Sunday, September 15, 2013

NUTRITIONAL KETOSIS - MONTH 14 RESULTS

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, click here to read more about it in detail.  The short version is this:  I am eating very high fat, moderate protein and very low carb.

The large blank in my charts between November 2012 and May 2013 was from when I was not weighing and measuring, and you can see that I had significant gains during that time.

The darker lines are my actual numbers, taken each Sunday morning before eating and the lighter lines are the average of the prior eight weeks, so I can see the trend without all the bouncing around.



With the initial losses and the subsequent gains, since starting Nutritional Ketosis in July 2012, I have:

Lost 9.2 pounds on the scale
Lost 7.3 pounds of body fat
Lost 1.9 pounds of lean body mass

Lost 3/8" around my neck
Lost 1" around my bust
Lost 1-5/8" around my waist
Lost 1-1/2" around my belly
Lost 1-1/8" around my hips
Lost 7/8" around each of my thighs
Lost 3/8" around each of my calves

Lost 2.8 percentage points off my body fat
Gained 2.8 percentage points into my lean body mass

These charts show the average of the macro nutrient breakdown for the days that I tracked in this past month. (Click on any chart to enlarge it.)

 


I'm still doing a little bit of blood testing for ketones and glucose.  Here are those charts:



Here is my "body goal":

136 pounds scale weight
40.9 pounds body fat (30%)
95.1 pounds lean mass (70%)
11-3/4" neck
28-3/8" waist
38-1/2" hips

To get there, I need to lose 5.6 pounds of body fat, gain 3.4 pounds of lean mass, lose 2-1/4" around my waist and 5/8" around my hips.

Starting on August 11, 2013, I started Doing Alternate Day Intermittent Fasting.  To read more about that, click here.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

STRAWBERRY COCONUT MILK ICE CREAM

I have used this recipe for Strawberry Ice Cream that is made with coconut milk and it is great!

It's an easy and yummy dessert to make when my little lactose-intolerant grandson and my big lactose-intolerant son come to visit.

I've made ice cream with whole cream before, but this recipe has more of the mouth-feel of regular ice cream, so I like it better.

Check out Living Low Carb One Day at a Time for more wonderful recipes.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

LEAVING ZERO CARB / THOUGHTS ON ALTERNATE DAY INTERMITTENT FASTING


GOODBYE TO ZERO CARB

I have been eating virtually zero carb for over six weeks now.  My blood sugar has normalized and I am firmly ketogenic, according to my blood tests, so I have decided to start very slowly adding back in some carbs from vegetables and other non-meat sources.  Why?  Because I miss vegetables and I want to eat them if I can without raising my blood sugar.  If eating a very small amount of vegetables still raises my blood sugar, I will have to back off again.  During this six weeks, I have come to realize that I am a "volume eater" and when you eat only meat and fat, you don't get to eat very much in the way of bulk.  I would like, if I can tolerate it, to eat a side of vegetables or a salad from time to time.  I am not going back to vegetables because I think I "need" fiber.  I don't think I need fiber, but I also don't think that the amount of fiber I will get in a small amount of vegetables is going to harm me in any way.

I know that this opinion is wrong, according to the Zero Carb Community, so sorry if I have offended anyone.  I still believe that a person can get all the nutrients they need from just meat and fat.  I just want to eat some veggies here and there, even though I know I don't "need" them, nutritionally speaking.  If there are people out there who eat just animal products and they are content with that and feel fulfilled eating that way, more power to them!  I have given it a good six weeks, and I don't think I will ever feel content eating this way.  I want to eat a fresh tomato.  I want to eat sauteed cabbage and onions in bacon grease.  And you can't stop me.

Some might say, "Yeah, well, I want to eat cake and ice cream, but I don't, because I know it is not healthy, and neither are vegetables!"  I agree with the first part, about eating sugar and grains, and legumes, for that matter, but I am not convinced that vegetables are unhealthy, if prepared the correct way.  For instance, after all I have learned during this past six weeks, I will not eat raw kale or broccoli again.  Cooked, yes.  Raw, no. 

Today I ate some pumpkin and I am having the much-yearned-for sauteed cabbage and onions for dinner tonight, and I feel happier already!

CHANGING UP THE ALTERNATE DAY INTERMITTENT FASTING

I also have been doing Alternate Day Intermittent Fasting (ADIF) for over three weeks, and I am going to keep that up.  I have not been enjoying it very much, although the body fat loss has been steady.  Here are my concerns:

1.  I am still ravenously hungry on the days that I fast (eating only 300 calories, so not a total fast), and I feel miserable about it. I don't know if I am going to be able to sustain this way of eating if it means that I have to starve every other day.

2.  On the days that I eat normally, I am trying not to track my food and just eat to satiety, but the more I try to do that, the more I am losing control and overeating. I have found that the only way I don't overeat is if I track every bite of food that enters my mouth. Day before yesterday, while not tracking, I found that I was thinking about food constantly and eating all the time. All I can think of is that I won't be able to eat the next day, so I am snacking all the time.

3.  It's not that I'm not losing weight, because I am, but I don't know if it is worth the deprivation that I am experiencing.

4.  Before starting ADIF, I was doing plain old Nutritional Ketosis and very carefully tracking everything I ate, but eating around the same amount of food each day, which was usually around 1500 calories. I was losing weight doing that, too, and one of the reasons I wanted to do ADIF was because all the tracking was driving me crazy. As it turns out, I still have to track doing ADIF, or else I obsess about food all day and overeat.  The other reason why I wanted to do it was because eating a "normal" amount of food every day meant that I never got to eat what I felt like was enough to satisfy me.  Getting to eat more every other day makes it worth it having to eat less on the alternate day.

