Numbers:
Starting Weight: 163 lbs
Ending Weight: 159 lbs
Monthly Weight Loss: 4 lbs
Total Weight Loss (Since 11/1/2015): 17 lbs
Summary:
With the holiday season over, I knew this would be the best opportunity to limit carbs for an entire month.
My motivation for starting the keto diet over the Winter was so that when Summer rolls around, I can have a beer or two and not feel guilty.
By the end of the month, I’m quite happy with my willpower, although I was sort of surprised my weight loss wasn’t more substantial.
I ate about 1650 calories per day, which was 80 calories lower than the previous two months. And this reduction came mostly from lower carbohydrate intake (33 grams/day including fiber).
I also weighed myself less – 12x in November, 9x in December and 7x in January.
This is directly related to becoming more confident in what I’m doing, and therefore needing to check less.
Weighing yourself is a personal thing. Some people will benefit from weighing more, while others may become disappointed and it’ll throw them off the diet for a few days.
For me, tracking my food in a spreadsheet is what gives me the motivation and accountability to not “relapse” into bad habits.
Having my weight logged along with distance traveled (according to my iPhone and Apple Watch) gives me a much more complete picture of how my body is reacting each day.
Speaking of, I had one notable bad day this month…
On 1/24/2016, we had snow and I shoveled a lot, which was more physical exertion I had done in a while. Combined with that, I ate an absurd amount of pork fat which was probably not the highest quality. I cooked eggs in bacon grease, with about 5 slices of bacon. Then later in the day I had about half a bag of pork rinds.
That night, I was dry heaving and felt the urge to vomit, which thankfully never happened.
I’m almost certain it was because of the pork fat, because I was burping that up for hours before and after the incident!
That also was the reason I ate less calories in the following days.
Noteworthy
- I bought myself a Glucose and Ketone (2-in-1) meter to measure my blood sugar and ketone level.
- The highest reading was 89 mg/dL, which is still a good number (possibly due to higher calorie intake in previous days)
- Glucose readings were relatively consistent between 75-90 mg/dL
- My ketone level on 1/9/2016 was 3.4 mmol/L which is a good number for nutritional ketosis
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