Following the Keto Diet for a Month, Again!
As suggested by the title, this is my second go around at following the ketogenic diet. I had a very positive experience trying out keto last year throughout the month of November. If you would like to read the summary of my first experience from November 2017, you can find it here. In that summary I provide some background on what the keto diet is with useful links to resources that discuss it in further detail. I also describe my implementation of the diet, my results and conclusions.
Why am I doing it again?
There are many reasons to do it again and I’ll go over the main ones briefly here.
First of all, I am an advocate for experimenting with what you eat and changing things up on a regular basis. If you’re constantly eating the same things over and over again and if there is some nutritional imbalance associated with that way of eating (such as a lack of certain micronutrients for example) then you will never address that imbalance. Introducing more variety in your diet is the best way to ensure your body gets as many different micronutrients as possible.
The second reason why I wanted to follow keto again was due to my renewed my addiction to carbohydrates. During the tail end of summer (late August and early September) my wife and I went on a trip to my homeland Armenia.
Armenian cuisine is some of the best in my opinion but it includes eating bread with every meal and we had delicious pastries on a daily basis on top of that. Needless to say, this behaviour resulted in some body fat gain and an increase in appetite for carbohydrate rich foods. In October I started to manage the increase of body fat by shifting my training to high intensity cardio workouts for the whole month. Using a caliper method for measuring body fat, I went down from 14.3% at the end of September to 11.7% at the start of November having lost approximately 4.5 lbs of fat and 0.5 lbs of lean mass. However, my appetite for carbohydrate rich food was still ever-present. One of the defining features of the keto diet is that daily intake of carbohydrates has to be kept at 50 grams or less (some sources even suggest as low as 20 grams). So by doing keto, I would essentially have to go “cold turkey” on carbs.
The last main reason for doing keto again was to reap the benefits I had observed during my last attempt. These benefits included losing the feeling of hunger on a constant basis, body fat loss and improved cognitive function. Having a constant feeling of hunger was related to my renewed increase of eating carb rich foods. I was hoping that I would gain some control over my hunger and appetite once I started keto again. Regarding the second benefit mentioned, since I had already experienced a significant amount of body fat loss I was curious to see if it would continue even though I was already pretty lean and I was not going to intentionally eat in a caloric deficit. Lastly, I really enjoyed not feeling groggy in the mornings and being mentally sharp throughout the day during last November. I wanted to experience that again especially since my job requires me to be up early and train clients while problem solving specific issues they may have with movement and exercise.
A bonus reason to try keto for the month of November is that there is not much else going on that would make it really difficult. Since I live in Canada, our Thanksgiving holiday is in October and we don’t have any other major holiday that would interfere with following a keto diet until Christmas in December. Perhaps, October would be a better month for Americans since their Thanksgiving is in November and there’s no way anyone is giving up their Thanksgiving mashed taters for keto.
What did I do differently this time?
One of the biggest differences from last year’s keto trial was the emphasis on good quality fats this time around. Last year I was more focused on the total amount of fat consumed rather than the quality of the sources of fat. With last year’s experience under my belt and some accumulated information regarding fats I took a new approach for the selection of food with high fat content.
First and foremost food containing any sort of vegetable oil (soybean oil to be more precise) in the ingredients list was removed from my diet. These included fatty salad dressings with soybean oil or corn oil, mayonnaise made with canola oil, canned sardines in sunflower oil and so on. Why did I cut out vegetable oil? It sounds so healthy, vegetable is right in the name. The truth is it’s not vegetables like kale or spinach that the oil is extracted from, it’s mainly soybean, rapeseed (for canola), corn, sunflower and other seeds.
