Intermittent Fasting For Healthy Aging
Fasting is one of the biological stressors that triggers autophagy a process where your body clears out dead or underperforming cells and regenerates and recycles damaged proteins.
Autophagy is extremely important and a natural process that plays a significant role in preventing diseases such as cancer, neurodegeneration, diabetes, cardiomyopathy, autoimmune diseases, liver disease and much more.
Regular fasting also puts an adaptive cellular stress on the body which in turn allows your body to cope with more severe stressors that may occur and thus protect against potential disease progressions.
This concept is known as hormesis when an exposure to a mild stress causes cells in your body to become more resilient against other, more severe stressors.
Many of the benefits of fasting are due to these essential physiological processes.
Similar to ketosis, IFs positive effects on aging are coming to light as more studies show that it has a profound ability to decrease blood pressure, reduce oxidative damage, improve insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake, and decrease fat mass all factors that contribute to enhancing health and longevity.
The Warrior Diet Day Fasting
This diet involves fasting all day and feasting during the night within a 4-hour window.
Popularized by the celebrity fitness coach, Ori Hofmekler, this type of diet also emphasizes eating healthier unprocessed food choices.
Therefore, when following a ketogenic diet and doing the Warrior Diet, youll have to be a little stricter and cut out any kind of food that is processed, which sadly includes bacon.
Best Drinks For Your If Hunger Pangs
- Water
Water is something which I would sip on all the time even if I am not on intermittent fasting. Whats so new about that?
Yeah, we got it. But also, you are fasting so probably you would think to omit water as the first thing in your diet. Heres the strike.
You CAN and you SHOULD stay well hydrated when you are fasting. Water is central to the health of basically every major organ in your body. Youd be foolish to avoid this as part of your fast.
If you are skeptical of breaking your fast by drinking water and inducing an enzymatic effect, you can get hold of plain water or sparkling water.;
To add flavor or taste, you can infuse it with slices of lemon, berries, cucumber, or a cold tea infusion.
The amount of water each person should drink varies based on sex, height, weight, activity level,;and climate.
But if you cut down on your optimum water intake, you are likely to suffer from major dehydration symptoms and may also risk hampering other body functions.
- Tea
Heres some good news for tea-lovers! Fasting calls for a binge sipping on your favorite tea .
Feeling colder than usual is common during IF. Tea provides great comfort and is a warm feel to your body while you are fasting.
You can consume from myriads of different teas which might prove beneficial in terms of your health even when you are fasting. Some of the popular ones are-
- Herbal Tea
- Green Tea
- White Tea, without anything, added.;
- Coffee
- Broth
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Best Drinks For While Fasting
When someone tells you that you cannot eat, whats the first thing you want to do?
Yep, you guessed itcue the hunger pangs, right?
Thats why its important to keep yourself hydrated during the fasting window.
Otherwise, when its time to eat, youll overeat. One way to stave off hunger is by tricking your starvation mentality with liquid consumption.
And for this purpose, there are certain drinks that are superior to others.
With that said, here are 5 best drinks you can enjoy during your fasting windows:
How Might Keto And Intermittent Fasting Work Together
Intermittent fasting should, in theory, speed up the time it takes to get into ketosis.
You could do both together, since going on an intermittent fasting program could help you get into ketosis faster and stay there, due to the benefits on blood sugar levels.
Yet, there is not enough evidence to show that fasting can lead to such effects.
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Supplements To Get In Ketosis Quicker
I put supplements at the very end, because they are there to supplement your diet, not do the work for you.
In fact, I would say you dont need 99% of the supplements people recommend, even the ones below. Im listing them because they are a luxury item, as in they are nice to have but not required.
If you want my take on the best keto supplements to aid your weight loss journey that ACTUALLY;work, you can check that article out. The supplements I list here may make your transition into ketosis a lot more smooth and less painful.
These supplements below are simply;a way to ease your transition into ketosis.
Does Intermittent Fasting Help With Keto
A 2002 study involving children put on a keto diet found no differences in the time it took to get into ketosis between protocols that used a fast and those that did not.
What that means is that you probably wont get into ketosis sooner just because you fasted.
So, unless you want to do intermittent fasting when on keto and find it to be helpful for your progress, dont feel obligated to do it just because of the potential benefits, which have not been thoroughly studied.
