Build Muscle and Lose Fat

At times there can be a benefit to scheduling some zero carb, high protein, high fat eating in your diet. You might consider going on a 3 week Atkins-style super-low carb diet to kick start a hardcore fat loss phase in your training. For this, you will need to eat lots of meat, cheese, and vegetables, and not much else. I have the perfect recipe for this; it’s called Matt’s Meat and I wish to share the story of Matt’s Meat with you.

Back in 2004 I was living in a house called “The Deuce” with 5 other guys. These were the college days, so I was pretty dedicated to training and nutrition. Aside from class and homework, I didn’t have much else to focus on. One day one of my roommates, we’ll call him Matt, tossed a bunch of meat and spices into a frying pan and cooked it up. We ate it with cheese and either blue cheese or ranch dressing and it was like a party in my mouth. The meal was henceforth dubbed “Matt’s Meat”, and today I would like to share the recipe with you.

The Recipe

• 1 pound of extra lean ground beef (or pork, turkey, chicken)
• two large green peppers
• a sprinkle of every non-salt based spice you can find in your cabinet
• 1/4 cup of your favorite hot sauce
• 1/4 cup of crushed red pepper
• 1/4 cup of ketchup
• 2 tbsp of mustard
• a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese
• chunky blue cheese or ranch dressing

First thing’s first, dump the meat in a frying pan and cook it on medium until the fat starts to separate and boil around the meat. While you are waiting, cut the peppers into small squares. Once there is considerable fat in the pan, point you want to hold the pan at an angle, push all the meat to the top, and try to dump out as much of the fatty grease as possible. Now that the grease is gone you can add the peppers, spices, mustard, and hot sauce.

The final ingredient is optional if you are going for a die-hard zero carb meal, but it really makes the meat tasty. Sort of gives it a sloppy joe flavor. Anyway, add the ketchup and mix it up.

To serve, top 1/2 cup of meat with a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese, heat for a couple seconds to melt the cheese, and finally top with 1-2 tbsp of chunky blue cheese dressing.

I have no idea how much fat and protein is in this meal, but I’m betting it’s high. This is a good meal for a strict low carb diet and will probably satiate your appetite for at least 4 hours due to the fat content. Just remember, do not add anything with carbs other than the peppers and ketchup or you will lose the whole purpose of the meal.