Bulletproof Diet Meal Plan: What to Know

By Forrest •  Updated: 06/15/17 •  33 min read

The Bulletproof diet is a diet plan that has been developed and marketed by Dave Asprey.

He proposes that the diet you consume should contain low amount of carbohydrates, moderate amount of proteins and high amounts of fats. This sounds like a regular old ketogenic diet, so what is Bulletproof about it?

Well, the major difference is the base of the diet. This diet calls for the consumption of “Bulletproof coffee” – a black coffee that contains an added MCT oil and butter in it.

What Is The Bulletproof Diet?

Asprey was once unhealthy and obese. He lost all his extra weight and spent over $ 300,000 over the span of almost 15 years, hacking his own biology.

The basic foundation of the Bullet-proof diet is based on the premise that the consumption of Bullet-proof foods and the avoidance of the “toxic” or the kryptonite foods will not only help you lose weight, but it will also help make you smarter and bring about a life changing transformation.

The Bullet-proof diet doesn’t need carefully controlled portions or meticulous calorie counting. Nor does it call for exercising. But, even then you will lose weight in no time at all.

While following this diet, the “Bulletproof Coffee” is an absolute must have! According to Asprey, most of the coffee beans that are available in the market today have a high toxin count. This makes it extremely important for you to purchase “low toxin” coffee beans that can be bought from local stores.

To prepare your everyday breakfast Bulletproof Coffee, brew your “low toxin” coffee like regular coffee and add in some coconut oil or any other MCT oil and grass fed butter.

This cup of coffee contains about 400 calories and (is claimed) to help your body to achieve ketosis – enabling your body to burn fat, reduce hunger and lead to weight loss. The consumption of Bulletproof Coffee on a daily basis also helps in following intermittent fasting, if you choose to do it.

Dave Asprey studied and constantly monitored his health so that he could discover the hidden variables that played a large role in affecting his mental health, his performance, how his relationships were affected and how he felt overall. After gathering the results he saw over a span of time, he started consuming certain “smart drugs” that enabled his brain to “turn back on.”

He added various supplements to his diet and followed various diets on an experimental basis so that he could see which diet plan worked for him and which didn’t. He also studied what the shortcomings of the diets were and why they did not seem to work.

Due to his in depth study he learned about the complex roles that various factors played in the body for weight loss, energy level and hunger levels; factors such as inflammation, hormones, gut bacteria, toxins, neurotransmitters, etc.

He shared his findings with members of his family and with his friends. He saw that by following his diet plan, all of them started their rapid weight loss journey. Along with weight loss, he also realized that those people also gained willpower and there was a rise in their mental focus.

The trick of this diet is to reduce the immune reaction of your body, by limiting the foods that you eat, to anti-nutrients, such as phytate, mycotoxins or mold toxins, lectins, oxalates, etc. You should also totally avoid the foods that cause a reaction in the body and consume more foods that encourage the growth of good bacteria in your gut.

If you’re looking for healthy breakfast meal prep, give these ideas a try!

Steps to Helping You Follow the Bulletproof Diet

 

Starting a new diet is hard for everyone, even if you are doing it for all of the right health reasons. One of the scariest things is to think about starting the diet, but not knowing how to.

While it is possible that you are going to end up not eating something that is considered to be healthy by the diet standards, it is going to be a lot easier for you to be able to follow it if you have a few steps that are meant to help you follow the diet so that you do not have to worry about failing.

Step 1

Get rid of all sugar. You do not need any type of sugar in your diet. This means that you should not have anything such as fruit juice or sports drinks and definitely not soda!

Step 2

Your sugar calories need to be replaced with healthy fats. Some of the healthy fats that the bulletproof diet allows are things such as coconut oil, ghee, or grass fed butter.

Step 3

Remove all gluten. This is probably the hardest one for people to handle because gluten is one of the most common things we eat. Try and eliminate all cereals, bread, and pasta. This does not mean that you need to move on to snacks that are gluten free because these are not going to be any healthier for you than gluten is.

