I buy a big piece of rib eye from Sams Club for $9.98 a lb. Saw in Wegman’s Rib Eye at $12.50 and if you buy 4 fresh cut and trimmed (cut to your thickness) it is $10.69 a pound.
I just sliced, trimmed and vacuum-sealed about 15 libs. Took the trimmings and weighed them. Final cost from Sam’s Club $12.68 / lb. We can eat fresh steaks from Wegman’s cheaper. And if we buy 4 steaks we can save ~$2/lb.
I bought a grass fed eye fillet steak, 300g, at $36/kg from the butcher today. That is $AUS. I am unable to help with your maths. But I am eating steak for dinner as well.
I’m still looking to lose weight. So think protein sparing diet. Less fat consumed == more body fat burned.
Hi Eric, still looking to lose as well and have hit a little stall (I think - I don’t weigh but my clothes aren’t betting looser). So you are cutting back on your protein and fat? I seem to be getting a lot of both with my current plan. Are you eating more greens/veggies (under 20)? Can you tell me a typical day of eating?
Eric, that’s impressive. Wegman’s is stepping up…
I don’t know if it would be worth it to you, but there’s a Restaurant Depot in Richmond. They’re good for sub-primal cuts, i.e. I’m looking at average wieght of 17 lbs. for boneless beef ribeye. If one is willing to cut and freeze, it’s hard to beat the price.
Thanks Doug. I will have to look into it. Are you in RVA?
Protein sparing name is misunderstood. It is low carb (keto) and you prioritize eating protein over fat. Let your body burn its own fat. I’ll give a typical day later when not at work.
Atlanta, GA, Eric, but am rarely home - work out of West Virginia - going all over the U.S. To Arizona next week. Looking forward to retirement in a few years and being able to butcher and freeze.
I love Restaurant Depot; often they will give non-members a day pass to look around or buy that day. For beef they have cuts I don’t usually think of like “beef knuckle” - comes from between the top round and bottom round portions. Takes a little work - cutting out the connective tissue, removing the ‘silver skin’ if any, but last time I did it we got 10 little steaks that were almost filet-mignon like (it’s a lean cut to begin with) and a good bit of meat for soups or stir-frying. $3.29 per lb.
I haven’t tried the ribeye below, looks too good to be true.
You know, I’m a big believer in more protein, but even I’m unsure whether eating less fat actually means you burn more fat from your body. For instance, on the Keto Hacking MD podcast, Jimmy Moore and Dr. John Limansky tried a PSMF (protein sparing modified fast), which is where you eat relatively high protein but lower calories. This is one idea espoused by Ted Naiman. They HATED it. Jimmy Moore actually got hypoglycemia (they think because something is wrong with his glucagon system). They then interviewed a bunch of people, even bodybuilders, and there were some who liked it, but most did not.
The idea seems simple: if you eat less fat, you burn your own fat (as it’s very hard to convert protein to energy). And I eat quite a bit of protein at times, but even I wonder how this actually transfers into burning my own fat. Assuming there’s a limit to how much energy you can derive from your own fat, what happens if you don’t get that? Maybe even though you’re eating, you’re actually “starving” if you eat too much protein and not enough fat?
It’s unclear to me where that level of protein:fat is, which is the perfect amount to maximize fat loss while minimizing any deleterious effect. You just have to try it out and see what happens.
Bob, that certainly makes sense to me. If we’re maxxed on energy from our own fat, and the body still perceives a shortfall when what we eat is added in, then the question is how does it react to what may be a “caloric restriction.”
My opinion - we should not project from Jimmy Moore’s experience. 
No, Jimmy Moore is an outlier. I’ve eaten quite a bit of protein in single meals, and I get no blood sugar change, either up or down. This means my glucagon response is good.
I just wonder, as I’ve been getting cold while fasting again. So, I went to a Polish deli and got basically bacon sliced deli meat. It’s not as fatty as normal bacon, but is still quite fatty. I had that for a “snack”, which I rarely have (usually eat two meals a day on the days I eat), and I was suddenly warm. Hmm…maybe I’m not getting enough fat?
Note that I take a beta blocker (carvedilol), twice a day. Some say that beta blockers inhibit lipolysis, so that may be an effect, too.
