By the numbers

So, it's been about six months since I made some pretty radical changes to my diet. I made two major changes: one to my macronutrient profile, and the other to my eating schedule (Intermittent Fasting). Although these changes have been extremely positive to my performance and body composition, I figured I should get my blood tested, just to be safe. I do eat a lot of eggs, after all, flying in the face of years of conventional medical wisdom.

Some quick facts about me:

• 6'4"
• 175 pounds
• 10% bodyfat
• 32 years old
• Caucasian male
• Don't smoke, rarely drink
• Vegetarian for 27 years
  

MACRONUTRIENTS
I changed my macronutrient profile to a high-fat, high-protein and relatively low carb schema, that typically looks like this (daily):

• 2k - 2.5k calories
• Fat: 50%
• Carbs: 20%
• Protein: 30%

I try very hard to eat whole, natural foods and avoid prepackaged stuff. I eat a LOT of eggs (4-8 daily), drink a lot of milk & kefir, eat unholy amounts of nuts and nut butters, and make up the rest with vegetables, cheese, tofu, soy/wheat protein products (ie, tofurkey), and coffee. Sugar, grains and alcohol are extremely minimal. And yes, no meat.

I supplement with Fish oil, a multivitamin, glucosamine and ZMA. I've recently started exploring BCAA's as well, with encouraging results.

INTERMITTENT FASTING
I typically fast from 8pm-noon (16 hours), five days a week. I don't really count it as a fasting day if it's less than 16 hours, but I will occasionally go as long as 20-21 hours. Not often, though. I prefer working out fasted.

TRAINING
CrossFit ~5 days a week, plus climbing 2-3 days a week.

BLOOD TEST RESULTS
My results in bold, the figure in parentheses is the "normal" amount. According to Kaiser.

• Blood pressure: 129/79
  
• Glucose, fasting: 86 (60-99 mg/dL)
• Cholesterol: 135 (<239- mg/dL)
• Triglyceride: 41 (<199- mg/dL)
• HDL: 77 (>40- mg/dL)
• LDL: 50 (<129- mg/dL)
• ALT (Alanine Aminotransferase), serum: 18 (<36- U/L)
• Creatinine: 0.98 (<1.3- mg/dL)
• Glomerular Filtration Rate: >60 (>60- mL/min)
• Thyroid Stimulating Hormone: 2.6 ( 0.2-5.5 uIU/mL)

SHORT VERSION: ALL CLEAR
I don't know what all these things mean (what the hell is Alanine Aminotransferase?), but it all looks to be well within normal bounds, at any rate, which is good. The cholesterol numbers seem pretty fantastic, which was the point of this whole experiment - I celebrated with a plate of four scrambled eggs. I'll need to do some research into the other stuff to try and figure out what it means, but at the moment I don't see any red flags here. Full steam ahead!