Should You Be Worried About Refeeding Syndrome
Some legitimate health complications can arise when you fast or are malnourished for longer than 5 days. One of these complications is called refeeding syndrome, which is caused by potentially fatal shifts in fluid and electrolyte balance that can happen when we eat after a period of undernourishment.
This happens because the concentration of fluids and minerals in our body relies heavily on what we eat. Low carbohydrate diets, like the ketogenic diet, increase the excretion of vital minerals like sodium and potassium.
If you add a prolonged fast onto the ketogenic diet, you can lose an unhealthy amount of these essential minerals.
Fasts that are shorter than 5 days, however, arent likely to cause issues especially if you break your fast with a low carbohydrate meal that is filled with mineral rich foods. A meal with dark leafy greens, avocado, and salmon with some unrefined salt would be an ideal way to break a longer fast.
During a shorter fast that lasts less than 24 hours, however, you wont have to worry about refeeding syndrome at all. Either way, it may be best to check out the mineral supplements that we recommend in this article to ensure proper mineral balance.
But what about muscle? Its only common sense that consuming no protein and less calories will lead to an unhealthy amount of muscle loss. Thats right it is only common sense.
How Long Should I Do Intermittent Fasting Keto
If you are looking to achieve a target weight then limited duration keto and intermittent fasting can do the work for you.
90 days keto and 16:8 intermittent fasting is a great way to achieve your target weight.
I would personally suggest you follow this diet as a lifestyle, I have been following this diet pattern for 2 years now, and I feel better than ever before. I am in no mood to get back to my previous unhealthy diet routine.
Intermittent Fasting And Ketosis Schedule
After looking at the intermittent fasting stages breakdown, you have a general idea of how long it will take you to achieve ketosis without the keto diet. However, I want to give you a few more pointers that will help you come up with hour own intermittent fasting schedule suited for ketosis.
First of all, if you have never been in ketosis before, it may take longer. You may choose to go on the keto diet for 7 days to speed things up. If so, I have a 7-Day Intermittent Fasting Keto Meal Plan that will help you do just that. If you use the meal plan, you will notice that I dont recommend you skip lunch when you are on the keto diet. Thats because the keto diet mimics fasting so you dont need to fast as long. Another thing I want to mention is that if you choose to try the keto diet to become fat-adapted, plan to feel unwell for a few days. I did it myself and even though I was already in ketosis most days through intermittent fasting , I still had the keto flu.
Fasting in definitely a more gentle way to achieve ketosis, but it will take longer.
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Keto Vs Intermittent Fasting
The keto diet and intermittent fasting are both effective in weight loss, and other health benefits but they affect the body in a different way.
The keto diet is a high-protein, low-carbohydrate, and fat-rich diet that can be too restrictive for some people. Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that involves alternating periods of not eating with periods of regular food consumption.
Intermittent fasting can be done anywhere from 12 hours to 48 hours and more, which lets you have food every other day or every two days.
The keto diet is more popular for its quick weight loss effects and its ability to maintain energy levels while intermittent fasting provides different long-term health benefits such as lowering cholesterol levels.
In this article we will discuss the difference and similarities between the keto diet and intermittent fasting. And try to find out which is the best option for you.
Is It Safe To Combine Keto And Intermittent Fasting
Before making any significant changes to your lifestyle or diet, it’s always beneficial to consult with your health care team, registered dietitian, or nutritionist.
If you have allergies or gastrointestinal issues, keto and intermittent fasting might not be the most effective method to balance your diet or lose weight.
While there is no conclusive evidence around whether keto and intermittent fasting combined are unsafe, it’s always better to err on the side of caution when building a new schedule for eating.
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How Long Does It Take To Go Into Ketosis When Fasting
In case you are on a ketogenic diet, you already are in ketosis when fasting and burn fat for energy efficiently. On the other hand, if you follow a standard American diet , you will not get into ketosis in 16 hours since carbohydrate stores are full. In this case, you would need to go cold turkey with a prolonged fast to have a chance to enter ketosis
The Bottom Line On Combining The Keto Diet With Intermittent Fasting
The keto diet is a restrictive high-fat diet, and intermittent fasting restricts the number of hours you will be eating. There is a lack of research on each diet alone, along with this combined plan, so its unclear exactly what youre getting into if you try them individually or together.
If you decide to give the diets a go, know that they are extremely restrictive, so it may be difficult to stick with the low carb count and confined eating window.
Before deciding to follow keto and IF together, be sure to consult your healthcare team. Your provider can help you determine whether this combined diet plan is a good fit for you, and then they can help you adjust any meds youre on to help increase your chances for success in the safest way possible.
