A couple days ago I teased you about the fact that I've started a new diet and have been losing a lot of weight in a short period of time. Believe it or not, that picture above is a meal I've had on this diet and I consider it "diet food". Hard to believe, right? Well, not exactly when you understand the diet I'm on. (By the way, that's a hamburger patty, fried egg, bacon, cheddar cheese, avocado, and mayo).

I had been doing a lot of research about diet and exercise and kept coming back to a diet known as a ketogenic diet, or Keto for short. I'll give you the source of the same place I found out about it. The /r/keto subreddit on the social news site Reddit.com:

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet. It has a lot of health advantages compared to the standard western diet. Most people do keto because of the weight loss, but it also has other health advantages like lowering risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer, stroke, and much more. 

Low-carb diets are essentially programs that lower carbohydrate intake below 100 grams; strict ketogenic diets are a subset of low carb diets that typically only allow < 50g of carbohydrates per day. The general recommendation of /r/keto is to start with 20g of net-carbs per day. This limit does a good job of eliminating junk foods, refined carbohydrates and any other “fattening” foods.

The full premise of a keto diet is far more than just weight ratios, it is a lifestyle about overall health. The diet promotes long, intense bouts of energy, an increase in healthy, delicious food and an overall better outlook on your life. It is easily sustainable with a plethora of options and often is an answer to improving health that many people struggle to comprehend at first. A Ketogenic diet is not easy and will test your willpower but transforms the way you think and understand about yourself, food, and health in general.

So there you have it. I have been doing this diet for about 5 weeks now. Once I week, I've been keeping a journal of my weight loss and thoughts while on the diet. Here is that 5 week journal thus far (which I'll update here once a week as I get it written, likely every Wednesday as that is my one-week cycle day):

• 1 week into the Keto diet. I'm firmly in ketosis and I've lost about 10 pounds (primarily water weight, don't get too excited). My hunger has diminished greatly and I don't snack hardly at all. When I do, it's very little. My breath smells bad (acetone breath as a bi-product of the ketone's breaking down), but Altoid's help when I need them before talking to someone. The best part, though, are the things I get to eat: Steak, beef, chicken, cheese, spinach, high-fat dressings (Ranch, Caesar, etc.), pepperoni, bacon, eggs, sausage, avocados, sunflower seeds, and pork rinds. It's amazing what you have to cut out to get down to 20g of carbs a day but it's also amazing the things you get the eat that we were always told were "bad" for us. I know I'm just getting started, but after doing a lot of research, I'm a total believer in this diet and the science behind it.

• Keto Week 2: 350 > 338 - 12 pounds lost, 2 this week. I'm feeling really good on this diet and really comfortable with it. I notice my overall mood has been much more even. I'm not near as tired as what I used to be and I don't yawn near as much. My appetite is...interesting. There are times when I can go 16 hours between meals and not feel hungry, and other times I can go only about 4 hours before I want to eat again. I don't snack hardly at all, though, so that helps a lot. And even when I do, it's usually something like a cheese stick or a piece of ham and I'm good to go. It's hard to tell for sure, but I think my "keto-breath" has gotten better. Drinking a lot of water helps, and hoo boy do I drink a lot of water. Having very little carbs in my system and therefore virtually no glycogen stores means that I don't retain water like I used to, so it's a necessity to drink 4 - 5 liters a day. It also means I'm up a couple times during the night to pee, but that's manageable. Right now, I'm in a gray area between the very beginning of the diet and what is called being "keto adapted", which means my weight loss is very little if at all (it honestly fluctuates a couple pounds up and down every day), so it'll be interesting to see where I am next week after 3 weeks on the diet. So far so good though. The first week was tough, but I think I'm finally getting the hang of it.

• Keto Week 3: 350 > 332 - 18 pounds lost, 6 this week. I think I'm finally keto-adapted. If not, I'm awfully close. I'm kind of shocked that I dropped 6 pounds in one week, but I don't think I'll keep up with that. Looking at myself, I don't think I look much thinner. Maybe a bit in my face and my sides, but nothing dramatic yet. One cool side effect has been forcing myself to be more inventive in the kitchen. Since ingredients are somewhat limited, I've had to find interesting and new ways to create meals and foods that work with this diet. For example, today I made something similar to a cinnamon roll using flax meal. I couldn't believe how fluffy it came out and how delicious it tasted! The next step will be to start incorporating some exercise once it warms up just a bit more. I'd really like to get back into running, biking, and swimming and really push myself in some triathlons later this year. I'm even toying with the idea of trying Redman [Ed. note - local iron-distance triathlon. I did the 1/2 iron two years ago, and it nearly killed me] again...but that's a ways away. Finally, I want to brag on [my wife] just a bit. She's been doing this right alongside me and not only has she lost 12 pounds, but her blood sugar has been consistently under control since we started! I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see her endocrinologist's reaction when she goes to see her next month!

• Keto Week 4 (1 month!!) - 350 > 325 - 25 lbs lost, 7 this week. It's been a crazy month. I thought when I started that I would see good results, but this has exceeded my wildest expectations. I love the food I get to eat and generally how effortless this has been so far. It hasn't come without its challenges, of course. Reinventing everything you know about nutrition and finding ways to have some semblance of foods you used to enjoy has been interesting. I've learned to love broccoli and all the different ways you can prepare cauliflower. I've found which dressings do and don't work so well with spinach. Eggs have become my best friend, and I've discovered that you save a lot of money when you buy them in a pack of 3 dozen. I've made "cinnamon rolls" out of flax, fake gummy bears, fake sherbet, and found out that cream cheese mixed with cocoa powder and cinnamon with no sweeteners isn't near as good as it sounds. I've had to adapt my way of thinking and ordering meals at restaurants as well as exercise some restraint when those delicious carby appetizers come by. I'm learning to start listening to my body and recognize when it needs food and when I'm just thirsty.

• Keto Week 5 - 350 > 318 - 32 lbs lost, 7 this week. This was another good week on the diet. I'm getting more adventurous in the kitchen, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I've started making a lot more "sweets" which still definitely fit within the diet, but I do worry that I'm setting myself up for temptation down the road. The good news, is that I am controlling my portions and making sure I don't eat more than one sweet a day plus some of my gummy candy (but come on, that's 100% carb free so I don't think it counts...ha!). Regardless, it has been a lot of fun making new creations in the kitchen and experimenting with different food and flavor combinations. I just hope I don't run out of ideas anytime soon. The only other concern I really have is my scales. See, I have two scales in my house - one digital and one dial. They both measure me at different weights and I bought the dial scale because the digital never gave me the same reading twice. All my weight loss I've been recording here has been off that dial scale, but it's also giving me the lower of the two weights (my initial 350 starting weight came from the digital scale, by the way). I guess the good news is that it's always been trending down regardless of which scale I use but I am worried that something may be wrong and the scale is weighing me lower than what I am. The good news is that I have a physical scheduled with my doctor on Friday, so I will have a third scale (which is much better quality than either of mine) that I can make a comparison with. I'm hoping it agrees with the dial scale, but I'm afraid that it will agree with the digital scale. Either way, I'm still more than thrilled with my progress on this diet and don't intend on stopping any time soon.

I'm so pleased with the decision I made and the change in lifestyle. It's something that I adapted to quickly and can see sustaining for a long time. I understand that it may not be for everyone, but for me, it's perfect.