DMC707

Well, i'll give my one week report. Was hoping it would be more widespread so we could pow wow on different foods are okay to eat because i'll get to that in a second


i took my first shot on 2/6 and went back today for a follow up ( 2/13) - i was down 8 pounds. But i knew this going in, my bathroom scale called it 7.5 though.

The folks at the clinic were a bit surprised and admitted that was very good as the medicine takes 2-3 weeks to kick in for a lot of people.

I looked at the tech's reaction when she weighed me. She wrote the number down , looked at last weeks number, did the math, then a double take, then asked me to step on the scale again to "re-verify"

Which to me was a much more genuine reaction than "Ohhh, youre doing sooooo good ! We're proud of you !" But i didnt tell them i was disappointed as i was looking for 10 (im crowding 300 and i have thrown 5 or 6 lbs on the scale in a day before and the first week or two is always water -- but then again, if youre carrying subcutaneous water and are a bit bloated, so much the better

My experiences are as follow:

• They warned me about alcohol, but didnt know about energy drinks- i confirmed that if you drink a whols 300mg caffeing energy drink, it wil hit like a sledgehammer later and result in a caffeine headache.
• I was warned about fatty foods and i was formerly used to a keto approach so this was a bummer- but they were talking about more things the general public looks at as "fatty foods" - like french fries, anything fried, processed or greasy to include the keto staple, bacon
• Thursday - Turns out strict keto food stuffs havent treated me too bad. Bacon is another story. And i have a supply of "dirty keto" bread, Sola brand that i've been munching on occasionally. By thursday i was afraid the first shot had worn off. I consumed a cup of homegrown chili at noon (no beans, lean ground beef, mild on the spice) and it was hard to finish. But 2 hours later i was hungry again so i made a cheese sandwich with the Sola bread and that hit me like a ton of bricks. The bread seemed to weigh me down for the rest of the day and was not a pleasant sensation. I put a teaspoon of baking soda with about 1/2 a cup of water and that helped. Later that night, still having the "Keto" mindset, i threw some bacon in the air fryer - Wright brand, which for bacon, is a pretty clean thick cut type bacon -- shoulda' known better since i was already recovering from heartburn earlier in the day -- couldnt sleep well due to heartburn. baking soda works well if its mild, but this was not. As i said, i really shouldv known
• Friday- only 3 days ago, but ive kinda' forgot friday -i should be writing this stuff down
• Saturday - i didnt learn my lesson on the keto bread so i made a "Pork on Pork crime sandwich at noon consisting of 2 slices of deli cheese, 2 slices of bacon, and pulled pork . I have to admit , that was tasty at the time. Im playing with hand grenades here with the bacon again, admittedly, but this time it had no ill effects. I know this sounds like a Gut-Bomb sandwich, and it is, but the small size of the sola bread, no condiments, no side dishes, kinda' keeps it from getting out of hand and this sandwich which im taking an educated guess was around 700 calories, held me over the whole day
• Sunday -- i had been looking forward to a ride for a few days and was waiting for it to warm up outside, noon came and went and still wasnt that hungry so im over 24 hours with no food (but not a true fast as i had 2 Michelob Ultras Saturday night) but i knew i could use a few calories for a ride, so i put 2 scoops of protein powder in with some almond milk and headed out the door. I was finidng that even with the protein drink, my concentration on the ride was not great and i had to back the pace off a bit on a downhilly mountain bike ride as i was misjudging distance between trees and other things i do when i am calorie retricted. Midway through the ride, my mouth was getting really dry and i drained a small water bottle in one setting. As i sat around in the truck afterwards goofing around with Strava , i started to feel heartburn again. cleaned up and turned the radio on to the Super Bowl while i did some things in the garage . Then i had to do something. Went to a local store and got some Gaviscon heartburn tablets for short term and a Prilosec . Knowing how few calries i had put down all day, i forced myself to eat an avocado with a bit of sea salt --- any heartburn symptoms were completely gone by midnight
• Today -- today was the aforementioned weigh-in i went in dry and fasted at 9:45 AM wearing the exact same clothes i wore last week and i felt ravenous, -- so upon my arrival from getting some positivity , i had a theory. A fatty food that is a "real" food , like the pulled pork, or the chili- didnt have much effect, but i got the biggest reactions after eating the highly worked-over foods (but not always) - keto bread weighed me down and gave me heartburn once, bacon amplified it, and the protein powder did something, -- so today, i decided to stick with the keto approach, - but no processed food. Broiled a ribeye , approx. 10-1 oz and ate 2/3's of it with a bit of Kerry Gold butter on top -- no other seasonings. Results -- its now 7 hours later and i still dont feel like eating again. Felt reasonably good all day

My takeaways?

Staff at the clinic told me it might take a while to work, but my dose seemed to start working pretty fast, and it was the minimum dose supposedly. It suppresses my apetite, because the food stays in your belly longer. and thats why they say to stay away from too much alcohol, you'll get double the pleasure and could wake up with a hangover.

You have to experiment to see what foods your body will tolerate when you're on this stuff . I was told the dry mouth on my ride could be one of two things - Keto flu, or blood sugar running low (arent those both the same thing? ) - i'm stil in the experimental stage but i'm going to toss whats left of the Sola bread to my mini-pigs , avoid highly seasoned foods and foods with smoke flavoring (although the chili seemed fine ) and avoid protein powders and the like.

So to recap, i ate a lot of foods i was warned not to eat, plus drank beer, which i was also warned not to - and energy drinks (but only 1/2 of one a day now) and still lost 8 pounds. Sounds sensational!

But the kicker is i have only been averaging 1.5 meals per day and have gone 24 hour stretches without eating on a couple of occasions. And even my foods that might look like i'm not taking this seriously from the outside , like my Pork-on-Pork crime sandwich ( with apologies to my mini-pigs) - because i control the ingredients, its pretty clean compared to anything i could get on the outside, unless it might be a hippie deli or something. I think i would be losing weight if i were following a diet this sparse anyway. I've heard from others they get similar sensations from bread too, so i will keep on with my keto-ish approach until it bucks me off i guess, and after careful consideration now. If my stomach is growling a bit later, i will likely have another avocado. But the appetite suppression effects of having the food sit in your stomach longer helps me stretch out the time between meals considerably, -- plus , now i can drink 2 watery Michelob Ultra's and say "enough" , and i just go to bed.