Fatty coffee or tea questions during IF in thin T2D person

#1

Greetings. I am a 63 year old T2D, 6 foot tall and 150 pounds, thus low body fat percentage. My Hga1c has come down to 5.6 and I have been keto for several years. My goal is to reduce my HgA1c further by reducing insulin resistance and for 6 weeks I have restricted my eating window to 12 noon to 6pm. I have learned that I have to make sure those two meals of lunch and dinner have all the calories that I would have eaten in three meals or I drop weight like crazy which I do not want.

I have noticed however that in the mornings while I am fasting, I get substantially colder and by the later half of the morning I am really hungry. My keto meter shows that I am in full ketosis.

Here is my question about fatty coffee or tea. During this IF period in the morning will drinking some fatty coffee or tea (butter or Coconut oil) help with the cold feeling and hunger BUT NOT raise my insulin levels? My thinking is that because I am so lean, my residual fat cells are probably not providing me enough energy during the morning IF period and thus the hunger and cold feeling. Will trying the fatty coffee or tea idea help me have enough energy and not sabotage my goal of not raising my insulin to further promote insulin sensitivity?

Thanks for any thoughts you might have. I know that I am unusual in that I am so thin, but still have had diabetes that I have now reversed. I am still taking metformin and another goal I have is by reducing insulin resistance further and thus lowering HgA1c more, I will probably come off the medicine. But my main question here is about fatty coffee or tea and insulin during daily IF. Thanks so much!

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #2

Thin people report having a certain amount of difficulty fasting, so your experience is not unusual. Fat would indeed give you some energy, and is a solution that many fasting thin people have hit upon. Fat has a negligible effect on insulin, so you could safely try some during a fast without increasing your insulin.

You could also consider just stopping fasting when you start to get cold and hungry. As Jeff Volek points out, a ketogenic diet provides the benefits of fasting, but without the hunger.

Doing exercise, if you would enjoy it, will also promote mitochondrial health and reduce insulin resistance.

#3

Thank you for the thoughtful reply! After hearing Richard Morris’s explanation of the time limited ability of fat cells to supply energy, I suspect that my scant fat stores are having trouble supplying enough energy during my fasts and therefore I have started to think about supplementing during “fasting” hours with some fat as questioned about in the original question.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

If you search the site for “fat fast” you are sure to turn up many helpful threads (unlike a lot of places, we have a fairly functional search function here). There is also a whole Fasting forum, and you might find it profitable to browse a bit there, just to see what you can turn up. Keep us posted how you’re doing, okay?