Short link: svc.co/pirate
Say hi: instagram.com/hellanate
WARNING
This is a radically different approach to weight loss, and I haven’t seen anything like it before. This is created by me, synthesized by many insights to build a first principles and bottoms up approach. I’m not a doctor nor do I have any credentials, I’m just an Advanced Bro. This is NOT a general recommendation, not yet at least. This is my personal story where I ate more steak and drank more beer than I have in any previous period, and I’m down to my college weight. For me the Pirate Diet is the holy grail: it’s flexible and doesn’t require discipline, and it’s also super fulfilling and allows me to have tons of fun. If you just want to read the diet summary, you can skip to Part 3: My Pirate Diet. If you would like to try the Pirate Diet or to adapt it to your life, I would like to help you. Email me: nate@svc.co
PART 1: HOW I GOT HERE
For the first time in my life, I felt fat. To be honest, I had a hard time seeing it for a while, because my identity is tied up as someone who spends so much time on exercise and nutrition. I’m the Pointman guy! How could it happen to me?
On July 6th 2023, the scale read 191 pounds. I’ve definitely made tons of gainz these past couple years to be sure, I’m 36 and I keep getting buffer. My workouts are the best they have ever been.
But there was no way around it: 191 pounds is heavier than I need to be with my current muscle mass. I’ve been 175-182 for most of my adult life. That means I easily had 5 pounds to lose, maybe 10, maybe more. I noticed the new bulk especially around my stomach. I was still very muscular, but noticeably larger, and I don’t think in a good way.
Here’s the problem with that — larger waists are the #1 risk factor for all cause mortality. The reason is visceral fat, which is stored around your internal organs. The bigger your waist, the more likely you are to die earlier, for any reason. Seriously. What’s the point of being buff/strong/fast if I am overlooking this critical component of my health and longevity.
So I did something about it.
I officially started the Pirate Diet on August 20th. As of November 7th I made it to 173 pounds, which is my original goal because that was my weight when I graduated college in 2009. I lost about 1.5 pounds per week, which is far higher than the average 1 pound per week that is commonly recommended in the fitness industry. Importantly, I didn’t measure anything, I ate what I wanted, I ate out and drank booze frequently. If I was disciplined, or if I eliminated treats, I could have lost the weight way faster.
Though I’m very happy with my current weight, what’s most valuable to me are the lessons I learned about how to take charge and lose weight rapidly on my own terms.
The purpose of this article is to show you what I learned about fat loss, and my exact Pirate Diet I used to lose 18 pounds.
PART 2: WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT FAT LOSS
If you know me by now, I’m like the kid that never stoped asking (or demanding): WHY?
I did the same when it was time to get to the bottom of fat loss. What I found was not promising. Rather than clear truths of fat loss, what you see are religions that say seemingly opposite and contradictory things, i.e. keto, paleo, vegan, carnivore, intermittent fasting etc.
[For the best content on fat loss and nutrition I found, go to Resources at the bottom of this article]
In this journey, rather than looking for differences, what I seek are common denominators. What do all successful weight loss methods have in common?
The universal truths of weight loss
Natural whole unprocessed foods
This one is obvious, but I have to put it here just so we’re all on the same page. I have written about this many times before (see here, here). If you need to lose weight, the best first move is to just clean up your diet and switch to natural whole unprocessed foods. For some people, that change alone can enable big weight loss. Lots of reasons, will not cover here. For my personal situation, that was not enough. I was still eating in a surplus. This was an important lesson: I can have what looks like healthy diet, but still be consuming too much.
Remove to improve
The first move is to clean up your diet. The next is to move is to eat less calories. Weight loss is a calorie equation: consume less calories than you burn, and there will be a deficit. That deficit is your weight loss, simple as that. There are many arguments about this around the internet, I won’t cover the details here, but they don’t take into account my first point above and my next point below. It all makes sense if you look at them together. If you remove calories, you will improve results. For anyone still not convinced — just go watch a season of Alone.
Stable blood sugar is a super power
If you are eating the Standard American Diet (SAD), you are putting your blood sugar and insulin on a roller coaster ride, every single day. This is the source of type 2 diabetes. It also makes you more frequently hungry, which means you crave and consume unnecessary calories, which means weight gain. If you clean up your diet to remove or limit the junk food/drink that put your blood sugar on this roller coaster ride, you become less hungry. So it’s dramatically easier to not eat, or to eat better. There is a compounding effect as well: the less shitty things you habitually eat and drink, the less you will crave those shitty things. It’s all about keeping your blood sugar stable. There are lots of new tech companies that are exploring this, and I think it’s great. The Pirate Diet is designed around minimizing the swings in blood sugar as much as possible.
