Back on the Seventh of June I shared a quick post detailing my personal experience in a fairly diligent nutritional ketosis run; the week before I’d shared a short post explaining why I’d chosen to do the work (in retrospect, it’s been shockingly easy) to give keto a try.
Without rehashing all the why’s I laid out back then, I was interested in pushing through a weight loss stall first and foremost, though wanted to play a bit with seeing if being in NK would really improve mental clarity and my overall reserve of daily energy.
My Nutritional Keto Report Card at Week 15
For the most part, as summarized in the image to the right, overall I’m still pleased as can be with what life looks and feels like in nutritional ketosis.
My schedule hasn’t changed much; I’m still out of the sack between 530 and 6 (after 8 hours of sleep on average), still waking up without an alarm clock with the earliest light of the day. I typically still drink a cold-brewed coffee (still with a bit of cream and 10-11 grams of protein in the form of collagen powder), though due to the scorching heat during this Texas summer, almost every day I head out for a 2-3 mile walk while it’s cool.
Then it’s back to the desk for several hours of fairly intensive cognitive work, typically with very good energy and creative juices flowing, then I’m either doing a HIIT workout 3x/week, walking again or cycling again most days, with a sprint workout thrown in every 7-10 days as well.
Trying hard to eat WHEN (when hunger ensues naturally), typically lunch is somewhere between 1 and 2, with a family dinner then following (after the afternoon’s work) most often around 730 or 8.
We did make a run to Montana (to see a new grand-baby!) a few weeks ago, with a few days on the road challenging my keto compliance; interestingly my weight loss continued, though with a bit less satiety during travel and interestingly the week after.
A Closer Look at a Few Metrics
As noted 8 weeks ago, I have been tracking a fairly close estimation of my macronutrients –
Up until starting my NK run, I’d lost 100 lbs without tracking a single calorie consumed over the 15 months window we’d been eating a fairly compliant LC/MP/HF diet around our camp, though of note been in a weight loss stall for several months (Dec-Feb).
I did however, principally at first as a learning tool, and later in part due to my medical training induced affinity for objective data, track a fairly specific diary of my daily carb intake (net carbs), which from the get go were always under 100 per day, and most often under 60 gm/day.
Again, largely as a matter of intellectual curiosity, when starting my NK run, I decided to track, as closely as possible, daily intake of carbs, protein, and fat, and to calculate my total caloric intake and deficit against my estimated BMR (adjusted for activity), as well as the percentages of carb / protein / fat contributions to my total calories.
I still don’t recommend that most folks I work with track their intake as obsessively as I have been; it’s simply not necessary to make nutritional ketosis work for most. If you’re a data nut like me, go to it. Over the 15 weeks in NK thus far, the rolling averages of my intake and macronutrient accounting include –
Daily Carb Grams: 25.3 (101 calories)
Daily Protein Grams: 88.1 (352.3 calories)
Daily Fat Grams: 121.7 (1093.5 calories)Average Total Calories per Day: 1552.5
Average Calorie Deficit per Day: –1537.3Average Carbs as Percent of Total Calories per Day: 6.5%
Average Protein as Percent of Total Calories per Day: 22.6%
Average Fat as Percent of Total Calories per Day: 70.5%
Of note, without any conscious effort on my part, I’ve been gradually eating less per day overall over the 15 weeks (eating WHEN to satiety), with the percentage of carbs dropping over time, and fat increasing. Over the past 4 weeks, I’ve dropped carbs under 20 g/day just to make things interesting…
Weight loss during my 15 week run now totals 30.5 pounds, fairly consistent with what I noted during the first 7 weeks.
My Nutritional Ketosis Week Fifteen Bottom Line: Still Hot Damn!
All in all, I couldn’t be more pleased and feel better than I have since my late 20’s; at this point I’m guessing I might make this a 6-month run. We’ll see in a couple of months when I report again…
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