# Trial Keto Diet There were a few reasons I wanted to try out keto, one being that I've never done a diet before. I'm finally reaching that age where the lbs tend to stay around. I've also got a more conservative interest in biohacking and longevity, so hearing numerous accounts of benefits from seemingly reputable sources got me interested in trying it out for a 3 week period between two races I had scheduled. Keto, for those unaware, is a very low-carbohydrate, high-fat, moderate-protein diet. Normally, your cells use blood sugar (glucose) from carbs for energy. By drastically reducing carbs, you force your body to burn fat instead, causing blood glucose to drop and the liver to produce ketone bodies (fat-derived molecules) for fuel. In ketosis, the body produces less insulin (since less sugar is consumed), which in turn means you store less fat. As carb intake stays low, the body ramps up fat oxidation. The liver converts fats into ketones, which many organs (including the brain) can use as an alternative energy source. There are many biochemical changes that underlie keto's effects, and I won't pretend to be an expert. I looked at various articles and calculators to determine my carb and protein thresholds. Usually one would use a blood ketone meter to determine if they're in ketosis, but my girlfriend and I were doing this together and she is not good around blood or needles. I went by feel and strict carb/protein counting. Not the best (I probably should have bought urine strips at least), but I could definitely tell when I transitioned in and out of ketosis. Luckily, I didn't have any accidental transitions in the middle of the diet. The thresholds I determined for myself were 20g of net carbs, usually staying below 20g of total carbs, and around 120-125g of protein. While the ideal calorie ratio was 75% from fat, 20% from protein, and 5% from carbs, I didn't strictly count calories. I went with portion control and counting my threshold numbers. It was lazy, but it worked for me since I was eating smaller portions compared to my ordinary diet. The carbohydrate threshold is a bit straightforward; we're forcing our bodies to burn fat instead of carbs as our primary fuel source. But the protein threshold wasn't quite as intuitive to me as an ignorant layman in the world of nutrition and biology. There's even a bit of controversy from what I've read concerning [whether there needs to be a protein limit at all](https://perfectketo.com/how-too-much-protein-is-bad-for-ketosis/). This is because the body can convert excess amino acids from protein into glucose through [_gluconeogenesis_](https://sciencenotes.org/gluconeogenesis-pathway-and-definition/). But the body already does this naturally to some degree and whether an increase in protein directly increases the rate at which gluconeogenesis is performed is apparently not that straightforward. This is something I want to revisit and dive into a little bit deeper the next time I do keto. Maybe there'll be more breakthroughs in the research before that happens. In the meantime, I took a more conservative approach and assumed excess protein *would* negatively affect my body in ketosis (potentially pulling me out of it temporarily), so I put the previously mentioned threshold on it. # Roadblocks I didn't hit as many roadblocks as I expected. The transition into ketosis—the keto flu as many call it—wasn't too bad. However, I did take electrolytes regularly (contributing 10% of my daily carb allowance), and I took exogenous ketones those first 2 days I began feeling symptoms. Lower insulin causes your kidneys to excrete more sodium and water, so staying hydrated and maintaining a good electrolyte balance was fresh on my mind. This effect also explains the quick initial weight loss I experienced when transitioning into keto—the water weight fell off fast! I actually increased my initial goal of losing 5 lbs to 10 lbs just because I already past the 5 lb mark within the first week. Sort of the opposite of a roadblock, but I also figured I would gain that water weight within the first week of the post-keto transition and wanted some actual weight loss. The first weekend of keto was during the [winter storm that hit most of North America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_23%E2%80%9327,_2026_North_American_winter_storm). Our infrastructure here in Texas is fragile, so even though we got only a sliver of the winter experience others did, everyone was concerned about power outages, food shortages, and general business shutdowns. It's a bit absurd for what turned out to be half an inch of sleet and ice, but the grocery stores were left bare in the days leading up to this. Fortunately, I had enough food to maintain my diet, at least until stores restocked. The final roadblock was my running. As I said previously, I started this diet between races, so I was already running regularly. But this diet made every run into a total slog. My body was not accustomed to using fat instead of carbs as its exercise fuel, and it made sure I knew. This is something that does improve with time as [the body becomes more efficient in this metabolic state](https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4663/7/2/40), but for my first 3 week dive into this diet, it wasn't pleasant. # Results I have to take my results with a grain of salt. This was one experiment on one person (not counting my girlfriend since I didn't control all her conditions) over a short period of time, and I went in with both some positive and negative biases. I was operating at a caloric deficit, and after the "keto flu", I could hardly tell. I was extremely productive, which aligned with the "mental clarity/focus" accounts I have heard before, but I also experienced a short crash for a couple days afterward like I normally do. However, I noticed a significant lack of brain fog. I don't remember having it once during the entire diet—something I immediately noticed days after transitioning out of ketosis. This is probably because high carb diets, especially those with processed foods, can result in blood sugar instability. It's been measured in [various](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37656693/) [studies](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4837888/) on diabetic and non-diabetic people, but we have to remember "brain fog" itself is not a medical term. I just find that these descriptions of "cognitive decline" as they correlate with meals aptly describe and contain it. Looking back at my completed tasks/projects, this was definitively a more productive period for me, but I can't rule out the placebo effect considering I was wanting to measure this productivity change going into the diet. Unlike my productivity, my running was noticeably worse, but I pushed through to get my mileage in before the next race. Transitioning out of ketosis and then running was a huge relief as I felt like Rock Lee taking the ankle weights off—running 13 miles post-keto felt easier than running 5 miles during keto. ![[rock-lee.gif]] ^6d4704 The weight fell off too, a lot more than I initially thought it would. I didn't run more in preparation for this race than I did for the last one, so I wasn't burning more calories than normal. My portion control must have reduced calorie intake more than I thought. I'm not sure how others experience this, but hunger on keto feels noticeably different than normal hunger. It was more tolerable, but maybe that's my biases and wishful thinking talking. Either way, I ended up losing around 11.5 lbs which was a nice surprise. ![[weightloss_chart.png]] I do plan to try keto again in the future, ideally with better tracking and a longer duration. I want to see how my body adapts to it especially on the fitness side. It could potentially be my go-to cutting diet in the future, but we'll see.