New here and have some?

(Mike) #1

I’m new here and have some questions on where I am going wrong.

First some background information. I’m a 53 year old male, 5’6” weight 190lbs. I was diagnosed type2 10 years ago but so far not on any meds. My last Hba1c (dec 22/17) was 5.7. I have quite a bit of muscle ie I can deadlift 405 bench 225 and my job, building maintenance keeps me quite busy especially during the winter months. For example in the last 3 days, according to my Fitbit I shoveled and used a snowblower for over 21 miles and 450+ minutes of activity.

Since February of 2017 I have done 4 7 days fasts, numerous 48hr fasts and I only eat dinner daily. During the day I have 4-5 coffee with heavy cream and also drink 60-120oz of water daily. I do sometimes have a couple small handfuls of walnuts or almonds and have cut out potatoes, rice bread, fruit, juices and have never been into fizzy drinks. I am not a drinker but will have the odd glass of red wine or even a beer now and then. I still have half a six pack I bought in October.

When I was diagnosed type2 my weight was 216-220 lbs. following my dietician’s advice (the usual advice they give, I was able to reduce to under 200lbs. At my lowest weight in my mid 40’s I got to 173lbs but the was working 10hr shifts in a very physically demanding job in a saw mill. I know that according to BMI charts my ideal weight should be in the 150’s but my Dr tells me that with the amount of muscle I have that low to mid 170’s is more reasonable as long as I keep lifting weights.

I don’t know what my body fat % is but to give an idea, my arms sand legs have very little fat. My face is thin, my neck is thin and my back is quite muscular. All my fat is visceral in my abdomen.

My diet is relatively simple. In the morning I have a few cups of coffee with heavy cream (never used sugar or sweeteners) then water and maybe a coffee late in the afternoon. Dinner will be either beef or pork with a salad or grilled/steamed vegetables cooked with olive oil and then add butter and although rare, I will have a desert that my wife makes using keto recipes. My calorie count is almost always under 2k/day with carbs well under 50g.

I am one of the type2’s that has the dawn phenomenon. I will go to bed with bg’s of 4.6 (82.8) and will wake to 6.2 (111.6). Although I don’t have a ketone meter or breath meter, I do use ketostix and am currently bouncing between small and medium amounts of ketones in my urine.

Ok, pretty long winded but I figure it’s best to give as much information as possible. Now the questions.

With all that up there ^^^ why does my body refuse to let go of weight/visceral fat? My step count is between 8-10k/day

With ketones showing on the urine strips, why is my blood glucose climbing to the mid to high 6’s recently?

Does the visceral fat take much longer to lose?

I won’t give up on eating keto as I have better energy levels and quite frankly, I love the food but the lack of fat loss is quite depressing. Any thoughts??

(Ethan) #2

One thing you never mentioned (or tested) is your insulin level. That has a large influence on how much fat your body will let go. Under 50g of carbs may or may not be sufficient to be in ketosis the whole time. Some facts:

(1) You are very active.
(2) Your a1c is 5.7
(3) You eat under 50g of carbs per day
(4) You may have a beer now and then.
(5) You were diagnosed T2.

Looking at that, I think the a1c of 5.7 is generally considered good control, but for a low-carber on keto for a year, it’s perhaps on the higher end. This seems to indicate to me that you might be eating more carbs than you “should” to maintain lower insulin and lower glucose. If you are only getting a dawn phenomenon of 111, then your glucose must be sticking there for much of the day for A1c to be 5.7. As a comparison, consider that I often have a dawn phenomenon glucose of 120-130, but my A1c is 5.4. I suspect you could possibly cut the carbs and may be protein and increase fat intake–but I don’t know that for sure from your diet description. Try decreasing the carbs to under 20g and see what happens.

(Mike) #3

I definitely haven’t been keto for a year. I have however dropped the starchy stuff and sugar added. I have had bg’s in the last month as low as 3.9 (70.2) and other days up to 7.9 (142.2) it’s frustrating but maybe like you said, I should drop carbs (and possibly protein) and add more fats.

Overall I feel really good and knowing my diet is pretty good, tweaking the carbs and protein may help. What I don’t really understand is, I have cut the crap from my diet for quite some time but I haven’t seen much fat loss compared to what others have experienced

One thing I forgot to mention up there is I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea but I am on a Cpap. As much as I try though, my body will not let me sleep more than 6 hours.

(Ethan) #4

Ah. I read that you did the fasts starting in February 2017 and assumed that was when you started keto–my mistake. Have you noticed any change in the feeling of shirts, pants, clothes?

(Mike) #5

So far the only thing I have noticed is the chest and arms are a little tighter in my shirts but unfortunately my pants feel a little tighter in the waist.
My fasting bg today was 7.2 (129.6 at 6am) just did another 5.5 (99 at 10:15am). The 90 day average on my meter shows 6.0 (108) using an online average bg to Hba1c calculator, it’s showing a calculated hba1c of 5.4 which is below pre-diabetes here in Canada.