Ketogenic diet – start week 1

In a nutshell, ketogenic diet is replacing your diet structure with the following:
70-80% fat
20-25% protein
5-10% carbohydrate

Since most people eat much larger carbohydrates and sugars, it’s quite a change.  It takes 3-4 weeks for the body to fully adapt to the diet properly but most people are faster than that.

I’ve studied the human body and it’s digestive and metabolic processes for quite a number of years, superficially.  I’ve also studied the energy distribution when I was working out as a weight lifter 10+ years ago.  Age has a way of losing information it seems, and also throwing a curve ball.  I’m not liking the curve ball I’m being thrown since it seems my metabolism has changed quite a bit.  Being an amputee, I’ve done various other athletics but after a while it damages my leg and makes me take a hiatus which starts a cycle of not working out then working out then not working out… <insert cycle>.  This is not good, and I am gaining weight while eating semi-regularly, and while reducing my food also.  That is scary.
Normally (before being broken) to fix this I would simply increase my cycling and run after work either at the gym or on the road.  I’ve gained weight to the point that it is an issue since the weight causes quicker damages to the limb and is starting to effect internal readings like blood pressure and most noticeably cardio.  Not working your lungs makes them weak, etc.

My goal is to get my blood readings in check, and this will be a foundation to help my body be more prepped for weight loss since lipid levels and various other readings are causing blood pressure increase.  You can really feel it when the blood pressure becomes and issue, and you know when to stop.  It’s a death feeling, not cool.  Since I’m in an office environment 8 hours a day, I figure I’ll use the ketogenic food style.  Since I have more than just that to worry about, I’m going with a tried-and-true method: meal replacement shakes.  Most people are all like “oh, you’re into that fad, I’ll wait til you stop and eat your big mac” or something else ridiculously tacky.  I tried it before as a trial and it was doable but never followed through long-term.  I need to now.

I’ve tried many ways of doing it, including making my own.  Making your own powder mix takes quite a bit of time, so I stopped that idea.  The one that I’ve had success with and will be using is named “Keto Chow”, made by a guy in Utah named Chris Bair.  Well, not just him since it’s a company now, but he’s the founder and his family runs it with him.  He also eats ketogenic, and has for years now with very nice results.  He’s even recently done a real-life study of only eating Keto Chow and drinking only water for 4 weeks during his work trip.  It has helped him quite a bit, and he’s going to soon be doing a press release on this once he gets the final write-up finished.  Here are the informal week blogs posted:
https://www.ketochow.xyz/2017/11/nme-experiment-4-weeks-keto-chow-1st-week-tests-back/
https://www.ketochow.xyz/2017/11/nme-experiment-4-weeks-keto-chow-2nd-week-tests-back/
https://www.ketochow.xyz/2017/11/nme-experiment-4-weeks-keto-chow-3rd-week-tests-back/
https://www.ketochow.xyz/2017/11/nme-experiment-final-results-daves-making/

Anyway, I’ve babbled way too much, on to the meat of it.
This is my first week starting the ketogenic diet, primarily with Keto Chow as my food.  Now, I’m not yet going to drink only water since I like tea and coffee.

Today (November 27th) was my first day of the week being keto-only.  It did take a bit to tell my work friends I’m not going to lunch with them to <insert random Mexican restaurant>, but I explained to them later what I was doing.

With Keto Chow, it comes in a week sized bag of pre-made powder that contains everything but the “fat” and water.  Each meal is one scoop (49.52g) of powder with the addition being heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream), avocado oil, coconut oil, etc.  That is varied depending on how many calories you want to have in your meal.  Their website explains it but it’s basic math.  Keto Chow powder has 135 calories per serving/scoop.  Multiply that by the number of meals you want in a day (3), then subtract that number from the number of calories you want in a day.  That’s the number of calories you add in heavy cream. (or alternatives I’ve mentioned)

Making it for the day (or 2 days) is pretty much simple math as well.  You can use blender bottles or any other sealed bottle that will hold 16-20 oz liquid.  An immersion blender (stick blender) is amazing for this.  I make mine by the day, so I have 3 bottles… blender bottles right now, but I have Hydro Flasks coming to keep them cold for the day without refrigeration.  Here’s an example:

• My day’s calories: 1200 kcal
  • Keto Chow powder (135 calories & 49.52g per serving/scoop):
    • 3 meals so multiply 49.52g by 3 = 148.56g powder for the day which is 405 calories
  • Heavy cream (I’m using Trader Joe heavy cream, 50 calories & 15 ml per serving):
    • Take the day’s calories (1200) and subtract the calories of the Keto Chow powder (405), in this case it is 795 calories
    • Divide that calorie amount (795) by the amount of calories in a heavy cream serving (50), which in this case is 15.9 servings of heavy cream. (or 15 ml times 15.9 = 238.5 ml total)

From the above, we now have our day’s calculated needs for 1,200 calories:
148.56g Keto Chow powder
238.5 ml heavy cream

The next step is to take a gallon (or close) container and mark about 48 oz on it.  How I did was simply pour 16 oz of water into one of the blender bottles 3 times, then used a sharpie.
Now, to measure heavy cream to that amount the blender bottle will help a lot.  The side of the bottle has ml marks, and averaging is fine.  Pour heavy cream until it’s just a touch below the 250 ml mark between 200 ml & 300 ml.  Then pour that heavy cream into the gallon container.

Then, fill about half of the container with water with the heavy cream and also measure the Keto Chow powder on a scale to the nearest whole number.  (149 in this case)
Dump the Keto Chow powder into the water after measuring it out, then blend it until everything is well mixed.  This doesn’t take long, but make sure it’s thorough since some can stick to the sides and the bottom.

Pour the container equally into the 3 blender bottles (or whatever you are using), refrigerate for at least an hour to let everything mix properly naturally, and that’s it!  Keep refrigerated, or if using a Hydro Flask it’s good for the day.

The above measurements can be multiplied by the number of meals you want to use, of course.  If doing 2 days (6 meals), just multiply by 6 and have 6 bottles.  If you want more water in the bottles, it’s fine to add it in after as you wish and shake it up.  Since it’s water, nothing is harmed.

That’s about it.  It might look semi-complicated with how I describe it, but once read a couple of times it will make sense.  The Keto Chow website (http://www.ketochow.xyz) is a better site to read about it, and find other links to sites with more information there.

I’ll post weekly about my results and anything I find out along the way.  Wish me luck.