AndyJ's Body Enhancement Thread

PE day 667
keto day 172

[since November 2021]
weight: 291 (-56#)
blood pressure: 95-110 (145-175)

[since July 2021]
waist: 57 (-6”)
upper arms: 15” (-2.5”)
thighs: 27” (-5”)
blood sugar: 95-105 (no change)

The BP meds helped bring my blood pressure down to the 125-135 range. A few weeks ago BP started dropping steadily, until it was down into the 85/45 range last week. I’ve stopped taking the BP meds; the numbers are up into the 105/65 range while up, about 10 less laying down. Which is good, except the difference between systolic and diastolic is worrisome; last year the doc mentioned offhand that a difference of more than 50 could indicate problems. I’ll ask him about that.

The doc called today. He said my creatinine was 0.93 (good) in July 21, and the test two weeks ago showed 1.92, which is bad. Also, the C-reactive protein level was ‘elevated.’ He’s going to consult with a nephrologist about those and some other numbers.

He said his nurse will call me in a bit and let me know when to come in for another blood draw.

I still thinking the numbers are skewed because I had a kidney infection when he ran the last lab, but we’ll see.

Last week my blood pressure started dropping below 100/60, so I stopped taking the blood pressure med. BP had been trending down; more rapidly after the infection. It slowly climbed back up into the 120-ish range after a few days; this morning I restarted the med, just taking one pill today instead of the usual four. I’ll give him a printout of my log when I go in for the blood draw. Both the doc and the endocrinologist insisted my blood pressure would drop as I lost weight, and I dropped more than usual when I had the infection, which is why I’m not automatically assuming it’s related to the wonky blood work.

Body builders often supplement creatine. It’s one of the safer body building supplements. Meat contains a lot of creatine (and carnetine etc.). So when your diet is very meat based you’re likely to have higher creatine levels.

What are your sources of magnesium? CRP can indicate a lack of magnesium. People worry about CRP because it indicates a higher risk of cardio vascular disease. The keto diet is known to increase CRP (maybe due to lack of megnesium). Another thing that increases the risk of CVD is obesity, so if you are losing weight but your CRP levels are above reference range, it might be a wash on the risks and that’s if CRP is a factor rather than just a marker that might not be relevant for someone on keto.

Personally I supplement magnesium by adding it to my water (food grade epsom salts). 1kg should last about 5 years and cost under $10. Meat, is hung after slaughter, so you don’t get the magnesium (or salt) from blood that our ancestors would have.

I’m taking 250mg of magnesium oxide once a day. The doc was insistent on magnesium and potassium supplements when he had me on diuretics for blood pressure control. I was taking 500mg of magnesium oxide then. I discontinued the potassium supplement because it can be a problem with the blood pressure med he switched me to. Then I found out that magnesium and zinc shouldn’t be taken too close together, so I’ve moved to one 250mg of magnesium oxide late at night, when I remember. I’ve kind of let that slide lately, to be honest.

Looks like Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate. It’s a fraction of the price of the OTC magnesium supplement I’m using now. Thanks for the tip.

And thanks for that, too. I had wondered how keto can affect blood lab results. Now that I know what to look for I’ll do some poking around.

Here’s one of the podcasts I recommended before.

The ULTIMATE bloodwork podcast! – Fundamental Health with Paul Saladino, MD – Podcast – Podtail

The epsom salts I found via a snake juice recipe. I helped me get over cramping which hit me some time in to carnivore.

The doc called yesterday evening and went over the blood work again. I relayed what mem had said about the CREAT and CRP numbers with keto, and suggested I return to a SAD diet for two weeks before re-running the labs. So we’ll be doing that.

The urge to stuff my face with pizza, chicken biryani and ice cream will be hard to resist. I’m thinking I should continue to count carbs, just go for a number high enough to stay out of ketosis. 75g? 100g?

I use a 3/4-pound Gear Keeper, a neck strap, and a common bell-and-sleeve setup as an ADS. I use the same bell and sleeve as a hanger, either up and about with a weight down a pant leg, or on my back in bed with a cord and pulley arrangement.

Now that I’ve lost some weight, it looked like one of the wrap-around ADS harnesses with a base ring might be useable. I got the idea I could turn on my side when hanging SO with a light weight and duplicate the stretch of such an ADS, to get used to it before getting the new harness in. So I rolled over on my side and hooked up to the pulley and weight.

The new angle definitely stretched different things. Okay.

I’m using a 35mm bell because I have a small glans, and a 25mm sleeve because I have a large shaft. To keep them together with more than a pound of weight, I pull the sleeve high up on the bell before installing it. I have a TM “compression band” that came with one of their bells; it works well, but it’s difficult to get off, particularly if a bathroom break is urgent. Without the band, I just roll the sleeve off the bell.

So, no band, light weight… but the bell was being pulled at an odd angle, and it tilted inside the sleeve. I felt something sting shortly after. Yep, a little 3mm or so lump off to the right of the meatus, right where the vacuum port on the bell goes. Dammit. It wasn’t quite a blister yet, and 24 hours later it’s mostly gone, but I haven’t done any PE to aggravate it.

