I do keto right & lose 5lbs in 3 days
Proving I can put my money where my blog is
In my previous posts about keto and fasting, I quite callously discussed how inaccurately dieters follow their diets. One might finish those posts and wonder how well I might fare under such conditions.
I might wonder that too.
The amount of research on Fat Free Mass during fasting or keto was so limited! And what am I but a precocious little research subject. In the words of Adam Savage (of mythbusters) the difference between messing around and science is writing it down. So I’m typing it up baby!
The Plan
The reason I decided to try keto is that I have tried intermittent fasting (IF) before (as both the 18/6 method and as alternate day fasts) and I wanted to try something different. The timeline I gave myself is 3 days. Just a lil trial run for me.
There is a variety of suggestions thru the search engine on how many grams of carbs to have, varying from a hand-wavey 5-10% of daily calories to the more stringent 15-30g total. Most appear to be in agreement not to pass 50g a day. Since I’m only doing it for 3 days and have nothing better going on, I will follow Russell Morse Wilder’s original 1921 diet prescribed to a 13 year old boy,
15 grams is not a lot… My daily protein intake goal is around 130g/day so I will keep these as my guide, and whatever happens with my fat intake happens.
To track my diet and carbs, everything will be put into myfitnesspal.
I would eat dinner normally Monday night, then keto til Friday morning.
Every morning I would step on the inbody scale and track my progress.
Variables to consider:
I am usually pretty active, and go to the gym to lift 3x-4x a week and run 2-3x a week, with a day off. My plan is to continue my regular routine but there are some notes worth mentioning:
- I am coming back from runner’s knee and plan to run short distances. I will only run Wednesday and the other 2 days will lift
- I have been resting my knee for a week now, changes in comp could be altered by last week’s change in routine
- I am coming out of a 2 day festival. I’m suffering from both bloating and dehydration. Some amount of the changes in body comp could be due to my body recovering
- In attempt to mitigate this, the keto diet is beginning Tuesday instead of the direct day after the festival
On Monday, I began studying my fridge and determining the keto-ness of each item. I made a lot of jokes about 95.9% of people failing their keto diets and I refuse to be part of the 95.9%.
Initially I had fantasized about a few days filled with nuts, cheese, and my beloved greek yogurt. But so many ingredients I expected not to have any carbs had 5+ grams, which is too much to enjoy freely. Looking back, I’m not sure what I imagined the other 98% of 2% fat greek yogurt to be comprised of… But at 5g of sugar-based carbs my yogurt addiction would have to go.
I had also fantasized about milky soft eggs mixed with cheese. But eggs and milk have some carbs too! Basically, to maintain only 15g, all of the carbs consumed would be incidental from other foods! No wonder only 4.1% of people get it right.
Day 1: It begins
First things first: the horrors.
I step on the inbody scale and accept the consequences of my actions.
And damn.
I had heard rumors that drinking and doing drugs is bad for you and these results almost make me believe it.
My day begins with the gym, but it’s a half hearted effort, as I woke at 4am and I’m sleepy. After my sad attempt at shoulders and arms, I get home and have my first meal of the day: a protein shake of unflavored whey protein, 5mg of creatine, and 20oz of water. This probably sounds miserable. But the more miserable thing is this is how I always have my protein shake and I actually enjoy it.
I hope my predilection for weird bland foods aids my keto journey.
Post shake, I decide to do some meal prep by adding 2 packages of costco chicken breasts into the slow cooker. This is several days worth of chicken for me, and will last the 3 days of the keto diet. No seasonings or veggies go in the slow cooker today though! I add a fresh spring of rosemary from the garden and let it do its thing.
Because I’d woken early for my husband’s flight, the morning was still young. The chicken will be ready by lunchtime. I shower, walk and feed the dog, and afterwards crawl back in bed and fall into a fat nap. I wake up just in time to start work (jk, i log into work at 9:15 which is close enough).
Around 10am, I get a craving for my greek yogurt. This is usually the time I make a bowl of 1 cup greek yogurt mixed with a ridiculous amount of fruit.
No yogurt today, I tell myself. It’s busy at work and working thru brunchtime is not unusual, so the hunger feeling is not strong.
