Jason,

I have read and re-read your excellent testimonial for PaNu (http://www.paleonu.com/panu-weblog/2009/12/25/panu-eating-and-high-intensity-training.html). I am planning to begin a strength training program soon and continue the PaNu way of eating, and I hope to model my success after yours. I do have a couple of questions.

I often read very high numbers for how much protein or how many calories are optimal to gain muscle mass. However, I can't imagine trying to cram that much protein or calories into a condensed eating window. Do you think that those estimates are overblown, or do you just manage to put down a ton of food in your eating window? Can you give me some idea of the quantity, both of protein and in general calories, that you feel is optimal for growth on this kind of regime? How do you get enough calories to build muscle while doing daily fasting?

You say that you take in all of your day's carbs when breaking your fast, post-workout. This may be a minor point, but, how soon after working out do you eat that meal? Do you think it matters much whether it is 15 minutes afterwards or 60 minutes? And do you still feel the same way about the timing of your daily carbs?

Thank you. Your testimonial was very helpful to me. I'm going to be lifting heavy, 3x a week, and I'm hoping to reduce bodyfat while building muscle and gaining strength at a decent rate. Some say that you can't do both at the same time, but your testimony shows otherwise. And I think the combination of fasting and eating PaNu is the key.

Thanks, Jason, and thanks again to you, Dr. Harris, for your great work. There are many approaches to "paleo" out there, but PaNu is #1 to me. Are you writing a book? I would be first in line to purchase a copy, if you ever do.

KGH:

I hope to start the book late this summer, and I'll forward this to Jason to make sure he sees it.

KGH: Go ahead and post them and I'll make sure he sees it

KGH:

Research into exogenous drugs to aid weight loss is low on my list of priorities, that's just the way it is. There are an infinite number of things to research or write about. I only pulled that paper up after your post - I have no idea if there is any more out there on hcg as a drug. My reply to the original poster was sincere - this is the wrong site to ask about drug approaches to weight loss because I don't spend any time at all on that approach, ergo I can't tell you anything about it.

KGH:

HCG is human chorionic gonadotropin - I use it clinically as it is elevated in pregnancy, germ cell tumors and gestational trophoblastic disease. I know nothing about using it as an exogenous drug for weight loss. I do know that it would be undetectable in normal individuals (unlike vitamin D or thyroid hormones) and this makes me rather skeptical of taking it as a weight loss drug.

Also, try googling "hcg" and see if you think it passes the hype smell test.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/29/9/940.pdf

KGH: You are definitely at the wrong site for discussing drug-based weight loss ideas.

I am trying my best, eating what he calles not normal but I try to find peace of mind and Lex (also eating raw meat and fat) has helped me a lot - it's our mind that get in the way:

You see, there are many theories in science. Theories about physics, theories about biology, theories about our universe, and the truth is, none of it matters as the theories (right or wrong) make absolutely no difference to our daily lives. We evolved as part of the fabric of our physical world and our bodies and minds are one with it. Much like a fish has no concept of being in water because it is totally immersed in it and one with that environment, so to, we are immersed in our physical world and our bodies function as an embedded part of the world around us and we are not conscious of it. We don't have to learn to make our hearts beat, we don't have to teach our bodies how to process oxygen, we don't have to train our cells what to do, we don't have to understand or even know about gravity to live within and accommodate it's massive influence on our bodies and lives. Our bodies are an integral part of the fabric of the universe and as such are a manifestation of the laws and principles of that environment. Our bodies are wonderful machines that always do the right thing whether we understand what those things are or not.

Our problems come when we corrupt our natural environment with artificial things that either don't exist or when we distort their natural level of occurrence in nature. Many of the foods we eat today don't exist anywhere in nature. Things like x-ray machines cause massive concentrations of certain types of energy at levels that don't exist in nature. It's when we modify our natural environment that problems occur. This is why I try to keep my lifestyle in harmony with nature. I try to eat foods as close to what I would find in my natural environment and with the least processing that our modern world allows. I don't believe in water ionizers, air ionizers, and other inventions that artificially change the natural environment. I don't take supplements as these are artificial as well - even if our bodies need the nutrient, the concentration of the nutrient in a supplement is not appropriate for our bodies. Even things like juices are not natural. We would have eaten the whole fruit, not squeezed out the juice. It takes bushels of corn to make a cup of corn oil. There is no way that we would have consumed corn oil in this amount or consumed it separate from the rest of the corn seed (assuming you would believe that corn is a proper food in the first place).

I think it is best to live a lifestyle that is as simple as possible in an environment that emulates the environment we evolved in as close as possible in this modern world. Beyond this, there is little to be gained and much damage that can be done. Trying to understand metabolism at the cellular level might be an interesting intellectual exercise, but has no practical value in living our daily lives. All it does is lead to distorting our natural environment even further as we consume supplements and chemicals in an effort to control what should be a natural and invisible process of which we shouldn't even be aware. Everything we conciously do to 'fix' and 'improve' things upsets the delicate balance of the environment that our bodies evolved within and creates unintended consquences.

Please people, if not Dr. Harris - any thoughts help!

Dr. Harris is a pretty busy guy, and I'm not; so I'll take a shot.
The difference in O2 uptake associated with eating protein or fat or sugar is
relatively unimportant compared to the important reasons to avoid sugar.
It also doesn't seem to have anything to do with the guy's hypothesis about
"gamma glucose",.which, if true, is a distinction without a useful difference.
In other words as far as nutrition is concerned, an unnecessary hypothesis.

http://www.whale.to/v/sandler11.html

KGH: Upcoming blog posts - no shooting from the hip here...