brent99’s BodyBlog

I hit ketosis on day #5!  I knew it before I tested — the lack of hunger, the boundless constant energy level when I should be tired.  Sure enough, I am now burning fat for fuel.

I started the week at 177.  Within a couple days, I was down to 174 on what I suspect is lost water weight.  I’m now at 171 as my ketones kicked in.  During the week, using hydrostatic measuring, it appears that I lost 3.5 lbs of fat already!  I probably have lost a couple pounds of muscle although its hard to say how much of the weight drop was water vs. muscle.  (As part of the diet, I’ve dropped my 12+ cans of diet coke/day habit and have replaced it with water)

I’m now at 10% bodyfat again!  That was quick.

I have only 17.2 lbs of fat on my entire body.  That sure doesn’t sound like a lot.  I figure once that drops to about 10lbs, I’ll be "done".  Seems like that could happen rather quickly — I guess I’ll find out!

Now that I’m in ketosis, I can amp things up with CARDIO.  Fat cells — beware!!!

As I enter my ketosis experiment, I’m wondering what to do about weight lifting.  Do I abandon it temporarily?  Do I continue but reduce the weight significantly so I’m not tearing up muscle that won’t be rebuilt later but keeping the muscles in working shape?  Do I continue to max out my reps with the idea that the protein I’m eating will be used to repair muscle since energy is coming from the ketones?

From some light reading I’ve done, I’m thinking the best answer is probably #2 — continue lifting but up reps and lighten the weight a lot.  That would keep the muscle in shape, promote anabolic hormones, yet not burden the body with muscle repair that it lacks carbohydrates to perform.   I can only imagine that if I abandon it completely, I’ll lose a great deal of conditioning and it’ll make it hard to switch back to a lifting phase again.

So I’m on my way to ketosis.  It sounds like the fastest way to kick start it is either to fast or eat low protein/high fat /low carb food.  What in the heck is a low protein/high fat food?  Hmmmm….EGGS!  So I plan to eat mostly eggs for a day or two until the strip changes color.

I’ve been somewhat unintentionally in a "bulking phase" lately.  My weight is over 180 lbs, about 160 which is lean muscle mass.  Its about as much muscle and weight as I’ve had in years.

But now, my intellectual curiousity has returned to the power of ketones.  I’ve struggled this year with the balance between lean eating, lower calories, and cardio reducing my muscle mass drastically as compared to burning off fat.  But I haven’t done ketosis and now realize the answer to this quandry may be right in front of me!  I’ve learned that there is no point in ripping up muscle if you aren’t eating to build it back but that still hasn’t shown an ideal way to burn fat without chewing up hard earned muscle.  I’ve concluded the only cardio I can do is low intensity and that almost feels pointless -  I can keep my heart rate up like that with weights alone.

ANYWAY — my wife and I are returning to ketosis for the first time in years.  Actually, I suspect I was in ketosis at the beginning of the year.  At the time, I had boundless energy, required nearly no sleep, and believed I had become super human.  So I’m kind of psyched to realize that probably was just ketosis and I probably like being in ketosis!  The last time I think I got down to 6%, and my wife got to 16%, we used ketosis to achieve this.   That was years and years ago and we got away from it.  With low-fat dieting, I’ve only been able to break 10% and often this has come at a cost of lean muscle mass.

Tomorrow, I begin my quest to enter ketosis and the journey that follows.  This probably will suspend lifting for a while and I’ll get back to the treadmill for the first time in months…AFTER I have my ketones operating!

I went to see the in-laws this weekend.  I had heard my father-in-law had dropped some weight and I was prepared to make the "cliche" WOW YOU’RE LOOKING GREAT comments!  After all, over the many years I’ve known him, he has shed his 300 lb frame of weight repeatedly and does look a lot better.  He’s over 6 ft tall and always wore his additional weight well so you weren’t inclined to think of him as fat vs. very large.

What I wasn’t prepared for was what I saw — he was almost unrecognizable.  He looked like a winning contestant on the Biggest Loser.  But he had made the transformation while going through the usual course of hectic life — far more impressive in my opinion.

How did he do it?  He went on a very strict protein-only diet (atkins, protein power) supervised by a doctor, and does over an hour of cardio almost every day.  Now he’s on a maintenance phase but still does a ton of cardio.  He just made the decision that he was done yo-yo dieting and this time, he meant it.  He’s still very worried about regaining the weight and is determined not to relax and let it happen.

Needless to say, its beyond inspirational.  You can see it on tv or whatever, but to know someone who really did this after a lifetime of being overweight and yo-yo dieting is pretty amazing.  He really made a lifestyle change and made it a priority in his life.  And from what I can tell, he’s never been happier with himself as a result.  Even better, my wife who shares his genes, is really inspired to drop her weight as well the same way.  Wow, I can’t wait!!  Heck, even I’m kind of anxious to put a little more effort in my usual workout routine to get better results.

“How do you keep in such great shape?”  I get asked this more than most people.  They never really like my answer, because its not the answer they want to hear.  They want to hear that I go to the gym 6 days a week and work out 2-3 hours each day.  Or that I buy 23 supplements and take them every 3 hours.  They want to know that I have some psychotic dedication to working out that makes it seem like I’m training for Apollo Creed.  I could tell them that.  I probably should tell them that.  But I don’t, I tell them the truth.

The truth?  I’m an embarrassment to the fitness industry.  I work out *maybe* 4 times a week, and its rare I make it past 45 minutes a session.  I haven’t done cardio in months.  My most active non-gym exercise is riding a motorized skateboard.  I eat out a couple times a week, minimum.

“That’s IT???” I’m asked in disbelief.  You can tell they think I’m lying.  I’m not.

“Yes that’s all you have to do.  Just keep it up for 10 years.”  See, I don’t do MUCH, but I DO IT.  I never let a week go by without at least a cursory “all body” workout.  My workouts are VERY targeted and effective.  I go in to work chest, I work chest.  I work it really really hard, use proper form and a challenging but not-insane weight and then 25 minutes later, I go home.   I mix in a lot of protein in my diet, I naturally avoid candy and other dessert type junk, and I usually drink Miller Lite rather than a regular brew.  Little things, but they add up!

Why don’t I work out for 2-3 hours 6 days a week?  Because it wouldn’t make any difference really.  Probably, I’d either quit like most sprinters do or simply achieve the same results I do with 1/5th the time involved.  Could I benefit by upping things a little?  Sure, and once in a while I do.  But only once in a while….