Hi All, I’ve been reading the forums and working my way through listening to the podcast that is the 2 keto dudes (pure awesome), I would have to say my journey into the realm of keto is just beginning. Sadly my journey to understand my metabolism has taken longer. I thought in the spirit I would share what I have experienced and ask politely for some guidance as to where to focus next.
For me, it was 2010 when I started to look at my weight and health more seriously. I had always been on the heavier side but when I got to 105 kg and exercising with a personal trainer but the weight wasn’t moving off I knew something wasn’t right. I went to my GP and he was switched on enough to have me tested for insulin resistance. So was diagnosed as a pre-diabetic, put on insulin tablets (metformin) for six months to help my insulin levels and with that and a lot of running got my weight down to 94 kg by 2012 with improved blood sugar. I then moved to (sunny) Canberra for work and with the move and change of work/routine, the weight slowly crept back on, hitting 108 kgs (238 pounds) by July 2017.
However, it was the persistent headaches and getting diagnosed with hypertension (155/103) and my GP suggesting lose weight or go on blood pressure tablets I got serious again. So I got re-tested and could see that I was getting close to being pre-diabetic again. I had previously tried the 5:2 fasting diet, so having read Michael Mosley’s blood sugar diet, I followed that - 800 calories per day and low carb, focusing on ‘good’ fats and moderate protein intake. I did that for about the first 8 weeks and then slowly increased by intake as my body wanted, but staying LCHF. Actually, during the whole time, I didn’t feel hungry at all. Honestly, that was the light bulb moment for me, and I then dug heavily into youtube to learn more, finding Dr. Tim Noakes, Jason Fung, Low Carb Down Under and then naturally this great place.
So, for me to summarise, following the standard approach back in 2010; it took me 2 years (with lots of exercise) to lose 11 kgs. Compared to three months to lose 20 kgs following a loosely ketogenic based diet, with very little effort. The difference could be more striking.
The one value I was hoping to fix previously was my liver results, as they consistently showed non-alcoholic fatty liver. So I was really happy to see them now both normal in my latest results (yay!). The concern though was some of my other results have shifted in ways I wasn’t expecting. My trigs are the lowest they have ever been, but I have been lately trying to increase my level of ketosis using some of the observation gleaned from the podcasts but wasn’t expecting it that low. It is the kidney function that I was interested in understanding about.
So my question would be does creatinine level differ when you are on a ketogenic diet? My levels did improve last year but have returned to the 91 to 96 umol/L levels I had previously. So I’m after more information on that topic and keen to get any pointers on where to go next in my n=1 journey.
Excuse the data dump below, but I’m a computer nerd / developer, so I tabulated my results so that I can graph them :). So I thought it simple to include the lot, the ranges are Australian laboratory ranges for ‘normal’, except for the Insulin Resistance Score of course.
Cheers,
Nik
Canberra, Australia
| Measure | Unit | 6/08/2010 | 31/03/2011 | 10/11/2011 | 24/10/2014 | 28/05/2015 | 23/06/2017 | 11/09/2017 | 26/10/2018 | Range | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | ||||||||||||
| Weight | kg | 95 | 98 | 99 | 108 | 91 | 85 | |||||
| pounds | 209.4 | 216.1 | 218.3 | 238.1 | 200.6 | 187.4 | ||||||
