Weight Loss

Day 002 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

This entry is part 3 of 81 in the series 100 days of keto
  • Weight: 208.5
  • Blood ketones: 0.3 mmol/L

Blood ketones are increasing and hey hey, I’ve only got 10lbs to go before I’m back down to what I was in September. I didn’t overtly eat anything carby Thanksgiving through New Years, I was actually pretty good during the holidays but I think too much sugar alcohols (specifically malitol) got to me. I’m not eating any of that now so everything should work out well. I ran on the treadmill last night but the heart rate monitor was being sketchy so I don’t have anything quantitative to show for it (no pretty graphs or data). I’ll see if I can get it happy tonight.

An interview I did was published at http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pellissier20160105 this morning.

By |2016-01-05T07:37:36-07:00January 5th, 2016|100 days of keto, Weight Loss|Comments Off on Day 002 – 100 days of Keto (Chow)

My Graduation Pants are WAY too big

This entry is part 109 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I was going through my closet last night and an old pair of pants fell out. They’re the Guess jeans I wore the last day of High School – way back in June 1995. Guys signed my year book, girls wrote on the pants. Yes I know, not the best idea. We’re all stupid in retrospect and I really need to throw them away now that they’ve apparently served their purpose (and before my kids read some of the stuff written on them).

Anyhow, I hadn’t looked at them in years and was surprised to find what size they were: 38. I must have carried the weight differently back then because I’m fairly certain I weighed about 220 at the time and 38 is the size pants I was wearing last year when I weighed 250. Decided I might as well try them on one last time and do a “bathroom mirror selfie”

Graduation Pants

Yep. WAY too big! I’m currently wearing 34 and even those are starting to get big. I doubt I’ll ever get to 30 but you never know.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:58-06:00December 2nd, 2015|Weight Loss|1 Comment

“Golden Oldies: Impressions and comments on the keto chow solution for Senior citizens.”

This entry is part 108 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I have another user experience to share (with permission):

  • Gender: Woman
  • Age: 66
  • Length of time on keto chow: 4 weeks.
  • Results: very positive.

A favorite blouse fits so much better than it did a month ago, just before starting Keto Chow.  I tried the Atkins diet several years ago and was moderately successful. Losing weight is much different than maintaining a lower weight. We are hopeful that this approach will do two things, keep weight off and avoid diabetes.

I have often called myself a sugar addict and restricting carbs has clearly put my addiction in the spotlight.  The flavors and formulas of keto chow have made the transition less traumatic and I have not experienced “keto flu”, to date.  Mood swings and any food challenges seem to be resulting from extended family problems more than dietary adjustments.   My former knee jerk reaction to self medicate with sugar has been offset with the immediate benefits.  Swelling has gone down in my face, hands and feet.  I can hear better, too.
My husband has joined me in this lifestyle change and the mutual support is a tremendous benefit.  We encourage each other, rather than trying to sabotage improvements.  We also did a month of preparation.  We cleaned non compliant foods out of the cupboards and freezers, except for snacks to feed grandchildren.  We studied the keto chow blog to grasp preparation, and bought helpful equipment such as shaker bottles.  My first challenge was to decide how much “real” food to eat and how many keto chow to consume.  This is probably very subjective, according to the weight loss goals.  I settled on one to two shakes a day, leaning toward one.   Fasting is less difficult, because I do not feel as hungry when I have not had anything to eat.
Favorite flavors:  Pina colada, cinnamon bun, toffee and strawberry blast.
I will continue to do periodic updates on my progress.  No weight posts, taboo to ask a lady what she weighs.
By |2016-10-13T07:27:59-06:00November 30th, 2015|Weight Loss, Keto Chow, Ketogenic|3 Comments

User experience on Keto Chow (age 47, down 50lbs in 5 months)

This entry is part 106 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

This is from a dude in California:

I just wanted to thank you for your Keto Chow diet. On June 18th, I bought a Fitbit and received your first shipment and started the Ketochow diet. I initially did 2 shakes and 1 meal for about a month. I later changed to 1 shake and 2 meals.

Anyway, it’s been about 5 months now and I’ve lost 50lbs on your diet. I started at 228 and today I’m 177.5!!!

I’m 47 years old, 6″ and previously, whenever I start gaining wait, I would cut back on my calories and start to exercise more. However, for some reason, it was much harder for me to drop the weight on a lower caloric diet. I spent a month at 1500 calories with moderate exercise and only lost 2 lbs???

On your diet, I lost 12lbs in the first month and continued to lose about 10lbs for the next 4+ months.

Now, I need to go on Maintenance Mode, I still have a little flab on my belly which I want to completely get rid of. However, I’m worried about losing too much weight. I’m worried that my face will look gaunt. So for now, I’m gently increasing my carbs from 20-40. And gently increasing my calories so that I will be stick around 175lbs. I’ll continue to make adjustments up or down to my carbs/calories.

Anyway, that’s my story and I wanted to say thank you again. Today, I just made another order for $275.00 and I love it.

