My first extended n=1 experiment


(Bart) #1

I have been in nutritional ketosis for around 15 months and I am 48 hours into my first major n=1 experiment. I have performed mini n=1 experiments over the last year plus testing my glucose response to some foods or beverages, I regularly intermittent fast and in December I spent 8 days with the only calories I consumed coming from HWC in my morning coffee. During my December 8 day HWC fast I took some random glucose and ketone readings but that was about the extent of any sort of data collection.

As all of us living on a LCHF diet I gave up so many things that I formally thought I could never live without, pie, mashed potatoes, candy, fast food, cookies, donuts…. I could go on and on. 15 months later I rarely miss the sweets that were once a staple of my diet but there are two things that I just am not ready to give up. Coffee and Diet Coke. I have read many articles about aspartame, but I am not yet at a point in my journey where I am prepared to give it up. I also love to drink my coffee and am also aware of the concerns regarding caffeine. This has made me wonder what is the diet coke and coffee (sans HWC) doing to my body. I have done some glucose response tests to both coffee and Diet Coke and have seen little to no glucose response, these tests though were performed while I was still eating keto at a maintenance level of calories.

So I decided to a n=1 experiment where I will fast for 7 days during which time I will drink my normal amount of coffee and Diet Coke and take my normal daily supplements (multi-vitamin, magnesium, fish oil, vitamin D and niacin.) The supplements amount to about a dozen of calories which will be it. I will be ingesting a minimal amount of sodium that is found the diet coke. If I find myself needing sodium I will supplement it.

For 7 days I will weigh in when I wake, take my blood pressure and heart rate, check my ketones and blood glucose. Mid-day I will check my glucose and finally in the evening I will check my glucose and ketones once again. (Ketones will be measured via blood.)

I am hoping to figure out how much caffeine and aspartame affect me. Will the aspartame cause my glucose to spike or will it cause me to crave eating? What will my ketones and glucose levels do ingesting these two products. How much weight will I lose during these seven days living my life as I normally do only cutting out calorie intake? Will my blood pressure and resting heart rate be affected? I suspect it may due to lower sodium intake.

This n=1 experiment if the first of several I plan on completing. I am rather lean with a body fat % of around 15 and I understand that a 0 calorie extended fast may not be the best option for me due to potential muscle breakdown. So once I finish this n=1 experiment I will plan on trying several more. What will happen if I do I seven day fat fast, or a fast with minimal to moderate protein but 0 carbs.

In the future I hope to revisit these experiments or similar ones only adding lipid panels before and after and possibly DXA scans.

I am about 48 hours into my fast and when I finish I will post my data and conclusions. So far so good. I was battling some craving around the 36 hour mark but those have passed.

I would appreciate any suggestions or other input anyone has to share.

Keto on! -Bart


(Kim Flora Maydwell) #2

I look forward to hearing your results!


(Dawn) #3

Interested in hearing the results. I am not ready to give up Diet Coke quite yet either.


#4

How’s it going so far?


(Bart) #5

Thank you for asking! Sorry I was busy over the weekend and could not respond. I finished the 7 day fast on Sunday and all went well. I plan on compiling the numbers in a sort of report and posting them sometime in the next few days. I should have them up by Thursday or Friday, all depends on how hectic work is.

I will say I am very pleased with the results and feel like I learned a good deal.

Stay Tuned!

Bart