Why I Miss Keto

Seriously, I was never hungry on keto. I can't stop eating now. I'm not going over on my calories, but I'm ridiculously hungry compared to before. I hate it.

Protein. Ugh.

I've read online, over and over again, it's not that hard to get 155g of protein in. Yet at the same time, 4oz of chicken (a bit less than I normally eat is only 36g. A big scoop of my protein powder is only 30g. I am not hungry enough to eat 5 times a day! How are people doing this?!

I'm not even over indulging in other macros! I'm consistently under in calories and carbs and fat is usually about spot on. I'm debating if it's better to eat protein when I'm not hungry, or just stay under on calories and protein for the day.

While we're on the subject of protein, I can finally see why people rag on vegetarians and their protein sources. If I as a carnivore cannot get enough protein in, how do vegetarians do it?! This is a genuine question here, if I have any vegetarian readers. I like beans and chickpeas (which I think are also beans?) which I know are good, but I'm not going to just sit down and eat a bowl of either. I did see a recipe for roasted chickpeas that I'll have to try though.

Then there's some sources of protein that are great, but I won't eat. For instance, I don't like nuts other than peanuts. I don't intentionally eat/drink soy because it can interact with my birth control (oh God, no babies!), and while Quinoa is great, I read an article about how the first world countries are robbing developing nations of their native food source and causing starvation and I just feel guilty.

Tracking Macros

Part of why I loved keto was because after you learned what was "okay" or "not okay" to eat, you don't need to track. I hate tracking what I eat. Sure, I'd periodically spot track for a day to be sure I was on target, but there wasn't the day in/day out tracking. Ugh. IIFYM is the opposite of that. It's not that I "don't have the time" it's just that I don't like to. It's tedious and feels a bit obsessive. You know what I do like about it though? It means that I can have potatoes.

Review of Day One of IIFYM

Wow, so it's really hard getting in 155g of protein. I eat meat, don't get me wrong, but I'm on a budget. There's only so much meat that I can cram in before I feel guilty. I ended up eating 2 cans of tuna and 2 eggs (tuna patties!) for dinner in order to get  enough protein in (and get some nasty burns along the way). That's a ton of food for one meal for me. Anyway, I can tell that my keto way of eating has really affected how I cook.

Carbs: Short 84g
Fat: Over by 28g
Protein: Spot on
Fiber: 33g short!
Calories: 126 short

I never thought it'd be difficult to get in enough carbs. It's so difficult to change on a dime. Given that I was full anyway, I elected to stop eating despite being short on carbs and way under on fiber. Hopefully I will do better today and not have to cram it in.

Welcome to the IIFYM Diet

I want to be athletic in build - strong, lean, cut, with definition. Keto is a really neat diet, and I think there's a lot of hardcore science behind it, but from my research, it's not great for athletes. I may no be thin, but I train like an athlete and I think my diet needs to reflect that. For those that don't know, body builders go through phases in their training, either bulking (gaining muscle and a small amount of fat) and cutting (losing fat and maintaining muscle). Right now I'm at 35% bodyfat. What does that mean? Well, since I weigh about 200 pounds, that means that I have roughly 130 pounds of muscle. Since my goal weight is between 135-145 (and I want to be at about 18% body fat). On the high end, that means I'll have about 120 pounds of lean mass - less than I currently have.

There's a couple schools of thought when it comes to cutting, but predominantly it's Eat Clean or IIFYM. The clean eaters, as you can likely infer, eat lots of veggies, lean meats, etc. IIFYM stands for If It Fits Your Macros. I love too many of the creamy recipes that I learned on keto to eat clean. I LOVE cream sauces.

The downside to IIFYM? So many different calculators and ways to go about it. I've decided that for the next 2.5 months (how long I was doing keto), I'm going to follow the one from IIFYM.com. It's highly lauded in the body building community as being reliable and reasonable. On top of that, it says that I should be down to 18% body fat in 25-38 weeks. That'd be pretty sweet.

So my macros will now be 49g of fat (down 100g!), 177g of carbs (up 157!), and 155g of protein (up 100g). I'm also focusing more on raising my calories. During keto, I was only eating 1400 calories simply because I lacked hunger.  Now my goal is 1780 calories. We'll see how it goes.

Goodbye to Keto

While I love what keto does for my skin, my energy, my blood sugar, and my hunger (plus the food is awesome!), I've decided keto is not for me. This past week, I was extremely well behaved. Didn't cheat once, kept my carbs low, went to the gym three times, the whole nine yards. I have nothing to show for it. On top of that, I was reviewing my old gym journal (pre-abdominal tear), and I was upping my weight on 2-3 exercises every session. Do you know how many times I've upped the weight on an exercise this last month? Twice. I have been to the gym 10 times, and have upped two exercise 5 pounds. I used to up my squat by ten pounds almost once a week.  I feel like I'm not getting nearly enough protein, but when I eat all the fat I have no appetite.

For those of you that love keto and are having success, I am envious and wish you all the best. I'll still be posting keto friendly recipes because my new diet (post to come!) will only allow 175g of carbs, and I'm saving those for veggies and home made bread.

Measurement Monday: July 21st, 2014

I lost zero inches and didn't cheat once. I am pissed.