I don't really know why I am choosing to go Keto now. I first heard about it about 8 years ago in 2014 when a friend of mine at work, who was a good cyclist, was doing it. I recall him talking about how his metabolism had switched to burning fat for fuel and that this would mean he would be immune to bonking, that terrible feeling you get in a long event when your glycogen stores are empty and your speed drops off a cliff.
Before that I'd heard of the Atkins diet of course in the early 2000s.
But the whole idea of not eating carbs has always seemed instinctively wrong. I have competed at endurance sports including running and cycling on and off since I was 8 years old, and carbs have always been there to fuel my efforts. Carbs for breakfast, carbs for lunch, carbs for dinner, carbs for supper, carbs before a race or workout, carbo loading in the days before a marathon, you get the picture. Besides, I love carbs! Porridge. Mash potatoes. Baked potatoes. Roast potatoes. Bread. Toast. Pancakes. Doughnuts.
When my wife, Cheryl, said in passing that maybe I should go keto, at first I didn't really take it seriously. As she would say, I never listen to anyone else's opinion. As I would say, I don't know how or why I decide to do things, decisions are like gifts from God. Maybe she watered a seed planted all those 8 years ago and my subconscious kicked into gear and a few weeks later, here I am!
So what do I want to achieve?
First, a bit of background. I am an active 51 year old male, I've been a runner all my life until knee and hip problems in the last 7 years have meant I now do more cycling. Since lockdown I've trained and competed regularly at indoor cycling on Zwift at a reasonable level, varying between top half of Cat B to the top of Cat C, depending on my weight. And there's a clue. My weight goes up and down. In my prime running shape I was about 71 Kg. At the start of lockdown in 2020 I was 99 Kg. I've had success a few times losing weight quickly simply by cutting out alcohol, chocolate, cakes, biscuits - in short sugars. I did so in 2020 and got back down to 80 Kg. I maintained that for about a year and then in typical form, the weight slipped back on to my current 87.5 Kg. I am overweight. Not morbidly so, but enough. I have a bit of a spare tyre. When I had to dig my old suit out in January for my brother-in-law's wedding, it was a struggle to fasten the trousers.
So what do I want to achieve?
I could say that I want to be healthier, and live longer, and reduce risk of debilitating disease as I get older. Yes, all those things are true, but they aren't the real motivators. What I really want is to do better at cycling and maybe even to go for a run without my right knee reminding me loudly every step of my 2 meniscectomies.
I know from experience I can lose the weight by cutting out sugars for 2 or 3 months. And I know this will improve my Zwift performance no end as my Watts per Kilo should soar. E.g. if I can achieve the same kind of power at a weight of 72 Kg instead of 87 Kg, I would be in the A category. Even if my raw power drops a bit, I would still be high B and competing at the pointy end of races.
But I must admit I'm intrigued by trying keto. I'll treat it as an experiment.
- Will I lose weight fast?
- Will I lose fat faster?
- Will I switch to a fat burning machine that can fuel races and hard workouts from stored fat?
- What will it do to my 1 minute, 5 minute, 20 minute and 60 minute cycling power?
- Will it make me healthier, reducing risk factors like cholesterol, blood glucose and others that I'm unaware of?
So, I'm committed. I think. I'm not much of a planner, but to the extent I have one, here it is:
- I'll use as a guide, the Fast 800 Keto plan from Michael Moseley at least at the beginning. I'm not convinced it's aimed at people like me. It combines keto with intermittent fasting and calorie restriction (800-900 calories per day!).
- I'll make a meal plan for the week using recipes from the book and others that have broadly the same macro nutrient content (50 50 rule - more proteins than carbs) and probably use the same plan every week to keep things simple. See image below for my meal plan. Each box shows the calories and carbs and proteins and I can click in to get the recipes.
- I'll vary the meals when necessary either because I don't have time, or I just feel like something different, but always sticking to the 50 50 rule.
- I might add more calories because 900 sounds like nothing!
- I'll keep on exercising throughout but I'll cut out the racing and hard efforts for a while - at least until I'm past the weight loss stage and feeling strong.
- I'll log my measurements each week to monitor progress. And I'll get detailed blood results at the beginning and end to see how things change.
Here's what the meal plan looks like:
Here goes, wish me luck!
