Craig Wilcox

  • 100 Day Health Challenge 2025 Edition

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    Craig

    Instead of resolutions each year, I set out on a 100 Day Challenge that starts 100 days before my birthday, April 18. I’ll turn 54 that day, and I always want it to be a day I’m proud of instead of sad about.

    For my health goals, I’ve set myself up well for the past year, and I’m starting 6 pounds lighter than I did for this challenge last year. But the bigger achievement last year is that I finally figured out how to do resistance training while still maintaining and even losing weight. I was able to put on more lean mass and lose fat at the same time.

    For this, my goal is less weight-based this time than in the past. Instead, I’m going for a sub-15% fat mass level. I did a DEXA scan in late August, and it showed I weighed 188 with an 18% body fat mass. I’d estimate I’m a little over that after some holiday gluttony. Let’s call it 19-20%.

    So I need to lose approximately 8-10 pounds of fat in 100 days while still maintaining my lean body mass. I saw glimpses of being able to do this in October, when I was able to lose a little over a pound before I started on vacations on holiday eating.

    A Breakthrough – More Resistance Without More Fat

    Here’s how it went down in the correlation of resistance minutes I did (blue line) compared to the pounds of fat (orange line) I had. In general, as soon as picked up a dumbbell and did some pushups, I’d start gaining fat back. The fat would lag the resistance by about a month.

    In 2022, I put on 8 pounds of fat without doing much more resistance. In 2023, it was down to 4 pounds with more resistance. In 2024, I actually maintained the same amount of fat while doing a lot more resistance training.

    The key was very simple. I started tracking my macros and calories every day, and I made sure to consume an average of 180-190 grams of protein per day.

    The main difficulty I’ll need to overcome is that I was consuming over 3000 calories per day to achieve that level. I’m figuring I’ll need to consume the same 180 grams of protein while only taking in 2800 calories per day.

    In October, I was only at 5-8% carbs per day, so I won’t be able to go lower than that. The sacrifice will be on the fat side, and that’s usually not what one wants to do on keto. For me, besides the mental health benefits, the main thing that makes keto easy has been that I’m just not that hungry.

    Keto Macro Goals

    My macros will have to run at:

    1. Protein: 700 – 750 calories per day. (25-27%.)
    2. Carbs: 150 – 200 calories per day. (5-7%.)
    3. Fat: 1900 calories per day. (66-70%.)

    It might be tricky to maintain that. If I get hungry, I’ll have to extend the amount of time I give myself to achieve the 8-10 pound fat loss from 100 days to perhaps 200 days.

    What I’ll be trying is to have a little less butter each day. That may sound easy, but I honestly just love it. I’ve averaged somewhere around 1.5 – 1.75 ounces per day. I’ll cut that down to under 1 per day and see how it goes. Cutting down on cashews should help, too. Instead of 1 ounce, I’ll go down to less than 0.5 ounces. Overall, that’s over 200 calories less per day, and it should do the trick if I can maintain it.

    Alcohol

    The other 100ish calories will come from consuming less alcohol. We’re on the heels of a very strong statement by the surgeon general that any amount of alcohol increases our chances of various cancers. I do enjoy alcohol, but I’m finding it much less appealing overall, and definitely don’t want to increase my chances of cancer.

    In 2010, at the age of 70, my mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I wouldn’t consider her a heavy drinker, but she would have 2-3 drinks every Friday and Saturday. My dad made her 1-2 very large martinis or Manhattans those nights. Was it the cause of her cancer? That’s completely unclear. Did it contribute to her cancer? I think we could say “yes” to that.

    She died just 4 months later.

    2025 is the year I cut down from an average of 1 drink per day to less than half a drink per day. I started tracking it in 2017, when I was drinking at least 2 per day. When I look at pictures of those “2” drinks, it was likely closer to 3 or 4, as the wine glasses were very big and they were filled with far more than 5 ounces.

    Last year was definitely my best year at 0.87 drinks per day (with a much more honest accounting of what a drink consists of). Still, let’s be even more honest and call it 1 per day like I said above. I consume mostly tequila and a little beer now. Beer is easy to count. My shots of tequila, however, are probably a skosh more than the recommended 1.5 ounces.

