Week one ketogenic diet

I have been on my ketogenic journey for one week now.  This is how week one went.

 I am still using the free simple stupid macros app, still haven't bought the pro version, don't really see myself ever doing that.  My keto macros are set at 5% carbs, 75% fats and 20% protein with a 2000 calorie limit.   Carbs and protein have been relatively easy to keep at goal. The struggle is getting so much fat in my diet without going over on protein/carbs.  If I skip breakfast, I already know I wont be able to get enough calories for my day as this is the main source of my fat (sausage, eggs).  I have supplemented my diet with MCT oil tablets and electrolyte multivitamins though.  

I have been peeing on keto sticks by healthywiser.  125 count for 10 bucks.  Not a bad deal.  This measures only ketones.  It is colored coded and has a number to correlate with the amount of ketones in your urine.  I pee on the sticks once to twice  daily.  Day one and two I was not in ketosis.  By day 3, I had a small amount of ketones and by day 6 I had a large amount of ketones in my urine.   Ketones are a bi-product of fat breakdown, so I can assume my body is using fat at this point.   

My supplements:

The MCT oil pills are from 'kiss my keto' and contain 3 grams of fat per pill.  300 capsules for 30 dollars.  I was surprised that the recommended serving size is 3 pills 5 times a day.  This would definitely help me meet my my fat goals, but I was worried about the GI side effects.  I started at one pill and have worked up to 3 pills once daily, which i take before my workouts.  I will probably increase them if I don't start to see much energy change during my workouts.  You can take MCT oil as a liquid, but I prefer not to swallow fat that way- just a texture thing.  

The electrolyte supplement/ multivitamin is from ketolabs core basics.  30 bucks- 90 tabs.  I was only taking one, then looked at the label and noticed I was supposed to take 3 daily!! These pills are large and have a funny smell to them.  The amount of vitamins/minerals and electrolytes these pills supply are way over the daily recommended percentage.  As a person who usually doesn't take multivitamin, and with the belief you can most of what you need from your diet, I have only been taking one pill a day, instead of the suggested 3.  Minus the smell these pills do turn your pee a neon yellow, so don't be alarmed.  

Diet:

Diet wise things are not that bad.  I am eating fatter meats than before on my low carb diet.  On the low carb diet I was sticking to chicken breasts- now I reached for chicken with skin, hamburgers, hot dogs.   We don't have avocados here, but we did have guacamole one day last week and that made it easy to reach my fat goal.  My daily food intake consists of the following:

Breakfast: Full egg omelette with bacon and chedder cheese (extra cheese), pork sausage and coffee.  If there are strawberries I will eat 5 of them. 

Lunch: Hamburger with cheese, no bun- full fat mayo and mustard on top with pickles.  Side salad loaded with olives, cheese and olive oil (EVOO)

Dinner: Depends on the night but usually a fatty meat with a side salad covered in EVOO.

Snacks: Depending on the day, I may have an after dinner snack. Especially after watching everyone indulge on the ice cream and cake.  I pre-ordered a couple of keto-friendly snacks  at the beginning of my journey because I knew I would miss my sweets.  I quickly found that there wasn't much to choose from in the Keto world.  I happened to find FATSNAX Chocolate chip cookies and choczero 70% dark chocolate.  Both taste amazing and give me a little pick me up when I am limiting all my sugary sweets.

FATSNAX cookies:  $35 for 24 cookies.  They come in 2 cookies per pack.  Fat: 16grams, carbs/protein: 4 grams.  Kind of expensive, but worth it! At first I didn't like how buttery these were, but the second time I tried them OMG.  They are definite must have if you are trying ketogenic and like your sweets.  I take these with me when i know people are going to be snacking on sweets.  Helps me feel like I am not missing out. 

ChocZero 70% dark chocolate: $16.50- 3 bags of 10.  Small dark chocolate squares with only 1 net carb and 4.5 grams of fat.  I love to eat one of these if I am craving sugars.  They are very good.

I also bought a meal supplement bar which is also delicious.  Keto-crave energy bar by Zenwise.  $40 for 12 bars.  16grams fat, 5grams net carbs and 9 grams protein.  I tried the cocao almond bar and it is very good.  I used this when I missed breakfast.  SO even though expensive I have only ate one this week. 