Don’t exercise too much or too hard
This one is very counterintuitive. Our default understanding is that exercise burns calories, which is true, but it doesn’t burn nearly as many calories as we think it does. Hard exercise can spike your appetite and hunger, and make you feel that you burned a heck ton of calories, but you actually didn’t. Often you’ll consume more calories to compensate, thinking that you “earned” the fries and milkshake, or whatever it may be. But you didn’t. This results in a massive overconsumption of calories. The lesson is to exercise just enough to stimulate adaptions, and then stop. The best cardio for weight loss is brisk walking and equivalent formats.
Putting the pieces together
Within these parameters, there are plenty of mainstream weight loss methods that DO work. The issue I have with everything commonly available is that they are either very restrictive, or they require lots of prep work to make successful. To me, it seems brutal to be disciplined and hustle… only to lose 1 pound per week. I’m looking for something that is flexible, easy to apply such that anyone can do it, and will drop weight QUICKLY.
I’ve been involved with intermittent fasting for more than 10 years now, and have recommended it here previously. I don’t think it’s magic, but I do think it’s amazing to unlock lifestyle flexibility and to stabilize blood sugar. It’s very liberating to not feel like you have to eat all the time while also making gainz. I’ve also noticed over the years that when I’m more diligent with IF, I tend to be leaner, when I’m not, I tend to be less lean. Hmmmmmm. But this was the first time I ever actually wanted to lose weight, and I was already eating clean enough (I thought), so what the heck was wrong?
I had a huge realization. I would generally IF until about let’s say 1-3pm, at which point I would break my fast and begin to eat regularly. And that “regular” diet at the time caused me to be too fat. So while I was successfully doing IF for a) lifestyle flexibility and b) stable blood sugar, I was nonetheless eating too many calories. If I want to use IF for weight loss, it has to be about reducing calories, not about arbitrary fasting windows. AHA.
Once I got the unnecessary constraints of fasting out of the way, it all made sense. I don’t need a strict fasting window to lose weight. I need to enable myself to easily not eat for as much of the day as possible, while also providing myself with all the necessary macros I need to grow. Remove everything not necessary to improve weight loss results.
Duty to the Booty
I realized this is how Pirates eat. They give themselves everything they need to get by, and then feast whenever possible. Their duty is to the booty, food is a means to that end. I’ve never met a fat Pirate. I must eat like a Pirate.
PART 3: MY PIRATE DIET
This is my basic strategy
Fast by consuming as FEW calories as possible for most of the day, the goal is to be not hungry for as long as possible.
Feast once or at most twice per day. This is primarily meat, fish, eggs, fruit, potatoes, vegetables. Grains and dairy only as needed
Treat myself as needed to stay on track. For me that is beer, as it should be for a modern Pirate.
Most of my day is a modified fast
Coffee and tea in the morning. I have a suspicion that dairy spikes my blood sugar significantly, so I avoid it entirely during the modified fast. When I make coffee at home, I use coconut oil. At cafes I’ll choose almond milk, even though it’s junk, because it seems to be better for me. A few months ago I found Strong Coffee and I really like it for many reasons. Their black coffee formulation is super low calorie but has just enough MCT oil and it works for me (the total calories are far less than if I were making my own coffee and adding in in coconut oil). I definitely recommend Strong Coffee.
Often I’ll add in a super low calorie or 0 calorie drink to get me by — like Diet Coke, Gatorlyte, or Gatorade 0.
Sometimes I’ll use electrolytes — LMNT or Salt Of The Earth.
Honey as needed. It’s excellent as pre workout fuel.
Fruit as needed. Usually bananas as they are very filling. Probably the best fruits to choose are berries because they are low in sugar. I don’t trust fruits like grapes and apples for the purpose of modified fasting because they have become so sugary.
Broth as needed, beef or chicken. The less flavoring the better. My suspicion is that added spices/flavoring/salt stimulate my appetite and makes me more hungry, which is the opposite of what I want.
If I really need the protein for some reason, I ate lean meat, canned fish, lunch meat, or jerky. Literally just the animal product with nothing else. Maybe I’ll add some 0 calorie seasoning like mustard, but I think it’s better to avoid if possible. No added fat. Sometimes I did protein power. This is boring but that’s not important, because I have a duty to the booty.
Going forward, I’m probably going to include an intentional serving of protein earlier in the day before the feast to help with maintaining muscle mass and fueling workouts. This was not part of my regular schedule thus far though.
