Yep! You hit the nail on the head. In my home, I only eat meat, vegetables, fruit, and nuts. When I’m having a social dinner outside the home, I eat whatever. Bread, alcohol, ice cream. I don’t actually consider any of this real food. More like a “hunger satiating drug.” But I do think the social/feast aspect is equally important to being a good human.

If I want to gain muscle, I add rice, potatoes, and/or raw milk. If I want to lose body fat, I set my calories 100-200 below maintenance. I don’t like thinking about calories/macros too much, but it’s too powerful a tool to ignore.

The strange thing about those earlier experiences is that they didn’t increase my empathy for fat people or extreme vegans. The exact opposite, in fact. Both experiences were utterly miserable and I can’t understand them anymore. Like speaking a foreign language. It’s frustrating, and something I need to reconcile.