My previous experiment where all of my calories for 4 weeks came via Keto Chow brought out some interesting data in my 3rd week. That week I changed my fat source from heavy cream over to avocado oil, this resulted in some remarkable blood tests. I enlisted some helpers to broaden the range of the experiment to see if others would have the same result. I was able to get two females and one male, the male is related to me by blood and the females are not related to me or each other.

Experiment Methodology

Food for the experiment:

  • All of the calories would be coming via Keto Chow with different fat sources
  • Week 1 would use Heavy Whipping Cream as the fat source, so would week 2. Week 3 would instead use Avocado Oil and the final week would use a mixture of heavy whipping cream and avocado oil.
  • Part of the Keto Chow recipe is fish pills – those were taken to get the necessary EPA and DHA Ω3 fatty acids.

Test Plan:

  • Test was preceded by doing a DEXA scan, another was taken at the end of the experiment to determine body composition change.
  • A blood test at the end of each week.
    1. Comp. Metabolic Panel
    2. CBC With Differential/Platelet
    3. Insulin
    4. C-Reactive Protein, Cardiac
    5. NMR LipoProf
    6. Lipid Panel
  • Blood ketones were tested every day using the “KetoMojo” blood tester.
  • Weight was tracked daily.

Food Logs

One of the main criticisms of Morgan Spurlock’s “Supersize Me” is that he absolutely refuses to release his food logs. You can’t take an experiment, even a N=3 experiment seriously, unless you can look over the data. Mind, it’s pretty dull. The data was collected using Cron-O-Meter.

Female 1:

Female 2:

Male 1:

Male 2:

  • Not available yet, check back soon.
Female 1 Female 2 Male 1
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Blood and Other Tests

The best way to view this data is using the I Blood Test Spreadsheet so that you can compare the results easier.

Female 1:

Female 2:

Male 2:

  • Not available yet
Female 1 Female 2 Male 1
   
   

Testing Experience

Female 1

I decided to do the Keto Chow experiment for more than one reason:  to get to know my body better using Keto Chow as a good baseline for figuring out more accurate macros, and another reason is to find out how sustainable it is to use keto chow only on a long-term basis. Chris has done his tests on himself but women are different and have different reactions to things at times.  The blood tests were nice to see, the numbers were similar to what Chris’ were and that means we have a good ketogenic product.  To start I went to the keto chow website to the calorie calculator and figured out how many calories I needed and how much oil and cream to use for the experiment.  I also went and got a DEXA scan before starting.  

Week 1, wash out week. I’m not gonna lie this week wasn’t super fun for me.  Even though I was already in ketogenesis, it was hard to not eat solid food.  I wanted to snack between meals.  I hadn’t realized how much I was actually snacking.  Even though they were good keto foods I was simply eating too much because I was snacking.  Hence the reason I was not losing weight before.  

Week 2, 100 ml heavy cream. I thought by now I would be so sick of keto chow.  But really I wasn’t. I still liked the flavor and I was not feeling hungry between meals.  However, I started getting dizzy at the end of the week.  Chris ordered me some glucose strips which also test hemoglobin, and I found my HCT and Hb were both low.  I have had low Iron before so it didn’t surprise me.  I have been taking iron supplements and feel better but it is still not up to normal ranges yet so I’ll keep working on it.  Not too long ago, (v2.0.1) we decided to cut back the iron in Keto Chow simply because we read that men can overdose on iron.  So we knew that I may need to take an iron supplement.  Now we know that is true.

Week 3, 50 ml avocado oil, still dizzy.  Keto Chow still tastes good.  I wasn’t missing the snacking as much.  My ketone blood level was high this week.  We think it was because of the Avocado oil.  I felt really good I was less tired.  Everything was wonderful but the low iron.  I had continually lost weight, 8lbs so far.  I was pleasantly surprised that I liked the avocado oil so much.  It tasted good, was thinner than heavy cream but I really liked it.  Good week 3.

