Ketogenic Soylent

Coconut flour shortage = price jump for Ketofood

This entry is part 21 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Last night I blew through most of a 25lb bag of coconut flour mixing up Ketofood. I went to order more and, as predicted, the large 25lb bags appear to be out of stock everywhere. I’m not sure if they just stopped making it or if the little notice at the bottom of their product page is relevant

As we transition to our new packaging you may receive either original or new packaging depending on the inventory status of the item(s) you ordered. Thanks for your patience!

Hopefully they’re just switching packaging and in a short time I’ll be able to get the big bags again. Until then I’m stuck ordering 3, 4 or 5 lb bags at around 2x the cost. I raised the price of Ketofood and plan to lower it back down if I can source coconut flour close to the old price. Somebody remind me, OK?

Update: Nutivia replied to my tweet about the stock status: “We hope to have it back in stock by mid-January. Thank you for your patience.” So there you go.

By chris|2014-12-19T13:41:08-07:00December 19th, 2014|Ingredients, Soylent|4 Comments

3 months of Keto – update

This entry is part 22 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I hit my 3 month mark on ketosis yesterday (while eating a lettuce wrapped hamburger at Carl’s Jr.) and It’s time for an update.

Weight Oct – Dec 2014

In total I’m down almost 24 lbs. I’m going to be getting a “comprehensive metabolic panel” sometime next week. It will be interesting to compare it to my results from May (when I was eating mostly People Chow). Now to get through Christmas and it’s chocolate oranges with my ketosis intact…

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:24-06:00December 23rd, 2014|Soylent, Weight Loss|Comments Off

New ketogenic soylent recipe in development, it’s moar betterer

This entry is part 23 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Several weeks ago /u/kennufs posted his current Ketogenic soylent recipe. I ordered some of the ingredients and gave it a try recently. It’s so superior to KetoFood it’s kinda silly, probably because it doesn’t have chia seeds and does use a generous amount of heavy cream. I did that recipe for about a week and a half whilst changing stuff around before I ran out of the NutraBio whey protein isolate he specifies. That particular WPI is unique in that it doesn’t have any carbohydrate sources in it, like none at all, which keeps the net carbs down.

The problem with the NutraBio is where I’m living (Utah) it takes 9 business days to get a shipment of it from New Jersey. With a 2lb tub lasting approximately 10 days this makes sourcing it and keeping it on hand a logistical nightmare. It’s the same problem I have with getting Cal/Mag/D3 from supplementwarehouse.com: sometimes it takes them 2 weeks to get me stuff. I’m also working to replace the ketofood I mix on this site with a recipe along the same lines as Kennufs’ so I’ve been searching for a viable alternative to the protein and I think I finally have it.

I wanted to find something that I can buy at bodybuilding.com – they may not have the absolute lowest prices but my proximity to their central warehouse (Boise Idaho) makes for crazy fast shipping times, like 2 days at the longest with a few orders arriving the day after I ordered. Seriously, they are great; especially in the states surrounding Idaho =). Anyhow I found two possibilities: IsoPure Zero Carb and Dymatize Elite. Initially it looked like the Isopure would work but they include vitamins in their powder making it terribly difficult to get the right micronutrient mix. I had overage on some stuff and hardly anything on others (Iron, Vitamin C) that required adding an additional specific supplement.

Since I have the day off work today, obviously I woke up early and my brain switched on. So I started looking again and found the Dymatize Elite. It comes in a variety of flavors but I’m only going to mess with the ones that come in the 10lb size: Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate Mint. I took the groundwork that Kennufs laid, fixed some ingredients that showed different nutritional values, updated prices, copied over a bunch of the ingredients from my People Chow and my KetoFood recipes and the end result is what I’m going to call Keto Chow 0.7. Feel free to clone it, abuse it, whatever =)

In a few days (or hours, who knows?) I’ll add it as an orderable product on the site with the caveat that it’s going to be changing as it’s very much in active development. UPDATE: that was quick. At first you might even get some NutraBio WPI since I still have a bunch of that en-route. Additionally, except one flavor, I haven’t actually tasted the Dymatize WPI yet so some of the flavors might be awesome or might be completely awful. I’m also still trying to figure out what to do with the fish oil. To hit the right omega 3’s you need 5ml (1 tsp.) per day. You can get that from liquid cod liver oil in a big bottle or you can get it in gelatin capsules and take 5 a day along with the daily multivitamin. Any feedback on which you like better?

