How to Eat High-Calorie Meals for Natural Weight Loss
By: Sebastian Hallqvist
Tags: Nutrition, Evolution, Diet, Weight Loss, Health

How to Implement High-Calorie Eating

What does high-calorie eating mean in practice? It means transitioning from:

Frequent low-calorie meals with low nutrient density → Infrequent high-calorie meals with high nutrient density.

To do this successfully, there are four main things to keep in mind.

1. Individual differences

The first thing to note is that “high-calories” is a relative term. The actual meal size and meal frequency will be different for different people. Depending on your individual circumstances, you will settle into a combination of meal size and frequency that suits you.

The important thing is the underlying mindset: infrequent, high-calorie, high-nutrient density meals.

I am a 6'1" male with an active lifestyle. If I were to count my calories (which I never have to do) they would add up to 3500-4000 kcal a day. That is probably twice as much energy as the average person needs.

My point is that high-calorie meals become more of a necessity when you have a high metabolism. I can probably “get away with” a lot more than my middle-aged mother, for example. But that doesn’t mean it only works for people with a high metabolism. It will just look a little different for each individual.

The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble. – Dr. Michael Ruscio

2. Focus on nutrients and protein

We don’t just need calories to thrive, we also need nutrients. It’s no surprise that the foods we evolved to eat also contain the most bioavailable nutrients.

Nowadays, there are many calorically-dense foods that have no part in our evolution. They don't elicit the same physiological response as eating a steak, an avocado, or some honey, for example. This article is not an excuse to eat donuts.

A good rule of thumb is to go for the foods your great grandparents would have recognized and prized.

According to the protein leverage hypothesis, protein is the most filling macronutrient. We basically eat until our protein needs are met. You will know this from experience — ever felt like bingeing on skinless chicken breast?

From a survival perspective, losing lean body mass is one of the most detrimental things that can happen to an animal. Lean tissues and structural components like bone are made mostly from amino-acids (protein), so it makes sense that we should have the instinct to prioritize protein.

At each meal, prioritize high-protein foods and “supplement” with fat and carbohydrates.

Because of protein quality, nutrient density, and many other factors, I personally favor nose-to-tail animal foods for my high-calorie meals, as well as small amounts of unpasteurized cheese, raw honey, tubers, white rice, sourdough bread, and fruits and berries. But you will find your own approach that works for you.

3. Don’t fast — just eat when you’re hungry

Keto, Low carb, OMAD, Paleo, intermittent fasting… these are just words. We made them up as a proxy to receive some of the benefits of living a completely natural life.

With high-calorie eating, your body will settle into a natural combination of meal size and frequency. Don’t think of it as intermittent fasting — you are under no obligation to “resist eating”. Instead, think of it as your body waking up to its natural instincts.

If you follow the advice here, you should be comfortable spending at least 5 hours between meals. But for this to work, you must do one thing:

Make sure you are really full after each meal. You should be completely satisfied and not want another bite.

My body has naturally settled into eating two large meals a day. After I wake up, I’m not hungry until I’ve been awake for about 6 hours. That’s anywhere from 14–18 hours of fasting. Occasionally I’m not that hungry at all and will just have one larger meal in the evening.

I think most people will settle into 1–3 meals per day.

A huge additional benefit of infrequent eating is that your Migrating Motor Complex (MMC) — the process responsible for cleaning out your gut in between meals — will have the chance to function properly. This is associated with many health benefits. There is a good little article about that here.

4. The psychopathology of low-calorie eating

The idea behind low-calorie eating is simple and therefore quite attractive. It seems so obvious: “If I eat less and exercise more, I will lose body fat”.

And it is simple in theory. But as we have learned, it often doesn't work like this in practice.

For someone who is overweight and unhappy with their body, the low-calorie idea can be hard to let go of. When you already have so many ugly calories padding your waistline, the last thing you want to do is to eat a large high-calorie meal. It just feels counterintuitive. Trust me, I’ve been there.

When I was fighting my binge-eating disorder, I tried to compensate for the binges by eating less during the day. This just created a negative feedback loop; because I didn’t give my body the inputs it needed, the binges were simply a natural response.

If you learn to let this idea go and trust your body’s instincts, you will soon discover that high-calorie meals won’t make you fat. In fact, your body will quickly start to work for you, instead of against you.

The more you give your body what it needs, the more resilient and robust it will become. It will gain the ability to actually keep calories lower over periods of time, without breaking down and rebelling against you.

Good luck!

That’s it. I hope you find this useful. Feel free to discuss below, and if you have any questions — I LOVE to talk about this stuff!

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