Karim's muscle gain carnivore adventure

[Karim_Wassef]

My hunger profile with high protein low fat is changing…

As I ratcheted up the protein, I generated a lot of heat. Reducing the fat and drinking broth actually seems to be helping reduce my post-meal hunger.

Now it’s more craving…

BUT

my OMAD is creating real midday hunger. It’s not bad but unexpected. I am usually never hungry during the day so it’s curious.

Without a pre-existing pattern of eating, it’s quite easy to set aside. And it’s not craving, it’s stomach churning hunger… but OMAD for 2 years has made be behaviorally immune.

The hunger during my eating window was hard in contrast… it was during my permitted window and harder to resist.

So … glad for the shift

[Karim_Wassef]

TMI warning…

Another interesting change is water retention and food pass through… fat seems to speed things up and reducing it slows things down, especially with high protein low fiber.

This hasn’t caused any distress- I still cycle once a day. However, this has been delayed compared to “fatty carnivore” where I would reset by the end of the same day (6hrs) or at the latest: the following morning (12hrs).

On “lean carnivore”, it can take almost 18 hours - so middle of the following day before I reset. Even then, it’s not as complete of a reset and I feel that I’m retaining more water causing artificial fat gain on the scale.

[Karim_Wassef]

On a separate note: should I keep this thread going once I go into the pescatarian+fasting phase? I would like to contrast the carnivore non-fasting to this new phase.

Thoughts?

[x-Dena-x]

Different thread, methinks. Makes more logical sense to do it that way.

[Karim_Wassef]

You always say that but now I’m all over the place! LOL

[x-Dena-x]

Lmao yes but all over the place in the logical place! Would the pesc fall under this muscle gain carni?

[Karim_Wassef]

What are you? Some thread librarian police??

Actually it would. I’d still be lifting for muscle and eating massive protein. So that’s muscly?

Most of the protein would come from fish & seafood - which are animals. So that’s 95% carni?

Except for those days where I fast. That’s just for hormones

[x-Dena-x]

Some thread librarian police??

yes, and I’m mean, and going to slam your hand inside a hardcover Oxford dictionary. #librarianrage

Well if it all fits in the topic, you can totes keep it here.

[dub]

You may be interested in what https://twitter.com/2Min_Keto is doing - Aussie female doing high protein + heavy lifts. Favors kangaroo meat

[Karim_Wassef]

Thanks! Yes - her approach is lining up with mine.

Kangaroo is pretty lean… almost like rabbit… big rabbit.

And… that’s a steak I’ve never had before.

I’ve tried beaver tail in Spain and bear in Finland… and now I have a craving for kangaroo down under!

[x-Dena-x]

@Karim_Wassef I’ve eaten kangaroo before. My aunt special orders it for her dog, who has stomach issues and is allergic to meats except for kangaroo, rabbit, and the occasional beef.

She was prepping the dogs food and I tried the kangaroo and it was pretty good. I didnt have a lot of it. But it wasnt bad. You can mail order it to you, that’s what she has done.

[Karim_Wassef]

Like this?

Amazon.com : Get WAG Kangaroo Rib Rack 1 Pack, Australian Long Lasting Natural...

[carolT]

Get that delivered by drone and your good to go!

[Karim_Wassef]

I was very well behaved today:

and I wasn’t hungry after my meal… and I had zero almonds

and with less than 2000 calories, and almost 240g of protein (1.7g / lb lean), I can genuinely say that I’m totally surprised that I’m not hungry. It really seems to be a case of flipping fat and protein and with low enough fat and high enough protein, I’ve found a second local “minima” in my hunger/satiety response. This morning, though, was the most hunger-provoking experience - during my usual fasted window.

Very strange.

Maybe, just as with keto adaptation, there’s a protein adaptation period and the body learns to use what’s available. Blood ketones were still very low 0.2 - 0.3 which is discouraging.

Tomorrow mid-morning (dry fasted) in my next DEXA/RMR so it’ll be interesting to see what this experiment has yielded.

I’m right where I predicted I’d be on lean mass, but 3lbs heavier on fat mass… at least based on the scale. Still hoping it’s water and it’ll flush before the DEXA tomorrow.

and here’s what the dietary macros look like

This is the first week (starting June 10th) that I really stuck to strict carni with high protein and low fat every single day.

[Karim_Wassef]

DEXA showed a recovery of lean mass (muscle?) since the last test but I always suspected that those results were flawed in some way.

So… I’ll take a step back and compare the last “reliable” result on 5/4… so 6 weeks ago or so. This will encompass all my carnivore muscle building time too, so it’s a good reference.

I went from

138.4lbs to 137.9lbs lean … so small reduction in net lean (0.5lbs). I’ve seen some skin tightening around my torso so that might be part of it.

42.2lbs to 40.4lbs fat … so decent reduction in net fat (1.8lbs).

So dropped from 22.6% bf to 22.0% which also aligns with my scale readings.

More detail to come but it’s encouraging. Given my ups and downs, I think that if I had started and stuck to lean protein from the beginning, I would have made more progress.

Visceral fat dropped from 1.62 to 1.46. It had dropped more on 5/24 but I’m discounting that data for now. I have some ideas on this too.

The RMR declined unfortunately. I don’t have the 5/4 RMR handy, but from 5/24 it dropped from 1950 to 1820. That’s a surprise given the calories I’ve been consuming. Need to think more on this.

More details later today.

[Karim_Wassef]

The 26% sugar burning is amazing given that I only had 14g carbs (liver, ricotta and eggs) yesterday!

That proves that the protein is converted to glucose. Either I eat protein and suffer the daylight hunger the following day, or my body is going to grab it from my lean mass. Probably cortisol driven but the data lines up.

My lean mass projections seem to be on target and the reduced RMR probably explains why I still have a gap in expected vs measured fat mass. So I need that protein

[carolT]

Resting heart rate … 0

You are a Zombie. I knew eating brains would do that!

[Karim_Wassef]

No probe used = zero … lol

[x-Dena-x]

Yo I just passed your fantasy in Walgreens

[Karim_Wassef]

I haven’t seen the sriracha is a while… love that flavor

evil evil!!! temptation!

One day, I will fill an empty pool with sriracha almonds and swim and munch like a Pac-Man in Pac-Man heaven… but not today!!!