March 17, 2014

Ketosis

What I actually eat, part III (circa Q1 2014)

Craving vegetables.

Read Time 10 minutes

This week I had dinner at a great steakhouse in New York with a very good friend.  Like any two “normal” guys after a long day, all we could talk about was science, and on this particular night the topic du jour was NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease for the non-cognoscenti).  We ate, we drank, and we shook our heads in disbelief at the thought of 7 million children in the United States being afflicted with NAFLD.  In the next few years NAFLD will become the number one indication for liver transplantation (not a typo).

After dinner, my friend, who I dine with almost every time I’m in NYC, made a comment about how many vegetables and how much fruit I consumed.

I had the following: a chopped salad, tuna tartare, a 12 oz filet; and we split an order of sautéed onions, brussels sprouts, and a bowl of berries.

He asked, “How are you able to stay in ketosis with all of those carbs?” I responded, basically, that for the past few months I have not been consistently in ketosis, and when I am it’s only following a long bike ride where my BHB levels may get back into the 2-3 mM range. Most days, however, I live in the 0.3 to 0.8 mM range, depending on the time of day. (In my mind, to reap the benefits of nutritional ketosis, one probably needs to consistently be in the 1-3 mM range, and for some “applications” 3-4 mM is probably ideal.)

So what gives, you may be thinking. Is Peter Attia not Mr. Ketosis? Well, my friend suggested it might be time for another one of the dreaded what-do-I-eat posts.

Anyone who knows me or who has read this blog for a while will appreciate the fact that I loathe talking about what I eat. Why? Because, it unfortunately gets interpreted by many as what they should eat. It’s like asking me what exercises I do, and inferring you should do the same. It doesn’t make sense.  I have specific genetic factors, epigenetic alterations, and goals.  These factors coalesce to shape my behavior – how I exercise, what I eat, what I supplement.

A little backstory first

In September of last year, for my wife’s birthday, we went to our favorite restaurant in San Diego, where we live. The day before I emailed the owner and general manager, both friends, and asked for them to have one of our favorite off-menu items on hand (the best sushi in San Diego).  They happily obliged and asked which of their desserts my wife would most like.  I said something to the effect of: well, they are all great, so you pick.

The next evening, after eating more sushi and sashimi than I could imagine (I ate 3 platters myself), they brought out a platter with a full size serving of each of their signature SIX desserts, each with a lit candle.  We sang Happy Birthday, blew out the candles, and my daughter and wife, themselves already stuffed, proceeded to have a small forkful of each of the six desserts.  My daughter said, “Daddy, these are so yummy! Why don’t you have a bite?” To which my wife echoed, “Yea, they really are ridiculous…”

And in that instant, I made a decision. I did something I had not done in 4 years (to the month, actually). The decision was this: about 3 or 4 times a year (I opted for my wife’s and daughter’s birthdays, Thanksgiving, and maybe something else), I would – for one meal – eat whatever the hell I wanted.

In the next 15 minutes I devoured the remaining 4/5-ths of EACH of the six culinary masterpieces in front of me.  From cheesecake, to carrot cake, to decadent ice cream, and stuff I didn’t even recognize, I ate it.  In an instant I felt both wonderful and horrible.  The look on my wife’s and daughter’s faces – alone – was worth it. Their jaws on the table the whole time. The taste was beyond what I remembered (actually, much sweeter than I remembered, probably because when you don’t eat sugar for 4 years, well, you know).

I could barely get up from the table. That night, when we got home, I had a horrible headache. 1,000 mg of Tylenol and 2 glasses of water later, I still couldn’t sleep. I eventually got a few winks of sleep. The next day I felt hung over – a feeling I had not experienced since my 26th birthday. My fasting glucose was 126 mg/dL and BHB was 0.2 mM. Clearly I was out of ketosis.

I decided to go out for a glycogen-depleting workout (multiple sets of 3 min all out intervals on the bike) and about 36 hours later, after resuming my normal diet, I was right back into ketosis and felt just fine.  I told my wife I was going to repeat this experience on Thanksgiving. As such, and despite how far in advance this was, I asked her to plan to make an extra bowl of my favorite Thanksgiving dish – candied sweet potatoes – baked sweet potatoes coated in melted marshmallows.

Thanksgiving came and went, and I repeated the same act of debauchery during the big feast. Sure enough, by the Sunday morning of Thanksgiving weekend, I felt back to my baseline.  I haven’t gone on a bender like that since, but I’m probably due for one.