    As usual, that was a pretty long accounting of how I’ll go about my food in particular in this new year.

    Exercise in 2025

    My exercise will remain about the same. I’ll try to maintain an average of over 20 minutes per day of resistance exercise. That breaks down to doing resistance every other day for me. I do a push day of around 50-60 minutes, a pull day of 50-60 minutes, a core day of 40-50 minutes, and a leg day of just around 15-20 minutes.

    I could use a better leg day routine, but I really struggle with hamstring cramping. I think some Bulgarian split squats, some weighted lunges, and maybe even some RDLs will be helpful. (My form needs a lot of work on the RDLs!)

    For the past year, I’ve been doing 3 sets of each exercise, and almost always 10 reps per set. This year, I’ll do something like 10-7-4 and use heavier weights to see if I can break past a plateau in muscle growth. Hitting my protein goals will obviously be key to this as well.

    I’ll keep doing my walking, treadmill walking, and once a week or so I’ll do treadmill running. My goal before had been to run a 6-minute mile. Now, I’d be happy to do a 7-minute mile. That will require more sprint work, and that requires me to trust the treadmills not to go from 10 mph to 0 mph within one second, which happens more than it should. It’s a bit scary. I haven’t tried it on the new treadmills at the gym yet.

    Conclusion

    I’ve been excited to start this new 100 Day Challenge since mid-November, so I’m glad the day is finally here. 2025 will present a ton of external challenges, so I’m hoping my health goals can stay on track and help offset those.

    More about this soon…

  • The Growth Mindset at 53 Years Old

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    Craig

    In the past couple of weeks and months, right around the time I hit 53, I’ve realized I need to make a couple of changes in my growth mindset.

    In case you haven’t heard of it, a growth mindset is the firm belief that learning, effort, and persistence will create improvements in all areas of life.

    “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”

    Carol Dweck

    I still want to make progress. I still have goals. When and how I achieve those, however, could probably use a gentler timeline.

    I’ve always thought of what I want to achieve in terms of a calendar year. For my physical goals, I’ve adopted the habit of being very strict with my diet for the first 100 days of the year. And I did that with success again this year.

    After that first 100 days of losing weight (and most likely some muscle), I start to bulk up by lifting heavier weights and eating more. I do that until mid-autumn. And at the end of the year, I give myself a break to enjoy the holidays.

    Being honest, though, that “break” I take is less a choice and more a necessity to recover from injuries and exhaustion. By the end of 2023, I had tennis elbow, a mysterious bicep strain, and near constant inflammation throughout my elbow joint.

    These maladies improved a bit throughout my winter break from resistance training, but I wouldn’t call myself 100% healed, and I actually had more healing after I slowly started to do lighter resistance training.

    About a month ago, I resumed heavier resistance training. My appetite skyrocketed, and I started consuming up to 3500 calories per day while never quite feeling satiated.

    Then it hit me, what if I just progressed more slowly and tried to hit some goals for my gains by next summer. Or even 2 summer from now.

    Immediately, I felt a weight had lifted from me, and not just that extra 10 pounds of iron I’d try to do to exhaustion during my sets. It *felt* right to go about it more slowly.

    If I don’t get exhausted, I can maintain my efforts throughout the year. If I don’t get injured, I can just slowly get stronger and more fit. If I’m not hungry all the time, it’s just a nicer experience throughout each day.

    And, of course, I need to track it and want to see how the charts “respond” to this change. So here’s the “blip”, right at the very end, in my usual upswing in weight.

    I feel like I caught myself right before it was too late.

    In 2022, (after recovering from a self-inflicted sickness/allergy), I went from 183 all the way back up to 200.

    In 2023, I went from 187 to 197.

    So far, in 2024, I went from 186 only to 187, and it’s falling again. I’m expecting to get below 197 even with some gains in lean mass.

    When I take a step back, it does feel strange that I won’t be trying to maximize all the physical gains before I’m 54 or 55. That does officially sound old.

