Welcome!
I think the only equipment needed is the blood glucose and ketone tester for ~$100. The strips can get expensive but if you’re fasting, it’s kind of break even.
The digital scale is nice because it syncs the data with a smart phone but not necessary.
I think metabolic rate is key too. That’s the impetus for trying to compare fasted metabolism to controlled doses of fats and amino acids.
I’m still considering this eating weekend as a break and phase 2 starts Monday. Amazing to see that there’s a flux of 8lbs of water and food still oscillating above the low point of 175 with the equilibrium of 179 or so… and that 175 low point was a hydration of the post fast 168, which is 7 lbs of basic hydration… so 7 base + 4 mid + 4 high. So 8% of my total scale is “stuff” not really related to real mass or body fat.
This is why dieting and looking at the daily scale that goes up by 0.5lbs is relatively meaningless. Even while fasting, it’s more of a compass that occasionally spins around…
Case in point… correction after about an hour
Woke up very leg-sore today… its a good sore from heavy lifting.
I was pretty upset about my leg mass loss this week and decided to go for a heavy squat and deadlift Thursday -back to back with sauna. Also I know how to shred it with slow eccentrics so I did.
Something about imagining how much 4lbs of steak looks like and then visualizing loosing that much muscle really got to me… it’s a lotta beef!
Yesterday I was sore but I knew today was going to be the real punishment… 
I was also actually hungry yesterday night. I mean pre-Keto hungry and I’ve been eating for days on end now… so it must have been a real call for amino acids to rebuild. I remember this feeling from my college days when I used to do Atkins and lift heavy and then consume pounds of meat and eggs. I was overweight but I could lift. I once pushed myself so hard that I couldn’t walk for a week… crutches and all…
Overall I feel great but the soreness is like a college buddy that’s going to be sleeping on the couch for a bit. A pain and eats all my food, but brings back fond memories…
Now I have a few stairs to climb to get flow in there and keep the rebuilding going.
By the end of phase 2, I want to regain as much of the lost leg lean mass as I can… without compromising the arms and trunk. Thinking of alternating my fasted protein shake to be after lifting instead of in the morning… but then it feels almost like OMAD with a shake instead of fasting. I have until Sunday night to decide…
Another observation… I’m generating a lot of heat… I think it’s the protein shake
My cold packs used to last for 3 hrs and now they barely make it half as long. My cold showers feel warmer… if I wasn’t so sore, I’d try the ice bath.
I’m curious if there is a way to measure bodyheat reliably apart from a thermometer. Obviously breaking down protein is metabolically expensive, consuming 20%+ the calories as heat, but there there is also the phenomena of luxconsumption. This happens when your body has such a surplus of food/energy that it just burns of the excess as heat for the fun of it, and not because of protein. There are some interesting papers on it.
It would be fascinating if it were possible to trigger luxconsumption of one’s own bodyfat with keto. It’s a pretty big store of energy after all. I don’t have a clue how that might be accomplished, or even if it’s possible, but it would be interesting to figure out how to measure it.
I wonder if you could use a thermal imaging camera to do it. I’m talking about the good one’s that measure small variations in temperature for HVAC use. It might be interesting to do a thermal image twice a day while testing some of your concoctions, and also while doing fasting and feasting. That assumes that skin temp would be consistent with overall bodytemp which may not be a good assumption. Still, it would be really interesting to see if variations in thermal image scans correlated with RMR changes during fasting. Just a weird thought. I’ve already blown my gadget budget for the year. 
You are separating ‘cold extremities’ from ‘being cold overall’, right? I think there’s a significant difference, Shelton’s book talks about the cold a bit.
Inspired by you and DonQ and someone named brendazorn over on IDM, I have bought a keto mojo, and strips for both, and lancets. I am going to find the thing that tracks my heart rate every 10m on the iwatch. I have blood pressure, temp, oxygen and pulse here already. And a quality digital scale to 0.2lb. I do not have and likely will not for a long time (possibly ever) an RMR test. I live in nowhere, Oklahoma, and the only toy I have that costs that much is my awesome 30x48 VibePlate (I just stuck it inside my squat cage – my gym is half my living room), so that’s life I guess.
I’m a spreadsheet/graph nerd (I fit right in, I see) so whatever my results this will let me chart things in excel or google sheets with a lot more detail.
My heart rate dropped 20 points when I shifted to this fast. Despite I’m ending day 3 here, my total hunger has been ‘somewhat’ for about 2 minutes on day 2.
from the video you posted of Dr Bikman your white fat maybe becoming uncoupled producing more heat.
Actually, it’s not that hard.
Sit in a tub with a known volume of water at a known starting temperature… measure the change in temperature of the water over time … calculate heat flux.
The ice tub would work great for this.
metabolic rate as a function of multiple variables, including refeed and breaks
This is very applicable especially the concept of different people’s metabolic adaptation and the myth of broken metabolism…
I think it supports cyclic fasting also.
I also think that the discussion of a super-charged metabolism pre-fast for off-season bodybuilders applies to my pre-fasted state. I was not at maintenance given that I was regularly fasting 3 days a week and then stopped the week prior and ate 6000 cals a day every day.
I decided to skip the protein shakes for the 4 days. If I was to do another 3 week EF, I’d probably go for it, but when I dug into the results, it really showed that the only place I lost lean mass is where I was too lazy (found excuses)… If I had done the squats, I think I could have reduced the loss there substantially.
Also, it wouldn’t help compare the EF to the CF (cyclic fast)… too many variables changing. I’m going to maintain the Leucine.
I went back to compare the smart scale to the DEXA results
I’m not sure which is more wrong during the extended fast state: DEXA or the digital scale:
But in the fed state, they’re actually decently close. I’ll try to import the hydration data to make them match, but I’m not sure if the DEXA data is accurate in a fasted state anyway.
Ok… here’s the update
I marked the out of target GKI points in red. That 7.41 outtage was the result of excessive exercise. Interesting that there’s still some sub 1 points this far into the break/phase 2 stage.
Also, it took 4-5 days to get into autophagy for Phase 1… and about 4-5 days to get out of autophagy.
I ate a lot yesterday too, but the food flux looks balanced now…
I ate so much that I ended the night at 91G, 0.8K, 6.3GKI… that’s basically my pre-fast condition.
This morning I woke up to 79G, 1.3K, 3.4GKI… so close to phase 2 target.
My soreness is getting better. I wonder if the depressed GKI is a function of the rebuilding of broken down leg muscle or just overconsumption of protein and carbs.
Given that it took me 4 days to get into autophagy and 4 to get out, it will be interesting to see what the 4 fast / 3 feed cycle will do.
I think I’ve run the post-fast inertia to its conclusion so the break has done its job and now I can start phase 2 feeling well recovered. Tomorrow is day 1 again and a fresh start.
glycolysis vs gluconeogenesis energy use (17 minutes in)
Glycolysis generates 4 units of ATP from glucose
Gluconeogenesis 6 units of ATP to make glucose from amino acids … -2 ATP
Great video!
Here is a follow up vid by T DeLauer’s guest that nicely summarizes how energy balance, calorie partioning, and hormones intersect. Not earth shattering, but a nice summary. He’s got some interesting content on his channel you might enjoy.
Thanks. I’ve been following Mike since I started keto. He’s pretty good.
I actually followed them both so it was nice to see them collaborate.
The missing elements are TIME and SPACE effects of hormones: Is it possible to have mToR in one region and AMPK in another? Is it possible to time feeding/fasting/lifting/sleeping to stimulate targeted hormonal switches?
I think this is just beautiful… it shows how mitochondria actually make energy…
