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The Bulletproof Diet by Dave Asprey (2014): Food list

The Bulletproof Diet by Dave AspreyBulletproof - The Cookbook, by Dave AspreyThe Bulletproof Diet (2014) is an anti-toxin diet which encourages you to find out and avoid your food sensitivities.

  • Drink “Bulletproof Coffee” for breakfast every day – very-low-toxin coffee with grass-fed butter and MCT oil; limit other meals for intermittent fasting.
  • Eat lots of vegetables, approved fats, some grass-fed protein, a little starch/fruit.
  • Avoid sugar, sweeteners, processed foods, gluten, corn, dairy (except grass-fed butter).
  • Discover which foods you’re sensitive to, and avoid them.

See below on this page for a description of the food recommendations in the diet. There’s a lot more in the book.

General guidelines  |  Foods to eat  |  Foods to limit  |  Foods to test  |  Foods to avoid  |  Starting the diet – 2-Week Bulletproof Protocol  |  Bulletproof for Life

Use this page as a cheat sheet alongside the book. Send this page to friends, family, and anyone else who you want to understand what you’re eating on this diet.

Get a copy of The Bulletproof Diet for explanations of the author’s research and conclusions, takes on common diet myths, sleep guidelines, supplementation and exercise suggestions, the reasons behind the food ratings of Bulletproof/Suspect/Kryptonite, troubleshooting tips, restaurant tips, and recipes.

Order Bulletproof: The Cookbook for 125 recipes.

The reasoning behind The Bulletproof Diet

Dave Asprey monitored his health (biohacking) to uncover the hidden variables that were affecting how he felt, how he looked, how he performed, and his relationships and overall happiness. After compiling the results, he started using “smart drugs” to turn his brain back on, adding supplements, and experimenting with countless diets to see what worked, what didn’t, and why. From this he learned about the complex roles that inflammation, toxins, hormones, neurotransmitters, gut bacteria, and many other factors play when it comes to weight loss, hunger, and energy levels. He shared the results with friends and family members and saw them rapidly lose weight too, while also increasing their mental focus and gaining willpower. The trick is to reduce your body’s immune response by eating fewer foods with antinutrients (lectins, phytates, oxalates, mold toxins / mycotoxins) and avoiding entirely the foods that trigger your immune system, as well as eating foods that encourage good gut bacteria.

The Bulletproof Diet plan – what to eat and foods to avoid

General guidelines  |  Foods to eat  |  Foods to limit  |  Foods to test  |  Foods to avoid  |  Starting the diet – 2-Week Bulletproof Protocol  |  Bulletproof for Life

There’s a one-page Bulletproof Diet Roadmap at https://www.bulletproofexec.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/BPDRMrast-06112014.55436.pdf. This shows proportions, what to eat when, and grades foods on how good they are for you. There’s also a shopping guide at http://www.bulletproofexec.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Bulletproof-Diet-Shopping-List-Final-PDF2.pdf.