Step 4

Toss out all grain and vegetable derived oils. Things such as canola oil are not healthy for you. This also implies that you should get rid of the oils that are polyunsaturated like peanut oil.

Step 5

Any food that has added flavors or colors needs to be taken out of your diet. MSG, aspartame, dyes and other artificial flavorings are not going to be of any assistance when it comes to you trying to eat healthier.

Step 6

Meat that has been grass fed and is good for you! This means any mean animal that is allowed to wander around and eat grass is going to be good for you. You can also pair this with fish and eggs.

Step 7

Legumes such as beans or lentils should not be included in your diet. However, if you are going to include them, you should try and soak them or ferment them to remove anything that is not going to aid you in your diet progression.

Step 8

Dairy that is processed pasteurized, and homogenized is among some of the worst of the dairy products that you can put into your body. You should try and stick to dairy products that are full of fat and come from cows that have been grass fed so that they do not contain all of the steroids and antibiotics that other cows may contain.

Step 9

When you are eating seafood, you are going to need to stick to seafood that is wild caught.

Step 10

Fruits and vegetables are great for you! However, many fruits and vegetables tend to get sprayed with pesticides and other harmful chemicals. So, when you are picking out your fruits and vegetables, you will want to try and find the organic fruits and vegetables that do not have any of the harmful chemicals that the other fruits and vegetables do.

Step 11

Try and add water into all of your cooking and stick to cooking at low temperatures. Microwaved food and fried foods should be at the very bottom of your list of food that you eat.

Step 12

You should try and have at least two servings of fruit a day. And, when you are picking your fruit, stick to the fruit that is lower in fructose.

Step 13

Spices are great and will add flavoring to your food. You are going to want to try and stick to spices that are herb based instead of things like garlic salt or powder. It is also a good idea to try and make sure you replace your spices with ones that have been recently opened and are of high quality.

Step 14

Enjoy the food that you eat!

All of that seems pretty simple, right? It is going to be hard to follow at first, but once your body gets used to it, you are going to realize how much better your body feels.

There are a few other tips that you should know about so that you can try and stick to the bulletproof diet in order to begin seeing changes in your health.

Intermittent Fasting on the Bulletproof Diet and How it Affects Your Health

While doing the bulletproof diet, you are going to come to realize that it also recommends that you intermittently fast so that you are consuming most of the calories that your body needs to get through the day in a smaller window. This window is usually somewhere around six hours, and then the rest of the day you are not going to consume anything.  

Essentially, you are going to need to eat your meals between a specific time frame in the day. You are also going to be forcing your body to go into a ketosis state by cutting out or restricting a number of carbohydrates that you are going to intake.

Your body uses the carbohydrates that you put into it as a form of energy rather than using the glucose that is already stored din your body. Therefore, when your body goes into this ketosis state, you are going to be forcing your body to take this stored up glucose and use it as energy.  

Before you try and do any fasting, you need to speak to your medical provider to make sure that it is not going to be harming your body.

If you have issues such as adrenal or thyroid, then you are going to need to either cut the fasting out of the bulletproof diet, or you need to minimize it so that it does not send your body into such a state of shock. You are going to have to do this until the issue has been resolved or throughout the entirety of you following the bulletproof diet because you do not want to harm your body.  

When you are doing the intermittent fasting, you should have a doctor track your progress to ensure that you are not harming yourself that way you can catch things before they become too big of a problem. 

To do this, you can have your doctor do regular bloodwork to see how the diet is affecting your body and see if it is having a positive effect on you.

1 – Cholesterol

 

Your cholesterol and LDL levels should go down whenever you are following the bulletproof diet and intermittently fasting. Do not be surprised if they do not fall right away because nothing happens overnight.

Sometimes your cholesterol and LDL levels will not go down much due to the fact that you have a thyroid issue. Do not be surprised if this happens because it is not something that you are necessarily going to be able to fix without the help of a doctor.

