This update comes at a time a little earlier than planned, but I have quite a bit to update about and it’s better to do it now rather than later - whilst it’s still fresh in the mind.
Diet progress update:
Diet progress
I added some lines to measure running progress in the form of ‘run (miles)’, ‘time (mins)’ and ‘miles per min’. Over time, I want to increase my run distance, gradually reduce my time spent running, but also increase my pace. I’ll speak more on this later.
I’ve also added an additional blue line, which is the ‘projection (kg)’. It simply uses the current burn rate to figure out whether I am projected to meet my target or not. This is useful for figuring out whether I will reach my goals or not and to detect problems early.
Weight loss is still as hard as ever to track, despite having lost a lot of weight the scales are very difficult to accurately judge. With my weight generally fluctuating +/- 5kg depending on water, time, meals, etc. I currently have it as ~117kg, but this could be 112kg or 122kg depending on when it is measured.
The thing is - I’m not exactly acting badly on this diet. There isn’t too much left to adjust without making large changes, that will be extremely difficult to adjust to.
My goal is generally to get this back down to about the 750 - 1000 kcal range.
My average intake is now below 1200 kcal and is still in steady decline. It’s still above the 1000 kcal goal I set myself, but it’s better to move slowly on this rather than act too quickly and make my diet unmaintainable. As I will discuss later, my exercise has also stepped up during this time, so those few extra calories are unlikely to do real damage to progress.
I’m generally happy with my progress and plan to continue to gradually reduce my average calories to within the target range.
Recap
And now to recap on some previous made points:
Keto chocolate – I have mostly reduced the need for this, although it is still something I look to buy when I go to the shop. At $5 a pop, it’s also an expensive treat. I have been buying the white chocolate version which is really nice, but it’s high in fat and higher in calories than I want to spend on a snack. The white chocolate has been largely preferable to the dark mint chocolate as it doesn’t cause digestion issues, despite still being very sweet.
Running – I will discuss this in a dedicated section later on in this article, but I can comment that progress has generally been good on this front.
Cognitive – This is okay. It’s not as great as I have seen on this diet, but generally on average I believe my cognitive processing abilities are increasing on average. It still only comes to me in bursts, usually after drinking coffee and eating my daily meal.
Keto icecream – I have not purchased keto icecream since making my own - so I consider this a resounding success. My version isn’t quite as good as the shop purchased ISO brand, but it is good enough that I have not been tempted to buy it. The added bonus of my protein powder version is that, of course, it is absolutely packed with protein.
Social
So again the posts on dead social from the tag #keto… This time I’ve broken it up into sections in order to try and tackle the points more logically.
Keto Chocolate
I’m still probably eating way too much keto chocolate. It’s within my calorie and carbohydrate count, but the real problem is that it is simply too high in fat. Doing exercise whilst on a calorie restricted keto diet requires high protein - as much as I can get.
Keto Beer
If I let myself, I have moments of sadness - maybe borderline depression. I suspect this is highly correlated with sugar levels in general, as processing alcohol directly competes in processing fats for energy (hence people on keto get drunk more easily). That said, immediately after exercise I don’t feel this - so perhaps the correlation is not completely obvious here.
I’ve noticed that alcohol effects me quite differently compared to other people - my heart rate actually decreases rather than increases - I’m not entirely sure why. My heart’s response to keto in general has generally been quite abnormal.
Pains
My back posture is absolutely awful and as a result I’m now starting to get back pain. I will try to reduce the number of pillows I use at night, as I suspect I am sleeping with a bent neck whilst sleeping on my back. I also have a back brace arriving from china (which was $15 NZD delivered or so) that should force my back to be held straighter when I’m working.
I suspect a drop in calories really screwed me over that day - I have since been able to balance out better.
Research
These are a series of things I notice on my internet surfing activities related to keto that really interested me.
I really hope this is not the case - plant protein tends to have tonnes of hidden carbs and calories. Given proteins and carbohydrates are a major source of energy on the keto diet, it’s extremely important that they come from good sources.
This story really made me sad - children in the US get 70% of their calorie intake from processed foods, which usually tend to have refined sugars added in order to make them more palatable. As we’ll see shortly, fructose is playing a major part in the obesity crisis.
I have to completely agree with the BBC article on the affects of sugar and the withdrawal process - you have no idea how much you rely on sugar until you try to quit it. The willpower required to voluntarily stop yourself consuming sugar and carbohydrates is on another level.
Prior to the diet I remember ordering a delivery pizza, not because I was hungry, but because I wanted the sugary drink that came with it. I become so dependent on sugar that I stopped even being able to taste how sweet it was. I could easily smash a 1.5 litre drink filled to the brim with sugar in a single sitting and not think twice about it.
I am incredibly lucky to not be type 2 diabetic right now. If I hadn’t made some lifestyle changes when I did, I would 100% be diabetic by now without a doubt. After being medically tested, currently I couldn’t be further from being diabetic.
