ketogenic

100 Kg (down 17 total in 4 months)

This entry is part 40 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

This morning I finally hit 220.5 lbs. This is kinda a big deal for a variety of reasons:

It’s within rounding distance of being exactly 100 kg (220.46 lbs). I’m almost as excited about being 100kg as I am about being 37 (“I’m 37, I’m not old.” “Well I couldn’t just call you ‘man’.”).
It’s how much I weighed 15 years ago when I got married.
It’s less than I weighed yesterday.
“220, 221, whatever it takes“
Brings my total weight lost since I started a Ketogenic diet 4 months ago (tomorrow) to 37.3 lbs. That’s 3 short of being 2 “stone”. I guess I should see if I can lose another 2.7 by tomorrow so it’ll be a nice, even 40 in 4 months =)

The spike a month ago was when I went off my diet and ate carbs with reckless abandon in preparation for a weight loss contest. Good times, not going to do that again =)

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:18-06:00February 19th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent, Weight Loss|2 Comments

Discovered a superpower

This entry is part 39 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Yesterday for kicks I did a little experiment and didn’t eat anything from 21:00 the night before until 18:00, so 21 hours without eating just to see what would happen. I had read that doing a ketogenic diet my body would cope with fasting extremely well, and it did. I still drank water and some zero calorie flavored things, but I didn’t get hungry at all for the entire day. Then I chowed down on some Keto chow, a bunch of cheese and some beef jerky. I’m trying it again today and so far it’s worked extremely well. The next 3 days I’m working at a trade show/conference all day and I’m not going to have ready access to refrigeration for bringing keto chow. In the past I’ve just brought an insulated lunch bag with a cold pack which has worked very well but frankly I don’t want to be bothered with transporting food and all that. Anyhow, my plan is for the next 3 days (bringing the total to 5 days): I’m going to eat when I get home and fast the rest of the day. On Saturday that will probably take me beyond 24 hours since that’s the pack-it-up day. It feels a little weird having not eaten for so long, especially since I’m still not hungry. I didn’t have any problem at all doing the elliptical this morning either. Anyhow, it’ll be an interesting experiment.

For my own reference, I started the day yesterday at 224.7 and this morning I was 222.8.

By chris|2015-02-11T14:41:02-07:00February 11th, 2015|Weight Loss, Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|4 Comments

Had a bit of a flavor party last night
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Had a bit of a flavor party last night

Soylent, Site or Store Stuff, Keto Chow, Ketogenic

Had a bit of a flavor party last night

This entry is part 38 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I ordered a bunch of 2 lb tubs of the various flavors and mixed them up into Keto Chow last night: Chocolate Fudge, Pina Colada, Smooth Banana, Cookies and Cream and the staple Chocolate Mint, Strawberry and Vanilla.

Not pictured is “Rich Chocolate” – I got the 10 lb bag of that one. I then mixed Rich Chocolate, Pina Colada and Smooth Banana up in blender bottles for today’s food. I did a quick taste test this morning. The Rich Chocolate is significantly more chocolaty than the mint chocolate (like really, really chocolate). The Pina Colada tastes like what it is: Pineapple and Coconut. The Smooth Banana is a bit odd: It mixed up really thin, almost like there’s no xanthan gum in it. It doesn’t look like I messed up on mixing the powder but I’m going to try doing a smaller 1-day batch tonight to double check. It could be it’s got some enzyme or something in it that prevents the xanthan gum from thickening it up. It still tastes good.

EDIT: So I planned to drink the rich chocolate for breakfast and somehow grabbed the banana instead. Drank it. Yes it’s still not quite as thick as the other flavors but it’s not as thin as I thought it was, I don’t think it’s going to be an issue.

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:18-06:00February 4th, 2015|Soylent, Site or Store Stuff, Keto Chow, Ketogenic|5 Comments

Added some Keto Chow sample flavors

In addition to the 3 flavors I normally stock, there are 8 other flavors you can get as a special order. There have been several requests for samples of these, so I’m going to work on that. Today I added samples of Butter Cream Toffee and Cinnamon Bun. Unlike the other samples, I’m going to be managing the stock levels so the page will tell you how many of that flavor I have left. I expect to slowly add most of the other flavors as time and budget allows.

By chris|2015-02-04T10:12:30-07:00January 31st, 2015|Site or Store Stuff, Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|1 Comment

Much better

This entry is part 37 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Trace amounts of ketones are showing up now and everything is returned to normal (thankfully). It also seems that keeping up on electrolytes spared me the Keto Flu this time, which is AWESOME! I still am anxious for my weight trend to head down steadily, that should be this week. I didn’t loose nearly as much water weight burning off glycogen as I would have liked. Eating carbs was probably a bad idea in the long run but it did give me some very valuable perspective. If I don’t get enough sleep lately, my legs hurt off and on; that didn’t change when I was back on carbs so I do not think that’s the cause – it’s likely the sleep (or lack thereof). Eating carbs also gave me the perspective that I really don’t need to cheat at all, it just doesn’t hold the appeal it once did. I also ordered a 12 pack of Quest Cookies and Cream bars today because they’re yummy.