Anyhow, how’s that for a New Years update?

By chris|2015-11-05T13:49:38-07:00January 1st, 2015|Preparation, Soylent, Weight Loss, Keto Chow|2 Comments

Updates on Keto Chow

This entry is part 24 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

One cool thing about Keto Chow is the recipe has the added benefit of being customizable for people with different caloric requirements. Without any oil or cream it’s right around 500 calories/day and still hits all the right nutrients except calories (obviously), protein, and the different fatty acids. Following the directions you’ll get 1355 calories/day (woohoo, deficit!) but you can raise that up to whatever level you want by increasing the heavy cream and/or the oil (I vote for the cream). It’s super flexible.

Did I mention that bodybuilding.com is awesome? I ordered a bunch of protein yesterday (a holiday), got my tracking number around noon and I might get the package tomorrow or Monday.

In my last post I was debating what to do about the fish oil for Keto Chow since it needs 5ml of fish oil to get the right Omega 3s. My solution is to give people a choice, they can go 3 ways for the fish oil:

Buy liquid fish oil, I recommend Cod Liver Oil Lemon mint flavor.
I sell a week’s worth of fish oil capsules (35 or 5 per day). If you don’t want to buy a giant bottle, this is a good option.
Buy a 400 capsule bottle from Costco or from Amazon and take 5 per day.

Not the ideal solution but it’s the best I could come up with, so it’ll probably upset everyone =). “Crap, I have to take 5 oil pills PLUS a multivitamin and you’re not even including the oil pills unless I pay extra? You suck Trebeck!”. Well, at least that’s what I would say initially. Personally I’m not certain which route I’m going to do myself: the pills or the liquid oil mixed in. Guess I’ll find out sometime early next week (or tomorrow, come on OnTrack!).

By chris|2015-01-06T14:24:42-07:00January 2nd, 2015|Ketogenic, Keto Chow, Preparation, Soylent|Comments Off

Mixed up some chocolate Keto Chow

This entry is part 25 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

A commenter on my last post asked if it’s possible to mix up without any coconut flour at all. Yes but you have to increase the psyllum husk to 18g. I wasn’t sure what that would taste like but I was interested to try it. Unfortunately my shipment of Chocolate Mint, Strawberry and Vanilla proteins will not be arriving until Monday. So I mixed up some keto chow using the little chocolate flavored protein I still had, but without any coconut flour.

1 day of Keto Chow. There isn’t much to it, only about 140g of stuff.

It’s still funny how small it is, less than 150g of powder that you mix with around a half cup of heavy cream, some MCT oil and… that’s your daily nutrients!

3 different bottles with Keto Chow mixed up.

I put it in the refrigerator and let it hang out for a while. As expected, the psyllum husk powder absorbed a lot of water and thickened up the mixture a little bit. I might not need so much Xanthan Gum, I’ll probably cut it in half for my next batch. It feels smooth and creamy in my mouth and tastes like… well, a bit like slightly watered down chocolate milk. I think it maybe can use some additional chocolate flavoring, my wife disagrees and thinks it tastes great as it is. It should work well with the different flavored protein powders that are coming on Monday. Here’s a close up of the mixed stuff after refrigeration and a few hours:

Keto Chow after 3 hours

The psyllum goes nearly transparent and it’s the majority of the bits you see in the mixture. Notably there isn’t hardly any separation whereas Ketofood does quite a bit:

Ketofood after 4 hours.

OK, let’s look a little closer!

A spoon dipped in Ketofood, no chia seeds here

A spoon dipped in Ketofood, no chia seeds for a change

Spoon dipped in Keto Chow. It’s mostly bubbles and psyllum that you see.