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Try The Most Extreme Method
If you want to try the most extreme intermittent fasting method whilst on the keto diet, you can do so. This is known as 23/1 intermittent fasting keto, or otherwise OMAD. This involves eating one meal a day. This allows you to reap the benefits for 23 hours of the day. The remaining one hour is when you eat. As you are also on the keto diet here, you should make the meals keto appropriate. So, a large high fat and high protein meal would be ideal. This could include low-starch vegetables and lean meats topped with seeds, high fat sauces and dairy. A small amount of carbs is key to ensure you do eat some carbs. This can be found in fruit, nut butters and sauces.
The number one benefit of the OMAD fast is resilience. Studies show that the long fasting period of 23 hours stresses your cells into being stronger. This is known as hormesis. It will maximise all benefits of the keto intermittent fasting diet. Such as maximised reduction in heart disease, anti-aging, increased weight loss and metabolism. The results are incredible. Yet, this method should be done with caution and the right knowledge.
Try these top tips for yourself and see the benefits maximise. Be sure to stick to keto based meals during eating hours to successfully achieve this diet.
Some may be wondering if intermittent fasting can work without keto. Here is more:
Unlike Many Other Diets Intermittent Fasting Deals Not With What You Eat But Rather When You Eat
This dietary convention is all about timing rather than eating certain varieties of food. When you choose to partake in intermittent fasting, you are eating within a certain window of time. By forcing the body to stay in a fasted state for a longer period of time, the body will turn to fat stores to use for energy .
The body stores way more fat than carbohydrates, and will eventually learn to tap into those fat stores for energy. Simply choosing to eat in certain windows of time can have a positive long term effect on your body composition and overall health.22 Your body fat can decrease as well.
There are different variations of intermittent fasting, so it is not a one size fits all type of practice.
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Can You Have Cheat Days On Intermittent Fasting With Keto
If your key goal is to lose weight, a cheat day on this diet will not inhibit progress. According to research, it suggests that you should stick to keto friendly foods to prevent blood sugar spikes and reversing ketosis.
So long as your chosen intermittent fasting method allows a day of food, then it is fine.
# Best Food To Break Intermittent Fast
There is a list of healthy food that can be consumed to break your fast. A keto meal is a perfect way to end the fast, high-fat foods keep the blood sugar levels in control.
Even if you are not on a ketogenic diet, you can look to end your fast with an ounce of nuts or ketogenic protein supplements.
Ketogenic supplements contain the best ratio of protein and essential fat that curbs hunger easily.
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Starting A Keto And Intermittent Fasting Hybrid Diet
Although starting a hybrid type of diet sounds complicated, it can be simplified very easily. Heres a look at what a single day might look like if youre on keto and intermittent fasting. Follow these steps for an example keto meal plan that could be employed while intermittent fasting.
6:00am: Wake up, drink water and/or black coffee.
9:00am: Drink another cup of coffee if youre feeling especially hungry or low on energy.
12:00pm: Begin eating window with eight ounces of chicken breast and a salad with olive oil dressing and feta cheese. Other lunch additions include hard boiled eggs, salmon, and avocado.
3:00pm: Snack on a handful of almonds and some blueberries.
6:00pm: Eat eight ounces of fish accompanied by vegetables like Brussels sprouts, string beans or asparagus.
8:00pm: Blueberries or nuts as dessert, for the final food consumed of the day.
If youre considering a week of intermittent fasting interspersed with your keto diet, heres what that week might look like.
Monday: Feeding hours between noon – 8pm. If you exercise on Mondays, try a midday workout when youre fully fueled. Enjoy your last meal at 8pm. Keto meals might include a smoked salmon and avocado plate, or a steak and sweet potato dinner.
Tuesday: Fasting day. No calories consumed until 8pm.
Wednesday: Try a fasted workout in the morning. Begin eating at noonyoull probably be hungry. Reward yourself with a big chicken BLT salad for lunch and cheese omelette for dinner.
Benefits Of Combining Intermittent Fasting With Keto
While fasting brings a diversity of health benefits, intermittent fasting with improved ketosis through a low-carb diet is way more effective.
As a result of combining intermittent fasting with keto, you can reap the following remarkable benefits:
- Improved ability to burn fat
- Improved insulin sensitivity
- Increased weight loss
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Sustained Fuel Source Between Meals
Fat digests much more slowly than carbohydrates, and ketones pack more energy per unit than glucose.2
When youre on a well-formulated high-fat keto diet, your blood sugar rarely drops to a point where you get hunger cravings and doesnt spike to a point where you lose focus.
Ketones are also effective at suppressing ghrelin, the hormone that makes you feel hungry.
Both intermittent fasting and keto diets have been shown to reduce hunger.1 And ketogenic meals are more satiating, leading to a reduction in food cravings. This in turn supports an intermittent fasting schedule that calls for extended periods without eating.