General guidelines

  • Proportions
    • Eat when you’re hungry, stop when you’re satiated, and try not to snack
    • If you feel like eating less, don’t force yourself to meet the guidelines
    • Fats (the “right kinds”) – 50-70% of your daily calories
    • Bulletproof protein sources – up to 20% of daily calories
    • Unstarchy vegetables – 20% of your daily calories (this makes up a large proportion of your plate because unstarchy vegetables are naturally low in calories). If you don’t like vegetables, remember that you can coat them with sea salt and grass-fed butter
    • Starch and fruit – 5% of your daily calories, combined. If losing weight is a priority, avoid them on most days; otherwise have small amounts each day
  • Breakfast
    • Drink Bulletproof Coffee – 2 cups piping-hot brewed coffee made with Bulletproof Upgraded Coffee Beans (highest quality, no mold, lowest level of toxins), up to 2 tablespoons grass-fed unsalted butter, e.g. Kerrygold (use your hunger as a guide), up to 2 tablespoons Brain Octane C8 MCT oil or other MCT oil or  as a last resort coconut oil if you can’t find MCT oil (use your hunger as a guide); optional add-ins: cinnamon (only highest quality), vanilla powder, chocolate powder, stevia/erythritol/hardwood xylitol to taste
    • If you are a woman, a heavily muscled athlete, or have a lot of weight to lose, you will likely benefit from having some protein with your Bulletproof Coffee in the morning for the first 60 days. For these people, the author recommends blending collagen protein from grass-fed cows into your Bulletproof Coffee
    • If you’re pregnant or trying to conceive, don’t drink caffeinated coffee – instead use the No-Coffee Vanilla Latte recipe or switch to lab-tested decaf
    • After the first 14 days, once you’re in maintenance mode – if you want to eat something in addition to having Bulletproof Coffee in the morning, the best idea is to eat a combination of protein and fat, like poached eggs or smoked salmon and avocado. Eating just protein without any fats is better than eating fruits or other carbs, but this will still lead to some food cravings
  • Intermittent fasting, for longevity and healthy digestion
    • After your Bulletproof Coffee, don’t eat until lunchtime, or later if you’re not hungry. This allows you to have the benefits of intermittent fasting while still having something at breakfast time
    • Your ideal window of eating is 6 hours long, to give an 18-hour fast
  • Evening meal
    • Eat a modest amount of Bulletproof carbs (about 30 grams, plus vegetables), but only with your evening meal or soon after. Once or twice a week – “carb re-feed days” – eat 100 to 150 grams (do this on Bulletproof Protein Fasting days, see below). The exact amount depends on your hunger, your stress levels, and how fast you want to lose weight. (Eating fewer carbs nightly brings faster weight loss.)
    • Women may need more carbs – 300 grams of Bulletproof carbs on re-feed days. Women who are pregnant should eat limited carbs every night while adhering to all other principles of the Bulletproof Diet.
    • Fill up with fat at dinner to help you sleep better. Also to help you sleep, add protein before going to bed (but not too much meat, which can leave you with a heavy feeling) – hydrolyzed grass-fed collagen peptide or grass-fed, undenatured when protein concentrate – add these to the recipe for No-Coffee Vanilla Latte. You can also try some raw honey.
  • Once a week – Bulletproof Protein Fasting
    • One day a week, limit your protein to no more than 25 grams, for longevity
    • If you find that a full day of protein fasting is causing muscle loss or some other unwanted side effects, cut back so that instead of going a whole day without protein, you’re skipping protein at several meals in a row. You can also play around with the total amount of protein you’re eating on the day of your Bulletproof Protein Fast

Foods to eat in The Bulletproof Diet (“Bulletproof”)

