Eat More Fat! The Nutritional Ketosis Challenge continues... page 166

[Pebbles67]

Lower Protein Experiment Day 2

Macros 150/59/20 grams 1676 cals

Wt. 226.6 (same)
FBS 96 (Y 104) Finally in normal range.
Ketones small 15mg/dl (Y trace) 15mg/dl = .8 Mmol
4 clean hflc days

Felt great all day, even after my big gym workout. I have DOMS today due to heavy lifting. Zero urge to binge.

Neg: Dry mouth at night continues. I think I will test my BS at that time tonight.

[OzK]

Hello all:

I am perplexed. I read "The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Performance' a few weeks back, and was very intrigued by the prospects of changing my metabolism, so I embarked on a HFLC diet on Sat Jan 26. Today is day 23.

Here's what has me perplexed: I have been using a Precision Ultra blood meter to test my ketones daily. Last week from Saturday to Wednesday, I was at 2.1, 2.5, 3.4, 2.5 and 3.2 (some variation in time of day). Suddenly with no change in my diet (I've been logging and eating very similar foods), it dropped to 1.4 on Thursday and Friday, and 0.8 yesterday and today! And yes, I feel particularly weak and tired, since I haven't eaten any carbs.

Does anyone have an explanation for this? Is this part of the keto-adaptation process? I still have not had the 'aha' moment that others report, even over the time when I was consistently measuring 2.2+. I.e., I haven't felt any positive changes yet, and still suffer from hunger and poor sports performance. The drop in blood ketones is quite surprising to me, since my diet had been 'ketogenic' and it was easy to stay on path I was on, knowing that it might take up to 5 weeks to have an impact. But now I don't even appear to be in ketosis???

Ideas?

Hey there - new here. Have just read all the way from page 1 and must pass out soon so will intro myself properly later. But I think it could be a case of your body becoming ketone adapted, burning more ketones so excess don't show up in your blood to register on the test strip. It's not a case of suddenly not doing things right, it's your body being more efficient. My understanding is that so long as you're keeping the protein moderate, the carbs low and the fat high you are running a fat-burning engine and so needn't worry.

[MrsZimm13]

Pamola, no offense taken! Congrats on getting a week alone to work out the details, and to results even before you have gotten all the way into it.

MrsZimm, as in any situation where you use a program to lose weight, if you jump back to what you were doing before the weight loss started you will gain the weight back. I would suggest that once you lose your weight, if you want to increase your carbs, you do it slowly and keep tabs on your weight. Your body will let you know where to stop. At the point you stop feeling as good or you start putting weight back on that is obviously where you would back it back up.

I am sorry, but I can't remember, are you losing weight on the Primal as you have been doing it these past 7 weeks?

Hi, I lost 8-10 pounds in 7 weeks. My husband on the other hand has lost 24 in the same timeframe. I was perfect on PB until 2 nights ago (a one night slip), but I am back on track. The slip was a result of being in a work situation with no primal food to eat. Poor planning on my part.

I am really happy eating PB and don't have cravings to eat sugar or breads as I did before. I would like to drop 10-20 by June and plan to EMF to realize that goal, but I can't start EMF until March 15 as I am traveling constantly until then. I will stick with PB until then then switch over with all of the knowledge I am gaining now.
Thanks for all of your help.

[MrsZimm13]

MrsZ re: traveling. It can be done, although it is not easy. I do travel somewhat frequently for work. First, and I think this is important, be firmly (and I mean pretty firmly) in NK and have a routine. Then, plan, plan, plan. Take food if you can (I can usually eat breakfast by myself and then have obligations for lunch and dinner). If you can tolerate dairy and non-animal fats, it will be easier -- you can add sour cream, cheese, guac, etc. to get your fat up. In my case (no dairy and I need to limit non-animal fats), I do my best to get fatty meats. Authentic Mexican restaurants help a lot (although if you're like me, you don't have a whole lot of say about where you will be eating!). Also, if you can bring a stash of food to supplement if you can't find much decent to eat, that is also helpful.

Hi RMS- thanks for the advice. You've made me want Mexican food today! LOL.

I have to go to food tradeshows and the food on the floor is never primal and the hours are long so it's tough. You're right, I will have to better plan and take food along with me. I don't always rent a car when I travel so can't always get to a grocery store. When staying in a hotel sometimes they have a refrigerator sometimes not. Perhaps a sack of macadamia nuts to keep close by will help.
This coming week I have a 6 day work week and 5 days I'll be away from home.
I just have to figure out what works and do it!

[demuralist]

Primal Leaf, I plan to stay in ketosis for life. Ditto Pebbles reasons, yes I want to lose fat, but really the health reasons (some of which are complicated by the excess fat I carry around) are the reason I am doing this.

Itchy, Welcome. If you track your food, many of us are on MyFitnessPal and friended each other so we can peruse daily diaries. Would love to hear of benefits you are feeling besides fat loss.

[mks8500]

Lower Protein Experiment Day 2

Macros 150/59/20 grams 1676 cals

Wt. 226.6 (same)
FBS 96 (Y 104) Finally in normal range.
Ketones small 15mg/dl (Y trace) 15mg/dl = .8 Mmol
4 clean hflc days

Felt great all day, even after my big gym workout. I have DOMS today due to heavy lifting. Zero urge to binge.

Neg: Dry mouth at night continues. I think I will test my BS at that time tonight.

This looks great Pebbles! Best part about it seems the zero urge to binge. :-) You mentioned that you're drinking plenty of water but are you drinking it late into the evening also? I find that I try not to drink too much at night so I don't have to get up but if I drink a little up water until I go to bed, the dry mouth seems like less of an issue.

[primaLeaf]

Thanks! I think I'll proceed feeling less obligated to manufacture a break in ketosis then and just let it happen naturally. Appreciate the input!

[252dlp]

Hi everyone...I've been unofficially following this thread and trying my own experiment with high fat and I have to say that I think it's working! Thanks to everyone for this thread! I started the PB on February 1, but really haven't lost any weight--I did lose right away, but gained it right back--I think I was overeating both protein and carbs which were up near the 100 g mark. I started the PB at my highest weight ever, 182.6 pounds (female, 5'4"). I've been trying to gain a mental edge by getting below 180, but just haven't been able to do it. So, a few days ago I decided to give the higher fat, lower carbs/protein thing a try. I'm happy to say that I have finally dropped below that 180 mark. Yay.

I still have a few non-primal things to get out of my diet, but I'm making progress and you all have helped.

I can't seem to find my paper which has the exact figures, but I estimated that I need somewhere around 60 g of protein (max, but I've been eating around 100 g), around 39 g carbs (I've been eating more around 90-100 g), and the somewhere way over 100 g of fat. Wish I could find that paper, lol. It must be at work.

[Rosemary 231]

Question here . . . is this meter you're using the same as diabetics use to test their blood? Actually a family member has one at home. Are the strips the same as what he uses to test his blood - when he bothers, he's just pre-diabetic. As far as the Ketosticks go, I can't seem to get above the color tan.

[athomeontherange]

Question here . . . is this meter you're using the same as diabetics use to test their blood? Actually a family member has one at home. Are the strips the same as what he uses to test his blood - when he bothers, he's just pre-diabetic. As far as the Ketosticks go, I can't seem to get above the color tan.

Seems like it took me forever to just get to moderate ketosis. A fat fast and some exercise put me in deeper ketosis