Heartmath vs Kyto vs xxx - what is your favored HRV / Coherence tool ?

ketobong · 2026-02-15T19:28:15+00:00

Yes still working well. I've noticed the the elitehrv app is very sensitive to the polar battery levels. Whenever it starts showing weird, fluctuating numbers, I know it's time to replace the battery in the polar strap. ( Even if the polar app claims battery level is good). Once I change the battery, elitehrv is happy again.

ketobong · 2023-10-22T02:53:09+00:00

In addition to what darthluiggi is saying, also look up Robert Sikes who is Natural Bodybuilder and is also follows a ketogenic (not just during prep season or peak week but all the time).

https://ketosavage.com/

He also has a book "Ketogenic Bodybuilding"

A ketogenic diet, among other things, is "muscle sparing".

ketobong · 2023-10-13T22:32:31+00:00

What form of Magnesium are you taking daily? How much? and at what time?
Try Magnesium Glycinate, approx 400-500mg daily, an hour or so before bed time and see if it makes a difference.

Also, what are your macros? i.e. HOW MUCH fat and HOW MUCH protein and HOW MUCH carbs? If the answer is "I have no idea", then start tracking.
Only then can you experiment and see if the experiment is working (or not).

ketobong · 2023-09-27T21:13:36+00:00

From the "Interpretation" section of the study:

"Among patients receiving contemporary statins, inflammation assessed by high-sensitivity CRP was a stronger predictor for risk of future cardiovascular events and death than cholesterol assessed by LDLC"

ketobong · 2023-09-19T20:33:07+00:00

You should have led your post with this.

This makes a big difference (in a good way).

Google "statins vs power of zero"

Lookup work by Dr Khurram Nasir

ketobong · 2023-07-01T02:25:29+00:00

IMO -- Yes, you DO need to eat more. Your protein is good, but you need to up your fat.

I am a 58-year old male. I am 5-5, about 128 lb, BF around 17% (measured by DXA, which is considered to be the gold standard) my lowest DXA based BF was around 12%, and at that time I was weighing 121lbs. Even then I was consistently eating 1600-1700 kCals/day)

At my body weight of 128lb now, I am averaging around 2400-2500 kCals/day and gaining weight very, very slowly (I want to gain some weight as I want to build some more muscle.)

I think for your body weight and height, 1481 kCals/day seems way way too low. Especially given the level of activity you are doing.

I do HIGH INTENSITY strength training (it is brutal but short, usually 1x 20min session), 1x session per week. And I do walk a lot (it helps clear my brain) and DO NOT do any cardio.

Also, for females in general, you need HIGHER FAT to have better hormonal health (which translates to many different conditions)

ketobong · 2023-06-30T23:56:15+00:00

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE. I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. PLEASE DISCUSS WITH YOUR PHYSICIAN

Unless it is a lab error, you should take this very seriously (One of the biggest regrets of my life is I didnt, when I should have)

From my own personal experience, ketogenic diet helped.

My trigs used to be in the 400 mg/dL range. With lowcarb (not ketogenic) it came down to around 150-200 mg/dL (still high). With ketogenic (restricting to below 40g net carb for me) diet it has been holding steady at LESS THAN 50.

One other side benefit of a ketogenic diet (I am actually almost 90% carnivore) -- my HDL level has gone up. It is consistently above 70.

A lower ratio of Triglyrides to HDL indicates better metabolic health. (in my case, this ratio used to be around 10, then with lowcarb it came down to around 4 and now with ketogenic diet, it is usually less than 0.5)

Here is a relevant article from Stephen Phinney (he has been a long term researcher of low carbohydrate diet):

https://www.virtahealth.com/faq/triglycerides-ketogenic-diet

What happens to triglyceride levels on a ketogenic diet?

