September Fitness Review (+0.1 KG)

September was my first full month of trying to be fit. As you can see from the 100-gram weight gain, it threw up some issues. The main one is how to incorporate keto into everyday life.

The numbers actually lie in this case, as I lost close to 2 kilos this month, it just happens that the month ended on a weekend which included both AFL and NRL grand finals and Birthday parties. I know from my experiences this month, that my weight will drop back down to under 93 kilos in a day or two. It’s why the scale really isn’t a great short-term indicator of weight loss.

I ended August at 94.7 kilos and my weight at the end of September was 94.8 kilos. You can see from the graph that there were a few spikes along the way each month. I can explain each one simply (which is a good thing). At the start of the month, it was Fathers day and I decided to have my first cheat weekend. After that, I fasted for 3 days and you can see the weight loss came straight back to the starting point. 2 weeks later I went for a round of golf and had lunch out (which was very heavy in carbs) which kicked me out of ketosis. The largest spike was due to a cocktail party last weekend which resulted in a lot of alcohol and kebabs and then a really bad weekend. Since that weekend, I had been pretty lazy and off course the last 2 days of footy finals pushed me to a monthly weight gain.

Who would have thought that life can get in the way of my fitness? If that wasn’t bad enough, I’m off to Japan in a few days for a month of Sushi and other amazing carbs. Keto is an impossible dream for October. But that doesn’t mean weight gain is a foregone conclusion. I’ll make sure I am walking well over 10,000 steps a day and still be intermittent fasting. If I can get through October with a 1-kilo weight gain, I’ll be ecstatic.

Ketosis

Unless you are hardcore about preparing meals, a ketogenic diet is not going to be easy for many people. I work from home and have a very limited social life. So for me (at least during the week), being in ketosis was not an issue. I had to turn down a few dinner invites in September, and stick to black coffee when meeting up with friends, but for the most part, it was not an issue.

If you are travelling or unable to prepare meals ahead of time, I would say it would be very difficult to stick to this type of diet. Once I’m back from Japan, I’ll be right back on it, because I do feel pretty great when I am in ketosis and the results have been there. I’ve put in very little thought on how many calories I am eating and have done very minimal exercise and yet have lost weight easily.

Walking

As I said last month, getting over 10,000 steps per day was not my goal for September. My average increased a tiny amount over August, but it was still extremely low. In October, it will be the goal I concentrate on the most. 10,000 per day will be the minimum I expect and something closer to 15,000 is what I will aim for. With my sciatica, I know I will need to deal with the pain and take lots of breaks and use my spiky travel ball to relieve pain.

Exercise

I managed to use my bike most days and did between 20-30 minutes per day and burnt over 200 calories. I was just starting to get into a good routine with the bike, but the trip will reset that and I’ll have to push myself to get started again when I get back. In total I have ridden 260 kms on the bike.

Calories

It’s pretty easy to track calorie intake when you have similar food every day. Here is what I would have on an average day.

9 am: Black Coffee

12 pm: Black Coffee

2 pm: 3 eggs, 100 grams of bacon and 100 grams of avocado (600 calories)

5 pm: Cheese (200 calories)

7 pm: Beef/Lamb/Fish with Broccoli or other greens cooked in butter. (700 calories)

9 pm: Green Tea

This results in 61% of calories from fats, 31% from Protein and 8% from carbs.

I’d eat between 1,500 and 1,800 calories per day.

Sleep

I’ve been wearing my Oura ring for a month now and the data it gives is pretty interesting. One of the most interesting results was what happened to my sleep after eating carbs. According to the data, my average heart rate while sleeping is 52 bpm, in September as my health improved, that came down to 51.1 bpm. But the nights I had carb-heavy meals (and came out of ketosis), my resting heart rate skyrocketed and averaged over 80bpm.

I averaged 7 hours and 46minutes of sleep time per night and the app also breaks that down into light, deep and REM sleep. It also tracks a heap of other things and I’ve added a few of them below. I think after we have 6 months of data, I’ll be able to see trends developing.

The ring can even tell you how many breaths you take per minute.

Blood tests

I’m a big baby and hate getting my blood taken. But I wanted to get a baseline of where I was. Sure I almost fainted after getting 4 vials of blood taken out of me, but at least I have some solid numbers I can look at.

The tests didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know. My numbers were all fine apart from my cholesterol which was a little high.

In 6 months I will get the tests again and compare them.

The pics

One thing I did forget to do was take measurements. When I get back from Japan, I’ll measure my gut, chest/manboobs, arms and legs.

I’ll let the progress pics speak for themselves.

I’ve now been on a keto diet (for the most part) and Intermittent fasting for 48 days.

 

Final Thoughts

While the numbers say I put on weight this month, I know that really is not true. I feel better, I look better and I know that a ketogenic diet can get me to where I want to be.

One thing I noticed was how bloated I got whenever I ate carbs. It was crazy the difference in my stomach size.

October will be a great test of how walking contributes to my fitness. I’ll get some good sleep data thanks to my Oura ring and my goal will be to add the walking into my exercise regime when I get back. If I lose weight by eating Sushi and ramen every day, I might just move to Japan for good.