Who Should Not Combine If With Keto
The keto diet is quite popular among patients with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes as it might lead to improvement in glycemic control and even medication reduction. However, the intermittent fasting protocols might lead to a higher risk of hypoglycemia among patients with type 2 diabetes.
Of course, people who are not a good fit for the keto diet or intermittent fasting shouldnt try to combine them. People with previous or current eating disorders should not try intermittent fasting. Pregnant or breastfeeding women are also bad candidates for intermittent fasting. People with kidney disease or other health conditions should consult their health providers before they start following the keto diet or intermittent fasting protocols.
Anything High In Carbs
All high- to moderate-carb foods are off-limits on the keto diet. This includes healthy carbs like sweet potatoes, winter squash, legumes, and whole grains. Processed foods are also out. This list isnt comprehensive, but it should give you an idea of what to avoid: All grains: quinoa, millet, wheat, rye, spelt, rice, corn, amaranth, what berries, etc. Beans and lentilsAll pasta All bread Chips and crackers Winter squash: acorn, butternut, delicata. All sweets: ice cream, cookies, cake, brownies, candy, etc.The good news is that there are tons of recipes online that can help you feel like youre eating these foods by using creative substitutions that remain keto-friendly.
Intermittent Fasting And Muscle
Two ground-breaking studies have recently been published on the effects of intermittent fasting on males. One group of researchers studied the effects that 16 hours of intermittent fasting had on males that lift weights. They found that muscle mass stayed the same, fat mass decreased significantly, and the males who fasted for 16 hours a day burned more fat for fuel compared to the control group that only fasted for 12 hours.
Another study showed that combining 20 hours of fasting with resistance training resulted in an increase in muscle mass, strength, and endurance, and this was achieved by eating ~650 calories per day less than normal.
The benefits of intermittent fasting translate to untrained overweight and obese individuals as well. One study published in Obesity Reviews found that eating fewer calories is effective for fat loss, but it does come with some muscle loss. However, if the subjects fasted for 24 hours and ate as much as they wanted on the next day for a period of 12 weeks, they lost significantly less muscle mass.
Yes you read that correctly 24 hours of intermittent fasting without any resistance training and these subjects were able to preserve more muscle mass than the subjects that ate fewer calories every day without fasting at all. This finding contradicts our common sense, but when we dig deeper into autophagy we can find the mechanism behind this result.
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/5is It Safe To Follow Both At The Same Time
If we think logically then it might not seem harmful to combine the two diets as keto is all about restricting the food intake and in intermittent one has to restrict the time interval. They do not overlap in any case.
But as per experts it might not be a good idea. First of all, keto is a restrictive diet, which means the body is already missing out on necessary nutrients. Pairing it with intermittent fasting might put more stress on your body, which might have great repercussions. The overwhelming experience might lead to mood swings, irritability and fatigue.
Also, as per some research, weight loss due to keto stays for a short term. But maintaining the diet can have a positive impact on weight, triglycerides, and blood glucose level.
Combining keto with Intermittent might work for some and might not for others. It might be more harmful to pregnant women and people suffering from chronic disease.
There Isn’t Enough Research To Support The Benefits Of Both Plans
With all that said, more research is needed to confirm the benefits of doing the keto diet and intermittent fasting at the same time.
“There is not much human research regarding ketogenic diets combined with intermittent fasting, so I would not recommend this,” said registered dietitian Summer Yule, MS, RDN.
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Potential For Busting Through Plateus
The controlled calories from the short feeding window , plus the fact that youâre using fat for energy , may mean that you may lose more weight in a shorter period of time.
If you have been implementing either Keto or intermieetnet fasting for some time hand have seen a plateau reached in terms of results it is possbile that by combining the two, you can bust through this platea.
Diet Improves Intermittent Fasting With Ketosis
Since both intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet use ketosis to burn fat for energy, they do incredibly well together.
However, intermittent fasting is not a must to reach ketosis.
So if fasting is not for you or does not fit into your everyday life, you can still follow a ketogenic diet and gain similar benefits.
But on the other hand, you wont reap the more profound benefits of intermittent fasting without a lower-carb diet.
Because if your body has to burn through full carbohydrate stores before entering ketosis, you have significantly less time to burn fat while fasting.
Nevertheless, my experience is that intermittent fasting makes everyday life easier rather than more complicated. Accordingly, it saves time and money.
If you are into intermittent fasting, check out my article about the One Meal A Day schedule, which I use to bring even more flexibility and efficiency into everyday life.
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What Is A Good Breakfast For Fasting On The Keto Diet
A typical keto intermittent fasting breakfast should include high fat, lean protein and no carbs. Any type of eggs are ideal for a keto diet. Low carb vegetables are a good choice too. This includes breakfast vegetables like mushrooms, tomatoes, kale, peppers and spinach.
