The steak and egg diet is a restrictive version of the already restrictive carnivore diet. But the benefits experienced by people who tried this diet are off the charts. It helped people cure autoimmune disease, gut issues, and chronic depression.
So, how do you start a steak and egg diet, how does it differ from a regular carnivore diet, and can everyone experience those benefits?
Let’s find out!
But before we dive into the nitty-gritty, I want to say that there are no studies documenting the effects of eating only two foods for an extended period of time. So instead of eating steak and eggs for the rest of your life, stay on this diet for a few weeks and see what benefits you experience.
The steak and egg diet is a restrictive version of the carnivore diet popularized by legendary bodybuilder Vince Gironda. And if you decide to give the steak and egg diet a shot, you’ll have the world’s shortest grocery lift. Steak and eggs, lots of it!
On a carnivore diet, you can eat any animal product you want, but on a steak and egg diet, you’re only allowed to eat what the name entails. If it’s anything else, toss it out.
Vince Gironda is the legend who popularized the steak and egg diet. He also won several bodybuilding competitions and trained other celebrities like Denzel Washington, Frank Zane, and Arnold Schwarzeneggar.
Vince Gironda used this diet to build muscle, stay lean, and stay healthier than most bodybuilders eating oatmeal, potatoes, and rice to gain weight. And this diet served him well since he lived till the ripe age of 79.
According to Vince, 80% of a bodybuilder’s success depends on their diet. And after years of trial and error, he concluded that steak and eggs are foods that our ancestors ate most.
The steak and eggs diet goes perfectly with intermediate fasting since it promotes the hormone “leptin” which tells your brain when to stop eating.
Insulin blocks leptin from doing its job, so when you eat lots of carbs that spike insulin, you’ll feel hungry all the time.
But when you remove all carbs, leptin starts working properly, allowing you to eat less and stay fuller for longer.
Say goodbye to carb-counting, calorie counting, and any other form of dietary counting.
There are hundreds of people online who claim to experience benefits that are out of this world. These benefits include;
But how does the steak and eggs diet fix these issues? Let’s find out.
If this diet helps bodybuilders build muscle and lose fat, you can bet it’ll work for you. Steak and eggs contain high-quality protein and the 9 essential amino acids needed to repair your muscles effectively.
Protein is also found to boost your metabolism and help you burn and keep off excess fat.
A large egg contains 7 grams of protein, and one steak contains over 60 grams of protein. So if you eat one steak for lunch and dinner and a handful of eggs to go with it, you’ll be consuming over 150 grams of protein a day! That’s more than enough to build muscle.
Inflammation is the root of all chronic diseases, and unfortunately, most people eat a ton of processed foods that causes them to always be inflamed.
Even some foods that people might consider to be carnivore-friendly, like farmed fish and processed meat, contribute towards chronic inflammation. But if you’re eating only steak and eggs, especially if they’re grass-fed, chronic inflammation in your body will be almost non-existent.
This lowers the probability of you developing chronic diseases like;
What more can you ask for? You get to eat delicious steak and eggs every day while dodging dangerous chronic diseases that almost everyone struggles with.
Weight loss is one of the main reasons why people join the ketogenic or carnivore diet community. But the benefits of being in ketosis run way deeper than just weight loss.
Ketosis is a state in which your body burns fat for energy and not glucose. When you only eat steak and eggs for a few days, your body won’t have much glucose left to burn, and it’ll resort to using the fat from your body or diet. This fat is broken down into ketones, which are used to power most tissues in your body, including your brain. This is beneficial in several ways;
When people eat a standard American diet, their energy levels go up and down like a heart monitor. It’s all over the place.
We eat tons of carbs that spike your insulin level, and this gives you a quick and sudden boost in energy. But when that boost is over, you’re left feeling tired and drained.
When you’re only eating steak and eggs, your insulin level isn’t jumping up and down since there aren’t any carbs in your diet. This allows you to get through your day with stable energy and blood glucose levels.
And on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, Joe speaks about the benefits of eating like a carnivore. His favorite being that his energy levels are always high and stable. And this helps him when filming podcasts and working with the UFC.
Like with all diets, there are always drawbacks. For most people like Joe Rogan, Jordan Petersen, and Mikhaila Petersen, the biggest drawback is the lack of variety in their diet. All you’re eating is steak and eggs, which might seem worth it at first since you’re getting all these benefits while eating delicious foods, but it gets boring real quick.
After eating a steak and egg diet for a few weeks or months, you’ll want to start eating other carnivore-friendly foods like;
This gives you some variety and novelty in your diet.
In modern times, we are living in the age of inflammation. Most people eat tons of processed foods and no nutrient-dense animal products. But any diet that removes all processed junk and promotes eating real food is a great diet to follow. And following a steak and eggs diet allows you to reduce inflammation, increase nutrient-density, and helps you lose weight.
However, I don’t suggest following this diet for a long time since we don’t know the effects of only eating two foods will have on our bodies. Instead, think of it as a challenge or experiment and see which benefits you experience.
Yaseen Sadan is a personal trainer turned professional copywriter and founder of Sell Using Words. He helps small businesses increase their leads and sales by writing SEO-friendly blogs, sales emails, landing pages, and lead magnets. Feel free to visit his website, add him on LinkedIn and check him out on Facebook.