    But I’m seeing a ton of people who have already made it to 55 and beyond in great shape. I’ll strive consistently and slowly instead of going all out with the greatest velocity.

    Really, it’s all about how I feel, and I feel great overall. I’d just like to continue feeling great, avoid injuries and illness, and maintain and improve upon what I’ve already accomplished. That’s how I’ve redefined my own growth mindset.

  • 100-Day Keto Results Are In!

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    Craig

    My 100-Day keto results and experiences were both better and worse than I thought they would be.

    10 Pound Weight Loss

    First, the good. My 30-day weight was right at 186 on April 18, my birthday. I’ve seen a couple of days under 185 on my 7-day chart. That beat my goal of 190, and I’m still seeing a downward trend. Here’s my weight for the last 11+ years:

    The only time I’ve been lower was when I made myself incredibly sick trying to start keto by replacing oatmeal with eggs for breakfast. It turned out I’m allergic to them!

    I’m thinking I’ll “bottom out” this time a little under 185.

    I had the thought the other day that I after taking off the “last 5 pounds”, it’s not *really* the last 5 pounds, and it may not even be the 2nd to last five pounds! I don’t want to drop under 180 by any means, but I’m not going to be looking “fat-free” either.

    Reduced Alcohol Intake

    I also had the goal of reducing my alcohol intake. I noticed (probably for the first time) that I’d never gone a full week without a drink. I realized I’m not a heavy drinker, but I’m a very consistent one. I set out to have a bit less and also go a full week without any at all. I did it twice, and was very close on a 3rd time.

    Here’s a breakdown of my 7-day (blue) and 28-day alcohol intake for a little over 6 years. It was definitely nice to see that blue line touch zero a couple times.

    I’d say my desire for alcohol is also down significantly. I wouldn’t say it’s gone, but I’m not desiring any during the week at least.

    The weekends? Yes, I still like to have a few drinks for the fun of it. I’m not sure that will change, even though I find the hangovers are much worse than they used to be.

    Now, the bad stuff…

    Muscle Loss?

    My second time with a stricter keto diet was much more difficult. Part of that was due to a couple of weekends where I didn’t stick to keto. Both times, plus the initial induction, the “keto flu” got me. I felt tired and thought I had a cold.

    This time around, I kept my protein a lot lower than I had throughout last year to see what would happen. My macros were around 75-80% fat, 5% carbohydrates, and 15-20% protein, which was only an average just over 100-130 grams.

    I did that for an extra 40ish days or so compared to last year, and I think I lost quite a bit of muscle mass. I felt much more tired, especially while exercising, and only felt the “brightness of mind” a few times.

    During this time, I was also trying to rest from my arm injuries by not doing my resistance exercises. That’s obviously going to cause some muscle loss. My shoulder pain did go away almost 100%, but the tennis elbow didn’t improve much at all.

    In mid-March, I’d had enough, and I increased both my protein and my resistance training. I’m now trying to get a minimum of 150 grams of protein per day, so I’m at 20-25% protein, 70-75% fat, and still just 5% carbs.

    I’m feeling much better now, and I’m still continuing to lose some weight. I have enough energy throughout the day and during exercise, and I feel happier with the “light and bright” mindset I had last year. I don’t think I’m losing muscle mass anymore, but I’m not sure I’m gaining it too fast yet either.

    I’m now resolved to continue the journey at my current macros or maybe a little more protein – up to 25-30% on average to see how I handle it.

    My other big goal was to do more treadmill running and get down to a 6:30 mile. This was the biggest failure, and I’m actually much slower than I was. I just didn’t have the energy to do the runs. I don’t think I can even do an 8 minute mile anymore.

    While it’s disappointing to have these results, I’m still fired up to try to get down to 6:30, and I’m starting to run more than I had been. It’s also spring, and I’ll do most of my outdoor running in the next month or two. As soon as the snow melts off, that is.

    Overall, I’d say this 100-day experiment was balanced between the good and the bad. And now I know for sure what my body needs going forward.

