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Week In Review

It’s Day 56 of the Ketogenic Diet Experiment, and it’s been a pretty eventful week.

The Tide lost an amazing Iron Bowl in unbelievable fashion, I nearly froze to death on a Thanksgiving fishing outing with my Dad and my body composition continues to spiral downward in the wrong direction.

On a positive note, Auburn still gives the state hope for another National Championship, I got lucky and side-hooked the biggest fish of the day, and most importantly, I get to make more modifications to the diet plan! =)

This week, I will be making a few changes to my pre & post workout nutrition to limit any muscle catabolism that may be occurring post-workout in hopes of getting this thing headed in the right direction.

New Dietary Adjustments

• Pre & Post Workout Nutrition & Between Meals
  • Pre-workout – continue to supplement with BCAAs as mentioned previously.
  • Post-workout – replace BCAAs with whey protein (what I used before introducing BCAAs) and add an additional 5g of glutamine.
  • Between Meals – supplement 5g of BCAAs mid-afternoon and mid-morning between meals.

Questions or recommendations? Leave a comment or contact me here.

More later,

-mark

Results*

Weigh-in Results

• Starting Weight: 10/05/2013 – 154.2 lbs
• Week 1: 10/12/2013 – 151.3 lbs
• Week 2: 10/19/2013 – 156.0 lbs
• Week 3: 10/26/2013 – 156.4 lbs
• Week 4: 11/02/2013 – 155.1 lbs
• Week 5: 11/09/2013 – 154.5 lbs
• **Week 6: 11/16/2013 – n/a
• Week 7: 11/23/2013 – 155.6 lbs
• Week 8: 11/30/2013 – 157.4 lbs

*The usual “results” disclaimer (first mentioned here):

The reason the results are last is because it’s the least important part of the experiment to me. I don’t have a weight goal; the closest thing would be lean mass, and I have no consistent way to measure that weekly. Also, my weight fluctuates a lot based on activity and hydration, and it’s just not a reliable metric.

**No weigh-in recorded.

Week In Review

It’s officially past the halfway point of the Ketogenic Diet Experiment. Here are some positives and negatives thus far.

• Positives
  • My weight has remained pretty consistent.
  • I feel like my energy level has been more sustained throughout the day.
  • The larger meals are much more satiating than what I was previously doing.
• Negatives
  • Lean Body Mass – Though my weight has been consistent, my lean body mass appears to have definitely decreased. It’s difficult to say how much, but I’m planning to schedule a DEXA scan for later this year, and it will be interesting to compare the results to my BodPod measurement from 9/27. I’m not certain, but I think this may be due to unknowingly getting knocked out of ketosis from consuming too much protein on certain days. My plan is to monitor more closely in the future to see if the excess protein could actually be related.
  • Finding Good Ketogenic Meals – This has gotten much easier with practice, but still at times especially if eating at some place new, it can take a little work to find meals to meet the requirements.

New Dietary Adjustments

• Increased Sodium
  • I’ve done this over the past few weeks but forgot to mention it. I definitely noticed an improvement in my energy level. Check out authors Jeff Volek & Stephen Phinney briefly discuss why in this video.
• New Fish Oil supplement
  • This is a minor change, but I do like this product by Carlson Labs. And the fact that I can be confident that I have “the very finest fish oil” in the world because it’s written prominently on the bottle is a very comforting feeling.

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading!

-mark

Results*

Weigh-in Results

• Starting Weight: 10/05/2013 – 154.2 lbs
• Week 1: 10/12/2013 – 151.3 lbs
• Week 2: 10/19/2013 – 156.0 lbs
• Week 3: 10/26/2013 – 156.4 lbs
• Week 4: 11/02/2013 – 155.1 lbs
• Week 5: 11/09/2013 – 154.5 lbs
• **Week 6: 11/16/2013 – n/a
• Week 7: 11/23/2013 – 155.6 lbs

*The usual “results” disclaimer (first mentioned here):

The reason the results are last is because it’s the least important part of the experiment to me. I don’t have a weight goal; the closest thing would be lean mass, and I have no consistent way to measure that weekly. Also, my weight fluctuates a lot based on activity and hydration, and it’s just not a reliable metric.

**No weigh-in recorded.

Week In Review

I’m out of town this week so there’s no weigh-in to record for the Ketogenic Diet Experiment.

Plan to pick back up next week.

See you then!