Around 1pm I start getting hungry for real, but my dog is at the groomer’s and I wanted to have lunch with him. Plus the chicken breasts still needed another hour.
Around 2pm the dog is back home, and I make 3 hard boiled eggs. He gets half of one, and I eat the rest with the chicken breast. The chicken is really good with just the rosemary (I plucked the rosemary springs out after cooking so I don’t accidentally eat a tiny leaf – this is how serious I am about keto) and the house smells divine.
For my meal: I haven’t added any spices or salsa save some salt, so I add mozzarella cheese in an attempt to make some kind of chicken bowl.
Lunch & Dinner:
On Tuesday nights I volunteer by hosting a ghost tour downtown. Fun, but post-work I have limited time to eat, care for the dog, and get dressed (I am a pjs at remote work type).
In my hustle, I don’t have time to make anything new, so I wind up mixing up ricotta cheese with more of the shredded chicken breast.
It actually tastes amazing because ricotta cheese is just That Good.
Post tour, I get home and pull out yesterday’s leftovers: chicken breast. This one was cooked on the cast iron with olive oil and black pepper. Last night I had it with veggies, today I will have it with…more mozzarella. (I’m not becoming evil I swear)
It’s good because it’s kinda different, but tomorrow I need to shop for some new cheeses and non-chicken breast ingredients.
After dinner I enter my foods into the app.
Surprisingly low on the calorie front. In fact, including dinner I’m under 1000 calories – woof. With 143g of protein, 7g of carbs, and 38g of fat, I am woefully behind on fat, which is definitely bringing the calories down.
Distraught, I look around the kitchen to decide what to have next. It starts feeling a lot like I’d be chugging a tablespoon of olive oil down a la Bryan Johnson. I could use my remaining carbs on yogurt maybe, but it’s not that much fat…then it hits me: peanut butter. I grab a spoonful (18g) and enjoy my hard earned snack.
It’s far past my bedtime, so I change my alarm to go off at 8:55am. My clock app lets me know I would sleep 9 hours if I slept in that late. Wouldn’t that be the dream.
Final macros for day 1:
Protein: 147g
Fat: 46g
Carbs: 11g
Calories: 1,027
DAY 2: IT CONTINUES
I wake up at 6:45am on the dot.
Being a morning person sucks sometimes.
I go straight to the inbody scale to see the effects of the previous day
wtf?
I understand that small variations in hydration can affect the results of these machines but regardless going down nearly 3lbs in 24 hours seems like a lot.
That being said these numbers are closer to my previous scans, so perhaps it’s the bloating and water weight from this weekend’s festival going away. That might also explain the drop in muscle mass, it could have thought the excess water was muscle?
Regardless, I’m feeling better today and go out for a 2 mile run to test the knee. In the beginning, I feel the aches and pains but they do fade and I have a comfortable little run. Towards the 2mile mark, I start to feel weirdly exhausted, like my body is struggling to find the energy to run.
I’m at around the 36hr mark since my last carb, so this is definitely my body fueling itself with ketosis! Yay! Too bad it’s doing such a bad job at it.
After my run, I take the dog for a walk, then back home for a protein shake and work. The walk is rejuvenating, but as soon as I sit at the desk, I’m consumed by a wave of exhaustion. It feels like when you are so so hungry and tired, but I’m not feeling particular hungry, only tired. I make myself some coffee and this helps.
For brunch, I have shredded chicken with egg again. But this time I put both on the pan with oil to get my fat and calories up, and it’s Delicious.
About an hour later I’m hungry again! (and in desperate need of shopping) and end up having more shredded chicken with ricotta cheese.
Fortunately it’s another hectic work day so I’m distracted from the sadness of my meals.
After work I finally get to the grocery store. I bypass the fruits & veggies, and go straight to the meats and cheeses sections. I buy fresh feta, packaged bacon, cheddar, and fish.
For dinner, I fry 3 slices of bacon, then add in the cheddar and shredded chicken breast. With the melted cheese and bacon bits this is delicious, but it leaves me feeling full and kind of bloated. By the end of the night, I feel nauseous, greasy, and my feet are swelling. I tutor ESL in the evening, and after class am too uncomfortable for a final meal, so I have my spoonful of peanut butter and go to sleep.
