ketosis

Last week I shared a bit in terms of introducing my personal journey in Nutritional Ketosis, including a very quick overview of the why’s behind my decision to give a genuine ketosis run a try.

I’m now in week 8, loving what I’m feeling and seeing, and enthused to keep up the routine indefinitely at this point.

As noted last week, my typical day starts climbing out of bed fairly early (between 530 and 6) after 8 hours of sleep on average; of note, I never set an alarm and am geared to awaken then with the earliest light of day.

Though not a new feature for me personally with being in nutritional ketosis (NK), I’m never hungry in the morning and typically drink a cold brewed coffee with a bit of cream and a tbsp of collagen powder (2 grams carb, 10 of protein, and 7 of fat) and work for several hours, with very functional mental acuity right off the bat.

To be fair, I’d been gravitating toward a compressed eating window / intermittent fasting during the several months prior to my starting NK, choosing to tune in and eat WHEN (when hunger ensues naturally).

I typically workout mid to late morning (pending how work tasks are progressing), fasted, consuming water only before a three times per week HIIT workout, with a walk/hike 5-6 days per week in addition, with a short, very focused sprint workout weekly if I’m feeling in prime shape.

On most days, hunger hasn’t pushed me to eat until sometime after the noon hour, and as often as not, nearer to 2.

It’s then time for errands and back to the desk for the afternoon’s work, calls, correspondence, etc, with a family dinner typically somewhere between 6 and 8pm.

Some Interesting Metrics Closing Week 7 of Nutritional Ketosis

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.

Over the seven weeks thus far, the rolling averages of my intake and caloric accounting include –

Daily Carb Grams: 28.5 (114 calories)
Daily Protein Grams: 90.3 (361.2 calories)
Daily Fat Grams: 124.4 (1115.5 calories)

Average Total Calories per Day: 1602.8
Average Calorie Deficit per Day: -1487.2

Average Carbs as Percent of Total Calories per Day: 7.1%
Average Protein as Percent of Total Calories per Day: 22.4%
Average Fat as Percent of Total Calories per Day: 69.7%

Of note, for the past 4 weeks in particular, my daily average intake of carbs and protein have been drifting lower (protein approaching 80 gm/day for the past three weeks), with daily intake of fat drifting slightly higher. This has happened without conscious intention on my part, eating to satiety at every meal and snacking judiciously as desired.

Weight loss during the 7 weeks in NK so far has been 16.5 lb; with one day of hunger noted worthy of mention in my workout dairy.

Energy levels have been excellent with no dip in performance whatsoever, and in fact performance gains have been noted in every aspect of my workout routine. Sleep has improved, though I have noted more vivid dreams several days per week (not interrupting the sleep cycle).

My Nutritional Ketosis Week Seven Bottom Line: Hot Damn!

From the perspective of one of my critical goals at the start of my NK journey – break through a weight loss stall – so far it’s been a rousing success in average roughly a 2 and 1/3 lb weight loss per week, eating to comfortable satiety every day, with enhanced mental clarity and plentiful energy for the daily routine and workouts. All with no hunger. Making staying in nutritional ketosis a no brainer at this point.

More to come in a month or so.