Since it’s been 2 weeks since I officially started my n=1, I thought I would compare my data from then with today’s. I’ve lost a total of 3 lbs, which to some probably doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s pretty good for me. My lowest weight a few days ago was 128, but the next day it went up over a lb and then started going down again. Comparing today’s weight with my start weight I’ve seen a loss of 1.5 lbs a week. I’d like to make that 2 lbs per week going forward, but I’d be happy with 1.5.
Here are my numbers from my smart scale thingy:
weight: was 131.6 lbs (now 128.6)
BMI: was 21.4 (now 20.9)
Body Fat: was 22.2% (now 21.5%)
Fat-free Body Weight: was 102.4 lbs (now 101.0lbs)
Subcutaneous Fat: was 20.6% (now 20.0%)
Visceral Fat: was 4 (now 3)
Body Water: was 53.4% (now 53.9%)
Skeletal Muscle: was 45.3% (now 45.8)
Muscle Mass: was 96.2 lbs (now 94.8)
Bone Mass: was 6.2 lbs (now 6.0)
Protein: was 18.6% (now 18.8%)
BMR: was 1372 (now 1358)
Metabolic Age: was 27 (now 27)
One thing that is a little annoying, but doesn’t surprise me based on my previous experience (I’ve been losing weight since October and down almost 20 lbs) is the loss of muscle mass. It could be that my scale is wrong, but it’s probably not completely off. I really should be doing more exercise, but I’ve been working so much lately that it’s hard to fit in the workouts (excuses, excuses ). I also think that my problem is that even though I’ve been eating a ketogenic diet for a long time, my body, especially in times of stress, wants to prioritize glucose as a fuel rather than fat, so my lean muscle ends up being used to create that glucose.
Something positive that continues to fascinate me is that supposedly by BMR is around 1360, but I calculated that the average amount of calories I’ve eaten per day has averaged 1434. At the beginning of this I was better about getting out and walking and I’ve tried to do some at-home body-weight exercises, but I haven’t really burned that many calories with exercise. Let’s say that on average I use an extra 150 calories on top of my BMI doing exercise. That would mean I would have a calorie deficit of only about 76 calories a day (based on a supposed BMI of 1360). This would mean my total deficit over 2 weeks would be 1064 calories or about 0.3 lbs of weight loss. So I’ve lost 10 times what my BMI says I should have. I think this is because keto and/or eating to reduce inflammation actually speeds up your metabolism. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that overexposure to glucose and inflammation leads to a slower metabolism. It will be interesting to see if I continue having this same experience.
While I didn’t really intend to talk so much about mental health here, I think one of my last posts about the topic left out some big issues because I don’t find it easy to talk about them. Mainly, I think I ignored that idea of an eating disorder contributing to my mental health status. This isn’t because I don’t think about it, I’ve actually thought about it a lot. I think I have struggled with eating disorder tendencies and I think it would be therapeutic for me to find a way to talk about that. Imma save that for another day though