In its normal position, due to the shape of the bell and my glans, the vacuum port rides underneath the glans, below the meatus. I used to get those annoying bumps and sometimes blisters down there; after a while things toughened up. I will see if I can cut some pieces of an unused 20mm sleeve and use those as retainer bands. They’d be easier to get off than the TM band, which looks a whole lot like a piece of bicycle inner tube someone scissored off. I’m not complaining; it serves its purpose, it’s just awkward for me to remove.

EQ continues to be very good, with night and morning wood, and partial erections whenever I handle things, as when applying fresh Glop or going to the bathroom. I haven’t been doing anything different lately. I think it’s just my dick doing whatever the hell it wants, but it’s way more fun than the old “not interested, taking a nap” ED thing.

A doctor with experience of keto would probably be a better bet than changing your diet to fit the expectations of the SAD crew.

White rice is a good not super fast release carb. If all you are trying to do is increase carbs, I’d go for that. Easy to count as well.

If you haven’t got blood glucose issues (I can’t remember), fruit and honey are good. Fruit, rather than fruit juice, is better. You can easily overdo fruit juice. It’s easy to drink a glass of orange juice but a lot harder to eat 6 oranges. Beyond that fruit in it’s natural form will take a lot longer for the body to break down which is a positive thing. There are athletes that eat carnivore and add dextrose.

If you aren’t worried about potential poisons, then you could just add vegetables.

75-100g carbs is still considered low carb. I don’t know what would keep you out of ketosis 24/7, it depends on the speed of your metabolism. Whatever you do, try to avoid the processed carbs.

Still batting zero there. The diet change will hopefully be just a temporary thing.

I like rice. No problem there.

Everything’s fine there, for some reason.

10-4.

I managed 148g carbs yesterday. Carbing up isn’t going to be as easy as I thought. I have zero trust in FDA calorie counts, but I’m going to need to try to keep the calories down as much as possible so I don’t start gaining weight again. I can put up with two weeks stalled, but I don’t want to regain any.

The digital scale said 291.2 this morning, same as the last few days. I’ll be weighing every day while off keto, to try to catch a gain trend early if it happens.

Though my wife strenuously objected to the keto thing when I started, she’s now onboard with it, and had some suggestions after I explained what I was doing. The New Improved Plan is to mostly just add rice to the mostly-carnivore meals I was eating on keto - beef and rice, chicken or pork fried rice, etc. The Instant Pot thing I bought last year has a “rice cooker” mode, if I can figure it out. The instructions suck dead road kill; apparently it’s intended that you download their malware to a smartphone and program it that way. I’m not going to buy a fucking smartphone so I can operate a crock pot with upscale pretensions.

I hope it goes well and you see the expected change in your CRP.

It’s good to cycle out of ketogenesis now and again. Another effect of ketogenesis is often a higher fasted blood glucose level (it gradually rises as your body gets used to keto) but of course you then don’t see peaks and troughs during the day because all the sugar is being made by the body. Whether it’s a bad thing to have a higher blood glucose when on keto is another question but cycling out can reset it.

So…

Joint pain, odd stomach grumbles, gas, constipation, and generally feeling like crap. In other words, completely normal… before I want on keto.

Now counting the days before I go back to keto.

Interesting to see you cycling off. My dad is having to cycle off as well, his doctor was concerned that he got above 3.5 and deemed acidosis. So he’s on a light carb run. First thing dad noted was higher fasted glucose, up from 95-100 to 130-140, worried that he’d done something wrong. I suggested something simple like rice, in not entirely sure what he’s been eating honestly.

I do know, with him, he’s been down to 150 lbs from 400, twice in my life. Once before me. Each time is like he thinks, oh I’m all good now and somehow gets it all back. I’m hoping this is the last time. I don’t think he can handle it again. Especially with his heart issues.

I’m glad you’re still at it, Andy. Keep it going, you’re doing great!

> somehow gets it all back
—-
I can understand how that works. I’m fucking hungry all the time since I put the carbs back. I just now finished what should have been a more-than-sufficient lunch, and I’m fighting the urge to prowl the refrigerator for more. It’s a positive-feedback loop; the more carbs I eat, the hungrier I get. On keto, meals were more of a “yeah, time to eat something” thing.

> up from 95-100 to 130-140
—-
I’m lucky there; my glucose reading was 100 +/- 5 before and after keto.

114life,

I don’t think the higher fasted glucose on keto is problematic but there are loads of doctors who would disagree with me. The way I look at it, it’s the body creating this glucose via gluconeogenesis (it’s in the name) so it will create what it needs and a higher fasting glucose which is essentially the same when not fasted is vastly different from what doctors assume, which is a roller coaster of glucose through the day.

Acidosis is a different thing. If you look online you’ll see a bunch of bad things. The normal things that cause acidosis with a keto diet are considered to be too much protein, seed oils and dairy. Here’s a primer . People on the carnivore diet eat a lot of protein without issue (normally). Seed oils should always be avoided. They’re just poison. Dairy is an interesting one, it seems you can quite easily over consume dairy fats. It’s possible to eat a crappy keto diet (especially these days, with the number of prepackaged keto stuff available) but a clean keto diet with good electrolyte levels and drinking solely water shouldn’t cause acidosis. It’s once we dirty up the keto diet that we can run into problems.

If your dad has a problem cycling because he hits the inability to stop consuming carbs, try suggesting that he looks at what he’s consuming when keto and cycling much less if ever. Cycling could be an annual or biannual event, if it’s still needed.