long time, no post...
i'm currently low carbing and very much enjoying it. I'm doing it because work has taken over my life for a few months so i can't train properly on the bike - a typical week is 10-15hrs but i simply don't have time for that at the moment.
i wanted to take this opportunity to drop weight before i get back to training as per usual - losing weight while training has always been extremely difficult for me. i started at 97kg at the beginning of may and i'm currently 88kg. I'm currently averaging about 1700-1800 calories per day and aiming for as few carbs as possible, typically eating less than 50g but often as little as 30g.
training has been limited to lifting in a rippetoe-type program twice a week, a 2-3hr ride on the weekend and 1x or 2x 30min sessions on the rollers during the week as time permits. I carb up for the long ride and i add a post-workout protein on weeknights if i'm exercising.
everything about it so far has been positive with the exception of a couple of things:
1) keto flu sucked for about 2-3 days. i only really had afternoon brain-fade, but it was still crappy. well and truly gone now though.
2) hypotension and head-spins early on were annoying, but i have easily countered them by upping my sodium intake. pretty sure it's just the massive amount of water i'm going through driving out electrolytes. more sodium, whether through electrolyte supps or just more table salt seems to have fixed this issue.
3) my power at threshold on the bike is down by about 10% - this is a combination of factors though: being in calorie deficit, low-carbing and a few weeks of much lower than normal training volume and intensity. also, testing peak power is one of those things that requires ideal conditions - i haven't exactly had ideal tesing conditions in the last month. i have lost 9kg though so i'm flying up the hills which is nice. hoping to see some of the lost power come back after i do a proper carb load (experimenting with a few different food protocols at the moment but have not yet had the success i'm hoping for). also, i think training ftp and vo2 systems while low-carbing is probably pretty critical so i may be able to improve this in the long term.
i haven't been constipated yet, though i used to be like clockwork. now i'm a bit more sporadic and can go a day without taking a dump - instead of needing to go every 24hrs it's more like 30 or 36hrs. plenty of water and plenty of greens and i've been fine so far.
I'm really loving the freedom associated with this new way of eating - i've always been an active, low fat, high carb kind of guy but i've always been 15kg overweight. food has always been a source of anxiety in some form or another. my diet has always seemed very restricted because for as long as i can remember i've been trying to lose weight - foods were very 2 dimensionally labelled "good" or "bad". combined with this, i've always been very conscious of what i think i "need" to eat in order to maintain training intensity. bottom line being that i've been very fit but never thin.
In real terms, the biggest changes for me have been:
1) replacing my typical home made muesli (oats, bran, cranberries) with a cooked egg+protein+veggies breakfast
2) eliminating milk from my diet - i have a few hundred mL of soy with my latte every morning
3) replacing the grain portion of dinner with more veggies
4) chasing fat sources - i like HAVING to eat desert to make up my energy requirements.
I feel like I'm eating a wider range of more interesting foods every day and it's awesome. i'm cooking more, i'm eating more veggies, i'm eating more variety and i'm really, really enjoying it.
following the diet is easy - the rules are relatively simple and there are still a great many options available. for every high carb food i like that i've "lost", i feel i've gained a high fat food that i didn't have before.
overall, i feel more energetic, more mentally aware and i generally feel less fatigued and run down.
based on my N=1 experimentation i still believe calories in < calories out = weight loss, but i have no doubt that the high carb diet i was eating (lots of fruit, pasta, oats, milk, milo, rice, etc) was making it much, much harder to keep calories in < calories out. without the carbs it seems to be so easy to fast for 6-8hrs at a time which is something i've never had the ability to do before. replacing carbs with fats leaves me satisfied from a smaller number of calories. beyond CI < CO there seems to be metabolic and hormonal stuff going on that makes "willpower" insufficient. I'm not meaning to make excuses, i'm just saying that maybe this way is just easier/better for some people (like me).
once i hit my target weight (maybe another 8kg to go) i will up the carbs to maybe 100g per day and return to training. I'd like to settle at about 82-84kg with the water weight i have lost restored when i increase my carbs. I'm hoping to maintain weight and get my power back without sacrificing too many of the positives associated with low carbing.
I do wonder whether the positives i have reported could have been achieved via other means. could I have changed the diversity of my diet and experienced similar "dietary freedom"? could i have lost similar amounts of weight with the same calorie deficit by changing up my diet in other ways? don't know, can't tell you. i can say that this is working for me now and is definitely something that i could live with in the long run.
I now substitute my sweet intake with Natvia, an all natural sweetener. It has no aspartame, saccharin, sucralose, and fructose, but it tastes really great.