Week 5 Measurements

Not much happened this week in terms of weight, but the other measures continued to go the right way. Tweaked target weight again, thinking that 70Kg was perhaps too low - 72Kg should be achievable without losing muscle mass.

Target Weight:   72Kg

Monday Mar 28th

Weight:                 78.1 Kg          (last week 78.3)            (originally 87.5)

%Fat:                   16.7%             (last week 17.8)            (originally 22.9)

%Muscle:             79.1%             (last week 78.1)            (originally 73.2)

Muscle Weight:    61.8 Kg          (last week 61.2)            (originally 64.1)

%Water:              55.6  %           (last week 54.6)            (originally 51.6)

Waist:                   91 cm             (last week 93)               (originally 100)

FTP:                     252                 (last week 252)                 (originally 275/3.15)

Blood Pressure:   120/80            (last week 119/81)       (originally 120/80)

BMI:                    22.7                (last week 22.8)            (originally 25.5)

Total Weight Loss:   9.4 Kg

%Fat Loss:               6.2%

Week 4 Measurements

Another good week with everything trending downwards. I've adjusted target weight down from 75Kg to 70Kg but I plan to move to phase 2 once I get to 75Kg - I just need to decide on what phase 2 will be - maybe 4:3, or maybe adding in some carbs to fuel workouts, not sure yet.

Target Weight:   70Kg

Monday Mar 21st

Weight:                 78.3 Kg          (last week 80.1)            (originally 87.5)

%Fat:                   17.8%             (last week 18.8)            (originally 22.9)

%Muscle:             78.1%             (last week 77.1)            (originally 73.2)

Muscle Weight:    61.2 Kg          (last week 61.8)            (originally 64.1)

%Water:              54.6  %           (last week 53.9)            (originally 51.6)

Waist:                   93 cm             (last week 95)               (originally 100)

FTP:                     252                 (last week ?)                 (originally 275/3.15)

Blood Pressure:   119/77            (last week 119/81)       (originally 120/80)

BMI:                    22.8                (last week 23.3)            (originally 25.5)

Total Weight Loss:   9.2 Kg

%Fat Loss:               5.1%

FTP down 10%

4 weeks into my Keto plan and the weight and body fat continues to trend downwards and I’ve started doing longer bike rides and not feeling quite so weak. 

So, today I decided to do a 20 minute effort to estimate  my FTP. It went better than expected but my FTP was still 10% down on 4 weeks ago, down from 275w to 252w. 

I’m hopeful this will pick up as my body continues to adapt to the lack of carbs. And once I get my weight down a bit more I will probably be less strict on the carbs anyway. I’ll probably look at Keto cycling and using carbs strategically. 

For now, I just need to reset my expectations for a while and accept the lower power for a while. At least I have 10% less weight too!!

Week 3 Measurements

Continued weight loss and fat loss which is good. Muscle weight is dropping which is something I need to keep an eye on, but % muscle is rising at least.

Target Weight:   75Kg

Monday Mar 14th

Weight:                 80.1 Kg          (last week 82.0)            (originally 87.5)

%Fat:                   18.8%             (last week 19.7)            (originally 22.9)

%Muscle:             77.1%             (last week 76.3)            (originally 73.2)

Muscle Weight:    61.8 Kg          (last week 62.6)            (originally 64.1)

%Water:              53.9  %           (last week 53.5)            (originally 51.6)

Waist:                   95 cm             (last week 96)               (originally 100)

FTP:                     ?                     (last week ?)                 (originally 275/3.15)

Blood Pressure:   119/81            (last week 119/77)       (originally 120/80)

BMI:                    23.3                (last week 23.8)            (originally 25.5)

Total Weight Loss:   7.4 Kg

%Fat Loss:               4.1%

Better workout with food!

2 days after my fast I was still feeling a bit tired but after a long morning walk and lunch, and a bit of diy, I got on the bike again to see if I would be a bit stronger. 

I’ve signed up to an 80/20 training plan starting in a couple of weeks, so I’m trying to get used to easy rides, something I’ve never done before!

Saturday was Tour of Watopia, 30k and about an hour. My longest ride since starting this Keto thing. I intended to keep my heart rate around 130 and see how much power I could maintain. 

I was comfortable today, heart rate bang on, and power 150W. So much better than Thursday. The power of food!

On Sunday, I went a bit harder and a bit longer, averaging 180W for 90 minutes. Heart rate was 145 bpm average, so still fairly comfortable, and I felt good throughout.

I'll probably continue with easier workouts for a while until I start my 80/20 plan properly, but may throw in a harder session or two to see how I cope.

36 hour fast

I’ve been feeling no hunger between meals despite fasting between 7pm and 11am each day, sometimes longer. So I decided to test my fat burning by having an extended fast.

I started out without any specific target other than to not eat at 11am on Wednesday and see how long before I got hungry. I did a Tabata session on bike on Wednesday morning just to add some extra glycogen depletion. 

Needless to say I went all day without any great hunger so I extended my normal 16 hours to 36 hours. 

I awoke on Thursday feeling hungry but did my planned “easy ride” fasted. The ride was anything but easy. The fast seemed to make a massive difference. I was struggling to control my heart rate even at 100W avg. 

