Butter – The Magic Bullet of Weight Loss?
What you are about to read is a true story. Nobody’s names have been changed and there are no witnesses to protect. In fact there isn’t even mystery to solve. The fact is, if you want to achieve the same results as me, then all you need to do is mimic what I did and use a single pat of butter to lose weight. It really works!
If you are in a rush, here’s a TLDR Summary of this article…
Put a pat of grass-fed butter in your morning coffee and skip breakfast as part of an Intermittent Fasting Routine and watch the weight fly off and your waistline go down!
If you want to know more to my story, get a great recipe for your morning coffee, and understand WHY using butter to lose weight really works, then keep reading.
The Backstory
I’m in my mid-40’s and for the last few years I was getting more and more horrified to see my waistline expand (it got up to 37.5 inches!) and my energy decrease. So about 6 months ago I read Tim Ferris’ Tools of Titans book and heard about the benefits of Intermittent Fasting. Since I gained like 100+ useful tips from Tim’s book I decided to try his recommendation for Intermittent Fasting too — boy am I glad I did!
That said, this is not an article about Intermittent Fasting — I’ve already done that and you can read it here…
https://thathelpfuldad.com/intermittent-fasting/
Butter for Weight Loss – This Story
This IS an article about how I used grass-fed butter to lose weight as one of the key pillars of my success with Intermittent Fasting.
And the best thing about this idea is that it’s so freakin’ simple!
The basic premise is that you put 1/2 Tablespoon of Grassfed Butter in your black coffee in the morning. Then you skip breakfast, complete your 14–16 hour fast period, and happily move on with your day. Honestly it doesn’t get any easier than that.
Using this technique I lost 10 pounds (and counting) and more than 3 inches off my belly!
Butter for Weight Loss and YOU
If you try what I am suggesting, it’s very possible YOUR results could exceed mine.
After all, I started at a relatively healthy 5’8″, 166 pounds at baseline so there wasn’t a lot of weight for me to drop.
My main goal was to decrease my waistline — and that’s exactly what I did. Using a loose tape measure I am now at 34.5 inches around my belly, but from a practical standpoint I can now comfortably wear 32 inch waist pants again — Woo Hoo!
Common Questions about Butter for Weight Loss
- Why Butter? How does this work?
Because butter is a fat and while we are in the Fasting State our bodies are burning fat for energy— we want this to continue as long as possible so we can lose weight, lower our waistline, and experience all the benefits of Intermittent Fasting. Butter essentially becomes an energy source (read: brain food) that we can use for fuel during the Fasting State. What we don’t want is to trigger an insulin response by eating carbs or protein during our fast — if we do that we move out of the Fasting State and into the Fed State. - Why GrassFed Butter?
Because we want to feed our body with healthy fats. My favorite options here are Kerrygold Irish Butter (no salt) and Vital Farms, but there are lots of choices here. - Why just 1/2 Tablespoon?
Because a full Tablespoon of butter has about 100 calories and, while there is a LOT of debate about this (which I compiled in my Intermittent Fasting article), many sources seem to agree that if you can stay under 50 calories while eating only healthy fats, then you’ll increase your odds of staying in the Fasting State. - What about Ghee, Coconut, or MCT Oil like Tim Ferris talked about?
Those may all work too, assuming you are choosing healthy, organic options. Last I read Tim actually uses some of these in his now famous Titanium Tea. As for me, while I’ve tried other options here, from a taste perspective, I just like the grassfed butter choice. - Why Black Coffee?
Because black coffee has no calories and won’t break your fast. Additionally, the caffeine is a source of energy that can compliment the healthy fat energy source from the butter. - Is this just the same thing as “Bulletproof Coffee?”
Definitely NOT. Bulletproof coffee does use ‘good fats’ in it’s recipes but it is full of so much fat calories that many suspect it breaks your fast. It’s a bit like overkill in my opinion but I guess it depends on your goals. If you are not practicing intermittent fasting and not trying to lose weight and therefore don’t care about all the calories in bulletproof coffee and just want the energy from it (as part of your Ketogenic Diet for example), then bulletproof coffee is potentially a great option for you. BUT for what we are trying to accomplish here (I.E. using butter for weight loss via intermittent fasting), bulletproof coffee is not a good choice for us. - Do you have a recipe for your version?
As a matter of fact I do! I call it my CinnaBUTTER Coffee Cup and you can read it here…
https://thathelpfuldad.com/cinnabutter-coffee-recipe/
Butter for Weight Loss – The Bottom Line?
Look, I’m not scientist here and I can’t tell you with medical research certainty why grass-fed butter in your coffee is so beneficial (or not). All I can tell you is that I tried one of Tim Ferris’ ‘self guinea pig’ experiments and put the idea to the test on myself — and in my experiment consistently using 1/2 TBSP of grass-fed butter in my morning coffee helped me achieve results that I am super stoked about.
I’m grateful that Tim shared his ideas in his book. I’m hopeful that by sharing my ideas with you it will inspire you to consider this lifestyle change. After all, I’m just an Average Joe and if I can do it, so can you.
What to Read Next?
https://thathelpfuldad.com/product/tim-ferris-tools-of-titans-book-review/
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