[UPDATE — 6/14/18 — I’ve added further data and some study comparisons below!]

Of all the metrics I’ve been wondering about following my Weight Gain Experiment, CIMT certainly ranks in the Top Three. I speculated several times that I wouldn’t be surprised if it had an impact. But how much?

The Jury is in:

Lots to unpack…

First thing’s first — I always knew and have stated several times publically that this last experiment could have short and long-term risks, which is why I’ve been very vocal that I don’t want anyone else to do it. That said, I was doubtful four weeks of SAD was going to do something dramatically bad — or at least, that whatever it did I could undo given time and discipline.

Obviously, I take comfort in having observed the downward trend I had from July ’16 to Nov ’17 in the hopes I’ll recover that drop again. But given just what we have to look at here, the precipitous drop took a year and a half. Could just four weeks of SAD and corresponding weight gain have brought it up so quickly?

One thing is for sure, this data should be very powerful for anyone who likes to “take a break” from their keto diet for the holidays.

For a breakdown of the exact numbers:

Six Months or Four Weeks?

It is true I’m inclined to assume it was the four weeks of the SAD diet that impacted my CIMT the most. Much of the reason for this assumption comes from the fact I had done a number of carb-swap and carb-addition experiments both in the May ’17-November ’17 cycle as well as the November ’17-May ’18 cycle. The one obvious difference between the two being the Weight Gain Experiment and my getting this CIMT right near the end of it.

Nevertheless, it would’ve been better to have gotten the CIMT right before the experiment started in April to confirm this. But to be sure, I didn’t imagine we’d see such a substantial impact! Science!

What Do The Studies Say?

I got a little curious about age-stratified CIMT scores and did some browsing around the interwebs. What follows below are some grabs along with my circling of the November ’17 score and the May ’18 score in contrast.

For reference, I’m Male, 45, and I like long walks on the beach. (Units converted below)

From here:

Or this study:

Or this one:

It seems no matter how you slice it, this was a move from clearly a low-risk category to clearly a high-risk category!

But here’s the kicker… as you can see from the chart above, I originally was in a high-risk category early on into keto, but I precipitously dropped into the low-risk category while following the diet. Richochet.

Can I drop it again as I go back into full keto? Only time will tell.