Well, one week in. Just to remind you all, I started the ketogenic diet at 15 stone, 10 pounds. My goal is 12 and a half stone, by mid-March 2015. This means a target weight-loss of 2lb per week.

Week One’s target weight therefore? 15 stone, 8 pounds. Waistline measurement only once a month, so not this week.

I step onto the scales…

15 stone 6 pounds! I have done it. I breathe a sigh of relief. Weight-loss of 4lbs in the first week is fairly good going. I lost about 6lbs in the first week of doing the Atkins, but that was about 5 years ago, and I had a job that kept me on my feet all day. Now my job is desk-based, therefore pretty sedentary.

In short I am pleased.

How have I found the first week?

Physically speaking, my body has very much made me aware that a big change has taken place. I didn’t test for ketones until Wednesday morning, so that was 3 full days of not eating carbs. The keto-strips came up a dark purple, so I was in deep ketosis.

I seemed to arrive at this fairly quickly. I expect that if I’d have tested on Tuesday, I would have actually been in ketosis by then. Most of the literature states between 2-3 days for the body to adapt from burning glucose to producing ketones, so my timescale sounds about right.

Side-effects? I’ve had recurrent headaches, but again, the literature on ketosis says this is only natural. They weren’t particularly pleasant, but certainly bearable. I actually felt as if I had more energy than before; most of the books say you might feel listless, tired and weak. I have always known that my body does not respond to carbs well, so the heavy, bloated feeling of starch is a blessed relief as soon as it leaves the body.

Apparently my mood has been a little grumpier than usual. Work has been quite stressful of late, so it is difficult to differentiate between the two, but I suspect my fractiousness could be put down to my body responding to the big change.

Ketones detectable on the breath? A little, but I drink peppermint teat throughout the day so nothing unpleasant.

One big thing that I did notice, was my body temperature. This was not something that I actually measured, but I felt like a furnace!! I was constantly warm (not in a sweaty kind of way) but just felt as if I was emitting a lot of heat. Anyone who got near enough to me attested to this fact also.

I was also incredibly thirsty. I have been drinking a lot of water, but this is something that one should do on any diet, as the more water you drink; the less you retain (which is good for obtaining a more accurate read from the scales).  This was in no way a bad thing; just noticeable.

All in all, the week went very well. It has not been overly difficult; just different. All other diets (low fat, GI &tc) have all left me feeling incredibly hungry. LCHF has not., which is a real boon. If anything, you want to eat less, not more. The food has been pretty tasty and varied, as my ‘recipes’ will show.

Highly motivated therefore to continue week two. As before, wish me luck and thank you for reading,

A.

Please note – as highlighted in the my first weekly weigh-in post, I hadn’t yet had the idea to write this blog when I started the diet. The first couple of ‘weekly reports’ are therefore retrospective, but as it was only two weeks ago, I more than remember how I felt! The results were naturally recorded aside from this blog, so no chance for variance there.

Enjoy the read, and with thanks, Adam.