Take outs:

1. Keto definitely seems to reduce my appetite and cravings and make it easier to do longer periods of fasting
2. Exercising at the end of a long fast is still much harder than normal. Maybe that will change as my body adapts. But for now low intensity is the way to go.

Week 2 Measurements

My weight plateaued a bit this week but still dropped just over a kilo. Everything seems to be trending the right way. Muscle weight seems to be maintaining too which is what I want to see.

Target Weight:   75Kg

Monday Mar 7th

Weight:                 82.0 Kg          (last week 83.2)            (originally 87.5)

%Fat:                   19.7%             (last week 20.8)            (originally 22.9)

%Muscle:             76.3%             (last week 75.2)            (originally 73.2)

Muscle Weight:    62.6 Kg          (last week 62.6)            (originally 64.1)

%Water:              53.5  %           (last week 52.7)            (originally 51.6)

Waist:                   96 cm             (last week 98)               (originally 100)

FTP:                     ?                     (last week ?)                 (originally 275/3.15)

Blood Pressure:   119/77            (last week 120/80)       (originally 120/80)

BMI:                    23.8                (last week 24.2)            (originally 25.5)

Total Weight Loss:   5.5 Kg

%Fat Loss:               3.2%

Green shoots?

 I've started reading a book called Beyond Training mainly because Cheryl recommended the author (Ben Greenfield) for his knowledge of training and racing while on keto.

Anyway, after reading a chapter on training, I realised that I probably ought to do more really hard HIIT and tabata style interval sessions.

My legs have been empty ever since I stopped eating carbs almost 2 weeks ago and each time on the bike has felt really tough, like nothing I've ever experienced before except maybe the feeling at the end of a marathon.

But my energy does seem to be slowly rebounding, so today I tried a short HIIT style session, one of Zwift's standard <30 min workouts, Sevens. Basically, 2 sets of 7 intervals with 30 seconds at 120%FTP and 60 seconds at 65% FTP. Normally this would be easy (so I'd argue not intense enough to be called HIIT) but given my empty legs, I thought it would be a good test.

I still had the empty legs feeling, but perhaps not quite so bad as before, and I managed to complete the workout without resorting to dropping the trainer difficulty percentage. HR was 150 (avg) and 172 (max). I don't have a pre-keto effort to compare against, but I strongly suspect these HR values are much higher than they would have been. But it's a start!

How am I getting on with the eating so far?

 So this experiment consists of 3 major changes to my eating habits:

1. Fast - Intermittent Fasting for 16 hours a day
2. Keto - Cutting out most carbs
3. 800 - Calorie Restriction to 800-900 per day

I wondered at the start if it would all be too much. So, midway through week 2, how am I doing?

Fast

I started out with a plan to have 2 meals a day and throw in the odd low-carb protein drink. I'd aim to eat roughly between 10am and 6pm. I found that I was often eating dinner at 7 instead of 6 mainly because by the time I finished work and maybe walked the dog, and with prep and cooking time, 6 just wasn't realistic. So I then started eating at 11am rather than 10am to compensate.

Don't I feel famished in the morning?

In short, no. I'm really finding it quite easy to stick to this. In fact, I'm finding I can easily go much longer than 11am without eating. Yesterday, for example, it was actually 2pm before I had my first meal.

The hardest time for me is the evenings after dinner. Evenings are the time when I have always consumed excess calories, either snacking on chocolate, or drinking a couple of glasses of wine. It's a habit that's hard to break. Yesterday I had a glass of sparkling water instead.

Keto

I'm actually enjoying the keto part of the diet surprisingly. Although I love carbs, I also like meat and veg. I am a Yorkshireman after all! If I was vegetarian or vegan I think I'd struggle.

Having a meal plan with recipes works really well for me. Whereas previously, I would eat a lot of processed foods for lunch (beans on toast, tinned ravioli, bought soup, etc), I am now cooking everything from scratch. And the meals are generally tasty and nutritious with a few comfort food options thrown in.

I've discovered quite a few new meal options that I would have regardless of being on keto:

• avocado and spinach smoothie which is luxurious and filling
• chicken kebabs
• greek yoghurt - with fruit, or added to a variety of other dishes (e.g. chicken kebabs above)
• bacon wrapped avocado
• breakfast tray bakes - cooked breakfast equivalent but baked with olive oil rather than fried
• salmon stir fry - I was surprised to find that bean sprouts are just fine as a replacement for noodles or pasta or rice
• smoked haddock chowder

800

The calorie restriction was where I thought I might struggle. I read that the increased protein on this diet would keep my appetite suppressed and that appears to be true. After the first week, I no longer feel empty most of the time and don't really have any food cravings.

I should say though, that I'm not being strict about my calories. In fact, I'm not really counting them at all. But I am roughly following the meal plan so I'm pretty sure that I am between 800 and 1000 calories most days.

Overall Assessment

So far so good. I'm enjoying the food, not overly hungry, and broadly sticking to the plan with no problem. My energy levels have returned enough so that every day life, work, walking the dog, etc, feel back to pre-keto levels.

The only issue is that when I try to do any bike training, my legs feel dead. That''' be the subject of another post I think.