ex150 trial case study: 61 y/o female loses 8lbs in 30 days

Not a single cheat meal!

This is the seventh and final case study from the ex150trial. If you recall, I put out a post asking for volunteers to try the ex150 diet for 30 days. The first few have finished their trials, and this is one of them.

Previous case studies:
48 year old female loses 14.6lbs in 30 days
26 year old male loses 5-8lbs in 26 days, mostly water weight
38 y/o female loses 11lbs in 30 days eating 2,700kcal/day
37 y/o female loses 9lbs in 30 days
60 y/o male loses 13lbs in 30 days
64 y/o female loses 5.7lbs in 30 days, massively improves fasting glucose, down 3 belt holes

Subject:

Continuing with the theme of already relatively lean subjects, this one started out at 125lbs, for a BMI (at 5’3) of 22. That is exactly in the middle of the “normal” BMI range, which goes from 18.5-25. Still, while the subject had lost a bunch of weight on carnivore, she wanted to see if she could get a little further:

Suffered with eating disorders for most of my life…
mostly binge eating with a stint of bulimia in there for a few years.

Have been low carb for several years, mostly Dr. Berg style keto with lots of vegetables. Start weight a few years ago was 180. Got stuck at 20 pounds above goal (goal 115) so went full carnivore. Weight came off quickly but again, stalled and actually started to creep up, at 125. Stayed at 125 for about a year, thinking that was the best I could do. Carnivore did put an end to my desire to binge eat, along with the help of my doctor.

So I thought this would be a worthwhile challenge.

Her goal was to lose those final last 10lbs, from 125lbs down to 115lbs.

Experiment:

Subject liked to walk 2-4 miles most days, sometimes up to 6.

She did not cheat a single time. Maybe the trick is to start after July 4th is over:

The food remained exactly the same throughout the 30 days
so I won’t write it out each time. No additions/substitutions and no cheats.

And we can see it in the weight chart. Not a single blip or uptick in water weight:

Dear Lord, this is practically a burndown chart.

As per the usual, we see a big initial drop of water weight. After a 9 day plateau, weight loss continues slowly, but steadily, culminating in a total of 8lbs lost.

That’s not quite the goal of 10lbs she had set herself, but she’s now only 2lbs away from her goal weight. Congrats!

Her BMI was 20.7 at the end.

It’s particularly fascinating to me that she saw such weight loss after years of low-carb/keto, and even carnivore.

Subjective well-being:

Overall, the subject really enjoyed the cream for the most part.

Hungry, munchie…looking in the fridge every 10 minutes.
Continue to sip on cream during those episodes. Feels like a treat.

Fueled by ad lib cream, she was able to withstand even the finest temptations:

Busy, out all day, triggered by some good looking chocolates but no sign of weakness.
Ate very late…after 9pm. Didn’t finish the cream but feel fine.

Slept great, going to try eating later in the day every day.

“Didn’t finish the cream” is a great sign. Satiety is working, and she’s not undereating.

At one point, she was tempted to cheat and craved other foods. Yet a dose of cream cured her cravings:

The dreaded diet doldrums. I’m feeling fidgety and bored and I want to cheat today. I want to eat everything. Made a bowl of whipped cream with a tiny pinch of cocoa powder and vanilla. Partially froze some of it and ate the rest. Then ate the frozen one. Felt quite full and on the verge of ill. But it took away the urge to cheat. Ate my meal and sipped on a bit more cream …total cream for the day 1 quart.

This is a nice anecdote supporting my theory that specific cravings are often just a symptom of an energy deficit. Also, a quart of heavy cream is over 3,200kcal.

2 weeks in and today’s a breeze. Hoping my body and mind have gotten to that place where they just go on auto pilot and don’t give me a hard time. I was really craving my dinner tonight…even in the face of serving other foods to my family…I really looked forward to my ration of food.

Toward the end, she did get a little bored with the monotony of the diet:

5 more days. At the beginning I told myself, “I can do anything for 30 days”… now I’m having trouble convincing myself that I can do anything for 5 days…This is hard now, Ex. I feel like I need more food. More protein. I don’t feel quite as energetic. In the beginning a 6 mile walk was easy. Today I struggled a little and really felt wiped out after.

Still enjoying the cream and still look forward to my meal…
it just seems like it is inadequate all of a sudden.

Maybe she did need some more protein? It’s always a possibility. She did make the last 5 days, though, and didn’t deviate from the diet a single time.

Interesting quotes

Actually I feel like my middle is getting fuller…
how could that be possible? I’m pretty discouraged.

This is a weird one. Was she accumulating fat around her midsection?

I have a phone call today with my doctor. He’s all about carnivore. I want to ask him about the accumulation of fat around my middle. He will be happy to hear of my success..
He thinks I should weigh 115.

Ok I talked to him and he said the body senses the small amount of fat and wants to surround the organs with it for protection. He too advocates for weight training. He is happy with the loss and is interested to hear how I finish up. Me too!

Could be there’s something to her doctor’s theory. It would definitely be something to watch. My own experience and that of the last subject was a very pronounced loss of midsection. The previous subject even reported losing 3 belt holes off her midsection while not losing any scale weight. That’s just about the opposite of what we see here.

Let’s hope it is a temporary effect, and I recommend she keep an eye on it.

Wow 119. Haven’t been in the territory since I was in my 20’s.

Congratulations :) That’s awesome.

Today I have to bake for a church event and I’m feeling pretty confident that I won’t have any trouble tasting or sampling. Trying to only make large items that I can’t cut into, versus cookies that nobody would know if I had a few.

The day went well…I did not succumb to the temptation…I had my whipped cream as my sustainer. Dinner was yummy and the day was very motivating.

This is one of my favorite features of ex150. Despite being extremely monotonous, it somehow seems to completely eliminate cravings for many people. Is it the hyper-palatable meal every day? Is it the fact that there’s ad-lib energy available through the heavy cream? Something else? Maybe all of the above. But it’s just very liberating to never have cravings, never feel bad, and never have to fight temptation with willpower.

Going forward:

The subject says:

I’ve been eating plenty of protein, cut way back on the fat,
and have added a bit of starch. The weight hasn’t budged so that is encouraging!!
Not sure which way to go at this point…maybe just stick with what I am doing for now.

It’s great that she can have more variety on the diet, and adding more protein long-term makes a lot of sense.

The starch is interesting - a lot of people on r/saturatedfat report that they’re able to easily incorporate starch into their diets, and at least not gain any weight. Some even lose (more) weight. It seems that the subject is one of these lucky people :)

I wish her all the best and thanks again for the very detailed notes.

This was the last case study from the ex150 trial. I’ll be working on the complete report, which will hopefully come out soon. Stay tuned!