Low carb options are the best to break a fast as it will inhibit a spike in blood sugar levels.
Why Combining Intermittent Fasting With Keto Has Become Popular For Weight Loss
Doing keto or IF can help with weight loss in the short term, though each diet is very restrictive, so they certainly arent for everyone.
But how about combining them? Could two be better than one?
First, in some experts view, it does make sense to pair the two approaches. The keto diet increases levels of ketones in the body during times of fasting, ketones are also increased. The brain will rely less on glucose for energy when in a state of nutritional ketosis. Therefore, the transition into a fasted state during the day eventually becomes seamless after eating low-carb or ketogenic for a few weeks, says Dominic DAgostino, PhD, associate professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa and founder of KetoNutrition.org.
This is a strategy that practitioners counsel patients on at the Cleveland Clinics Functional Ketogenics Program. Adding intermittent fasting can take things up to the next level, says the Clinics Logan Kwasnicka, a certified physician assistant at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. That next level may be overcoming a weight loss plateau, as people may eat fewer calories when doing IF. It can also be a natural progression from a keto diet for those who feel satiated eating so much fat and arent bothered by shrinking their eating window.
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Improved Blood Sugar Control And Insulin Sensitivity
By giving your body an occasional break from calorie consumption, you can also help improve blood sugar levels and enhance the insulin sensitivity of your cells. One clinical trial found that intermittent fasting may even be a better strategy than maintaining the same calorie deficit with six meals per day.
When combined with the keto diet which also has been found to help with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes the two dietary strategies may work synergistically for improving blood sugar control. However, more research is needed on the effects of using them in tandem.
Possibility To Reach Ketosis Quicker
The keto diet promotes its ability to reach ketosis. This is where the body runs out of glucose and turns to fat as a fuel source. This encourages fat burning. Which is what makes the diet very popular for those seeking weight loss.
Intermittent fasting helps the body reach ketosis quicker. When the body is fasting, the energy balance switches from carbs to fat. Studies show that this is due to the body running low on glucose. Intermittent fasting promotes lowering insulin and glycogen levels. This is the exact same premise as the keto diet. Hence, fasting alongside the vegan ketogenic diet allows the body to reach ketosis quicker.
Once the body hits ketosis, the diet will be easier to sustain. Ketosis helps control hunger, which makes the participant eat less and only when they need to. Not only will this make the diet easier, it will excel weight loss.
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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 .
Intermittent Fasting And Cancer
Although there is little to no literature on the effects of 2 or 3 day fasts on muscle loss in humans, many clinical trials are currently being conducted on the effects of 2 or 3 day fasts on cancer patients.
In initial case studies, people who were undergoing chemotherapy voluntarily fasted for anywhere between 48 to 140 hours. Each person reported fewer side effects and improved quality of life regardless of how long they fasted.
This may suggest that fasting for 2 days to a week can have a protective effect on the cells in the body while they are undergoing intense bouts of toxicity.
Other studies in animals have found that fasting was possibly as effective as chemotherapeutic agents in delaying the progression of different tumors and increased the effectiveness of chemotherapeutic drugs against melanoma, glioma, and breast cancer cells. Although this research may not apply to your life, it does suggest that intermittent fasting can help support your body in times of toxic stress.
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Keto And Intermittent Fasting: Should You Combine The Two
Keto and intermittent fasting are two popular diets that share certain similarities. These two eating styles are immensely popular amongst celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow and Halle Berry. Both actresses have expressed their love for these diets on their Instagram handles. Some individuals have already started combining the two diets to experience the best of both.
What is keto diet all about?
The keto diet refers to a restrictive pattern of eating where you get a majority of the calories from fat and the rest from protein. You need to restrict your carb intake to less than 20-25g while on this diet. This diet discourages the body from using sugars for energy and compels it to use fat as fuel. When there is a carb deficit in your body, then the liver will break down fat as use ketones as fuel. This metabolic process is referred to as ketosis.
Various studies have highlighted that a keto diet has numerous health benefits. Apart from boosting weight loss, it lowers blood sugar levels and improves brain functions. This diet has tremendously benefitted individuals suffering from diabetes and obesity. However, following this diet can be extremely challenging.
What is intermittent fasting?
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that has been practiced for centuries. Many cultures have fasting practices and others have fasted either due to famine or feast.
Are there any benefits of combining keto and intermittent fasting?
Your appetite decreases
In summary
What’s The Difference Between Keto And Intermittent Fasting
Before you delve into how the keto diet and intermittent fasting might work together, the sister duo says it’s important to first understand how they work on their own.