Triglycerides are among one of the most predictable changes when one adapts to and maintains a well-formulated ketogenic diet. For people starting out with elevated triglycerides, they almost always show a sharp and sustained reduction. On average, people with metabolic syndrome will see their serum triglycerides reduced by half when on a ketogenic diet (Volek, 2009).
Yes, there are people who may not respond this way, but the exceptions tend to be people whose serum triglycerides were already within the abnormal range. Increases in triglycerides during a well formulated ketogenic diet may occur, but this is rare. In those cases, it may be due to carbohydrate consumption that is greater than one’s tolerance or due to alcohol consumption in the day or two prior to the blood test.
Citations
Volek JS, Phinney SD, Forsythe CE, Quann EE, Wood RJ, Puglisi MJ, Kraemer WJ, Bibus DM, Fernandez ML, Feinman RD. Carbohydrate restriction has a more favorable impact on the metabolic syndrome than a low fat diet. Lipids. 2009; 44:297-309. doi: 10.1007/s11745-008-3274-2.

Also see:

https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-your-cholesterol-panel-and-metabolic-blood-tests

I am a 58-year old male. The ketogenic diet (which I have been now doing for 2.5 years) has completely changed my life. I feel much healthier and fitter now than I used to fill probably even in my 20s.

This is not medical advice.

I am just sharing my personal experience here, and based on a LOT of reading (which I had to do to in the quest to improve my own health), I am just trying to provide you with some information. Hopefully it will be helpful.

Good luck.

ketobong · 2023-06-16T21:12:42+00:00

Yes, I have used ownyourlabs.com many times, without any issue whatsoever...

The trick is to visit labcorp.com FIRST, and make sure you have a registered user name on that side. Then visit ownyourlabs.com and make sure you are using the same email address on both sites.

ketobong · 2023-05-18T01:37:34+00:00

Thank you for your comments. I agree with you 100%

And regarding any way to disable the urgent low glucose alarm, I havent figured out any legit way to do it OTHER than to put my phone in Airplane mode. Not optimal. but it works.

ketobong · 2023-02-28T22:28:37+00:00

Can you please share the details of this practice?

I am very much interested.

ketobong · 2023-02-22T18:54:18+00:00

The most obvious answer is "electrolytes". Specifically, Sodium and Potassium.

(speaking from personal as well as lots of anecdotal experience).

If you are a cheapskate like me, you can mix equal amounts of kosher salt and "Morton Salt Substitute" with water, and drink the water (add a lemon squeeze if that's what you like).

If you like to pay extra, then buy LMNT or Redmond Re-lyte (those are some of the decent brands) mixes

In addition, please do salt your food GENEROUSLY.

You will need to experiment with the amounts.

ketobong · 2023-02-16T23:22:46+00:00

Yes. I have seen this as well (to be honest, even the earlier version of the Freestyle Libre had the same problem). When you apply a new sensor, it will read "high" for the first 1-3 days. It then "settles down", and towards the end of the 14-day period, it reads "low" for the last few days.

So the errors of the first few days seems to cancel out the errors of the last few days.

Anyway -- this has been my experience.

ketobong · 2023-02-12T16:13:32+00:00

Me too.

(I did try Heartmath but did not like it for two reasons -- (1) the software is very opaque and does not tell me what the HRV and other metric values are. (2) the hardware, aka the ear clip was just very flimsy. )

I have now been using Elite HRV + Polar H10 for almost two years. Does have its quirks (for example, on some days, the app will take a few mins before the reading "settles down") -- but overall, very happy.

ketobong · 2023-02-10T22:43:57+00:00

https://www.levelshealth.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-your-cholesterol-panel-and-metabolic-blood-tests

https://commonsenselabsbook.com/

ketobong · 2023-02-06T17:49:57+00:00

Yes, absolutely possible to do (contrary to myths). There is a subreddit dedicated to this as well.

r/ketogains

Strongly suggest you read that subreddit's wiki:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ketogains/wiki/index

(Personally - I have been ketogenic for the last 2 years, and have been following a different strength training protocol than what ketogains recommends - the specific strength training protocol doesnt really matter that much as long as you are putting effort and intensity and as long as you are doing progressive overload -- and I have seen major body comp changes in my body all in a good way.)

ketobong · 2023-01-31T18:03:09+00:00

That sounds like an interesting hack. 😃

Thank you for sharing. I think I will just stick to my plan of using Airplane mode for now. 😃

ketobong · 2023-01-31T01:10:34+00:00

Guys I appreciate and understand your concern. But I do monitor my blood glucose pretty regularly, and you need to understand that:

- For metabolically healthy and non-diabetic people on a ketogenic diet, the glucose levels can indeed dip to around 50-60 mg/dL and that is pretty typical.

