Week 3
Challenge Update: we’re rolling!
Time in range
More carbs, less insulin, better glycemic index.
Things were better than last week!🚀 😁
Food: calories and macros
Below, the weekly summary from Cronometer.
I ate 2300 kcal on average, which makes it a calorie deficit overall.
I am still figuring out the optimal meal design to meet my energy requirements as I am not eating breakfast anymore. I estimate that 2800 kcal should eb my target, so I’ll work towards that.I did not log some extra fruit snacks, so the ‘Net Carbs’ are a bit lower than reality. I consumed around 370g a day, circa.
I am currently eating around 1.5g proteins per Kg of bodyweight. I could probably do with less, but I’ll just leave it at that for now.
Yes, I am not cheating, vegans eat proteins. 🤷♂️
Breaking it down. Some notes
Blood glucose and insulin sensitivity: now we’re talking!
This week marks a nice improvement in the time in range, back into the 80% zone.
The other remarkable improvement is insulin sensitivity: I found myself injecting an average of 18 units of bolus a day instead of my usual 30, the amount of carbs being the same (even higher, in fact!).
One funky consequence of this happened around day 5, when my insulin sensitivity spiked! The same bolus at dinner sent my glycemic index low and all throughout the night (I still slept decently, to my surprise).
I had to get some quick sugars as soon as I woke up to fix it. Interestingly, the spike that followed never exceeded the 200 mark that to me marks hyperglycaemia. Even more interesting: it decreased naturally, no intervention required on my end, during the morning hours, comfortably leading me to lunch time with a value of 96. You can see an ugly summary screenshot from my Dexcom app below.
Example of an emancipated body that doesn’t want Giovanni to inject artificial insulin.
He said: ‘Leave me alone, I can handle myself now that I am not as insulin resistant as I used to!’.
Leaving aside the overnight low, this was kind of amazing!
Intermittent fasting: makes me sleep🥱!
My only concern this week was with the quantity of calories. Sometimes I reached the late afternoon with too little calories in my body as compared to my caloric needs. I think this has to do mainly with the design of my meals: I am still used to the three meals a day framework, so not always my current two main servings are enough to even them out. I am not too concerned, I’ll put a bit of thought into it and it should be fine.
For no particular reason, I also shifter my dinners slightly earlier than usual (6.45-7pm instead of 7-7.30pm). I wasn't expecting anything, but this tiny change apparently served me well: I slept like a baby!
It’s not the quantity (I am still averaging seven 7.5-8 hours of sleep), as much as the quality of my sleep that has changed.
My slumber is much deeper and I feel much more restored and rested when I wake upI I can’t conclude with certainty that there is a direct relationship, but since that is the only factor that changed from last week, I will stick to this schedule for a while to gather more evidence and see if this is really a thing or just a placebo.
Exercise: strong Zone-2 cardio🫀!
Last week I said I would be exploring harder and longer Zone 2 cardio training in a fasted state. I did so with two 1 - 1.5 hours bike sessions, and two 40 minutes runs.
I had no problems with blood glucose, which stayed in range, nor with energy, which were up and allowed me to endure with a good level of performance.
Conclusions and next steps
To me, this week’s improvements are mostly explained by the quality of the food I ate food.
In the last month, processed stuff - although in small quantities - were still part of nearly every meal. This time around I trade them all for whole foods, the real core of my nutrition, with minimal exceptions. 99% of time I ate fruits, beans, chickpeas lentils and potatoes (always with starchy and non-starchy vegetables on the side of course!) instead of fatty salad dressing, sauces and the likes. More carbohydrates indeed…but better glycemic index and less insulin needed. Are you susprised?
For next week, I will keep on going and see if I can bring insulin sensitivity to the next level.
Let’s also see if I can decrease my Lantus.
I will also try to redesign my meals a little bit more to make sure that I am not running low on energy in the medium/longer term. “A man’s gotta eat!”
See you next Sunday!
Deep Dive
Carbohydrates are not the enemy…eat your fruits! Here’s another nice testimonial I have found.
