M&F: You were pretty overweight before the cut, what happened?
Phil: Following a devastating accident as a kid, I was left with two major obstacles: a prognosis that I was never going to walk again and a 310-pound body. But with the right nutrition and training, I’ve shed 95 pounds of fat, added a ton of muscle, and recently deadlifted 725 pounds in competition.
M&F: Alright Phil, how’d you do it?
P: The main thing I never ever ate sugar. I tended to eat the fattier meats and fish. A good bit of salmon I would grill lots of pork ribs, steaks that were less then lean like ribeye or porterhouse. The leaner meats I would cook with fat be it butter or olive oil. I used a TON of mustard on things as its pretty close to calorie and carb free other then that the only other sauces used were real ranch and blue cheese which only have essentially one carb and lots of fat. Mayo, Real mayo.
I think what people tend to have a hard time to wrap their minds around is the higher fat intake when you drop the carbs. I find that they should choose the meats and sauces high in fat low in carbs or none.
The other odd things would be things like eating bags of pork rinds and beef jerky and the experimentation to cure the sweet tooth from time to time though it didn’t bother me much, Things like heavy whipping crème and sugar free jello a good deal of heavy whipping crème ( could be a ¼ cup or more) In the later years making sugar free cheese cake with crème cheese and sugar free jello and whipping creme, or baking them and using pure
sucralose, whipping crème, crème and ricotta cheese, egg yolks etc.
Key Change: No sugar, less than 20 grams of carbs a day, and all the meat you can eat.
M&F: Thanks Phil, any parting words for the M&F audience?
P: Don’t diet, Eat. Don’t exercise, train. In other words don’t let food or inactivity rule you. Take the reins back, get control, and choose plans you can enjoy for life.
Lastly, I’d like to publicly thank everyone for their help with my charity strongman organization Lift4Hope. It’s been a fun ride and I look forward to what the future brings.
