I Challenge You!

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After a slow July, at least as far as my weight loss and health goals are concerned, I’m heading into August with a brand new initiative.  Starting today I am beginning my 31-Day Keto Eating Challenge. From July 27th through August 26th, 2017 I will be living a “keto lifestyle”.

What do I Mean by a “Keto Lifestyle”?

I read this today in the keto book I’m studying today.

“The Ketogenic diet consists of high amounts of fats, ample proteins and fewer carbohydrates. It forces the body to use fats instead of carbs for breaking down to convert them into energy. In our regular diets, we consume more carbohydrate and shun fats. Thus, our body is perfectly adapted throughout history to break down carbohydrates for energy. However, in the Ketogenic diet, we try to change the pattern of our body to break down the elements to be used for energy. We feed our body with more fats and less carbohydrates and thus force it to adapt in a new way to use fats for energy.

Normally, our body would convert food into glucose that would be transported to various body parts. This glucose is especially important in fueling functions of the brain. It is easiest for your body to convert carbs into glucose and use it as energy. Thus, it is obvious that your body will choose carbs over any other source of energy. Our body produces insulin to process glucose in the bloodstream and makes it travel around the body. Since glucose is there to provide energy to your body, fats are not required and hence, stored. However, if you do not feed your body with carbohydrates, the liver starts converting fats to ketone bodies and fatty acids. These ketone bodies enter the brain and pass through it to replace the old source of energy, which was glucose. Thus, all the fats you consume in the form of meats, oils, creams, etc. is broken down and it does not get accumulated in your body. When you lower down the carbs intake, the body is persuaded to enter into a state of ketosis. It is just a natural process, which is initiated by the body to help it survive when the food consumption is low. The Ketogenic diet is known by some other names as well- low carbs

However, if you do not feed your body with carbohydrates, the liver starts converting fats to ketone bodies and fatty acids. These ketone bodies enter the brain and pass through it to replace the old source of energy, which was glucose. Thus, all the fats you consume in the form of meats, oils, creams, etc. is broken down and it does not get accumulated in your body. When you lower down the carbs intake, the body is persuaded to enter into a state of ketosis.

It is just a natural process, which is initiated by the body to help it survive when the food consumption is low. The Ketogenic diet is known by some other names as well- low carbs high-fat diet (LCHF), low carb diet. The ultimate aim of a well maintained Ketogenic diet is to persuade the body into a metabolic state. But, this does not mean that you have to go hungry on calories. However, you just have to strictly control your consumption of carbohydrates. It is definitely easier than starving on fats.

Noll, Mathew. Ketogenic Diet: Do’s And Don’ts For Beginners: How to Lose Weight and Feel Amazing (Ketogenic Diet for Weight Loss, Ketogenic Diet for Beginners, Anti-Inflammatory Diet) (Kindle Locations 129-140). UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.

While in ketosis, your body effectively uses fat for fuel. In general, the daily intake of net carbs required to enter ketosis could vary from 20 to 100 grams per day (and very rarely over 100 grams per day). Most people, who have experienced ketosis, claim to have reached that state at about 20-50 grams of net carbs per day.

My goal will be to eat one/two meals each day after a fasting period and stay under 20 grams of carbohydrates total for the day to ensure I will reach a state of ketosis.  Once I get my body into ketosis, continuing extremely low daily carbs should keep it there as long as I eat correctly.

What will I be eating?

My diet will consist of lots of good fats, a moderate about of proteins and low glycemic vegetables.  The more natural the food, the better.  So I’ll try to get organic vegetables if I can; and meat, poutry and fish that are free-range or wild caught.  I will avoid sugars, starches, alcohol, wheat, legunes, dairy and soy (to keep inflammation down).  This will include cutting back on my cheese, which I love.  I will be able to have some heavy cream and almond and coconut milk.  Good fats are full fat cream, real butter, olive oil, meat, bacon, fatty fish, coconut oil, eggs.  I will avoid peanuts but can eat almonds, walnuts sparingly as well as low glycemic fruit.

I need to be careful eating dairy-especially cheeses and nuts as they can contain too many carbs.

I need to eat to satiety when I’m hungry with low-glycemic, carbs, good fats and adequate protein.

Ketogenic diets are high in fat, adequate in protein and low in carbohydrates. Generally, the macronutrient ratio varies within the following ranges:

• 60-75% of calories from fat (or even more),
• 15-30% of calories from protein, and
• 5-10% of calories from carbs.

The exact amount of fat and protein is a matter of individual body responses and activity levels. However, most people on ketogenic diets don’t consume over 5% of calories from carbohydrates.

Additional Goals for the Challenge

I’m not abandoning my Intermittent Fasting during this time, but plan on staying on a schedule of 18:6 with 2 meals or 23:4 with one meal a day.  I will not plan on doing fasts of  24 hours or more, since that is problematic for me – as I’ve found out the last month of my plateau due to “cheating” on my part. (because I don’t handle hunger well).

The most important thing, in the end, is for me to stick to the Ketogenic diet. The process of ketosis will happen in my body as it starts to depend on fats for my energy instead of carbohydrates and sugars; I cannot just “cheat once” on my plan without consequences. If I do, it will ruin my efforts of the past one week with just one cheat meal! It would take another one week to get my body back to ketosis and function in a fat-burning mode again.  So I’m giving myself an emotional break in sticking to the shorter fasts during this challenge and trying to keep my hunger under control

During the period of this Challenge,  I’m planning on doing a lot of reading and research on the keto lifestyle and meal plans.  I have downloaded several e-books to read and look over during the period. Here’s a snapshot of the different books I have in my Kindle Library.  Most of these were free to purchase or free to borrow through my Kindle Unlimited subscription.

 

 

 

I’m also reading on this blogsite:  http://2ketodudes.com/ (2 Keto Dudes)

Physical Lifestyle modifications

It so happens that I just started with a new Chiropractor today.  So I will be keeping track of how the chiropractic treatments are working on me the next 4 weeks.

Also, I will be starting some physical therapy next week.  So I will also be reporting what I’m doing and how that PT is working for my pain and flexibility.

I will not really be doing any extra exercising other than my weekly kayak float and occasional time in the indoor pool.  When I do go to the pool I will try to do so in a fasted state which will help me create more growth hormone so I lose weight and build muscle better.

I WILL be trying to increase the amount of water I drink each day.

It will be very interesting to see how the diet, PT, and Chiropractic adjustments will affect my weight, inflammation and pain levels, as well as my flexibility and mobility after this month.

Recordkeeping

I will be logging the following measures daily:

• Weight
• Morning Fasting BGL, insulin doses
• BGL before and after 1st meal, insulin dose if given
• Macros for 1st meal
• BGL before and after 2nd meal, insulin dose given
• Macros for 2nd meal
• Total Carbs for the day
• Total Calories
• Fasting hours each day

Comments

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