    I’ll stay on top of recording my calorie intake for at least another 6 weeks, when I’ll go to Las Vegas to play in the National Open again this year. That’s the official beginning of pool season for me, and I like to see if I can get a leaner look each year. Sometimes almost the end of pool season, too, as I just don’t go to the pool very often anymore. This makes the stakes a bit higher.

    I’d say I’m now hitting my personal stride for 2024, and I’m excited to see where it takes me!

  • Keto After 1 Month

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    Craig

    Winter is a great time for me to pursue my health goals. I’m almost always in control of it since we rarely travel and I mostly leave the house for exercise or groceries.

    That hasn’t been the case this year, as we’ve already had two trips where it was difficult to do a keto diet and also impossible to exercise the way I do normally. So out of what should be about a month of keto, I’m missing 6 days.

    Still, it’s been a month, so it’s good to review. Just like last year, my first proper 100-day keto diet, the weight has come off quickly. It seems it’s about 3 pounds of water weight, and then another 3-4 pounds of fat and lean tissue. My 7-day weight average was at a high of 197.6, and that average is now at just over 190.

    The travel interruptions have made it difficult to get a good rhythm for more than 2 weeks so far, and that means I’ve been trying to gain ketosis 3 different times already. Since that’s the hardest part for me – queue the keto “flu” – it’s not been nearly as easy as last year.

    Just this week, though, I’ve started to experience some of the “lightness of being” and “brightness of outlook” that I had for a couple months last year, and I’m looking forward to more of that.

    Calories In / Calories Out

    I estimated I wanted to arrive right around 2500 calories consumed per day for this beginning part of the keto journey. For the past 8 days, I’m a bit above that at 2650.

    My calories out have been at 3100 through yesterday. That should equate to about a pound per week of weight loss, which is in keeping with what I did last year.

    Just like I’ve started to see the lightness and brightness in just the past few days, I’ve also seen my appetite lessened. For me, not feeling hungry is the absolute key to trimming down

    I’m only looking to lose about 5 more pounds, and I think that will happen within the next month, putting me about one month ahead of the 100-day challenge.

    Dry-ish January

    In all the 6+ years of recording my alcohol consumption on a daily basis, I’d never once had a 7 day stretch with zero alcohol. I’d honestly never given that a thought, but the recent coverage of alcohol having only negative impacts on health made me think I should give it a try.

    This January, I’ve hit zero on the 7-day scale twice. I’m glad it didn’t feel all that difficult, and I think I’ll keep my consumption a lot lower than in the past. I do enjoy having 2 or maybe 3 drinks on weekend nights, but I find I’m paying a much higher price for those in terms of mental acuity and well being. As I’m coming up on 53, it doesn’t feel like I can spare days to hangovers anymore.

    Speaking of mental acuity, it does seem like keto has had a somewhat negative impact on my sharpness so far. I’ll write about the effect of keto on my chess rating next.

  • My 2024 Physical Achievements

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    Craig

    I was going to call this post “My 2024 Physical Goals”, but it just doesn’t feel right to me to call them goals. I’m just going to do what I know I need to do, and I’ll achieve what I want to achieve. There’s no striving necessary.

    Anyway, here they are through April 18, 2024, my 53rd birthday.

    I think I like my weight best at right around 190. My 28-day average weight is 196 right now, and I don’t feel just the right way.

    I’ll track my calories and need to be eating an average of 200 less calories less than I have recently. The thing that’s going to make this 200 calorie deficit a little harder to get to is that I haven’t tracked them recently and don’t really know my starting point. I’m going to assume it’s been a bit over 2700 on average, so I’ll settle in at 2500 for a bit and see how it goes.

    I’d like to drink a lot less than I have recently. When I was doing keto last year, my cravings for alcohol fell a lot, and I’ll expect the same thing this year. Hopefully, starting tomorrow, I’ll do a solid week with 0 alcohol and see how it goes. If I slip up during my practice week, no big deal. Anything less than 1 per day on average will be a win compared to this last week.