But, with the help of the doctor and maybe even get medicine to help level it out.

Your HDL to your total cholesterol needs to be higher than 0.24. If your HDL is under 0.24 then your levels are low, and then if they are even less than 0.10 it is very dangerous, and you need to be seen by a health care professional.

The triglycerides to your HDL needs to be below two. Anything else is going to be high and could lead to things such as heart disease.

Finally, your HDL to LDL levels need to be less than .4. But, if you are less than .3 that is fine because it is still at a good level.

2 – LDL size

 

The LDL cholesterol in your body is not going to all be the same. There are at least two different particle sizes.

The larger particles are going to be large and fluffy and are going to float freely throughout your body and are going to have some benefits that are going to be protective for your body.

Smaller particles indicate a higher chance of heart attacks and are going to inevitably get clogged in your arteries.

You are going to ultimately want to make sure that you have the LDL type A that is fluffy so that you are in the lower brackets for heart disease.

3 – Testosterone

 

Everybody has testosterone.

If you are a male, then you are obviously going to have a larger amount of testosterone than a female, but in the end, you are going to have a decent amount of testosterone in your body.

If you have a thyroid that is underactive, then you are going to have lower testosterone, once you get that taken care of, you are going to see your testosterone levels shoot up and be at the levels that they are supposed to be at.

4 – Issues

 

Starting the bulletproof diet, you may find that you may discover that you have some medical issues that you did not even know about. There are things such as leaky gut, fat malabsorption, and autoimmune issues that you can be suffering from. 

If you find that you have issues like this, you can work with your doctor to find a very successful cure such as some medicine that will work with what symptoms that you are showing. 

In the event that you are showing symptoms of things like leaky gut, your doctor is most likely going to order up a battery of tests that are going to look through various parts of your body to see how extensive the symptoms are and what needs to be done to be able to fix the issue and help save your health.

5 – Chronic Infections

 

Sometimes things such as a tick bite can leave an infection in your system causing your system to shut down slowly over several years. And you are not necessarily going not to show any outward symptoms.

This is another effect of the bulletproof diet because when you are going to the doctor regularly and getting your blood drawn, you are going to be seeing things come up that you would have never thought to talk to your doctor about.

6 – Adrenals and Thyroid

 

You should not be surprised when other parts of your health are affected by things such as chronic infections. You can end up having things such as functional hypothyroidism where your thyroid numbers are below where they are supposed to be.

Just because your thyroid numbers are not where they are supposed to be does not mean that you are not going to be able to function on a high level.

You are going to be able to go about your daily life despite having issues like this. It is when things begin to get worse that you are going to start to slow down and not be able to do as much.

Working with your doctor is going to make it to where you are going to have the options to get your levels back where your body is functioning where it is supposed to be and where the doctor is not worried about what is going on with your body.

When you suffer from adrenal or thyroid problems, your doctor is obviously going to keep a closer eye on things so that they are able to catch anything before it gets worse.

7 – Weight

 

Ideally, with the bulletproof diet, you are going to be losing weight despite the fact that you are not counting calories.

Ultimately, you are going to combining your healthy eating, following the advice from your doctor, fasting, and exercise, you should see that your weight and overall body fat fall to where it should be or where you want it to be.

Keep in mind that you do not have to stay at your “recommended weight.” As long as you are healthy and happy with the weight that you are at that is all that matters.

8 – Intermittent Fasting

 

Avoiding gluten and sugar are going to be some of the things that you are going to want to stay away from as we discussed above, however sometimes it is hard to find a substitute, so if you eat it in moderation, you are going to discover that you are going to be okay.

Having moderate helpings every so often is not going to harm your body, it is when you are placing it in your body every day at an accelerated rate that harms your body.

Along with the recipes that you find in this guide, you may find that you are going to be spending a lot of time researching recipes just so that you can find things that are going to work with your diet.