And here’s the same test in video format:

My next batch will probably be strawberry or vanilla, have half the xanthan gum and I might put back in some of the coconut flour to see what it does to the flavor and texture.

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:24-06:00January 3rd, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Preparation, Soylent|3 Comments

First batches of Keto Chow using Dynamize protein

This entry is part 26 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Last night I mixed up the first batches of Keto Chow using the Dynamize whey protein I’m going to start using. An adventurous soul ordered week of mint chocolate and I did two smaller 1-day batches of strawberry and mint chocolate for testing.

Keto Chow Strawberry Sample

Upon mixing, the Strawberry is a little pink but not much, and the chocolate mint is a bit… tan. You can tell the difference between the chocolate and strawberry but I think the cream is overruling a lot of the coloring it would have had if it was just protein and water. I took better measurements of the finished result (2 lb 8 oz and 9x7x2.5 inches) which will make shipping estimates better. I’m also going to see if I can squeeze it into a 1096L USPS shipping box instead of a Regional Rate A box that I could fit two weeks in.

Keto Chow Chocolate Mint packaged (bottle not included =)

I tasted the results about an hour after mixing and it was pretty good. It tasted like it could still use some time for stuff to dissolve but in a time crunch it would be just fine. I would have tried it for realsies this morning but I’m going to get a “Comprehensive Metabolic Panel” blood test and I’m supposed to be fasting. As soon as that’s done (and I’m done with my dentist appointment that’s right after, might as well double up) I’ll give it a better taste test.

It’ll be interesting to see what my blood work shows when I get it sometime later this week or next week. I had it done back in March 2014 (9 months ago?) after doing People Chow for 2 months and those results weren’t bad at all. I’m looking forward to seeing what cutting out carbohydrates and living on mostly fat and some protein has done =).

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:24-06:00January 6th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|Comments Off

A year in review

This entry is part 27 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Hey, how about a “year in review” post? I started mixing soylent almost a year ago, starting January 13, 2014. You can read my full exploits Here (in chronological order!). It’s been an interesting year with a lot of downs and a few ups (most notably there in October when I gained back everything I lost in February. I’m approaching the lowest weight I’ve been since I started tracking in October 2006. When I hit 220 I’ll probably do a post with that graph for the morbidly curious =).

Doing a ketogenic diet has made a huge difference in my life. When I first started I said I’d probably get my weight down and then go back to People Chow but with the way Keto Chow is shaping up I think I’ll stick with Ketogenic soylent as my primary food. I probably won’t be as strict with snacks but with how good Keto Chow is I don’t see a need to switch back. Honestly it’s far better tasting that People Chow, less gritty and low carb to boot.

As they say on /r/keto: “Keep Calm and Keto On” (KCKO).

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:22-06:00January 6th, 2015|Weight Loss, Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|Comments Off

For fun I tried making Keto Chow cookies

This entry is part 28 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Just for fun I decided to see what making Keto Chow into a solid would be like. I did People Chow cookies several months ago so I thought I’d try that form. I just put a meal’s worth of powder into a bowl, added the oil and the heavy cream and mixed it up.

Mixing up the oil, cream and powder

“dough” mixed up and ready

Ready for baking, 10min @350

The Finished, baked, cookies

It’s hard to see in the above picture of the finished “cookies” but they’re sitting in a pool of oil that came out during cooking. Mixed up liquid Keto Chow tastes sweet like a milk shake (kinda) but the sweeteners in the protein don’t seem to be doing much in baked form. I’m not sure if it’s because the stuff didn’t actually dissolve in the little water that was in the cream or what. In the end, the potassium citrate and salt ended up making them markedly salty. They’re not awful but the liquid form is better.

I’ll probably try it again but I might try not cooking or maybe with an egg added in too. I’ll also likely use the vanilla flavor instead of the chocolate mint (can’t even taste the mint in the baked form).

