2 Weeks of Eating Everything in Italy

Laith Renno
Aug 4, 2023
3 min read

After watching 4k virtual walking tours of Italy on YouTube for several years, my wife and I decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary by making it a reality. With the pandemic seeming to be winding down, the timing was right to make this trip of a lifetime.

For two weeks, we traveled across Italy via train and ferry. From Venice to the Amalfi coast the first week, on to Rome for the last week.

There was no way we could maintain our ketogenic Mediterranean diet and lifestyle while at the same time partaking in all the delicious Italian cuisine and treats. We paused the intermittent fasting to take in the carbs, enjoyed the sugar-laced gelatos, and sipped cappuccinos with traditional Italian pastries. We were liberal with the afternoon cocktails in the form of wine, Aperol spritzes, negronis, and limoncello spritzes, to name just a few.

The Experiment

Looking back, this served as an experiment to see just what would happen if we threw caution to the wind for two weeks and abandoned our structured ways of eating. Would we put on weight? Would our heart rates change significantly? Would these dietary changes assault our livers, increase insulin resistance, make us drag around, or cause rapid swings in our blood sugar levels?

Surprisingly, there was not much change in how we felt nor was there any significant weight gain. We continued to have plenty of energy, and quite a few of our numbers showed improvement. The most significant change we saw was in our sleeping heart rate dip, going from being in the low to mid-teens to consistently in the mid 20's.

Other Factors at Play

During our trip, there may have been factors that counteracted the effects of our carb and sugar-heavy food intake.

Movement

We walked daily, and actually had to in Venice as they did not allow bikes, scooters, or cars. For a few days, we walked 10 to 12 miles a day. Over the course of the entire trip, we walked over 100 miles including up and down many sets of stairs, some of them quite steep.

Salt Water

While in Amalfi, we swam in the beautiful blue Mediterranean, perhaps with the same benefits as an Epsom salt bath. The water was refreshing on the hot days and felt quite therapeutic on sore feet and muscles from the daily walking.

Here is some additional information about the health benefits of seawater. Electrolytes

With all of the walking in the Italian record-breaking summer heat, we drank a lot of water to stay hydrated, the side effect being the elimination of electrolytes. We consistently utilized LMNT salts to replenish electrolytes whenever possible. We also took time to rest and some of the most memorable moments were sitting in parks, enjoying local life happening in real time.

Sunshine Being out in the sunshine for many hours should have caused our bodies to generate plenty of vitamin D, along with the health benefits of early morning sunlight. Here is more information on the topic if you are interested.

Quality Food

Italian food ingredients generally do not contain pesticides, fillers, and processed seed oils as they do in the United States. Most of what we ate was non-GMO. The Italians care a great deal about their food, and they try to use the freshest ingredients. Eating clean natural food may have reduced our inflammation levels.

Results

Once we returned home to the U.S., we jumped on the scale and only saw a 3-5-pound increase which we expected as water weight from all of the carbs we had been eating. Over the next few days, our weight normalized quickly to pre-trip weight. Essentially, we did not gain any body fat weight at all.

In conclusion, two weeks of unlimited dietary intake did not shake the results of 2 years of foundational lifestyle changes. We attribute this to being metabolically healthy.

Based on our observations, we plan to make the following changes:

Get sunshine in the morning for at least 15 minutes, between 8 am to 9 am for the benefits of red light.
Try to get up and walk once an hour.
Take Epsom salt baths a couple of times a week.
Continue to take supplements for electrolytes.
Try to fit in a 30 min workout daily, on top of yoga every morning.