-mark

Results*

Weigh-in Results

• Starting Weight: 10/05/2013 – 154.2 lbs
• Week 1: 10/12/2013 – 151.3 lbs
• Week 2: 10/19/2013 – 156.0 lbs
• Week 3: 10/26/2013 – 156.4 lbs
• Week 4: 11/02/2013 – 155.1 lbs
• Week 5: 11/09/2013 – 154.5 lbs
• **Week 6: 11/16/2013 – ???.? lbs

*The usual “results” disclaimer (first mentioned here):

The reason the results are last is because it’s the least important part of the experiment to me. I don’t have a weight goal; the closest thing would be lean mass, and I have no consistent way to measure that weekly. Also, my weight fluctuates a lot based on activity and hydration, and it’s just not a reliable metric.

**No weigh-in recorded.

Week In Review

Last week I didn’t make any new adjustments to the Ketogenic Diet Experiment.

But you knew that couldn’t last, right?

While my diet has remained pretty consistent over the past few weeks (carbs very low and primarily from fibrous vegetables, no alcohol, etc.) I believe my protein intake has gotten a little too high which could impact ketosis.

So I’m going to keep it simple – only one change this week.

New Dietary Adjustments

• Decrease Protein Consumption
  • Keeping in mind that I’m continuing to use BCCAs pre/post workout, I plan to limit protein intake from other sources (foods) to 100 grams per day.

Too Much Protein?

While too much glucose from carbohydrate sources might be the most likely culprit to jeopardize nutritional ketosis, excessive protein can have the same results. Both can lead to increased insulin levels preventing ketone production.

More later!

-mark

Disagree, have questions? Comment below or send me a message here.

Results*

Weigh-in Results

• Starting Weight: 10/05/2013 – 154.2 lbs
• Week 1: 10/12/2013 – 151.3 lbs
• Week 2: 10/19/2013 – 156.0 lbs
• Week 3: 10/26/2013 – 156.4 lbs
• Week 4: 11/02/2013 – 155.1 lbs
• Week 5: 11/09/2013 – 154.5 lbs

*The usual “results” disclaimer (first mentioned here):

The reason the results are last is because it’s the least important part of the experiment to me. I don’t have a weight goal; the closest thing would be lean mass, and I have no consistent way to measure that weekly. Also, my weight fluctuates a lot based on activity and hydration, and it’s just not a reliable metric.

Week In Review

No breaking news to report this week. All is still good in keto land.

Last week, I made 3 more adjustments to the Ketogenic Diet Experiment. Here’s a quick update.

1. Adjusting Calories with Activity – I’m currently consuming less calories on rest days which is usually 1-3 days/week. I’ve found it easiest to reduce calories at night, but may also have a slightly smaller lunch.
2. Experimenting w/ BCAAs – No change here. Still using BCAAs with workouts. See last week for more info about BCCAs.
3. Mid-afternoon Snack – I experimented with a few different snacks this week. All were around 100-150 calories and included chia seeds, boiled eggs and coconut oil. I found boiled eggs to be the most filling possibly due to increased thermogenesis from the protein or, quite possibly, just due to the Hawthorne Effect.

New Dietary Adjustments

No planned changes this week.

What is Ketosis?

Ketosis is a metabolic state that utilizes fatty acids as the body’s primary energy source when sufficient glucose (carbohydrate) is not available.

So, why is it called ketosis and not something like fatabolism? Personally, I like that idea and plan to take credit for coining that term when it blows up. 

But to understand why the term is ketosis and not fatabolism, we have to consider a very important part of the body that happens to be quite the energy snob: the brain.

Yes, the old hat rack is greedy and picky when it comes to its energy sources. Greedy because, at only 2% of the entire body’s mass, it utilizes close to 25% of the body’s total energy consumed, and picky because it highly prefers glucose as a source for energy.

However, when glucose is in short supply, the liver becomes aware of the brain’s demands and saves the day by breaking down fatty acids to produce ketone bodies. And these are the molecules utilized to meet the highly demanding energy requirements of the brain.

And there’s your oversimplified summary of ketosis.

More later!

-mark

Disagree, have questions? Comment below or send me a message here.

Results*

Weigh-in Results

• Starting Weight: 10/05/2013 – 154.2 lbs
• Week 1: 10/12/2013 – 151.3 lbs
• Week 2: 10/19/2013 – 156.0 lbs
• Week 3: 10/26/2013 – 156.4 lbs
• Week 4: 11/02/2013 – 155.1 lbs

*The usual “results” disclaimer (first mentioned here):

The reason the results are last is because it’s the least important part of the experiment to me. I don’t have a weight goal; the closest thing would be lean mass, and I have no consistent way to measure that weekly. Also, my weight fluctuates a lot based on activity and hydration, and it’s just not a reliable metric.