Enough about food, on to energy levels.

Energy/ training: 

I have been training for a half marathon this month and noticed that my long run on Saturday (7 miles) was substantially more difficult then my 5 miles I completed the week before while i was on carbs.   I had to take my run down to 11- 12 minute miles instead of doing 10 minute miles.  After I finished this run I felt like crap.  I felt weak, lightheaded and mentally foggy.  I stayed in bed for 4-5 hours after this.  I assume this is what the 'ketoflu" feels like- and man is it awful.  I have a whole bunch of confounding factors for that day to include not eating breakfast, the fact that I have never ran 7 miles before, in my life, and running 80 minutes straight just overall sucks.  I will see how 8 miles goes this Saturday in order to see the actual difference.  I did get through my spin classes feeling pretty well though.  Those classes are 60 minutes, so maybe it was just the length of time I ran which put me over the edge.  Hopefully, my body will adjust to ketosis this week.  Minus that run day, my energy has been about the same as before.  I had a shorter fuse and felt more on edge, but I feel better now.  

Overall, the week was not as bad as I thought it would be.  I actually was able to go out and eat in Kuwait City without breaking ketosis.  When I did low carb, I had cheat days about every week.  The fact that it does take a couple days to fully get into ketosis helps with the food cheating.  If you cheat one day/ one meal you may have to take 2-3 days just to get back into ketosis.  For me it wasn't worth eating the bread or the ice cream for that.  It also helps I had delicious snacks :-)

Cheat weeks/ day 1 keto

After i finished low carb I gave myself 2 cheat weeks.  And boy did i go overboard! My mindset was that I was going to start ketogenic in 2 weeks and i needed to binge on all the carbs.  I felt overall more fatigued and had lack of energy.  I found myself craving greens at first.  Once I continued eating carbs I fell back into craving carbs and having a insatiable appetite.


If you do decide to do low carb- DO NOT take cheat weeks- it will just make you feel miserable. 



Keto DAY1:

Feb 5th to March 31st-  Plan 75% fat, 20% protein and 5% carbs for the day

using keto urine sticks to track ketosis.  Stupid simple macros to track intake- i really love this app!
Supplements: MCT oil fat capsules and electrolyte containing vitamins

Food choices on deployment: whole eggs, beef, chicken thighs/legs, fish, bacon, greens, nuts, olive oil

I believe this will be the most challenging out here in deployment land as we don't have good fat choices.  During lunch today I thought I had enough fat, but unfortunately I had eaten all my protein for the day as well.  This might be harder than I expected.  I did ordered some FAT SNAX (cookies with lots of fat)  and keto crave bars to supplement my diet.  I did think about getting myoplex ketogenic powder supplement but have held off for now.   I would like to try this with whole food diet as much as possible.  Also I will not be able to cheat on keto as I read you kicked out of ketosis quite quickly. 

Day 1 keto measurements:

Waist: 28in
LA: 10.5 in   RA: 10in
Left thigh: 23.5in  right: 23.75
27% body fat per calculator

I peed on the keto stick this AM and am not in ketosis.  Will keep you updated!

Finished low carb- results

Well I found out i really suck at blogging.  I thought blogging would be a good way for me to keep track of what I was doing with my food and exercise, but it seemed to take much more time than I wanted to give it.  ANyways since my last post I have finished my low carb kick and have had 2 weeks of free eating.  Today I started my keto journey.  Will fill you in on the low carb food intake.


I found low carb to be difficult at first as I was looking up every food I putinto my body and checking the carb content.  As I became better at realizing what was in my food the low carb food diet was actually not hard to keep up with.  I found myself less hungry and craving less sugar.  Sugar and carb cravings went to almost zero if I kept a clean diet.  It was harder to not eat carbs when holidays, special occasions rolled around.  I also found it hard to not binge on carbs once I went over my carb counts for the day. 

I probably ate more then the recommended amount of carbs about once per week.  According to my macros app I averaged 16% crabs daily, 58%fat and 27% protein sticking to my goals.  I did work out 6 days a week whether crossfit, spin class, yoga or running. 

Energy was pretty poor at first, but then I didn't really notice a difference.  My body seemed to be adjusting.  After carb binges I def felt more fatigued and needed an extra coffee or 2.  I was also more likely to take a nap that day or the day after.

