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Old 04-13-2018, 04:48 AM   #3
Pheedno
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Join Date: Mar 2018
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Ive been true keto since January, only breaking for vacation or the occasional Sunday family dinners. It's been a game changer for me. I began by keeping a log of daily intake by time, workouts, and pricking my finger to test blood ketones. It took me about 2 solid weeks to get into a high level of ketosis and I held that for about another 10 days before breaking on a mini vacation. After that 25 day initial run it only took me 2 days to get back into keto. At that point I started testing foods to see what would knock me out. 2 bottles of wine throughout a day didn't, a carb level of close to a hundred on a heavy training day didn't(well, shortly but was back in within hours). I have more notes on that in the journal I kept.
I do think there's merit to metabolic flexibility. I don't need coffee in the morning to get my day started. Don't need pre workouts. Some of my arthritic issues have lessened. Lifts suffered initially but started to climb after that 2-3 week adaptation. Dom D'Agnostino, who's the best resource on this topic has stated athletic performance can sometimes take up to 2 months before a person gets back to PR's again. That dudes a beast. 500lb deadlift for 10 reps after a 7 day fast and been keto for years.
My macros daily are 10-50g carbs, 120-160g protein and 200-240g fat. Daily breakdown of about 70% fat, 20-30% protein and 5-10% carb. I'm 5'9 and 218 as of this morning.
Typical meals:
*Salad with 2oz cheese, 2oz steak, 2 tablspoons olive oil, greens, mushrooms, onions
*3-6 egg omelet(just yolks if having more meat) and veggies, with venision/pork sausage(homemade) and saurkraut
*Cauliflower crust pizza with saute'd onions and mushrooms, cheese and/or some type of meat like grassfed burger or vension.
*Hamburger with buns made from almond flour and eggs, cauliflower mashed with cheese and green onions
*Charcuterie plate with cheese, nuts, and various meats with olives and pickles

That's a small sample. These days there is literally endless meal ideas to where I don't even miss sweets or carbs outside of a rare craving and in those instances I just eat it because I'm so insulin sensitive it bounces right off me and I'm back into ketosis so quickly.

Pitfalls: All of these are having to do with the initial phase of getting into ketosis and maintaining it.
Digestion was a big issue the first few weeks. Constipation was frequent, even with 30-50g of psyllium husk(which didn't effect ketosis at all) day. After "adapting", I guess, it became a non issue and I'm regular.
I didn't realize the necessity of salt supplementation. I'd be dragging on energy and get nothing from coffee or an energy drink. I figured out putting a teaspoon of sea salt in a glass of water would give me energy like I just took a stimulant. Now my daily salt intake is around 6-7g. Blood pressure is 1teens over 70's, btw.
The initial time it takes to get fully adapted WAS a real bitch. Being consumed in a bodybuilding lifestyle for so long, daily strength and energy, as well as daily affirmations in the gym are important and for a 2 week+ period I wasn't getting much positive feed back. But, I started this because I was bored and stagnate and wanted to experiment with something new.

It's definitely not for everyone, as this article of course states. My wife attempted it and it just didn't work for her as far digestion. She never had a drop in energy but being a former triathlete I thin her body is so accustomed to being a carb burner the adaptation was taking longer and she fatigued on the process. She's the type of person who can eat 250g carbs a day and walk around at 13-14% body fat, though.
I highly doubt I'd be going this route if I was still trying accrual significant amounts of muscle. For me, it's been a positive experience once I actually did it and a foreseeable lifestyle as it satiates and I know I can break it and transition so easily at this point.

Last edited by Pheedno; 04-13-2018 at 04:53 AM..
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