Circling back to a ketogenic approach...

After 2.5 months of an Eat to Perform "PFFL" cut, I'm not thrilled with the results. As I said in my last post, the first month as strict Whole30 was good - it got my inflammation back in check, and I dropped a lot of water weight that I gained over the holidays from some dairy cheats. However, the following 6 weeks did not yield much more fat loss for me, despite eating at a 3500 cal/week deficit. I was really hoping to get back under 200 pounds, but never got below 203.5 (and that was only brief, since I bounced back up to 205). I was averaging around the following macros depending on whether it was a workout day: 

    PFFL HI: 2200 Cals - 233gC/160gP/70gF (42C/29P/29F)

    PFFL MED: 2000 Cals - 183gC/160gP/70gF (36C/32P/32F)

    PFFL LO: 1800 Cals - 133gC/160gP/70gF (30C/35P/25F)

As I wasn't seeing the progress that I experienced back in 2013 when I first went gluten/dairy free, and I've been steadily gaining weight since I started Eat to Perform in July 2014, I stated thinking about what was different. The obvious difference is that I've been eating a lot more carbs, and less fat. 

• Back in 2013-mid 2014, I was keeping my carbs under 100g/day (very little fruit) and 50%+ of calories as fat, and I was steadily losing fat. I also was not very hungry since all the fat was so satiating, so I ate even fewer calories (1500-1800/day). I'd gotten down to 183# in June 2014 without much effort or tracking or macros (although I did some tracking in February 2014 for reference).
• When I started Eat to Perform in July 2014 and through 2015, I was eating a lot of sugar and corn-based cereal to meet the very high carb goals that were suggested to meet my TDEE (sometimes 200-300 grams/day to match my 2500-2800+ calorie TDEE when I was in a "growth" phase), and I was steadily gaining fat (although my stamina had improved vastly). Here's a high cal day - sooo many carbs!
• In 2016, I cut out all the sugar and processed food, and only ate fruit in order to meet the carb macro goals, but I've lost very little despite eating at a caloric deficit (and my stamina SUCKS). Typical day of food. 

I'm coming to the conclusion that maybe some people's bodies can lose fat while eating lots of carbs, but it seems that my body's response to all those carbs (even fructose from "healthy" fruit) prevented me from releasing fat. So, I started looking into lower carb diets, and stumbled onto the ketogenic community. It is similar to Atkins in that it's VERY low carb, but they want you to track macros to ensure you aren't eating too much protein either, which can also be used by the body as fuel instead of fat (Atkins does not limit protein). They promote limiting carbs to only ~5% of your macros, or 25g (net carbs, so excluding fiber). There are a bunch of Facebook groups and web sites swearing by this method (I just loaded up my Facebook feed with Keto groups), and I found a log of great info on the KetoGains site, which says they strive to be more science-based than anecdotal. 

The KetoGains calculator suggested the following macros for me based on my TDEE. Although the carb limitation a bit more extreme than I did back in 2013, eating that few carbs is a sure way to kick your body into ketosis and switch to using fat as fuel instead of carbs/sugar. And after eating at the extremely low level for a while and losing a good amount of fat, you can experiment with adding more carbs to see where your limit is to still be losing (typically up to 100-125g, which is where I was in 2013).

So, although I had vowed to stick with the Eat to Perform program for a full year, I just don't think it's working for me. I'm going to start eating the Keto macros on Monday 4/4 and see how that treats me after a couple months (I am expecting good things!). I would start now, but I'll be having a girls' weekend New York City with my aunt and some cousins (it's the first time in the city for some!), so I'm going to have one last hurrah before cutting out the carbs (including some gf/df pancakes with my aunt's homemade maple syrup - YUM!). But I've got my MFP goals ready to go for Monday (you can get an add-on to count net carbs here).