That’s it. I’ve noticing that as I do more of this modified fasting it has become easier to do normal fasting. Sometimes I’ll get to 6 or 7pm on just a cup of coffee without even thinking about it. Previously to my Pirate Diet, that would have been a struggle.
Then I feast, once or twice, usually around 6-9pm
Protein first and foremost. I’m not shy here and probably eat at least 3/4 of a pound for my primary feast. This is where I get the majority of my protein for the day. 90/10 ground beef is my staple, as well as steaks and top sirloin. I’m mindful of the fattier cuts and compensate accordingly. I love salmon, but for the same reason, I often opt for lean tuna out of a can. Sardines and anchovies too. Eggs are one of the best protein sources of all time, but I didn’t have many throughout this experiment because from a protein per calorie perspective, they are not very efficient. Also eggs are usually prepared with added fat, which is counterproductive to the goal.
Fruit. I definitely need fruit for this diet to work. Don’t get scurvy! They provide micronutrients and fiber. If I didn’t eat fruit earlier in the day, I would try to eat fruit at night
Regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. These are probably an actual super food with respect to weight loss because they are super satiating and very low calorie. Caveat being you need to cook with with very little fat or none at all. I didn’t eat them as much as I could have because I feel I didn’t need them. But I’m not shy when I do eat them.
Vegetables. I love cooking vegetables and normally cook them frequently, but I rarely cooked them during the Pirate Diet. Reason being they need to be cooked with fat, and those extra calories are counterproductive to the goal. Instead I ate lots of fermented vegetables like sauerkraut, kimchi, cucumbers. They require 0 cook time, have essentially 0 calories, and are arguably healthier. Win win win.
Cottage cheese. I love cheese, sour cream, and labne, but they are highly caloric. Luckily I stumbled upon a huge hack: Good Culture Cottage Cheese. I hadn’t had cottage cheese in maybe decades and I remember it being awful, but this stuff is fantastic. Only as I was writing this did I Google it for the first time, and found out their slogan is “ridiculously good cottage cheese.” Accurate. They have a low fat 2% product that is super low in calories and really high in protein. So I use it in my feast to take the place of both cheese and sour cream or labne, and it gets the job done. This was a huge development for me.
Beer. In and around the feasting window. Only lagers, which is also my favorite kind of beer ie Miller High Life, Pacifico, Dos Equis, Trumer Corona, Miller Lite etc.
Meat and Treats
I tried to stick to the template above whenever possible, but obviously I wasn’t perfect. I call it the Meat and Treats strategy. Meat is the primary source of protein and nutrients, and I love great meat. Treats keep me compliant to and enthusiastic about the Pirate Diet. I wondered — what Treat can give me the most happiness per calorie? Bread and cheese is definitely a top contender for me. But everything else barely gives me a few seconds of pleasure, and often is followed by regret, ie. sugar, cookies, cake, ice cream, fried foods etc. That’s why I rarely eat them anyways. Alcohol is a bit different. Let’s say a cookie is 150 calories. For the same amount of calories in that cookie, I can have a Miller High Life, and that one beer might make me happy for 20-30 minutes. Seems like a good deal. So I choose beer as my Treat. I get that there are other considerations to alcohol, but this worked for me provided I didn’t over drink. Meat and Treats… steak and beer 🥩🍺
Party and Bullshit
I ate out at least 3 times per week during this experiment. I generally ate whatever I wanted, but always choose a high protein meal, usually from beef. If I couldn’t get enough protein, I would order an extra portion of meat: extra hamburger patty, extra carne asada, etc. I also go to bars and do nightlife activities frequently. These are necessary components of the Pirate Diet because it allows me to lose weight while being social at restaurants, bars, clubs, and enjoying my life. Pirates know how to party 🪩
PART 4: CHANGES I HAD TO MAKE
At the start of this experiment I was already eating pretty clean at home, I was just eating too many calories. Remove to improve. So I took an inventory to figure out where the bulk of my extraneous calories came from.
Bread and cheese
This is my weakness. Sourdough and other decadent breads are my thing. I can eat cheese straight from the block. Bread + cheese + their sneaky friends is such a champ combo for me. The problem is, they don’t provide any incremental nutritional value, and they can add up to tons of calories. So they had to be limited significantly. I didn’t cut it out entirely, but my consumption went down by probably 80%. Thank goodness I found the Good Culture Cottage Cheese. I also discovered that a large slice of sourdough bread has both more calories and more carbs than a Miller High Life. Quite a trade off. As much as I love great bread, I don’t call up my bros on a Friday night to go out for some sourdough.
