Intermittent Fasting Or Keto Diet: Whats The Verdict
Both diets are actually very different from each other but by virtue of their popularity are always clubbed together on the same rank. We recommend trying both the diets for a week o figure out which diet suits your lifestyle better before commencing on a full fledged weight loss plan based on either one of the two diets. Interestingly, you can also combine keto with intermittent fasting. How? Follow a 16:8 pattern of eating and consume only keto-friendly food during the eating window. This will help your body achieve ketosis at an even faster rate.
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Negatives Of The Keto Diet
If it sounds so good and it has all these good side effects, why wouldnt we recommend it? There are some downsides of the keto diet. One is kidney stones. In place of the carbohydrates that youre not eating, you end up eating a lot more fat and a lot more protein, and a high protein diet ends up causing kidney stones. Its just what happens. Its just one of the risks, one of the pitfalls, of changing the macronutrients inside your diet. So kidney stones are a real risk.
Nutritional deficiencies, vitamin deficiencies, mineral deficiencies are another common side effect that happens with this keto diet. And again, it happens because in avoiding carbohydrates, youre avoiding a lot of fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables are jam-packed with a lot of vitamins, nutrients, a lot of minerals, and if youre not getting them in your diet, then you have to supplement with them. So as youre giving up carbohydrates, youre also maybe giving up some of these other nutrients, which is actually a really bad thing.
Intermittent Fasting Is Not Enough To Keep You In Ketosis
The 16/8 fasting window may not be enough to get you into or keep you in ketosis. Even if you do end up in ketosis, if you;continue to eat a diet with even a moderate amount of carbs itll probably kick you out of ketosis each time.
This can result in unpleasant side effects such as the keto flu;and being overly hungry each time you start fasting again.
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Bring On The Benefits
After all of the evidence presented, its hard to argue against the keto diet or intermittent fasting. They seem to benefit so many different physical conditions and diseases, along with having benefits for non-disease related functions.
It is said that the benefits of keto are basically due to the fact that it activates similar mechanisms to that of fastingthis is true. Fasting and ketosis both seem to call upon ancient biological pathways to promote stress resistance, survival, and longevity.
While we advocate both highly, dont just jump right into fasting and ketosis without a bit of experience first. It takes some time to both metabolically and psychologically adapt to dietary regimensespecially prolonged fasting. Maybe try out TRF first along with a keto diet, and gradually progress your fasting periods.
If youve had a great experience with keto, IF, or both, tell us in the comments! Wed love to hear.
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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What Are The Benefits Of Keto
- Every diet has its own health benefits. The same as intermittent fasting keto diet has also its own health benefits which are enlisted below:
- Keto diet reduces appetite.
- It helps to lower the triglycerides level drastically.
- A ketogenic diet increases the high-density lipoprotein which is good for our health.
- Low carb diets help t reduces blood sugar and insulin levels.
- It may lower blood pressure.
- The Keto diet is effective against metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is the collection of abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated FBS , elevated Triglycerides level, and low HDL.
- Keto diets lead to more short-term weight loss than intermittent fasting.
Live Long And Prosper
Its hard to study lifespan in humans, so in this area, we dont have a lot of data on IF promoting a longer life. But, in rodent models, animals were fasted intermittently showed increased lifespan and healthspan compared to mice who ate more frequently. Mitchell2019 Lifespan might be enhanced through several mechanisms involving increased autophagy, reduced oxidative stress, and lower levels of insulin and insulin-like growth factor 1 . Parzych2014,Martinet2006,Mizushima2004,Mojto2018,Lee2012,Fuhrman2002
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How Long Should You Intermittent Fast
How long is intermittent fasting sustainable? When it comes to intermittent fasting for beginners, 24 hours or fewer is a safe limit.
Those more experienced with fasting may go 48-72 hours, or even longer however, youll have to experiment and work up to a long fasting window, and stop if it doesnt feel right or keeps you from doing daily tasks.
You can incorporate some form of fasting into your schedule every day, as long as you stay healthy and nourished with the right foods during your eating windows.
What Are The Benefits Of Following The Keto Diet
Since the keto diet actively helps your body burn fat throughout the day, clubbing this diet plan with an active workout routine will not only fast-track your weight loss journey but also help you shed body fat while salvaging healthy muscle mass. According to some studies, a keto diet also reduces acne and promotes heart health.
QUICK READ: 5 myths you need to know about the ketogenic diet
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Can I Have During A Fast
The general rule is that anything with calories breaks a fast. The main exceptions are supplements, electrolytes, and medications:
- Supplements: You can continue taking any that are recommended to take on an empty stomach. Read labels to know for sure, and pay attention to how you feel if you take them while fasting.