By |2016-10-13T07:27:59-06:00November 11th, 2015|Weight Loss, Keto Chow, Ketogenic|Comments Off on User experience on Keto Chow (age 47, down 50lbs in 5 months)

13 things people on keto are tired of hearing

This entry is part 105 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

This is shamelessly stolen from this reddit post, with inline images.

  1. No carbs? Hah. I don’t think I could ever do that.reactions01
  2. But your body NEEDS carbs!reactions02
  3. Bacon every day? You’re going to kill yourself on that diet.reactions03
  4. You need to eat more fruit.reactions04
  5. So only whole grain bread, right?reactions05
  6. Good luck, you won’t be able to stay on that kind of diet very long.reactions06
  7. So what day is your cheat day?reactions07
  8. You can have ONE piece of cake, can’t you?reactions08
  9. I guess you’re just lucky / have good genes.reactions09
  10. But eating all that fat makes you fat!reactions10
  11. Fad diets don’t workreactions11
  12. What can you eat? Can you eat here?reactions12
  13. You’re losing too much weight / losing it too fast! reactions13
By |2016-10-13T07:27:59-06:00November 5th, 2015|Ketogenic, Weight Loss|Comments Off on 13 things people on keto are tired of hearing

1 Year of Keto, 77% the man I used to be

This entry is part 102 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I started Keto on October 20, 2014 and started posting my experiences on November 4, 2014. A lot has happened in a year, I’m 77% the man I used to be; so let’s do a retrospective.

Weight Log 1 year of Keto

I initially started keto without having done the right research and didn’t know what “keto flu” was or how to avoid it; but I did know that I needed to get my weight under control and get healthy. I never got tested but based on how my body was acting, I was pre-diabetic or at least insulin resistant. Keto was exactly what I needed. I feel this burning desire to make little business cards and hand them out to teenagers that… well, look like I did at that age:

keto business card

The changes go beyond just weight loss. For the first time in years the cells in my body have adequate fuel since it’s not being shoved into fat cells by insulin. I go to a class and don’t fall into a “carb coma” after lunch. My blood tests are awesome and my blood sugar is normalized.

Anyway. I started doing Keto using a recipe of ketogenic “soylent” called KetoFood. Initially with the “induction phase” one and quickly switching over to the “ongoing phase” recipe because the induction one was really, really gross. KetoFood served me well for the time but still wasn’t very pleasant and had a horrible texture since it’s primarily coconut flour, chia seeds and raw cocoa powder (with a bunch or oil). To this day I still gag when I smell chia seeds. In early December after I had been choking down KetoFood for about 6 weeks I was sent a sample of KetoSoy by Ted Tieken. It was far and away so much better than KetoFood I couldn’t believe it – MIND BLOWN. See, most people do a ketogenic diet using “real food” (instead of “fake hippie garbage“) but I have an unhealthy relationship with food and on top of that, doing food replacement shakes is really convenient – and that convenience and the results I was already getting had me resigned to the notion that ketogenic soylent was going to be barely palatable.

Around the same time a new keto soylent recipe was published by Kenneth Swanson. Instead of copious amounts of oils for the calories, Ken’s recipe used heavy cream. It was far smoother than anything else I had tried at that point too which was a nice respite for my “gritted-out” palate. I had enough supplies to make roughly 10 days of this recipe and ordered more of the protein powder too late for it to arrive in time for a second batch before I ran out. So I was forced to go back on KetoFood for a week. It was at that point I decided I was going to kill off my KetoFood and create a new recipe. I was still selling People Chow pre-mixed for people but didn’t have my heart in it. I eventually abandoned all of the other recipes in favor of the new one I was working on. January 1, 2015 I posted for the first time about what would become Keto Chow. I had finally worked out a suitable protein powder and over the next month or so I messed around with the recipe ingredients to further cut down on gritty texture and simplify the ingredient list. I posted the recipe for Keto Chow 0.7 for anyone to use and abuse. Not opening the recipe didn’t even occur to me: we’re all in this together and frankly there’s no way I could mix up enough Keto Chow for all the people that are mixing their own (plus it would be kinda a jerk-move since I was pulling ingredients and concepts from Ken’s Recipe, KetoFood and even People Chow).

Oddly enough, right about the time I was launching Keto Chow, I participated in a community weight loss challenge and to prepare for it I indulged in my very first “cheat” (week). The thing with ketogenic diets is it’s kinda binary: you’re either under your carb goal and in ketosis… or you’re not. If you “cheat” and eat food with sugar or the like (including fruit) then you won’t be in ketosis. Anyhow I ate carbs with reckless abandon, gained a ton of water weight thanks to glycogen and ultimately ended up getting second place. Fortunately that was the last time time I did that and I’m not planning on doing it again. The longer I go without eating carbs, the less appealing to me they become. Nothing tastes as good as I remember it and the few things I have tasted I usually end up spitting out without swallowing and eat some bacon instead.