Most of the time you are going to be doing this so that you can try and stick to your diet and not eat the things that are unhealthy for you.

When it comes to fasting, you are not going to want to do it very often because you are going to be putting stress on your body that you do not need to be dealing with.

Unneeded stress is going to cause your levels to spike, and if you go see the doctor when you are under levels of stress that you do not need to be under, you may show symptoms for something that you do not actually have.

Fasting a day or two a week is going to be sufficient enough to cause your body to go into that state of ketosis and use the glucose that is in your body so that you can get the energy that you need to get through your day.

If you are having thyroid issues, your body definitely does not need the extra stress while you are trying to get over these issues.

9 – Exercise and Strength

 

As you follow the bulletproof diet, you may come you have more energy which is great! With that energy, you can do things such as exercise and strength training.

You do not have to if you do not want to, but it is an option that is there for you when you are feeling more energetic and not sure how to get rid of the extra energy.

When you work out you are going to be gaining more neurological efficiency and strength. With more neurological efficiency you are going to be able to retain more, and your brain is going to work faster when it comes to reaction times.

10 – Dining Out

 

The hardest thing that you are going to discover about the bulletproof diet is eating out.

Not ever restaurant is going to offer you an option that is going to allow you to follow your diet and sometimes there is nothing that you can substitute for the object that you are needing to substitute.

The only advice that I can give you is that if the entrée that you are enjoying has something that you are not supposed to be eating on your diet, do not eat it. Eat something else that is on the plate. And if there is nothing else, then just remember moderation.

Whenever all else fails, you can always stick to the things that you know are going to be healthy for you such as fruits and vegetables.

While they may not be organic, they are going to be better than filling your stomach with gluten that is going to cause you to feel sluggish later on in the day and possibly throw your entire day off by having no other choice but to eat it.

Basically, you do not have to stop eating out when you are asked out or have to go out for a business lunch. You are just going to need to pay closer attention to what it is that you are enjoying so that you can stick to your diet.

11 – Extra Benefits

 

Along with feeling healthier, you are going to experience better hair and nails because you are taking care of your body the way that it is meant to be taken care of.

You may also experience that your skin glows, much like the glow that a pregnant woman is said to have when she is around the middle of her pregnancy.

When people give, you compliments on the outward benefits that you are experiencing; it may seem a little different if you are not used to it, however, take it! The longer that you follow the diet, the more compliments that you are going to get!

Having healthier nails and hair means that your hair and nails are not going to be as frail as they may have been and sometimes this is due to a health issue, however, when you experience having healthier nails and hair, the happier you are going to be.

There is nothing wrong with caring about your outward appearance. It is something that everyone sees first, and as human beings, it is hard not to judge someone based on how they look, even if we do not mean to.

Foods to Consume with Bulletproof Diet

 

1 – Bulletproof Fats

Best fats that you can consume:

2 – Bulletproof Vegetables

Best vegetables to eat:

All the vegetables that have been marked with an asterisk (*) should be consumed only when they have been cooked thoroughly.

3 – Bulletproof Protein

The best protein you can consume:

Organ meats from grass fed animals:

4 – Bulletproof Diary

(Before you consume any of the products mentioned below, do a small test to ensure that you are not allergic to any of the products)

The best dairy products you can consume:

5 – Bulletproof Spices & Flavorings

(All the ingredients that have been marked with an asterisk (*) usually contain toxic mold spores, so it is advisable that you consume only high quality and fresh ingredients whenever available).

The best spices and flavorings that you can consume are:

6 – Bulletproof Sweeteners

The best sweeteners you can use:

7 – Bulletproof Beverages

The best beverages that you can consume:

Foods to Test with the Bulletproof Diet (“Suspect”)

 

These foods should be avoided during the first two weeks. After 14 days are up these foods should be gradually introduced back into the diet and you should check if your body has an adverse reaction to them or not.

