Keto Chow

Day 072 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 59 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 205.6
  • Blood ketones: 0.2 mmol/L

 

Had a great Pi day yesterday. I went and got a DEXA scan and a RMR test. Drank a couple Keto Chows for breakfast and lunch and made fathead pizza for the family for Pi day. Oddly the kids had no problem eating a low carb pizza with the crust made of cheese, with alfredo sauce, sausage, bacon, ham, more cheese and some avocados.

My business cards came, We’re going to be sticking them into orders so people can share when asked “how on earth are you losing so much weight?!” FYI: there’s a secret on the back side =)

By |2016-03-15T14:07:19-06:00March 15th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|2 Comments
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DEXA Scan Results (body composition analysis)

This entry is part 123 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I’ve been doing Nutritional Ketosis (aka: “keto”) for about a year and a half now. I started out at 258 back in late October 2014, got down as far as 198 but came up some with Thanksgiving, Christmas and the like. For the last while I’ve been (mostly) doing 3 meals of Keto Chow a day and am on a downward trend again:

18 months of Keto

Yesterday I had a “DEXA” scan done, which I wasn’t even aware of until I saw this post on /r/ketochow and later this post on /r/keto. The quick explanation of a DEXA scan is it’s a full body X-Ray, aside from a post-mortem autopsy it’s the only way to accurately measure your body composition. Biggest surprise from mine? My entire skeleton only weighs 8.52 lbs, that’s nuts. Another interesting thing to note is apparently how inaccurate my scale is for measuring fat percentage by passing voltage through my body (24.5% compared to the 31.9% the DEXA measured). In its defense: my legs show as having 24.6% on the DEXA scan which is only 0.1% off – since the voltage is going in one foot and out the other, I’m guessing it only measures my legs.The DEXA scanner

Aside from providing some really fun pictures of my skeleton and soft tissue, the scan also gives some very interesting statistics on distribution (my right side is slightly stronger than my left) and with additional scans (at the same place) they give you a graph of changes to each region over time (I removed these from the report I uploaded here since they currently only have a single data point). There is also the datum that I have 63 lbs of fat on my body so losing 30 or so isn’t craziness. 180 would be sweet.

Feel free to check out my report.

Right after the scan I also did a test to determine my Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) which involved putting a clip on my nose and breathing through a tube for 15 minutes. The tube fed to a machine that measured the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels going in and out to determine how many calories I was using. The lady told me to make sure I had my phone or something else to do because it would be boring. And it was. She also warned me that the nose plugs would probably feel like burning. And they did; after about 3 minutes.

RMR Scan

Angry Birds shirt FTW!

The test shows that my resting energy expenditure is 2219 calories a day. It also assumes I’ll burn another 633 calories from walking around and doing stuff that isn’t sitting in a chair, reading reddit; and it postulates I could burn another 277 from exercise. The DEXA scan put my RMR at 2004 calories/day – so it was kinda close. The RMR report also said I probably want between 1776 and 2218 calories a day for weight loss; and that my metabolism is 10% faster than people of similar sex, age, height and weight. There were some less than useful platitudes about “you must burn more calories than you consume to lose weight” which is the same as saying “you must save more money than you spend to save money” or “if more people leave a room than come in, there will be less people in the room” – um… thanks? Anyway, here’s the front page of the RMR report:

Resting Metabolic Rate

Overall I think the scan was great and plan to do some follow-up one, starting with 6 months from now. The place I went to charges $99 for the first scan and $75 for subsequent ones – I got a discount by scheduling the RMR and DEXA together ($10 is $10).

By |2016-10-13T07:27:44-06:00March 15th, 2016|Weight Loss, Ketogenic, Keto Chow|Comments Off on DEXA Scan Results (body composition analysis)
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Days 070 & 071 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 58 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 205.9
  • Blood ketones: 0.3 mmol/L
  • Weight: 204.3
  • Blood ketones: <0.1 mmol/L

 

I’m apparently broken or something, when I finally ate yesterday around 5:00 PM my ketone levels were only at 0.3 mmol/L, they should have been up there in the 1.0-1.5 range; and today they’re non-detectable? This is why I would NOT recommend people check their blood ketone levels every day: if you thought stressing over the ups and downs of the scale are bad, this is even worse (plus it costs $2 EVERY TIME YOU TEST).

