My Experience Doing the Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet
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My wife and I recently had our first baby and it was time for us to lose some weight.
The latest diet craze is the Ketogenic Diet, but it didn’t seem healthy to me … so I asked my business partner and cousin, Dr. John Fitzgerald about it.
Dr. John agreed that the standard ketogenic diet was not the healthiest diet, although it would help me lose weight. But he had a solution …
It’s called the Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet.
And this is a different type of ketogenic diet that allows for high micronutrient foods like fruits, vegetables, and superfoods.
My wife and I followed this diet for 4 weeks.
If you’re unfamiliar with this diet – it has you follow the standard ketogenic diet (pretty much all fats) for the first 2 weeks and then switches you to the daily cyclical ketogenic diet after that (which is 2 high fat meals and 1 high micronutrient meal).
Here is the schedule that ended up working best for my wife and I:
Monday – Thursday:
Breakfast: Drink a Superfood Keto Coffee
Lunch: Drink a 24oz Superfood Smoothie
Dinner: Eat a Keto-approved Healthy Dinner
Friday + Weekends:
Breakfast: Drink a Superfood Keto Coffee
Lunch/Dinner: It depends on what I’m doing, but in general 2 out of 3 of my meals are keto approved and then the 3rd is not. I’ll try to have my 3rd be something healthy, but if I want to go out to eat or have a few beers for the 3rd meal – I don’t worry about it.
The article below gives more details on the experience of these 4 weeks.
Prior to Starting this Diet
My wife and I decided to give the Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet a shot.
For those that don’t know this diet, the link above will walk you through it.
Or if you want the Cliff notes –
- First 2 Weeks: Follow Standard Ketogenic Diet. This means all meals should be high fat, low carb.
- Ongoing (after first 2 weeks): Follow Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet. This means 1 meal per day can be heavier on the carbs – ideally being a high micronutrient meal (e.g. full of fruits, vegetables, and superfoods)
Prior to starting this diet, my typical routine was:
- Breakfast: Black coffee
- Lunch: 24oz superfood smoothie
- Dinner: Beer, pizza, chicken wings, etc.
I would call myself as “fat adapted” before I started this. “Fat adapted” basically means that I could skip meals and not get “hangry”. My body would adjust to burning my internal fat if I skipped a meal.
You might look at my diet and say, “how were you fat adapted”? The answer is if you look closer, you’ll see that I was only eating food at lunch and dinner. So I was essentially used to doing short-term intermittent fasting from about 7pm til noon the next day; which means my body was used to going longer periods without food.
My wife’s pre-diet routine was generally:
- Breakfast: Oatmeal
- Lunch: 12oz superfood smoothie
- Snacks: Yogurt, fruit, nuts, etc.
- Dinner: Pizza, chicken wings, etc.
My wife was not fat adapted. She was used to eating a little bit all day long. If she skipped a meal, she would get very “hangry”.
First 2 Weeks: Standard Ketogenic Diet
The first 2 weeks, I followed the Standard Ketogenic Diet. Which means that all of my meals were high fat, low carb meals. I cut the beer entirely, but I did have some scotch every now and again!
In the following image, you can see in the right column where my calories were coming from.
OUR TYPICAL DAILY ROUTINE:
Breakfast: We would have a superfood keto coffee.
My Superfood Keto Coffee recipe is:
- 12-16oz Coffee
- 1 Tbsp Grass-fed Ghee
- 1 Tbsp Virgin Coconut Oil
- 1 Tbsp Heavy Whipping Cream (or half and half)
- 1 Tbsp of Ancient Delight Superfood Mix (link)
- 1 Tbsp of Ancient Chocolate Superfood Mix (link).
Because the superfood mixes have whole chia and flax seeds in them, I would put everything into my blender and blend for 1-2 minutes.
How we liked this: We both loved it. I think both of us felt the energy and cognitive improvements that are often talked about. If you haven’t tried this – try it. You’ll be surprised.
Lunch: We would have a low sugar, superfood smoothie.
Here is a link to the low sugar superfood smoothie recipes that I would make (link).