By chris|2015-01-26T15:18:55-07:00January 26th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent, Weight Loss|Comments Off

Doing that again? dagnabbit

This entry is part 36 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

warning: TMI

Last time I started ketosis (back in October) I bucked the normal trend of getting constipated when starting and went the opposite way. Well, It’s happening again, lucky me. I’m not sure if it has to do with gut fauna dying off (not likely since I only are carbs for 6 days) or my body going “oh wow, that’s a LOT of fiber…. um not sure what to do here, let’s try this!” If past experience is any indicator I’ll be back to normal by Monday morning.

Now as a reminder: the plural of “anecdote” is not “data”. My experience should be in no way construed as the norm for starting keto. But hey, it’s what’s happening to me.

I’m nearly back to my weight before I started my carb binge, that’s good.

By chris|2015-01-24T12:48:50-07:00January 24th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|Comments Off

Water weight and keto flu redux

This entry is part 35 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

As previously noted, I started a local weight loss contest yesterday that compares percentage of weight lost as opposed to total pounds. I successfully replenished my glycogen reserves by eating carbs for a few days and gained a fair amount of water weight.

So that craziness is over. Now I’m back doing a ketogenic diet which means I get to go through keto adaptation and probably the keto flu again. I did this to myself on purpose. I guess one good thing is I’m actually prepared for the keto flu this time and am already doubling down on the electrolytes, plus the keto soylent I’m drinking has the proper amount of potassium and sodium (3541 and 2745 mg/day compared to 2936 and 1963 mg/day on the recipe I used last time). It should be an interesting experience.

By chris|2016-10-13T07:28:18-06:00January 22nd, 2015|Soylent, Keto Chow, Ketogenic|Comments Off

Leveling the playing field

This entry is part 34 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

On Wednesday I have my initial weigh in for a local weight loss contest. It’s based on % of body weight lost. In the past the winners have lost anywhere from 15 to 21%. I figure that no one else doing it is going to be starting out without glycogen in their system so I’ve been building back up my reserve. Glycogen comes with a lot of water weight, this is the major 5-10 pounds that most people lose in the first week of Keto (and it stays off so long as you don’t eat carbs).

In other words: I just ate some biscuits and gravy, yesterday was Mexican food and on Wednesday I’ll have pizza and soda.

It’s been interesting having carbohydrates again (if only for a few days). Yeah I do feel sluggish and rather crappy. And thirsty, I keep making myself feel ill from drinking so much water but I’m still thirsty. I’m really not looking forward to carb cravings on Thurdsay (or the keto flu). I had completely overcome that and intentionally putting myself back into that is actually kinda stupid.

I guess one good thing is it’s given me some perspective: Carbs aren’t as delicious and I thought they were. Eating a Kit-Kat or strawberry oreo was anti-climactic. Yeah, it’s good but not good enough to cheat on next week. Frankly melted cheese, bacon and other 0 carb foods are good enough there really isn’t a reason to cheat.

Now excuse me as I go eat the last tortilla chips I’ll eat for at least 6 months.

By chris|2015-01-18T09:44:42-07:00January 18th, 2015|Ketogenic, Soylent, Weight Loss|3 Comments

Best “customer comment” on an order yet

This entry is part 33 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Got an order today, there’s a box where people can add a note. This was in the box:

$ ./configure $ make $ make keto

My first thought was:

Proper User Policy apparently means Simon Says.

I had a good laugh.

By chris|2015-01-18T07:21:21-07:00January 18th, 2015|Keto Chow, Soylent|Comments Off

Customizing the calories in Keto Chow to your requirements

This entry is part 32 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

On the Keto Chow page I have this:

This 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 protein, and the different fatty acids. Following the directions you’ll get 1269 calories/day (woohoo, deficit!) but you can raise that up to whatever level you want by increasing the heavy cream and/or the oil. It’s super flexible.

So how exactly do you do this?

First you’re going to need a nutrient profile. Head over to the DIY profile calculator page: http://diy.soylent.me/nutrient-profiles/calculator
If you don’t have an account on the DIY site you’ll need to make one; either log in or create an account, then co back to the calculator page if necessary.
Enter in all your information. You’re going to need to set the sliders to 5% 20% and 75% (maybe a bit more protein if you lift weights a lot). I use “chris.bair’s Keto New” as the DRI profile, I found it last time by typing “chr” three times in the dropdown menu but women might want to check out another profile. There’s a full list at http://diy.soylent.me/nutrient-profiles. Here’s what I put in last time I made one:
You can play around with the requirements a bit if you like.
Go to the Keto Chow recipe page http://diy.soylent.me/recipes/keto-chow-10-2
Click on the “Copy” button.
Type in a name and such, make sure you select your nutrient profile that you made earlier. It should be at the very top of the list.
Once you have that saved you can start customizing. You’ll need to switch over to the “Recipe Editor” tab
At the bottom it will show you the percentages you’re hitting. You may get red flags on Sodium, Potassium and a few other minerals depending on the profile you selected. Ketogenic diets need more electrolytes than normal so I’ve edited my own DRI profile to require the higher amounts. I’ve also taken out the maximum values on saturated fat and several others since the lipid hypothesis is false (watch Fat Head).
To edit a nutrient just click on the quantity in the recipe and then change the values in the pop-up.
You can hit the + and – just look at the percentages as they change. Once you get them where you’d like hit the “Save Changes” button.
Bug: the bottom numbers don’t recalculate until you refresh the entire page.
For the most part you should really only need to modify the Heavy Cream and/or the MCT oil on the Keto Chow recipe (unless you’re a nursing mother or pregnant, then your vitamin needs might be wildly different)