Meativore May - May 8 Check-In
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I really love eating zero carb. I blame my ancestry for my carb sensitivity that has required this type of diet! What I've found most delightful is the diminished cravings and munchies. Everyday, between 2-4pm, I used to just shovel whatever food I could find down the hatch. Sometimes I would top a thousand calories just in that 2-hr window. Now, I still get the idea that I need to be eating, but with meat as the only option, it's like my body says, "Eh, thanks anyway," and settles down.
As a result, I've ended up skipping dinner several nights this week simply because I haven't been hungry. It's difficult to resist social conventions of three meals a day, especially when I'm feeding my husband and kids and just watching them eat. But they've finally given me freedom to join them or abstain depending on how I feel. I'm learning to listen to the needs of my body.
I've also had to increase my rest, speaking of needs. I don't understand it scientifically, except that maybe I've been relying on artificial energy for the last decade.
So, I started May 1:
Chest: 36"
Waist: 29"
Hips: 39.5"
Body fat: 15mm (which isn't a percent, but I forgot how to calculate it.)
May 8:
Chest: 35" (sad byproduct of fat-loss...)
Waist: 28.5"
Hips: 38.5"
Body fat: 11mm0 -
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I am stepping out of this challenge. I woke up in the middle of the night extremely nauseous and my head feeling really funny. This is the second time it has happened, although much more severe this time. My husband woke up and told me it was probably my blood sugar( I didn't check it, If felt so bad I was willing to go with whatever.) I chewed a piece of gum and the ate a few peanut butter crackers and felt much better (other than my stomach feeling a little iffy) and was able to go back to sleep. So good luck to everyone else. i'm not willing to push it any longer.0
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Ok, I just have to say, after being part of a gathering wth my mother in law, who provided about 2 tons of "side items" for my burgers, I'm just in love with the simplicity of zero carb. Burgers were done 30 minutes ago and I've had to wait patiently while the veggies cook. <fume>0
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The simple nature of cooking zero carb never ceases to make me happy. I love having just one pan to clean (if even that) and very little to wait for when it's done cooking.0
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The kids and her also got me a $25 gift card to a local grocery store. They wanted to get me a steak, but worried it would go bad if they surprised me with it at the party.
They're a good group.
That's sooooo thoughtfull!My big challenge starts Monday as I am going on a road trip for 2 1/2 weeks. Any suggestions or travelling?
My partner really likes to eat out. My birthday is Tuesday so he took me out this weekend for dinner and our standby's when out are either steak house if you really want to spend. I order steak and he eats the sides. Or a buffet. Then I just have to locate that one meat dish that they usually have and eat all of it
When out of town we still kind of do the same. I also bring a boat load of hard boiled eggs and a few bags of pork rinds. And I will ask for the those butter packets at the restaurant to put butter in my coffee. Denny's is pretty good too for steak at a reasonable price. We went there for breakfast yesterday and I had a 6oz steak and he had the sides. I think it was the same price as most of the other big breakfast items.
HTH have fun on your trip!0 -
Well, well, well. I have to say this has actually turned out to be a marvelous week for me. My 7 days ends today as I started late and I've even convinced my friend to go meativore for a try.
Start 216.5 lbs
End 209.5 lbs
Down 7 pounds!
I don't expect next week to be as much as I had carb binged for 3 days prior to the start weigh in.
However, I'm still back down to my previous lowest weight and previously it was recorded when I was very dehydrated so not a true weight.
Prior to this, I did the april challenge and did not lose weight. I have not lost weight since the first week on keto which was two months ago.
For this challenge I also cut out all dairy except butter.
I do have AS in gum only. My keto breath could kill a horse.
First 3 days were absolute hell. I almost quit!
for the first time I am experiencing what others have referred to as LOTS OF ENERGY.
MY ASTHMA IS RESPONDING TO TREATMENT!! Not gone, but not here as long as I use puffers.
I STARTED RUNNING AGAIN!!! This is huge huge huge! I did my couch to 5k program 3 times this week! Yesterday I got up early, took the dog for a big walk then, I even had enough energy to go runing on my rest day with my partner. We did my little running (couch to 5k) on the way to get groceries, walked the rest of the way, had a grand adventure and walked home. (That was 4 hours of walking with the Beast. He walks FAST even carrying all the groceries) THEN we did yoga. THEN even went out for another walk with the dog!! And this morning, my legs feel like I certainly did something yesterday but it's no where near "sore"!!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot tell you how amazing this is. Due to diet? Dunno, but I'm not going to take a chance. I'm sticking with it for the next week and we'll see what happens.0 -
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I forgot check in. I've been busy and distracted but I'm still lurking around.
1st May 140kg
8th May 138.5kg
Still hovering at that mark. Other than choosing to eat some pizza on the weekend, which I refuse to feel guilty about,
I'm really liking this way of eating along with no tracking and counting. It just makes life so much simpler and I'm not thinking about food all the time. 0 -
I have a question for the group: are you monitoring grams of protein consumed each day, or eating to satiety? If you are eating to satiety, how do you keep from eating protein to the point that you raise insulin levels? Do you monitor ketones?