  • Bulletproof fats
    • Best: Bulletproof Brain Octane / Bulletproof medium-chain triglyceride MCT oil, ghee, Bulletproof Chocolate, Bulletproof Cocoa Butter / cacao butter, pastured egg yolks (if not allergic to eggs), krill oil, grass-fed animal fat (bone marrow, tallow, lard, etc. but not poultry fat), avocado oil (best to eat avocados), virgin coconut oil, sunflower lecithin
    • Next best: fish oil, fermented cod liver oil FCLO, grass-fed butter and ghee
  • Bulletproof protein sources
    • Fish – low-mercury
    • Meat – beef, lamb – grass-fed
    • Eggs – pastured
    • Hydrolyzed collagen
    • Gelatin
    • Clean whey concentrate
  • Bulletproof vegetables (those marked* should be cooked)
    • Choose organic where possible. Avoid vegetables with wilting or brown spots. Frozen veggies are often better than “fresh”
    • Best: asparagus, avocado (raw), bok choy*, broccoli*, brussels sprouts*, cauliflower, celery, cucmber, fennel, olives
    • Next best: cabbage*, collard greens*, kale*, lettuce, radishes, spinach*, summer squash, zucchini
  • Bulletproof protein
    • Best: Bulletproof Whey, Bulletproof Collagen Protein, Bulletproof CollaGelatin, grass-fed beef, lamb, bison, goat (insist on grass-fed and grass-finished), pastured eggs (if not allergic; don’t just have the egg whites), pastured gelatin, colostrum
    • Organ meats from grass-fed animals: liver (beef, lamb, goat, fish), kidneys, heart, tongue, bone marrow, joints (soup bones)
    • Next best: low-mercury wild fish (such as anchovies, haddock, petrale sole, sardines, sockeye salmon, summer flounder, wild tilapia, wild trout)
    • Shellfish: crab (real not fake), lobster, mussels, oysters
  • Bulletproof dairy (test first to see if you have a dairy allergy)
    • Best: organic grass-fed ghee, organic grass-fed butter, colostrum
    • Next best: nonorganic grass-fed ghee or butter, organic grass-fed cream
  • Bulletproof nuts, seeds, & legumes
    • Best: coconut
    • (no legumes)
  • Bulletproof spices & flavorings (where marked*, these often harbor toxic mold spores – use fresh, high-quality whenever you can)
    • Best: Bulletproof Chocolate Powder, Bulletproof Vanillamax vanilla powder, apple cider vinegar, cilantro, coffee*, ginger*, parsley, sea salt
    • Next best: lavender, oregano, rosemary, thyme, turmeric, vanilla*
  • Bulletproof sweeteners
    • Best: xylitol (made from North American hardwood), erythritol, stevia
    • Next best: sorbitol, maltitol, other sugar alcohols
  • Bulletproof beverages
    • Best: coffee made from Bulletproof coffee beans, high quality green tea or yerba mate, diluted coconut milk (without carrageenan, preferably without guar gum, BPA free, note that light coconut milk is just coconut milk plus water), mineral water in glass bottles
    • Next best: filtered water with lime/lemon, green tea
  • Bulletproof cooking methods
    • Best: raw or not cooked, lightly heated. The book says that animal proteins are best eaten raw or rare, and grass-fed animals are less likely to contain parasites, pathogens, and toxins than those from grain-fed animals. Note that the book also says that cruciferous vegetables should be eaten cooked not raw
    • Next best: steamed al dente, UV oven, convention baked, baked at 320 or below
    • Boiled or poached – shown on the chart as Suspect but listed in the book as Bulletproof

Foods to limit with The Bulletproof Diet

Starches and fruits should be limited during the whole diet, the Beneficial types are listed here for that reason.

You should test the Suspect foods here, to see how you react to them.

  • Bulletproof and suspect starches
    • 5% of your daily calories, including calories for fruit. Eat in the evening
    • Best: pumpkin (fresh not canned), butternut squash, sweet potato, yam, carrot (cooked if you have IBS or gut damage)
    • Next best: white rice
    • Cassava, taro, plantain – shown on the chart as Bulletproof, listed in the book as Suspect
    • Least suspect: resistant starch powder (potato starch, plantain flour, Hi-maize starch, green banana flour). Not for use during the 14-day program. Note that these work for some people; others find that they can feed healthy gut bacteria more effectively with gelatin, collagen, and connective tissue from meat
    • Suspect: black rice, wild rice, brown rice, banana, fresh or frozen organic corn on the cob
    • Most suspect: potatoes (white, purple, new)
    • Oats, buckwheat, quinoa – listed as Suspect in the book, shown as kryptonite on the chart. Oats are listed as kryptonite if you have gut damage
  • Bulletproof and Suspect fruits
    • No more than 25 grams of fructose a day, which is roughly the amount in two apples; eat in the evening
    • Get organic if possible; if not remove the skin where there is one
    • Don’t eat damaged fruits, or those that are starting to spoil
    • Best: avocado, blackberries, coconut, cranberries, lemon, lime, raspberries
    • Next best: blueberries, pineapple, strawberries, tangerine
    • Least suspect: grapefruit, pomegranate
    • Suspect: apple (don’t eat in first 2 weeks to see whether you react to them), apricot, cherries, figs, honeydew, kiwifruit, lychee, nectarine, orange, peach, pears, plums
    • Most suspect: bananas, fresh dates, grapes, guava, mango, melons, papaya, passion fruit, persimmon, plaintain, watermelon

Foods to test with The Bulletproof Diet (“Suspect”)

Avoid these foods during the 2-week protocol, and test them to see which you can reintroduce into your diet. “Suspect” doesn’t mean they’re bad, it means that some people react to them; you should see what your personal reaction is to each food – follow the testing suggestions to find your sensitivities.