I’m sure at least some of you are asking, “Does Peter still think sugar is metabolically deranging?” The answer is absolutely, at the levels it is consumed by most Americans.  If you want a refresher on my point of view on sugar, definitely give this post a re-read.

So what did I take away from this?

Somewhere between “every day” and “never” there is a tolerance I have developed to consume massive amounts of carbohydrates, and specifically sugar.  Now, there are two components to this: a purely physiologic one and a behavioral one (which I suspect is heavily influenced by my physiology).

Focusing just on the physiology, I would guess I could probably “tolerate” a binge like that every few weeks with little measurable or discernable adverse effect.  I won’t even attempt to argue whether it’s every 7 days, every 14 days, or every 30 days.  But, it’s probably somewhere in that vicinity.

What about the behavioral side? Well, I suspect there exists a different “frequency distribution function” that describes how often I could binge like this without resuming unhealthy eating habits in the long run.  If I had to guess, I think the threshold for recidivism is higher from the behavioral tipping point than it is for the physiologic one. In other words, habits matter. I can probably tolerate – physiologically – more sugar today than I can tolerate behaviorally.

One last point I’d be remiss to leave out. You should keep in mind that for a period of 4 years, my consumption of sugar (sucrose, HFCS, liquid fructose in the form of any beverage, etc.) has been less than about 5 grams per day.  The average American, depending on which stats you believe (I think they are all pretty weak), consumes somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 to 120 grams per day of sugar, NOT including the liquid fructose in juice!

So, I have to at least entertain the hypothesis that 4 years of avoiding sugar has been a sufficient enough period of time to offer me some sort of “metabolic reset.” Now, I have no intention of testing this. If I was once susceptible to insulin resistance, I’m pretty sure I will always be. But, an interesting Gedankenexperiment would have me going back to one of several different dietary patterns – vegan, but with no sugar; standard American diet with lots of sugar; modestly higher carb, but still sugar-restricted – all could offer insights into the physiology of adiposity and fuel partitioning in my metabolically reset condition. 

How has this shaped my current eating behavior?

Sometime early in the New Year, I started really craving more vegetables. I’ve always loved them. Even in ketosis I still ate one or two salads each day most days, but I was pretty restrictive about the quantity of vegetables that had much carbohydrate in them (e.g., tomatoes, carrots).  But now, I wanted even more.  Big heaping bowls of curry stir-fry. (I have to toot my horn on this one thing. I make a really good, creamy, spicy curry stir-fry.) I realized this would probably knock me out of ketosis, especially with the large amount of tofu I mix with it and the yogurt I use to make the sauce.

My lunchtime salads were getting bigger and bigger, and I was piling more and more “stuff” into them. Almost laughable by the standards of those around me.

And I noticed I was eating less meat. Not at all by “design,” but somehow by seemingly craving less.  It seemed an average week would have maybe 2 servings of red meat.  When a great steak is placed in front of me, believe me, I enjoy every bite, but I found I just wanted it less. I also started craving a bit more fruit, especially berries and even apples, the former I consumed in modest amounts in ketosis, the latter I did not at all. (Because I know someone will ask – do I think red meat is harmful? – the answer is no, I do not believe so. Certainly not based on evidence I’ve seen to date, including the recent story about protein. For those looking to brush up on the state of evidence implicating red meat, I’d recommend three posts – one I wrote many moons ago in response to one of the dozen epidemiology stories, one written by Chris Masterjohn in response to the TMAO data, and one recently by Zoe Harcombe in response to the protein epidemiology).

I don’t know what to make of this, of course, and it may be nothing at all, other than an evolution of preference. I’ve checked mineral levels in my body in search of a clue (none showed up). Maybe I’m over- or under-saturated in some key nutrient?

