Keto made easy

A Black Eye and a Fight Plan

2018-04-24

April 2018 — ten months in, one eye swollen

The first thing I said when the broadcast started: it's not jaundice. I got punched in sparring class. I do kickboxing, so don't worry about it (live 10000000_612307502445150_2871391744266600448_n [0:01]).

That's a pretty good picture of where I was that spring. Hibernating, planning the year, and also getting hit in the face on a regular basis.

The plan

Keto didn't start for me as a sports thing. It started with pre-diabetic warning signs. But that April I was planning to take two kickboxing fights during the year, and I needed to drop eight more pounds to make weight (live 10000000_149408835851410_6283943522378711040_n [22:49]).

Now, I could have done it the fighter way. I was already close enough to cut those eight pounds by dehydrating, step on the scale, and fight a little heavier. I didn't want that. The plan was:

That came to 18 more pounds of loss and 5 pounds of rebuild, and I figured it could take up to six months. Which meant I could lose weight at half a pound a week. For me, keeping my muscle was more important than losing fast. Electrolytes were going to matter a lot with that much training. So was fiber, because when you're in the gym and somebody's hitting you in the stomach, danger pants is unacceptable. You cannot have danger pants.

How much protein a guy like me eats

On the other broadcast that day I went through protein, which is the thing this community is most weirdly scared of. My rule of thumb for the group was four answers (live 10000000_612307502445150_2871391744266600448_n [22:41]):

Most of our group isn't throwing barbells around at a CrossFit final. You go to a class two or three times a week, you walk the dog, you've got some free weights at home. Those four numbers cover you.

For me? I'm six foot, male, I lift and I do mixed martial arts. My active number was about 130 g (live 10000000_612307502445150_2871391744266600448_n [21:18]).

And here's the honest trade-off, in the same broadcast: keto made me better at my job, a better person to know, and more stable in my mood. It also made me worse at kickboxing, because explosive work runs better with carbs on board (live 10000000_612307502445150_2871391744266600448_n [29:38]). I said that was a really, really unimportant trade. Then I said: until somebody punches me in the eye, and then I wish I was just a little bit quicker.

Showing up every week

That same day I made a commitment out loud: a Q&A every Wednesday at 1, the whole year (live 10000000_612307502445150_2871391744266600448_n [27:12]). I knew it would be 52 pretty similar broadcasts. I said so. You're not supposed to make content that way. But the basics don't need to be crazy and varied. They need to be a drumbeat. Limit your carbs, target your protein, keep your fats down until you're where you want to be, mind your fiber and your minerals. Say it every week until it sticks.

I also told you where the channel actually stood, because I'd rather be straight with you than look bigger than I am. YouTube had just changed its rules: a channel needed 4,000 hours of watch time in the last 12 months and 1,000 subscribers to earn anything, and I didn't have either (live 10000000_149408835851410_6283943522378711040_n [44:29]). I said you make about two bucks per thousand views, and my best video had about 7,000 views (live 10000000_149408835851410_6283943522378711040_n [45:01]). So in my head I'd helped 7,000 people, and that should be worth fourteen dollars, which is one dinner for my girlfriend. That's the empire.

The one thing I could promise was this: I was answering every direct message within about 24 hours, and staying on top of that inbox was one of my commitments for 2018 (live 10000000_149408835851410_6283943522378711040_n [46:37], [47:09]). If I blew up and got 50,000 likes, sure, that would stop working. We'd get there when we got there.

The point of the plan

Slow on purpose. Half a pound a week, protein high enough to keep the muscle, fiber high enough to keep my dignity in a clinch. No crash cut, no dehydration games. When you've got a date on the calendar, it's tempting to sprint at it. But the scale number I needed was going to be easy to make if I didn't wreck the engine getting there.

What I'd tell you now

The slow, protein-first cut holds up, and the literature would push my own protein number higher. A meta-analysis of 24 trials (1,063 people) found that energy-restricted higher-protein diets gave a bit more weight and fat loss and less loss of fat-free mass (doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.112.044321). For athletes in a calorie deficit, one review gives 1.8–2.0 g/kg/day depending on the size of the deficit (doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2011.619204), and the sports-nutrition position stand gives 1.4–2.0 g/kg/day for most people who exercise (doi.org/10.1186/s12970-017-0177-8). At my planned fight-camp weight of 195 lb (about 88 kg), my 130 g works out to roughly 1.5 g/kg. That's inside the general range and below the cutting range for athletes. My four everyday numbers were floors for regular people, not a ceiling. Higher protein didn't change kidney function differently in adults without kidney disease (doi.org/10.1093/jn/nxy197). If you have kidney disease, talk to your doctor before you raise it. More: how much protein, carbs for hard workouts, keto for combat sports. By June I was on camera with a sparring black eye again, and that one came from a student I'd taught, which means I taught him right (live ISEN0955 [1:20]). How the cut actually ended up is in 188, and back to 200.

The broadcasts: Ketosis is not fat loss, and how much protein · “It Works for Me”.

Earlier: Pierogies, night sweats, and hibernation · Later: From twenty grams to fifty