    Besides my weight, I’ll focus on 3 things for the first 100 days:

    1. Developing a stretching and movement routine.
    2. Being able to run a 6:30 mile on a treadmill. (By the end of the year, I want to do a 6:00 minute mile, but it seems better to give this a little more time than 100 days.)
    3. Taking a small break from heavy resistance training for recovery. I’ll up the core work as a replacement.

    My legs are beginning the year in good shape. I also have a strong core, chest, and back. My arms, though, are a disaster. I need to see a doctor about my left arm, which shakes uncontrollably when trying to drink coffee especially.

    My right arm needs a lot of help. I started last year with shoulder issues. I ended it with my shoulder being slightly better, but I developed tennis elbow, generalized inflammation, and a twinge in my bicep. I’ll schedule several massages for this, and I need to try acupuncture for the tendonitis based on a friend’s recommendation.

    That seems like all the major stuff. I think I’ll accomplish my weight goal relatively quickly if I stick to keto. The other stuff will need some time and practice.

  • Happy New Year! Welcome 2024

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    Craig

    2023 turned into a great year for me, and I’m not quite finished celebrating. We have our annual New Year’s Day party for close friends and neighbors, so there will be one last hurrah before I start practicing for 2024.

    With a birthday on the 108th day of the year, I “practice” what I want my habits to be for the first 8 days, and then I’ll be off and running for 100 days of “game time” effort until my birthday. I don’t need any resolutions with this. Just a few things I’ll do a little bit better each year.

    Near the end of last year, when I was in-between celebratory holidays, I had what was a very strange thought for me for the first time in my life.

    I felt in complete control of my body and had the certainty I could accomplish what I wanted to without anything that would be considered “effort” or willpower or motivation. Instead of needing to get “fired up”, I’ll just start doing it again, and I’ll get the results I want by my birthday.

    Yes, there will be times when I’ll have to remind myself not to do a few things. I’ll make some mistakes, too. But overall, I’ll just cruise right to where I want to be.

    For someone who has had lifelong depression and has “struggled” with weight loss and maintenance for the better part of always, that’s an amazing thought and feeling.

    I credit the keto diet I used strictly to begin last year for this winning mindset. Throughout the rest of the year, I experimented with some different variations of it – with more protein specifically – and also had good results throughout the year.

    Toward the end of the year, I definitely “let go” a bit and enjoyed some different foods I hadn’t had for the rest of the year. But during these last 5 weeks of the year, I didn’t feel like I was giving in to cravings, I didn’t get any extra delight out of them, and I don’t feel like I’ll miss them. I did it mostly for social reasons, and I had a nice time with family and friends without worrying about what I was doing.

    That’s over now. I’ll still enjoy myself, but I’ll do it without the carbs and with quite a bit less alcohol. Close to none actually.

    Ok, off we go into 2024.

  • 6 Weeks On Keto and Going Strong Still

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    Craig

    I just passed the 6 week mark on the ketogenic diet, and I’m still feeling great with few issues. The last 2 weeks have been a bit different than the previous 4. It feels like my body is now on the other side of an “adjustment” of some kind, and I’m back to feeling like progress is occurring.

    When I wrote about keto after 4 weeks, I mentioned I wanted to slow down a bit on the weight loss, as it was averaging over 6 pounds per month. The plan was to lower my output slightly and take in a few more calories so I’d get back to just 4 pounds per month.

    I didn’t quite make it to the 2,500 calories of intake I’d be aiming for, landing at 2,400 on average. I did almost exactly reach the 3,000 in calories burnt. Overall, then, that would amount to 2.4 pounds lost during that time.

    But that’s not what happened. Instead, I’m at 1.3 pounds lost. So much for the almost exact calories in vs. calories out formula I had going. And so much for the keto magic that explains it should be even better.

    But there is one difference in the past 2 weeks. I started doing heavier resistance training in the past 2 weeks. Nothing huge. Just around 20 minutes per day twice a week. And I think this has caused an adjustment.

    Last week especially, I didn’t feel quite as good as I had been. I had some gastrointestinal discomfort, felt a little bloated, and was probably retaining a bit more water. Maybe my body has figured out a way to store more glycogen to prepare for more resistance training. That makes the most sense to me, as an extra pound of water retained water would explain the difference in calorie expenditures.

