Keto Diet
I recently started on a Ketogenic diet as an experiment after reading a chapter in Tim Ferris‘ book Tools of Titans. I find Tim’s work to be incredibly inspirational and rational so I looked to his materials as a primer for all of my planning.
Goals:
- Loose approximately 5 pounds
- Timeline: 10 weeks
- Minimize loss of muscle
Starting weight: 154 lbs
I consumed most of the articles that I could from Tim’s blog and Tools of Titans. After that the next logical source was KetoNutrition by Dom D`Agostino. I used his KetoCalculator to figure out what my target for food intakes should be. I like this calculator the most because it takes into account exercise and protein intake. I was especially concerned with my protein intake in order to meet my goal of not loosing muscle mass.
Tools
In order to track my weight I purchased a Withings Body smart scale. I chose this scale because I wanted my weight data to go into Apple Health Kit where I track long term averages.
The scale connects to your Wi-Fi so all you do is step on it and it records your measurements to the Withings Health Mate App on your phone.
The Health Mate App in turn shares it’s data with Health Kit. I decided not to get the Body+ because I felt that body fat percentage as implemented would not be that accurate and therefore I’d rather keep the extra money in my wallet.
To know if I was achieving Ketosis I purchased a Ketonix Breath Analyzer. This is supposedly not the most accurate way of measuring Ketosis, the most accurate is via blood testing. This does have the advantage of being super easy to use and once you get past the initial capital expenditure there are no recurring costs.
The particular model that I purchased was the Ketonix USB with Battery. I bought this model because I wanted to log my results thru the App. In hindsight I should have bought the model without the battery because I’ve never used it without it being plugged in.
Food
I consider myself a pretty good chef but I wanted to get some ideas for meals from someone else so that I didn’t have to do a huge meal planning session every weekend. We were recommended GreenChef by a friend and this service fit the bill nicely. I already subscribe to HelloFresh so this model is already proven to work well for me. Choose the Keto plan and you’re all set.
One note, GreenChef’s web application won’t let you sign up for more than one delivery per account. You can get two of the same thing delivered, but that doesn’t really make sense to me. In order to get around this I ended up creating two accounts and set one for Monday delivery and one for Thursday delivery. Then, in the menu picker, choose the first three options for one account and the last three options for the second account.
Let’s talk coffee. I definitely need my coffee in the morning I’m not going to lie about that. Specifically I have a latte. Turns out milk has a bunch of carbohydrates in it, not going to work for the meal plan.
Luckily there is the internet to the rescue. Just google: “Starbucks Coffee” or whatever you’re favorite spot is and you’ll likely get a bunch of coffee hacks that you can use to approximate your daily dose.
Ordering Out
Before
- Vente Vanilla Latte
- 4 shots of espresso
After
- Grande Latte
- Two pumps sugar free vanilla
- 4 shots of espresso
- Replace milk with Heavy Cream
At Home
Before
- Double shot of espresso
- 1.5 pumps flavored syrup
- Steamed milk (skim)
After
- Double shot of espresso
- 1 cup MCT powder
- Steamed milk (Heavy Cream)
When I work from home I do two of the above over the course of the morning.
MCT (Medium Chain Triglycerides) oil is all over Keto space. If you do your research you’ll surely run into mentions of this stuff. As far as I understand this is just a “good” fat that you can use to get you up to that 80% number. It goes great in coffee and smoothies. It comes in powder and oil forms. It comes in all sorts of flavors.
Exercise
Luckily for the first weeks of this diet I was going to a spin class that recorded power metrics over the entire workout. My output from the week one (normal) to week two (diet week 1) my output definitely dropped and I definitely didn’t feel “good”.
On my weekly Sunday road ride we decided to do a climb that I’m pretty familiar with and it basically crushed me. My time wasn’t actually terrible but it felt terrible.
After these two outings I decided to try eating some quick carbs in form of Gatorade Blocks pre-workout. After my workout I then did a Ketnoix measure to see if I was still in Ketosis.
Having some carbs before a workout is definitely better for me. My power output in spin went back up to normal and then started to climb and my gym and road rides have gone back to “feeling” good.
I either have one to two blocks or a bulletproof coffee as my pre-workout fuel.
Check back for results!