Man 2.0 Engineering the Alpha

to. This is not a gimmick. While some diets will put you through a crash course of low carbs where you lose water weight and appear to have a lot of success only to put it right back on, this is the first phase of a complex scientific strategy designed to keep the weight off. More carbs will be added after the first two weeks, and you won’t become fatter. And as you progress, you’ll see that more and more carbs will continue to be added because your insulin will be better able to use those carbs to create a muscle-building and fat-burning environment.
    And, if you think that this level of carb reduction sounds extreme, keep in mind that technically it’s not zero carbs. You will be eating plenty of fibrous vegetables that we consider “free foods.” These foods—when combined with the amount of fat and protein you’ll be eating—will keep you much fuller than you’d ever imagine on a “zero-carb” plan.
    We restrict carbohydrate intake to very low levels for these first two weeks because it’s the fastest way to get your insulin under control. As you know, when you’re minimizing carbs, you’re also minimizing the secretion of insulin. Keeping insulin levels low will help your body become more sensitive to it—which means that you’ll need less to get the job done by the second phase of the program. That would be impressive enough on its own, but what’s more, this first phase is what stabilizes your blood sugar to allow for you to cheat with all your favorite foods later in the program.
    While creating an environment that encourages insulin sensitivity is great, it’s equally important to nurture that environment. In other words, you can’t avoid carbs forever. * However, you can’t just go back to pounding doughnuts and expect to keep your newfound insulin sensitivity. Not yet, at least—the rebound effect would be too great, and in addition to messing up your insulin management again, you’d also gain back any weight that you’d lost up till that point.
    For this reason, the second half of Prime focuses on carb reintroduction.
    During weeks three and four of Phase I, you will close out your insulin reset by slowly bringing carbs back into your diet, starting with the most important time: post-workout.
    For week three, you’ll still be eating zero carbs on non-workout days, but on training days, you’re going to take in 75 grams of carbs, all of which will be consumed within three hours after finishing your workout. Now, 75 grams isn’t much, but you’ll be surprised at how different you feel taking in carbs, particularly in terms of recovery. Most of these 75 grams should come from your post-workout shake, with the remainder coming from starchy carbs like sweet potatoes.
    During the final week of Prime, you’ll be earning another notch. On non-workout days, you’ll take in up to 50 grams of carbs, and on workout days, you get a whopping 100 grams. This allows you to have both a post-workout shake and a secondary source of carbs.

    MEAL TIMING AND STRUCTURE
    Fasting
    During Prime, you’ll be using what you’ll call the 16/8. * We’d love to tell you that the 16/8 is a delicious sub sandwich with eight meats and sixteen toppings, but in fact it just means that you will fast for sixteen out of every twenty-four hours, with the remaining eight hours being your feeding window.
    While in some sense it won’t make a huge difference how you structure that breakdown, we recommend setting your feeding window to begin anywhere between noon (ending at eight p.m.) and five p.m. (ending at one a.m.), depending on when you wake up and go to bed. Put another way, you should look to have your first meal about six to eight hours after you wake up, but this isn’t a hard rule. * Remember, this eating structure is flexible.
    The number of meals you eat during this time period is up to you, so whether it’s two or five meals doesn’t matter. Your only focus is eating by the clock. Plus, you can shift your eating window. So if one day you want to start eating at noon and the next you want to eat at three p.m., it’s fine—as long as you still end up fasting for sixteen hours and eating for eight.
    Training and Nutrient Timing
    You’ll be eating your carbohydrates later in the day in order to maximize the effects of your naturally higher insulin sensitivity. On non-workout days, eat these carbs three to four hours before you go to bed. (If you go to bed at ten p.m., don’t eat carbs before six