The Old School ‘Steak and Eggs’ Diet for Fat Loss, Balanced Energy, and Increased Testosterone
When it comes to burning bodyfat simplicity is often overlooked in favor of needlessly complicated systems and plans for losing weight. People will needlessly try to count calories, mix and match several different ingredients to “activate their fat-burning” abilities, eliminate all high calorie foods, or drink nothing but juice for a week. And they end up right back where they started - with unwanted bodyfat!
Well, I am here to tell you their is an easier way, a simpler way, and a funner way.
It’s called ‘Steak and Eggs‘.
The Steak and Eggs diet was developed by famous bodybuilding trainer Vince Gironda as a way to burn off all excess bodyfat.
It is the simplest diet in existence and it is one of the most effective.
You eat only two meals per day: Breakfast and Supper, or Lunch and Dinner. For meal #1 you eat 3/4 lb to 1 1/2 pounds of steak and 4-6 eggs. For meal #2 you eat the exact same thing. Cook your Steak and Eggs in butter, as much butter as you want, and season with salt and pepper. Prepare your eggs any way you like, fried, scrambled, sunny side up, poached, or hard boiled. No carbohydrates, no vegetables, no other foods, no snacks, no drinks except water, black coffee and unsweetened tea.
Every 6th day is a cheat day and you can eat whatever you want. Ice cream, pies, alcohol, McDonalds - nothing is off limits.
That’s 5 days of Steak and Eggs and one day of glorious gluttony. Repeat until lean.
Isn’t it hard to eat only Steak and Eggs?
It is only mentally hard. Physically you feel great on this diet. Once you get past the mental aspect of eating the same thing it’s as easy as going to McDonalds and ordering a #3 supersized with a coke.
Won’t I be hungry all the time if I just eat two meals of Steak and Eggs?
At first maybe. After you get used to it you will not even notice hunger. Fat and protein are very satiating and fulfilling. It is when we eat carbohydrates that our bodies signal us to eat more and more. Everyone knows the joke about being hungry 30 minutes after eating Chinese food - because it is mostly rice and other carbohydrates. Fat and protein provide long lasting energy. Someone can sit around and snack on carbohydrates like potato chips and cookies all day but you cannot snack on steak all day because you will get full.
But isn’t Steak and Eggs cooked in Butter high in fat and unhealthy?
It is high in fat, yes. Unhealthy, no. What you don’t hear on the nightly news is that saturated fat is essential for health, vitality and testosterone. You can simply take a look around you and notice how many obese people avoid fat like it is evil incarnate. Well that’s just plain untrue. Fat is essential for maintaining a lean weight. You need to eat fat because fat provides steady energy throughout the day. When you don’t eat fat you simply keep eating (in humans it’s called snacking, in animals it’s called grazing). All grazing animals are fat and all snacking humans are fat.
How does the Steak and Eggs diet burn bodyfat?
The Steak and Eggs diet is a ketogenic diet. That means it is a high-fat, moderate protein, zero carbohydrate diet. When carbohydrates are eliminated as a source of energy your body is forced to burn fat as fuel. For the ketogenic diet to work you must eat high fat and not eat carbohydrates.
How does the Steak and Eggs diet give you balanced energy?
On the Steak and Eggs diet you do not consume any carbohydrates. When you eat carbohydrates you spike your insulin which results in bursts of energy and fatigue. Everyone at the office knows of the after lunch slump when all you want to do is sleep. That is because of the carbohydrates consumed at lunch. When you eliminate the carbohydrates you eliminate the insulin spikes and your energy stays steady throughout the day.
How does the Steak and Eggs diet increase testosterone?
Simple. Fat and cholesterol are the building blocks of testosterone and must be consumed in order to naturally increase testosterone.
Can I eat other meats besides Steak?
Well then int wouldn’t be the Steak and Eggs diet would it? If you need to replace a meal here or there with another meat it is no problem, but keep the bulk of the diet Steak, Eggs and butter.
Won’t I be missing out on essential vitamins and minerals if I am not eating vegetables?
Let’s see. 3 ounces of beef provides the same amount of Iron as 2 3/4 cups of raw spinach. 4 ounces of beef gives you 40% of your daily requirement of Zinc. 4 ounces of beef gives you 40% of your daily requirement of Selenium. 4 ounces of beef gives your nearly 50% of your daily requirement of vitamin B12 and 25% of your daily requirement of vitamin B6. Beef is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. Eggs contain Calcium, Phosphorus and Magnesium.
How long should I do this diet?
As long as you want to or need to.
Who is the Steak and Eggs diet for?
Anyone who wants to naturally burn some bodyfat, lose weight, have steady energy and increase testosterone.
Rules to Remember:
Don’t be afraid of eating fat! You MUST eat high fat in order for this diet to work. If you eat zero carbohydrates and low fat your body will go into what it called Rabbit Starvation (or protein poisoning). Protein by itself is toxic and must be accompanied by carbohydrates or fats.
Never give in and snack on “just one”. It is never just one, it will always lead to more and more until eventually you’ve eaten the whole box.