I found a Youtuber called Nurse Cindy through a Facebook keto group - she has quite a lot of really cool information on her website. That said, I think she finds it extremely hard herself to maintain the willpower required to stay on a keto diet, she doesn’t lie about the fact that she has her own personal demons.
For me I worry about coming off of this diet in a sustainable way, it will need to be really slow and well measured.
I found this incredibly interesting, fructose is incredibly bad for you.
Some years back I remember actually buying fructose as I thought it would be healthier than normal sugar. My Physics friend quickly corrected that thinking by telling me it was actually worse, but until recently I never knew how much worse it actually is.
Exercise
Two mile running route
NOTE: I have added the pixelation to the application screenshot for the purpose of giving myself some privacy. It could still be possible to reverse engineer my running location with this information, but the purpose is simply to make it more difficult than its worth.
I have been testing out the open source FitoTrack app on my old Android phone, I have been quite impressed so far. For me, the lack of tracking and offline maps makes it perfect for tracking offline. At some point I want to experiment with exporting the exercise information once I get a running band for my phone.
One feature request for the app would be to be able to use it for navigation too, if only to zoom in and out - and move about the map whilst doing exercise, rather than it be locked in place.
After finding out I can actually sprint quite fast, I thought “perhaps I should try this running business again”. Turns out I can actually run a mile. I knew that once I got a mile under me, things would actually be quite good in terms of progress.
Running stitch has been a killer for runs, once I get one it’s very hard to continue. The initial barrier is also pretty real too, but I am able to push through it at a slower pace, which also ended up helping with the muscle fatigue too.
Whilst low temperature is good for running, my god it’s hard to motivate yourself to go outside in the ice. Once you get past the first mile though it is much easier to push on.
I managed to run two miles in the end, in what felt like too soon of a time for my body. I still weigh some 115kg, so I think this probably puts me up there as one of the fittest fat people running around.
I will speak about heart rate shortly.
Running has not been easy on my body, as I expected… Everything that could possibly have hurt, has hurt. My lungs, my heart, my knees, my stomach, my legs, my arms - you name it. But in spite of this, I have pushed through.
Prior to starting writing this article, my goal was to reach 3 miles by the end of the week. Literally the same night, I ran 4 miles at a 12:30 pace - which absolutely smashed my expectations. I even still had some left in the tank, with a sprint finish and instant recovery!
Running
As you can see, I have been working hard starting the running, something I had been failing to start for quite a few months. I believe I am now getting my legs under me (quite literally) and progress from now on should be pretty decent.
Just last week I went from barely being able to run a single mile, to now being able to run 4 miles! It should in theory only be a process of a few weeks before I am able to run a half marathon. I expect my pace will increase just by repeatedly going out and running.
During running, I found that I have been running initially with a heart rate of 140-150 bpm, and then after about the first mile this drops to 70-80 bpm. This could also be a limit of the PineTime smart watch, others have reported that the heart rate measurement can be inaccurate. Feeling my heart as I run, it feels closer to double the reported value.
I checked out runbundle to calculate the effect of weight on a 10 mile run, assuming I can maintain a 12:30 pace:
Weight (kg)
Time (hh:mm:ss)
Difference (mm:ss)
110
02:00:28
- 04:32
111
02:01:23
- 03:37
112
02:02:17
- 02:43
113
02:03:12
- 01:48
114
02:04:06
- 00:54
115
02:05:00
-
116
02:05:54
+ 00:54
117
02:06:48
+ 01:48
118
02:07:42
+ 02:42
119
02:08:36
+ 03:36
120
02:09:30
+ 04:30
So in theory I can expect to see an improvement on pace just by losing weight and maintaining my current level of fitness. This plus continued running should enable me to crack a half marathon before the end of the year, perhaps even putting in a competitive pace!
Book
I am currently working on a keto book - intended to be the thing that I would have liked before I started. The target audience is morbidly obese people looking towards getting into the obese/normal range through the use of a reduced calorie keto diet. It will essentially hold somebody’s hand through the first 90 days of the keto diet.
The idea is that each day is allocated to some topic and it is presented in an easily digested way, at roughly the time it will be relevant to the diet. There will be milestones (important moments of note), science (diving into exactly what is happening), comparisons (how is keto different from other diets), exercise (how to exercise correctly on a keto diet), general (general tips and advice), food (discuss specific foods and nutrition) and meal (specific meal preparation and nutrition) topics.
So far I have 54/90 unique pages/days ‘planned’ (a good idea for the topic) - and I am still generating ideas for the others. I realised early on that writing this book will take a considerable amount of time, especially as I am unable to put more than a few hours in each week.
Next Steps
In the next steps, the plan is to:
Running increase – I will continue to increase my running distance and increase my running pace. My initial target is to be able to run a half marathon before the end of the year, but we’ll see.
Exercise tracking – Once we are out of lockdown, I want to track more exactly my running progress. Using the GPS from my phone, I should be able to not only figure out running times, but also be able to accurately measure my exact running pace. This, along with my heart rate, will allow me to really hone my running to be more optimal.
