Good looks: The Keto Vitamin – Week 4

Starting week 4 of this Keto life style is a little surreal. I admit I get bored easily and by now I’m using so bored of the food on a diet. But Keto is so different. I can literally look at Google and put in what meat or fish I’m using that day. Add ‘Keto recipe’ and boom I’ve tonnes of suggestions. How can you ever get bored of a diet like that?

This week we’ve been making some changes to our Keto Lifestyle. I’m not sure they will make much difference to the diet or our results, but thought I’d document them all the same.

Intermittent Fasting?

So for this week we’ve implemented Intermittent Fasting into our lifestyle too. There’s lots of information on the web if you want to know more about it. We are following the 16-8 method. Which basically means we fast for 16 hours and eat all our meals/food/calories during the remaining 8. It actually was a lot easier to do for us as neither of us are big on breakfast. You can drink ANY non calorie drinks during the fasting time. So black tea/coffee, water and anything else you can find that is calorie free.

Although a 16 hour fast may seem harsh, part of those hours are sleeping ones. So you really don’t miss them. We consume food from midday to 8pm in the evening. Outside of those hours its mainly water with just coffee at breakfast which is black and sugar free.

I don’t think its made any difference to the weight loss this week (Which I’ll talk about later), so maybe it takes time to work. I do not know. Either way I’ll keep you posted.

Measurements?

I know many do the Keto ‘no scale’ lifestyle which I can honestly see why. It is exactly what it sounds like, your results are measurement based and not weight based. This diet I feel has so much to do with your changing body that after a time your weight loss will stall or become a bit, well shit. This is when a tape measure really comes in handy.

So this week for the first time in years I took my measurements. I wasn’t overly surprised by them to be fair. Mark also did his although I think it was just his waist/hips. So I’m not going to do those again probably for a couple of weeks if not more and shall update you on whether they change or by how much.

Macros?

For the first few weeks we obviously watched what we were eating on MyFitnessPal. We have NEVER gone over our calories. Our macros dictated different things for each of us obviously as Mark is bigger than me plus male. Here are our daily allowances;

Mine – Calories 1417,  Carbs 18g,  Fat 123g,  Protein 74g

Mark –  Calories 2486,  Carbs 31g,  Fat 207g,  Protein 124g

I weigh absolutely everything we have. In fact I’ve become like the Weight Police when it comes to food, especially what we can and can’t eat. However as long as we stuck under those numbers each day with regards to carbs, fat and protein I was fine (Neither of us ever hit over our calories). But I’ve since read that you really need to get the ratio right too. Maybe this is why the weight loss hasn’t been as great at times?

So now I am trying to get each day as balanced as I can so the macros fit the Carbs 5%, Fat 75% and Protein 20%. We NEVER go over our carbs but often will with protein (Some days as high as 28% on the macros). So this week I’m trying to be better. I won’t lie its really hard and when I do get a day right I make a big show of it LOL!

Before and After Photos?

I did my photos after the first week. I didn’t really think about them until that point so those are the earliest I had. Your body does change quick though with Keto and even after 10 days I could see a significant difference.

Mark isn’t the most happy person when it comes to a camera. Add to the fact I recommended just doing them in his boxers, it took a little while. But after all the weight he has lost already even he thought they might be good to look back on and has finally taken some.

I don’t know if I will ever post them on here or how long it will take me too. I’m more likely to post mine than Mark is. They are good references though to see how things have changed on the outside.

What Changes have you noticed this week?

Body wise, my bust is going! Now whenever I have dieted that’s the first part of me to shift and many of my bras are now gaping a bit in the cups. So I may have to downside cup size soon as I’m definitely not as ‘shapely’ as I was!

Jeans are also looser. I don’t just mean in the hips or waist now. Several pairs of skinny jeans now have baggy ‘ripples’ in the legs I’ve noticed. Which is annoying, or could be an excuse to buy a new pair soon! I ordered a size 18 body suit from Boohoo which generally I always went up to side 20 in tops with them due to my bust. Surprisingly it fit, if not snuggly. So another week or 2 and maybe I’ll be downsizing my tops too! I find they can be a bit small so was impressed. Some of my more fitted t-shirts are also a little baggier than they used to be.

Side effects?

I don’t think either of us have any now. I’m still a little constipated. In that I mean I don’t go very often now and when I do it can be a little, hard maybe? Hey you know I don’t hold back with this!

Mark is the completely opposite and has found he is a lot looser than he used to be. But not in an uncomfortable diarrhoea way I should add.

A strange thing happened this week where I went almost back to keto flu. I felt rough as crap. No energy, exhausted etc. After having a read about and watching some YouTube videos we worked out I wasn’t getting enough sodium. Apparently this can also effect your sleep too! Which would explain my terrible sleep patterns I have picked up. So for a day I drank ‘salty water’ which was vile. The next day I grabbed some SmartWater and Lucozade Sport Fit Water. I’ve found by monitoring my salt intake and having the Fit Water has helped not just with the tiredness and feeling rough (I feel so much better now) but also the sleep! Bare in mind the Fit Water from Lucozade does contain 4 Calories a bottle – so not suitable really during your fast if you are doing that.

Weight loss?

I’m sure for many who read this (And I know you do I can see in my analytics <waves>), this is the bit you skip too.

Mark lost just over 5.5lbs this week, which pleased him as he went over the 2 stone lost point in total! More importantly I want to add his BMI has dropped more than 2 points I believe (I’m sure he will correct me if I’ve got that bit wrong). So an amazing job in under a month I feel. Plus he feels great for it too. He also will have to swap belts soon as he is nearly on the last smallest hole!

My weight loss this week has been a bit over the place. I bloat at odd times of the month (Period and ovulation) so was have been feeling a bit bloated these past few days. But still managed to lose 1.1kg(2.5lbs), which takes my total to 7.2kgs(15.9lbs)since starting. So, I’ve done my first stone in under a month! My BMI has also dropped nearly 2 points too!

Anything else?

Lastly I just wanted to include a couple of pictures of things we’ve eaten this week. There has only been on new recipe which was the FatHead Pizza. This recipe is easily found on the web by searching for it, but here is the link for the one we made. It was so good! Believe me when I say this though I struggled with my second slice and only did 2 bites and ate the toppings instead! It is so filling! We topped ours with red onion, mushroom and red peppers. The toppings you can easily customise yourself and just add them through your macro tracking app which is what we did. Next time I’d like to try adding a little flax to the base (For texture).

I was surprised how quick it was to make this pizza. I guess because I always used to make up own dough for pizzas in my bread maker. Do not be put off by the steps though, in total including cooking I would guess about 40 minutes maybe less to make!

My other meal I am including this week is our Keto Cheese Burgers. They don’t look pretty. I’ve said before I’m far from an ‘Instagram Photographer’ with all the fancy crap. The cheese burger is a massive favourite with Mark and me and something I make once a week (At least). One change I make is instead of Paprika I use Smoked Paprika. This really does amp up the flavour!!

Also want to add if you do follow the recipe I have linked there. The recipe calls for Mayo not Sour Cream. We’ve found it actually tastes better with sour cream! Obviously this is a choice thing and you can easily change it. For those wondering what mayo we use when we do use, it’s Avocado Mayo from Hunter & Gather which we buy from Amazon. You can also get this in Waitrose/Ocado.

I am including another post next week to mark our 1 Month on Keto. I thought it would be good to summarise everything in our first month. I’ve also decided not to do the weekly posts after we hit the 2 month spot either. But I will find a way of giving a weekly post still.

These blog posts run roughly 2 weeks later, so I am actually 2 weeks ahead of them. If you want to be more up to date with my Keto Lifestyle, you can always follow my Instagram.

-Mel x