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And What’s The Deal With Intermittent Fasting
IF is a pattern of eating where you restrict foods and sweetened beverages for an uninterrupted period of time every day and then eat only during the remaining hours .
You can pick your windows but we encourage people to eat when the sun is up and fast when the sun is down, says registered dietitian Amy Shapiro, founder of Real Nutrition. During fasting hours you can drink water, black coffee or plain tea, but nothing that provides calories or requires any sort of digestion or shift in hormones.
The theory behind IF is that depriving your body of calories for an extended period of time forces it into a temporary state of starvation and slowed metabolism. This makes your fat cells burn glucose for energy and can lead to improved weight loss results. One plus is that you don’t necessarily need to cut out any foods to stick with IF. It’s really the slashing of calories in general that’s said to boost weight loss, and experts say there’s not one IF schedule that works better for losing weight over anotheryou can choose whichever one works best with your lifestyle.
There are several different ways to schedule your fasting times, but the 16:8 version is the most commonly used. For people who are newer to IF, the 14:10 schedule might be easier to stick to, because you have a 10-hour eating window and only a 14-hour fast.
Also something to note: IF is not recommended for people with a history of disordered eating, since it can get into pretty restrictive territory.
Why You Should Intermittent Fast
Your body was not designed to eat all the time but rather with periods of time when you dont eat, when your digestive system can rest!
Follow your intermittent fast with Keto-friendly meals, and youll be shifting your lifestyle! Youll deepen your levels of ketosis; help yourself get back on track after some not so Keto-friendly choices; and give your digestive system the rest it needs to work for you, not against you!
Watch the video for more info!
Read Also: How To Get Used To Intermittent Fasting
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.
Weight Loss And Intermittent Fasting
If you were already in ketosis before starting with intermittent fasting, your body could tap into body fat for energy faster.
Since the ketogenic diet helps control your appetite and stay full longer, you can get used to more extended periods without food more comfortable.
If you want to lose weight with intermittent fasting, combining it with keto is a way to lose weight faster.
The improved fat-burning abilities of intermittent fasting with ketosis, combined with lower insulin levels, enable you to reach or maintain a healthier body weight faster.
Moreover, you can break a weight loss plateau more quickly this way.
Intermittent fasting also trains the body to get used to absorbing the calories of a day in a shorter time frame, which sometimes relieves your digestion and improves gut health.
When you are used to intermittent fasting and keto, you relearn only to eat when you are hungry. Accordingly, appetite is often learned and therefore tied to standard meal times.
Also Check: How To Lose Weight From Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting On Keto: Important Or Overhyped
Intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet are two of the top trending eating patterns among dieters and health enthusiasts alike. However, while there are plenty of differences between;intermittent fasting vs. keto, they can actually be combined to help amplify results and reach ketosis even faster. In fact, by practicing intermittent fasting on keto, you can take advantage of the unique benefits that both have to offer.
So should I fast on keto? What ingredients belong on the keto diet food list? And how many hours should you fast intermittently? Heres everything you need to know about intermittent fasting on keto, plus how to get started.
Related:;Beginners Guide to the Keto Diet
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It can also be a highly effective approach for weight loss, especially if you combine fasting with the keto diet.
However, simple mistakes like eating or drinking the wrong foods or beverages while fasting may negate many of the benefits people seek.
This article covers which types of foods break a fast, the best foods to end your fasting period intentionally, what you can safely eat or drink without disrupting fasting, the effects of dietary supplements on fasting benefits, and more.
First, a short refresher on how intermittent fasting works, the most common styles of fasting, and the health benefits of fasting.
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How To Do Intermittent Fasting On Keto 8 Steps To Get Started
Step 1: Ease into Intermittent Fasting
The best way to start keto intermittent fasting is to ease into an intermittent fasting lifestyle.;
If you are a complete beginner to fasting, start with a few days of 16/8 intermittent fasting without making any changes to your diet.;
If you have experience with fasting and feel confident with it, you can skip this step and go straight to making dietary changes.;
To help your body adapt to intermittent fasting, our 21-Day Keto Fasting Challenge Plan suggests gradually reducing your eating window. Meaning, you start with a 12-hour fast on the first day, and gradually increase it to 16 hours.;
How to pick your keto fasting / eating window? For most people skipping breakfast is the easiest but some choose to pass on dinner instead. Few potential scenarios for a 16/8 keto intermittent fasting:
- If you start eating at 8 am, start fasting at 4 pm
- If you start eating at 12 pm, start fasting at 8 pm
- If you start eating at 2 pm stop eating and start fasting at 10 pm
STEP 2: Introduce a Keto diet: what to eat?
