Zero Carb Challenge - Thoughts, Experience & Results

I just completed my first zero carb challenge and I've had lot of questions about my experience with it.  So this post is going to be all about the last week; how I felt and my thoughts on eating zero carbs.

If you are interested in what I ate during the last week, check out My Zero Carb Meal Plan.

What is zero carb?

Basically, it is what it sounds like.  For the last week, I tried to eat as close to zero carbs as possible.  This, of course, meant no vegetables, no sugar, no nuts, etc.  It is pretty much a carnivorous diet where you eat only from the animal planet.

Of course, there are some things like cheese, eggs and heavy whipping cream that are labelled as zero carbs, but they do have trace carbs in them.  Because of this, it's pretty impossible to eat zero carb, unless you strictly just eat meat.  This is not something I did, I gladly accepted cheese and heavy cream into my diet, at moderation.  I would say that I was definitely under 3g of carbs each day, when you add the trace carbs up, probably even less.

Why did I do this?

I felt like I've been starting to plateau in my weight loss.  I felt like I just couldn't get out of the 150's and there was even a week where I had a weight gain.

I needed to reset my diet and I need to get some craving out of my system.  I was definitely eating too many Lily's Chocolate Bars and Halo Top, as well other 'sweet' treats.

I may have also been sneaking bites of my husband's carb-loaded treats.

I knew that I needed to start to be more strict and what a better way to restrict myself then take all carbs out of my diet?

Note, I also eliminate artificial sweeteners during this week.  No flavored syrups in my coffee and no diet sodas.

My Experiences

Overall, I felt pretty good over the last week.  I felt like I had more focus while working and the days seemed to be going by fast.  I wasn't having those mid-afternoon shut downs, like I usually did before.

I also noticed that I was being to eat more intuitively.  I was able to do intermittent fasting for around 16 hours, the fast being broken by a fatty coffee around noon.  I would then have my lunch around 3:30 and finally dinner around 7-8.  I wasn't even snacking this week (with the exception of one day where I had a piece of cheese).  Some days I would even forget about eating because I wasn't hungry.

I kept my calorie goal the same (1,200) and I felt like it was very easy to meet this goal throughout
the week.  Some days I would even be 100 or more calories less and I wouldn't even be hungry for more.  There were only two days that I went over my goal; one days was over by 46 calories and the other over by 79 calories. 

Before this last week, I would only last until around 9 or 10 before having my coffee and I would snack at least twice throughout the day.  My calories would often go past 1,300.  The snacking was definitely my problem before and this zero carb week helped me to see that.

The only problem days were probably day 2 and day 7, and those were very slight problems.

For day 2, I started to get some headaches.  This was probably a slight 'keto flu' symptom.  I'm not somebody who often gets headaches, so even though they were only small, probably insignificant headaches, it was something I definitely noticed was new and due to my change in diet.  The headaches continued a bit into day 3, but were completely gone by day 4.

For day 7, I did start to get some leg cramping.  This would have definitely been due to the lack of electrolytes in my diet.  Even though I was eliminating artificial sweeteners during this week, I did end up drinking a Powerade Zero to get my electrolytes up, as well as taking a trace mineral supplement.  By the afternoon, I was feeling much better.

Another thing that I noticed was that I was thirsty all the time.  I usually don't drink enough water, however, since I was avoiding artificial sweeteners this week, water was all I had to drink.  I drank way more water than usual, but I still always woke up with a dry mouth and a need for water.

I will also make a note on constipation.  Having no fiber in your diet would definitely not help with your bathroom habits.  I must admit, I was a bit constipated during the week.  I didn't end up going to the bathroom until day 7.  I also have to put in a note, that even on my regular keto diet, I only go every few days and that's why I say this week I was only slightly constipated.

Results:

My starting weight on the morning of Day 1 was 152.8lbs and 27.3% body fat.

My weight the morning after Day 7 was 150.0 (ugh, so close to the 140's!) and 26.6% body fat.

During the month of May, I had been losing about 1 pound a week, except for one week where actually gained a pound.  So to see almost a 3 pound weight loss this week was a great result for me.  The body fat percentage is measured by my scale, so I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it's always great to see that number go down as well!

I'm also going to point out that this weight loss has put me at a BMI of 25, which is 1 point away from being in a 'healthy' weight range! I know BMI is the best way to meaure healthy weight, but right now I'm going to take it.  When I started my journey last year, I was in the 'obese' range so I'm happy that I've been able to bring that down to almost healthy.
 

Will I do this again?

Honestly, yes I would.

I think it was a great reset for my body and it was a great learning experience.  It was good to learn to that I can survive off three meals daily and I don't need to snack between meals.  Also, intermittent fasting was so much easier, and I want to continue doing that going forward.

Eating zero carb proved to me that it really isn't that hard to cut carbs out and I want to continue to have at least 2 of my 3 meals to be zero carbs, so I can continue to limit them as much as I can.

I honestly am excited to eat some vegetables though.  It's a strange thing to crave, but I can't wait to eat a salad soon!

I also want to cut down on the sweeteners, as I think that has lead to most of my cravings and has caused most of my calorie increases.

Overall, this was a good experience, which helped me to see where and how I can improve in my weight loss and ketogenic journey.