Fasting?

(Tom) #1

I dont eat anything after 8pm. I wake up around 7:30am 8 the latest. My first meal isn’t till 12 pm, is this good fasting

(Susan) #2

Welcome to the forum Tom.

That is IF (Intermitant Fasting( you eat one meal at 12pm and another one or just the one?).

I eat my first meal at 1pm and my second one at 4:45 so that I can Fast daily from 5pm -until 1pm for 20 hours fasting, 4 hours eating two meals for an IF of 20:4.

The term Fasting is usually doing 24 hours or more of no eating, drinking water and black coffee or tea =).

(Tom) #3

Thank you. Yes my first meal is at noon. but I do have coffee when I wake.
I have a snack around 4pm and dinner around 6:30 or 7pm my snack is usually pork skins or boiled egg

(Susan) #4

Great, it seems like you are off to a good start on Keto =). Best wishes on your new healthy life style =).

(Full Metal KETO AF) #5

Awesome schedule. Do you drink black coffee or do you add fat like cream, butter or MCT oil? If you do it’s not true intermittent fasting. I switched to black for this reason, to keep the fasting window clean.

As you become comfortable with this pattern try to eat a little more at the first meal so you can eliminate the snack. This gives you time for insulin to lower between the meals. It’s all about getting insulin down as low as you can for as many hours as you can with fasting. After you’re comfortable with eliminating the snack you can try making the time of the eating window shorter. Now you are doing what people call 16/8 and you can start to change it as you are able to fit it into your schedule to 17/7 18/6…20/4 and if you want to go to One meal 23/1 or OMAD. I am doing 19/5 most days now. I eat at about 9:30am and 2pm most days. That’s what works best for me now but it doesn’t fit well with lots of people’s schedules so do what works for you. :cowboy_hat_face:

(Tom) #6

Yes just black coffee in the am.
I do have energy drinks threw out the day
Sugar free and zero carbs usually about 2 a day

(Full Metal KETO AF) #7

You should do a quick web search for insulin response to the particular sweeteners in the energy drink. Even though artificial sweeteners may be zero carb most of them create an insulin spike because when you taste anything resembling sugar your pancreas starts pumping insulin into your blood to deal with the glucose your body thinks is coming. So drinking them throughout the day might keep insulin high stalling fat metabolism. My thought is artificial sweeteners are ok if you’re having like a diet soda with food now and then when insulin is necessary. There is a great variation in thought concerning artificial sweeteners and many people have problems losing weight while using them. I only use them occasionally for cooking, never in drinks. I never liked them in coffee or tea. I get a diet coke on the rare occasion I eat in a restaurant which I avoid mostly if possible. I make room for social stuff but I never go out and eat alone so it isn’t often. Just be aware and if you are not losing I would experiment with cutting them out and drinking coffee instead.

#8

Watch out for those energy drinks, pre-keto I had one that I absolutely loved - couldn’t figure out at the time why it made my blood sugar crash like crazy…it was loaded with Niacin, which I just learned can raise blood sugar levels especially in those with insulin resistance and diabetes type II.

(Tom) #9

I drink the zero carb and sugar rockstar’s
I did read up on them for keto and it said they were keto friendly. I have about 2 a day but I mix them with water. Half water and half rockstar. Doesnt Seem to be effecting my wieght loss any still losing about a pound to 2 a week

(mole person) #10

This is a rational hypothesis but I think the existing science is pointing strongly in the other direction.

This is an accurate description of the Cephalic response. But the amount of insulin secreted in response is typically not high if no carbohydrates are actually ultimately met. This is why so many fasting glucose and insulin tests of non nutritive sweetners taken in the absence of other foods find that neither spike much in response compared to a similar response with sugar.

These are the results that the sweetner companies love to point to, they also tend to compromise the n=1 experiments people do to prove that they are fine with a particular sweetener.

Unfortunately, the science suggests it works the opposite way. Sweeteners increase the insulin response to actual food. Sucralose increases that insulin response by a whopping 20%. These experiments make me completely discount any “sweeteners don’t increase insulin” evidence unless it’s done within the context of a caloric load.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #11

Except for individual tests done on themselves by forum members, I haven’t heard of any tests of the effect on insulin of non-sugar sweeteners. The FDA in the U.S. requires only proof that non-sugar sweeteners don’t raise glucose, so manufacturers don’t generally bother to test for any effect on insulin.

(Full Metal KETO AF) #12

@PaulL I always thought diabetics only monitor BG and not insulin. Is there such a thing as testing insulin responses to individual foods or meals at home that I haven’t heard about? :cowboy_hat_face: