Carnivorism - The First Week

My breakfast today:
No, seriously.

I must admit, I expected going meat-only to be much more difficult than it has proved to be. My early pangs of wanting veggies and eggs passed quickly, and I have been happily filling up on meat for each meal, with some green tea to stave off the late-night munchies. (Context of green tea - I use one bag in my 1L+ pot, which tends to be refilled three times per evening. So the 'tea' is really just a bit of a taste to differentiate from plain water, which I drink during the day. Other than that one sad bag, it's just meat and water for me!)

There has only been one day during which I only ate one kind of animal, an event due only to my big sleep-in, and my limited choices at a restaurant. Every other day I've eaten from two, or usually three different species - four if you count my fish oil capsules :)

I have been eating considerably more calories than I usually do, and yet the scale reports otherwise...

Here's a day by day breakdown, with approximate figures via Spark People (same nutrition database used by FitDay, etc). I tend to over-estimate portions rather than under-estimate, but I do use a kitchen scale so meat is usually spot-on accurate. Then it's just down to fat/protein variation in the cut:

Day 1
Weight: 80.7kg (I weigh in every morning, so this is Weight Zero, start of week)

Calories: 2075
Fat: 127g
Protein: 232g

Day 2
Weight: 80.6kg

Calories: 2100
Fat: 171g
Protein: 134g

Day 3
Weight: 80.1kg

Calories: 1650
Fat: 131g
Protein: 110g

Day 4
Weight: 79.8k

Calories: 1783
Fat: 109g
Protein: 193g

Day 5
Weight: 79.7kg

Calories: 2816
Fat: 213g
Protein: 209g

Day 6
Weight: 79.9kg (taken late in the day, too cold to get up and weigh in at the usual time!)

Calories: 2300
Fat: 179g
Protein: 168g

Day 7
Weight: 79.7kg

Calories: 1629
Fat: 166g
Protein: 124g

Day 8
Weight: 79.4kg

Calories: 1400 (plus more from extra chicken skin, mmm!)
Fat: 108g (see above)
Protein: 147g


Tallied up, that makes the difference between my starting weight of 80.7kg and this morning's weight of 79.4kg a lovely 1.3kg loss! As I've said, my weight slipped down to 79.3kg over the holidays, a two week block of sleeping in all morning, eating small meals, and getting very little exercise, so some of that 'loss' may have simply been due to less food in my system, and maybe even a little muscle waste. I also tend to see that getting adequate sleep shows results via the scale, no matter how much I eat during my waking hours. So, given that the holidays are over, that I'm back at work ( and therefore considering a full seven hours of sleep quite good fortune), walking to and from work as well as walking, standing and lifting books/tubs all day, and eating plenty of food, it's safe to say that I most certainly have lost fat in this past week.

My 'ideal caloric intake for fat-burning zone,' so the Intarwebz tells me, is between 1450 - 1650kcal per day. As you can see, most days I was well over this figure. I have broken through the ceiling of this limit in the past, usually courtesy of nuts, and I can assure you that weight loss was NOT the result.

My percentage of calories from fat was 60% at a minimum, and - if memory serves - reached 75% on at least one occasion. This is right on target in my quest to align my intake with the advice of ZC experts. The only goal that seems to be inaccurately set at the moment is caloric intake - I will be shifting my target to around 2000kcal per day for the next week to see where that sends me, given it was my average over the past week. Note: I eat what I want, until I am satisfied, and log everything after dinner. So if I fall over or under my calorie target, I won't know it til I'm done eating for the day. This doesn't bother me at all - I'm not obsessing over this - but hopefully will not skew my results.

Measurements:

Too early to spot any real change, although I have lost perhaps 1/4" from my waist. Also, the cellulite on my thighs seems to have lessened significantly... I knew I should have measured them! But the whole area is much smoother, less obviously dimpled. This is very good news - I had all but given up on ever having legs that I felt okay with showing off, since my Mum is quite slim but still has dimpled thighs. Still a long way to go in that area - my thighs look like they're set to be the last place to slim down. Ah well, there are still four months until summer... :)

So, my plan is to continue this way of eating for at least a month. My body has obviously adapted to the carnivorous lifestyle comfortably - apart from the early variety cravings, I have had no physiological issues whatsoever, and preparing meals has not been a problem. Breakfast is usually prepared fresh, including leftovers for lunch if dinner had not already provided some. Today, in fact, I thought I had tinned tuna at work, but I didn't, yet I wasn't hungry until I had completed my obligations for the day. When I arrived home, I was still happy to postpone eating until the boy arrived and we could have our delicious dinner... Eating a big (if calorically small) breakfast probably helped, since today was a killer!

Next Thursday I'll complete another summary post - until then, I shall continue to log my daily eats. Deepest apologies if you are getting sick of photos of chops and drumsticks. So very sorry. I will try and find time to make the odd recipe, even if I don't get to taste my own creations. I wouldn't mind trying my hand at Tur-duc-ken... ;)