  • Suspect vegetables
    • Least suspect: artichokes (avoid if you know you’re nightshade sensitive), butternut squash, winter squash, carrots, green beans (cooked is better), green onions/scallions, leeks, parsley
    • Suspect: eggplant (nightshade), onion (like garlic but with less effect), peas (lectins/starch), peppers (nightshade), shallots, tomatoes (nightshade and high in histamines), garlic (psychoactive)
    • Most suspect: beets (oxalates), pumpkin, raw chard, raw collards, raw kale, raw spinach
  • Suspect fats (includes nuts and seeds)
    • Least suspect: palm oil, palm kernel oil, pastured bacon fat, raw macadamias, extra virgin olive oil
    • Suspect: unheated nut oils (almond oil, hazelnut oil, walnut oil, etc.), cashew butter, non-GMO soy lecithin (listed in the chart as suspect but in the book as bulletproof)
    • Most suspect: pastured duck fat or goose fat, pastured chicken fat (not okay if it’s burned on the grill), grain-fed butter and ghee
  • Suspect protein
    • It’s okay to have pork, duck, goose, chicken, or turkey a few times per week, but you’ll benefit less than you would from sticking with fish or grass-fed ruminants
    • Least suspect: pastured pork, clean whey isolate (cold-pressed and cross-flow microfiltered CFM, no more than 2-4 tablespoons per day; people with dairy sensitivities should use isolate over concentrate), pastured duck and goose
    • Suspect: factory farmed eggs (if not allergic to eggs), pastured chicken and turkey
    • Most suspect: heated whey, sprouted legumes, hemp protein, factory-farmed meat
  • Suspect dairy (test first to see if you have a dairy allergy)
    • Least suspect: organic grass-fed full-fat raw milk or yogurt
    • Suspect: nonorganic grass-fed ghee or butter, organic grass-fed cream
    • Most suspect: grain-fed butter
  • Suspect nuts, seeds, & legumes
    • Most suspect: almonds, cashews, chestnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia, pecans, walnuts
    • Pistachios, pine nuts, Brazil nuts are shown on the chart as Kryptonite but listed in the book as suspect
    • (no legumes)
  • Suspect spices & flavorings (where marked*, these often harbor toxic mold spores – use fresh, high-quality whenever you can)
    • Least suspect: all-spice, cinnamon, cloves*, organic prepared mustard with no additives
    • Suspect: mustard seed, onion, table salt
    • Most suspect: black pepper*, conventional chocolate (at least 85% dark chocolate), garlic*, nutmeg*, paprika*, all vinegars (except apple cider vinegar)
  • Suspect sweeteners
    • Least suspect: non-GMO dextrose and glucose, raw honey (listed on the chart as suspect and in the book as Bulletproof, to be consumed in moderation)
    • Suspect: maple syrup, coconut sugar
    • Most suspect: white sugar, brown sugar, agave syrup or agave nectar, cooked honey
  • Suspect beverages
    • Least suspect: tap water with lime/lemon, water with muddled fruit, fresh brewed iced tea (unsweetened), herbal teas (high quality), fresh nut milk
    • Suspect: kombucha, raw milk, bottled iced tea (no sugar added), fresh coconut water, coconut water (bottle/box), bottled nut milks
    • Most suspect: freshly squeezed fruit juice
    • Suspect alcohols (avoid during the first 14 days of the diet; observe your reaction to each of them afterwards and consume in moderation): vodka, gin, tequila, whiskey, dry champagne, dry white wine (these last two are more suspect)
  • Suspect cooking methods
    • Least suspect: simmered, lightly grilled (not charred)
    • Suspect: sous vide, slow cooking (although there are recipes in the book that require a slow cooker)
    • Most suspect: broiled

Foods to avoid with The Bulletproof Diet (“Kryptonite”)