Ideal Intermittent Fasting Schedule:
There are no intermittent fasting times that work for everybody experiment to find the best one for you! Here are some of the most popular ones, any of which will work as an intermittent fasting keto schedule:
- 16:8 Fast for 16 hours, with an 8-hour eating window
- 5:2 Eat normally for 5 days, restrict calories to 500-600 for 2 days spaced in between
- Eat stop eat Eat normally for 5 days, fast for 24 hours two days per week
- 4:3 Fast every other day, and eat normally on non-fasting days
- One meal a day Fast for 23 hours daily, eat a balanced meal during a 1-hour window
- Skip meals spontaneously when you dont feel hungry
16:8 is one of the most popular ways to practice intermittent fasting for beginners. This keto beginner meal plan provides a way to practice keto and intermittent fasting with easy low carb meals for your eating window just omit the breakfast to practice fasting.
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The Ketogenic Diet Keeps You Satisfied
Another great perk of the keto diet is its high level of satiety.
Not only does ketosis itself tend to stifle hunger, but the high level of healthy fat in the keto diet also makes it much easier to stay satisfied in a fasted state and eliminates those intense feelings of hunger and cravings throughout the day.
This is perfect for someone doing intermittent fasting.
Can I Take Supplements While Fasting
You can take supplements when fasting, but be aware that certain fat-soluble vitamins may not be absorbed as well by the body compared to having them with food. To combat this conundrum, you could potentially shift your supplement-taking regime, taking your usual morning supplements with your noontime meal instead .
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Combining Keto & Intermittent Fasting: Benefits + Challenges
Although they may seem different on the surface, Keto and IF share many similarities. They both encourage the body into a Ketogenic state, and have the potential to increase fat burning. Theres also a lot of crossover between the potential wellness benefits, from heart health to insulin sensitivity.
You may be wondering whether it’s safe and effective to combine the two — extending your fasting window, and consuming a high-fat diet during your eating window.
The good news is that because both diets work via similar underlying mechanisms, they have the potential to complement each other. Keto and IF act synergistically towards the same end goal – making the body more adept at burning fat as a fuel. You might also find that the common challenges of each diet are canceled out when you combine them together:
- Restricting food intake through IF may make it easier to get into and stay in ketosis, as this kick-starts the depletion of carbohydrate levels.
- A Ketogenic diet may make intermittent fasting feel easier as your body becomes more fat-adapted, and you feel more satiated from consuming higher-fat foods.
- If youre fairly new to Keto, you may find that IF helps you stick to the diet, as you have fewer meals to think about and prep.
That being said, there are some potential drawbacks to be aware of:
Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting With Keto:
Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting With Keto: With the help of this simple beginners guide, you can learn about the advantages of intermittent fasting, various fasting routines, how intermittent skipping breakfast on the keto diet functions, and common questions.
One of the most well-liked dieting trends in recent years, including intermittent fasting on keto, is intermittent fasting.
However, for beginners, intermittent fasting can be challenging to understand and properly implement, much like the keto diet itself.
Read Also: How To Succeed In Intermittent Fasting
What Are The Main Methods Of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting has several components that, once adopted, are relatively easy to stick to. Whichever method you end up adopting, they all revolve around the premise of eating for a certain length of time and fasting for a certain amount of time.
The primary distinctions between each method are how long or how frequently fasting occurs.
Like any new lifestyle change, be sure to prioritize your safety and health, especially if you’ve never fasted before. Fasting can be challenging as your body adapts to a new routine.
Which Has More Benefits Keto Diet Or Intermittent Fasting
Both have very similar health benefits. The main reason for combining the two is for maximised benefits and also to reach ketosis faster.
Neither is more beneficial than the other. That is up to the individual and their health needs to decide. But, some may find intermittent fasting more achievable and sustainable as it does not restrict any dietary nutrients. Those who struggle to cut carbs may find the keto diet a challenge.
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Start Reducing Blood Sugar And Insulin Levels
Fasting causes the body to start burning fat and lowers insulin levels.
This method also stabilizes blood glucose levels after a brief period of hunger while your body gets used to fasting.
In type 2 diabetics, a 2014 study found that intermittent fasting reduced visceral fat mass, fasting insulin, and insulin resistance.
How Intermittent Fasting Works
Intermittent fasting involves only eating within a certain period of time. There are different forms of intermittent fasting, but the most popular is eating within anywhere between a 4- to 7-hour window.
For example, someone might choose to only eat between the hours of 12pm and 7pm, allowing their body to fast for 17 hours with a 7-hour feeding period. That window can be moved around as needed, but it guarantees that the time outside that window lets the body rest and fast.
Other variations of intermittent fasting include simply skipping meals or fasting for a few days at a time .
Fasting occasionally or doing regular intermittent fasting has been shown to be just as beneficial for health as simply restricting calories. Intermittent fasting is much more doable for most people and is a great alternative to restricting calories.
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