What Do I Eat
Most people need to consume between 1,200 and 2,100 calories per day, depending on the size of the body.
The diagram below illustrates the recommended percentages of calories in relation to each other. These are rough percentages that can vary from person to person based on your body size and activity level.
Succeeding On Keto Intermittent Fasting
Ive seen the keto diet, intermittent fasting, or some combo work for a lot of people.
But these approaches arent for everyone theres no one size fits all solution. Some folks just do better with some carbs. Some do better with frequent feedings. Its hard to add muscle if youre aggressively compressing your feeding window.
Im not suggesting you should pound muscle milk every 45 minutes , but maybe 13 or 14 hours of fasting is where you top out. And thats okay.
Anyway, I believe keto and intermittent fasting are worth experimenting with. Use the tips from this article to get started, and let me know how it goes in the comments!
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Keto Diet And Intermittent Fasting: The Perfect Combo
During the initial phases, your body would find it difficult to adjust to the new intermittent fasting keto schedule. You may come across all the hunger pangs and untimely cravings, but the same would disappear after a specific time.
This is because your body would start getting its energy from the stored fat and ketones. Now, the key phenomenon responsible for the same fasting, fat loss, and better health are Ketone productions and insulin reduction within your body.
Furthermore, Once your body enters the fasting zone, the insulin levels deteriorate drastically. The same process then triggers the fat release from our fat cells while pushing the body to produce more ketones via Ketogenesis in the process.
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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.
Clearly Define The Reason Youre Doing It
Chiropractor Kira C., 29, has been doing intermittent fasting for about three years. She typically fasts once a week, and Kira says she decided to do intermittent fasting knowing it could support her gut health.
Kira points out that intermittent fasting can be tough to stick with if you dont have a reason in mind for following the eating plan. Clearly define the reason that you are doing it, she says. Certain hours get very challenging and you can feel pretty terrible at the moment. Let your ‘big why’ drive you to push through the tough times. For me, that was improving my gut health.
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What Is Keto Diet
The Keto diet is a dietary plan that is mainly followed by people for losing weight. The human body is in a metabolic state is known as ketosis. In ketosis, the carbs present in the body are replaced with fats. This process also can convert fats into ketones. Ketones supply energy to the brain as well. The ketogenic diet is one of the safest diet plans.
Other than improving brain health, ketones are released in the liver. Because of the safest nature of the diet, it is one of the most commonly practised diet plans. In this dietary scheme, the emphasis is put on burning fat rather than burning other nutrients like carbohydrates. Other than that, the calorie intake, in this case, is deep.
More Abdominal Cavity Fat Loss
We noted before that excess abdominal fat is one symptom of metabolic syndrome. Worse than that, when visceral fat builds up around your abdominal cavity, it can boost your resistance to insulin as well as your rate of inflammation. You also increase your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
In 2008, Nutrition & Metabolism published data that found that low-carb diets can help those with abdominal cavity fat especially, lessening this fat to reduce the above health risk factors.
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Keto Can Fuel And Protect Fasting
Studies show that intermittent fasting can increase the production of stem cells in the intestines, muscles, and brain. At the same time, IF preserves the ability for stem cells to regenerate independently in the long term.
Yet ending a fast with sugary processed foods can lead to precancerous lesions and increased cancerous activityespecially in the intestines and liver.
Combining intermittent fasting with a high-fat, low-carb keto diet fertilizes the fresh crop of new cells with energy-packed ketones, while protecting them from the damage wrought by carbs and insulin.
Stages Of Intermittent Fasting
After reading a few articles online that talked about the stages of intermittent fasting, I decided to create my own classification:
Would you like to learn more about how intermittent fasting can help you achieve your health and weight loss goals? Dont forget to check out my free Intermittent Fasting 101 Workshop!
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What To Eat While Intermittent Fasting
During your fasting window, you shouldnt eat anything. During your eating window, enjoy nutrient-dense keto foods like healthy proteins, vegetables, and fats.
Avoid breaking your fast with processed foods, carb-heavy meals, and dirty keto foods, as these can hinder the health benefits of fasting in the first place.
If You Need To Lose Weight A Diet That Focuses Mainly On When You Eat May Be A Good Way To Shed Pounds And Improve Your Cardiovascular Health
Anyone who’s tried different weight-lossdiets is probably familiar with their pitfalls. Low-calorie diets often leave you tired, hungry, and cranky. Low-carb or “keto” diets can cause cravings and constipation. Low-fat diets are also tough to follow and, contrary to popular belief, they do not seem to prevent cardiovascular disease.
Another diet trend, intermittent fasting, takes a different approach. Rather than limiting what you eat, this diet limits when you eat . For some people, that change may be easier to manage, says Dr. Eric Rimm, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Short-term studies suggest that people stick to intermittent fasting diets as well as or better than they do to other diets. And according to a 2019 review article in the journal Nutrients, intermittent fasting promotes weight loss and may reduce risk factors linked to heart disease, including diabetes, high blood pressure, unhealthy blood lipid levels, and inflammation.