Speaking of bacon, I don’t exclusively live off keto chow, far from it; but I do stick to keto. With my wife doing keto too now (along with a growing list of family and friends) my kids are even getting less carbs. Nobody ever complains when I make sausage, bacon or eggs and cover everything with liberal amounts of cheese. This Saturday we’re doing a neighborhood Haloween party with a chili cook off and I’ll be bringing a giant batch of Caveman Keto Chili (though I use sausage instead of ground pork). The one thing I do need to cut back on though is sugar alcohol treats – stuff like Quest Bars and the like. You can see on my weight graph from the beginning of this post the plateaus where I’ve stopped losing weight (like the last 2 weeks). If I knuckle down and stick to eating only Keto Chow and ultra low carb foods then it picks back up.

One thing I have noticed over the past month or so is that I’m losing fat in my arms and legs. My quadriceps are getting pretty crazy looking and I’m starting to get veins popping out on my biceps. This is especially interesting because I stopped exercising when I tried to drill a hole in my leg back in June. Before I started keto I was exercising 1-2 times a day, either on the elliptical or running yet I was still gaining weight. The big change was stopping eating carbohydrates. Exercise just makes me hungry (unless I have excess energy).

So here are shirtless before and after pics. You’ve been warned. I’m 258lbs in the one on the left (November 2014), 210 in the middle (April 2015) and just barely under 200 on the right (October 2015)

[print_gllr id=7612]

In the end, I’m 77% the man I used to be but my wife still likes me =)

If you’re interested, here is the body fat percentage graph for the last 11 months or so since I got a withings scale that tracks that.

Fat Log 1 year of Keto

…and if you’re really interested, here is my weight history going all the way back to October 2006.

2015-10-20 09_51_12-Health Mate

The first dip was doing the “Shangri-La diet” The second big dip was when my wife and I did a program where we removed sugar, flour and other foods from our diet. As obvious as it is now I didn’t make the connection then. The second to the last small dip right before keto was the 9 months I was doing People Chow.

By |2016-10-13T07:28:01-06:00October 20th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent, Weight Loss|Comments Off on 1 Year of Keto, 77% the man I used to be

Family Photos, 1 year later

This entry is part 99 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

We recently had family photos taken, the last time was 11 months (and 60lbs) ago, just 4 days after I started doing Keto back on October 25, 2014. Time for a comparison.
boys

Strangely enough, I’m wearing the exact same pants, but in a 34 instead of the 38s I wore last year.

family

And for kicks, here is a comparison from just before I started Keto and about 3 weeks ago:

DF14vsDF15

By |2016-10-13T07:28:02-06:00October 5th, 2015|Ketogenic, Weight Loss|Comments Off on Family Photos, 1 year later

Awesome results from a Keto Chow user

This entry is part 98 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I got a great email from a Keto Chow user this afternoon, I asked permission to share it (since I’m always seeking confirmation). I’ve edited a few spelling errors but that’s it.

TL;DR Male/28 5’7″, start weight 185, hit goal weight of 130. (I’m small framed/boned).

I just wanted to thank you for this product, as it allowed me to lose 55 pounds of fat in 6/7 months (probably more since I’ve gained some muscle from new gains). It made dieting easy and quickly since I hate preparing food, and this took 5 minutes of prep for 3 meals of the day. I was doing three shakes a day for 80% of days. During this I was lifting 3-4 days a week, with no cardio, except for some hikes on the weekends.

I had many naysayers and mocking during lunch in the office, however ignored it and kept on trucking. The fact that I was never hungry was pretty amazing, compared to most other diets I’ve been on. Toward the end however, when my body-fat percentage was getting near 10% I did start to have cravings which was difficult to deal with, and which slowed down progress immensely as I found myself always snacking.

Just wanted to say thanks for the abs! haha

So there’s a lesson for all of you: when you get to 10% body fat you might get cravings. #firstworldproblems =) I have a bit to go before I hit 10% (OK a lot. I started all this at around 36% and am hovering around 25% according to my scale that does it using electricity).

 

By |2016-10-13T07:28:02-06:00October 2nd, 2015|Soylent, Weight Loss, Ketogenic, Keto Chow|Comments Off on Awesome results from a Keto Chow user

11 months, DreamForce14 to DreamForce15

This entry is part 97 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

11 months ago I attended DreamForce 2014. It was really good. It was also the “the straw that broke the camel’s back” in that the sheer amount of weight I gained during the conference convinced me to make some changes and start Keto. Attached to this post is the headshot taken last year during DreamForce next to one taken yesterday. You can’t see most of my body but I weigh 60 lbs (4.3 stone, 27.2 kg) less now:

2015-09-17 07_19_05-Health Mate

It has been interesting (food wise) to be here at the conference. I just bring Keto Chow in insulated flasks since “breakfast” is juice and bread (I could eat the butter), lunch is a tiny bit of meat with carbs that you have to stand in line for, dinner’s on your own – I figure I might as well keep going.

So anyhow, that’s 11 months down; the rest of my life to go!

By |2016-10-13T07:28:02-06:00September 17th, 2015|Ketogenic, Soylent, Weight Loss|2 Comments