Definitely heard this before Bob, If you ate a pure protein gut stuffing diet without fat or carbs you will die from malnutrition and starvation. Feeling lousy is a great indicator of not enough fat for energy. The ratio is important in my opinion. I eat high protein but almost always get in a higher amount of fat. Otherwise I can get sluggish because I don’t have a lot of body fat to draw from now. I got away with the fat cutting when I was fat. So it’s a changing thing if you’re losing weight. I had horrible side effects from carvedilol, Beta blockers are bad news. 
Yes, beta blockers are bad news, I agree. Unfortunately, I have heart failure (idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy), and my cardiologist won’t let me off them. Been taking them for 6+ years. Would love to get off them, but can’t see a way around it for now.
Thanks OldDoug for the heads up on the Restaurant Depot. I see there is one just down the road in Sarasota and I’m not sure how I missed it? I’m back in Florida in a month and will check it out for sure. Lamb $4.09 Lb, chicken legs .39 Lb, Swiss cheese $2.19 Lb, 16-20 shrimp $5.59 Lb. Bone in butt $1.09 Lb case lot.
I have tried the meat from GFS and wouldn’t recommend it whatsoever even though they have great deals.
How fast did you start feeling warm? There’s definitely the “thermic effect of protein” - I’ve felt it myself. As much as 35% of the energy in the protein is consumed in the digestion of it, no small thing. But I’d think it would take a good while, until digestion is well underway.
I’m wondering if your body didn’t sense the increased fat and/or protein and decided to ramp things up (as simple as that)…? There is so much we don’t know. I’d love to see studies on actual skin temperature versus the individual’s feelings and differing blood flow and tissure temperature when fasting versus eating.
The thermic effect of food is defined as the rise in metabolic rate after a meal. Whenever we eat food, the next six hours see an increase in metabolic rate, which then slowly declines toward the resting rate. The shape and magnitude of the curve are influenced by such factors as our body composition, the frequency of our meals, the composition and size of our meals, and so forth, but there is no apparent long-term effect of any eating pattern; i.e., the curve changes to match the new parameters as they change.
The thermic effect of food is different from the energy cost of metabolism. The latter is determined by the amount of energy required to turn a given amount of nutrient into ATP. Fatty acids, for example, yield the most ATP per gram, and the energy cost per molecule produced is low. Glucose yields a slightly lesser amount of ATP at a comparable energy cost. A gram of amino acid requires far more energy to produce its yield of ATP, because each molecule needs to be deaminated first (i.e., the nitrogen is removed in the form of ammonia). Protein is also at a disadvantage, if I have my facts straight, because a gram of amino acid yields less ATP.
On the whole, this arrangement suits the body well. Protein (i.e., amino acids), being needed for structural purposes, is not usually metabolised, though it is available at need. But the higher energy threshold of the reactions involved prevents it from being used unless badly needed. The reactions that break glucose/fatty acid + O2 into H2O + CO2 have a much lower energy threshold, so they are the pathways more frequently followed.
My understanding is that the energy cost of the enzymatic reactions that cleave dietary protein into amino acids, dietary carbohydrate into glucose, and triglycerides into fatty acids + glycerol is not figured into the metabolic-cost calculations. I suspect that these reactions do play a modest role, however, in the thermic effect of food.
ETA: I am working mostly from memory here, having lost most of my links. Corrections to the above will be gratefully accepted.
I love fatty meats, my DH, not so much. I like rib eyes because of the marbling. . I trim a lot of the outside fat off since it is often oxidized a bit, the inner portion of it I always leave some on, so it can get crispy and it is so yummy with that outer stuff removed. You can see the difference in the fat just by looking. And it is fun to grab the crispy bits of that fat that my husband trims off when he eats his steak.
Paul, I think it’s the same thing - Google says “The thermic effect of food is the energy required for digestion, absorption, and disposal of ingested nutrients. Its magnitude depends on the composition of the food consumed: Carbohydrates: 5 to 15% of the energy consumed. Protein : 20 to 35%.”
Definitely agree that the metabolic rate rises - that is part and parcel of the increased energy usage.
