Most men assume getting leaner requires eating less.

Less food. More restraint. More tracking. More effort.

That assumption drives a lot of frustration—and a lot of stalled progress.

What if the real issue isn’t how much you’re eating, but what you’re eating?

This week’s briefing explores a different starting point. One that doesn’t begin with restriction or control, but with food quality. When the inputs change, the rules change with them.

You’ll see why simplifying food—down to what actually counts as food—can make it possible to eat to satisfaction while still moving toward lower body fat and better muscle support.

It’s a simple experiment. Run it and see what happens.

SIFT is a framework, not a diet.
It’s a way to simplify nutrition by changing the inputs and observing the outcome.

The rule is simple:
Eat foods that contain one ingredient.

Beef. Eggs. Fish. Poultry. Fruit. Vegetables. Dairy. Foods that existed before labels were required.

Within that constraint, food quality matters. Preferred inputs are:

Meals are built with protein at the center, with carbs and fats chosen intentionally from high-quality, single-ingredient sources. Nothing is added for convenience. Nothing is eaten by default.

Meals are eaten three times per day, built around protein, without grazing or snacking in between.

SIFT works because it changes the environment.

Single-ingredient foods are harder to overconsume. Protein intake stays high. Meals slow down. Satiety becomes easier to access. Portions regulate without constant oversight.

The framework doesn’t deny calories or macros. It simply changes the starting point. Quality comes first. Quantity becomes easier to manage.

Most nutrition approaches start by asking, “How much should I eat?”
SIFT starts by asking, “What am I actually eating?”

You can’t out-exercise a bad diet.

That line has endured because it reflects reality. You can train hard, lift heavy, and stay consistent—but if your nutrition is off, body composition, energy, and metabolic health eventually follow food, not effort.

Nutrition sets the ceiling.

This isn’t an argument against training. It’s an acknowledgment of leverage. Food determines what your body is built from, how it recovers, and whether progress compounds or stalls over time.

That’s why nutrition has always been foundational inside Argent Alpha.

The real challenge isn’t knowing nutrition matters. The challenge is knowing how simple it can be when food quality is addressed first.

A hundred years ago, most food people ate looked like food.

Meat, eggs, dairy, vegetables, fruit. Ingredients were familiar. Preparation happened close to the source. Food was limited by season, geography, and shelf life.

Today, the environment is very different.

Modern grocery stores are dominated by packaged products engineered for convenience and longevity. Many come with long ingredient lists—preservatives, flavorings, colorings, stabilizers, and sweeteners—added to make food last longer and taste the same every time.

Over the same period, obesity and metabolic disease have risen steadily. The correlation is difficult to ignore. The food supply changed, and health outcomes followed.

This is the context you’re operating in every day.

Three years ago, I wanted a way to eat that would shed fat, support muscle, and improve health without living on a scale.

I wasn’t interested in rigid plans or tracking everything. I wanted to know how much control was actually required if the inputs were clean.

That led to SIFT — the Single Ingredient Food Trial.

SIFT is both an experiment and a framework.

For a defined period of time, you eat foods that contain one ingredient. That’s the constraint. No calorie tracking. No elaborate rules.

Meals are built with protein at the center, with carbs and fats chosen intentionally from high-quality, single-ingredient sources to support satiety, energy, and your macro targets.

Then you observe.

When you eat this way, something important changes. You can eat to satisfaction—often eating more food by volume—and still move toward lower body fat and better muscle support.

Not because calories stop mattering, but because food quality changes the conditions. Single-ingredient foods are harder to overconsume, protein intake stays high, and meals naturally regulate without constant control.

Eating “as much as you want” works here because the inputs make excess difficult, not because discipline suddenly improves.

SIFT creates awareness quickly.

You start reading labels without trying. You notice how many foods in your normal rotation contain seed oils, sweeteners, fillers, and additives. Ingredients you wouldn’t cook with and don’t need.

As ingredient lists get shorter, decisions get clearer.

Meals tend to self-limit because it’s genuinely difficult to overeat single-ingredient foods. Portions become easier to judge. Protein becomes easier to hit. Eating feels straightforward instead of negotiated.

That clarity is the point.

For most men, SIFT isn’t a permanent way of eating. What lasts is the judgment it builds—better purchasing decisions, simpler meals, and higher standards that carry forward long after the trial ends.

Peter Attia describes nutrition as having three levers: quality, quantity, and timing.

You should always be pulling at least one. Often two. Occasionally all three.

SIFT deliberately pulls the quality lever.

When food quality improves, quantity often becomes easier to manage without constant regulation. Timing can be layered in later based on goals, training demands, or schedule.

This is how nutrition stays practical. You don’t need maximum control. You need the right lever at the right time.

Any quality-first approach still needs an anchor. That anchor is protein.