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:21-06:00January 9th, 2015|Preparation, Soylent, Keto Chow, Ketogenic|Comments Off

The apps and tools I’m using to track my progress

This entry is part 29 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

A coworker asked me a while ago about all the stuff I’m using, I figure I might as well document it. Here are the Apps, monitors and other things I’m using to track stuff about my health.

Activity Monitor

I grabbed a used Fitbit Flex off eBay about a month ago to see if I would like it better than the Jawbone Up I had. Ultimately the Fitbit won and the Jawbone is in my backpack in case anybody on craigslist decides they want to buy it for $40. The Jawbone app was actually far better than the Fitbit one and gave me better information but I like the bluetooth sync function of the Fitbit and couldn’t find an Up24 for cheap. Neither do automatic sleep tracking, you had to tell the device it was nap time and again tell it when you woke up. The more expensive trackers do more stuff automatically. Both Up and Fitbit talk quite nicely to all the other apps mentioned here, sending activity data over automatically.

Fitbit Web UI

Fitbit Android UI

Weight Tracking

The Withings app/website does a great job of tracking weight, blood pressure and a number of other metrics. It’s also free to use and will send the weight data to a large number of applications. By having it send that data I don’t have to go into 5 different apps to update my weight all the time, it just does it automagically for me. You can use the Withings app and site with the Withings Wi-Fi scale or one of their fitness trackers, but you don’t need to. I did eventually end up buying a Withings scale but I used the app for about a month and a half before that. You can also import and export all the measurements very easily. I imported my weight logs from all the way back to October 2006.

Withings Web UI

Withings Android UI

Nutrition Tracking

I’ve been using MyFitnessPal for 2 or 3 years to (occasionally, up until 4 months ago) track my nutrition. Currently I’m on a 87 day streak of putting in my food, weight and activity. I use MFP as a sort of “central hub” for everything else. All my activity monitoring, weight and workouts head here. On a Ketogenic Diet I also need to track how many carbs I’m eating and it does a good job of that. There’s some settings and a userscript that enhance MFP for keto diets. It’s particularly nice to be able to scan a barcode to add food and with how I’m eating mostly the same stuff every day it’s a cinch. I used to use My Net Diary but MFP is way more useful.

MyFitnessPal Web UI

MyFitnessPal Android UI

Workout tracking

I’m using Digifit on my phone to track exercise (via a heart rate monitor, see below). On an ideal day I’m doing 30 minutes of elliptical in the morning and 30 minutes of running/walking in the evening. They have Android and iOS apps that have limited functionality unless you pay the $1.99 or whatever to upgrade it – it was worth it and I used an account that is shared on all my family’s phones and devices to pay so my wife gets the upgrade too. It can be used indoors on exercise equipment (which is what I mostly do) but it really likes going outside to fire up your GPS and correlate actual distance and speed with heart rate. It gets weight data automatically from Withings to use in calorie calculations.

Digifit Web UI

Digifit Android UI

Heart Rate Monitoring

I bought a Jarv Bluetooth 4.0 Chest Heart Rate Monitor for myself and then another one for my wife about 3 days later since it works so well (then we can work out together!). It works exceptionally well and communicates to Digifit just fine, although occasionally it takes a bit of prodding or wetting the chest contacts to wake it up. Coupled with Digifit, it does a much better job at calculating the actual calories you are burning. This morning with the heart rate monitor, Digifit calculated that I burned 439 calories in 30 minutes on the elliptical. That’s a far cry from the machine’s solely weight based calculation of 870.

Ketone Level Monitoring

After a few weeks in Ketosis you get accustomed to what it feels like and can mostly just Keep Calm & Keto On. I do still occasionally check my ketone levels. When I first started I bought a 200 pack of 2 Parameter Glucose & Ketone Test (URS) Urinalysis Reagent Strip (C 200 Strips). I also picked up a very, very cheap blood alcohol breathalyzer about 2 months ago for fun because the super cheap ones can’t distinguish the difference between alcohol on your breath and acetone. Actual breathalyzers that cost more than $5-10 can tell the difference just fine. I’m very proud to report that this morning I blew 0.05% even though I have no alcohol in my system at all.