ketogenic

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|Weight Loss, Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|Comments Off on Awesome results from a Keto Chow user
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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|Weight Loss, Ketogenic, Soylent|2 Comments
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Great NYTimes article by Gary Taubes

This entry is part 92 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Linky: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/opinion/diet-advice-that-ignores-hunger.html?_r=0

As described on Reddit:

An excellent article highlighting the differences between fat and carb restricted diets, and the aftermath when people end them, and the effect that carbs have on increased hunger.

Gary Taubes is the guy that wrote “Why we get fat and what to do about it” and “Good Calories, Bad Calories”

I also found this great (older article): http://www.businessinsider.com/9-lies-about-fat-that-destroyed-the-worlds-health-2013-11

By |2016-10-13T07:28:03-06:00September 1st, 2015|Ketogenic, Weight Loss|Comments Off on Great NYTimes article by Gary Taubes
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Finished testing changes to Keto Chow recipe

This entry is part 89 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

Today marks beginning of an end: all of the Keto Chow I mix from here on out (and actually going back a few days) has the vitamins included in the mixture. No more emailing me because I forgot to put them in the bag. No more questions about if people can use vitamin Y instead of the Kirkland ones =). And less hassle for everyone. For a few people that have special dietary needs (such as an allergy to Niacin or need to limit iron), this will unfortunately cause problems since the vitamins can’t be removed. Sorry about that =( My recommendation if you fall into that category is to follow the recipe and mix your own version of Keto Chow. Speaking of the recipe, for now it’s not going to change since the only modification was grinding up the vitamins with a blender (yes it does blend, but you need to put in a few weeks worth at a time and no more than half a bottle).

For everyone else: the first few orders with integrated vitamins shipped out this morning and within a week or so almost all of the week packs and many of the day packs will be moved over to the new formulation. You’ll be able to tell by the different label, no longer does it say to take one pill per day; rather it says the pudding is in the mix the vitamins are in the mix. And to make it easier for everyone during the transition, I’m sticking a little yellow sticker on them with the same info. It’s kinda hard to miss =)

In other news, I had to abandon my tests on adding additional Magnesium to the mix. The magnesium I tried was adding an unpleasant metallic taste to the mix. Many of the testers couldn’t taste it but I certainly could and didn’t like it at all. Pro tip: when experimenting, don’t change more than one variable at a time (adding vitamin powder plus magnesium) because you won’t be able to tell which one is causing an unwanted result. The end result of all of this is I’m going to keep the magnesium level where it’s at. It’s sufficient for most people and for the weirdos out there (like me) that get occasional muscle cramps because they need more magnesium I’d recommend using a magnesium supplement. Personally I’m using this one. Currently it’s $17.46 for 360 tablets, I’m taking 2 of them which adds 850mg of magnesium. In a few weeks I’ll probably try cutting back to 1 and see if that’s sufficient for me.

There is one more possible change: I just bought 1000g of Vitamin K7 powder. It works out to be 1g = 10 pills of the NOW stuff that I’m currently using (1,000 μg/g). I’m pretty stoked with the prospect of NOT having to open up 100 bottles of 100 pills and getting the powder out. If this does work out there’s going to be a departure in the DIY recipe vs the recipe I mix up since it’s pretty hard to get a hold of this powder unless you’re willing to spend really a lot of money (let’s put it this way, I’m not saving very much by doing it this way, it’s mostly convenience). So the DIY recipe will remain with the NOW capsules and I’ll be using the stuff from aidp.com

By |2016-10-13T07:28:05-06:00August 28th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|4 Comments
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Awesome article over at Art Of Manliness: Everything You Know About Cholesterol Is Wrong

This entry is part 87 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

This was published yesterday, it’s a really good read and does a great job distilling down how messed up the “Generally Accepted Dietary Wisdom” is on Cholesterol: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/08/25/everything-you-know-about-cholesterol-is-wrong/ Some of the things he wrote lead me to believe he’s at minimum aware of ketogenic diets and maybe even doing keto/paleo.

There’s also an excellent section “Beyond Good and Bad Cholesterol: HDL and LDL Cholesterol” that describes the sub groupings within HDL and LDL. Not all LDL is bad, not all HDL is good and nobody talks about Lp(a).