Whatever. I have three Keto Chows for today (Rich Chocolate), I’m re-testing the vitamin/mineral mixture and so far it does indeed look like the weird flavor was in the protein powder not the mix, I suppose it should be encouraging that I’m still the only one that could taste it. I’m also the only one aside from my mom that I know that doesn’t like cucumbers since, you know, they smell like ammonia. Tomorrow I’ll be mixing up a batch of Keto Chow right off the shelf as a control but it’s looking like I’ll be ordering 100kg of the vitamin mix sometime soon if that tests OK.

On a sad note: I’m still having problems sourcing certain flavors of the Dymatize protein powder. Rich Chocolate is finally becoming available in the 10 lb boxes again (which is nice). But I haven’t been able to find any Cinnamon Bun for over a month and Pina Colada and Banana are getting harder and harder to find. Most of the distributors I get it from are reporting that those 3 (cinnamon, banana and pina colada) have been discontinued by the manufacturer. Now, they also said that about Rich Chocolate a few months ago and it came back just fine so I’m not sure what’s actually going on. Regardless, as of this morning I’ve removed Cinnamon Bun from the “Sample all the things” bundle and I’ll be tracking the remaining inventory of the samples and days closely for removal from the site, week packages of cinnamon bun have been out for the last 2 weeks or so (Snicker Doodle is still available, and yummy).

By |2016-10-13T07:27:44-06:00March 14th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Days 070 & 071 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Day 069 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 57 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 206.0
  • Blood ketones: <0.1 mmol/L

My wife wanted to go to dinner with friends before we went to the “Home and Garden show” so we went to Texas Roadhouse and with my

[still very painful if I chew hard] jaw I got the grilled chicken salad without the croutons. I think I would have been OK except I ate too many of the peanuts whilst waiting and I totally killed my ketosis. Ended up with non-detectable ketone levels this morning plus all that extra salt had my water weight up too. Diet FAIL. I’m planning to do a fast tomorrow though, that should reset everything and make it happy again. Might have to check my ketone levels when I go to eat tomorrow evening.

On a different note: acting on a hunch I tried some of the protein powder I had been using to test the new mineral powder blend all by its self; like I grabbed a spoon and ate some straight. I must have gotten “lucky” and gotten a weird batch of protein powder. So I’m going to test the same vitamin pre-mix with some Rich Chocolate.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:44-06:00March 12th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Day 069 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Day 068 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 56 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 205.2
  • Blood ketones: 0.1 mmol/L

Not sure why my ketones are down today. I did really well yesterday. The only hiccup was I didn’t have any Keto Chow ready for dinner time which was OK since my wife had gotten me a bunless burger from Five Guys (with the free extra bacon and extra cheese, naturally). Whatever. Today was spent mostly mixing  and packaging Keto Chow for the coming week. We got enough done today we won’t need to do much tomorrow so I might actually get something done around the house!

By |2016-03-11T15:55:27-07:00March 11th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|4 Comments
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Day 066 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 54 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 204.7
  • Blood ketones: 0.3 mmol/L

Now that’s what I’m talking about: whoosh! Back down to where I was on Friday. Further giving credence to the notion that it was all water weight and likely the result of inadvertent carbohydrate consumption. Going to keep this trend going.

The FexEx boxes came yesterday so I’ve re-enabled that as an option for shipping, they also delivered a pack of the “10kg” and “25kg” international flat rate boxes. Looks like I could fit 2 months in the 10kg and like 3-4 months worth in the 25kg. I haven’t checked the pricing yet but it’s an option for anyone that wants it.

By |2016-03-09T07:36:58-07:00March 9th, 2016|100 days of keto, Keto Chow|3 Comments
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Day 065 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 53 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 207.1
  • Blood ketones: 0.4 mmol/L

There was a party over at my sister’s house last night, along with bringing the pastries she asked for we also brought smoked salmon, veggies and a bunch of cheese. I did this because my mom, my dad, my brother, my wife and I are all doing keto and it’s nice to have something to snack on.

