Comparing these first ten days on the ketogenic diet to my previous attempt is like oil and water. Yesterday afternoon's easy five miles felt spectacular, despite having only 750 calories for the day before my run. I am feeling satiated and energetic. I even had a beer on Monday! I have been starting every day with two hard-boiled eggs and a couple pieces of string cheese, followed by snacks of mixed nuts and green olives. For lunch I'll have a salad, leftover's from dinner or some baked tofu. Dinners have been some form of animal protein and a salad with some veggies. I feel great and the fat is melting off. This stuff really works. Check out the numbers:
January 14th, 2015, day ten
- Weight: 199 (-4.2 lbs for the week)
- Body fat %: 19.48 (-1.42%)
- Ketone level: 1.8 mm
Over 4 lbs in one week isn't what I would call healthy, but it is in line with my ketogenic experience. I weighed 209 lbs on December 9th, so I have lost about 2 lbs per week. Most would agree that rate is healthy but rapid. The ketone number is 50% higher than I was able to achieve last summer. It indicates that I have entered what Dr. Phinney calls the "optimal ketone zone". A few more weeks in this range and I will be "keto-adapted". The bottom line is that my body will be burning almost exclusively dietary and body fat for energy even while exercising. While this may not help my performance, it will allow my loss of body fat to continue at a good clip. And losing that fat will help my performance. Recognizing the diminishing returns will be the challenging part. As my mileage increases, I will be strategically adding some simple carbohydrates into my diet to fuel the additional volume. I am interested to see just how many grams of carbs I can get before slipping out of ketosis.
For the mean time, I'm having a blast. In this age of instant gratification, seeing the fat slough off so quickly is motivating. Feeling full on less food has been remarkable. Now that I have distanced myself from carbohydrates, I see how addictive they are. They breed hunger. Fat makes you feel fuller. I'm sold, American.
In training, I am in the midst of a rest week (25 miles). Easy runs and strength training. Up next is a three week ramp up to the American Canyon 25k. I have been striving to stay at MAF pace (HR~142) for this base building phase. After AC25k I'll be shifting gears to a strength building phase. Hill repeats, longer long runs, a focus on my TRX routine and other core workouts will be the keys to developing the power I'll need to attack the high volume training that is to come.
Is anyone else out there having as much fun as I am training for 2015? How about a Wanderplace Diet-bet, any takers?
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