TAGS
SUPPLEMENTS:
*As you can see, I’m a big fan of and .
**I take some of these daily and some off and on depending on whether or not I’m on the road or working a graveyard shift
BIOMARKERS:
TOOLS:
EXERCISE:
CARB NITE SOLUTION RESULTS AFTER 10 WEEKS:
CHANGES:
I implemented 3 main changes compared to the start of the exam.
1. Added a Second Carb Nite Every Week
You can see that beginning with week 8, I started doing more than one Carb Nite per week. By this point, the was getting tired of seeing the on me, so I decided to mitigate the rash by increasing my exposure to carbs and therefore insulin. It actually worked, but I’ll write about my keto rash observations in a separate post. Now John Kiefer actually recommends that if you consider doing more than one Carb Nite per week, to space them out at least 4 days apart so you can maximize your time in ketosis, therefore optimizing the time you’re burning fat.
This is where I failed at following the Carb Nite Protocol. Week 8 was the week of Thanksgiving and I had already planned to make the Tuesday before my first Carb Nite. Thanksgiving was supposed to be my second and final Carb NIte of the week because I was DEFINITELY going to have a bit of everything on the dining table… especially with multiple helpings of dessert! The third Carb Nite came about because I just fell off the wagon. I went to a friend’s Thanksgiving left over party, fully committed to avoiding all carbs, when someone brought over their famous home baked cookies and BOOM… I fell hard off the wagon and had an impromptu Carb Nite.
During week 9 I actually had two consecutive Carb Nites to see the effects on my , which I’ll write about in a separate post.
Since I was on the road a little more during this period, my supplement intake was also much more sporadic compared to the start of the experiment. At times I went full weeks without taking certain supplements.
WEIGHT:
Again, my weight didn’t vary too much on the days after the Carb Nites. At the beginning of Week 7, I was surprised that my weight didn’t change at all despite everything I ate, and on the morning after Thanksgiving, I couldn’t believe that I actually LOST weight! The most drastic weight gain came at the end of Week 7 when I gained 3.2 lbs, although the following day I lost 3.4 lbs, confirming that it was all water weight.
I weighed 186.4 lbs when I began this experiment on 10/8/2013 and at the end of 4 weeks, my weight was 183.4 lbs. At the end of 10 weeks, on the final Carb Nite on 12/14/2013 I weighed 184.0 lbs. I lost a total of 2.4 lbs from the start and gained 0.6 lbs from 4 week mark. At first glance, this isn’t very impressive, but when we look at my abdominal circumference measurements below the benefits become more telling.
AM BLOOD KETONES:
The ability to measure my blood ketones was extremely helpful, especially when trying to time when to do the second Carb Nite. Seeing that my blood ketones are elevated confirms that I’m doing things correctly and actually eating low enough carbs. After 2-3 days of this I can then do my second Carb Nite. When I do happen to eat carbs, whether accidentally (as with ) or on purpose (Thanksgiving), I can see my ketone levels drop way down, out of the ketogenic range, letting me know that I need to cut my carbs again.
Throughout all 10 weeks, I was pleased to see that I consistently got back into ketosis after 2-3 days, especially after the massive amount of carbs I’d eat. The only week I had a little trouble was during week 6 which was when I was little under the weather and took some liquid which I didn’t realize contains about 19 gm of carbs.
I remember when I was doing my original experiment, I treated ketosis like a very delicate flower. I had to be militant about keeping my carb intake low. I would actually feel guilty when I slipped and ate too many carbs because according to Volek and Phinney in , the book that first got me interested in all of this, even one spike of insulin could kick you out of ketosis for up to 2 weeks.
This clearly isn’t the case for me at this point in time. Maybe it’s because I’ve already become ketoadapted for so long that my metabolism has developed the capacity for more ‘wiggle room’ when I actually do eat carbs. Or because this diet calls for consumption of less than 30 gm of carbs while Volek and Phinney recommended eating less than 50 gm. In any case, it’s comforting to know that on days when I fall off the wagon, it doesn’t take me too long to get back on again.
AM FASTING BLOOD GLUCOSE:
These consistently stayed in the low 80s to high 70s when I was in ketosis and would spike up to the 90s and even got to 101 at one point on the days following my Carb Nites. No surprises here.
ABDOMINAL CIRCUMFERENCE:
At the start of this experiment, my abdominal circumference measured 35.5 inches. At the end of 10 weeks, it measured 33.75 inches. This was a loss in 1.75 inches DESPITE only losing a total of 2.4 lbs indicating an overall loss of body fat. My clothes feel much looser now compared to the beginning which confirms this.
DISCUSSION:
After 10 weeks and a loss of 1.75 inches in my abdominal circumference, I can say without a doubt that this method is effective. It is also far easier to adhere to this with built in carb cheat days as opposed to trying to stay in ketosis indefinitely.
I’m actually very used to eating ultra low carb now and actually view it as normal. I remember struggling a lot more with this when I was doing nutritional ketosis before, trying to keep track of every gm of carb I ate and agonizing over hidden carbs and worrying about eating items with no available nutritional info. It’s now second nature to me.
In terms of my appetite, I’ve found that it’s been pretty blunted. Many days I can go a full 16 hours without eating, or only having a bulletproof coffee without any hunger pangs. In fact I’m a little concerned that I may be TOO hypo caloric. I try my best to really go all out on the Carb Nites, but there is only so much I can put down before getting disgustingly full.
Here are links to my blood tests after following the Carb Nite Solution for 10 weeks:
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