Now, since everyone seems to care how much carbohydrate I consume, here is my current framework.  I put carbohydrates into 5 essentially MECE categories:

  1. Those I consume daily – mostly salad stuff and other vegetables; about twice a week I make a curry stir fry with tofu, for example.
  2. Those I consume often – nuts, berries, almond butter (which I just spoon out of the jar), super starch (both as a meal replacement and post-workout drink).
  3. Those I consume intermittently – a couple spoons of rice here and there, especially when I make Indian food or when we have sushi; a piece of baked potato when it looks particularly appetizing. If my daughter “makes” spaghetti, which she loves, I’ll usually have a forkful to remind her that her dad is not a complete freak.
  4. Those I consume only on very special occasions – exceptional desserts, for example – about 2 or 3 times a year, like the ones I consumed on my wife’s birthday, or the candied yams. (NB: One thing I decided in an instant – if I’m going on a bender, it’s not going to be for “average” dessert like some lame birthday cake; it’s got to be best in class.)
  5. Those I still completely refrain from – I call these the “cheap” carbs – basically all else (including cookies, potato chips, cereals, and the candy bars they keep handing me on this flight as I type this), including any liquid form of fructose, such as juice or sports drinks.

Below is a “typical” 5 days of eating over the past few months. Keep in mind, I virtually never consume breakfast, maybe once a month (e.g., if I have a breakfast meeting). Essentially, I do all of my exercise (current routine, below) in a fasted state only consuming the BioSteel’s high performance sports drink (HPSD), which contains virtually no calories – maybe 8 kcal of BCAA per serving.  So, despite the dietary changes I’ve made, and the fact that I’m not in ketosis most of the time, I remain seemingly well fat adapted, though RQ is a bit higher than before.

I should point out that I spend much less time exercising than I have historically, due to time constraints. But, I still aim for the following schedule, which is interrupted by travel during at least 2 or 3 weeks each month. The schedule below amounts to about 14 to 16 hours per week of training.

Monday – high intensity lift, followed by swim

Tuesday – ride (tempo)

Wednesday – swim

Thursday – ride (TT practice or threshold)

Friday – high intensity lift

Saturday – ride (VO2 max intervals), followed by swim

Sunday – group ride or solo TT practice

I can’t believe I’m about to do this…I just have this horrible feeling someone is going to attempt to replicate this, bite-for-bite, for no good reason. Please refrain. Remember, this is what I eat because of how my body works.

Wednesday

Lunch – huge salad (bowl larger than my head) with romaine lettuce, kale, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, mushrooms, chicken breast, 2 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp white vinegar, 1 cup of almond slivers

Snack – a cup of macadamia nuts

Dinner – Another large salad, but no chicken or nuts in this one; 1 pound of salmon; bowl of berries to follow

Thursday

Lunch – huge salad (bowl larger than my head) with romaine lettuce, kale, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, mushrooms, can of tuna, 2 tbsp olive oil, 3 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp white vinegar, 1 cup of walnuts

Snack – 2 or 3 tbsp of almond butter (a zero sugar variety)

Dinner – Omelet made from 6 eggs (white + yellow), shredded cheddar, lots of other veggies; side of steamed broccoli in butter; 2 more spoons of almond butter after dinner

Friday

Lunch – same as Wednesday (I basically rotate salad back and forth about 3:1 in favor of chicken over tuna)

Snack – none

Dinner – Curry stir-fry containing tofu, carrots, broccoli, bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and squash, in a sauce made from curry paste and Greek yogurt.  I typically consume two heaping plates of this.

Saturday (post ride and swim)

Lunch – 7 hardboiled eggs, an avocado, 2 oz of cheese

Snack – a Fuji apple covered in almond butter

Dinner – 8 oz of steak (fillet, rib-eye, or tri-tip), 8 oz of salmon, large salad (sans meat and nuts, which I only do with lunch salads).

Sunday (post longer ride)

Lunch – The “Peter Kaufman” super starch shake (heavy cream, zero-sugar almond milk, a package of chocolate super starch, 2 tbsp of almond butter, an extra 20 g of Biosteel whey protein, frozen strawberries, ice – blend to a thick shake); I’ll drink 2 liters of this. Literally.

Snack – none

Dinner – Family sushi night! I’ll have a seaweed salad or two, huge platter of sashimi, California roll, and another specialty roll.

Lastly, because I know someone will ask, the few times I now take to measure, record, and tabulate exactly what I consume, it works out to about 3,500 kcal per day.  But some days, especially when I travel, it can be as low as 2,000 kcal when I only consume one meal per day (dinner). Other days it can be as high as 5,000 kcal. But, 3,300 to 3,600 kcal per day is the typical range. 

So, there you have it – the most irrelevant information you’re likely to find on this blog (except for what’s below… this is actually valuable stuff!)

