For some people, embarking on a diet involving the keto and intermittent fasting plans can be daunting, though studies have shown these regimens bring positive health advantages.
To comprehend how unifying these two ideas advances your physical wellbeing, we must determine the meaning of each thought.
If you are still considering a ketogenic diet, it may be helpful to try intermittent fasting to induce a state of ketosis. If you have already begun a diet plan, it could be beneficial to attempt fasting to break through a plateau in your weight loss.
Dr. Nikola Djordjevic, a medical consultant for HealthCareers, stated that intermittent fasting and a keto diet are likely the most commonly associated eating methods.
Here’s what you should know.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
IF is a type of eating pattern which involves alternating between periods of eating and abstaining from food. There is no particular regulation concerning what foods should be ingested and when.
For example, a popular IF method is meal skipping. In this approach, you don’t have to eat breakfast and lunch can be your initial meal of the day.
There are other ways to do IF, and they include:
- One meal a day (OMAD). You consume all your calories in one meal. If this is your first time to try fasting, consider other methods as OMAD can be difficult for beginners.
- 16/8 method. This entails eating within an 8-hour period and fasting for the remaining 16 hours. Dr. Nikola Djordjevic personally recommends the 16/8 method especially when combined with keto, since it reduces meal prep time.
- Alternate-day fasting (ADF). A stricter form of IF, it involves a 36-hour fasting period, followed by a 12-hour window in which you can eat as much as you want. A study showed that healthy, non-obese adults can safely practice ADF for several months.
- 5:2 diet. The 5:2 diet involves eating for five days a week and limiting your calorie intake to 500-600 calories during the two remaining days.
Basically, your cells are capable of handling stress and can fight off illness.
What is the Keto Diet?
The ketogenic diet consists of low amounts of carbohydrates, moderate proteins, and a high concentration of fats.
You must limit your carbohydrate intake to between 20-50 grams each day if following a keto diet. This exhausts your body’s supply of glycogen, making it necessary to utilize fat as an energy source. This results in the production of an alternate energy source known as ketones.
People who are unaware should be aware that the keto diet is not a passing trend, but rather based on scientific evidence. This eating plan was originally used as an approach to manage epilepsy back in the 1920s.
Nowadays, a lot of people are utilizing it for slimming down, and to boost their physical and mental faculties.
What Are the Potential Benefits of Intermittent Fasting and Keto?
At this point, you should be aware that combining intermittent fasting with a keto diet could be an effective strategy for those who wish to achieve certain health and fitness goals. If you are curious as to what advantages you may obtain as you progress, continue reading.
Helps you ease your way into ketosis
Individuals who practice periodic fasting discover that they enter ketosis quicker than if they solely do the ketogenic diet. So yes, fasting to induce ketosis is possible.
Do you recall us discussing the ketogenic diet as a potential therapy for seizures? Studies have revealed a link between seizure suppression and not only lower blood glucose levels, but also elevated ketone levels.
According to Dr. Richard Harris, who started Great Health and Wellness, the most effective method of entering ketosis is through intermittent fasting. Harris states that it can take up to one month for someone to become accustomed to running solely on fat and remaining in ketosis simply from the diet, rather than relying on other types of ketosis measures.
A ketogenic diet makes fasting more manageable
Getting into ketosis can be attained by intermittent fasting, which is an essential approach. What would happen if you had been following a keto diet for a while? Hayley Cimring, a qualified nutritionist, suggests that consuming a keto diet full of fat and low in starch will enable fasting to be simpler and more achievable.
Cimring explains that following a ketogenic diet will help the body become more well-accustomed to fat consumption, therefore improving the capacity to go on a longer-term fast without feeling drained, blue, or ravenously hungry.
Boosts fat loss
Combining keto and intermittent fasting results in fat loss. Carbohydrate intake is reduced to incite the burning of fat while in a state of ketosis. That means you are now using your saved fat to stay energetic.
In fact, supplementing with ketones can enhance physical performance. Your workouts will be easier to complete and you will accomplish your objectives faster due to increased energy.
Interval fasting stimulates fatty thermogenesis, which is a method where the body produces heat. A double-blind, 8-week study has shown that thermogenesis helps to reduce body fat.
Melissa Nieves, LND, RD, MPH, claims that combining a ketogenic diet with fasting may bring about notable differences in weight loss due to the previously existing fat burning from the keto diet.
The findings of a current examination demonstrated that overweight and obese women, who underwent part-day fasting for a period of 6 weeks, lost a total of 7.1% of body weight and 5.7% of abdominal fat.
People who are successful in adhering to intermittent fasting find it controls their hunger.
Improves blood glucose levels
By taking a rest from eating, you can manage your levels of blood sugar.
University of Adelaide researchers had an interesting discovery:
The male participants who had the potential to develop type 2 diabetes were requested to keep their food consumption within a nine hour period. This “time-restricted eating strategy” normalized their fasting blood glucose.
The people involved achieved success without altering the type of food they consumed. Leonie Heilbronn, an associate professor at the university, indicated that this research demonstrates the possibility of relishing food items that are thought to be “unhealthy” so long as they are consumed at the correct moment.
What would happen if you mixed intermittent fasting and the keto diet together?
Using a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet has been demonstrated to be useful in increasing blood sugar levels. If you have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it may be possible to reduce or even discontinue your medications.
