Sunday, August 19, 2012

NUTRITIONAL KETOSIS - WEEK 6 RESULTS

As Robert Burns once said, "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley."  In other words, we can plan and plan and do everything right, but it sometimes does not work out, despite our best efforts.  After doing very well for five weeks, my progress hit a wall and bounced off in the opposite direction.  This happened, seemingly, because of one meal at which I ate too much protein and too many carbs, including some fresh strawberries, as part of a birthday celebration for my husband.  Now, the results were not devastating, but still.  Come on!  If the only way to maintain weight loss is to eat PERFECTLY at every single meal for the rest of my life, it's pretty discouraging. 

On the other hand, I did lose 5/8" around my navel in the past week, and that is substantial to me, visceral fat-wise.

I'm now looking back to see if there is anything else I have changed since I started, to see if there could be some other reason why I am gaining again other that one day of overeating.  For the first week or so, I ate really, really high fat, and although it worked at first, it stopped working, and decreasing my fat by 50g per day got me losing again.  The only other thing I can think of that I have changed is that I am not eating coconut oil the way I was when I first started this.  As a matter of fact, I have not made my coconut candy in over a week, and I have been getting in the habit of cooking my eggs with butter about half the time instead of coconut oil.  Also, I have been skipping my MCT oil cocktail on some of the mornings lately, in favor of having a little bit more fat with my meals.

Just in case this lack of coconut/MCT oil may have something to do with my weight gain, I am going back to making sure that I have it on a daily basis.  Today, I will make some coconut oil candy and start having a piece or two every day and I will make sure not to skip my oil cocktail in the mornings.

It's been six weeks since I started my experiment with nutritional ketosis.  I am eating higher fat, lower protein and very low carb.  Here are some of my charts:


In summary, in the past 6 weeks:
I lost 1-1/8" around my midriff, 2-1/8" around my waist, 1-5/8" around my navel and 1" around my hips.
I lost 4.8 pounds on the scale (lost 6.5 pounds of body fat and gained 1.7 pounds of lean mass).
I went down 3.3 percentage points on my body fat.
I went down 0.033 points on my waist-to-hip ratio.

Although I ate pretty much the same way for the whole week, I only tracked my food for five days, and, on one day (the overeating day), I estimated my food.  If you want to know exactly what I am eating, look here, and then you can click the page numbers at the bottom to see each individual day.

Here are the averages of what I ate this past week:

1543 calories
133.2g fat (77.7%)
57.4g protein (14.9%)
28.7g carbs (7.4%)

This was my goal, and I was not too far off:

1539 calories
135g fat (79%)
54g protein (14%)
27g carbs (7%)

One setback is not enough to discourage me that much, so I will continue to eat this way for the next week.

I tested my blood ketones one time this past week because the strips are so expensive, and I can see that eating this way is keeping me in nutritional ketosis.  In order to stay there, my level should stay between 1.0 and 3.0.  My average of all the times I have tested is 2.2.  Here are my results since I started testing:


 Because I can see that the way I am eating is keeping my blood sugar stable, I am not testing it every day.  I did test two times this past week.  My average of all the times I have tested is 85, which includes after meals.  Here are my results since I started testing, and these numbers are excellent:


I am continuing my experiment.  I am in nutritional ketosis, and my blood sugar is normal.  I am not hungry during the day, and I think I have hit on a good amount of fat to be eating.


8 comments:

  1. Thank you so much, Rebecca, for posting all this data. I'm very encouraged by your results and glad to have you as a model to follow. You really are a determined woman!

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    1. I'm glad I can help, Dianna! How is it going for you?

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  2. I'm just starting to track my food, I've always resisted that. I have just been counting protein grams in my head! But I see the successful people all seem to track, so I'm ready to jump in.

    One question, do you have any tips for accurate measuring, especially of the torso? Some of us are challenged even in that!

    Thanks again!

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    1. I hate tracking, too, but when I don't do it, I gain weight, so there it is...

      I use a plastic dressmakers tape measure. I measure my bust while wearing a sports bra, so that the girls will always be in the same spot. I measure my waist at my natural waist. I measure my midriff at the midpoint between my waist and the bottom of my bust. I measure my navel at my navel. I measure my hips at the juncture of my hip and the top of my thigh.

      Look in the mirror and try to keep the tape measure level. Keep the tape snug, but not tight. If you see skin blubbing out over the top and bottom of the tape, it's too tight.

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  3. I have not tracked as faithfully as you have done, but I did track food for a few days at the start and now just monitor my protein servings as my carbs were already low (15-20 per day) and I am adding fat in wherever I can.
    Last week I saw the lowest scale weight (by 2 lbs) since I started crossfit in April. Because of my premenopausal wild hormone swings and my Hashimoto's thyroiditis I have not been able to move the scale in over 2 years so I think this is significant.
    I also cut out all nightshades a couple of weeks ago and this may have something to do with the scale starting to move down.
    As always, thank you for sharing all of the details of your experiment. I think that you can’t rule out unpredictable hormones as the cause of your hiccup this week.
    When I started crossfit in April my hormones went haywire for a bit. I had not menstruated for 2 or 3 months and suddenly they were coming every 3 weeks for a few months, and now I am back to not knowing if I will ever menstruate again. So much fun!

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    1. Well, you are certainly on a little roller coaster, aren't you!

      I'm glad you're losing again! That's great! Keep me posted, okay?

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  4. Curious to know what happens when you add coconut oil back...

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    1. Well, I started eating coconut oil every morning with my eggs. I went back to my MCT oil cocktail. I have not made any fat bombs yet. I am losing weight again, but correlation does not prove causation. :0)

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