Results: 

Weight:  146 lbs to 140lbs
waist: 30 inches to 26.5 inches
hips: 41 inches to 40inches
Left thigh: 25.75inches to 23 inches
Right thigh: 25.5 inches to 23inches

Though I did not measure my bust I felt my bust size had also decreased.  Body fat % still 27% per www.active.com calculator.  The pictures def speak for themselves. 

Overall:  I think low carb is definitely doable.  It may be harder back in the states if you don't have good support and people make you feel guilty for not indulging.  I did learn that binging on carbs is not a good thing and you can restart at the next meal rather than the next day.  You dont have to be super strict all the time and oyu should give yourself a treat every now and then.  I think learning more about what I was putting into my body helped.  i also was able to eat chicken wings, hamburgers and full fat mayo which helped. 

Day 11

Day 11.  The past 10 days have been relatively easy to keep my carbs under goal of <50 grams daily.  I have cheated 2 out of the 10 days though!!!  The first day I cheated  (day 5)I went over by 50 grams of carbs.  It was at a tree lighting festival and even though I said no to pizza I caved for the delicious looking cake.  Being in Kuwait and even though there is a dessert bar at the DFAC this cake looked too good not to pass up.  Granted everyone I was with egged me one and even the cak epeople practically begged me to eat the cake.  SO I caved.  This is why I am never successful at home- all the food guilt!  Anyways after I ate the cake I felt pretty terrible crazy how not eating sugar for 5 days can affect you.  

2nd cheat day was on a trip into Kuwait City to an amazing buffet.  I did pretty well eating only meats, cheeses, veggies, but I had to have some dessert. Again one of those when am I ever going to be able to do this again moments.  My body felt less appalled by this sugar intake as I think i was able to do so in more moderation then previously. 

Overall:  

The first couple days I felt tired and my work outs seemed especially horrible.  I felt fatigued and lack energy.  My stomach took some adjusting also.  I have since adjusted and feel like its not too bad.  It's quite easy eating a low carb diet when you have a salad bar available at every meal and a person who can make you omelette at breakfast :-).  Food wise is it pretty monotonous, but I feel less hungry during the day and find myself eating less overall.  Once you realize what foods you can eat and what foods are packed with carbs the low carb diet is pretty easy.  Seems sustainable without being miserable.  

Current weight:  Down to 142 pounds from 146 pounds.  

Low carb kick off

11/27/2017:  Start of low carb journey

Initial measurements:
Weight: 146 lbs
Waist: 30 inches
Hips: 41 inches
LA and RA 11 inches
L Wrist: 6 inches
R Forearm: 9 inches
Left upper thigh: 25.75 inches
Right upper thigh: 25.5 inches

Body fat calculated: 27%  Used https://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/bodyfat

I defined low carb as < 50 grams of carbs per day.  There are multiple sites out there that split low carb diets into percentages such as: http://macronutrientcalculator.com

They state a low carb diet would be 25% carbs, 45% protein and 30% fat.  Since my initial diet was already lower in carbs than the typical american diet, I used a lower percentage for my carb intake.  Recommended US intake is carb 45-65% daily intake.  I used : https://www.dietdoctor.com/how-low-carb-is-low-carb  and set my upper carb limit at 50 grams or 10% of my daily intake.  I didn't really care about setting my protein or fats, but didn't want to go to high on the fat considering I will be doing the keto diet next. 

I downloaded the app 'Stupid Simple Macros' to keep track of my diet and set my setting at 10% carbs (50 grams), 50% fat and 40% protein. 

The difficulty with the app and eating at the dining hall is I have to allow time to google servings sizes and guess on how much I am eating.  On day one I had only 26 carbs per my app.  Most of my carbs came from broccoli and zucchini.  I feel like i was a little to strict the first day and could have added some more carbs into my diet in the form of dairy (cheese).  By dinner time I was way under my calorie intake for the day and had to eat an additional serving of tuna in order to make calories.