Final macros for day 2:
Protein: 143g
Fat: 64g
Carbs: 13g
Calories: 1,277
Day 3: Dawn of the Final day
I don’t sleep well.
I turned off my phone alarm last night, but forgot to turn off the simulated sunlight alarm, so the fake sun wakes me before my actual alarm would have gone off. I disconnect the alarm and hope to sleep longer tomorrow.
Bleary-eyed I head to the inbody machine.
Nice! This is more like the results we all hope for with keto.
Today, I am planning on drinking a teaspoon of olive oil with every meal to keep my fat and calories up.
Despite feeling gross last night, I feel hopeful and rejuvenated while getting to the gym.
Today should be leg day, but I’m still being kind to the knee so I do chest instead.
Things start off okay during warm up, but when I grab my usual dumbbells for chest press, I get burnt out before the end of my set.
Okay, I’ll just give a break and try again.
No dice, I’m getting to 6 reps then lose all energy. Fine. I use lighter weights on the bench and declines, and things go okay.
The gym is unusually full for a Thursday so I decide to finish off with pushups. When I get to the floor there is a weird feeling in my arms, and I drop like dead weight. I can’t do pushups at all, holy crap. My body is struggling to learn how to use fat for energy apparently.
But I know how to give it a crash course:
Stairmaster.
I hop on, do a 1 minute warm up, then set the level to 10.
Ooo we steppin’. The first minute is fine, in the second minute I start feeling burning like my legs are already sore. Body! Glucose for energy NOW!
The next 8 minutes pass like a sleep paralysis dream. Except instead of being frozen in fear I am stepping. Every 10 seconds I alternate between feeling like I could do this forever and like I’m going to fall (not too off from the usual stairmaster experience tbh). Usually I step without holding on to the rails, but today I hold on for dear life as my good knee tries to support the bad one.
At the 10 minute mark, I hop off and literally flee the gym.
I learned my lesson yesterday morning after feeling so exhausted in time for work, so I make coffee right away.
I usually have just 1 espresso shot a day but today I end up consuming almost 3 by the time work is over.
Today is my dog’s birthday, and he has school today (he’s been learning party tricks the past 2 weeks) so after work I make us some fresh salmon in the oven. I usually make salmon with just a drizzle of oil and some salt and black pepper (1 teaspoon of black pepper has 1 gram of carbs btw) so the recipe is already keto on its own. Yay!
The dog and I end up having way too much fun eating dinner and practicing his tricks (aka doing homework) so we leave late to school and have to physically run there, which irritates my knee.
Maybe it was the running after eating fatty farmed salmon but when we get back home I don’t feel so good. My plan was to eat again after doggy school, but both me and the dog are having tummy problems, so we share a spoonful of peanut butter and go to bed.
I struggle horribly to fall asleep.
This is significant, because outside of the past 3 days I am a huge sleeper. This blog post makes it seem like I have insomnia, but I usually pass out the second my head hits the pillow, and usually can nap during the day, but these past few days I just cannot sleep! My knee hurts, and I toss and turn the whole night.
Final macros for day 3:
Protein: 133g
Fat: 68g
Carbs: 11g
Calories: 1,165
Day 4: Final Weigh In
When I wake up I know it’s too early, I don’t have to check the time to know this.
I try to sleep more but something in my body is telling me I have to get up, there’s something I have to do.
It’s a really weird feeling.
I give in and get up. It’s 5:04am. I go to the bathroom, and weigh myself for the final check in.
Woof! This is why I wanted to use a body composition device instead of just weighing myself. My calories were low, and yesterday I could feel the strain it was putting on my body. I still ate within my usual range of protein so I’m a bit surprised at how much muscle it says I lost.
However, at the end of the day I did lose 5.1 lbs total, which is pretty impressive over such a short period. Here’s the graphs of my final results
It says that in the end, I had virtually the same Body Fat Percentage from the first day. And lost 2 lbs of muscle and 1.1 lbs of fat. But I lost 5.1 lbs total so what happened to the other 2 lbs ? Maybe it was just water weight from too much alcohol over the weekend?
Regardless, it was an interesting experience, and fun to be able to say I lost 5lbs in 3 days with a low calorie keto diet.
Would you try keto for 3 days?
Beautifully Boorish Science 
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