  • Processed foods
    • Containing monosodium glutamate (MSG), soy protein, and other chemicals and processed ingredients
    • Synthetic flavorings
  • GMO ingredients
    • Commonly found in canola, corn, cottonseed, sugar cane , potatoes, and soy crops
    • Products made with these ingredients, e.g. vegetable oils and high-fructose corn syrup HFCS
  • Krytonite vegetables
    • Less bad: corn (fresh on the cob)
    • Worst: all other corn (except fresh), canned veggies (BPA and histamines), mushrooms (fungi; in the chart as Suspect but in the book as kryptonite), soy
  • Kryptonite fats (includes nuts and seeds)
    • Refined vegetable oils
    • Chemically damaged fats
    • Less bad: factory chicken fat, safflower oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, peanut oil, soy oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, vegetable oil, heated nuts, heated oils, flaxseed oil
    • Worst: margarine and other artificial trans fats, oils made from GMO grains, commercial lard
  • Kryptonite protein
    • Less bad: high-mercury seafood, farmed seafood, rice protein, pea protein
    • Worst: soy protein and soy foods (including soy beans, soy milk, soy burgers, tofu, tempeh, miso, natto, soy sauce), wheat protein, legumes/beans including chickpeas, cheese and other pasteurized or cooked dairy (except butter)
  • Kryptonite dairy
    • Less bad: skim or low-fat milk, fake butter, pasteurized nonorganic milk or yogurt
    • Worst: all cheese, powdered milk, factory dairy, dairy replacer, condensed milk, evaporated milk, conventional ice cream, prepared dairy products (American cheese, coffee creamer, cheese spread, cheese sauce, etc.)
  • Kryptonite nuts and seeds
    • Less bad: peanuts, flaxseed, chia seed
  • Kryptonite legumes
    • Less bad: sprouted legumes, garbanzo beans/chickpeas, hummus, dried peas, most legumes (dried beans and lentils), peanuts
    • Worst: soy, soy nuts, corn nuts
  • Kryptonite starches
    • Worst: wheat (bread, baked goods, cereal, pasta, etc.), conventionally grown corn (e.g. non-organic corn on the cob, corn bread, corn mash, polenta, other processed dried corn products), millet, other grains, potato starch, corn starch, gluten-free powders
  • Kryptonite fruits
    • Less bad: cantaloupe
    • Worst: raisins, dried fruit, fruit leather, jam, jelly, canned fruit
  • Kryptonite spices & flavorings
    • Less bad: fermented soy, miso, tamari, tofu (soy lecithin and natto aren’t kryptonite)
    • Worst: commercial dressings, spice mixes and extracts, monosodium glutamate MSG, yeast, caseinate, textured protein TVP, bouillon and broth, hydrolyzed gluten, anything labeled enzyme modified, artificial flavorings or seasonings
  • Kryptonite sweeteners
    • Less bad: fructose, fruit juice concentrate, high-fructose corn syrup HFCS
    • Worst: aspartame (NutraSweet), sucralose (Splenda), acesulfame potassium (ace-K), tagatose
  • Kryptonite beverages
    • Less bad: pasteurized milk
    • Worst: soy milk, packaged juice, diet drinks, soda, sweetened drinks, aspartame drinks, sports drinks
    • Kryptonite alcohols: white wine (although dry white wine is listed as highly Suspect), red wine, beer
  • Kryptonite cooking methods
    • Less bad: stir fried
    • Listed on the chart as Suspect but in the book as kryptonite: barbecued, microwaved
    • Worst: burnt, blackened, charred, deep-fried

Starting the diet – 2-week Bulletproof protocol

There’s a meal plan for the 2-week Bulletproof protocol in the book, giving choices of recipes rather than telling you exactly what to eat on each of the 14 days

  • Get rid of all Kryptonite foods in your house
  • Use the Bulletproof Diet Roadmap as a guide (Bulletproof, Suspect, and Kryptonite foods), focusing on Bulletproof foods and avoiding the Suspect and Kryptonite ingredients
  • For breakfast, have Bulletproof Coffee (If you’re a woman over 40, or need to lose a lot of weight, and/ or you’re not satisfied by Bulletproof Coffee alone, it’s a good idea to add 25 to 30 grams of protein e.g. Bulletproof Coffee with added grass-fed collagen protein)
  • Lunch and dinner – have massive amounts of vegetables, lots of healthy fats, moderate amounts of protein, and (during and after dinner) small amounts of starch). Consume both meals within a 6-hour window to get the best results of intermittent fasting – e.g. lunch at 1pm and dinner at 7pm
  • Once a week (days 6 and 13), follow Bulletproof Protein Fasting, eating 25 grams of protein and 100-150 grams of carbohydrates (up to 300 grams for women)

Testing foods

Track which Suspect foods are actually Kryptonite for you personally, because of your personal food sensitivities.

