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.
How Can You Combine Keto And Intermittent Fasting
Its actually not that hard if youve already got a good handle on keto, since that diet has a stronger learning curve in terms of whats allowed. Technically IF isnt even a diet in the traditional sense, says Brigid Titgemeier, RDN, a functional medicine dietitian and the founder of BeingBrigid.
Intermittent fasting can be paired with any kind of diet because it simply refers to the number of hours that you fast, she explains. Combining keto with intermittent fasting means adhering to the parameters of a ketogenic diet and eating within a condensed window of time.
If you do choose to combine the two, it’s a good idea to ease into it. Aja Gyimah, MHSc, RD, owner of Compete Nutrition, suggests starting with an easier IF schedule to begin with, like a 12- or 10-hour eating window , and work your way up to a longer fast, especially if you’re an avid snacker throughout the day, she adds.
Pros And Cons Of Practicing Both Diets Together
Like any diet, combination or independent, there comes pros and cons. These may not be the case for everyone. But, these are the positives and negatives that may occur for most participants.
It is important to cover the pros and cons so that people can be aware if combining ketogenic and intermittent fasting is beneficial or right for them.
| PROS |
| Reduces the risk of heart disease |
With those pros and cons in mind, you may have some more questions. Below are answers to the top most asked questions about combining the keto diet with intermittent fasting:
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Intermittent Fasting Effects On Stress Levels And Cognitive Function
Fasting has been shown to improve memory, reduce oxidative stress, and preserve learning capabilities.
Scientists believe that intermittent fasting works by forcing your cells to perform better. Because your cells are under mild stress while fasting, the best cells adapt to this stress by enhancing their own ability to cope, while the weakest cells die. This process is called autophagy.
This is similar to the stress your body undergoes when you hit the gym. Exercising is a form of stress your body endures to improve and get stronger, as long as you rest enough after your workouts. This also applies to intermittent fasting and as long as you continue to alternate between regular eating habits and fasting, it can continue to benefit you.
All of this means the keto intermittent fasting combination is powerful and can help improve your cognitive function, thanks to the protective and energizing effects of ketones as well as the mild cellular stress caused by fasting.
Ready To Start Your Keto Diet
If youre still unsure about how to eat, what to eat or what to avoid, dont worry youre not alone! There is a little-known diet system called The 28-Day Keto Challenge which will teach you everything you need to know and guide you through your first month. Getting that in check will increase your metabolism and allow you to shed weight and shed it fast.
Women who have followed The 28-Day Keto Challenge reported losing up to 21 pounds and 2-4 inches from their waist in just a matter of 4 weeksthe methods in The 28-Day Keto Challengeare all backed by science.
Check out this video on The 28-Day Keto Challenge now to learn more about how to follow the dietand lose weight and improve your life in 28 days.
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Putting It All Together
Now you know that there is nothing to fear when it comes to intermittent fasting. Although you will feel hungry at first, your body will adjust by activating autophagy and burning more fat and ketones for fuel.
Ketogenic diet researchers suggest a longer intermittent fast followed by shorter daily intermittent fasts. You can use a fasting protocol that includes fasting for up to 3 days, 3 times a year with a shorter 16 to 20 hour fast on the days before and after the 3-day fasts.
Whether you are fasting for 16 hours or 3 days, it is important to monitor your mineral levels to avoid symptoms of refeeding syndrome.
Supplementing with sodium from unrefined salt and potassium, phosphate, and magnesium from mineral-rich foods and supplements may be necessary for you to avoid excess mineral loss caused by ketogenic diets and fasting.
Try The Most Popular/effective Method
The most popular method is 16/8. Otherwise known as the timed restricted eating routine. This involves 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating. During the eating window you should consume balanced keto meals. Either 2 large meals or 3 smaller meals. Avoid snacking to maximise results and to maintain a strong digestive system. Overeating can cause your digestive system and your metabolism to slow down. This can cause stomach issues and weight gain.
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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.
May Smooth Your Path To Ketosis
Intermittent fasting may help your body reach ketosis quicker than the keto diet alone.
Thats because your body, when fasting, maintains its energy balance by shifting its fuel source from carbs to fats the exact premise of the keto diet .
During fasting, insulin levels and glycogen stores decrease, leading your body to naturally start burning fat for fuel .
For anyone who struggles to reach ketosis while on a keto diet, adding intermittent fasting may effectively jumpstart your process.
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Keto Intermittent Fasting: How It Relates To A Keto Diet
The topics of ketosis and intermittent fasting are closely related and often fall within the same conversation. Thats because fasting can be a useful practice to help you reach ketosis. But is there such a thing as keto intermittent fasting?
Just as intense and prolonged exercise may help induce a ketogenic state, intermittent fasting can help you enter ketosis faster than following a keto diet alone.
There are many more overlaps between intermittent fasting and a low-carb diet, which youll learn about in this guide.
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.
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Positives Of The Keto Diet
Lets go over the keto diet first. The keto diet is basically a means of decreasing your carbohydrates, so lets call it the no-carb diet because the idea is to get your carbohydrates way down, so your body goes into something called ketosis. And ketosis is when your body starts to burn fat, your fat, the fat thats on you, for fuel, and then uses that in place of the sugar that its not getting from the easily-accessible carbohydrates that it turns into sugar. And so when your body goes into that ketogenic state, and its burning this fat, a whole bunch of things happens to you metabolically.
One of the things that happen to you is that you get rapid weight loss very fast, and part of the reason that you get that quick weight loss so fast is that your body is burning off a lot of water. You end up losing a lot of water weight upfront, and thats a good thing. Its not necessarily a bad thing that youre burning off a lot of extra water that your body is holding on to, so rapid weight loss happens within the first few weeks.
