UPDATE: July 24, 2022 – this page is now very much out of date as we’ve been extremely busy with the new papers and LMHR study underway now. However, I still get lots of requests to keep this up for handy indexing by others, so we’ll leave it here for now.
On this page I intend to keep a running list of all experiments I’ve completed or have planned.
All Data Points referenced below refer to individual blood draws I’ve had since the very first that included an NMR (all blood draws since have likewise included an NMR).
If a date has a (CC) addendum to it, it indicates tests were taken with a CardioChek.
Timeline
Data Point 1 [11/24/15] No experiment. However, there was a confounder in that I did intensive weight lifting the night before blood draw, leading to future theory regarding LDLp cell repair and TG usage (see Endurance Running Experiment).
Data Points 2, 3, 4 [11/24/15, 12/9/15, 12/22/15, 1/4/16] No experiment.
Data Point 5 [1/20/16] No experiment. But worth noting two key possible confounders due to international trip: (1) It was more challenging to track nutrition while in Asia and (2) total waking and eating time had been 14 hours longer due to half-day gain from flight returning to US.
Data Point 6 [1/25/16] Ate at higher calories & fat overall to test five day difference. Evidence supported Inversion Pattern.
Data Point 7 [1/26-2/5/16] Maintained a lower ratio of Saturated Fat (avg 27g) vs Mono & Polyunsaturated Fat (avg 115g combined) to observe difference for 11 days. Suggested no significant difference from swap.
Data Point 8 [2/19/16] Ate at generally higher levels of both calories and fat than data points previously to see if it would lower bad markers per Inversion Pattern. Evidence supported Inversion Pattern.
Data Points 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 [3/7-3/11/16, 3/14/16] Weeklong Reproduction Test – I ate to a specific diet plan and had my blood drawn daily for five weekdays and the Monday of the week following. This diet plan was designed to shift in total fat to induce changes in lipids to verify the Inversion Pattern.
- This experiment was key in exposing the differing pattern with LDL particles (LDL-P) in comparison to LDL cholesterol (LDL-C). As detailed here, LDL-P appears to likewise have a three day window, but with a two day gap.
Data Point 15 [4/8/16] Intentional Outlier Experiment – I ate a huge amount of fat (avg 349g/day) in order to induce the Inversion Pattern to see if would bring about the lowest LDL-C/-P score. It succeeded and was the lowest taken to that point while on LCHF.
Data Points 16, 17, 18 [4/12/16, 4/15/16, 4/19/16] Intended Divergence Experiment – I ate a ultra-high ratio of fat (95%) for the first three days, and a half-and-half ratio of fat to protein (52% to 45%, respectively) for three days; both in order to observe differences with the Inversion Pattern. The final blood draw was a washout period to see if pattern returned by the trailing Monday (four days later). The pattern appeared to substantiate more inverse correlation with dietary fat over protein.
Data Points 19, 20, 21, 22 [5/12/16, 5/27/16, 6/3/16, 6/9/16] Unintended Divergence – I observed an unusual outlier with Data Point 20 and this along with 19, 21, and 22 being slightly biased from the expected base (but still closer to the pattern), I considered a possible long term change. [Note: I now have more evidence as to why this might have been which will be coming in a future blog post…]
Data Points 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 [7/8/16, 7/11-7/15/16, 7/18/16] Identical Diet Experiment – My sister and I ate to an identical food plan and took blood draws at identical times. This was of enormous value given her lipid profile is half of mine (nearly half LDL-C and LDL-P). The Inversion Pattern was supported across both magnitudes with the exception of one outlier LDL-P marker in the last test.
Data Point 31 [8/1/16] No experiment.
Beginning of High Exercise Phase
Data Points 32 [9/19/16] First blood test following intensive training run.
Data Points 33, 34, 35, 36 [10/5/16, 10/7/16, 10/10/16, 10/12/16] Extreme Drop Experiment (also discussed here and here) – In the first presentation of my data I set up an experiment around it by starting at very low fat then shifting to extremely high fat to induce the Inversion Pattern. NOTE: I intentionally remained sedentary during this period to reduce confounders in this data set before resuming my training afterward.
