Weight: 180.6
AM Ketones: 0.5
PM Ketones: 1.2
AM Blood Glucose: 80
PM Blood Glucose: 81
Hours of Sleep: 6:43
Energy Level: Excellent
Physical Activity: 60 lb kettle bell swings x 200, pushups x 100, jump rope
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Glad to see that I’m barely in the range for nutritional ketosis! Today I wandered into the low carb friends forums and wrote a post asking people there what they thought of my results so far and if they had any ideas as to why my weight loss has seemed to stall and why I’m so inconsistent in staying in nutritional ketosis
They had some great ideas, the most valuable being: keeping better track of my intake… in terms of calories and macronutrient composition. So first thing I did after eating dinner was hop onto a spreadsheet to organize all the information… and man was it helpful.. and scary!
This is the breakdown of everything I ate today.
No wonder my weight loss has stalled!! Look at the total calories – 3108!
And look at the composition of my “fat hot chocolate!” 615 calories!!!!!! It’s pretty much a meal in itself!
At least the one thing I’m doing right is making sure that fat is 80% of my caloric intake.
My carb levels are as low as I think I can get them. The protein level can be a little lower, but I think I’m within a good range. Since I weight 180 lbs and am roughly 20% body fat, my lean mass is approximately 144 lbs. According to Volek and Phinney, it should be 0.6 – 1 x your lean weight, so 133.9 gm falls right in between the 86 – 144 gm range they recommend… if not a little on the high side.
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So the only thing to cut are the calories from fat. I think ideally my total caloric intake should be around 2200. To get there I’ll probably only limit myself to 1 cup of “fat hot chocolate” per day.. and I’ll try to cut back a little on the sour cream I add to my eggs as well as the cheese I like to eat during lunch.
I guess I got so carried away with trying to increase my fat intake that I completely lost track of the total calories.
The issue that is still a little puzzling was that Volek and Phinney never really wrote about how much fat to eat. They recommended eating to satiety… apparently eating to satiety for me means eating north of 3000 calories!
I guess this is the spirt of n=1.. figuring out what works and what doesn’t work and making adjustments accordingly.
My PM ketones were 1.2, which is a positive note to end on!
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This really answered my problem, thanks!
I saw your question about DXA scans over on PaleoHacks.
Check out my DXA scan image and post here:
http://recomphacks.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/dxa-scan-and-goals/
Before you start thinking of cutting I would recommend going below 20g of carb and lowering your protein intake. Then you can adjust the fat afterwards.
Thanks! Recently my carbs have been under 30 grams, and it’s all coming from veggies! Most of it is in the form of fiber… not quite sure I’m ready to cut these out yet… but it may be something to consider in the future.
What are these “fat hot chocolates” made out of? Changing the viscosity of food can really make it easier to consume extra calories.
Sort of my take on Bullet-Proof Coffee
2 tbsp of grassfed butter
2 tbsp of coconut oil
1 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup almond milk
3 oz low carb protein shake (for some protein and this also provides a sweet flavor)
I subbed in cocoa instead of coffee so that I could drink this at night too.
Depending on my calorie count throughout the day, I can cut back on the butter or coconut oil as well.
This is a very easy way for me to get a big dose of the healthy fats. 1 serving of this comes out to over 500 calories and 50 grams of fat.
It’s funny: our stats are very similar and I have the same issue: I’m always hungry. For the past few days I said, “Okay, I’ll eat whatever I want (within the guidelines of course) and see exactly how many calories I eat.” It seems to fall around 3000 cals. Carbs I kept under 40, with moderate protein, high fat.
So I guess there’s no way around it huh? We have to be in caloric deficit. I know for me if I eat at 2,000-2,200 cals a day I see smooth, consistent progress (pure fat loss).
I just want to eat more!
YUP! I’ve found that protein is the magic macronutrient for me that satisfies my hunger.
Aρpreciаte this post. Let me try itt out.