To make things easy, I would make both the superfood keto coffee and the superfood smoothies in the morning. My wife and I would just put the smoothies in a tumbler and stick them in the fridge to drink for lunch.
How we liked this: My wife like this a lot because she is not a big sweet tooth. For me – I love the really fruity or sugary smoothie recipes. So it took some time to adjust to a smoothie without the sugars.
Dinner: We Googled, “Healthy Keto Recipes”
This was pretty fun. Neither my wife or I normally cook, but this diet forced us to plan ahead with meals. We found some great recipes online that met the keto diet … and even found a pizza made with almond flour dough that we could have!
How we liked this: I personally miss having beer. 🙂 But I was happy with all the recipes we found. The biggest challenge is when friends ask to go out to eat.
FIRST 2 WEEKS SUMMARY:
- My wife got the keto flu (basically she got sick – as her body was not used to burning fat for energy and going without sugar). I did not experience this. I believe she got this and I did not because my body was already fat adapted and her’s was not.
- I lost 9 lbs and she lost 6. I was 190 at the beginning and 181 after 2 weeks. I won’t say my wife’s weight because I like being married. 🙂
- We both loved the superfood keto coffee for breakfast. We both felt more energized and full throughout the day.
- I personally would rather have a superfood smoothie of my choice for lunch – which will likely be one with fruit.
- We both felt very energized and healthy
- I was tired of this diet after the first 2 weeks and was super happy to be able to move on to the Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet plan. The Standard Ketogenic Diet is not something that I could personally follow long-term because I just can’t see myself eating high fat and low fruits/vegetables for every meal forever.
Next 2 Weeks: Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet
For the next 2 weeks, we followed the Daily Cyclical Ketogenic Diet.
This means we could eat 1 high micronutrient meal per day (which typically consists of fruits, vegetables, and superfoods), and then the other meals would be the standard ketogenic diet meals.
I FAILED THE FIRST WEEK:
My first week, I decided my 1 high micronutrient meal would be dinner.
The problem with doing this for dinner is that I would cheat big time. I kind of thought, “well, I just had carbs – so now I might as well have all this candy and beer too. And since I’m having carbs, lets go out and get pizza or burgers and fries”.
I’m just not responsible enough or disciplined enough to have my carb meal at night!
I SUCCEEDED THE SECOND WEEK:
I switched it up. I decided that my high micronutrient meal would be for lunch, not dinner. I am way more disciplined for my breakfast and lunch meals where I’m not going to start stuffing my face full of bad stuff for those meals.
Plus – doing my high micronutrient meal during lunch allowed me to have the superfood smoothie recipes that I like (which were more fruity).
HERE WAS OUR DAILY ROUTINE:
Breakfast: We would have a superfood keto coffee.
Same thing as we did the first 2 weeks. We love this.
Lunch: We would a superfood smoothie of our choice.
Finally! I get to drink the superfood smoothie recipes that I love! Ok, I’m also now more careful on not over-doing the sugar, but my main concern for this meal is to pack in as many micronutrients as possible. And I love doing that with a superfood smoothie for lunch.
Dinner: We Googled, “Healthy Keto Recipes”
Same as the first 2 weeks, where we would follow a keto approved dinner.
NEXT 2 WEEKS SUMMARY:
We loved it. This is the plan for us. I have never felt better than when I started doing this plan. For me personally, this is a diet that I will be able to follow long-term.
MY OVERALL RECOMMENDATION:
What works best for me is the following:
Monday – Thursday:
Breakfast: Drink a Superfood Keto Coffee
Lunch: Drink a 24oz Superfood Smoothie
Dinner: Eat a Keto-approved Healthy Dinner
Friday + Weekends:
Breakfast: Drink a Superfood Keto Coffee
Lunch/Dinner: It depends on what I’m doing, but in general 2 out of 3 of my meals are keto approved and then the 3rd is not. I’ll try to have my 3rd be something healthy, but if I want to go out to eat or have a few beers for the 3rd meal – I don’t worry about it.
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