A 2005 study showed this. 28 individuals who were overweight and had type 2 diabetes took in fewer than 20 grams of carbohydrates daily. Simultaneously, they diminished the quantity of their diabetes medicine. The result? The average level of glucose in their blood over the last couple of months lowered as measured by their Hemoglobin A1c test.
Virta Health released the results of their two-year clinical trial, which demonstrated the ongoing effects of utilizing a low carb, high-fat diet to treat type 2 diabetes. The people involved in this study saw notable benefits in their blood sugar level, insulin, HbA1c, weight, blood pressure, triglyceride, liver function, and levels of inflammation. They were also able to depend less on medication.
How can you combine keto and intermittent fasting?
It’s quite simple if you know how to follow the keto lifestyle, since this regime poses a higher difficulty in terms of what kinds of food it allows. Brigid Titgemeier, RDN, a functional medicine dietitian and the founder of BeingBrigid describes intermittent fasting (IF) as not a typical “diet” by any means.
She explains that no matter what type of dietary plan you follow, intermittent fasting can be incorporated as it just requires you to observe the amount of time you go without food. Following the guidelines of a keto diet and only eating during a specific period are what is meant by combining keto and intermittent fasting.
It would be advantageous to gradually transition into combining the two if you decide to do so. According to Aja Gyimah, MHSc, RD, the proprietor of Compete Nutrition, transitioning to a more intensive IF routine should be made gradually (e.g. start with a 12- or 10-hour eating window, paired with a 12-or 14-hour fasting window that can be adjusted to fit your lifestyle) particularly if you are a frequent snacker during the day.
What does a day of following keto and IF look like?
Gyimah offers a meal plan that is consistent with both a ketogenic diet and a fasting regime. The program is structured around a 12-hour period of eating followed by a 12-hour overnight fast, and consumes 20-25 grams of carbohydrates each day. The speaker emphasizes the importance of consuming liquids such as water, tea, or coffee with every meal in order to stay hydrated.
- 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 (tuna salad with peppers, celery, and mayo spooned into two avocado halves)
- 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
Gyimah proposes a more difficult plan with a 10-hour eating period and 14-hour fast, featuring a carbohydrate allowance of around 30 grams each day. You should make sure to drink plenty of fluids, especially water, during mealtimes to stay 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
Titgemeier provides the following eating plan to follow when fasting for a long period, with a duration of 8 hours of eating and 16 hours of fasting from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m.
- 7 a.m. : Green tea or black coffee
- 10 a.m. : Keto macadamia bread topped with ricotta cheese and sauerkraut
- 12 p.m. : 4-6 ounces of wild salmon served with a bed of sautéed greens and ½ avocado
- 3 p.m. : Grainless granola with unsweetened almond yogurt
- 5:30 p.m. : Shrimp bowl with 4-6 ounces of shrimp, cauliflower rice and sunflower seeds
- 7 p.m. : Herbal tea
Who should try combining intermittent fasting and keto?
If you are aiming to rapidly lose weight, incorporating Intermittent Fasting and the Keto diet together may be an appropriate choice for you. The degree to which you may be affected by a certain illness could vary depending on any existing medical conditions you have.
Gyimah states that people with type 2 diabetes may find advantages from the utilization of ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting, like decreased weight and the potential to minimize medications. Those with prediabetes might gain advantages such as weight loss and lower insulin levels, as suggested by Gyimah.
If you have type 1 diabetes, the ketogenic diet may not be a safe option. Those with type 1 diabetes should be cognizant that attempting this eating regimen has the potential to lead to a situation known as diabetic ketoacidosis, warns Gyimah, where ketones accumulate in their body and can be harmful. No matter what medical problems you have, it is best to consult with your doctor before beginning any dietary modifications, particularly the keto or intermittent fasting diet.
Side effects to combining keto and intermittent fasting?
Previously, WH has discussed the nauseating outcomes that those on the keto diet may experience (including constipation, diarrhea, and hair loss). Additionally, Intermittent Fasting could be hazardous, causing an individual to feel low blood sugar, weary, queasy, and always feeling irritable because of hunger.
Do you experience twice as many adverse effects if you combine the diets? In theory, yes. Using both diets at the same time does nothing to prevent the possible side effects of either one, meaning you may end up with an unpleasant experience such as nausea and irregularity with bowel movements, or even hair loss accompanied by irritability.
The most significant disadvantage of joining a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting is the dedication and hard work necessary to do so, as well as how likely you are to not succeed.
Schaub commented that it is incredibly demanding to stay on such a restricted diet. Maintaining a social life and a flexible lifestyle become challenging when consuming a high-fat, low-carb diet, and if you further restrict it to an 8-hour eating window, it becomes even more difficult to sustain.
The one plus side? According to Schaub, the combination of IF and keto could be less unpleasant due to the fact that the ketogenic diet is quite filling, thus making it simpler to reduce the time of your meals.
In conclusion, eating according to IF guidelines is a more sustainable approach while the keto diet is stricter and may not be suitable for kids, pregnant women, those with a previous struggle with eating disorders, heavy athletes, or people with specific health conditions.
Titgemeier suggests consulting with a dietitian or other healthcare professional before beginning a regimen that combines a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting. You might want to try intermittent fasting first and observe how it affects you before completely committing to both intermittent fasting and the keto diet.
The conclusion: Doing both the keto and intermittent fasting diet together could be more advantageous in terms of weight-loss than just doing either one diet by itself. It might be difficult to persist with both for a sufficient timeframe to start getting results.