    Last week, I also felt a bit more hungry, and I even had a couple of staring contests with some chips. I was mostly able to avert my gaze, but I did have just a couple of chips, a few french fries, and one Valentine’s chocolate last week.

    By last night, it felt as though the adjustment was over. My hunger was again way down yesterday, and I barely consumed 2,000 calories while burning up almost 3,300.

    Today, I broke under 190 pounds for the first time, and I feel like it’s going to stick under that weight this week.

    As mentioned, my plan was to start increasing my resistance training and also increase my protein intake. I started up with a protein powder with 24 grams of protein yesterday.

    Over the next week or so, I’m hoping to “up” my protein percentage from 20-25% to 30% or more. I’ll be taking blood measurements for ketones and glucose starting tomorrow to see if there are any differences.

    I am also liking the videos made by Thomas DeLauer, who takes a scientific approach to the ketogenic diet. This video, which says that bumping protein up and fat down has proven worthy of a try.

    This has essentially been my plan when I started. Do keto to get smaller and then bump up the protein percentage while still maintaining the low carb approach. We’ll see how it works over the next couple of weeks!

  • After 4 Weeks of the Keto Diet

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    Craig

    I’ve now completed 4 weeks of the keto diet. I’m impressed, I’m fascinated, and I’m feeling good. Oh, and I’m accomplishing my goals, too.

    Week over week, the biggest difference is again with my hunger. I’m just not hungry very often, so I’m not eating as much. I’ve kept very careful track of my calories again this week, and the average is under 2300 calories consumed per day. The net carbs are always at 5%. The fat varied between 65 and 70%, and the protein was 20-25%. All good for the sake of the diet.

    On the expenditure side, I went slightly higher than normal to 3070 calories per day. That makes for a net of calorie deficit of 770 per day or 5390 per week. That’s 1.5 pounds per week. (My actual 7 day average is 1.51. That’s pretty close!) 4 weeks ago, my 7-day average weight was 200.3 lbs. Now, my 7-day average is at 192.2 lbs.

    I’ve been struggling to assess whether 6-7 pounds per month is too much to lose, and my rational self thinks it probably is. 4 pounds per month seems more reasonable. My motivated “resolutions” self is happier with 6-7 pounds!

    This week, I also started with some resistance training. Just 10 minutes on average for 4 days. I had thought I’d experience losses and more difficulty without the traditional glycogen loss and protein powder I’m accustomed to taking, but it’s likely only 15% like it has been with my aerobic capacity. I’ll try to pick it up a bit this week to see if I feel ok with higher loads and workout time.

    Also this week, I purchased and received a Keto Mojo blood glucose and ketone meter. I had done one measurement a couple weeks ago, and I had a good reading then of 1.0 mmol/l an hour or so after a meal. So far with my own device measurements, I’m at 1.0 mmol/l or below on my morning readings. Glucose in the mornings has been between 70-75 mg/dL. That seems slightly too low at this point, but it’s not out of the range. I did feel some low blood sugar symptoms this morning and one other morning this week.

    I think I’ll need to consume more fat calories this week to see if I can push the ketone readings over 1.0 mmol/l. I’ll focus on consuming right around 2500 calories per day with a 3000 calorie per day expenditure to see how that treats me.

    I’ll need to mix up my food choices a little more this week. I’m finding myself somewhat unsatisfied my with dinner meals.

  • 3 Weeks on Keto: I’m Not Hungry, and I’m Also Not Losing Weight Quickly

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    Craig

    I’m now through 3 full weeks of the keto diet, and I’m getting less hungry by the day.

    For me, the first week garnered the biggest weight loss, which is as expected. The body stops storing glycogen, and the “weight” of glycogen is mostly water. I went from around 200 down to 195.

    At that point, my weight loss slowed down substantially, and I felt “stuck” at 194. Only for the past 2 days have I seen readings under 194. That’s almost 2 full weeks without any weight loss, which definitely felt frustrating.

