3/6/2017 Continuing Steak Challenge Thread

[Brenda]

Day 17, March 16th.
Oh holy hell.
Lookie what I got today.
#DAYAM

[Fiorella]

Day 17 - fatty top cap steaks fried in beef tallow, with vitamin supplements

[Brenda]

Day 17. continued (March 16th).
Grilled a Tbone and also had a piece of sirloin that was 3/4 fat.
The fat has an ethereal glow. Like amber.
I’ve never seen that before.

[Brenda]

Day 18. March 17th.
Grilled another Tbone along with another piece of sirloin that was 3/4 fatcap.

[Brenda]

I’ve been lowering my protein to more moderate levels, and upping my fat. I am achieving more fat and less meat (protein) by buying fattier cuts of meat and sometimes literally cutting away some of the leaner parts.
The result? Higher blood and breath ketones. The higher protein did not affect my blood glucose, but it DID affect my blood ketones!!!

For me? This proves for a proper ketogenic diet, protein MUST be moderate! I am eating closer to .8 or 1 gram per pound of LBM now, instead of how I ate protein the first week or two of this challenge, and that was 1.5 to 2 grams some days per pound LBM.
I feel better now too. More energy. Better mood.
Less hungry at mealtimes. Better satiety.

No wonder.

[Brenda]

I just had a DEXA scan this week and have an accurate LBM (Lean Body Mass) calculation now.
My LBM allows me a generous amount of protein daily.
Phinney and Volek (authors of the book “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living”) recommend between .6 and 1 gram protein a day per pound of LBM (Lean Body Mass).
I can still eat over 100 grams a day and stay under 1 gram per pound of LBM!
These are the macros for a ribeye that weighs approximately 10 to 11 ounces.

Look at that.

Only 69 grams protein. Lol

Keep in mind these fat macros in no way resemble my current steaks. Lol. And my steaks would have less protein per ounce as a result.

[Brenda]

So…

IN CONCLUSION

1.5 pounds of very fatty beef steaks are right up my alley for maintaining LBM at Phinney and Volek’s recommended .6 to 1 gram per pound of my LBM.

AHHHHH. I love the numbers. The science. The analogy.

Never gets boring.

I’m going with .8 per pound of LBM. I’ll be concentrating on increasing my lifts, then I’ll repeat a DEXA.

Goal?
Increasing LBM and decreasing bodyfat, of course!

[Donna]

AHHHHH. I love the numbers. The science. The analogy.

nerrrrrrd.

Still chugging onward with steaks - I’ve been low protein this week and it’s been a nice break. I’m doing 16oz of sirloin on average, deliberately lean. Only lost 7lbs total, but 5" total off my waist and hips in the past three weeks or so. I also went down a half a shoe size. Thanks body for losing fat, not on my ass, but in my feet.

I’m also definitely losing fat as I am getting hormone flushes, though.

[Fiorella]

Interesting insight with protein vs ketones.

[Fiorella]

Day 18 - polished off leftover steaks from yesterday, that were fatty top cap steaks fried in beef tallow and supplements

[Adam]

Sorry I have to lay this out due to grams, ounces, lbs, kgs in order to ensure I understand re protein:

Phinney & Volek rrecommend
.6 to 1 gram per pound of LBM which equals
1.3 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of LBM

2ketodudes recommend every podcast
.45 to .68 grams per pound of LBM calculated from what they say which is
1 to 1.5 grams per kilogram of LBM

@Brenda finds
1.5 to 2 grams per pound of LBM which equals
3.3 to 4.4 grams per kilogram of LBM
to be excessive resulting in lower ketones
and finds
.8 grams per pound of LBM which equals
1.8 grams per kilogram of LBM
to be optimal

So you’ve landed happiest almost smack bang in the middle between the high end of what the @dudes recommend and the high end of what Phinney & Volek recommend. It makes sense you’re in the high end of the ranges as you lift weights & have strong muscles/high LBM so need that little more protein to maintain & continue to build LBM.
Interesting how when you ate excessive protein ketones dropped but blood glucose wasn’t impacted. Could it be that your system was able to handle any glucose that was made from the excess protein, i.e. your insulin worked well to clear it - your cells were able to accept it as you’re ZC for over 2 weeks so your cells just got it out of the blood & used it up? Less insulin resistant in this ZC state? Anyway thanks for doing & sharing the experiment, it’s very interesting.

[Brenda]

Anyway thanks for doing & sharing the experiment, it’s very interesting.

I do believe I’ll be doing nutty experiments forever. So much to learn. I like your breakdown of pounds to kgs. Very helpful for those who use metric. And even for me as a lot of the science I read and the keto related authors are from overseas and use metric as well!
Your analogies are good too. No doubt a zero carbohydrate state changes things in my IR body. I was surprised lowering protein increased ketones on blood and breath testing as well. It was consistent for four days before I reported the lower protein as the reason. I decided to lower my protein because-
Hell
It was way more protein than my body needed for building muscle and repair! A waste! I figured excess can’t ever be good. So with my fatty fat cap in my hands, I dropped protein quite a bit!

And yes, I feel better. Overall.
It’s the ketones.

[Brenda]

Update:
My weight started dropping again.
I expected this.
Nice to see it happen.
This is the lowest ever on the challenge so far.
6.5 pounds GONE

…and I can tell it’s not coming back. Also, lowest my BG has ever been unless doing an extended day fast. My norm is 80’s or 90’s in the morning.
This is an exciting development. Ketones are still in optimal nutritional ketosis range.

[Fiorella]

Day 19 - rib steak fried in tallow, and supplements

[Brenda]

Day 19, March 18.
Tbone and small chuck steak. 23.6 oz total minus bone. Fried in my 110 year old cast iron pan, not grilled today.

[Brenda]

Day 20, March 19th.
16 ounce Tbone, grilled outside.

That fatcap added 6 EXTRA tablespoons beef fat!
I measured this steak today, carefully, subtracting the 2 ounce bone and adding in the extra 3 ounces of beef fat (the unusually thick fatcap)

It contained 84 grams of protein and a whopping 132 grams of fat!

So funny.
Protein macro to maintain Lean Body Mass at .8 grams per pound?

NOT MET YET

[Brenda]

BTW. Dropped another half pound.
That’s 7 pounds total now @richard, but who’s counting

[Fiorella]

Day 20 - rib steak fried in beef tallow, and extra supplementation

[Brenda]

Day 20, March 19th continued. Ate a small piece of pan fried sirloin a few hours after the Tbone tonight. NOW I’ve met my protein. Not that I was concerned, I just did it cuz I could. Lol. The lean meat weighed 3.5 ounces and there was an ounce of fat attached as well. No photo. It was boring.

[Brenda]

Ketones still rocking.
(It’s the moderate protein. The ketogenic diet is:
Low Carbohydrate, MODERATE protein, high fat.)

I “moderate” my protein according to the guidelines by Phinney and Volek (in their book The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living) which defines moderate as .6 to 1 gram protein per pound of lean body mass (LBM). I chose .8 for myself. My LBM is fucking HUGE.
/strut