Fashion tip of the month

While in NYC I realized – about 15 minutes before leaving my hotel for a very important meeting – that I had forgotten to bring cufflinks. My heart sank. I’ve never made this mistake before. I immediately realized why.  While packing, and just about as I was going to grab a set, my phone rang and I was distracted.  But that was neither here nor there. What was I going to do?  I didn’t have time to buy a new set, and the hotel concierge didn’t have a set to lend me, so I grabbed some dental floss and tied the cuffs of my shirt together using precise surgical knots.  I was pretty self-conscious that someone would notice and ask or comment, especially on a day stacked with so many back-to-back important meetings. Amazingly, no one said anything, though I could see some people looking at them and doing the double-take. Over that lovely steak dinner I alluded to at the top of this post, I told this story to my friend (who snapped the picture, below).  His response?  “Yea, I noticed it right away. I thought it was a new style. Very cool, actually. Kind of European.” So there you have it.  Don’t say I never shared anything of value on this blog.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

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728 Comments

  1. Hi Peter
    With your BHB levels below 1 how has this affected your FTP?

    Despite trying twice to get to this range I’ve never been able to successfully get my BHB between 1-3. I can always tell when I’m in no mans land because intervals that should be easy 2×20 at 280 watts become impossible.

    I seem to exist happily at around 100g of carbs a day although I don’t get the endurance benefits that I had when eating no carbs, 3 hour rides on only water, my FTP is much better when eating some carbs, sweet potato, pasta, soup.

    I went full carb (at least for me) on a family ski trip last week and woke every morning with a headache. Not sure if it was from the carbs or the elevation in Big Sky.

    • My FTP is down 20 watts right now, but that’s for a reason unrelated to my diet. As far as I can tell, diet shift has not altered FTP.

  2. Thank you for this long and informative post, including fashion tip 😉 And no I promise I will not try to duplicate your eating style as I know the needs of my body differ. I subscribed to your blog after stumbling across your very moving TED.com talk and expect to learn a lot as I review your archives. And thanks for your work to promote real health in our society.

  3. “In my mind, to reap the benefits of nutritional ketosis, one probably needs to consistently be in the 1-3 mM range, and for some “applications” 3-4 mM is probably ideal”.

    By benefits in the 1-3mM range, are you referring just to the increased cognitive function experienced in NK? Or even steady improvements in body composition and biomarkers (specifically TG, HDL)? Trying to understand if the body comp/biomarker benefits might not be fully realized if one cruises in the 0.5-1 mM range.

    Also, could you share what some of these 3-4mM “applications” might be?

    Thanks, Peter.

    • @Naren

      “Trying to understand if the body comp/biomarker benefits might not be fully realized if one cruises in the 0.5-1 mM range.”

      Bingo. Most people won’t see serious body comp benefits until 2.0, if the low carb forums are to be believed. But YMMV. N=1. I live at 2.4 myself – but I did splurge & eat an apple at a party for the first time in 3 years. With brie. 😀

    • @greensleeves

      Thank you for sharing your thoughts. That is intriguing, I barely cross 1.5 mM ketones and often am in the 0.5-1.0 mM range. That is after 3 tbsp of MCT each day (2 in the morning, 1 in the evening). Then again, I only test once a week (in the morning, fasted) for cost reasons, so I’m not sure if the numbers are representative of what the situation is throughout the week.

      I am stalled at around 15% bf, want to get to 10%. M/32 y.o./170 lbs/6′ tall/4 days per wk of resistance training. As much as Peter would like to not put himself on display, at 8.5% bf, we all know he qualifies to have his business card say Shredded, M.D.

      Lately been trying to ensure I don’t have too big of a calorie deficit resulting in low T3, which I understand could stall fat loss.

      Would you be comfortable sharing your body comp. figures, and what they were prior to achieving 2mM+ ketones for a sustained period of time? I’m wondering if you had a fat loss “whoosh” after hitting 2mM.

      Understand it will all be N=1/MMV.

      Thanks!

  4. Hi, Peter,
    I’ve been reading and digesting (sorry, couldn’t resist) your blog for quite some time and really appreciate your thoroughness and expertise. (It’s also very cool that I became really interested in Gretchen Rubin’s work and then found out she was a board member of NUSI! You guys rock!) Can I ask how you test for ketosis (strip or blood test)? I ask because so many people seem to test with strips, yet Phinney and Volek seem to say that that the urine strips don’t measure BOHB, and that is the ketone more produced after keto-adaptation. Also, you seem to eat a lot of protein! Is this all being utilized by your body for repair due to your intense workout schedule or do you think you have gluconeogenesis going on there?

