Speaking of fitness magazine content, one question I get pinged about a bunch by editors is: what’s the best way to eat for fitness results?

Obviously, that’s a deep rabbit hole, filled with layer upon layer of nutrition science, and wildly extensive protocols designed to juice the last percentage points of performance or appearance by elite competitors.

For most people, however, the answer is simple: PB6, or Paleo Before Six (O’clock). Standing on the shoulders of countless experts much smarter on nutrition than me, this approach synthesizes a whole lot of best practices into a single, easy to implement yet highly effective approach.

Here’s what you do:

1. Skip breakfast. Have some coffee instead. (If you’re really feeling saucy, you can put butter and/or coconut oil into your coffee.)
2. Eat strict, low-carb Paleo for lunch and any before–6:00pm snacks. That means meat, seafood, green vegetables, seeds and nuts. If you can tolerate it well, full-fat dairy is good, too.
3. 3–5 times a week, do a CrossFit workout late afternoon / early evening. Go hard.
4. If it kicked your ass (i.e., you have the post-WOD shakes), drink some chocolate milk immediately after.
5. Stuff your face with whatever you want for the balance of the evening.
6. On the days that you didn’t do a WOD, keep eating low-carb Paleo for the rest of the night.

That’s it.

(And, yes, this is similar to aspects of Leangains, the Warrior Diet, the Renegade Diet, Carb Backloading, the Paleo Diet, eating Primal, etc., etc.)

Do this for a couple of months, and you’ll gain muscle and lose fat without hating your life. It’s not rocket science, but it works.