You can get an IgG/IgE blood panel test for food allergies or use the Bulletproof Food Detective App (iOS only at the time of writing) to see which foods you’re sensitive to.

Start this protocol during the 2-week Bulletproof protocol to see whether any Bulletproof foods are actually Kryptonite to you personally

Bulletproof for life

  • In maintenance mode, you’ll get the best results from adhering as closely as possible to the main Bulletproof Diet principles— starting the day with Bulletproof Coffee , sticking to Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting on most days, Protein Fasting once a week , and avoiding Kryptonite foods most of the time. The main variable now that you’re in maintenance mode is whether you start eating more of the Suspect foods. This will depend on your personal reactions to those foods – as tested in the 2-week protocol. Once you know which foods you are sensitive to, you are free to go off into the world and make the very best choices for your body and your performance
  • If you want, try eating a few more carbs in the evening, and if your pants get tight, simply cut back. You might even have starch in the morning sometimes if you really want to, as you now know your body is resilient and can handle it
  • If it makes you feel good while you’re in maintenance mode, you can eat something for breakfast besides Bulletproof Coffee and do Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting only occasionally
  • If you really want to, you can occasionally knowingly eat some Kryptonite as long as you realize you’ll take a hit in how you feel for the next day or two. Small variations are fine and do not constitute failure, but of course you’ll want to rein it in and stick to Bulletproof foods if you see your weight and performance start to really suffer. If this happens, go back to the 2-week plan to give yourself a refresher course on Bulletproof principles.

Health benefits claimed in The Bulletproof Diet

The diet in this book claims to reduce the risks for: acne, brain fog, certain cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, food cravings, gout, Hashimoto’s disease, high triglycerides, inflammation, insulin sensitivity, migraine headaches, overweight/obesity, seasonal allergies

As always, this is not intended to be a replacement for professional medical diagnosis or treatment for a medical condition. Consult your doctor before starting a new diet. This page describes what the authors of the diet recommend – Chewfo is describing the diet only, not endorsing it.

Get a copy of The Bulletproof Diet for explanations of the author’s research and conclusions, takes on common diet myths, sleep guidelines, supplementation and exercise suggestions, the reasons behind the food ratings of Bulletproof/Suspect/Kryptonite, troubleshooting tips, restaurant tips, and recipes.

Buy now from AmazonDiet book
Order Bulletproof: The Cookbook for 125 recipes.

Buy now from AmazonCookbook
The Bulletproof website is https://www.bulletproofexec.com/, and the store is at https://www.upgradedself.com/. Dave Asprey is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bulletproofexecutive, Twitter at https://twitter.com/bulletproofexec, and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1Aq3T1GmKcObLqo1YIU_Ww.

How has this diet helped you? Please add a comment or question below.

{ 18 comments… add one }

  • Helen March 22, 2015, 1:33 pm

    How confusing! In trying to find things to take care of the possible overload of “bad bacteria” I was told to eat yogurt with live cultures, cottage cheese, sauerkraut and take a probiotic supplement. Bananas and oatmeal are supposed to be good prebiotic foods.
    Now this – which is telling us to avoid a lot of these.
    What should we believe?

    • Penny Hammond March 22, 2015, 4:58 pm

      It appears that there are a lot of people who have dairy intolerance, even live-culture yogurt, and this book doesn’t say you can’t eat dairy – it says you should test dairy to see how you react.

      Dave says that if you have cabbage it should be cooked – but he also says you can try fermenting cabbage to see if that agrees with you.

      Bananas and oatmeal are excluded from a lot of currently popular diets – bananas are one of the highest sugar fruits, and oatmeal is often highly processed and high in carbs. Sugars and carbs are believed by many to be food for bad gut bacteria.
      There are other prebiotic foods that aren’t so high in sugars/carbs – e.g foods in the onion family (onions, garlic, leeks – raw or lightly cooked), asparagus, and artichokes (which you should test if you have nightshade sensitivity).