Thanks for your replies.0 -
I have a question for the group: are you monitoring grams of protein consumed each day, or eating to satiety? If you are eating to satiety, how do you keep from eating protein to the point that you raise insulin levels? Do you monitor ketones?
Thanks for your replies.
The goal is to eat to satiety, but there's a bit of a catch -- you favor fat, first and foremost. So, for example, you're getting steak. Choose ribeye over sirloin, and when you go to eat it, you go for the strips of fat that are on it, first (you can eat pieces that are part fat and part lean), then eat the leaner parts. The description sounds more involved than it actually is. Just get fatty cuts of meat, and usually the parts with strips of fat are the outside, anyway.
Eating only meat may seem like the protein would be really high, but keep in mind that the staple meats are fatty cuts, and you can add fats to leaner cuts (mayo with tuna, butter on sirloin or chicken, etc). As a result, you actually balance out to around 70% fat and 30% protein, which is about the same as a typical LCHF eating pattern.
As long as you're getting sufficient fat, gluconeogenesis won't produce sufficient blood sugar to drastically raise insulin levels in the long run. This is because the body isn't using glucose as its primary fuel and is only producing it for the couple of things that need glucose in order to function.
You can monitor ketones if you want, but the goal of this isn't necessarily ketosis (and this way of eating may not actually make ketosis evident -- see also, the Inuit ketosis puzzle). Most of us don't bother. You're not consuming carbs, and the vast majority of your calories come from fat. That's what matters in the end.
This way of eating will bring your glucose and insulin levels down in the long run, but it's possible they'll go up for a short time in the beginning, if you already have dysfunctional glucose/insulin balance. This is because your body still runs on sugar at first, and will overcompensate until it realizes that the sugar and insulin are no longer needed in such high quantities.0 -
Thanks for the reply. Knowing the possibility of some excess protein to be converted to glucose (and raising insulin levels), it would seem easy to overeat protein, even if maintaining healthy ratios, and impede weight loss in the long run.
I will be very interested to follow everyone's progress, but it would really help me (and us) understand this experiment by knowing (in grams per kg) how much protein everyone is consuming. Otherwise, it is a little like saying, "I'm low carb" and not knowing if this is <20g/day or <150g/day.
Thanks again for anyone's thoughtful replies!0 -
My days vary, but generally fall around something like:
1600 calories
7g carbs (from eggs, cheese, sour cream, and spices; 1-2%)
127g fat (71.1%)
107g protein (27.1%)
On days that I go higher on lean proteins, I'll sometimes go as high as 140g or so of protein, such as this one (I had wings for dinner):
2,011 calories
7g carbs
156g fat (70.8%)
140g protein (27.8%)
The highest percentage of my calories that I have recorded has (this was a day when I had both bison sirloin and tuna, which are both pretty lean by themselves; I had mayo with the tuna, but the bison was on its own):
1,529 calories
2g carbs
107g fat (62.1%)
143g protein (37.4%)
I'm a female, 5'9" and 245lbs. So these protein numbers range from about .6-1g per pound of lean mass for me, so even on the "high protein" days, I'm well within what's generally considered moderate protein.0 -
Very helpful. Thanks and good continued success!0
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Thanks for the reply. Knowing the possibility of some excess protein to be converted to glucose (and raising insulin levels), it would seem easy to overeat protein, even if maintaining healthy ratios, and impede weight loss in the long run.
I will be very interested to follow everyone's progress, but it would really help me (and us) understand this experiment by knowing (in grams per kg) how much protein everyone is consuming. Otherwise, it is a little like saying, "I'm low carb" and not knowing if this is <20g/day or <150g/day.
Thanks again for anyone's thoughtful replies!
The protein myth strikes again. Look, "excess" protein in the amounts that would significantly effect ketosis is way more than even I eat. And, I eat a lot of protein, mostly due to the amount of calories I eat and not because I am trying. Saturday and Sunday I ate 193g and 264g, respectively. That's 23% and 30% calories from protein for those two days. Today is a little more typical and I am hitting around 167g of protein (27%).
It is not easy to overeat protein to the point that it raises blood glucose to any significant degree. Even with the past few days and a meal an hour or so ago that contained more protein than most people eat in a day (96g), my blood sugar is currently a 98 mg/dL. That's around my post meal average (96). My fasting average, in the morning is 80. I no longer have blood ketone strips, but I consistently tested around 0.7-1.5 even with large amounts of protein (the 0.7 would be after heavier amounts, but also much higher calories which also lowers ketosis).
I currently blow 6 green blinks on my ketonix breath meter. Which is a low, but detectable level of ketosis. It's not impeding my weight loss and never has.0 -
Note: I cut that message off before I was done editing it, because I had to drop the kiddo off at karate. Let me elaborate on some details.
In the last 4 days, I have averaged about 180g of protein a day (about 2,600 calories a day ~27.5% protein). This is well above the limit that most calculators would suggest for me. The keto-calculator says between 78g and 128g max.
But, and here's my point, the protein myth isn't that it can't effect the depth of ketosis. Certainly, if you consume inadequate protein, your ketone levels will go up. And, when you are consuming adequate protein, ketone levels can still decrease (slightly) with large amounts of protein. Although, I am still not convinced that this drop isn't also related to the typically larger than normal amounts of calories that accompanies such massive protein binges. Let's take a more typical case.
Let's pretend that the keto people are right. Really, with my activity level, I should be eating around 90g of protein a day. But, instead, I eat 140g. I'm still going to be in ketosis. I am still going to lose weight at a steady pace. How do I know? Because back when I started keto, this low-protein madness wasn't prominent. It was "low carbs, protein is a goal range you should _try_ and hit, fat to fill you up" and that's it. 20-30g above your protein range? No big deal, better over than under. So, I didn't worry about it. I tracked everything. The first couple hundred days, I was routinely in the 180g+ range at least once a week. And, I was above 130g+ at least 3 days a week. There are a lot of 200g+ days there.
My weight came off steadily (as steadily as it does for anyone that is) and easily. What variance in the change of the rate of loss could I discover in relation to my protein intake? None. Same for pretty much everything else, long term. Calories probably fit the change in rate best, but not to the degree people give them credit for.
I used to track blood glucose, blood ketones, breath ketones, urine ketones, and just about every little thing that could be tracked. I tracked things right through the recent rise of the "watch your protein" madness (actually, that's why I got the blood ketone meter in the end). And I didn't see it. The weeks I averaged 130g of protein were not that much different than the weeks I kept myself around 90g. I certainly wasn't going to drive myself below the full amount of protein to artificially elevate the ketones.
In the end, unless you're eating 250g+ every day, excess protein is probably the least of your worries. Do some people seem more sensitive to it than others? Yeah, I buy that. Should people worry that an extra 50g of protein is going to throw them out of keto and ruin everything? Absolutely not.0 -
@FIT_Goat : didn't mean to touch a nerve. Not sure what the "protein myth" is, and I don't know your physical parameters. I'm glad that eating 200g of protein doesn't affect you, and I'm not implying I think that is bad for everyone.
My point (not a myth) is that for a 5'3 female with a lean body mass of 70kg, eating 2.5g/kg of protein ~175g would seem to have a long term adverse effect on blood glucose- certainly worse than the effect of an equal caloric stress from fat on insulin levels.
If you are not insulin resistant, then you are even in a better position with your protein intake. For those that are, excessive protein would seem like it could be a problem. That is why I have been tracking the carnivore plan postings (and what I thought lead to this question/ post).
You comment reads like I irritated you, and I really didn't intend that. I really just want to understand and learn from people's experiences as I advise the patients I treat.0 -
@FIT_Goat : didn't mean to touch a nerve. Not sure what the "protein myth" is, and I don't know your physical parameters. I'm glad that eating 200g of protein doesn't affect you, and I'm not implying I think that is bad for everyone.
My point (not a myth) is that for a 5'3 female with a lean body mass of 70kg, eating 2.5g/kg of protein ~175g would seem to have a long term adverse effect on blood glucose- certainly worse than the effect of an equal caloric stress from fat on insulin levels.
If you are not insulin resistant, then you are even in a better position with your protein intake. For those that are, excessive protein would seem like it could be a problem. That is why I have been tracking the carnivore plan postings (and what I thought lead to this question/ post).
You comment reads like I irritated you, and I really didn't intend that. I really just want to understand and learn from people's experiences as I advise the patients I treat.
The fear of protein is one of the biggest frustrations I have. As well as the idea that an all meat diet is a high-protein diet. Mine tends to be, at least when I am hitting 3000+ calories a day. When I am hitting more normal numbers, it's much closer to the range keto people accept. This is a common objection and it's something that I handle almost every day from people on keto. Protein just isn't a big deal, at least not in the amounts people will eat from real food at normal amounts.
Do you have any evidence of long term effects on blood sugar when women eat that much protein? Also, not even I average 175g of protein a day (long term), and I eat 2,500 calories a day. My usual average, on an all meat diet, is around 150-160g. It would be a rare woman, even at 100kg--assuming 70kg LBM--that eats more than I do. And, that woman would be right near her target protein if she did eat as much as me.
While, I suspect that short-term, during adaptation, the high protein would cause higher than normal glucose, as the body adapted it would return to a normal baseline. Unless you're an uncontrolled diabetic, gluconeogenesis (glucose from protein) is a well controlled and demand-driven process. Excess protein doesn't magically turn to glucose just because it can. It's turned to glucose to meet the body's need for it.
I wouldn't worry about the long term effects of protein on insulin resistant people, since ketogenic diets are known to reverse insulin resistance. After some time on the diet, their body no longer behaves like an insulin resistant body.
I haven't seen any evidence that high protein causes any issues in otherwise healthy people trying to lose weight.0 -
Thanks for your time0
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