Top 3 Mistakes You’re Making On The Bulletproof Diet and How To Fix Them

Thousands of people are having massive success eating the Bulletproof Diet. They’re losing weight, thinking faster, and bouncing off the walls with energy.

You can be just like them. Get started on the Bulletproof Diet easily with this printable Bulletproof Diet Shopping Guide.

Here are just a few examples of how the Bulletproof Diet is changing lives:

“I’ve been following Dave’s principles for the past 18 months, and my HDL levels recently tested at 110, which basically means I’m immune to heart disease. Meanwhile, nuts, dark chocolate, avocado, and butter are stalwarts in my diet. I’m sure I get at least 50% of my calories from fat. And I’ve never felt better.” – Chris Yeh, former CEO of ustream.tv and Chairman of the Harvard Business School Technology Alumni Association.

I follow the One Page Bulletproof Diet because, like any great resource, it is updated as science progresses. While obtaining a large percentage of calories from “good” fats is highly logical, I notice it is still a very foreign idea to most people I speak with about nutrition. Until science proves us wrong, I will continue to help spread the word.”  -Thomas O’Neill, FoamRollerCoach.com

However, a few people find that they notice some improvements, but the benefits aren’t coming as fast as they would like. Everyone is different, but in most cases, the reasons for their sluggish performance become apparent after closer inspection.

There are three main reasons you might not be doing as well as you could on the Bulletproof Diet:

1. You’re force-feeding yourself.

Food quality should be your main priority. Counting calories is a waste of time and effort. Eating the right foods automatically adjusts your energy intake to what you need 99% of the time. That’s what I mean by saying calories are a scam.  This doesn’t mean you have to take shots of coconut oil or eat half a cow at every meal.  If you eat too much, you can still get fat, especially if you’re eating low-quality foods or your percentage of fat drops too low. If you’ve been having this problem, here’s what to do:

  • Eat foods on the green side of the Bulletproof Diet.
  • Eat when you’re hungry.
  • Stop eating when you’re full.

What if you haven’t been gaining weight, but your energy levels and brain function still aren’t where they should be?  This brings us to the second mistake.

2. You haven’t addressed problems that were around before you started eating the Bulletproof Diet.

The Bulletproof Diet is great for rebalancing hormones, detoxifying your body, entering fat-burning mode (ketosis) and increasing micronutrient status. However, some people are so sick, malnourished, and screwed up hormonally that the Bulletproof Diet isn’t quite enough. Trying to lose weight when your testosterone levels are that of a teenage girl is obviously not going to work. (That said, over time, the Bulletproof Diet may help raise your testosterone levels, but that takes a while.) Trying to boost your IQ or sleep five hours a night is a disaster waiting to happen if you’re magnesium deficient.  Most people have been abusing their bodies for years, and repairs don’t always happen overnight.

If you don’t address problems that were around before you started eating the Bulletproof Diet, you shouldn’t expect the same results as someone who was already pretty healthy. The Bulletproof Diet has done wonders for my health and performance, but it wasn’t the only thing I used to recover from my past mistakes.  I know this is like an insurance company saying, “we don’t cover people with preexisting health conditions,” but it’s the hard truth. Unlike an insurance company however, the Bulletproof Diet will still help you on your path to recovery, it just might not be enough to get you all the way there. It absolutely will do more than a standard diet, and it works quickly, but you may need to pay attention to other parts of being Bulletproof.

Here are 6 common pre-conditions that may need extra attention in order for the Bulletproof Diet to work better for you:

  1. Hormonal imbalances. Get tested, don’t guess. (E.g., low thyroid and testosterone, high estrogen, etc.)
  2. Severe micronutrient deficiencies.
  3. Extreme toxin accumulation, including mold toxicity.
  4. Sleep debt and irregular circadian rhythms.
  5. Chronic stress (the emWave2 is my favorite Bulletproof technology to deal with this.)
  6. Glutathione depletion (Upgraded Glutathione Force and Upgraded Whey Protein can help with this).

The Bulletproof Diet works, but it’s important to address any possible underlying conditions. This is, of course, assuming you are eating the Bulletproof Diet to begin with, which brings us to the third mistake.

3. You aren’t eating the Bulletproof Diet.

This was a recent conversation I had with a client:

Me: “How has the weight loss been going?  You’ve been going strong for several weeks now, are you still doing well?”

Client: “Yeah, I felt great for a few weeks, but all of a sudden I’ve stalled.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  I’ve been doing everything right.”

Me: “Okay then, what did you have for breakfast yesterday.”

Client: “Bulletproof Coffee, like every other day.  Oh, and we also had an office party, so I decided to have a donut.  It was only one.”

Me: “One?”

Client: “Okay, it was more like 2, and I had pizza two nights ago with my buddies, and a Powerbar on Monday because I was a little hungry.  That’s it though, so I don’t think it’s hurting me that much.  Oh yeah, how bad is canola oil, because I think the fried chicken I had on Wednesday may have had some.”

Me: *facepalm*

This person has obviously not been following the Bulletproof Diet.  It works – if you give it an honest effort.  You don’t have to be 100% compliant every second of every day, but having gluten and loads of fried, refined sugar several times a week is not going to work – period. It can be downright dangerous to trick yourself into believing you’re eating the Bulletproof Diet when you’re not actually doing it. A family member who thought he was eating healthy had a heart attack a few years ago and believed he was eating well, but it turns out the bakery he frequented used hydrogenated margarine for all their baking. He programmed himself to believe he was Bulletproof if he ate gluten and margarine several times a week.

If you’re having trouble easing into the Bulletproof Diet, here’s what to do:

Download the Bulletproof Diet infographic and put it on your fridge.

Download the Bulletproof Diet Shopping Guide and go to the store.  Stock up on enough Bulletproof foods to last you through the week, and set a goal to go at least 7 days eating only foods on the green side of the Bulletproof Diet.

If you’re still having trouble, or you prefer a more gradual approach, follow the 10 Secrets to Success on the Bulletproof Diet.

The Bulletproof Diet can do wonders for your health and performance, but like any system, there is always the potential for user error.  Don’t try to be perfect, you’ll become stressed and disappointed. That’s why the Bulletproof Diet is displayed on a spectrum. You can make individual choices about exactly how Bulletproof you want to be every meal of every day, but stressing over perfection is counter-productive and might even make you fat!

The Bulletproof Diet is a great way to become healthy, but some problems are too big to be fixed just with diet. Remember to address your preexisting conditions before expecting miracles from any dietary modification. Like any life altering change, you may need to be willing to stretch the limits of what you think you can do to succeed. Fortunately, it takes very little discipline to eat steak, butter, chocolate, and coffee until you’re full and satisfied. If you’re eating the Bulletproof Diet, you will get results. It’s as simple as that.

Again, don’t forget to set yourself up for success. Download the free Bulletproof Diet Shopping Guide and get your butt to the grocery store!

Have you faced any challenges while switching to a Bulletproof Lifestyle? We want to hear about it in the comments below!

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If you want to lose weight, increase your energy, or sharpen your mind, there are shelves of books offering myriad styles of advice. If you want to build up your strength and cardio fitness, there are plenty of gyms and trainers ready to offer you their guidance. What all of these resources have in common is they offer you a bad deal: a lot of effort for a little payoff. Dave Asprey has found a better way.
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