Whats The Best Approach
Keto and intermittent fasting both have benefits, that much is clear. Both can also be easier than they sound. The ideal approach would be an intermittent fasting keto diet. This gives you the best of both worlds.
But nutrition is complex.
Every persons situation and needs will be different . Plus, the best diet for your health is always the one that you can stick to. Whatever approach you take should be tailored around your own personal needs. For example:
- Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting applies many intermittent fasting principles but includes drinking Bulletproof coffee in the morning instead of skipping the meal. This can be easier to follow and reduces any negative hormonal effects for women.
- Other people follow a 16:8 approach to intermittent fasting, while also having a keto coffee first thing in the morning. The keto coffee breaks your fast, so the style isnt quite the same as intermittent fasting. But, the approach is much easier and you still get most of the benefits.
- Some people use intermittent fasting to get back into ketosis faster, but dont follow it in the long-term.
- You might follow intermittent fasting consistently and only sometimes follow ketosis too or vice versa.
The best answer is often trial and error. Pick the approach that sounds right to you and see how it affects your health and weight loss. You can then tweak it to best suit your needs.
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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 its 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:
Health Benefits Of 16/8 Intermittent Fasting
Adopting this eating style may seem difficult if youve never tried it before, but once you get used to it, its easy to follow. Plus, the research-backed benefits make it an excellent tool to improve your health.
Intermittent fasting 16/8 has been researched for its ability to improve multiple aspects of your health.
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The Keto Diet And Ketoacidocis
Ketoacidosis is a serious condition that is usually associated with diabetes, but not always. It causes dehydration, poor appetite and difficulty breathing. I found this case where a lactating woman on the ketogenic diet suffered from ketoacidosis particularly revealing. Women in general, but particularly lactating women need more carbs for proper hormonal function.
I am not claiming the keto diet is dangerous and should not be practiced. What I am saying is that if you are doing both intermittent fasting and the ketogenic diet, proceed with caution.
Eat Well Balanced Meals
Along the same lines of well balanced meals, this is ideal for maintaining weight and achieving the best results. Meals packed with high fat and lean protein foods will help you sustain a healthy diet as well as reap maximum benefits. Remember that limiting carb intake is key for the keto diet part. It also helps you achieve ketosis quicker, which encourages excelled fat burning and weight loss.
Well balanced meals full of essential nutrients will also inhibit nutrient deficiencies.
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How Does Intermittent Fasting Work
An intermittent fasting diet is a form of dietary restriction that cycles between periods of eating and fasting. Intermittent fasting has been shown to have profound effects on the human body, including weight loss, reduced disease risks, and slowing down the aging process.
Intermittent fasting works similarly to the keto diet, especially in the process of ketosis. By restricting foods we force our body to generate ketones.
When we eat food, the carbohydrates in food are broken down into glucose.
In the intestines, it is absorbed, then transported to different organs in the bloodstream. Glucose is a key source of energy for cells throughout the body, which convert it into ATP for immediate use or store it in the form of glycogen and fats.
When we dont eat for a longer time and there is no glucose available in our body. At this moment the liver uses glycogen. To provide the body with energy, glycogen is converted to glucose.
Usually, it takes around 10 to 12 hours to use up all of the reserve glycogen stores. For an active person, it may take less time.
Once the reserve of glycogen in the liver runs out, the body taps into energy stores which are in fat cells. The body uses these fat cells as free fatty acids for energy.
If you increase the fasting time long enough the body burns the extra fat for energy in the body. Several benefits can be gained from losing excess fat.
Please read this article How Does Intermittent Fasting Works to learn more.
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.
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Keto For Weight Loss Fat Loss And Improved Cholesterol
The keto diet drastically decreases your carb intake, forcing your body to burn fat rather than glucose. This makes it an effective tool not only for weight loss, but also for the management of diabetes, insulin resistance, and even heart disease.
While individual results vary, keto has consistently led to a reduction in weight and body fat percentage in a wide range of situations.
In a 2017 study, participants who followed a low-carbohydrate keto meal plan significantly decreased body weight, body fat percentage, and fat mass, losing an average of 7.6 pounds and 2.6% body fat while maintaining lean muscle mass.
Similarly, a 2004 study observing the long-term effects of a keto diet in obese people found that their weight and body mass decreased dramatically over the course of two years. Those who drastically reduced their carbohydrate intake saw a significant decrease in LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and improved insulin sensitivity.
In 2012, a study compared a ketogenic diet to eating fewer calories in obese children and adults. The results showed children following the keto diet lost significantly more body weight, fat mass, and total waist circumference. They also showed a dramatic decrease in insulin levels, a biomarker of type 2 diabetes.
Popular Forms Of Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fastinggenerally involves fast periods that last for 16-48 hours. There are manyvariations, but here are a few of the most popular intermittent fastingtechniques.
Eat-Stop-Eat-Type Diets
This type ofintermittent fasting involves severely restricting calorie intake for up to 24hours at a time. The 5:2 Diet is an Eat-Stop-Eat form of intermittent fasting.
People who follow the5:2 Diet have to fast for two days per week. The two fast days dont have to beconsecutive and normal eating is permitted for the other five days of the week.
Random Meal Skipping
Random Meal Skippingis a type of intermittent fasting thats not as hard to adjust to as otherforms of the diet. There will still be times when the belly is empty and hungermay raise its ugly head, but such instances are not frequent. Just pick a mealat random, once or twice a week, then skip it.
However, if you do thistype of intermittent fasting, its best to avoid eating any processed foods.Its also important to resist the urge to snack between meals.
Alternate-Day Fasting
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