Karim's muscle gain carnivore adventure

[x-Dena-x]

Out of curiosity, how long would you say that it takes you to record and enter your data each day?

[Karim_Wassef]

15 mins tops for everything in a day (10-20 points a day). Typing them out & posting in threads actually takes longer.

The machine is fast and I literally can do it asleep. Should I post a vid?

[x-Dena-x]

Yeah! I’m just curious because from my stand point, which is the stand point of being utterly ignorant, it looks like it’d take so much time, and I’m always like, man where does this dude find all this time??? lol

[Karim_Wassef]

I have a scale that Bluetooth connects to my phone and it takes 20 seconds to measure blood glucose and ketones and another 10 seconds to enter those into my iPhone app. So x8 times is 5 minutes. But then I have to figure out what it means…

[Karim_Wassef]

I had temptation last night… I have choczero bars for my daughter who loves them. They’re not carnivore, clearly… but I had a craving and it’s only 5g of carbs & my dance card still had plenty of carb openings before hitting 20 last night.

I let it pass but I don’t get tempted by sweets much, so it was odd. After 9 days on carnivore, I think it’s just missing that taste.

Still, in my mind, if I’m going to justify 28oz steaks and 88 pieces of sashimi… there can be no sweets…

I do allow myself some plants in my morning coffee:

Coffee - one K cup
MCT (coconut) - tablespoon
ACV (apple) - tablespoon
Raw cacao powder - very bitter - teaspoon
Stevia - one squirt

Those are the only 5 plants and plant derivatives with nearly no carb calories in my drink.

My only other indulgence is EVOO over my cod liver or goat cheese and pepper/spice on my steak in the evening.

Does that make me a bad carnivore?

[x-Dena-x]

Does that make me a bad carnivore?

Hardly. But that’s my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions, right?

I tried carnie for 1 week. Maybe it wasn’t long enough, but I felt sluggish. I added some veggies back in, and felt better. I’ve noted for myself, that I have a sweet spot for veggie amount. If I go under, no buena. If I go over, no buena. Too much raw, I bloat. Too little raw, I constipate. It’s like a delicate balancing act.

[Karim_Wassef]

I hear you. I’m going to stick to my 7 evil plants for now: coffee, MCT, ACV, cacao, stevia, EVOO, pepper.

The quantities are minute so I’m calling them medicinal - the only caloric contributors are really just the MCT and EVOO.

[Karim_Wassef]

Going to lift and my glucose is still elevated at 100!

Last night, I ate around 5pm-6pm… That’s fasted 18 hours and the meal was 5g carbs. It was 160g of protein and 2800cals so not really excessive.

One explanation is my body is prepping for the stress of the lift but that still seems very high.

Another explanation is that my cortisol is skyrocketing due to work stress. I think I need a vacation. With more work travel ahead of me, that’s not happening till July.

Third explanation is that the extended fasts have made me so physiologically glucose intolerant that protein and carbs elevate my glucose and my body refuses to consume it, preferring ketones instead. Given my fat (internal and via diet), there’s plenty of fat sources and ketones stay low (0.3).

Really wish I had a home insulin test.

I’m open to ideas here.

[x-Dena-x]

Stress can totally be a factor. Do you meditate at all?

[Karim_Wassef]

I do.

Mindfulness, meditation and prayer.

I don’t feel stressed… no more than usual. There are more stressors but I’m coping with them. The stressors didn’t change dramatically between the fasted and feasting weeks so the sudden change seems to be more a function of eating.

Fasting creates a different physiological stress state than eating. I think there’s an inflammatory component when eating (especially the way I do) vs fasting. Even though I OMAD and lift and keep keto… it’s not enough.

I have to get back to 100g protein and then I think it’ll get better. I don’t like it, but I’m going to do it this week and see.

[Freischuetz]

i would get rid of that MCT oil! you are full of ketones, why to add and pee them later?

[Karim_Wassef]

MCT is a little different than other fats. It gets absorbed differently and can act as a catalyst for ketone metabolism… it can be used without needing to go through the carnitine pathway for the mitochondria … so it’s very fast and easy to metabolize.

basically it’s like stoking the fire.

It’s also 8cal / g so a little less caloric than other fats, and my one tablespoon is 14g ~ 110 cal…

Also, my ketones are actually quite low and I’m trying to rev them up.

[Ilana_Rose]

I have to get back to 100g protein and then I think it’ll get better.

I think so too.

[Freischuetz]

your ketones are low?

watch that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zX3tfuKIlo

it starts at 44:47

[Karim_Wassef]

I love that video.

I will say that my ketones are usually between 4 and 6… when I exercise they go down by 1.5 so I understand the mechanisms.

This week, my ketones are between 0.2 and 0.6… that’s an order of magnitude lower than my normal … it’s not low because I’m exercising. It’s low because I’m overeating.

I get a spike after my fatty meal but there’s enough protein there to switch to glucose… and I’m back to low ketones.

In fact, I doubt if any of the ketones I’m measuring are from my own fat. It’s dietary fat… so = no fat loss.

Just seeing ketones doesn’t mean much without context… dietary ketones or my own fat ketones? The answer depends on the other macros, insulin & glucagon levels and activity… and stress and sleep… lol

[Karim_Wassef]

Before lifting 100G, 0.3K
After lifting 89G, 0.5K

… all fasted …

My analysis: The exercises do consume glucose but I need to go low enough on glycogen (muscle and liver) to actually trigger ketone production again.

[cervyn]

my vote is that what you are experiencing is stress related, at least in part.

so it will be interesting to see if you see improvements when you lower protein (which means you will be eating less food? or will you make it up in fat?)

[Karim_Wassef]

I’ll be controlling protein but then eat fat to satiety.

It’s what worked for me in the past
And usually ends up around 2200 cal with a demand of 2700 cal so a net deficit without hunger.

My target isn’t high ketones… it’s really glucose under 80 indicating that my insulin is back under control.

[Karim_Wassef]

Today’s dinner was more controlled

I had to pull out the heavy hitters like liverwurst and clotted cream (DIY). I knew I was going to need the fat to be satisfied.

This should be pretty good… 19g carbs so keto… 102g protein so just around my 0.7g/lb lean mass target and 2300 calories total.

Here’s the macro trend

and the fake caloric estimator. Fake because each day, I move further away from the RMR measurement on Saturday.

[Karim_Wassef]

And I think it worked -

Before eating 78G, 0.7K = 6.2GKI
After eating 86G, 0.6K = 8.0GKI
End of the night 80G, 1.1K = 4.0GKI

We’ll see what tomorrow morning will bring but it’s encouraging to be back in the 3-6GKI range after living in the 12+ state last week.

Mostly, I’m hoping to avoid the 90-100+ glucose readings & controlling my protein seems to get me there.

I actually will have to correct some of my older data since I hadn’t accounted for carbs in my heavy cream … but it’s not a substantial change.

Thankfully, making clotted cream removes a lot of the carbs… well, it concentrates the fat so the carbs are less by weight.

But now I have a milky whey that is higher in carbs than normal heavy cream… what to do with it?? It’s still higher in fat than whole milk. Might have to feed it to the kiddos… or make kefir