  • Theresa Diaz Gray June 15, 2015, 6:22 pm

    My husband and I are just finishing up the two week protocol,we have been basically paleo for a couple of years now but found ourselves having a weight loss plateau. Basically, I think we have been letting too many suspect foods sneak into our diet. We haven’t lost much weight on the but my waist and tummy have slimmed down. My stomach had ballooned out because of having taken cortisone when I was undergoing chemo.

    My question is regarding the protein fast days. Are they really necessary? Or is there a way to have more protein and still do a carb refeed?

    My husband does fine but eating a lot of carbs without any protein makes me feel drugged and tired. I eat lunch and immediately need to take a nap, then I wake up feeling awful. I have no problem eating fat, but add rice or sweet potatoes without protein and my energy levels crash!
    Before going on the protocol, if I ate something like bread or cake (at an event) I actually would feel hung over the next day which I attribute to the simple carbs.

    regards,
    Theresa

    • Penny Hammond June 16, 2015, 11:07 am

      Dave says “Some men perform their best when they eat carbs even less frequently. Women, however, should always re-feed with carbs at least once a week, on the day of their protein fast. Some women will need to re-feed twice a week or more once they’re in maintenance mode. And having a few carbs (under 30 grams) in the evening can do wonders for women who need them.” (Bulletproof biohacking tweaks for women, in chapter 8). He does mention that women’s needs are related to fertility, although it’s not clear whether there would be different recommendations for menopause and after.

      Have you tried having plenty of fat with the carbs, along with a lot of green leafy vegetables? That might slow down digestion and reduce the swings in energy levels.

  • Theresa Diaz Gray June 21, 2015, 12:09 pm

    Thanks for ideas,
    I have the book, I’ll try rereading chapter 8. Yeah, I add fat, maybe I just need to be more aware and tweak it. It’s probably that I was consuming the wrong type of carbs for me.

    Finished week 2 and I only lost 2 1/2 pounds but I did shrink down my problem areas, waist and tummy by a couple of inches. Overall, it’s an easy diet to maintain and we’ll be keeping at it.

    regards,
    Theresa

  • DONNA EASTER July 1, 2015, 7:54 am

    I would like to know the answer to Penny’s query also concerning the needs and adjustments for menopausal and full hysterectomy women.
    Love this lifestyle! Thanks Dave !
    Peace, Donna

  • Mcgregor July 29, 2015, 4:23 pm

    Stupid! CONFUSING article!

    • Penny Hammond August 7, 2015, 3:49 pm

      What did you find confusing, so I can make it clearer? Thanks!

  • Karen August 17, 2015, 8:45 am

    The diet is confusing, not the article. Thank you for helping to clarify some of the BPD points.

    • Penny Hammond August 23, 2015, 4:10 pm

      Thanks, glad to help!

  • Nutritional Ketosis December 4, 2015, 10:43 pm

    The Bullet Proof diet is essentially a Nutritional Ketosis diet. The point of a ketogenic diet is to maximize fat oxidation while limiting insulin triggered fat accumulation. I didn’t do the bullet proof diet, however, I did go on a 6-month (intermittent fasting + nutritional ketosis) diet. I did experience the “keto-flu” during the first three weeks, but after I got through the third week I was feeling way better and more energized than I ever was while on a high carb diet. I found that I was also less hungry less often as well since my leptin-hormones were normalizing because I wasn’t blocking leptin from reaching my brain by stuffing my face with carbs, especially refined carbs that contained high fructose corn syrup, which fructose puts your brain into a continuous starvation-mode because it blocks leptin from reaching your brain. I lost 71 pounds, 25% bodyfat, gained tons of energy and when during a normal carb-eating day I’d feel tired at noon, I could now go all day without energy crashes. I used to sleep and wake up groggy almost every day, because of carb-withdrawal symptoms that I developed from eating tons of carbs the day before, but now I wake up not even tired. Brain fog has been completely lifted and I now have razor sharp focus. Clarity, when I was on a normal carb diet I’d have serious ADD. I couldn’t hold an attention span for more than five minutes, but now I could read an entire book without daydreaming about other things all in one sitting. Now that my body was given time to detox itself, it now runs cleaner and more efficient. Normally I’d struggle on 3-mile runs/jogs. Now I could go five miles and not even breathe hard. It’s like I’ve been upgraded and my telomeres are repairing themselves, not to mention the keto diet also slows the aging process because it’s no longer in a state of distressed and producing tons of cortisol on a daily basis to keep the body from breaking down from eating refined/processed carbs and overstimulating your pancreas into failure.