5.  The more I am doing ADIF, the more unnatural it is feeling. It just does not feel right to only really eat every other day. I guess some people have success eating that way and do not feel deprived and they feel it is very natural.  Not me.

6.  Some might say that if I am losing weight, what is the problem with eating all I want to on my non-fasting days. The thing is, though, that if I eat all I want, my blood sugar goes up, and that is what I am trying to avoid.  Besides, I don't like feeling out of control and eating obsessively.

7.  It is tough to basically not eat every other day when I am not the only person living in my house. My husband has been very patient, but I can tell that it is starting to wear on him that he is on his own for meals every other day.

As I go along with this way of eating, I think every day that I can't keep this up and I want to quit.  On the days that I eat a normal amount, I feel like I am eating too much and on the days that I fast, I want to eat more.

I put these questions to my fellow ADIF-ers at the Low Carb Friends forum, and I got a lot of good advice.

I have decided to keep on keeping on, but I am going to eat more on my fasting days and track my food on my non-fasting days, instead of trying to eat freely.  Here is my new plan, which will keep me in the ketogenic realm, and should help with my hunger on fasting days and with my overeating on non-fasting days:

Non-Fasting Day:
1850 calories
144.4g fat (70.2%)
105.6g protein (22.8%)
32g carbs (6.9%)   

Fasting Day:
463 calories
36.1g fat (70.2%)
26.4g protein (22.8%)
8g carbs (6.9%)

Averaging the two days together:
1156 calories
90.3g fat (70.2%)
66g protein (22.8%)
20g carbs (6.9%)

Of course, these are the exact numbers that my spreadsheet gives me, and I would not be obsessive about hitting those exact numbers on each day, but I would attempt to get close to them.

I would think that an average of 1156 calories per day of high fat, moderate protein, very low carb food would allow my body to access its fat stores.

Doing this, I am going to be trying to increase my carbs just a little bit and start eating some lower carb veggies and see if my blood sugar can handle it.  Also, I am counting total carbs, not net carbs, so even if I am getting 32 total carbs on my non-fasting day, it is really only a fraction of that number that will impact blood sugar.

So, anyway, that is my plan, and we'll see how it goes.  Thanks for reading!

Sunday, September 1, 2013

ZERO CARB - WEEK 6 RESULTS


Just eat meat.  

That is what I have been doing for six weeks now.  Well, mostly meat, anyway.  As you will see from my food logs below, I strayed away from zero carb on two days this past week, and I was not happy with the results, so I am getting back on track this coming week.

I continued Alternate Day Fasting (ADF) this past week. 

Below are my food logs for the past week.  Click on any chart to enlarge it.


 

This was my average macronutrient intake during Week 6:



THE ILL-FATED POTATO HACK EXPERIMENT

Last Sunday, I decided to try the Potato Hack.  There are a lot of people on the Low Carb Friends Forum that are eating nothing but potatoes on their down days, and some are eating nothing but potatoes for several days in a row and are finding that they are losing a great deal of weight.

No one who is doing this seems to be checking their blood sugar (or is even concerned that eating nothing but high starch potatoes could be raising their blood sugar), and the few that did check found it was not an issue.  I was really concerned about that, so I decided to eat the potatoes on Sunday morning and then check my blood sugar every half of an hour until it returned to normal.  Here is what happened:

Not only did it soar into diabetic range, but it stayed high and even started going back up, even though I had not eaten anything else.  I went back to my normal down day for lunch and dinner, and even the next morning, my blood glucose had not returned to normal.  I shudder to think what would have happened to my blood sugar if I had continued the experiment for the rest of the day!  Needless to say, I am abandoning this experiment.


BLOOD GLUCOSE AND KETONES

Because I am eating the way I am every day, I am not checking blood glucose or ketones on a daily basis.  This morning, I did both tests before eating breakfast.  My blood glucose was 93 and my blood ketones were 1.0.  My average blood ketones are 1.9, so I am down a little bit, but still in ketogenic range.



MY EXCESS BODY FAT 

My main concern is that I regulate my blood sugar, but I still have too much body fat and I'm hoping this way of eating will help me in that regard.

Because I started IF three weeks ago, I decided to start weighing and measuring again on a daily basis.  The charts below show my actual numbers in the darker line, and my 7-day moving average in the lighter color. Generally speaking, if the trend is down and the actual number is below the 7-day average, things are trending in the right direction.  The only things I want trending up are my lean body mass and my pounds of lean mass!

Here are my charts:

 


Since I started ZC six weeks ago, and Alternate Day IF three weeks ago, I have:

Lost 1/4" around my neck
Lost 1/2" around my bust
Lost 7/8" around my waist
Lost 1-1/2" around my belly
Lost 7/8" around my hips
Lost 3/8" around my thigh ( a new low)
Lost 3/8" around my calf
Lost 1.8 percentage points off of my body fat
Gained 1.8 percentage points onto my lean mass
Lost 6.4 pounds on the scale
Lost 4.8 pounds of body fat
Lost 1.6 pounds of lean mass


MY GOAL

I have a goal weight and body composition:

11-3/4" neck 
28-3/8" waist
38-1/2" hips
136 pounds on the scale
30% body fat
70% lean body mass

To reach that goal, I need to:

Lose 2-3/4" around my waist
Lose 1-1/8" around my hips
Lose 7.6 pounds of body fat
Gain 4.6 pounds of lean body mass


RELATED POST:  Zero Carb Results by Week