Week one is now finished. Overall I can say this, the Bulletproof diet is working out. But here are my thoughts. I'm going to cover three areas: running, overall well-being and weight loss.
There is no doubt about it, I had two bad runs in a row starting with Wednesday's 7k run that under the best of conditions would have been tough. With a reduced carb diet (and my own eschewing of any pre-run fuel) my run was pretty poor. The following Saturday was better, but I really seemed to hit the wall at about the 14th or 15th kilometre--we ran just over 18k in total.
To be sure, I believe that my woes are directly related to a combination of a lack of carbs in my diet as well as a deficiency in fueling-up properly. My heart rate was elevated at points where it shouldn't have been elevated, and I (perhaps wisely) elected to take walk breaks.
On my Saturday run I took a bottle of filtered water (with an electrolyte beverage enhancer and 1/4 teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt added in) as well as a GU packet and waffle. These additional fuel sources were not enough to overcome the fatigue. Another thing to point out is that we paused for a total of 4 minutes during our run which made our run pretty close to a half marathon.
According to Garmin, my estimated VO2 Max decreased from 51 to 49 over this period (!). My hope, and belief, is that I should recover this loss as my body acclimated to burning fat--a process that could take a while.
On a happier note, my sense of overall well-being has been greatly enhanced since beginning the diet. It may be the case that removing bad bacteria from my gut as well as toxins from my diet has caused this change.
At my height this month I weighed 193. At my last weigh in, yesterday, I weighed 188. I've experienced fat loss and muscle gain. My belief is that the majority of my weight loss so far has been water weight (as a result of cutting carbs) as well as ... sadly... at least some glycogen.
Getting beyond last week, I've begun this week on a much different note. Today I ran 6k, including a number of 400m repeats (of which one was at 1:35). I alternated fast and slow repeats. In between repeated I alternated between a set of 20 lunges, 20 side lunges or 50 squats. I rested, when necessary, to allow my heart rate to come down. Interesting, my heart rate was about where it ought to have been.
Throughout my workout I felt stronger and faster. At the end, I had done 3k of cycling, 6k of running, 201 squats, 70 lunges, 40 side lunges, 10 minutes of ab exercises (numerous types of crunches), 20 reps of back extensions... and an ice bath. No post workout soreness or concerns.
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