  • Gigi April 12, 2016, 5:48 pm

    I’ve never replied to a blog, but I have to say that I’ve dropped 8 pounds in 16 days and I wasn’t 100% faithful. I know everyone is different, but this the first success I’ve had since 2000. I’ve tried so many things – seriously. I’m a moderately active 53-year-old woman. Thanks Dave!

  • Carol April 26, 2016, 3:56 am

    I really want to try this, it looks like something my 53 year lod self could use BUT I dont like coffee. Can I still do this diet substituting the coffee?

    • Penny Hammond May 4, 2016, 11:25 am

      The author talks about how he first came up with the idea of bulletproof coffee – “I first learned about the power of blended butter from a tiny Tibetan woman at 18,300 feet of elevation in a remote part of Tibet near Mt. Kailash. In 2004, I staggered into her guesthouse chilled from the thin, –10 ° F air and she rejuvenated me with a creamy cup of traditional yak butter tea. I couldn’t get enough of it. The biohacker in me asked, “Why does drinking this stuff make me feel so good even though there’s no air? … When I returned home I brewed some tea, tossed it in the blender with some butter, and experienced nothing but a greasy cup of tea. Clearly, something different was happening back in Tibet. I picked up some high-end tea from a local Chinese merchant, but it still didn’t have the magical effect I remembered. So I went to my local Whole Foods and another gourmet store, where I bought every single brand of gourmet butter from around the world to see if the butter was the variable that mattered. It was. After trying each of them, I learned that the trick was to use unsalted butter from grass-fed cows. If you’re lucky, you can get it from a local farmer, but for the rest of us, Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter (in the United States and European Union) and the New Zealand– produced Anchor Butter (in much of Asia and Australia) fits the bill. From my antiaging research I knew about the tremendous health benefits of coconut oil, so I began experimenting with adding coconut milk and coconut oil to the tea, but it overwhelmed the tea. I switched from tea to coffee, my other great love (besides butter, of course). The coffee stood up to the coconut oil better than tea, and the final crowning achievement was to add 1 or 2 teaspoons of MCT oil (a coconut extract) to the coffee along with 1 or 2 teaspoons of unsalted, grass-fed butter or ghee. Together, these ingredients created the creamiest, most delicious, best performance-boosting cup of coffee I’d ever experienced. This is Bulletproof Coffee.” (Chapter 4: Eat fat for breakfast and carbs for dessert”)

      So it looks like you could try tea with grass-fed butter, but it might not work in exactly the same way as the coffee with coconut oil.

  • Linda January 1, 2017, 7:55 pm

    what about Kombucha? ok to have while you are doing this diet ?

    • Penny Hammond January 2, 2017, 1:40 pm

      The book classifies it as “suspect” – beverages chart in chapter 11.
      Avoid these foods during the 2-week protocol, and test them to see which you can reintroduce into your diet. “Suspect” doesn’t mean they’re bad, it means that some people react to them; you should see what your personal reaction is to each food – follow the testing suggestions to find your sensitivities.

  • Ashlie February 8, 2017, 11:26 pm

    Hello, so I work out every morning. I was wondering if since I work out every morning at like 8am should I still wait until 2pm to eat? Will the fasting get rid of my muscle or keep me in the fat burning mode? I usually drink my bulletproof coffee before working out.
    Thanks, Ashlie

    • Penny Hammond June 20, 2017, 8:07 pm

      The book suggests 6 hours between your bulletproof coffee and lunch, for the benefits of intermittent fasting. I’m assuming Dave worked out during this timeframe, as there’s a lot of working out in this book! Try it and see how you feel.

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