So if you (or someone you know) has questions about cholesterol and how a ketogenic diet with all the bacon, cheese, eggs, and assorted yumminess (of Keto Chow =) can possibly be good for you, check it out! (also check out the rest of the site, it’s got some awesomely excellent information all over the place)

By |2015-08-26T05:38:07-06:00August 26th, 2015|Ketogenic, Weight Loss|Comments Off on Awesome article over at Art Of Manliness: Everything You Know About Cholesterol Is Wrong
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Couple of changes to the recipe for Keto Chow in testing

This entry is part 85 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

I finally got around to grinding up the multi-vitamin into a powder and seeing if it affected the taste of Keto Chow – it doesn’t. As soon as I can switch over my production pipeline I’m going to start incorporating it into the mix. There will likely be a transition period for a few weeks where the more popular flavors (I’m looking at you: Rich Chocolate) get swapped over almost immediately and the more exotic flavors are switched slower. I’m planning on putting a sticker on the updated ones, something along the lines of “No more vitamin pill, it’s in the mix!”. This will make things easier for everyone and I’ll stop forgetting to include the vitamins when I ship out a week. It will also null the questions about using a different vitamin which really wasn’t a good idea anyway.

I’m investigating adding Magnesium Glycinate (2g/day) to the mixture to raise the levels of magnesium. I recently got a really fun muscle cramp in my leg and while researching the cause and remedy I discovered that I probably need more magnesium. Keto Chow already has 555mg of magnesium (132% RDI) per day but some digging shows that on a ketogenic diet you probably need 300mg over the RDI. This change brings the total in Keto Chow above 900mg a day. I did a fair amount of research into the different forms of Magnesium. I could have added more magnesium citrate but the citric acid can act as a laxative. I ended up with wanting to go with either Magnesium Malate or Glycinate – both are highly bio-available and without the issues of some of the other forms of magnesium. I would have preferred the Malate but it was difficult to get in bulk powder form, whereas I can get the Glycinate in big bulk packages (and it also comes in smaller packages too).

So I’m currently testing both changes together: powdered vitamin and additional magnesium. I’m also testing a third change, this time to the fish oil. The stuff I usually take requires 5 fish oil pills, There’s a slightly more expensive one that I only need 2 per day. It also has an “enteric coating” that makes you not burp up fish taste. Taking the two is a bit easier. If all goes well in the test I’ll switch over the fish oil pills I sell from 35 for a week to 14 for a week. I’ll have to take new product pictures.

By |2015-08-17T09:40:21-06:00August 17th, 2015|Keto Chow, Soylent|16 Comments
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Great interview with a doctor, she explains how low carb works in simple terms

This entry is part 84 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

She’s been doing less than 20g/day of carbohydrates (Keto) for 13 years! She also does a very good comparison of her inability to tan and her tolerance for carbohydrates. Being pale and getting a sun burn doesn’t mean she doesn’t have enough will power – that’s just how her body is.

From the video description:

Nobody knows more about the practicalities of low carb than Dr. Mary Vernon. Here she explains it for you.

Dr Mary Vernon, MD, is one of the world’s foremost experts on treating obesity and diabetes with low carbohydrate nutrition. She is a practicing family physician, educates doctors on low carb and is active in and former president of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (doctors specializing in treating obese patients).

By |2015-08-05T09:25:32-06:00August 5th, 2015|Ketogenic, Weight Loss|2 Comments
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All multi-vitamins are not created equal

This entry is part 82 of 139 in the series Ketogenic Soylent

…though I’m sure their mothers love them all very much. I get asked a lot about the vitamins I include in Keto Chow, specifically they’re the “Kirkland Signature Daily Multi” from Costco. Can you use a different multi-vitamin? maybe but you will likely have deficiencies in some areas and overages in others. The recipe for Keto Chow is matched with the Kirkland vitamins, to the extent that if you want to use a different vitamin pill it has to have essentially the exact same amounts of the various vitamins and minerals and at that point you might as well just use the Kirkland ones.

When my wife started doing Keto, she wanted to use the multi-vitamins she had been using before. The only way to know if it will work is to clone the Keto Chow recipe, delete the Kirkland multi-vitamin and add your own vitamin into the recipe. When I tried this with my wife’s vitamins there were some serious problems, even though they were vitamins “for women” they had no iron, low vitamin K and no iodide/iodine. About 2 months ago I looked into using Celebrate Multivitamins because they are in capsules that could be opened up and integrated into the dry powder, which would solve a lot of issues. Here’s what I ended up with:Celebrate vitamins

Yeah, THAT’s not going to fly. So I’m back on the Kirkland. So once again, you can use a different multi-vitamin but you’re gambling that it has the stuff you need when coupled with what’s available in Keto Chow. For reference, here is the Supplement facts for the Kirkland vitamins (click to embiggen):

Kirkland signature

 

By |2016-10-13T07:28:05-06:00July 29th, 2015|Keto Chow, Ketogenic, Soylent|6 Comments
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