That’s unfortunate since my evolving responsibilities will likely cause me to travel much more, not less… so I need to find stress management that’s more portable than my little ones jumping on my back.
Karim's muscle gain carnivore adventure
MooBoom
(MooBoom)
#463
Welcome home, what a journey! Enjoy your family- I know how hard it is to be away from loved ones often but you find a rhythm eventually (in my experience). Tools like video calling and email etc help enormously! Nothing beats little ones climbing you like a tree though, I get it 
x-Dena-x
(Little Miss Scare-All)
#465
Just checking in on you. Your thread usually doesn’t go a full day with no activity. 
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#466
Getting back to Dallas and dealing with jet lag + assembling a new grill:
Body still wonky but I’m planning on lifting today so that should fix it
x-Dena-x
(Little Miss Scare-All)
#467
Niiiiiiice. Invite us over for a party when you’re not feeling cacca 
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#469
Day 24
Woke up with obscenely poor blood results 94G, 0.3K = 17GKI… I had a hard time waking up with jet lag so I expect my liver was boosting glucose to help me… but wow was that bad!
It settled down in a couple of hours to 74G, 0.6K = 6.9GKI
Not great given that I tried to watch my protein last night but I think it’s a step in the right direction - adaptation
Weight and bf about the same. Hopefully, the weightlifting will help correct the course.
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#470
This part is TMI so skip if you want 
I can actually tell when I’ve lost too much muscle in my legs and glutes because it gets uncomfortable to sit. Basically, I feel boney and it hurts to sit for long periods of time.
When I flew out last week, I was fine. May 11th = 179lbs with 139.8lbs lean.
Today, I’m boney and uncomfortable. 176.4lbs with 138.8lbs lean. That 1lb of lean mass in one week is noticeable to me.
So today, I’m going to squat… until those glutes come back. I would do hip thrusts but I still feel weird doing that in public. LOL 
Regina
(Empress of the Unexpected)
#471
Wow, in only a week? Now, where is that kettlebell? That’s scary news for those of us (Regina) who is not doing anywhere near what I need to be doing. Thanks for sharing all your results with us.
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#472
Just air squats, walking and basic movements - like getting up without using your arms… and not sitting down… those are solid goals to stay healthy.
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#473
today, I decided to just go with what I like and see where my protein and fat intake end up… it was less than my metabolic rate, but WOW:
also - amazing that I can be carnivore and get to 19g of carbs! Sure the mayo has EVOO and the seaweed is technically “not plant” but also not animal… but all the carbs came from animal sources.
the smoked oysters were 8g and the cod liver was 4g, followed by egg yolk and turkey slices at 2g each, then 1g each for blue cheese dressing, chicken liver and HWC…
I didn’t measure until after dinner to see where I’d end up - and see if I had room for clotted cream… but nope - no room.
no steak, but I still got to 180g of protein (1.3g / lb lean mass). Just love my protein.
I was 1.0 ketones before… will see what ends up after.
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#474
Day 25
Awful results today - fasted blood glucose over 100… also substantial weight gain overnight with an increase in bf%. I expect it’s a lot of water but still … wow
primal.peanut
(Neil)
#475
Weird, that seems like a very strong BG response to what looks to me like a very reasonable keto meal!
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#476
I know. I think it’s the time zones messing with my circadian rhythm. I woke up at 2am… took a melatonin to try to get some sleep and had some weird dreams… woke up at 6am to a stressful work call and not feeling rested at all.
I have my next DEXA this Saturday so I need to get back in gear. Another day of lifting and sauna today to try and reset.
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#477
To be fair… 184g of protein isn’t exactly in my target corridor either 
primal.peanut
(Neil)
#478
Oof, yeah, that could do it! And I missed that you’d had quite so much protein – I know you’ve said that high protein can throw off your numbers as well. At some point after I’m back home and don’t have any travel on the horizon I’m going to play around with a high protein carnivore feast to see if my metabolism reacts the same way. I can’t run that experiment cleanly until July, though… too much other stuff going on!
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#480
I’m on track for weight loss, but way off track on body fat %
Still losing more lean mass than body fat - I can’t shake it. If I lose weight, more of it seems to come from muscle than I predict. My protein intake and lifting can barely hold on to muscle, not build it.
here’s my macro estimates
So other than a few excursions up and down on protein, I’ve been getting a lot of good far and always keto (except for the 1.5 day effect of my flight back from Shanghai that shows up as 0 carbs one day and 25 carbs the following… which is not accurate).
I’m lifting heavy every work day and eating my proteins - at a loss at what else I can do to gain lean muscle. I’ve adapted my mass gain to a very minimal ramp, but still not aligning.
Karim_Wassef
(Karim Wassef)
#481
DEXA/RMR coming up on Friday at 4pm. I will be dry fasting again until 1pm, and then I’ll have my salts and water a few hours before the scan.
This will help calibrate my results above.