  5. Just wondering if you consider the time between your workouts and your lunches. Do you aim to “refuel” within a certain time frame? Thanks! And I won’t be eating quite like you; there’s no way I could choke down 7 hardboiled eggs in a sitting.

  6. Well yogurt (from whole milk) is one thing I know how to make, and I “sneak” it onto a low carb diet, so I would really appreciate the recipe for your yogurt curry stir-fry.

  7. Peter,

    Thanks for the update! It’s fascinating to see your evolution and understanding of diet. Also appreciated is your willingness to joke and make light of yourself.

    I myself have seen a similar pattern with my own process of ketosis, i.e. a gradual shift towards increasing quantities of vegetables, mostly fibrous, about the same amount of fat and a bit less meat.

    I had a thought the other day, remembering some information I gleamed from a book called “The Perfect Health Diet” by Jaminet and Jaminet. In the book the authors discuss the seemingly conserved mammalian trait, species-wide, of fatty acid/ketone metabolism. For instance, cows eat mostly grass (naturally) and the massive quantity of bacteria in their four stomachs churn out short- and medium-chain fatty acids from the cellulose and fiber in the grass they consume, making the net breakdown of their diet 60-70% fatty acid content. They systematically go on to show this in many other mammalian species. I don’t know how true all of that is, but still.

    My inquiry is…

    Might a changing gut bacterial milieu, over the long term, coupled with an increased metabolic flexibility associated with ketone adaptation, shift a persons diet preference to include more vegetables?

    Might this shift allow a person to stay in ketosis (1.5-3 mMol) while consuming larger quantities of vegetables? (A complex and multi-factorial question I know).

    I realize the study of gut biome is still in it’s infancy, but am wondering if you have and “hunches” about this in relation to your research or your own process?

    Thank you very much for all of your inspiring work,
    Joshua

    • I’d like to expand on this hypothesis.
      In light of the recently released research about artificial sweeteners changing the gut bacteria, I’m thinking of Dr. Attia’s comment that insulin resistance is a natural body reaction to something. If I’m not mistaken, aspartame and sucralose are both indigestible in the stomach and significantly sweeter than natural sugars. If the body has a natural, “STOP THE INSULIN ABSORPTION” reaction to gut bacteria being exposed to sweetness – whether as a result of a dose of natural sugars too big to be absorbed before getting to the large intestine or a dose of indigestible sweeteners – then perhaps the long term exposure to sweeteners is acting the same way chronic stress does on the body, both in terms of the chronic exposure and the hyper-sweetness turning the reaction up to 11.
      Stress is a perfectly healthy reaction and will give your body a boost to get away from a lion or some other short term threat, but chronically over the long term it damages the stomach, the brain, the arteries.
      What if insulin resistance is supposed to be a short term reaction to a big uptick in carbohydrate intake – as a result of a bumper crop or some other short lived situation that could arise as hunter-gatherers – and we are just suffering the consequences of experiencing it chronically?

  8. So you ride fasted for 3 hours plus?

    Do you still have super starch during long rides or just after in the shake? I have been adapting and adjusting with good success on my rides. Feeling better not having gels etc

    • I only bring along SS for rides over about 4 hours, which I’m not really doing these days. But, yes, 3 hours at any intensity is easy for me on a fast.

  9. Your birthday cake binge brought back with horrific vivid immediacy my break-my-diet binges from years and years ago, when after losing a huge amount of weight and trying with all my might to maintain it, I’d finally let loose – and – destroy myself. I actually didn’t get past that paragraph yet – I had to post this. These kinds of foods are as addicting as any drug. Happily – for me – I know I cannot eat them at all.

  10. Hi Peter. Great blog. I’m inspired by your story.
    Just wanted to find out how long after consuming carbs can I resume a high fat regimen?
    I wouldn’t want the insulin spike to cause increased fat storage.

  11. About the carb craving, I get that every fall. I suspect, based on various bits of evidence, that it’s the shorter days. The farther north you go, the more body fat people carry on average. The Canadian military found that soldiers gained an average of 40 pounds when posted in the Arctic (sorry, I don’t have the reference for that). I use a seasonal affective disorder light, and it really reduces the craving. It makes sense that we have this “instinct” to fatten up for winter, when food traditionally could get scarce.