Calorie reduction – I will continue to reduce my calorie intake, down to the target of about 800 calories per day. This, with running, should mean my weight loss progress increases rapidly.
Coffee Space 
Social
So again the posts on dead social from the tag
#keto… This time I’ve broken it up into sections in order to try and tackle the points more logically.Keto Chocolate
I’m still probably eating way too much keto chocolate. It’s within my calorie and carbohydrate count, but the real problem is that it is simply too high in fat. Doing exercise whilst on a calorie restricted keto diet requires high protein - as much as I can get.
Keto Beer
If I let myself, I have moments of sadness - maybe borderline depression. I suspect this is highly correlated with sugar levels in general, as processing alcohol directly competes in processing fats for energy (hence people on keto get drunk more easily). That said, immediately after exercise I don’t feel this - so perhaps the correlation is not completely obvious here.
I’ve noticed that alcohol effects me quite differently compared to other people - my heart rate actually decreases rather than increases - I’m not entirely sure why. My heart’s response to keto in general has generally been quite abnormal.
Pains
My back posture is absolutely awful and as a result I’m now starting to get back pain. I will try to reduce the number of pillows I use at night, as I suspect I am sleeping with a bent neck whilst sleeping on my back. I also have a back brace arriving from china (which was $15 NZD delivered or so) that should force my back to be held straighter when I’m working.
I suspect a drop in calories really screwed me over that day - I have since been able to balance out better.
Research
These are a series of things I notice on my internet surfing activities related to keto that really interested me.
I really hope this is not the case - plant protein tends to have tonnes of hidden carbs and calories. Given proteins and carbohydrates are a major source of energy on the keto diet, it’s extremely important that they come from good sources.
This story really made me sad - children in the US get 70% of their calorie intake from processed foods, which usually tend to have refined sugars added in order to make them more palatable. As we’ll see shortly, fructose is playing a major part in the obesity crisis.
I have to completely agree with the BBC article on the affects of sugar and the withdrawal process - you have no idea how much you rely on sugar until you try to quit it. The willpower required to voluntarily stop yourself consuming sugar and carbohydrates is on another level.
Prior to the diet I remember ordering a delivery pizza, not because I was hungry, but because I wanted the sugary drink that came with it. I become so dependent on sugar that I stopped even being able to taste how sweet it was. I could easily smash a 1.5 litre drink filled to the brim with sugar in a single sitting and not think twice about it.
I am incredibly lucky to not be type 2 diabetic right now. If I hadn’t made some lifestyle changes when I did, I would 100% be diabetic by now without a doubt. After being medically tested, currently I couldn’t be further from being diabetic.
I found a Youtuber called Nurse Cindy through a Facebook keto group - she has quite a lot of really cool information on her website. That said, I think she finds it extremely hard herself to maintain the willpower required to stay on a keto diet, she doesn’t lie about the fact that she has her own personal demons.
For me I worry about coming off of this diet in a sustainable way, it will need to be really slow and well measured.
I found this incredibly interesting, fructose is incredibly bad for you.
Some years back I remember actually buying fructose as I thought it would be healthier than normal sugar. My Physics friend quickly corrected that thinking by telling me it was actually worse, but until recently I never knew how much worse it actually is.
Exercise
NOTE: I have added the pixelation to the application screenshot for the purpose of giving myself some privacy. It could still be possible to reverse engineer my running location with this information, but the purpose is simply to make it more difficult than its worth.
I have been testing out the open source FitoTrack app on my old Android phone, I have been quite impressed so far. For me, the lack of tracking and offline maps makes it perfect for tracking offline. At some point I want to experiment with exporting the exercise information once I get a running band for my phone.
One feature request for the app would be to be able to use it for navigation too, if only to zoom in and out - and move about the map whilst doing exercise, rather than it be locked in place.
After finding out I can actually sprint quite fast, I thought “perhaps I should try this running business again”. Turns out I can actually run a mile. I knew that once I got a mile under me, things would actually be quite good in terms of progress.
Running stitch has been a killer for runs, once I get one it’s very hard to continue. The initial barrier is also pretty real too, but I am able to push through it at a slower pace, which also ended up helping with the muscle fatigue too.
Whilst low temperature is good for running, my god it’s hard to motivate yourself to go outside in the ice. Once you get past the first mile though it is much easier to push on.
I managed to run two miles in the end, in what felt like too soon of a time for my body. I still weigh some 115kg, so I think this probably puts me up there as one of the fittest fat people running around.
I will speak about heart rate shortly.
Running has not been easy on my body, as I expected… Everything that could possibly have hurt, has hurt. My lungs, my heart, my knees, my stomach, my legs, my arms - you name it. But in spite of this, I have pushed through.
Prior to starting writing this article, my goal was to reach 3 miles by the end of the week. Literally the same night, I ran 4 miles at a 12:30 pace - which absolutely smashed my expectations. I even still had some left in the tank, with a sprint finish and instant recovery!