Introduction - 40yo male. On the right track?

#1

Hi Everyone,

I’ve just joined and thought I’d introduce myself as well as see if I can get any feedback on my plan.

First up, about me:
Turning 40 in a couple weeks,
76kg
19% body fat
Fasting Blood Glucose normal
Cholesterol on statins ~ low 5s, off statins, high 6s.
Kidney function slightly low for age
Slightly elevated inflammatory markers - possibly due to dust/pollen allergies.
Early signs of fatty liver disease

Although my doctor hasn’t said it, I am concerned that as someone of Chinese descent, I may be “skinny-fat”. That is, acceptable fat ratio, but all deposited viscerally. Most people looking at me would struggle to see any flabby bits on me at all.

Anyway, I’ve been aware of ketogenic diets for quite a while, but took little interest in it, as I didn’t think I needed to diet. However, my bloodwork begs to differ, and I thought I’d give it a go. My plan is to:

  1. Keep carbs under 20g/day for 2 weeks, moderate exercise at least 3 x a week (I walk to work, hilly 3.5km each way). Do not intentionally create a calorie deficit, but if I lose weight in this stage, all the better. I already drink bulletproof coffee for focus in the morning, and indeed it was chatting to people about that, that lead me to consider a ketogenic diet, since some people say the lack of carbs and MCT heavy drink gives them a short ketosis window every day, even though they’re not aiming to be ketogenic.

  2. Hopefully by week 3, I will be somewhat fat adapted. I will create a calorie deficit by exercising harder, and reducing calories eaten. Planning on running to work, and doing bike rides. Lose approximately 8-10kg in this phase. I am hoping I can do this in less than 6 months.

  3. Ease up on the ketosis, and go to only low carb - < 100g/day, and start training for a half marathon again. (I used to run those about 8 years ago. Best time was just under 2h, so by no means a professional, but definitely faster than just walking 21kms).

Hoping that losing this fat will also mean inflammatory markers and cholesterol will drop, letting me get off statins. While I have no noticeable side effects, I prefer to be on as few drugs as possible.

What do people think? Is this a reasonable goal to set, and am I on the right path?

Thanks.

#2

I don’t fit the category - but I did just listen to the ketodudes podcast on TOFI’s - and know there are some on the forum - so hopefully they will chime in soon. In the meantime you can have a listen.

The TOFI show (Thin outside, Fat Inside)

(Karen) #3

Welcome! I too have lowish kidney function due to a virus several years ago. I hope to see good maintainence on keto with the moderate protein.
K

(Andrew) #4

Try and get a starting fasting insulin out of your doctor.

#5

Thanks guys. I hadn’t heard of it called TOFI before. I’ll have a listen to the podcast when I get some time.

What’s the starting insulin level for? I understand it for diabetics or pre-diabetics, but in terms of Keto?

(Andrew) #6

Insulin level is just a pre-pre-diabetes check. Fatty liver will start the Insulin Resistance train started. Doesn’t seem to matter if it was from fructose or ethanol or food even. If you hadn’t mentioned kidney or liver I don’t think it’d be far from normal.

(Candy Lind) #7

I’m wondering if doing both is overkill? But hey, I’m a sloth! LOL

#8

Thanks Andrew. My next blood test is actually due in a week (Dr. suggests 6 monthly blood tests to ensure that statins are still at the right dosage. I also need allergy meds scripts renewed that often), but I am putting it off until I am stable on Keto.

Candy - I’m the opposite. I don’t mind a bit of exercise, but I hate ever feeling hungry! Most my life I felt I could exercise my way out of a bad diet, but I think that’s becoming less possible as I get older.

At least my favourite food is 45 day dry aged Waygu Rib-eye, 16 hour in the sous vide, barded in bacon and pan fried in butter. The keto diet doesn’t affect that :wink:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #9

Don’t worry about calorie counting for a while, if ever. The recommendation is to eat fat to satiety, and thus allow your body to set your caloric intake. That way, it is free to utilize its stored fat as part of your energy expenditure.