Week 4 half heavy cream 50 ml, half avocado oil 25 ml.  I was getting excited to eat food again.  I was not sick of the taste of keto chow though.  I’m pretty excited when I drank my drink my mouth still said, “YUM.”  I did enjoy the taste of the heavy cream with the oil.  My blood ketone level came down to around 1.0 or less, but I was still registering on the keto mojo meter so I figured I was doing fine.  I felt really good.  I was still losing weight.  My iron was still low but it was closer to normal ranges and I was finally not dizzy every day.  Horray!  I’m glad we were able to get the glucose strips.  I was surprised to see during this experiment how the timing of the meals made my blood ketone levels change.  It makes sense but I never put two and two together before in my mind. The longer I took my blood ketones the more excited I got to see what the numbers were and see how they changed day by day.  It was really nice to not think about what I was going to eat and how to balance everything out.  Keto Chow definitely makes things easy that way.   We did go through blender bottles like crazy.  With two of us having Keto Chow 3 times a day and 2 of my girls having 1 a day we had a lot of blender bottles to wash at the end of the day, by hand since our house is under construction. But it was worth it.  I really enjoyed the experiment.

I enjoyed learning about my snacking problem, and now I feel like I have the tools to combat it.  I still will not eat keto chow all day every day.  But I know it is there and it has been a delicious process.  This week my friend and I started Maria Emmerich’s 30 day keto cleanse.  So no keto chow for a while but I’ll go back to eating it again sometime.

Female 2

I volunteered when Chris needed more data for his research. I wanted to lose that last 10 lbs to meet my goal from 2 years before. I needed to be challenged to stick to a plan. I’m weird that way. Challenge me and you’re on. I, however, didn’t realize the extent to which I had been challenged. This included Dexa scans and lots of fasting for blood work, weekly. I did it for 1 week in December to make sure I wouldn’t wimp out before I committed to doing 4 weeks. I went onto  the calorie calculator and found out what my daily calorie intake should be (1350 calories) and how much heavy cream and/or avocado oil was needed to meet the calories per meal.  

Week 1, washout period. It wasn’t too bad except for missing the snacking. I love the flavors of Keto Chow. I had 7 of the 8 flavors to choose from, I don’t do Mocha. I lost 6.5 lbs this week but it was also Jan 1 after the holidays. I’m sure most of that was water weight. The first blood test was a surprise to see them take 6 vials of blood. I hate needles.

Week 2, 60 ml heavy cream. Surprisingly not hungry. I sometimes had to remind myself to eat. It was a little challenging watching my family eat something I loved. My mouth would water but my stomach was full and I was not hungry. I had chosen not to make dinners for my family. I left that up to one of my children. My ketones are around 1.0 on the MoJo meter. This week the weight loss was less but I figured that would happen. I lost almost 4 lbs. My LDL’s are very high and I was a little worried but my Triglycerides were great.

Week 3, 30 ml avocado oil. I thought I wouldn’t like the taste but it really wasn’t much different than the cream in flavor, just less creamy. I think the chocolate Keto Chow tastes like a melted Wendy’s frosty when it has cream in it and it tastes like a meadow gold fudge bar with the avocado oil, so still good. I still find myself not hungry between meals. This week my Ketones went up above 2.0 on my daily blood test with the MoJo meter. I started taking iron pills because Miriam’s iron was low so we tested mine also and it was low too. I’m not dizzy like her but we caught my iron before it got too low. We also realized why my cortisol was so high. I work out every morning and do a weight class before I go in for my blood work. I decided to still work out but not as heavy of weights this week. My cortisol went down. Yeah! Mystery solved. Still loving the Keto Chow but missing chewing my food. Not tired of any of the flavors. I’m down another 2.5 lbs.

Week 4, 30 ml heavy cream, 15 ml avocado oil. Yeah back to creamy. Mixing it up by mixing flavors together like, chocolate/strawberry and chocolate/banana. Still loving the flavors and got to try some of the new ones coming out. Can’t wait to buy them. My ketones are still between 1.9 and 2.6 most days Not hungry but I have to find things to entertain myself so I don’t think about snacks. Boredom eating, bad habit. I don’t miss them as much and am having fewer cravings for them. I find it a little harder to not get excited to chew food on Friday after the blood work and another Dexa scan. I lost 2 lbs this week. Nice and steady weight loss. In the 25 days of the experiment, I lost 15 lbs.

Results of the Experiment and Analysis

Here’s where the cool stuff will show up!