In part 1 of this series, I had discussed limiting your total carbs along with monitoring ketosis. In this post, I will elaborate and discuss more keto biometrics. I will brief you on the effective monitoring of your calories, glucose, glucose ketone index, and vitamin D levels.
Calories
On a day to day basis, I have various patients that have come into my office and say, “I am doing keto but not losing any weight.” It seems to be an ongoing trend! I think that people will lose the initial weight(5-10 pounds) by limiting net carbs (please see my first post on keto biometrics regarding this), but then it stops. I do wish that I could tell you that calories don’t matter, but they do. That being said, I also think that you should not limit your calories too much, or it can interfere with your hormones. It takes some fine-tuning, but you will get it.
Use cronometer to help monitor your calories
I highly recommend that you use a cronometer app for tracking your keto biometrics. You can get that here, just go to Cronometer.com and save 10% on gold subscriptions. When you first sign up, then it will ask you to input some data (which will include how much weight you want to lose per week). You can be conservative and say 0.5 to 1 lb per week or can be more aggressive and choose up to 2 lbs per week.
If you would like to learn how to manually figure out your caloric deficit then this is how you do it. First, start with figuring out your Total Daily Energy Expenditure ( TDEE). This is easy to figure out, I would just use a calculator on the internet. You can find a TDEE calculator here. After you have that number, then multiply by 25% to figure out how much of a calorie deficit you will need per day to lose weight.
For example, you have a woman named Violet, who is above a healthy weight, and her TDEE is around 2500 calories per day. To maintain her weight, she would have to eat this many calories per day. However, to figure out how many calories she should restrict to lose weight, we would take the 2500 calories and multiple it by 25%, which would equal 625 calories. So for her to lose weight, subtract 625 calories from 2500 ( her TDEE), and then that would equate to about 1875 per day. So she would have to eat 1875 calories per day to lose weight.
Does this calculation seem too hard? No, not really, but it is inconvenient trying to write down all your calories in a journal every single day! That is why Cronometer makes this so easy for you. Why should you go through that extra effort and math? All you do is just enter the foods that you consume, and it will add the calories/net carbs for you! As a holistic keto goddess, who has time to worry about adding/subtracting. Seriously, simplify your life!
Glucose and GKI
Now, let’s talk about the specific kind of blood testing you may want to do! In keto biometrics part 1, I discussed ketosis. Please click on this link to read this article. Aside from monitoring your ketones via blood with Ketomojo (purchase here ) or a Keyto Breath Sensor, you will also want to monitor your glucose. The reason for monitoring your blood sugar is that it is a specific measure of your insulin resistance. The lower your glucose, the less insulin resistance is, which is fantastic for weight loss and healing.
Use a glucose ketone index calculator to get an ideal picture of your ketosis
If you go to the Keto-Mojo website, they have a GKI (glucose ketone index) calculator, which you can use to give you an overall better view of your metabolic status and state of ketosis. You can use their chart on their website, and it will help guide you as to where you are in your ketosis. They have a calculator for figuring out your GKI. All you have to do is input your blood sugar and ketones. After this, it gives your value for the GKI. Here is the link for the calculator.
You should do blood glucose and ketone tests about 2 to 3 hours postprandial (after a meal), twice a day, if possible. Doing this twice a day allows you to recognize if and how your dietary intake is affecting your GKI2. Specific ways to lower your GKI would be to follow a ketogenic lifestyle and to intermittent fast. There are both methods to have fabulous keto biometrics!
Vitamin D levels
Lastly, I am going to mention monitoring your vitamin D levels! This nutrient just so happens to be one of the most common deficiencies! Low vitamin D levels are caused in part by a lack of sun exposure, either because of living in locations that do not have enough direct sunshine throughout the year or directly not exposing large surfaces of your skin to the sun on a regular basis3.
The importance of Vitamin D
Why is this nutrient essential? The answer is because low vitamin D can account for many illnesses. The vitamin D-sensitive diseases (low vitamin D levels) that account for more than half of global mortality rates are cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory infections, respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, and diabetes mellitus4. For women, low vitamin D has been directly linked to breast cancer. An anterior meta-analysis 13 showed that vitamin D intake exceeding 400IU/day was associated with an 8% reduction in breast cancer risk5.
Places for convenient and cheaper Vitamin D testing
Where do you get a Vitamin D test done? Overall, I have found that some insurances are hesitant to cover this. If you would like to get your vitamin D level checked at a reasonable price and from home, then I would recommend going to Walk in Lab. They will do testing for you at a very reasonable price!
Vitamin D dosing can differ from person to person
On the GrassrootsHealth website, they even have an ideal dosing regimen for vitamin D supplementation. It is effortless to use, all you do is input your Vitamin D level into a calculator to get the appropriate dose figured out! So convenient! According to Dr. Mercola, a vitamin D daily maintenance dose of 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 is usually adequate for healthy adults, pregnant or nursing moms. However, based on your current vitamin D3 levels and current vitamin D3 intake from multivitamins and other sources, you may need more vitamin D3 or less. However, if you currently test below the recommended range of 40 to 60 ng/ml, you may need a substantial dose of vitamin D3 to bring your numbers up into the optimal range quickly. In this situation, you would take 10,000 IU dose daily 7.
Always clear vitamin D with your healthcare provider before starting
Please always clear taking vitamin D with your health care provider before starting!
Overall, I feel as if these biometrics that I just discussed should help guide you on the right path to healing. In conclusion, when you stay within the optimal ranges of all of these measurements, then you will lower the inflammation in your body! Which will, in turn, make you feel fantastic!
Namaste!
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1,2 What is the GKI? And how do you calculate it?: KETO-MOJO. (n.d.). Retrieved February 8, 2020, from https://keto-mojo.com/glucose-ketone-index-gki/
3 MERCOLA, D. R. J. O. S. E. P. H. (2018). Fat For Fuel: a revolutionary diet to combat cancer, boost brainpower, and increase your … energy. Place of publication not identified: HAY House UK LTD.
4 Grant, W. B. (2011). Doubling global vitamin D levels can significantly reduce mortality. Eur J Clin. Retrieved from https://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/doubling-global-vitamin-d-levels-could-significantly-reduce-mortality
5 Song, D., Deng, Y., Liu, K., Zhou, L., Li, N., Zheng, Y., … Dai, Z. (2019). Vitamin D intake, blood vitamin D levels, and the risk of breast cancer: a dose-response meta-analysis of observational studies. Aging, 11(24), 12708–12732. DOI: 10.18632/aging.1025977 Mercola, J. (n.d.). Liposomal Vitamin D Supplement with 5,000 IUs of Vitamin D3. Retrieved February 9, 2020, from https://products.mercola.com/vitamin-d-supplement/
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