| Waist | cm | 107 | 99 | 109 | 93 | |||||||
| inches | 42.1 | 39.0 | 42.9 | 36.6 | ||||||||
| Blood Pressure | 155/103 | 124/80 | ||||||||||
| Insulin Resistance Score | 8.62 | 8.46 | 8.48 | 7.94 | 7.60 | <8.82 | ||||||
| Diabetes Monitoring | ||||||||||||
| HaA1c | % | 5.6 | 5.3 | 5.1 | 5.3 | 5.3 | (4.3-6.4) | |||||
| HaA1c | mmol/mol | 38 | 35 | 33 | 34 | 34 | (23-46) | |||||
| Glucose (Fasting) | mmol/L | 5.6 | 5.4 | 6.1 | 5.4 | 5.7 | 4.9 | 4.9 | (3.6-6.0) | |||
| mg/dL | 100.9 | 97.3 | 109.9 | 97.3 | 102.7 | 88.3 | 88.3 | |||||
| Insulin (fasting) | mU/L | 20 | (<25) | |||||||||
| Glucose Tolerance Test | ||||||||||||
| Fasting | mmol/L | 5.6 | 5.4 | 6.0 | (3.4-6.0) | |||||||
| 1 Hour | mmol/L | 5.6 | 7.1 | 8.8 | ||||||||
| 2 Hours | mmol/L | 9.3 | 5.7 | 6.5 | (3.4-7.7) | |||||||
| Lipid Studies (fasting) | ||||||||||||
| Chol. | mmol/L | 4.3 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4.0 | (3.5-5.5) | ||||
| HDL | mmol/L | 1.63 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.9 | (>0.8) | ||||
| LDL | mmol/L | 2.29 | 2.6 | 2.6 | 1.8 | 2.0 | 1.9 | (<3.5) | ||||
| Trigs | mmol/L | 0.6 | 1.14 | 1.1 | 1.06 | 0.72 | 0.51 | (0.50-2.00) | ||||
| mg/dL | 53.10 | 100.88 | 97.35 | 93.81 | 63.72 | 45.13 | ||||||
| Tot/HDL | mmol/L | 2.6 | 2.9 | 3.2 | 2.6 | 2.5 | 2.1 | (<5.1) | ||||
| Non-HDL Chol. | mmol/L | 2.3 | 2.3 | 2.1 | (<4.0) | |||||||
| General Chemistry | ||||||||||||
| Bilirubin | umol/L | 6 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 10 | (4-20) | |||
| Alk Phos | U/L | 73 | 60 | 66 | 59 | 72 | 58 | 50 | (35-110) | |||
| AST | U/L | 30 | 38 | 29 | 27 | 31 | 35 | 25 | (10-40) | |||
| ALT | U/L | 53 | 56 | 47 | 60 | 68 | 46 | 35 | (5-40) | |||
| Gamma GT | U/L | 28 | 24 | 21 | 23 | 26 | 15 | 12 | (5-50) | |||
| LDH | U/L | 171 | 174 | 167 | 162 | 159 | 143 | 138 | (120-250) | |||
| Chol | mmol/L | 4.3 | 4.3 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 4 | (3.5-5.5) | |||
| Trigs (fasting) | mmol/L | 1.00 | 0.6 | 1.14 | 1.10 | 1.06 | 0.72 | 0.51 | (0.50-2.00) | |||
| Sodium | mmol/L | 141 | 140 | 147 | 142 | 145 | 143 | 143 | (135-145) | |||
| Potassium | mmol/L | 3.8 | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.2 | (3.5-5.5) | |||
| Chloride | mmol/L | 105 | 104 | 100 | 100 | 104 | 100 | 102 | (95-110) | |||
| Bicarbonate | mmol/L | 28 | 29 | 28 | 23 | 25 | 25 | 23 | (20-32) | |||
| Other Anions | mmol/L | 12 | 12 | |||||||||
| Creatinine | umol/L | 85 | 96 | 95 | 91 | 96 | 71 | 96 | (60-110) | |||
| eGFR | 86 | 74 | 82 | 87 | 80 | 90 | 79 | (>89) | ||||
| Urea | mmol/L | 7.6 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 6.0 | 7.2 | 7.0 | (3.5-8.5) | ||||
| Uric Acid | 0.33 | 0.38 | 0.34 | 0.34 | 0.35 | 0.32 | 0.37 | (0.20-0.50) | ||||
| Glucose (Fasting) | mmol/L | 5.6 | 5.9 | 6.1 | 5.4 | 5.7 | 4.9 | 4.9 | (3.6-6.0) | |||
| Protein | mmol/L | 76 | 76 | 73 | 73 | 69 | 72 | 70 | (60-80) | |||
| Albumin | g/L | 42 | 44 | 47 | 46 | 46 | 46 | 46 | (35-50) | |||
| Globulin | g/L | 34 | 32 | 26 | 27 | 23 | 26 | 24 | (18-35) | |||
| Calcim | mmol/L | 2.39 | 2.41 | 2.40 | 2.33 | 2.34 | 2.36 | 2.37 | (2.10-2.60) | |||
| Ca (corr) | mmol/L | 2.4 | 2.37 | 2.30 | 2.26 | 2.27 | 2.29 | 2.30 | (2.10-2.60) | |||
| Other Studies | ||||||||||||
| Chromium | umol/L | 0.02 | 0.003 | (<0.026) | ||||||||
| Chromium | nmol/L | < 10 | 11 | (10-100) | ||||||||
| TSH | mU/L | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.9 | (0.50-4.4) | ||||||
| PSA | ug/L | 1.2 | 1.6 | (0.25-2.5) | ||||||||
| Urine Microalbumin | ||||||||||||
| Creatinine | 18 | |||||||||||
| Albumin | 10 | (<21) | ||||||||||
| Alb/creat | 0.6 | (<2.5) |