I have this written up in text for on my Ketofood Preparation page, but I wanted to do a video showing the process. There’s a different video of measuring and mixing the dry ingredients.
As a follow-up, here is what it looks like the next morning after everything separates. Note that the oil didn’t separate, you mostly just have coconut floating and chia sinking. A quick shake and it was all mixed back together.
I was looking at Ketofood in MyNetDiary and comparing it to the recipe and discovered that some of the information in the recipe is royally screwed up. The total carbs was listed as less than the fiber total. Yeah, that’s impossible. I did a ton of research and used the label information and USDA database to cobble together a new ingredient on the recipe. I also fixed the salt and linked in my own personal nutrient profile. I renamed it to Ketofood 1.1 (for Ongoing Ketosis) and you can also find it in MyNetDiary as “Quidnyc – Ketofood for Ongoing Ketosis 1.1”.
I also added Ketofood preparation instructions with recommended equipment and also added a Ketofood sample.
So I was asked if I am shipping Ketofood. My stance up until now was that I wouldn’t and mainly because of the logistics of getting the oil to people. MCT oil is a rather specialized product that’s very difficult to find away from the Interwebs. MCT oil is also a critical component of ketosis. It gets you into ketosis quicker, helps you maintain ketosis and is very expensive.
We talked back and forth about some stuff and I asked him if he would prefer a more expensive option that included the oil or cheaper powder without the oil. His response was something I actually hadn’t considered. He said he was looking for a low-carb option but wasn’t “hell bent” on ketosis.
Duh.
Including the oil is more convenient for the end user. It’s all there, no additional stuff is required (except some way to measure the oil). Not including the oil opens up additional options for your own customization (you want MCT+Olive? MCT+Canola? Skip the MCT and go straight canola?). It also reduces complexity and even reduces cost: the Oil is shipped once to you by amazon or whatever instead of coming to me and getting repackaged and shipped.
So this actually sounds viable. What do you think? let me know.
Oh, and I added https to the site for all pages. Secure server, YAY!
I had a crazy huge lunch of pizza on October 22nd, that night I tried the “induction” recipe for the first time and then went full-bore the next day on Thursday, October 23, 2014. I’m expecting to hit at least 16 lbs down at the month mark and I’m gunning for 18. Today I took a drill to my belt and added a couple new holes so my pants won’t fall down.
Since I have the data, here is the last year of my weight. TMI, I know. I’ve labeled notable changes in the trend with what was going on at the time.
Last year of weight data, click to “em-biggen”
I usually grab the free shaker bottle every time I do an order, the most recent one is a new design
The plastic is more clear and the lid is angular with a different spout and a loop. The plastic feels more sturdy too.
New, Old, Old (mixing up Ketofood)
Here are Tuesday’s meals, all mixed up and ready for the fridge:
I did a video several months ago on how I mix up a week of the dry ingredients for People Chow at a time. Lots of people liked it (a few didn’t, meh) and a bunch commented on my inability to do math =)
I now present to you, new and improved, better mixing video:
Notable changes include: I’m using a large scale to do the macro-nutrients, I have the recipe memorized now and the actual mixing is about 10 minutes now.
After mixing up the powder, the next step is making your actual bottles of mixed stuff. I have a few videos on that too.
Somebody asked me about the recipe that I’m using for ketosis. It’s the same as QuidNYCs for ongoing ketosis but with Canola oil instead of Olive, mostly because I have issues with the smell/flavor of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, you can see it here. The first tab is more of a general overview, you can get down to the nitty-gritty in the “Recipe Editor” tab including omega ratios and other specifics.
Along with that, yesterday I recorded a video of me mixing up a week of Ketofood. Normally it doesn’t take this long but I was ‘splainin’ stuff and taking my sweet time to do it (plus grinding those chia seeds is a pain).
So, there you go. Ideally it only takes me 15 minutes or so to mix up a batch. It’s not rocket science and really it’s easier than baking a cake from scratch: you just weigh stuff and stick it into a big container, then you measure oil.
Final thought: I was asked how quickly I got into ketosis. I started by using the QuidNYC induction phase recipe but I didn’t like it at all and jumped to the “ongoing” after 1 week. I didn’t get the Ketone test strips ($14 for 200 FTW!) I’m using until I was well into my second week so I can’t tell you exactly when I entered ketosis but I was feeling the dreaded ketosis flu by the 3rd day. By the time I got the test strips on Halloween (ordered on the 27th) and tested myself it was showing a level between 4 and 8.
I read a really interesting paper that gave some background on Inuit hunters and keto diets. One very interesting thing that stuck out near the end was the length of time required to adapt to ketosis and its effect exercise. The paper pegs the time needed to adapt to 2-3 or even 3-4 weeks. I have noticed a significant difference in how difficult it is to do my standard Elliptical routine in the morning now that I’m doing ketosis. The program has two spikes of resistance that just about wipe me out every time now. A month ago (normal diet) I didn’t notice it being so hard. Conversely, it’s about the same to do my running program. Anyhow, here’s to hoping it gets easier to do aerobic activity. The paper I linked at the beginning has a really good rundown on the history of ketogenic diets. If you’re at all interested, I’d recommend reading it. Along with the stuff about exercise I also learned that I need more sodium and potassium in my diet for happy ketosis, I’ll fix that in my next batch; until then I’ll just eat some pepperoni.
