Can drinking black coffee with coconut oil instead of "snacking" during fasting window be benefical for energy levels?


(Ivan Talafuk) #1

I know that coconut oil is contradictory to “fasting window”, as it contains enough calories so technically I am not really fasting when I consume it. But this is exactly my point. I am usually not experimenting the standard, 16:8 intermittent fasting where you wake up, wait couple hours and then eat. Instead I do have a high-fat, moderate-protein, low-carb breakfast after waking up, making it about 30-40% of my daily calories. But since at this point I haven’t made insulin busy as if I would do if I would include carbs in my breakfast… my body is presumably running on fats to substain energy. I complete 90 min aerobic and anaerobic training. in many cases I wake up and eat my first meal around 6-7 a.m., I then avoid eating anything for 8 hours even after workout, and I gap on salted green tea and guarana extract drink enriched with amino-acids. Then midday I consume black coffee with coconut oil so combination of caffeine and medium-chain trigylcerides from saturated coconut oil gives me that energy kick so I can attack the rest of the day and also ensure brain keeps running on fats. Then 8 hours later, I finally have a second meal consisting of 60-70% of my daily calories, and this meal is mix of sugar, complex carbohydrates, lean protein and veggies. This makes total gap between two bigger meals of my day total of 16 hours.

Now why do I practice eating this way? Because I have made my own beliefs that keto diet and intermittent fasting works great together but as it is partially beneficial, it is partially lacking. My eating pattern in fact consists of 50% carbohydrates yet my insulin is low during the whole day, and I still lose 0.5-1 kg per week and I feel and look better. :slight_smile: So why I avoid carbs during the day, but I am still not on keto? Because when you consume protein from animals, you store the amino acid called tryptophan. My energy drink in fact does not have this aminoacid, but I do store it through breakfast meal. Once you consume carbohdydrates during the day, especially ones higher in sugar… you instantly start sending signals for your body to transport stored tryptophan and activate the neuro transmitter in your brain called seratonin. Seratonin has many key roles regarding your mood and how you feel, but one of the key roles it has is making you feel relaxed. This is what you want at night so you can have a restful sleep and use all the stored glucose to replenish your broken muscle fibres, which is why post-workout anabolic window makes no sense anymore to me, as with repeated consuming carbs after morning workouts I learned the hard way that I fail at stabilizing my energy levels through the rest of the day no matter what kind of carbs I consume. This is even worse if I start my morning with carbohydrates, such as the old-fashioned oatmeal. The soon as glucose enters my bloodstream, I am getting fatigued, grumpy and I feel lazy to do anything. So there is a reason seratonin gives you the calming effect, and this is because seratonin needs to convert to melatonin, which is a sleep cycle hormone. This is why I think it makes no sense to consume carbs during the, especially if we would consume most of our carbs before night. Our body’s natural response at evening is to burn sugar and this is why you need to refill glycogen levels at night. So you can transport tryptophan, and prepare your body for muscle repairement. If you consume carbs during the day, you burn those carbs and you end up with lower glycogen levels at night. And your body needs full glycogen during sleep to prepare you for next morning, so you don’t end up waking up with that much of depleted glycogen. And of course, same thing next day… instead of refilling that glycogen (it’s not even probably fully depleted), you attack the fats and some protein, but later on you avoid protein as well or it will start transporting tryptophan by itself if your approach should be protein based snack only. Use saturated fats such as coconut oil, and maybe even butter or pork fat, beef fat to your advantage during the day to prevent your liver to start converting glucose from aminoacids.

So to sum it up, I eat breakfast shortly after waking up consisting mainly of fat, and some protein so my body keeps using fat for energy and not sugar, my only snack midday is coconut oil… so no carbs or protein yet, and my dinner which is technically a second meal consists mainly of all the carbs to use this is a key moment to take advantage of insulin and prepare myself for sleep. The worst you can do, is start preparing yourself for sleep middle of the day. So trust me, neither are carbs nor fats bad. You need cholesterol, you need insulin, you need sodium… You just need to know how to manipulate all these things. For instance, using sodium should be done during the fasting window, not so much during the meals. Especially the ones high in carbs. Drinking water and hydration is also key point to good health, but constant drinking between meals when your body is busy digesting and absorbing all the nutrients leads to unnecessary bloating, water and sodium retention. You’re supposed to be active to get that extra sodium out of your body, but you should also consume it to prevent loss of lot of minerals. And naturally, our waters should be full of sodium. Unfortunately in modern time, they lack sodium so best strategy is to gap on water when you’re not eating and mixing it with little bit of salt. This means adding salt to your meals should be minimized as some of the foods like fish, dairy and such contain a lot of sodium already. Especially processed, packaged food. One can of sardines in my local supermarket contained 1100 mgs of sodium per serving, which is ridiculous amount.

So what is the point of this topic? As, you’ve probably known by now… I have been experimenting with this way of eating and I’ve been achieving great results, mentally and physicially… I even can afford myself one day in week cheat day 1000 calories higher than rest of the days, and still lose fat and regain most of my muscle and strength. I am curious as to how many found themselves doing the same thing, and what are your opinions on all this? Is this supposed to be controversial, or does it make sense to you? Do tell. :slight_smile:


(Troy) #2

First of all
Welcome aboard :grinning:

I’m no help for your question(s) right now
Others may be able to chime in

I Got kicked out of ketosis reading all this or it may be just some brain fog On my part :flushed:

Good Luck!


(Deborah) #3

Welcome,
I think the coffee with coconut oil sounds good!