Got a better reading on my second ones, including the scale.

DAY 36 August 24, 2012
150.0*

1639 Calories
36 carbs (24 net)
79 g protein
123 g fat


*I am not testing today. I can tell that I am in NK and want to conserve the strips. I will start increasing protein on Monday.

How soon after you raise your protein will you test? The next day or will you wait a few days?

I will test every day during that period, watching ketones, glucose and weight.

Funny, I'm going the other way with my protein!

I've kept mine pretty low and get hungry so I want to see with calories and testing just how high I can go and still be in NK.

I dont have any trouble keeping my net carbs between 30 and 50 so after, I will have a good idea about my future roads.... and will stop this experiment.

Right, you're maintaining now, yes?

I'm still trying to lose weight. So far... nada.

I am at goal but would not dislike losing a pound or two.


I do not understand why you are not losing. Your calories, at 1600 should be low enough. I know you wonder about your thyroid.

You have said that you are okay with it, feel healthy and now your glucose is low. Right?

Yeah, I don't think it is thyroid because I've been well medicated on that front. I'm going to be trying bio-identical hormones soon, maybe that'll shake something lose.

I think this 2-day a week semi-fasting and NK is going to be healthy at least. I'd LIKE to lose weight, but if I can't at least I can be healthy.

I agree. As long as your doctor agrees.

I read this thread sporadically so I may have missed something, and I'm honestly not trying to be nasty or contrary, so please forgive me in advance if it comes off this way, but am I correct that Arlene and Nancy, despite the fact that you both seem to be working very hard and earnestly at NK, are not seeing much weight is coming off even though you've been in NK for the better part of a month???

Again, I'm not trying to be contrary, I'm just looking into whether this is something I want to invest my money and energy into. You both seem very positive about it, but it doesn't seem to be making a huge difference in your weights.

I noticed you both had comments about Jimmy Moore and the calories in his keto-eggs, but he's lost over 30 lbs in 90 days by staying in NK, while eating 85% fat and not seeming to skimp on calories (though he does say sometimes he eats only one meal a day). Could his high calorie and fat intake explain the difference???

Again, I don't mean this at all as criticism of your results, what you have said, etc. I'm just questioning whether this is really working for you or not, and if not, whether the difference could be the level of fat or is it the usual thing that women are simply more metabolically resistant, especially as you near your goal weight???

I don't mean to open a can of worms, these are just questions that have occurred to me through my very sporadic reading of this thread.

HI Jan, Your questions are very understandable. I will answer for me. I was at my goal weight when I started this. I did not have a problem with losing a pound or two more if that happened but I was not trying hard to do that. I did go on a long trip just before I started and had some weight to lose and then a short trip just recently where more puonds snuck on and I think I lost them faster as I got back into NK than I would have in a 1200 calorie high carb diet.

HOWEVER, I only lose weight when I reduce my calories. I have tried once, not reducing them, and stay the same (maintenance) or even gain. I still believe calories are a huge part of this lifestyle. It is better and easier for me to eat the foods that get me into NK than the foods that would give me very high blood glucose. And when in maintenance on HFLC, I can stay in maintenance easier and with food I love.

Phinny/Voleck/Atkins all believe/believed that calories count and in the book it is part of the charts and phases. The levels of calories takin in, the percentage of fat/protein/carbs at each stage for examples of people are there.

I was curious to check how easy it is to push me out of NK and that is what I am looking at, how much protein I can have for instance. I also wanted to know how long it takes to get back in. I have a good sense of how long it takes now.

Jimmy Moore keeps teasing us with his meals and calories. That meal he took a picture of, some one here figured out was about 1500 calories. I can only eat about 1850 on maintenance so that would be almost a days worth of food for me. I am a 63 year old, 5'3" woman and he is a BIG man, I don't know his stats right now, but he is young and heavy. It is much easlier for him, even at higher calories, to lose as long as he is taking in fewer than he expends.