There are three main reasons I have learned about why to avoid these. First, for the extraction of a small amount of oil a large quantity of seed is actually required. For example, a bushel of corn which is 56 pounds after it’s been shelled will produce only 1.5 litres of oil. From an evolutionary perspective people have never eaten such large quantities of these seeds. Second, the extraction techniques for these oils are surprising. Most people know, for example, that extra virgin olive oil is quite healthy because the olives simply get cold pressed in order to harvest the oil. There is very little processing and that is what you want as a consumer. Conversely, soybean oil is extracted by heating soybeans to high temperatures and using hexane solvents to extract the oil. That is not something I want to cook my food with. Lastly, I chose to avoid these “vegetable” oils because they are really high in omega 6 fatty acids. While omega 6 fatty acids are essential and must be included in our diets, the total amount that is consumed and the ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats consumed is very important to control. To get an in depth overview of why, I highly recommend reading this peer-reviewed journal article from 2016 which is available for free. To briefly summarize some of the important points, high consumption of omega 6 and a high ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats are associated with weight gain while high consumption of omega 3 decreases risk of weight gain in animal and human studies. Keep in mind association does not mean causation, however there are some mechanistic explanations for how this could be happening. The metabolites of omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids have opposing effects on the body’s metabolic functions. For example, adipose (fat) tissue generation increases from high concentrations of omega 6 metabolites and the browning of fat tissue is inhibited. Brown fat is responsible for dissipating energy by producing heat. An increase in the concentration of metabolites of omega 3 fatty acids decreases adipose tissue generation and increases mitochondrial biogenesis which burns fat for energy and heat. That sums up why I avoided those sources of fat. Hope that wasn’t too confusing.
So which ones did I include in my diet? The fat sources I consumed during November from most frequently to least were: olive oil, butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, whipping cream and ghee. Additionally I had fat from animal tissue, a variety of cheeses and nuts. Regarding nuts, I was careful to consume mostly walnuts which have one of the better omega 6/omega 3 ratios among nuts and seeds.
Another major difference between following the keto diet this year compared to last was an emphasis on micronutrient quality and quantity. At its core keto diet is based on following specific macronutrient ratios which are generally speaking 70–75% fat, 20–25% protein, and 5–10% carbs. However, the amount of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) packed inside the actual food should not be ignored. This time around I prioritized cooking with food that is high in vitamins and minerals. This meant that I was eating more organ meats, specifically heart or liver at least once a week.
I also made some bone broth with beef bones I got from a butcher.
Lastly, I used spices and herbs liberally for every meal. Another approach I used to consume a variety of micronutrients was by varying my sources of veggies, protein and fat on a daily basis. Each type of vegetable or source of animal protein or fat has a unique micronutrient profile. If you superimpose micronutrient profiles of many different food sources that you consume, you can significantly decrease the probability of a deficiency of any single vitamin or mineral. I would ensure daily variance of nutrients by cooking enough food to last for dinner and lunch the next day only. Occasionally I would make a big meal that would last two or more days, however I would store the leftovers in the fridge and make a small meal with different ingredients to break up the cycle of eating the same thing for two or three days consecutively.
The final major difference between this and last year’s keto experiment was the use of keto specific supplements. The two most common supplements people recommend are MCT oil and exogenous ketones. MCT stands for medium chain triglyceride, which is a chemical compound made up of a glycerol backbone and three fatty acids attached to it that are 6 to 12 carbons in length (medium chain). MCT oil is useful for keto for stabilizing blood sugar and promoting ketone body production. People doing keto use MCT oil with the goal of losing more weight. Here is a brief video with a short summary of how effective that can be. My perspective from the research is it helps a little bit but it can’t be your only strategy. Exogenous ketones are ketone bodies which are not produced by your body and enter it via ingestion. Ketones are the molecules your body produces as you reach nutritional ketosis from following the diet. People use exogenous ketones to speed up reaching ketosis and provide support for following the keto diet. Exogenous ketones are also marketed to be used as an energy boost before workouts or an overall increase in energy and to improve brain performance. After doing a little bit of research I decided to go with MCT oil powder (salted caramel) and Exogenous Ketone Base (chocolate) from Perfect Keto.
I chose this brand because they provide a lot of free information for people to learn about the keto diet. The founder of the company, Dr. Anthony Gustin, has a free podcast specifically about the keto diet called the Keto Answers Podcast which provides quality information for anyone to listen and learn. I’ll talk about my personal experience with these supplements in the results section of this summary.