It would do well to remember that the word “Suspect” doesn’t mean that these foods are in any way harmful or bad for your health.

It only implies that a lot of people have a reaction to them and you should check your reaction to them before you completely reintroduce them back into your diet.

1 – Suspect Vegetables

The “least suspect” vegetables:

The “suspect” vegetables

The “most suspect” vegetables

2 – Suspect Fats

The “least suspect” fats:

The “suspect” fats:

The “most suspect” fats:

3 – Suspect Protein

It is completely okay to consume pork, goose, turkey, duck or chicken a couple of times a week, but if you wish to achieve maximum advantages, you would do well to stick to grass fed meats and fish.

The “least suspect” proteins:

The “suspect” proteins:

The “most suspect” proteins:

4 – Suspect Dairy

You should check first if you have a dairy allergy or not.

The “least suspect” dairy ingredients:

The “suspect” dairy ingredients:

The “most suspect” dairy ingredients:

5 – Suspect Spices & Flavorings

All the ingredients that have been marked with an asterisk (*) usually contain toxic mold spores, so it is advisable that you consume only high quality and fresh ingredients whenever available.

The “least suspect” ingredients:

The “suspect” ingredients:

The “most suspect” ingredients:

6 – Suspect Sweeteners

The “least suspect” sweeteners:

The “suspect” sweeteners:

The “most suspect” sweeteners:

7 – Suspect Beverages

The “least suspect” beverage:

The “suspect” beverage:

The “most suspect” beverage:

Foods to Avoid with the Bulletproof Diet (“Kryptonite”)

 

1 – Processed Foods

All foods that contain:

Commonly found in:

3 – Kryptonite Vegetables

The “less bad” vegetables:

The “worst” vegetables

3 – Kryptonite Fats (Includes Nuts and Seeds)

The “less bad” fats:

The “worst” proteins:

4 – Kryptonite Protein

The “less bad” proteins:

The “worst” proteins:

5 – Kryptonite Diary

The “less bad” dairy products:

The “worst” dairy products:

6 – Kryptonite Fruits

The “less bad” fruits:

The “worst” fruits:

7 – Kryptonite Spices & Flavorings

The “less bad” ingredients to consume:

The “worst” ingredients to consume:

8 – Kryptonite Sweeteners

The “less bad” sweeteners to consume:

The “worst” sweeteners to consume:

 9 – Kryptonite Beverages

The “less bad” beverages to consume:

The “worst” beverages to consume:

How to Effectively Follow the Bulletproof Diet Plan

The Bulletproof Diet is basically a diet that consists of food that is high in healthy fats and moderate in protein, as well as a slew of organic veggies. There is absolutely no calorie counting with this diet.

Instead of counting calories, this diet encourages you to eat high-quality foods. It gives specifics on what to eat, how much to eat, how to prepare the foods, and when exactly to eat the foods.

However, as mentioned above, following a new diet is not an easy task for everyone. So here are some tips that can help you to follow the plan effectively.

1 – The Two Week Protocol

 

The first two weeks of following the Bulletproof Diet are crucial. This is the time when your body starts to adjust to the new diet plan and you start to rapidly shed those extra pounds.

Here is a checklist of all the things that you need to do during the initial 2 weeks:

1

Remove all the Kryptonite foods from your house. Especially the foods that you love to eat.

2

Use the above guide to understand which foods and cooking methods you can eat and use and the foods and cooking methods that you need to avoid. Focus on consuming the Bullet-proof foods and try and avoid all the foods listed under the Suspect and Kryptonite headers.

3

Have the Bulletproof Coffee for breakfast every day without fail. It is advisable that women over the age of 40, or people who need to lose a lot of weight or people who do not feel satiated by just consuming the Bulletproof Coffee by itself, should also consume 1 oz. protein with their Bulletproof Coffee. For example, you can add some grass fed collagen protein to your coffee.

