12 months keto and only found out the extent of IR. Should I recalibrate?

(Shantanu) #1

Hi Keto gurus and fellow travelers

I really need your guidance with the road ahead. This isn’t directly about a stall but more around recalibration after some new facts.

First the stats: 6’7”, 237 lbs, 47, male, a1c 5.5. I started keto in Mar ’17 at 285 lbs, a1c 6.1 and no other health issues. Lost weight initially at a decent clip, struggled a bit because of a thyroid infection (thyroid normal now) and have sort of settled down around the 237 lbs mark. Did a fair amount IF and some EF. Strength train once a week using the Body By Science protocol. TG and HDL all trending in the right direction, though not overtly corned about them (thanks Feldman & @siobhan !).

The new facts: 2 weeks back I listened to the Dudes’ episode on satiety and then read (multiple times) the restrict-plate-fat… thread . So I decided to check my fasting insulin and compute my HOMA-IR score. Wasn’t too thrilled to find fasting insulin at 11.1 uIU/mL and HOMA-IR at 2.7. Both indicate high fasting insulin and IR. For about a week I followed Carl’s recent ‘eat fat till you can’t eat anymore’ but the high insulin score has thrown me off the game a bit. Of course, I’m still very much keto but I feel like I need to ‘recalibrate’ in some indeterminate way and attack the high insulin issue. I initially thought my problem was too many carbs (which I didn’t even eat that much of to begin with) but now the ‘real’ problem seems to have emerged. I’m pretty sure that my fasting insulin score when I started keto was probably higher than 11.1 but I feel like I need to ‘do’ something and I’m not sure what that is.

Suggestions? KCKO? More EF? I do desire want to be somewhere around 220 lbs but more than that I really want to be rid of IR.

Thanks in advance. I want to add that I have read a lot of the material on this forum and decided to post this only because I will at least get a hearing.

(Liz ) #2

Weekly EF of 40-70 hours is how I’m attempting to drop my (assumed high, never tested) basal insulin to lose my last 25 pounds. Keeping calm & ketoing on for the rest of my life is how I’ll hopefully increase my insulin sensitivity.

#3

KCKO. Maybe add some fasting as @LizinLowell mentioned as that seems to be a way to reduce IR. 11 while not idea is not terrible. The problem is you do not know where you started. You may have started much higher and with an A1C of 6.1 you probably did. I would keep doing what you are doing, watch your carbs, watch your meal timing, maybe shorten your eating window if that works for you and your life, otherwise not. Then in 3 - 6 months take it again and see where it is and if it has not gone down then get serious about EF

(Mark Rhodes) #4

@LizinLowell I found that EF stopped working. 5 EF of five days didn’t do much for those last 13 I have. I have gone into a IF mode to shake it up. 20-4, usually 21-3. I did not fluctuate weight as much this week and my daily BG dropped on my morning read from 5.0 (90) to 4.1 ( 74). My HOMA-IR in February was 2.2 and fasting insulin was 9.8.
@loco4locos So now you have two approaches completely opposite each other. Sorry. Guess shaking it up from what you’ve been doing. Could be carb creep- it was for me.

(Shantanu) #5

Carb creep was there, particularly with nuts, but that receded once I cranked up the fat. Will definitely shorten the eating window and maybe pay more attention to protein levels. Thanks.