In Dr. Peter Attia’s latest email newsletter, he discussed his nutritional framework. The problem with nutrition is that it is a loaded topic, very similar to religion or politics. Dr. Attia’s approach is to use a framework that is not controversial and applies broadly. 

Nutrition can be divided into three forms of restriction (he calls them levers.)

• What you eat or not eat–dietary restriction
• How much you eat–caloric restriction
• When you eat–time restriction

In terms of these three levers, the simplest one may be time restriction. Most people already have some level of time-restricted eating. You can’t eat while you sleep unless you have a specific sleep disorder. The goal is to have a time window in which you do all your eating and you do not consume any calories outside this window. 

When I’m home I try to have dinner by 5 PM and usually have Bulletproof coffee at 7 AM. This is a 10-hr window of eating and 14-hr window of fasting referred to as 14/10. I would eventually like to get to 16/8, but it is tough to lock down that 8-hour window of eating consistently.

With Project Food as Fuel, I pulled hard on the dietary restriction lever. I haven’t paid much attention to calories, but I do need to start restricting calories to achieve a weight loss goal.

By the way, if you want to be sick don’t pull any of the levers. I did that experiment for you. I used to eat whatever I wanted, as much as I wanted, any time I wanted, which in the US is the “standard American Diet.” That didn’t work out so well.