Starting 2019 with a plan: 100 days of Keto (Chow) Day -5

In 5 days, starting January 2, I’m going to do 100 days of ONLY Keto Chow for all my meals. 6 weeks in, I’ll finish a weight loss contest and start some science. I doubt anyone will want to join in on the science portion with me, but everyone is invited to join on doing a solid 100 days of Keto with no cheating, no compromises.

Some time ago (4 years ago!) I participated in my local city’s January weight loss competition, ended up getting second place. There’s another one coming up on January 2, 2019, and I think I’ll do it again. The contest runs for 6 weeks. There are weekly weigh-ins for the contest and some modest prizes for the winner and runners-up. There’s going to be a lot happening with Keto Chow in the next 100 days so this will give me a push to blog about what’s going on daily. I’m planning on also doing a video each day as well.

Here’s my plan for the first 100 days (or so, it’ll actually be 101, whatever) of 2019:

• Unlike in 2015 where I “leveled the playing field” by deliberately going off keto and replenishing my glycogen (water weight), this time I’m going to stay Keto just before the contest. I will, however, go a bit nuts with keto food at our yearly family New Year’s party. I figure that’ll do the trick and I won’t feel the negative effects of carbing up.
• My lovely wife wants to do some kind of exercise together. Due to scheduling constraints and other logistical issues, we think the best fit is going to be doing the P90 program, which will allow us some flexibility in when and where we do it, while still getting the kids off to school. Personally, I’d prefer StrongLifts 5×5 but this is what we’re going to do (and the 90 days of P90 kinda set the tone for the rest of the experiment).
• January 2 is the first weigh-in for the contest – it establishes the “baseline” against which the individual progress is calculated. The contest looks for % change in body weight.
• During the first few days, I’m going to have the calories a little higher than normal, around 2200, to allow for an easier transition without any hunger getting me down. After that, I’ll switch to 2000 calories a day and go from there.
• The first 6 weeks (up to day 42), my primary goal is weight loss. To that end, I’m planning on fasting the final 3-4 days before the last weigh-in.
• I’m also hosting a 4 week DietBet challenge – come compete for Keto Chow gift certificates!
• After the final weigh-in for the weight loss contest, I’ll resume eating 3 meals of Keto Chow a day, this time working on a variant of my earlier experiments. In those earlier experiments, I was changing variables on a weekly basis. This time I’m going to draw it out for a longer period to reduce the likelihood of the variables influencing subsequent results (I’m going to do each test for at least 2 weeks instead of just 1).
• My plan for the following 8 weeks (with a blood test each week):
  • Keto Chow with just heavy cream for days 42-44 to recover from the fast and then get a blood test for the baseline of the science portion.
  • Keto Chow with just heavy cream for 2 weeks.
  • Keto Chow with just Avocado Oil for 2 weeks.
  • Keto Chow with Avocado Oil and MCT Oil for 2 weeks.
  • Keto Chow with butter for 2 weeks (this will be using the impending Savory flavors of Keto Chow that use beef bone broth protein instead of milk protein, ideally I’ll have “nearly production” versions ready for the test).
• Dr. Jeff Gerber had some question about the results I got with an earlier experiment, this should help answer some of those more thoroughly.
• I’m also planning on having an additional variable along with the fat type: number of calories. In my earlier 6 week experiment, I made sure it was isocaloric: the same 2000 calories a day for the entire 6 weeks. This time I’m going to add 100 calories each week and see how that affects the expected weight loss. Everything that I’ve learned indicates that if I keep my carbohydrate consumption to a minimum, increasing the calories (to a point, likely under 3000) should have little bearing on weight loss due to increased metabolism.
• To that end, I’m planning on doing a Resting Metabolic Rate test at the beginning and end of the experiment. We’ll see how that turns out =)

So there you have it. Now it’s written down so I’ll actually do it. I think it’s pretty ambitious.