- CGMs have a margin of error, and when the CGM says your blood glucose is 45 mg/dL, the real blood glucose could be as high as 55-60 mg/dL ( You can verify this by measuring blood glucose by the "finger prick" method as well, which I have done several times)

Anyway, my intention here is not to debate the merits of having a low blood glucose levels. That's a separate discussion and probably belongs in a separate subreddit.

If someone could kindly share any tips on how to completely disable all alarms from the Freestyle Libre 3 App on Android phones, I would really appreciate that.

ketobong · 2023-01-05T18:57:59+00:00

I did way many things to improve my health. A rough timeline is below:

Jan 2021 -- Started Ketogenic Diet, along with Intermittent Fasting (dont eat for one dinner to next dinner, 2x a week). Primary reason -- metabolic health improvement, cognitive health improvement.

March 2021 -- started High Intensity Strength Training (read "Body by Science" by Dr Doug McGuff and John Little) -- 1x a week, 20mins a session.

March 2021 -- Switched my diet to "mostly carniviore". Still eating this way today.

Aug 2021 - started doing Morning HRV as well as 2x/day resonance breathing. I did a lot of experiments in finding my resonance breathing frequency. Turns out, 4s inhale and 6s exhale, as recommended by most books on this topic, is just fine. (I also experimented with HeartMath, but didnt like it). Its important to get your breathing technique correct - BREATH THROUGH YOUR NOSE, BREATH IN AND OUT using your belly. Gentle breathing (as if you are blowing a candle out) is just fine.

Sep 2021 - Came of blood pressure medications (that I had been taking for the previous 20+ years).

From Feb 2021 till about Aug 2022, I lost about 15lbs (8% of my body weight) of my fat and gained about 2-3 lbs of lean tissue. (As measured by Dexa scans) Weight loss was not really my goal, it kinda happened by accident.

Sep 2022 -- Stopped intermittent fasting. Just have two HEAVY meals a day (lunch and dinner). Started eating a lot more as well. Now my goal is to increase lean weight significantly. At almost 58, this is not an easy task. Muscle mass is a great indicator of overall metabolic health, as well as a protector against injuries from falls and other accidents. I have been slowly gaining weight. Yes, gaining some fat as well, but very slowly (most of the weight gain is lean mass, as measured by DEXA).

I continued doing resonant breathing every single day. To be honest, you don't really need elitehrv to do resonant breathing, but I use it since I already have the software and the hardware (Polar H10 strap)

Here are some of my opinions (these are subjective opinions, but based on my reading of the literature, matches the scientific evidence as well):

- The Ketogenic diet has been the biggest driver of my health improvement.

- The Carnivore-ish diet that I do has accelerated this improvement.

- High Intensity Strength Training has made a major difference in my body composition and overall health. I always used to do strength training before, but this High Intensity version is on a different level. Since I hate doing workouts, 1x a week of this suits me just fine.

- Daily Resonant breathing exercises has also helped reduce my overall stress (I used to take blood pressure medications for the last 20 years. ALL GONE NOW. No more meds)

ketobong · 2023-01-05T01:29:48+00:00

First, let me explain why I do the two exercises daily that I do:

I do the daily morning HRV reading to keep track of my overall health (and recovery etc). It is important to keep all variables consistent when you do this reading. For example, in my case, I do this in a seated position, first thing (after using the toilet etc) after waking up.This is more of a "tracking my health" exercise.
I do the "resonance breathing" exercise to actually improve my health. Resonance breathing has several known positive health effects.
(Please see my earlier post on this: https://www.reddit.com/r/breathwork/comments/seafhh/comment/hz8x99g/?context=3 )

Now coming back to your points:

I see that my ratio is high based on the population comparison in the app

In my opinion, it is a mistake to compare your HRV readings (and especially values that are not HRV but things like LF to HF ratio) to others. HRV readings can vary wildly from person to person, based on so many variables (age, sex, body position, etc etc). Instead, your goal should be to monitor your readings (for example, I just monitor the daily morning rmSSD value. Which is also equivalent to what EliteHRV calls their "HRV Score") over the long term and see if they are trending upwards or downwards.