Feel good about sticking to your intermittent fasting schedule? Excellent! Your next step is to adjust your nutrition by introducing a ketogenic diet.;
Below is a list of foods that are recommended for the keto intermittent fasting diet.;
Keto Intermittent Fasting friendly foods
All foods with zero or low-carb percentage, such as:
- High-fat fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines
- Unprocessed meat such as beef, pork, lamb, poultry
- Eggs
- Berries .
Benefits Of Keto Diet
With its soaring popularity, keto has received a lot of attention from researchers. Though the science is still coming out, clinical studies have already found that keto can provide numerous benefits including:;
- Improved blood lipid levels.
- Make meals more satiating, reducing cravings for processed and high-carb foods
- Regulates inflammation and increases immunity
- Helps your body absorb fat-soluble vitamins .
- Protects the glycocalyx the membrane that covers the surface of every cell, responsible for overall health, and is easily damaged by sugar intake.
Also Check: How To Start Intermittent Fasting 16 8
My Ketones The Next Morning
What do you eat in ketosis? Feel free to share in the comments below.
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Fasting: New Twist On An Old Tradition
Historically, the word breakfast described the first meal of the day no matter when that meal occurred. It wasnt until the 15th century that the word started being recognized as the meal you consume shortly after waking.
Nowadays, with intermittent fasting gaining popularity, the meaning of the word breakfast is going back to its original roots. Breakfast for the intermittent faster is the meal consumed when you choose to break your fast, be it 6:00 AM or 6:00 PM.
Fasting, especially for religious purposes, has been a common occurrence for centuries. And generally, throughout most of human history, not much concern was given to how to break the fast.
However, in an age of poor dietary advice, when we are told to eat all day long and when hyper-palatable highly processed food abounds it can take a little more planning to resume eating in a way that achieves the most physical comfort and most effective results for your long-term health and weight loss goals.
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Macros And Meal Timing
Consider cleaning up your diet and altering your macronutrient distribution about two days to one week prior to your fast, depending on the duration of the fast youre planning. This means cutting out the sugar and processed carbs, and beginning to decrease the total amount of carbs you consume, including those from fruits, grains, starches, and legumes. Keep protein about the same as your normal diet, and increase your healthy fat consumption slightly if needed. For example, instead of having a macronutrient distribution that is 50% carbohydrates, 20% protein and 30% fat, consider shifting that closer to a 20% carbohydrates, 20% protein and 60% fat during the days leading up to your fast. These are pretty close to the ratios suggested for a typical ketogenic diet.
How Do You Know When Youre In Ketosis When On A Fast
Through the information in this article, youve decided that youd like to fast to speed up the amount of time it takes for you to enter ketosis. Perhaps youre on a standard intermittent fast or maybe you even tried fat fasting.
Short of stepping on the scale every day to see if the weight has come off, how do you know if youre in ketosis? You dont necessarily have to guess, as there are several ways to gauge the level of ketone bodies in your system at any time one.
Lets discuss these methods now.
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Autophagy: A Nobel Prize Winning Lifestyle Hack
In 2016, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi for discovering some of the mechanisms of autophagy the process by which the cell devours itself. Superficially, this sounds like a terrible thing for our cells to do until you consider what is really taking place.
When our cells undergo the process of autophagy, non-essential parts like damaged proteins are recycled and invading microorganisms and toxic compounds are removed. This means that autophagy plays an important role in stopping the aging process, reversing disease, and preventing cancer, but it doesnt happen all the time.
Fasting, protein restriction, and carbohydrate restriction are the three main ways that can initiate different autophagic processes all of which are not the same. This is part of the reason why a ketogenic diet has so many positive effects, and it also shows you why intermittent fasting is a way to improve your diet even more.
Though this is reason enough to fast more, autophagy isnt the only upside of intermittent fasting. In fact, the combination of keto and fasting can provide us with a wider array of benefits.
