. That is already a good reason to post it.

Additionally, the comment can also make people question if calories are of much importance when looking at a diet because a calorie says nothing about the way your body metabolizes whatever it is you ingest. If all he consumes is UPF or if it is quality meat, eggs, butter and fish makes a huge difference. Especially when you look at fat loss or gain.

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Chris Highcock's avatar

Fair enough. I’m not getting into an argument. I see your point. Did you actually read the article?

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Inverted Reality's avatar

No, it did not seem interesting.

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Chris Highcock's avatar

It is great to see Billy get some attention. He is a good guy and one of the original thinkers in this space but because he is not active on X or Substack he doesn’t get much attention.

His book is dense but the ideas are clear. As is standard he avoids PUFA but then there is less complexity than many introduce to the discussion.

Thanks for drawing attention to him.

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Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Does he specify what he means by "junk food?" Are we talking potato chips (high PUFA) or gummy bears/candy (no PUFA/no fat) or chocolate (no PUFA/swampy)?

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Matt Quinn's avatar

I had understood high pufa stuff and chocked it up as the end result and high metabolism acting as defense, but someone on reddit reckons the junk food he referred to candy effectively.

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Chris Highcock's avatar

Given he is anti PUFA I doubt he was on seed oil junk food.

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Chris Highcock's avatar

Email and ask him.

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Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Yea would be a pretty important difference heh. That's why I think the term "junk food" is useless, just like "whole foods" or "real foods" or "clean foods." It means nothing.

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Chris Highcock's avatar

In the podcast on the Patreon he talks about eating a lot of wine gums - gelatin candy in the uk.

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Experimental Fat Loss's avatar

Like gummy bears?

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Chris Highcock's avatar

Yes I think so.

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