Into the ketogenic fire...

Now that I've spent the past few weeks easing into the Bulletproof diet, it is time to head into the ketogenic fire. As a diabetic I suspect I will have an easier time replacing glucose with fat as my primary fuel source. Why? My body doesn't do a very good job removing excess glucose from my blood stream anyway, so my belief is that I probably won't have issues with "brain fog" (essentially when the brain does not have enough glucose to function properly).  

Adapting to being in ketosis is the toughest part because of the fatigue that comes along side it--assuming you're not replacing the water and electrolytes that are inevitably lost when you cut carbohydrate consumption. 

During my last carb cut I went into "keto flu" without even realizing it. Only after a fairly rigorous search of the Bulletproof forums did I find that keto flu even existed. So this time around I'm going to be getting my potassium from raw blackstrap molasses, avocados and a potassium supplement.  All of which are excellent sources of potassium. Sodium is easy to replace with pink Himalayan salt. Calcium and magnesium will require supplements for now, though bone broth will help with the latter.

A note about bone broth: my god, I hate the taste of it. But it's got collagen protein and is apparently a favourite of the BP diet.

I've shared a YouTube video that deals with ketosis (see above).

If you're not familiar with Ketosis, WebMD explains it:

Ketosis is a normal metabolic process, something your body does to keep working. When it doesn't have enough carbohydrates from food for your cells to burn for energy, it burns fat instead. As part of this process, it makes ketones.

The Bulletproof Challenge: Day 14

Day 14 began with my body craving carbs, as apparently I had cut them a little too far.  I had a total of 33g of carbs on Day 13 and 39g on Day 12.  Even Day 11 was low, with only 209g consumed.  Despite this, and despite consuming slightly more calories now than before, my waist has shrunk noticeably. I once again fit comfortably into my size 33 khakis.
At any rate, when I woke up, I had my usual Bulletproof coffee with Upgraded Protein Bar as well as a bowl of sushi rice. Well, that really hit the spot. Some sweet potatoes at dinner ought to round things out nicely.
The real challenge on this diet isn't avoiding food so much as making sure you get enough of it.  Because this diet seems to regulate hunger hormones so well, it can be easy to deprive yourself of certain nutrients by being too rigid.  And therein lies my only real concern at the moment.
I am going to up my consumption of carbohydrates a bit... to 100g and see if that keeps my glycogen stores stocked on non-running days.
Otherwise, the transition to keto is tougher than I thought. Perhaps coincidentally, I caught a viral infection that has kept me from running. I strongly suspect that cutting my carbs too much caused this to happen, as I very rarely ever get sick.  In fairness to myself, recent weather issues have certainly contributed.  Additionally, although I had very nearly run this morning, I simply wasn't 100% sure I wanted to risk my tenuous grasp on feeling good.
Anyway, I have not run since Wednesday and that really sucks.  Of course my legs were definitely feeling the increase in workload, and the thought of taking a few days off has in fact occurred to me.

If I could change or revise my recent diet, I wouldn't have cut carbs back so much. The diet certainly doesn't call for such a drastic reduction, so I don't blame the diet.  I'm down to 184, though I suspect about .5 to 1lbs of this is lost glycogen. The smart scale readings show definite fat loss, with a modest uptick in muscle percentage (note: I have almost certainly lost some muscle as well).

I've said before, I'm already in shape. I do this diet primarily to avoid spikes in my blood sugar.

I'm trying "The Mentalist" offering from Bulletproof. So far so good.

The Bulletproof Challenge: Day Nine

This morning I weighed in at 185.6 and I feel great. My body fat is decreasing while my muscle mass is increasing slightly.  The initial problem I had crashing during runs has been fixed with 1) the addition of more carbs at lunch and 2) GU and an electrolyte beverage pre-run (with 1/4 tsp of Himalayan salt).

Pictured here is the Beef Chili recipe from the Bulletproof Cookbook--though it looks more like hash. The taste was phenomenal and I vacuumed up 1,000 calories of it at lunch(!).  My slight variation on the recipe includes grass fed ground beef, butternut squash, grated sweet potatoes and bacon--everything is organic. I have leftovers!