    • I’ve had that same theory this winter. After loosing 20# last spring/summer, I’ve gained back about 10-15# eating the same LCHF foods (I’ve probably been cheating a bit more this winter 🙁 ).
      I spend hours each day sitting on a snowmobile grooming XC ski trails in the cold and snow, then spend hours skiing on them afterwards, so I spend a lot of time out in the elements. Maybe the added weight is just my body’s natural way of providing fuel and protection from cold.
      I’d like to know more about the Canadian test.

  12. “I don’t know what to make of this, of course, and it may be nothing at all, other than an evolution of preference. I’ve checked mineral levels in my body in search of a clue (none showed up). Maybe I’m over- or under-saturated in some key nutrient?”

    Maybe your gut microbiome is sending you some feedback on what they need to thrive. Have you done any testing in regards to this ?

  13. A few thoughts/questions on this post…

    1. It seems like what is a more sustainable way to use ketosis is as a periodic state. It may be necessary to be strict and follow a long period of adaption for those who have developed insulin resistance, but after that the body’s insulin may become more reactive and sensitive. After a period of adaptation, “cheating” is not quite as harmful because your body is not overwhelmed with what it is processing. It is still beneficial to periodically go into ketosis however because it helps with inflammation that may have built up while consuming a non-keto diet. Periodic ketosis makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint (seasonally available fruit, etc.).

    2. Regarding your current diet… You say you do not crave meat, but it also seems like you crave less saturated fat. I don’t see any bacon, ground beef, butter, lard, etc. I guess you get a decent amount from the coconut oil, but I wonder if you try to keep your saturated fat within any sort of threshold? Do you still use the fatty parts of chicken on your salads or are you using the lean white meat stuff? The tofu really just confuses me (i.e., you simply enjoy it, or you find a health benefit from it?). Furthermore, while all those vegetables have a lot of nutrients, what about all the nutrients stored in fat by grass-fed animals? I’m curious that you don’t seem to attribute much value to the source of the meat you do eat. I suppose I am mainly curious about what is absent that used to present in your diet. The lack of breakfast is also a wonder to me, since eating in the morning generally gets your metabolism moving for the rest of the day. I also see less salt since you are not in ketosis, I am curious if you think (generally speaking) limiting salt is a good idea when not in ketosis?

    3. Do you drink? Does drinking a small amount of alcohol knock you out of ketosis? Particularly if you drink something like red wine with food?

    Personally, I eat a lot more meat and cheese. I have also noticed that the longer I’m in ketosis, the easier it is to get back in after I cheat. Going overboard on a cheat also gives me the symptoms you mentioned. The worst one for me is the headaches and not sleeping well. That’s enough to get me back on the ketosis wagon for awhile.

    • 1. Perhaps
      2. I don’t know about craving, but I do consume less SFA. Seem more a consequence than a driver. I eat fatty meat and lean meat, alike.
      3. Maybe a glass of wine or two a week. Alcohol impacts different people in different ways with respect to ketosis. I’ve observed all “shapes and sizes” of responses.

  14. My diet has been evolving striking similar to yours since I started low-carbing 2 years ago. I crave fruit from time to time, and will occasionally have a bit of pineapple or melon. I love vegetables and tend to care less as time goes by whether they’re higher glycemic or not, I just load up as you do. I found that my weight has been very stable and I’ve been slowly putting on more muscle due to my workouts. My HbA1c is still good, improving since last year. I figure, if I can allow myself the monthly piece of rice sushi, and have a bite or two of local, fresh, in-season fruit, I can eat this way forever. Do you ever worry that over time you’ll begin to slowly, slowly slide back to how you were eating 5 years ago? I wonder that for myself sometimes.

  15. I think the important part here is that you are finding what works for you and that is so important.

    Do you supplement with BCAAs or EAAs beyond the Bio-Steel?

    What about bouillon? Do you still take extra bouillon before and/or during workouts? Or another form of salt?

  16. Thanks for the update on how you eat. I do learn from it (and not to copy you, LOL), primarily by giving my perspective and also that I need to be even more aware of what I eat. Carb creep is bad news for me. My body fat is still at 20% and my A1c is still at 5.8 and I hope to get the first one down to 16% and the second one down to 5.0 so cutting carbs down to 20 grams from 50 but also cutting protein down from 90 to 60 grams. I hope it’s going to work.

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