Intermittent fasting and the keto diet are two eating strategies that have gained a lot of popularity over the past few years and the benefits of the two styles overlap. Weight loss, consistent energy, better mood, better blood sugar control, and improved insulin resistance to name a few but should you combine the two, combining them leads to better and quicker results.
Let’s answer those questions in today’s article. Hey, guys welcome to shape insider, if you’re new here my name is Swapan Patra I’m a certified health and nutrition coach. Before we get into it, let me know in the comment below whether you’ve tried the keto diet, intermittent fasting one or the other, or both.
I want to hear about your experience in the comments down below I’m curious if you had better results with one or the other or combined the two. The main reason that keto and intermittent fasting have such overlap with their benefits is that both strategies get you into ketosis.
What is Ketosis?
ketosis is a metabolic state where you are burning mainly fat for energy, both dietary and body fat. The body goes into ketosis and starts using fat for energy when carbohydrates are restricted.
Carbohydrates provide us with a different type of energy glucose, glucose is a quick but short-lived energy source because our bodies cannot store much of it. However, when it comes to Fat our bodies can store upwards of a hundred thousand calories worth of energy of fat as body fat.
And if you’re overweight this amount is much much more. when you were eating a keto diet you are restricting carbohydrates and you’re eating mainly fat and protein. So your body switches to mainly burning fat and you go into ketosis.
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Intermittent fasting
But another way to get into ketosis is through fasting. Now when I say fast, I mean not eating anything for a period of time technically we’re all fasting when we’re sleeping but some people fast longer and when you’re fasting obviously, you’re not eating anything so you’re not eating any carbohydrates and you go into ketosis which is where most of the benefits start from.
So let’s talk a little bit more about what fasting is and why it can be a nice addition to the ketogenic diet. Anytime you are not eating throughout the day is known as fasting. From the time you take your last bite of food in the evening to the time you take your first bite the following day is known as your fasting window.
Now when you’re in ketosis a lot of people find it’s a lot easier to go in between meals without feeling hungry and without experiencing an energy crash and this goes back to the fact that you have a lot of stored energy as fat on your body.
So when you’re burning fat you can go hours at a time without needing to eat and this is why a lot of people who are eating a keto diet also practice Intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting which is sometimes shortened to it just means that you have a fasting schedule.
A popular variation is 16:8 where you fast for 16 hours a day and then eat all of your calories within an eight-hour window. If you have your last bit of food at 7 pm one day the next day you’ll have your first bite of food at 11 am.
Now one of the biggest benefits of the keto diet is that it regulates blood sugar and insulin and this is especially beneficial for anyone with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes who is trying to reverse it.
But keeping blood sugar and Insulin stable has other benefits as well. It prevents huge crashes and energy throughout the day. You can go several hours between meals you’re more efficient at burning fat and weight loss are easier.
It helps keep your hormones balanced, can improve your sleep, and also reduces your disease risk. Fasting has the same effect another benefit that you get from fasting that you can also get from the keto diet is an increase in autophagy.
Autophagy is when damaged cells in our body are broken down and used to create new healthy cells the best way to really boost autophagy is through extended fasting. Usually autophagy Peaks around 24 to 72 hours but eating a low-carb ketogenic diet also triggers it and this is one of the reasons why people eat a keto diet its inflammation goes down.
So because the benefits of intermittent fasting and keto are so similar, keto is often said to mimic fasting. I do not think it’s necessary to stick to a strict intermittent fasting schedule if you’re already eating keto you don’t have to do this in order to get results but I do find that fasting tends to fall into place naturally.
Simply because you’re less hungry and you can go longer without eating, so instead of sticking to a strict 16 8 schedule for most people I recommend just letting fasting come naturally. for example, if you wake up in the morning and you’re not hungry you don’t have to force yourself to have breakfast wait until you’re hungry it extends your fasting window, and then eat.
Now before we wrap up there’s one final topic that I want to touch on and that is what breaks a fast this is really important to know because you don’t want to be consuming anything within your fasting window that could potentially take away from the benefits.
Now to break a fast means that your fasting window has ended, and you’ve consumed something that has taken away from the benefits of fasting. basically, anything that causes your blood sugar or insulin to rise will break a fast.
So of course water does not break a fast during your fasting window you should be drinking water and you should also be supplementing electrolytes. electrolytes on their own don’t break a fast but watch out some brands have added sugar has added other artificial ingredients and those will break a fast.
A good product I like is soda’s everyday hydration salts they have no added sugar and they also have a good amount of electrolytes, other drinks that don’t break a fast are black coffee and unsweetened tea so
what does break a fast
Technically any food you consume or any sweetened drinks with calories, now there’s some debate over whether diet soda breaks a fast in some studies when an individual who is fasting consumed diet soda their insulin did not raise but when they drank the diet soda with a meal it caused a rise more significant than drinking the soda alone.
