On July 9, 2012, I started eating in such a way as to be fueled by Nutritional Ketosis. If you are new here and do not know what that means, look at the links at the bottom of this post to read more about it in detail. The short version is this: I am eating very high fat, moderate protein and very low carb. For the first several weeks, I was testing my blood ketone levels with a hand held monitor. I have stopped doing this because the strips are very expensive and I know that I am in the "zone" that I want to be. Because I have not changed the way I am eating, and I continue to lose body fat, it is reasonable to assume that I am still in Nutritional Ketosis. If I start to gain body fat or change the way I am eating, I will do more testing.
In the past month, I have learned a few things. If you read the post before this one, you will remember that I had stopped tracking and had all but left nutritional ketosis and my blood sugar was getting higher than I wanted it to be. I said in that post that I was going to start tracking my food and blood again, but that didn't happen. I did start being more careful with what I was eating, and I returned to my morning oil cocktail and my midday coconut oil fat bombs. Evidently, all the MCT oil and the coconut oil helped my blood ketones, because the next time I tested them, on October 3rd, they had gone up from 0.6 to 1.6. Still not as high as I would like it to be, but going in the right direction. My blood sugar also started dropping, and went from 108 back down to 83, which is what I always shoot for.
One of the things that I noticed when my ketones were so low was that I started being hungry all the time again. When they were higher, I could go all day at work without experiencing any hunger and I always had plenty of energy. After about a week of better eating and lots of ketone-producing coconut and MCT oil, I realized that my hunger was gone again. I can eat a nice, fatty breakfast in the morning and a Fat Bomb in the mid-afternoon, and it keeps me satisfied and full of energy all day until dinner time.
In the past month, I have eaten just a couple of things that I should not have, like a piece of candy that was on the break table at work, and found that it immediately gave me cravings that were hard to ignore. I have decided (once again!) to stay away from things that I am not supposed to eat, even in very small quantities. One night, my sister came in from out of town and spent the night. We went shopping for snacks, ad we each bought what we wanted. She bought chocolate covered pretzels and I bought sour cream, an avocado and pork rinds. When the pretzels were opened, I decided to see what one tasted like. Obviously, it tasted good, and in the end, I ate a couple of handfuls of the evil things. It's almost like when carbs enter my system, I lose all common sense. The only way to not overdo it is to abstain altogether, so that I my new (once again!) vow.
I am hoping that watching what I am eating will result in my blood ketone levels getting back up to an average of around 2.2, like they used to be. As you will see from my chart below, my last three readings were 0.6, 1.6 and 1.2. Also, my weight has reached a new low and I suspect it will continue to go down.
Another thing that I learned was that I think I am finally done with the daily weighings and body measuring. Although I step on the scale occasionally during the week, I do not record what I weigh. On Sunday, I will do an official weigh-in and take my full body measurements. I eliminated the midriff measurement altogether because I am pretty much as small as I am going to get there - I can feel my ribs, and, unless my ribcage starts shrinking, that measurement is not going to change from here on out.
Also, I changed the format for my charts in that they now reflect only the weekly results instead of the daily ones, so the charts will now look a little less jagged-y and detailed.
In summary, in the past 3 months:
I lost 3/8" around my neck (a new low)
I lost 3/4" around my bicep (a new low)
I lost 3/4" around my bust (a new low)
I lost 2-3/8" around my waist (a new low)
I lost 1-1/2" around my navel
I lost 1-3/8" around my hips (a new low)
I lost 7/8" around my thigh (a new low)
I lost 3/8" around my calf
Total lost: 10-3/8"
I lost 10.6 pounds on the scale (lost 9.5 pounds of body fat and 1.1 pounds of lean mass).
I went down 4.1 percentage points on my body fat.
I went down 0.033 points on my waist-to-hip ratio.
I did not track my food this week. As much as I am working, it's really hard to track, but I think I did pretty good.
This is my daily goal:
1539 calories
135g fat (79%)
54g protein (14%)
27g carbs (7%)
Here is my "body goal":
136 pounds scale weight
40.8 pounds body fat (30%)
95.2 pounds lean mass (70%)
11.75" neck
28.5" waist
38.5" hips
0.740 waist-to-hip ratio
To get there, I need to lose 3.2 pounds of body fat, gain 2.4 pounds of lean mass and lose 1-3/8" around my waist and 3/8" around my hips.