Data Points 36, 37, 36b*, 37b* [10/12/16, 10/21/16] Immediately following the morning blood test from the Extreme Drop Experiment (above), I did an intensive work out, then took another blood draw two hours later (35b). I then repeated this for the 10/21/16 as well (37 and 37b, respectively). This data has not been fully analyzed and will be in an upcoming blog post.
Data Point 38 [10/24/16] No experiment.
Data Point 39, 40 [11/7/16, 11/14/16] Each blood draw taken on the Monday morning following races where the first day (Saturday) was a 10k and the second day (Sunday) was a half marathon.
Data Points 41, 42, 43 [11/21/16, 12/20/16, 1/4/17] No experiment.
Data Point 44 [1/9/17] Marathon Experiment – Blood drawn on the Monday following a 5k, 10k and full marathon.
Data Points 32, 36–44 [9/19/16-1/9/17] Impact of Endurance Running on Cholesterol – This experiment takes place over the 5 months of both training for and performing 5k, 10k, half and full marathons. Cholesterol appears to be consistently impacted by the exercise and energy depletion as it relates to the expected markers.
Beginning Low Exercise Phase,
Data Point 45 [1/26/17] No experiment.
Data Points 46, 47, 48, 49 [2/9/17, 2/11/17, 2/14/17, 2/16/17] Eggs and Cheese Only Experiment – Kept to specific quantity of eggs and cheese only for the first five days, then a lower total quantity for the second five days.
Data Point 50 [3/16/17] No experiment.
Data Point 51 [3/21/17] No experiment. (Possible lingering ailment/issue before this test**)
Data Point 52 [3/23/17] Fasting Experiment – Water fast with supplements for nutrition and electrolytes only.
Data Point 53 [3/27/17] Eggs Cheese and Whole Milk – Attempted to maintain similar composition as the Eggs and Cheese Only Experiment but with the sole addition of 1 cup whole milk with each meal.
Data Point 54 [4/7/17] Slice of Bread Experiment – One slice of bread per meal each day. Lots of testing with glucose throughout.
Data Points 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61 [4/12-4/14/17, 4/17/17, 4/21/17, 4/24/17, 4/26/17] Isocaloric Carb Swap Experiment – Eating meal replacement shake (Ketolent) for five days, then swapping out 500 calories of shake for 500 calories of whole wheat bread. After this resulted in breakthrough numbers, I then followed up with a reproduction.
Data Point 62, 63 [5/15-5/16/17] Accidental Soda Experiment. I had a Cherry Coke by mistake instead of a Cherry Coke Zero. Decided to test what my markers would be 24 hours afterward.
Data Point 64, 65 [6/26/17, 7/3/17] No experiment.
No Data Points [8/24-9/2/17(CC)] Energy Status Experiment – Eating meal replacement shake (Ketolent) for three days, day four swapped 500 calories from the shake for bread, day five swapped 1000 calories (total) for 1000 calories of bread, days six and seven swapped bread back out to go back to only shakes.
Data Point 66, 67, 68, 69 [1/28-2/15/2018(CC)] Sugar and Cholesterol Experiment – A combination of a baseline diet for the run-in period, and washout phases. Intervention was adding four packs of skittles (one eaten at each meal/snack). In phase 3 of the experiment the skittles were eaten directly following the meal, in phase 5 they were eaten directly prior to the meal.
Data Point 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75[4/09-5/19/2018(CC)] Weight Gain Experiment – Composed of a run-in diet with some carbs, followed by the intervention phase, an uncontrolled Standard American Diet. Immediately after followed a controlled Standard American Diet (pizza and foot long subs). Concluding with a controlled keto diet, and uncontrolled ketogenic diet after the final test. Lots of tracking cholesterol levels throughout.
Data Point 76, 77 [8/29-9/16/2018(CC)] Resistance Training Experiment – Controlled diet throughout with two intervention periods utilizing the Vibration Plate Power Plus to induce muscle soreness.
Data Point 78, 79, 80 [9/14-9/27/2018(CC)] Tandem Drop Experiment (Part 2) – Part 1 was completed by Siobhan. Starting from a baseline keto diet, experiment involved ramp-up, peak, and ramp-down of a high carb low fat diet composed of white bread and lean meat.
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