“People who are truly following the keto diet not just cutting carbs but eating less than 50 grams of carbs a day are eating a diet that is very high in fat and very low in carbs and trying to force their body to break down fat for its main source of energy,” Tammy Lakatos Shames says, adding that this creates ketones, rather than using glucose. “So the goal of the keto diet is to achieve ketosis , so the body is using ketones for energy.”
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Intermittent fasting, on the other hand, involves going without food for a set period of time and then eating during a particular window each day. A popular method is fasting for 16 hours a day and eating in an 8-hour window each day people also use the 5:2 method, which involves five days of normal eating matched with two days that restrict calories.
” are also looking to reap weight loss, metabolic and brain health benefits, as well as to reduce inflammation,” Lakatos says.
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What Is Intermittent Fasting
Many people assume that fasting is starvation. That assumption is incorrect. Starvation is an involuntary uncontrolled period without food. Whereas fasting is voluntary and controlled. Fasting, especially intermittent fasting, is for health, religious and spiritual reasons.
Intermittent fasting is an eating pattern method with cycled mealtimes. The method is often shortened to IF. It does not dictate which foods to eat and avoid. Instead, it gives you time periods of eating and not eating. The technique provides meal time cycles.
Understanding how to intermittent fast is essential so that a person does not over fast. Lack of knowledge can be damaging to the body and the mind.
The fasting technique is often used to aid weight loss. The food cycles allow your body to use and burn fat quicker. This helps speed up the process of weight loss and improves body fat mass and BMI. Not only does it help with weight management, IF offers many more health benefits. Fasting can reduce the risk of suffering heart conditions. It can also improve brain function and lifespan. It can also slow the progression of medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer and aging.
Many people who contemplate fasting worry that it can cause health risks. Many worry that the cons may outweigh the pros. In fact, intermittent fasting offers more health benefits than it does risks.
Now, you may wondering exactly how to combine the two diets:
Doing Both Diets At The Same Time Calls For More Planning
“The keto diet is focused on getting the right level of macros in each day and intermittent fasting is all about reducing the amount of time you consume food each day,” said registered dietitian Staci Gulbin, MS, MEd, RD, LDN. Therefore, if you want to incorporate both plans into your everyday life, she recommended planning your meals and snacks a little bit more.
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Are There Any Side Effects To Combining Keto And Intermittent Fasting
WH has previously reported on the many gag-inducing side effects of going keto , and the potential downsides of IF, which include low blood sugar, fatigue, nausea, and being just plain hangry all the time.
So do you end up with double the side effects when you combine the diets? In theory, yes. Putting the two together doesnt do anything to counteract the side effects of either diet, so you could wind up with the undesirable combination of nausea and constipation .
More importantly, though, the biggest downside to pairing keto with IF is the sheer level of commitment involvedand the high potential for failure.
Its very difficult to maintain such a narrow way of eating, says Schaub. Eating an extremely high-fat, low-carb diet itself is difficult to do while maintaining a social life and flexibility in your schedule layer in a restricted eating window of eight hours, and the ability to sustain it becomes that much tougher.
The one plus side? Schaub does say that IF could become less uncomfortable when coupled with keto: The ketogenic diet is very satiatingeating fat leads to less hunger overall, which makes restricting your eating window significantly easier.
Finally, while IF is a more natural way of eating, keto is decidedly stricter/not for everyone .
If I had to choose one, is keto better than intermittent fasting ?
What Are The Risks Of Combining Keto And Intermittent Fasting
Celebrity trainer and nutrition specialist, Harley Pasternak, M. SC., says he would never recommend either eating patterns, let alone combine them.
“I cant speak for anyone who would want to combine the two, but I personally would not,” he says. “It sounds like an overly regimented, restricted, and antisocial way to live.”
Intermittent fasting and keto might be tough to sustain when you’re out with friends at dinner or celebrating the holidays. You might be tempted to eat something that you “shouldn’t” eat or munch outside of your feeding window. And if you slip, you might be hard on yourself. For many, keto and intermittent fasting might not be sustainable.
There are even some pitfalls if you were to practice either eating style individually. For example, sometimes new keto dieters complain of getting “the keto flu” during their transition, which can include nausea, headaches, dizziness and stomach pain. A low-carb diet also runs the risk of not providing enough vitamins and nutrients like magnesium, potassium, calcium, and fiber.
“If you look at the healthiest, longest living populations in the world, these are people that tend to eat all food groups,” says Pasternak.
Even Mancinelli, who is a proponent of keto and fasting, thinks that “it’s not entirely necessary” to combine the two to get significant benefits. Nor is it necessarily needed to practice either eating pattern for life particularly keto. You want to be “metabolically flexible” she says.
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