{"id":769,"date":"2017-07-12T15:39:06","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T22:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/?p=769"},"modified":"2018-07-05T11:25:54","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T18:25:54","slug":"ketofest-cholesterol-experiment-updatesprogress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/ketofest-cholesterol-experiment-updatesprogress\/","title":{"rendered":"Ketofest Cholesterol Experiment &#8211; Updates\/Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>This post will be continually amended each day until this coming Monday, July 17th.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In the interest of transparency, I&#8217;ll be reporting my notes as the experiment progresses. The exception to this rule are any notes that might impact the outcome of the experiment, such as something I report that could influence the participants significantly.<\/p>\n<h2>Day 1<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7178.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-771\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7178.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7178.jpg 4032w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7178-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7178-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7178-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nAs of this morning, there are 46 who have signed up for the experiment. However, I expect a drop off as many have not checked the box for being present on the Monday following Ketofest. As this is a requirement for the experiment, I sent out emails requesting confirmation, but have gotten back little response thus far.<\/p>\n<p>There were 5 who had signed up who let me know they&#8217;d need to drop out.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, there are about 6-8 participants who are now engaged in the Facebook group we are using for active communication. Most have posted photo of their food and drink and are doing an excellent job.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve intend to likewise participate in the experiment, but want to note one possible confounder with the day. I&#8217;ve been a bit spread thin lately and haven&#8217;t been sleeping very well. I ended up napping for a total of three hours off and on in the afternoon. I then only slept three and a half hours in the evening. While I&#8217;m doubtful circadian rhythm will have a meaningful impact on my lipids, it is still worth noting.<\/p>\n<h2>Day 2<\/h2>\n<p>A couple more participants became active in the FB group. Current active participants were again sharing photos, myself included.<\/p>\n<p>My day was a bit tricky. But to set the context, I need to explain my own diet choice&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I had determined before starting Day 1 that I&#8217;d keep my diet simple by only having one keto shake portion and two hard boiled eggs for the first phase of the experiment. Then for the second phase I&#8217;d ramp it up to four or five times this amount (depending on what I could handle). I made this decision mainly out of efficiency of time as I won&#8217;t have to put much extra work in tracking my diet given the simplicity of this system, thus allowing me more bandwidth for the bigger responsibilities I have in the next several days (conducting the experiment, prepping the presentation, etc).<\/p>\n<p>Of course the downside is that I&#8217;ll be missing out on the fantastic food of Ketofest. And believe me, I&#8217;m not at all happy about that. But like so many other things in the last couple years, I&#8217;m choosing science first. (grumble, grumble)<\/p>\n<p>Which brings me back to the conundrum of Day 2. I&#8217;m only allowing to eat one meal in the morning before my series of planes, trains, and automobiles (no really, LAS&gt;PHL, PHL&gt;RI, Uber to Amtrack, Amtrack to NL). The obvious choice was the shake since I definitely won&#8217;t find 0 carb heavy cream on the layover in the airport. But perhaps I could find two hardboiled eggs. And indeed I did, just before my connecting flight. Whew! (To be sure, the eggs I found were small, so I got three and tossed half of one to make the correct 110g from the day before. Because accuracy.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7204.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-777\" title=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7204.jpg 4032w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7204-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7204-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7204-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>After Carl picked me up from the station, we got to check out his studio downtown where we will be staging for the blood draws.<\/p>\n<p>The building has a very mid-20th century feel to it that showed a little wear, yet lots of charm. Walking through the room, I starting taking stock of where we&#8217;d be set up and how the process would go.<\/p>\n<p>I couldn&#8217;t help but find his sign outside the door &#8220;RECORDING&#8221; a bit amusing. This Friday it will have a very different meaning. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n<h2>Day 3<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7228.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7228.jpg\" title=\"\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-792\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7228.jpg 4032w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7228-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7228-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7228-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nGeneral progress with participants was steady, nothing unusually new to report.<\/p>\n<p>Things were definitely getting busy for me to the point where I missed two of the electrolyte drinks in my usual diet plan day, but otherwise stayed steady with the shake and eggs.<\/p>\n<p>As an interesting aside, Evelyn (Carbsane) was in town and I offered to &#8220;reach across the isle&#8221; to grab lunch. We chatted about life, personal stories, and a little science. But of course, I could only have the shake and water at the restaurant.<\/p>\n<h2>Day 4<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7254-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7254-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3088\" height=\"2320\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-793\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7254-1.jpg 3088w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7254-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7254-1-768x577.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/img_7254-1-1024x769.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3088px) 100vw, 3088px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nI was extremely happy we got a total of 24 confirmed volunteers. As mentioned earlier, I knew it would be less than that 44 who signed up, I just didn&#8217;t know by how many.<\/p>\n<p>Things definitely got a bit frantic for me and I now realize I should&#8217;ve recruited one or more volunteers to help me with logistics. I was handling all volunteer entry, processing, waiver signing\/collection, and trying to fit in Q&amp;A where possible.<\/p>\n<p>To make matters worse, I had a creeping feeling of illness come over me that seemed very odd. I was getting shaky and oddly sensitive to cold, not sure if this was due to being low on blood sugar or what. In a gap between entries I went to get my blood drawn and the phlebotomist (who was a real veteran) had enormous trouble getting my blood flowing. She ultimately tried in three different sites on both arms, but to our surprise, it just wasn&#8217;t coming out. We agreed I&#8217;d drink more water as I appeared dehydrated before trying again.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, I got concerned enough about how I felt that I decided I&#8217;d just go ahead and eat, thus disqualifying myself from the experiment. The phlebotomist happened to have brought bananas, and ultimately I decided to have one in case this was indeed a low blood sugar issue. &#8220;This is the only banana I&#8217;ve eaten since staring keto.&#8221; I laughed.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually after having to make some more water and electrolytes, I felt a little better, or at least enough to finish out the experiment. I then took an Uber to GNC and bought some magnesium and potassium supplements, which I started downing of the next several hours with water spiked in pink salt. This had a very significant effect and I felt a lot better by the evening&#8217;s VIP party. I wasn&#8217;t yet 100%, but most of the way back.<\/p>\n<p>Moral of the story: ELECTROLYTES!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This post will be continually amended each day until this coming Monday, July 17th. In the interest of transparency, I&#8217;ll be reporting my notes as the experiment progresses. The exception to this rule are any notes that might impact the outcome of the experiment, such as something I report that could influence the participants significantly. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/ketofest-cholesterol-experiment-updatesprogress\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cholesterol","category-experiments","item-wrap"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9EmAp-cp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}