My blood sugar remains in check, so I'm satisfied with how the diet is going.

The Bulletproof Challenge: Update 2

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.

The Bulletproof Challenge: Update One - Bulletproof diet + type 2 diabetes

When I stepped on the scale this morning I weighed 4.4 lbs less than I did on Sunday. More importantly, my body fat percentage had come down by nearly a full percentage point, which equates to about 1.5 lbs of fat loss. I'd wager that those other 2.9 lbs are water/inflammation weight as my muscle weight has apparently increased slightly.  I don't expect results like this on a daily (or weekly, for that matter) basis, but I'm impressed that the overall claims of the Bulletproof gestalt are apparently correct in my case. I really do want to stress that as a type 2 diabetic who runs frequently, my situation is a tad bit unique in the population. On that note, I still have not needed any medication to control my blood sugar--this may change, but let's see.

*I should also point out that I am a fairly active person. Right now I'm running about 40 kilometres per week, core workouts every 1-2 days as well as a regime of squats and lunges.

In total, yesterday's calorie count was 2,009. My macros were 17% carbs, 64% fat and 19% protein. That's an absurd balance, perhaps even after considering that the vast majority of the fat I consumed was of the MCT variety.  The day before yesterday was a 38%/47%/15% breakdown.  Again, absurd until you realize that I lost weight.

What's unique about yesterday's diet was that it included a slice of pumpkin loaf (* made with organic ingredients by my spouse here at home, which is important to mention, I think), fair trade dark chocolate with cinnamon (again, no added garbage or unpronounceable ingredients).

I'd say the only thing that gave me any fits was the hummus I had at lunch. I had a total of 81 grams of carbs yesterday, which were mostly divided between the pumpkin loaf and the hummus. The pumpkin loaf didn't seem to have a negative effect, but the hummus did. Sadly, the hummus is on Bulletproof's suspect list.

Now one other strange item is that I have been drinking soda.

Zevia uses stevia (considered "Bulletproof") and eschews colourings as well as the evil high fructose corn syrup. Nice.

Until recently I had been drinking quite a bit of Diet Coke. Zevia is simply a better option. You can get Zevia at Dad's here in Saskatoon.

So that's the latest.  Let's see in future updates if Bulletproof really is the real deal, or a flash in the pan.

The Bulletproof Challenge: Day One

Just for fun... for the next two weeks I'm consuming a "bulletproof" diet to see what effect the diet will have my health and blood sugar (remember, I'm a type-2 diabetic).  This may seem a bit dangerous, in the abstract at least, but I already have a pretty idea how this is going to go.

I'm not going to post everyday with my diet, but I will report any interesting findings. Right now, my weight is 191.2, muscle mass is 38.7% and my body fat is 20.9%. Feels weird making all this public.

Day One
For breakfast I had Bulletproof Coffee along with two scrambled eggs (organic). I sprinkled some crushed red pepper onto the eggs.
Result: 535 calories. Blood sugar one hour after: 6.3 mmol.  Ordinarily I'd take a Metformin after breakfast. Probably a good thing I didn't do that after this breakfast.

Lunch. 210g of grass-fed extra-lean ground beef, 1 tsp MCT oil, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, 130g of Hanes Hummus (* Hummus is considered a "suspect" food on the Bulletproof diet, but I'm easing onto the diet, so....). 15g of dark chocolate.
Result: 692 calories. Blood sugar one hour after: 7.3 mmol.

Early Dinner. Bulletproof coffee with a single square of dark chocolate.  What can I say, I had very little appetite. And at a grand total of 1700 calories for the day, I wasn't under-doing it.

Just checked my blood sugar... 6.3 mmol.  So my blood sugar was pretty consistent throughout the day. Can't argue with that.

So let me add that I'm supplementing my diet with a multivitamin I picked-up at Dad's Organic Market, an Omega-3 supplement (Life brand, from Shoppers Drug Mart) and a Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM supplement (already seeing results, so maybe I'm one of the lucky ones this supplement works on).