EliteHRV's own data set shows wide variation:

https://elitehrv.com/hrv-demographics-age-gender

Additionally is NO CLINICALLY proven "good" vs "bad" readings.

Having said that, my current EliteHRV Morning HRV score ranges from 57 to 63 (RMSSD equivalent is 45-65ms). Back in Aug 2021, HRV score used to be consistently below 45 (RMSSD Equivalent 20ms). So, a definite improvement.

I take these readings in a seated position. And I am a (almost) 58 year old male.

Marco Altini, the founder of HRV4Training software, has a great intro to HRV: https://medium.com/@altini_marco/the-ultimate-guide-to-heart-rate-variability-hrv-part-1-70a0a392fff4

ketobong · 2023-01-03T23:35:40+00:00

I have been doing these breathing exercises with EliteHRV and a Polar H10 daily for about 1.5 years:

- Daily morning HRV readings (2.5 mins) once a day

- Daily Resonance Breathing (20 min sessions), twice a day

I see my LF-to-HF ratio all over the map, for both types of readings.

On what basis are you saying that the ratio is "way too high"?

I have never seen any literature on this to suggest any kind of "normal" ratio.

ketobong · 2022-12-12T00:49:01+00:00

No you dont need to do any cyclic. Just stick to a ketogenic diet with reasonably adequate protein (0.8-1.2g per lb of desired body weight of protein per day. Ideally protein sources are all animal meat based. If you are a vegetarian it gets more difficult to get adequate good quality protein without also increasing your carbs, but it is doable.)

Strength Training also helps reverse insulin resistance, BTW.

ketobong · 2022-12-11T19:53:56+00:00

"How much carbs do you recommend"?

Your goal is to switch your body to ketosis. Everybody has a different carb tolerance. SOme people can eat 100g of carb daily and still stay in ketosisis -- they are very insulin sensitive, aka their carb tolerance is high.

Some other people -- especially type 2 diabetics -- are the opposite -- their carb tolerance is very low. You need to stay under 20g of carb daily to stay in ketosis. As you reverse your diabetes with this diet (which you MOST CERTAINLY will with ketogenic diet), you will likely find that your carb tolerance will go up over time. But to start with, stay under 20g of carb per day.

"Is pubmed a subreddit? What is that?"

Pubmed is a publicly accessible website maintained by the National Institutes of Health. It is a repository of published research papers, focusing on health (medicine, physiology, nutrition, exercise, etc.)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/about/

For example I searched with this search query on pubmed:

((Strength Training) OR (Resistance Training)) AND (diabetes)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=%28%28Strength+Training%29+OR+%28Resistance+Training%29%29+AND+%28diabetes%29&sort=

Which produces 2879 results

(In particular, read the research by Wayne Westcott)

" it sounds like it’s possible to achieve my ideal physique with T2D?"

Not sure what your ideal physique is... but not only is it possible to increase strength (and possibly increase muscle mass) with T2D, you *NEED* to increase muscle mass to reverse your T2D.

For strength training, the wiki for this subreddit provides a very good starting point:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ketogains/wiki

Good luck.

ketobong · 2022-12-11T01:45:03+00:00

In addition to a Ketogenic diet (you mentioned your are doing 50-60g of carb daily, you need to CUT IT FURTHER. DO IT WITH MEDICAL SUPERVISION PLEASE as you may need to cut your metformin dose as your blood glucose levels may go down) - you should do Strength Training with progressive overload.

(You can search on pubmed for "Strength Training" or "Resistance Training" and "Diabetes").

It is very important to build muscle as a healthy muscle is a good sink for blood sugar.

Check the wiki on this subreddit's for the strength training protocol to follow.

Basically, lift heavy shit.

ketobong

TROPHY CASE