Liquor and wine
I realized something about having liquor and wine at home — once the bottle is open… it’s really easy to top myself off. And of course it’s not measured. That results in me drinking more than I intend, which is more calories. But it also results in me getting more buzzed than intended, which makes me want more food than I would otherwise want or need, which is even more calories! Vicious cycle. Beer is packaged per serving. I have that found beer is not as sneaky as the open bottle of liquor or wine. I did the math on cocktails and realized they can easily get to 350+ calories for some drinks. Quite high. Here is a neat hack I figured out. Miller Lite isn’t the best beer, but it’s about 50 calories less than Corona per bottle. So let’s say I drink 3 Miller Lites instead of 3 Coronas, I have “saved” an extra 150 calories. Then I can use that 150 calories on a serving of Fernet. That is an additional drink for the same amount of calories. Don’t judge 🤌🏼
Cooking with fat
I grew up in the kitchens of my Palestinian grandmother and my Jewish grandmother. My people take cooking seriously! I usually cook with plenty of fat like olive oil or butter because it’s delicious and nutritious. But I realized that in aggregate I was taking in far too many unnecessary calories from fat. We all need fat to survive, but we need far less than we think. Anything beyond maintenance does not give any kind of performance benefit. Remove to improve. So I used much less fat in my cooking. In fact, I hardly cooked at all during this experiment because it wasn’t necessary. My main setup is to make a large batch of beef once or twice a week. Usually that is steak or 90/10 ground beef. Beef also comes built in with its own cooking fat — tallow! I don’t need to add any extra fat to make it delicious. Importantly, I cook the meat without any seasoning beyond just salt, pepper, and some acid. That way it can be remixed and adapted into feasts without any effort. At most I’m preparing one feast once per day. If I need to feast again, it’s just another round of the primary daily feast. Ultimate simplicity, versatility, and efficacy. My feasts are also incredibly delicious.
Exercise modifications
To enable maximum weight loss, I made some important modifications to my exercise routine and workouts. My background is in powerlifting and sprinting. I love lifting big and running hard, and my workouts often include that. During this experiment I toned that down. Why? Going really heavy and/or going really hard can indeed be great for gainz — if you do it right — but it also stimulates my appetite significantly. For me, it’s a trap, because I can easily consume far more incremental calories than I actually burned. To prevent this, my workouts were great, but I didn’t do too many big or intense movements. Rather I focused mostly on slow/controlled isolation movements, though not exclusively. Likewise my cardio was mostly steady state brisk walking or equivalent formats on cardio machines. I have read for a while that this Zone 2 cardio is preferred for weight loss, and that seems to be the case with me. I increased my steps to probably about 50% above baseline, averaging perhaps 12,000+ steps per day. I also moved to the Upper Haight in San Francisco around the same time I started my Pirate Diet. It wasn’t part of the plan, but living in a fun new neighborhood made all the extra steps really easy.
PART 5: MY DUTY TO THE BOOTY
Once everything clicked for me, I knew the Pirate Diet was going to work. I just had no idea how well it would work and how surprising this would be for me. I actually wrote the basic components for this article back in August before I even started.
I suppose for some people what I have described here with the Pirate Diet might seem difficult or restrictive or extreme. Yes, I am doing some pretty aggressive modified fasting. Yes, my stomach often feels very empty (though I wouldn’t call it “hunger”). Yes, fasted workouts can be very brutal. But I started seeing results within a few days. Momentum builds on momentum, and I began to look forward to stepping on the scale and measuring my waist. That made the hard parts seem not so hard. The hard parts actually started to feel …. pleasurable. Knowing that every extra period of caloric deficit and every successful feast will bring me closer to my goal. As with much of life, mindset is key.
I call it my Duty To The Booty. Even though I started out in not too bad a position, for me it was unacceptable, and I decided to take radical action. I owed it to myself to become different, to be the person I wanted to be. My progress — the number on the scale — is just a measurement of how authentic I am being to myself, and of how I am living in accordance with my own principles.
My true Duty To The Booty is to help people find their own strength. That’s why I write Pointman and keep it free, forever. Please send feedback and share the Pirate Diet with a friend in need. If you would like to try the Pirate Diet or to adapt it to your life, I would like to help you. Email me: nate@svc.co
Get that booty!
Short link: svc.co/pirate
Say hi: instagram.com/hellanate
RESOURCES
These are the best resources on fat loss and nutrition I found in my journey.