I’m starting this blog at the two-week point in my diet adventure. The last post, Background, laid out what got me to this point. The intent of this post is to lay out how I plan to proceed.
I read a lot of amazing anecdotes about a low carb/high fat, or ketogenic, diet. The basic concept as interpreted by this science layman is that by reducing the amount of carbohydrates you take in, especially sugar, your body reverts to metabolizing fat into glucose. This is harder, and less efficient, which is why your body craves carbs so much. Your brain needs glucose to run, and enough is never enough in that regard. Since your body isn’t getting the carbohydrates it’s used to, it uses a process called ketosis to metabolize fat into glucose. However, the metabolization of fat is far less efficient than that of carbohydrates, so it has less of an impact on blood glucose, and doesn’t convert as easily to body fat. Additionally, if you maintain a calorie deficit while eating this way, your body breaks down your existing fat stores to produce the necessary glucose.
I frequent www.reddit.com, which has a very active keto community. They’ve gathered and produced a lot of great resources like calculators, tracking spreadsheets, and other tips and tricks. There are separate sections for scientific articles and discussion, recipes, progress pics, and others. I had been reading these forums for a few weeks, seeing all of the success stories and progress pictures and feeling very heartened. Then I got my 6 month blood work done, and realized that something needed to change. I decided to take the plunge.
The first thing I did was reactivate my account at MyFitnessPal.com. This, along with handy mobile apps, allows you to use their very extensive food database to track the nutritional info of what you’re eating. My next step was to go to http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/ to figure out my macros. Macronutrients, or “macros” are the fats, carbohydrates, and protein that make up the food you eat. Keto requires you to pay very close attention to your macros to ensure that you aren’t eating too many carbs or protein, which your body can easily convert into glucose.
Based on my age (34.75), weight (325lbs), height (6’2″), and activity level(sedentary), the calculator gave my daily caloric rate of just under 3000 calories.(Yes, this seemed high to me, too. More on that later.)
I set my daily carb intake at 25g (anything under 50 should keep you in ketosis, and I like square numbers) and plugged in a 15% calorie deficit to aim for 2lb/week of weight loss. Based on my minimal activity level, the calculator suggested 120g of protein each day. This gave me a breakdown of 4% carbs (25g), 19% protein (120g), and 77% fat (216g).
When I tell people about keto, that last number usually makes their eyes go big. 216g of fat?! Won’t that make you, you know, fat? This is where the science is a little hazy, and the debate about LCHF/keto rages. I’ll address this point in another entry.
So, with a trip to Costco to buy them out of meat and cheese, I started my keto journey.