As you lose fat, you will of course have to increase your caloric intake to compensate, but if you continue eating fat to satiety, the process will be automatic. I find it exceedingly difficult to estimate my daily energy expenditure and to tailor my caloric intake to match (Gary Taubes says we would need to match them to less than 20 calories to keep at a stable weight), so I love the idea of making my body take care of the matter. And besides, this way I don’t get hungry!

(Adam Smith) #10

Sounds good. Don’t bother with the calorie deficit though. Just eat the right things (fat) when you’re hungry, stop when you’re full, and your body will take care of the rest. Don’t bother counting calories either. It’s your body’s job to deal with calories and adjust your metabolism accordingly, and on keto it actually can.

I’m sure someone has already mentioned it, but exercise is going to be hard during adaptation. Don’t be disappointed if your performance dips significantly during this period.

#11

Keto Flu has hit! Woot!

It’s not quite as bad (yet?) as some people have said. I have a bit of pressure in my head, a bit of brain fog, a bit of muscle weakness and a weird kind of hunger. It’s not a craving, but it feels like my stomach is somehow mildly cramped… Drinking lots of water is helping a little. I’ve had worse from mild dehydration, so it’s really not that big a problem.

I find the comment about not creating a deficit a bit weird, but I’m willing to give it a go. After all, your body can create ketones out of dietary fat as much as out of stored fat, so why don’t I need a deficit? I’m guessing hormonally, if I am creating enough ketones out of stored fat, I just won’t feel hungry, so eating to satiety is very important. That might be a bit tough. My parents came from post-war China when food was extremely scarce, and I grew up on “A starving child in China would crawl over broken glass for what’s left on your plate, you eat everything you’re served.” It probably didn’t help that I was medically underweight, and a year of my life was my parents trying to get me into the right weight band…

Anyway, as a result, I just eat whatever is put in front of me, regardless of serving size. I actually find it hard to stop during a meal to try to “sense” whether I’m still hungry or not.

(Rob) #12

You don’t want a deficit until you are properly fat adapted which is independent of ketosis. This prevents any starvation response in the meantime which would just reduce your BMR. Once properly fat adapted, your appetite should go down as your body is happy to burn its own fat. This is all dependent on your absolute serum insulin levels which is why it is important to starve the body of carbs for the adaptation phase to get those insulin levels down.
@richard wrote a great piece showing how this works and how the insulin resistance of different body tissues can create limits on fat burning that turns into plateaus for people.
https://www.ketogenicforums.com/t/centurians-people-who-have-lost-more-than-100-lbs/27482/50 Post 48

(Andrew) #13

You have identified the primary problem with going keto. You have to make ketones, which you liver may well have forgotten about. To do that it needs fat (which also is surely not very practiced). It does this with glucagon, which is the opposite of insulin. So you don’t totally run out of brain fuel, you at least eat lots of fat so your liver has something to do. The ketones produced surely help free more fat to make more ketones. Takes a few days for your body to fire up everything.

Once your liver is humming along making ketones then we can pressure the pancreas to make glucagon and free up some fat. It just sort of happens though. There’s no real step to this, besides sleeping every night.

(Candy Lind) #14

Oh PLEASE post a picture of that in What did you eat today? next time you make it!!

#15

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Week one results. I did delete an anomalous 0.5kg gain on day 2, when I realised I had drunk a lot of water that morning, and retook the measurement 2 hours later. (the slight bump up)

Happy with the results so far :slight_smile:

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #16

The point is to avoid creating a calorie deficit. If you eat fat to satiety you will neither over- nor undereat, because your body will stop being hungry at a caloric level that will allow it to metabolize both dietary and stored fat (assuming you keep your carbohydrate intake low enough to avoid stimulating insulin secretion).

According to Dr. Phinney’s research, people in the induction phase of a ketogenic diet generally find themselves eating around 1500 calories a day, the remaining 1000 calories they need coming from body fat. As their fat store diminishes, their caloric intake automatically increases to compensate. They find themselves needing to eat more fat in order to remain satisfied. Eventually, of course, as they continue eating fat to satiety, they find their entire caloric budget of 2500 calories coming entirely from the food they eat. But the point is that eating fat to satiety makes calorie-counting unnecessary at every stage of the process, from induction to maintenance.