My food day:  1506 calories, 26g carbs (7%), 86g fat (51%) and 157.3g protein (42%)

My exercise day: 
treadmill 40 sec on, 20 sec off at 7.5mph for 20 min
Bench squats at 70lbs (12,10,8 drop (70,60,40), 8 drop, 8)
Lunges at 20 lbs 10 each leg X 3 sets
Hamstring curls 10 each leg at 20lbs 3 sets
Leg lefts 10 x 3 sets

Overall:  Seems pretty easy so far.  Have not started withdrawing from sugar yet.  The biggest hurdle today was weighing and measuring myself and realizing how far I had gotten out of shape.  I took before pictures also, but I''ll keep those to myself for now :-) Predeployment eating did not help, but it was worth it.  I continue counting all my calories as the app does it automatically, but for a low carb diet you really don't need to.  More to come!

Day one

This is my first time blogging or really even writing in a public/private forum.  Today I decided to trial different types of diets while I am deployed.  This blog will be a place I can compare and describe what I go through during each fad diet.  The diets I have chosen are low carb, keto, plant based and intermittent fasting.  I will undergo each diet for 2 months at a time.  I hope to learn more about each trend by reading at least 2-3 books on each topic and by really trialing each diet to the best of my ability.  This blog will help me keep track of how i feel and how difficult each diet is to achieve.  I wont be able to track health benefits but I will be able to comment on weight loss, changes in waistline and issues with energy. 

A little about me: 

I am a 31 year old active duty physician.  I have specialize din Internal Medicine and have dealt with multiple patients who struggle with weight loss.  I hope to undergo this year to better understand the fad diets and in hopes to give my patients better information when they ask me how to lose weight.  I am currently deployed and have a lot of time on my hands.  This is both good and bad. 

Good reasons to do this now:  I have time to research and commit to the diet.  If i undergo lack of energy, keto flu I dont have a lot of responsibilities and can feel like crud for a bit.  It will also help pass my time while here.

Bad reasons: I do not have access to a grocery store and all food is cooked for me.  I am unsure of how they prepare the food most of the time and this will limit the variety of food I can eat.  I can get supplements through the mail, though not ideal as i would like to get most of my intake from actual food. 

Current plan:

Low carb from Nov 27th to January 26th. 
Keto from Feb 5th to March 31st
Plant based April 9th to June 1st
Intermittent fasting June 11th til I go home approx July 15th


Low carb: 
Say yes to:  Fish, meat, eggs, above ground veggies
Say no to: sugar, bread, pasta, rice, beans, potatoes and fruit

Keto:  Need to read more about this but I found it is much lower carbs, mod protein and high fat
Daily breakdown: 75% fat, 20% protein (0.69-0.8 grams/lbs LBW/day) and 5% carbs (<30grams/day)

For me:  Currently 145lbs with 28% fat. 
145lbs X 0.28= 40.6 lbs of fat
Lean body weight= 145- 40.6= 104.4 lbs

Protein calculates out to approx.  72grams- 83grams /day
Carbs: <30 grams
Fats: 324 grams per day:  Minus 50 for weight loss so total 275 grams per day

Say yes to: Whole eggs, full fat cheese, beef, chicken thighs/legs, fish, bacon, nuts, green leafy vegetables
Say no to: sugar, bread, pasta, rice, beans, potatoes and fruit

Need to supplement Na,K, Mg as easily lost when in ketosis- use chicken broth, extra salt- can get supplements

Supplement if needed: Myoplex ketogenic?-  already has 75/20/5% in each serving- easy

Need:  Keto urine sticks to make sure in ketosis

This diet is very different than my current diet and i need to read way more!!

Plant based diet: 
Follow G-BOMBS- Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries. seeds
Veggies: 6-8 servings/ day
1 cup beans/legumes/ day
4-5 fresh fruits/ day- low glycemic (grapefruit, oranges, kiwis, berries, melon, green apples)
Limit: starchy foods (squash, corn, potatoes, rice)
No more than 1/4 cup of nuts per day

AVOID: animal protein, dairy, oils.  Soy is ok

Intermittent fasting:
Multiple ways to do this, but I am going to do 16 hour fast with 8 hour eating window.  Hope to eat at 11am and 1800 in order to be able to use the DFAC.  Will work out between meals in order to not crash to quickly.  May have to add protein supplement in order to remain full throughout night.  Coffee is ok!! life saver!


More to come.  I have one more day to do what I want and will start this journey Monday.  I have planned 1 week in between each diet which will help.  My biggest fear is going from the different diets ecspecially keto to plant based (lots of fat to minimal fat).  This will be interesting.