Results
My weight did not fluctuate much throughout the month. On October 31st, 2018 I officially weighed in at 144 lbs and was measured again on November 1st at 143.5 lbs. Although the weight did not change much, I could see subjectively that my body was changing throughout the month. Using the same caliper method for measuring body fat mentioned earlier, my November 1st body fat measurement was 10%, down by 1.7% during the month.
I was very pleased with this result because similar to my last attempt at following the keto diet, I did not restrict how much food I ate. I only altered what I ate. I simply let my feeling of hunger and fullness guide how much food I should eat.
Regarding overcoming my carb addiction, I certainly did not have the same cravings for bread or sweet food by the end of November. In fact, my feeling of hunger became much more subdued early into the month. I was feeling full for long periods of time and shifted to eating only two meals a day. I stopped eating breakfast early in the morning, instead I waited to have breakfast during late morning or early afternoon after training my morning clients. I would have a second big meal in the evening with my wife. In between the two big meals I occasionally had small snacks or a shake on days I trained. My eating period would range from around noon to 8PM (give or take one hour on either end), meaning I would not eat for 14 to 16 hours. I did not intend to do this when I started out. It happened organically and I enjoyed not worrying about making breakfast in the early morning.
The keto specific supplements I used in November were very delicious. I enjoyed blending the MCT powder with coffee and making workout shakes with the exogenous ketones. Both supplements were very effective at inhibiting hunger. I could go for very long periods of time not thinking about food after consuming either MCT powder or exogenous ketones. I thought the exogenous ketones gave me a nice energy boost during my workouts, however it’s quite subjective. In terms of a mental boost which the exogenous ketones claim to provide, I would say for me personally it was no more than the mental boost I got from following the keto diet and being in ketosis. Similar to my previous experience, I felt fresh in the mornings and was able to maintain my alertness and mental focus deep into the day. I did not feel any additional increases in mental capacity from the exogenous ketones. Again it’s quite subjective and someone else might feel very differently. Having done more research on exogenous ketones since then, I would not get the same supplement again. I have learned that ketone esters are more effective at raising blood ketone levels as compared to salts. They supposedly do not taste good but it would be worth a try next time I do this again. I would get the MCT oil powder from Perfect Keto again as I really loved the taste.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed doing keto again for a month. I got to eat many deliciously fatty meals.
Compared to last time, I did it by myself this year without the participation of my wife. It was more challenging to do it alone but manageable as I still had her support. She helped me prepare food with the right balance of macronutrients. Most of the meals my wife and I ate remained the same, as she would normally eat her carb rich dishes when I was not around. So while having a partner participate in trialing this way of eating is very helpful it’s not absolutely necessary that they eat the exact same food as you. You just need their general support. In my case, just the fact that my wife was willing the help with some food prep and eat some of the same food as me was enough.
One of my new takeaways from November was about how to eat meal to meal. Earlier I emphasized the importance of eating a variety of food to decrease the risk of micronutrient deficiency. However, I think this tactic only applies on a global level relating to the whole diet. On a daily basis having fewer ingredients per meal is more helpful for controlling appetite. Having less variety of flavours in my meals resulted in better control of how much total food I consumed per meal. Otherwise, when there is diversity of flavours in the same meal it overrides our built in mechanism of palate fatigue and we overeat. This is why there’s always room for dessert, because it’s a different flavour we feel like we can eat more. This is certainly a lesson that I am going to apply in normal food preparation outside of following keto.
My final takeaway from this experience is that while I enjoy following the keto diet for a month, that’s close to the limit of how long I want to do it for. I personally love eating fruit at higher quantities than what is possible following keto. I also love having a sandwich with really good bread or drinking beer when I watch a hockey game. It’s simply not a sustainable for me long term. Having said that, many people are not only fine following keto, they also thrive on it. I like to always say that every person is different and it’s up to them to figure out what works for them nutritionally through experimentation. So I’d like to finish on the same note regarding this experiment as my previous one. The most important thing is that I tried something different from how I normally eat and used it as a positive learning experience. You can do the same and figure out some useful lessons about what effect food has on your body that you can apply for the rest of your life.