And he is pushing his exercise. I exercise but not at the rate he does.

I really believe that if you want to lose weight, this is a healthier way to do it, any way will work if you reduce the calories and DO NOT HAVE OTHER MEDICAL reasons like a thyroid problem. This is the way I am going to eat for the rest of my life so I want to learn why it works.

I do not think you need to test your blood, I had signs, a very icky, dry mouth and eyes at the very begining of NK that settles down to a tickle in the back of my throat and ocassional dry eyes. Others have different signs. I never used urine testers but if you are just starting then they could work, not reliably, but when you get fully into NK the ketones change so they are not as good. If you are losing or mantaining and are happy with what you are doing then there is no reason to do this. Just know that when we 'cheat' it takes out of NK and takes time to get back.

Hope this answers your questions.

DAY 37 August 25, 2012
150.4*
1hour after lunch
Glucose 90
Ketones 1.1 (yea!)

1592 Calories
48 carbs (28 net)
78 g protein
127 g fat

*Went out to dinner and had a glass of wine. Will be interesting to see what the numbers are. I feel my dry throat and think I am still in NK.

Hi Jan:

Just thought I'd chime in here. I'm also working this NK thing pretty hard, and after the first 10 pounds came off, I pretty much "stalled." The weight loss was during the first 4 weeks or so. For the last 3 weeks or so, I've been "stalled." (I put "stalled" in quotes, b/c 3 weeks isn't long enough to constitute a real stall. But I'm bouncing around the 225 to 226 range. I was 236 at the start in early July.)

I'm working closer to Jimmy Moore's approach as far as using his f/p/c ratios. But I'm not eating to satiety. Still feeling hungry more often than I'd like. I'm not really sure where Jimmy Moore got his plan, because it doesn't seem to be what P/V describe in their book (based on what I'm seeing on various forums and blogs). Personally, I start with a goal number for carbs (~20 g) and protein (~60 g) and add enough fat to get my ratios to about what I want.

I'll ratify Arlene's statement that being at or close to goal weight is just going to make it harder to lose. That's why I'm disappointed that I'm currently not losing.

There are several things keeping me going. Aside from the mild hunger, I feel good. My mood is even. My sleep is great. (My son went out yesterday evening. I woke up this morning sure that he hadn't come home, because he didn't wake me up. But he's in his bedroom. And there are signs he stayed up for a while after he got home. I live in a small house and I worry about him because he suffers from a mental illness, so normally I would have woken, but I slept right through.)

In recent years I was gaining weight, so just stopping the relentless upward progress seems like a good thing to me.

I'm also finding it cheaper to eat this way. I had no idea that protein cost so much. This is actually the first month in a long time, I've made it through the whole month without taking from savings, using a credit card, or supplementing my paycheck with some extra money coming in from some other source. And this is a month when the price of gas went up. For a commuter like me, that would normally have been a budget buster.

Finally, I believe this way of eating will help my metabolic issues - eventually. I could be wrong, but I'm willing to hang in for a while longer given that I'm not too uncomfortable and I'm seeing benefits other than weight loss. I think that sometimes it takes a while for our bodies to catch on to the fact that things have changed for the long-term and to start retooling itself. It took me years to trash my metabolism by eating too much sugar and processed carbs IMO. It might take some time to turn it around.

Hi Jan,

I've tried high calorie, low carb in the past and GAINED weight, so I'm ruling that out. I don't need to take any steps backward.

Dr. Phinney was pretty clear in his Q&A session recently that calories *do* count, at least they do for some of us. I know that sounds like a bummer to a lot of folks but LC is still superior with the appetite suppression and the fact it lets your insulin go low so you can actually burn some of that stored fat, not to mention all the great health benefits.

Men are so different when it comes to weight loss, there's almost no comparison.

I did finally lose a couple of pounds, but I'm at the point where I always stall out, or start to gain. So we shall see. Still, I'm pretty happy with the food and how I feel, so I'll stay the course.