4

You need to have a large amount of vegetables, oodles of healthy fats and moderate to low amounts of proteins for lunch and dinner. During dinner you also need to consume a small amount of starch.

5

Lunch and dinner need to be consumed within a 6-hour time frame, so that you can achieve the best results of intermittent fasting. For example, if you consume lunch at 1 pm, consume your dinner no later than 7 pm.

6

On day 6 and day 13 of following the Bulletproof Diet plan, you need to follow “Bulletproof Protein Fasting.” This is when you up your carb consumption to about 5 to 6 oz. per day (up to 11 oz. of carbs can be consumed by women on these days) and lower your protein consumption to not more than 1 oz. of proteins per day.

2 – How to Bulletproof for Life

 

When you are in maintenance mode, it will do you good if you adhere to the main Bulletproof Diet principles as closely as you can. These principles include:

1

Begin your day with a cup of Bulletproof Coffee.

2

Stick to Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting on most days by consuming your lunch and dinner in a span of not more than 6 hours.

3

Once a week, follow Bulletproof Protein Fasting and consume no more than 1 oz. of proteins on that day.

4

Avoid consuming the “Kryptonite” foods as much as you can.

So, how is maintenance mode different from the losing weight mode?

Well, now you can consume a larger amount of the Suspect foods. Your consumption of the suspect foods solely depends upon your body’s reaction to the Suspect foods.

You need to slowly test the foods in small quantities, observe your body’s reaction and then consume foods accordingly. Once you have a fair idea of which foods you’re sensitive to and which foods do not have a negative effect on your body, you are free to eat whatever you want and make the choices for your body.

3 – How Can You Effectively Test Foods?

 

If you want to up your carb consumption, start adding some extra carbs to your evening meals. Add a few grams and test for a week.

Are your pants getting tighter? If yes, cut back. If not, go ahead and continue consuming those carbs.

You might even be able to consume some starch in the morning if your body tests positively and is resilient.

If you do not have an adverse reaction and you feel good, you can also start consuming something for breakfast apart from the Bulletproof Coffee. But, make sure, once in a while, you do Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting.

If you really crave it or really want to eat it, you can even eat some Kryptonite ingredients. But, you need to realize that after consuming the Kryptonite ingredients you may feel low for a day or two.

Small variations are completely okay and do not mean that you have failed in your endeavor of being healthy. What is more important is that you bounce back and rein in all your cravings so that you are giving in to them only on occasion and not a regular basis.

Sticking to the Bulletproof foods will ensure that your performance and your weight remain constant and in check and do not suffer. If you find yourself losing concentration or mental power or find yourself slowly gaining back the weight that you lost, go back to the initial 2-week plan to put you back on track!

The Bulletproof Diet is based on the principle of making you feel good about yourself. So, follow your instincts and observe your body’s patterns for best results!

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, this post has informed you as to if you want to follow the diet or not if you are not currently following it. If you are following it, then hopefully you have learned some things about the diet that you may not have known before and are able to follow it better now that you have the information at your fingertips.

The bulletproof diet is not going to be for everyone, and if you try it and find that it is not for you or you discover that it does not work with the health issues that you are currently facing, that is alright. You should not feel bad for the diet not working for you. In that case, you have discovered what does not work, and you are going to be able to move on to something that does work.

Be sure that you are allowing your medical provider to know that you are on the diet and any side effects that you experience that you may not be sure about. The sooner that you are able to catch any health issues that you are experiencing, the better it is going to be for you because you may be catching a serious health issue that you did not know about previously.

With the bulletproof diet, you are going to be able to see a change in your health just by changing up some of the things that you eat and the way that you eat. Do not eat a small meal just because you feel that it is the thing to do because you are on a diet, eat until you are full! If you are full after having a large meal, then eat it.  

A lot of the time you are going to discover that you can still enjoy your favorite meals, but you may need to get a little creative in substituting things such as gluten or sugar. So good luck on your new health journey!

Forrest