If you’ve spent any time in the fitness world over the last decade, you know Mark Bell doesn't do things halfway. The guy who brought us the Slingshot and spent years championing the "War on Carbs" suddenly started chugging orange juice and eating bowls of fruit. It’s wild. People are genuinely confused. One minute he's the poster child for the carnivore movement, and the next, he's basically saying sugar is the secret to getting ripped.
What is the Mark Bell Sugar Diet exactly?
Honestly, the name sounds like a middle-schooler's dream. But for Bell, it was a calculated experiment. He shifted from a high-fat, zero-carb lifestyle to something that looks like the polar opposite. The core of the protocol involves consuming massive amounts of carbohydrates—anywhere from 600 to 1,000 grams a day—primarily from "fast" sources.
Think fruit, fruit juice, honey, maple syrup, and even some candy or soda.
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The catch? You have to drop your fat intake to almost nothing. We’re talking under 30 grams a day. Protein also takes a backseat compared to traditional bodybuilding standards, usually capped around 100 to 150 grams. For a guy who weighs over 200 pounds and has spent his life in powerlifting, that is a shockingly low amount of protein.
He calls the specific high-sugar days "sugar fasts." He might do this for four full days a week, then rotate back to more traditional lean proteins like chicken breast or shrimp on the other days.
The logic behind the madness
Why would a world-class athlete do this? It sounds like a recipe for diabetes.
Bell’s argument is rooted in metabolic flexibility and insulin sensitivity. He claims that by keeping fats extremely low, the body becomes incredibly efficient at processing glucose. There’s a specific hormone called FGF21 (Fibroblast Growth Factor 21) that researchers are looking at in relation to this. Some studies suggest that low-protein, high-carb diets can actually spike energy expenditure.
Basically, your body starts burning through calories like a furnace because it's trying to maintain homeostasis despite the weird macro ratios.
The metabolic results: Does it actually work?
Mark Bell reported dropping weight while feeling more energetic than he ever did on keto. That's the part that catches everyone's attention. Usually, when people get down to 7% or 8% body fat, they feel like absolute garbage. They’re cold, they’re tired, and their brain is foggy.
Bell claimed the opposite. He felt "electric."
But we have to be real here. Mark is open about his use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs). Steroids change the way your body handles nutrients. A "regular" person sitting at a desk all day probably shouldn't expect to eat 800 grams of sugar and wake up with six-pack abs.
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What the blood work says
Interestingly, Bell shared his lab results after months on this plan. His fasting glucose stayed remarkably stable. His fasting insulin was actually lower than when he was doing high-fat diets. This suggests his body was indeed becoming "sensitive" to the sugar rather than resistant to it.
However, his liver enzymes (AST and ALT) showed some elevation. Now, in a powerlifter, that can just be from training hard or supplement use, but it’s a red flag for anyone worried about Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD). Fructose, which makes up a huge chunk of the sugar diet through fruit and juice, is processed almost entirely in the liver.
If you overload that system without a way to burn the energy, you're asking for trouble.
Why people are terrified of this diet
The backlash was immediate. "Sugar is poison" has been the mantra of the health world for twenty years. Seeing a fitness icon tell people to drink Gatorade and honey feels like heresy to the low-carb crowd.
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Critics point out that sugar doesn't have the "brakes" that fat and fiber do. It’s very easy to overeat. On keto, you get full on steak. On the sugar diet, you can drink 500 calories of orange juice in ten seconds and still be hungry.
There's also the dental aspect. Constant exposure to simple sugars is a nightmare for tooth enamel. Mark’s dentist probably has a few choice words for this protocol.
Is it just a calorie deficit in disguise?
At the end of the day, physics still wins. If Bell is losing weight, he is in a calorie deficit. By cutting fat to 30 grams, he's removing the most calorie-dense macronutrient. A gram of fat has 9 calories, while sugar only has 4.
If you remove all the butter, ribeyes, and bacon, you have to eat a lot of fruit to make up those calories. For some people, this "high volume" of food makes a deficit feel easier to manage.
Actionable insights for the curious
Don't just go buy a bag of white sugar and call it a diet. That’s a one-way ticket to a crash. If you're looking at what Mark Bell did and wondering if there's anything you can actually use, here is the realistic breakdown:
- Test your sensitivity. If you've been doing keto for years and feel stalled, your body might actually benefit from a "refeed" or a higher carb day to jumpstart your metabolism.
- Prioritize whole sources. Bell uses juice for convenience, but for most people, whole fruit is better because the fiber slows down the insulin spike.
- Keep fat low if carbs are high. The "Randle Cycle" is a real biochemical process. Your body struggles to process high fat and high sugar at the exact same time. Pick a lane for the day.
- Watch your protein. 100g might work for Bell’s specific experiment, but most people still need closer to 0.8g to 1g per pound of body weight to keep their muscle.
- Monitor your blood. If you try something extreme, get a metabolic panel. Don't guess with your health.
The Mark Bell sugar diet is less of a "standard" way to eat and more of a metabolic protest. It proves that there isn't just one way to be healthy or lean. But it also requires a level of activity and muscularity that most people simply don't have. It's a tool for the toolbox, not a religion.
For those wanting to experiment, start by replacing one high-fat meal with a high-carb, low-fat alternative and see how your energy levels react over the next few hours. Pay attention to the "crash"—if you feel like you need a nap thirty minutes after eating, your body isn't ready for 800 grams of sugar yet.