“However, we don’t have much evidence about how well this diet works over the long term,” says Dr. Rimm, noting that there are just two long-term studies of intermittent fasting, each lasting a year. Nor are there large populations of people who’ve followed this eating pattern for years. That’s in contrast to two other diets linked to a healthy heart and healthy body size the Mediterranean diet and a vegetarian diet.
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Are There Any Known Health Risks Of Doing Keto And Intermittent Fasting Together
As for long-term risks, people with seizure disorders have been on the ketogenic diet for decades and demonstrate excellent health, DAgostino says. Though, like any diet, it all depends on what foods youre eating. A keto diet rich in bacon and butter is different from one rich in avocado and olive oil, and poorly planned keto can lead to nutritional deficiencies. Because adding IF may make you cut calories too drastically, you may also lose too much weight or lean mass if you take the restriction to the extreme. To maintain muscle mass, he recommends consuming 1 g per kilogram of body weight in protein every day.
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What Does A Day Of Following Keto And If Look Like
Heres an eating schedule that Gyimah proposes thats both keto and IF-compliant. Its based on a 12-hour eating window , and 20 to 25 grams of carbs per day. And remember to drink water, tea, or coffee with all of your meals to stay hydrated, she says.
- 10 a.m.: 4 ounces plain Greek yogurt with ½ cup berries
- 12 p.m.: Tuna salad-stuffed avocado boats
- 3 p.m.: Sliced, raw vegetables and 2 tablespoons tzatziki
- 5:30 p.m.: Steak, cauliflower rice, and roasted vegetables
- 7 p.m.: 1-2 cups of popcorn
For a slightly more challenging IF schedule, Gyimah suggests a 10-hour eating window that involves about 30 grams of carbs per day. Again, you need liquids, particularly water, with all meals to be adequately hydrated.
- 8 a.m.: Scrambled eggs with feta cheese, sliced avocado, and a salad with pepitas, peppers, and a 1/2 cup of raspberries
- 12 p.m.: Roasted chicken, collard greens, sliced cucumber, and celery with 1 tablespoon hummus
- 2 p.m.: Handful of assorted nuts and ½ cup mixed berries
- 6 p.m.: 4-6 ounces salmon, roasted asparagus, cauliflower rice
If youre going for an even longer fast, Titgemeier lays out the following schedule for eating within the parameters of both diets, assuming an eight-hour eating window and 16-hour fast between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m.
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What Are The Advantages Of Doing Both
There are many potential advantages of adopting intermittent fasting while on a keto diet. These include:
Intermittent Fasting: The Basics
There are many ways to practice intermittent fasting , but the basic premise is simple:
It starts with separating the day or week into fasting and eating windows. You then simply shorten your feeding window, and extend the window in which you consume little to no food..
Unless youre prone to a midnight snack, you already practice a short period of fasting overnight between dinner and breakfast.
The idea is that extending that fasted period on certain days of the week can bring about some interesting benefits. This could be as simple as using a 16-hour fasting window each day or opting for longer fasts once every week or two. One of the big plus points for fasting is that its easy to customize to your lifestyle.
Although IF may seem like a relatively new dietary trend, fasting is something that human beings have practiced for thousands of years.
Like many other predaceous animals, early humans would have naturally gone without food for prolonged time periods in between successful hunts. While this might seem less than ideal at first glance, natural periods of fasting would have likely put these early humans into ketosis. This may have imparted benefits like appetite reduction and mental clarity, which could have actually assisted them in getting through to their next meal and enjoying another successful hunt.
I fast for greater physical and mental efficiency
– Plato
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May Smooth Your Transition Into Ketosis
Keto is about switching your body from using carbohydrates for energy, to turning fat into ketones. The typical way to do this is by cutting carbs and increasing fat intake in your diet. For many people this transition can take some time and it comes with a number of unpleasant side effects known as keto flu.
IF speeds up ketosis and smooths the transition. When you fast, your insulin levels drop, causing your body to use its stored carbs . Once these are depleted your body begins using fat for fuel. 12
Think of fasting as a way to jump start ketosis.
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 .
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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 ?
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What Should I Do If I’m Interested In Do Keto And Intermittent Fasting Together
Always consult your doctor or registered dietician before changing up your eating habits. You want to have a solid game plan and know that you are practicing in a way that’s healthy for you.
If you’ve got the green light and don’t know where to start, Mancinelli suggests the easiest route is to give intermittent fasting a go first.
“What I recommend is trying something that is going to fit into your schedule,” she says. “Don’t focus on what’s the optimal number of hours that I should be fasting, but what works in your life. Do an inventory of when you eat and which meals are super important to you and say to yourself, ‘Which one could I cut out?'”
Then later on, you can try to tack on keto if you want and see how you feel. Again, consult your health professional and find a community that can inspire you to stay on track.
Whatever you decide to do, you have to continue to ask yourself, “What do I believe will be sustainable for my lifestyle?” and “Which eating style will have me at my best?” not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well.
How Does The Diet Plan Work
When you are on a low carb diet, you are a ketogenic body. Your body will be using your fat for fuel. Due to the fact that you are burning body fat for fuel, it will produce ketone bodies. If you would follow this diet strictly, your body will enter into the ketogenic state in about 5 days. You may even lose about five pounds right away.
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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.