One other “experience” thing I wanted to relate: Ketofood is pretty intese stuff with a lot of nutrients in a tight space. It’s not a good idea to chug it down in a few minutes and be done. With People Chow I had no problem at all with doing exactly that and I have to remind myself that if I don’t slow down and take at least a half hour or so eating my food I’m going to be sorry.
Eating ketofood too fast makes my intestines hurt. I’m saying intestines instead of stomach because it’s far lower (belly-button area). Slowing down to drink my ketofood goes in line with other admonitions to drink it slowly so I’ll feel more full.
So first off I’d like to change my description of a Ketogenic diet. I have been referring to it as “The Nuclear Option” since it’s sort of a last-ditch final effort to lose weight. Over on a reddit thread there was a great write up about how when you force your body into ketosis, you are deliberately creating a (non-fatal) deficiency in a (mostly) essential nutrient: carbohydrates (glucose). Yep, that’s exactly it. Our bodies have the ability to run on carbohydrates, amino acids and fatty acids; essentially we’ll take anything we can get so as to not starve.
Ultimately any time you lose weight it simply comes down to your body using/burning more energy than you recently consumed so it’s forced to use reserves. You have some glucose reserves in your liver and muscles, protein that can be broken down into glucose in your liver; and you have fat. Some cells burn fat just fine, most would rather use glucose. Traditional weight loss (just less calories) works because as you have a calorie deficit, your body will eventually convert stored fat into energy. Some will be made into glucose via Gluconeogenesis, some will be made into ketone “bodies”. Specifically forcing your body into a state where it is mostly doing the ketones is the cheat.
Ketogenic Diet: the Konami Code for your belly
Here’s how I normally play a video game: I’ll start it out normal, playing along, collecting ammo and dying every once in a while. After a few days of 1-2 hours playing in the time I can get, I’ll start to notice that I need to concentrate on other stuff (kids, wife, yard, etc…) so I’ll find the cheat codes, give myself all the weapons, ammo, health, the ability to fly and walk through walls; all the good stuff. Then I plow through the rest of the game and I’m done. I think Unreal Tournament 2004 was one of the few that I did (and still do! Onslaught FTW!!) play normally.
Ketosis/ketogenic diets as a biological cheat? Absolutely. Is it something I’m planning on doing forever? Probably not as strict, but more on that in just a bit. Is it difficult to not eat pizza when lunch at work is from The Pie? It was brutal. Will being on a ketogenic diet teach me to eat better after I go off it? …
UPDATE Feb 18, 2015: Initially I didn’t think it would be a lasting change, reexamining this after a few months on Keto I think I have changed my eating habits permanently. If I ever get down to the point that I’m happy with my weight and am super skinny I guess I can lay off being such a stickler on ketosis and eat a few carbs on select occasions. The new recipe that I’m using (Keto Chow) is better tasting than People Chow ever was, I’m not going back. I see no reason NOT to continue on Keto Chow unless something even better comes along. END UPDATE.
One other fun aspect of ketone bodies is they are water soluble. If your body produces too much for you to use, they do not get re-converted back into fat; instead they are excreted from the body. along with coming out in urine, they can also come out in sweat and even respiration. In really high concentrations (undiagnosed diabetes, for example) the amount coming out through respiration cam give the person “acetone breath” which is usually described as “fruity”.
Well, that was fun, now let’s talk about “Raspberry Ketones”. Raspberry ketones are all the rage right now for weight loss. A while ago I ordered potassium citrate from bulksupplements.com and they offered to send a 100g packet of anything they sold if I would review it on Amazon. I had already gotten the stevia, MSM (for kicks, you should be getting all the sulfur you need if you have the right amino acids balance), and they didn’t have pure caffeine that I could give to my brother-in-law as a Christmas present; so I had them send me some raspberry ketone powder. I figured “ketogenic diet, raspberry ketones? why not!” After mixing some into a week of ketofood I actually did some research and found out more about raspberry ketones.
I can’t find the original source, but there’s a great write-up about why NOW doesn’t do anything with raspberry ketones. So my official recommendation: don’t bother with it. I really (really) don’t like the additional flavor even though I like raspberries; and it’s not even going to actually do anything for you.
Ok, so this is fairly obvious, talking about a ketogenic diet where you have to keep all carbohydrates below 30g/day, but you should not decide “hey, I’ve had a good 2 1/2 week run, I’ll go out to dinner with my wife to Texas Roadhouse and get the Cactus Blossom and some grilled chicken and I’ll be fine” I say that because that’s what I did. Here, you can see the bars at the far left where I was on a more regular diet, and the spike on Friday:
My progress up to this point was steady and beautiful; based on some research I had done, I figured that if I did eat some carbs Friday at dinner, I should be able to get rid of them by:
Yeah, I did that and my progress completely stopped. I checked my ketone levels on Saturday and Sunday and it didn’t even register. Today I finally got up to 1.5 (goal is around 1.5-3). One other major problem is: it’s far easier to do something 100% than 99%. Since Friday, sticking to just ketofood has been far more difficult. I’m guessing my brain’s going to take about a week to cut it out and be quiet. So now I’m doubling down and am re-committed to just ketofood. Let’s see how it goes.
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