- Electrolytes: Its a good idea to take these during a fast. Just make sure they dont have calories or sugar. If you want to be less strict, you can have a keto electrolyte drink which has 8 calories, probably few enough to be okay for a fast.
- Medications: Many of these need to be taken with food or taken at certain times for optimum absorption. Talk to your doctor before changing when and how you take medications.
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.
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Practical Application: Tim Ferriss 3 Day Ketosis Boost
If you want to raise your ketone levels or kickstart your ketogenic journey, try a 3-day fasting protocol like the one below. If intermittent fasting doesnt sound like its something that can work for you, you can also kickstart your keto diet by fat fasting.
Thursday Evening
- Eat a ketogenic dinner and make that the last meal of the day. Go to bed as normal.
Friday Morning
- Get out the door and walk within 30 minutes of waking. Drink coffee or tea if needed, but it is best to limit your caffeine intake because it will cause you to excrete more minerals and fluid than usual.
- Bring at least 1 liter of water, with some added unrefined salt, and sip as you walk to avoid cramping.
- Walk for 3 to 4 hours, sipping water as needed.
- Arrange phone calls or something similar for your walk to make the time productive.
- The idea behind the walk is that you use up your glycogen stores, forcing your body to move more quickly into deep ketosis. The quicker you get into ketosis, the less time you spend feeling drained.
- If you prefer to shorten the time frame, you can do a 45-60 minute bout of HIIT exercise.
Friday Day
- Consume MCT oil 2-3 times throughout the day.
- An affordable, good quality MCT Oil we recommend is NOW Foods MCT Oil.
- This provides you with energy until your ketone levels;elevate naturally.
Saturday Morning
Saturday & Sunday Day
Sunday Evening
- Break your fast with your favorite ketogenic meal. Take a look at our Keto Recipes to find your new favorite!
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.
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/5how Are Keto And Intermittent Fasting Different
While the Ketogenic diet focuses on the intake of low-carb foods and high-fat foods, which is then used as fuel, Intermittent Fasting works by following a time-restrictive eating schedule. Simply put, while the Ketogenic diet emphasizes lowering carbs and using fats as a primary energy source to lose weight, Intermittent Fasting works by moderating your eating patterns, without really restricting anything.
The Faster Way Program
We offer coaching accountability, the ability to talk to real people who encourage you along the way, and support groups from other people also undertaking the program.;
Plus, the FASTer Way was designed to seamlessly fit into your busy life and be the most sustainable fat loss solution you can find.;
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What Does A Day Of Following Keto And If Look Like
Here’s an eating schedule that Gyimah proposes that’s both keto and IF-compliant. It’s 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.
- 7 a.m.: Breakfast stuffed peppers with cheese
- 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 you’re 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.
Is Intermittent Fasting Safe
Research shows that people can fast successfully with mild, minimal side effects. Dangerous intermittent fasting side effects are more likely to occur when people undergo long-term fasts, continue fasting despite feeling serious side effects, or re-feed with unhealthy foods .
Intermittent fasting side effects are minor for most people. You may feel mild hunger or weakness, and these are normal. Generally, electrolytes can minimize these side effects so the transition into fasting is not so harsh.
For the average person with no health conditions, fasting is generally safe and aligns with human biological processes for waking, metabolizing food, and repairing cells .
However, you should check with your healthcare provider before fasting. Fasting is also not recommended for children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, or anyone with a medical condition a history of disordered eating.
Also Check: How To Lose Weight Fast Fasting
Intermittent Fasting Keto Bodybuilding
What would you say if someone told you that intermittent fasting keto bodybuilding was a possibility? That you could gain muscle while constantly eating high-fat foods and largely reducing the number of hours spent eating in a day. Before you dismiss the idea, check out this article to find out how this works.
Variations Of Intermittent Fasting
Perhaps one of the most attractive aspects of fasting is that it is completely customizable. Whether youre doing time restricted eating or a once-per week fast, YOU get to choose how to fit fasting into your life. And, since we dont have data as to what the best fasting protocol is, the only thing that matters is how your fasting regimen uniquely benefits you and fits within your lifestyle.
While we mentioned that keto and intermittent fasting are often practiced together, they dont have to be. For some people, thats another attractive benefit of IF. Instead of focusing on exactly what to eat, with IF, youre only worried about when you eat.
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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.
I Broke My Sugar Addiction
You can’t eat sugar on the keto diet, and most of the no-carb sugar substitutes don’t work for me. So when you’re left with no recourse, you just have to quit sugar.
That doesn’t mean the cravings went away. In the first few days, the cravings for a peanut butter cup or a soda or even just a banana were strong. When you go back to typical eating, you might find that many foods you ate regularly are now just too sweet to finish.
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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.