    I finally did a blood test to make sure I was in ketosis, and I was. Even though I’ve felt positive effects more than I had after 10 days, I was definitely curious why the weight loss wasn’t occurring at a higher clip.

    As a result, I started tracking my calories very carefully and deliberately for the last five days, and that’s provided a clearer picture. On a “normal” day, I’m consuming somewhere between 2500-2800 calories. I’ve been almost exactly at the recommended guidelines of 70% fat, 25% protein, and 5% net carbs.

    My Fitbit has me burning about 3,000 calories per day on average. Aha! Now it all makes sense. At a calorie deficit of 300 calories per day, it would take right around 12 days to lose a pound.

    In other words, after the first week, there’s no “magic” to the weight loss, at least if one doesn’t start with more than 10-20 pounds to lose. (This seems like it could be different for people with a more substantial amount to lose, but I’m not sure.) For me, though, it appears it’s going to be calories in/calories out.

    For the past couple of days, I’ve dialed back the calories to around 2300 per day. And here is the interesting part to me: I’m not hungry.

    I think that’s likely the “magic” behind keto. At right around the 2 week mark, my appetite fell dramatically. And I’ve heard one’s appetite keeps falling as the body gets used to creating the right blood sugar concentration using fats (and proteins) instead of carbohydrates. There’s a nearly unlimited source of fat available in our bodies, and the ketogenic diet adds even more.

    To me, that means the additional weight loss will come over time as I just eat less. If I stay under 2500 and keep up my exercise level to burn 3000 calories, I’ll get into a rhythm of losing one pound per week from here.

    I had suspected I’d only need around 2 months of keto to lose upwards of 15-20 pounds overall. Now, I’m thinking it will take around 3 months. The fortunate part is that it seems very easy to do from a hunger perspective. The only worry I have about maintaining ketosis is that I’m needing to find more interesting and healthier meals than I’ve been having.

    My go-to meal has been sausage and cheese with hemp hearts and olive oil thrown in. It’s already getting old, and I think the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is far too high to be considered healthy.

  • Keto for One Week – No Signs of Ketosis Yet

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    Craig

    I started my keto diet on January 9, so I’ve been doing it for just over a week.

    Here are some notes on it so far.

    1. I don’t get as hungry as I thought I would, and I’m not craving carbs really at all.
    2. Digestion seems to be better with less pain from bloating.
    3. From what I can tell, I’m not yet producing ketones in any measurable way. I’m using test strips for that. More on my impressions about this below.
    4. I think I’m at about 25 net carbs per day, but I think my protein intake may be too high still.
    5. I exercise almost every day. I knew there would be a cost to my endurance and strength. From what I can tell, I’m able to comfortably exercise at about 85-90% of my normal rates. My incline treadmill feels best at 18% incline instead of 21%. When riding a stationary bike, I’m generating around 170 watts instead of 200.
    6. I haven’t had any “keto flu” symptoms…probably because I’m not generating ketones yet. I’ve had a mild headache and some very low energy during parts of the day.
    7. I do still have a “low blood sugar” feeling occasionally, but I’d think I’d have a much worse reaction if I’m truly not in ketosis yet.

    From my understanding, being in ketosis takes between 2-7 days. I’m on Day 8, and the test strips aren’t detecting any ketones – or at least a very low amount.

    Since I’m on day 9 now, either the test strips are wrong or I’m doing something wrong.

    The thing that occurs to me is that I’m still consuming too much protein. I’ve tried to bump up my fat intake and at least slightly lower my protein intake starting yesterday, and I’m hoping that does the trick. Today, however, I’m not feeling anything different.

    The strangest part, then, is that I’m still going about my day without much discomfort. And I’m also not feeling like a complete idiot. I’d think that having only 25ish grams of carbs and exercising for 40-60 minutes per day would burn up that amount.

    I’ve read that our bodies can create glucose from protein as well as carbs in an emergency. That’s my best guess.

    So far, the scale has me at about 5 pounds less on a 3-day average reading.

    Overall, I’d say the experience is a positive one so far, but I’d really like to see what this ketosis business is all about soon.