I’ve been testing the vitamin pre-mix for the last few days. Everyone says they think it tastes fine but I’m still getting hung up on the metallic after taste that apparently only I can taste. I’m not going to introduce a product I don’t like, I requested formulation #3: this time without and magnesium, choline or calcium phosphate. I’ll add those myself and see if the was one of those 3.

By |2016-03-09T07:02:46-07:00March 8th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Day 065 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Days 063 & 064 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 52 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 206.6
  • Blood ketones: <0.1 mmol/L
  • Weight: 207.3
  • Blood ketones: 0.6 mmol/L

Um, that’s the wrong way. +2.7lbs since Friday? You’d almost think I got too many hidden carbs on Saturday (which is likely exactly what happened, went to dinner with my parents and I’m guessing the “sugar free jello” at the buffet wasn’t low carb… or something). The weird thing is that even though my blood ketone levels bottomed out Sunday morning due to my largess on Saturday, they’re back up to 0.6 again this morning.

Anyway, this week should be good, I’m testing out the new vitamin/mineral pre-mix. It uses magnesium citrate instead of magnesium chloride and tastes much better. The first one I drank did have a slight metallic after taste but since then it’s been fine. I’m probably going to make a batch with the remainder and have other people test it out. Of the 3 people that have tasted it, 2 think it tastes exactly the same (I was the outlier).

Looks like the DEXA scan place nearby does offer quantity discounts: the first one is $99 – subsequent scans are $75. It’s probably since you’re already in the system and they’re just adding additional data point(s).

By |2016-03-07T06:39:18-07:00March 7th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Days 063 & 064 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Day 062 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 51 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 205.0
  • Blood ketones: 0.6 mmol/L

Did a really good job at not chewing anything all day yesterday… until I made jalapeno  poppers wrapped in bacon for my wife – I ate a couple of those. Bad idea, my jaw hurts again now =(

We finished up a marathon session mixing last night, We’re almost completely out of protein powder to mix now but we should be completely stocked up for the coming week. It’s nice to have some evenings for other stuff =).

By |2016-03-08T10:12:06-07:00March 5th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Day 062 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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Day 061 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 50 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 204.6
  • Blood ketones: 0.4 mmol/L

Again with the running! I went to my dentist yesterday to see if the pain in my jaw was tooth related, got a panoramic x-ray and everything looks good. Based on my description and the way my jaw was closing, the dentist posits that I hurt the “disc” in my jaw somehow and it needs some time to get better. He prescribed 800mg of ibuprofen and told me that although it would be hard, I needed to try to limit biting down for a week or more “try to stick to soft foods”. I literally laughed out loud and then had to do a really rough explanation about my mostly liquid diet =). So for future reference, Keto Chow works quite well when you have dental/jaw problems.

I did awesome yesterday and the only non-keto chow calories I consumed was a little bit of cheese, I’ll see if I can act on the advice of my dentist.

Last night I was reading a post on the /r/ketochow sub-reddit where someone had gotten a DEXA scan. Down the rabbit hole I went! A while later I had found a company here locally that does them, they charge $99 for 1 scan and have in the past given discounts if you sign up for multiple ones at a time, so I have an appointment for Monday, March 14 (Pi day). EDIT: I was looking at their “Sample Report” and laughed out loud at “Android fat is associated with visceral (unhealthy) fat” – that darn android fat!

On a final note, today there was a new “study” published that claims a high fat diet (in mice) causes cancer. There is an excellent discussion over on /r/ketoscience about it but the TL; DR is

Low quality fat sources: 55% lard and 5.5% soybean oil. 32% of the fat is PUFA, omega6:3 ratio is 14:1.

Low quality protein sources: 20% casein that is poor in glycine and taurine, which are needed for metabolic health.

Low quality carbohydrate sources: 12% maltodextrin and 7% sugar that are completely unnecessary and just there to hinder fat metabolism.

Turns out that if you put mice on a diet of sugar and lard, the mice get fat and sick.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:47-06:00March 4th, 2016|Keto Chow, 100 days of keto|Comments Off on Day 061 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)
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