Alcohol is off limits while on the Steak and Eggs diet.
Remember, five days in a row of Steak and Eggs, one day of high carbohydrates, lower fat cheat day. You will notice after your carbohydrates cheat day you will look great in the mirror. That is because your muscles may look flat and depleted while on a ketogenic diet, when you eat carbohydrates they fill up with water and look spectacular.
When to Miss a Training Session
I have a stomach ache, I don’t want to go to the gym.
I’m hungover, I don’t want to go to the gym.
I have a headache, I don’t want to go to the gym.
I’m sore, I don’t want to go to the gym.
I’m hungry, I don’t want to go to the gym.
I’m too tired from work, I don’t want to go to the gym.
I have to go shopping, I can’t make it to the gym today.
I want to go on a date with this girl, I can’t make it to the gym today.
I ate too much food, I don’t want to go to the gym.
I’m too stressed, I don’t want to go to the gym.
Not feeling 100%? Walk it off, slugger. If you are unable to get in the gym by yourself, get a training partner. Letting yourself down is low, letting someone else down is lower. In my life there has never been a time when I cancelled a training session and there never will be. My training partners cancel all the time. I go in and kill the weights anyway.
The Lion’s never miss a training session. The Lamb’s use every opportunity to miss a training session.
The Killers, the Winners, the Champions, the Determined are in the gym day-in and day-out come rain or shine.
Reaching the Alpha State
Vince Gironda, trainer of champions, referred to what he called the Alpha State. The Alpha State is when your body disassociates with any pre-conceived notions about what it is capable, pushing past any previous barriers with a vengeance. Not merely passing your previous performance with a rep or 2 but completely blowing it out of the water. Your mind and your body are one and there is nothing else in the world. It is one of those training sessions where you are super-human and you can do anything.
In his own words:
“You will also find that in this alpha state that the passage of time no longer exists and that your former imagined limitations no longer exist. (Train over your head.) You will discover a new reality heretofore never experiences. That of the absence of limitations formerly imagined. Your capabilities are unlimited if you can achieve this mystical state. I personally believe that from my observations of champions, and I have said this before many times in my writings, that they No.1, desire to make changes in their bodies and physiological changes take place, that logically should not and cannot take place, but lo and behold, they actually do.
So, to put it into plain English, you do not and cannot build anything without first making a mental blue print. This visualization and the faith to believe that you cannot fail, is the answer to the (illogical) miracles I have observed take place before my eyes. I have seen changes in bone structure (narrowing of hips) that physiologically were impossible to change. So if you don’t believe in miracles, you have never experienced one. My life is full of miracles. There is not a day that passes that I do not experience one. So don’t be afraid to ask, because you must, if you wish to receive. You create with your mind and don’t you ever doubt this.”
&
“Productive workouts can never be experienced until you let go of all your fears, frustrations, tensions, doubts and indecisions. When this happens a blinding light of total awareness engulfs you.
Example: I first experienced this takeover when I was sitting behind my preacher bench waiting my turn to perform my next set. This particular bench I’ve always maintained has a life of its own. This is due to the fact that so many famous bodybuilders have literally stood behind it and “prayed” for the magic that they know it contains.
I have never failed to observe the reverence displayed by any man who uses this bench. They all know that no one has ever been able to duplicate the magic proportions that this particular bench embodies. Try to copy it as they have, no one to this day has ever succeeded.
To get on with my story, the man before me finished his set and stepped aside. I picked up my Olympic barbell, took the proper grip, placed my elbows at the top of the bench and with both feet parallel, lowered the barbell smoothly to the low position, then slowly curled the bar to my front deltoids.
I was only interested in working the muscle in good, slow, smooth form (balanced cadence). No number of reps in mind. Just a good honest set in as perfect form as I could manage.
The number of reps I usually did was 12. But due to the fact that I had achieved a total alpha state during the waiting period my body disassociated the reps factor and I performed 24 reps with no more effort or strain than if I had performed the usual 12 reps.
The example I am trying to give is simply that if you limit yourself to any number of reps that is all you will do. I had somehow rejected the fact that 12 reps was my limit.” - Vince Gironda
Several months ago I was at a park for a festival. In China all the parks have pullup bars, monkey bars, dip bars and various exercise apparatus. I was walking around with my lovely lady friend and came upon some monkey bars. Anyone who knows me knows that anytime I am in the vacinity of any sort of bar, pullups will be done. I stepped up to do my usual 10-12 pullups (overhand grip, palms facing away) for fun. There were a few people watching, including my lady friend and this upped the ante. 3 or 4 pullups in, my lady friend said something like “Let’s see how many you can do!”. With no more exertion than I would use on 10 pullups I did a full 24 pullups. Impossible to accomplish before or since, at that moment in time it was as easy as doing only a few pullups and, at minimum, it is 9 more pullups than I have ever been able to do.
Leave a comment and tell us about a time you reached the Alpha State. When was a time you didn’t just surpass past performance but smashed your way through it? And how did it happen?
Nick
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