Dr. Gabrielle Lyon has been clear about the role of muscle in long-term health and resilience. As we age, the body becomes less efficient at using protein to stimulate muscle protein synthesis—a phenomenon often described as anabolic resistance. That means older adults generally need a higher protein intake to maintain muscle.

Muscle doesn’t take care of itself. It has to be supported.

SIFT works because protein stays central while carbs and fats are added intentionally, not accidentally. That structure supports fat loss, muscle retention, and training performance without overcomplication.

John Berardi has spent decades translating nutrition science into approaches that work in real life. One of the things he’s done well is provide structure without turning eating into a second job.

Tools like his free macro calculator give you clear guardrails—enough structure to guide decisions, without demanding constant tracking. This is the tool we recommend in Argent Alpha.
It’s free: 👉 https://www.precisionnutrition.com/nutrition-calculator

SIFT pairs well with that approach. Quality first. Awareness always. Precision only when needed.

SIFT doesn’t stop at the grocery store.

It changes how you order from a menu.

You stop treating the menu as fixed. You tell the server what you want and how you want it. Most restaurants will accommodate your requests. You choose the protein. You ask how it’s prepared. You simplify the sides. You remove what doesn’t serve the goal.

Fewer ingredients. Clearer choices. Better outcomes.

This is the outcome when food quality is fixed. When food is simple, protein is central, and ingredients are clean, fullness stops working against you.

You’re able to eat until satisfied—sometimes generously—while body fat comes down and muscle is supported. The outcome isn’t driven by restraint. It’s driven by structure.

Change the food, and the rules change with it.

Recent changes in the food pyramid and public nutrition guidance reflect a growing recognition that highly processed foods have dominated the diet—and that simpler, higher-quality foods are essential for health.

The rise in obesity and metabolic disease makes it clear the government’s previous approach to nutrition hasn’t worked.

Inside Argent Alpha, we didn’t wait for that realization. We focused on food quality, protein, and simplicity from day one because it produces results.

Run SIFT as an experiment. Keep the awareness. Carry the standards forward.

That’s how nutrition stops being complicated—and starts working.

Run SIFT for one day.

At the end of the day, take note of what stood out. If you like how it went, run it again tomorrow.

When men run this for a day, a few things tend to stand out.

The first is how many foods they assumed were “normal” don’t qualify (see my cream example above). Sauces. Dressings. Snacks. Convenience items. Even foods marketed as healthy often come with long ingredient lists once you stop and read them.

The second is how often food decisions disappear. With fewer choices available, meals become simpler. Protein is obvious. Portions don’t require debate. You eat, you’re satisfied, and the meal is over.

Many men are surprised by how satisfying meals are when the ingredients are clean. Eating until satisfied doesn’t lead to the heaviness they expected. There’s less urge to keep reaching for more food afterward.

The third realization usually comes later in the day. You start seeing how much of the food environment is built around combinations—ingredients stacked on top of ingredients—rather than actual food. That awareness tends to carry forward. Grocery carts change. Menu choices change. Standards rise quietly.

Even one day is enough to recalibrate how you look at food.

That’s what makes the trial useful.

John Berardi — Mastering Nutrition
A long-form conversation with Berardi (Precision Nutrition) on nutrition principles and implementation. Pair it with his free macro calculator as your “guardrails” tool.

Peter Attia — The 3 levers framework
Attia’s own write-up of his nutrition framework and the “always pull one lever, often two, sometimes three” concept.

Dr. Gabrielle Lyon — Anabolic resistance and protein efficiency (why older lifters need more protein)
A Lyon episode featuring Dr. Nick Burd focused on anabolic resistance and how muscle responsiveness to protein/exercise changes with age and obesity.

Some men find it useful to see a concrete example.

Below is a simple one-day layout built from the same rules you just read. Three meals. Single-ingredient foods. Protein at the center. Eat until satisfied.

Food choices, portions, and totals will naturally vary based on body size, training demands, and appetite. The purpose here is to show how this approach plays out in a normal day.

When food quality is the constraint, meals stay straightforward. Protein intake stays high. Ingredients stay clean. Energy intake settles into a workable range without tracking.

This is the framework applied—on a plate.

If you’re a man over 50 and this way of thinking about food resonates, I want to personally invite you into the Argent Alpha community.

There’s a free community that gives you a look inside how we approach health, strength, and longevity in the second half of life. You’ll get a chance to engage with the community, go through a short kickstart experience, and see the standards men are holding themselves to—and the results they’re producing.

It’s a way to get familiar with how we think, how we train, and how we operate.

If you decide you want deeper structure, tools, accountability, and the full Argent Alpha process, you’ll have the option to upgrade and experience the complete ecosystem. That decision is yours.

This community is built specifically for men over 50. If that’s you, you’ll be in the right place.

Start here:
👉 https://www.skool.com/argent-alpha/about