Karim's muscle gain carnivore adventure


(Karim Wassef) #183

and the shape of Texas too… sort of.

I love cow


(Karim Wassef) #184

ok… first a correction for yesterday - I forgot the goat cheese - so here’s the real total for Day 6

and here’s today - Day 7

That was very enjoyable. Ketones were 0.8 before - we’ll see in a bit where they end up.


(Empress of the Unexpected) #185

Good decision.


(Karim Wassef) #186

Must have been all the fat but I couldn’t stay awake after all that…

Fell asleep before I could take a blood test. Woke up a couple of hours later with 1.2 ketones…

Before: 77G, 0.8K = 5.3GKI
After: 87G, 1.2K = 4.0GKI

So… that looks like the very high dietary fat pumped up my ketones despite the massive protein intake?


(Karim Wassef) #187

Thoughts?


#188

Lot’s of fat will do that won’t it? It’s why high ketones are not necessarily indicative of endogenous fat burning…


How to keep my ketones level up to 3.0, also I haven't been able to lose more weight
(Karim Wassef) #189

That’s what I’m thinking.


(Karim Wassef) #190

I did expect that 4300cal with <20g carbs but almost ~300g of protein would have spiked insulin enough to put most of the ~350g of fat into fat storage.

Instead, the very high dietary fat seems to have stimulated ketosis more (or faster?) and blunted the insulin effect? Maybe it’s because I started in a relatively low glucose state of 77?

In either case, my glucose ended at 87… so not a lot of GNG that I could observe.

It’s confounded by the fact that this was 3 hrs after the meal (not my usual 1hr ) because I fell into a deep sleep right after eating. So the reaction immediately after eating wasn’t measured. There could have been a narrow but high insulin spike followed by ketones and insulin suppression?


Hypoglycemia low blood glucose while highly fat adapted with high ketones Research?
(Mame) #191

true, but that wouldn’t have really been problematic, right? A quick and high insulin spike would be a healthy normal response I am thinking…


(Karim Wassef) #192

Day 8 - post carnivore feast and DEXA day!

So according to my “smart” scale, I gained 4.2lbs overnight with 2.8lbs fat and 1.4lbs lean. Clearly a lot of water! And I have been very thirsty - could be insulin or could be that it takes a lot of water to digest so much protein and fat - or both.

Interesting to see that ketones are still increasing and now at 1.5 many hours after the meal… and glucose is relatively normal at 81


(Karim Wassef) #193

Yes. But over this week of eating carnivore, the high protein has severely raised my glucose and kept my ketones down. With this feast, I was expecting a more severe form of the same.

Maybe last week, my body was still adjusting from the vegan/fasting protocol of the last couple of months and just temporarily physiologically glucose intolerant… and my big feast just reset?


(Karim Wassef) #194

I actually love it when the real data contradicts my expectations - it’s an opportunity to learn … either to refine or correct :slight_smile:

It’s why I share it all with you all.

Speaking of which - DEXA/RMR in 2hrs… hmmm


(Karim Wassef) #195

Good news first

RMR up above pre-fast levels… actually through the roof

My body just likes meat and fat like some people @Ilana_Rose @Dread1840

And here’s me in the goofy mask @Don_Q @primal.peanut and a t-shirt from my near-fat days


(Karim Wassef) #196

Bad news is that I’m gaining fat faster than lean mass again… more data later today

Overall went from 22.4% bf to 22.6% and visceral fat continuing to grow from 1.56lb to 1.66lb (in two weeks). I’m starting to mistrust this datapoint - don’t understand it.

Summary


(mole person) #197

Could it be that protein has been too high and so your storing instead of burning fat?


(Karim Wassef) #198

But why visceral?

Also I don’t think the protein turns to fat. My view is that it triggers insulin to give the amino acids access to muscles… but that insulin also sequesters the exogenous fat into fat cells.

I have a theory - cortisol.

I’m substantially more stressed now than I was when I was at my lowest visceral readings. Unfortunately, this is subjective and I have no objective measure (data) for stress to correlate.


(Karim Wassef) #199

Also… going to feed my sadness a bit :smiley:


(Mame) #200

I would focus on RMR, especially as your stress is high. This is outstanding. Well done.

As for the visceral fat, you will either figure it out eventually or it’s a measurement error of some type. Like stress-caused inflammation being read as fat… (so say I in my best cheer-leady voice)


(mole person) #201

No it doesn’t, certainly not first anyhow. But excess protein is used for energy and will be used before dietary fat causing dietary fat to be stored.


(Karim Wassef) #202

ok… detailed DEXA and RMR results:

So I gained 0.8lbs of fat and 0.5lbs of lean … it’s good and bad, but less good than bad.

As usual, my body hyper-responds to my focus. I’ve been pushing my bench-press and I gained 0.6lbs of lean there (with 0.3lbs of fat…).

I’ve also focused on arms and gained 0.6lbs lean lass there too (with 0.1lbs of fat).

So upper body got the most gains because I’ve been pushing.

Haven’t done core much and lost 0.4lbs lean mass there.

Squats have been more maintenance than pushing… so gained 0.5lbs of fat and lost 0.5lbs of lean mass on my legs, but glutes got a little better losing 0.3lbs of fat and gaining 0.1lbs of lean.

So apparently “maintenance” lifting doesn’t maintain. I need to push myself or I’ll go backwards while eating like this. That’s where my biggest losses were - legs and glues.

Overall body fat went backwards… mostly because of legs

If I take a step back to the start (Mar 1st to May 4th) including the fasting and feasting:

image

I haven’t quite recovered all the lean mass yet.

Metabolism recovery is outstanding.

and I finally got the reading with 99% fat metabolism.