Should I start Keto with Intermittent fasting?


(Valeria ) #1

Hello everybody, so after many months of thinking about it and doing research I finally have taken the initiative to better myself and my health. I’m starting my Keto diet on June, and I’m thinking of doing IF from the beginning. My eating habits as in right now are pretty much IF (I always skip breakfast completely, and only have coffee until 1:30pm or so that I go have lunch, then I don’t eat dinner until I come back from the gym which is around 8pm or so. Obviously, on a regular diet those are horrible eating habits (specially when you are over indulging in carbs and crap that is not good for you) but because of this I thought IF would definitely fit my lifestyle and maybe make it easier on me instead of forcing myself to have breakfast and snack through the day. Will this work for me as a beginner, do you guys recommend it or are there cons to doing this right away?


(Little Miss Scare-All) #2

It’s up to you. Have you IF’d before? If not, I say be easy on yourself and get past the first couple weeks at least. Your body will already be like wtf is going on here! Give me the breads! But if you HAVE IF’d before, I say: why not?

I IF’d before I went Keto. So when I started Keto, the IF just naturally followed along (20/4). IF isn’t necessary to do for Keto to do it’s benefit thing. Adding eventually does help break some natural plateaus, spike insulin fewer times a day, etc.


(George) #3

If you’re already used to skipping breakfast I say go for it. There are some people that can’t even imagine not eating breakfast and it’s a hard habit to break. I, like you, never ate before the early afternoon (at least on work-days), so it was easy for me to do it.

The only thing I would watch out for is eating late like 8pm, especially if you go to bed pretty soon after that.


(Robert C) #4

The way Keto is defined here - you would only be having breakfast and snacking if you were hungry (to ensure your metabolism wasn’t slowing down). The weight would be coming off because you get into ketosis and eat little enough in your entire day so that your body burns some of its own fat for fuel

So, if you truly are not in need of food until much later in the day - this will help you even from the start. But not just the “eating later” part - also the “not snacking” part. When you do eat, you should eat enough so that you do not have to eat again for a while (5+ hours).

Finally, avoid the mistake of forcing yourself not to eat when you are hungry. If you happen to want breakfast or an earlier than usual lunch - go for it. Forcing yourself not to eat when hungry (and not yet fat adapted) is difficult to get through and can slow down fat loss (body perceives a calorie deficit and isn’t well enough adapted yet to easily burn body fat so starts - for survival - retaining it).

Also, I agree with @JRS08 - eating late (especially a big dinner) might lead to sleep issues - and lack of sleep tends to halt fat loss progress.


(Marianne) #5

Welcome!

I was never one to eat breakfast, however, when I started keto (3 mo. ago), initially I planned and ate three meals a day. Although I wasn’t necessarily hungry before each meal, the food was delicious and I enjoyed eating it. I firmly believe this helped me almost completely lose my cravings for sweets and carbs, and after I’d say 1-2 weeks of three meals a day, I just found that my body had absolutely no desire to eat that often. I have been on OMAD for a long while now, and I don’t have any problem with it. I am still afraid to try IF beyond 24 hours, however, one of these days…

Good luck with your program. I bet you find you will love keto.


(Marianne) #6

@valeria,

P.S. Valeria has been “my name” (my favorite that I have claimed as ‘original’ as you don’t hear it around here ever) for almost forty years. Every time I hear someone is pregnant with a girl, I say, “oh, if I had a girl, I’d name her Valeria!” Mentioned that to my nephew-in-law over the weekend (they are expecting a boy, although they have a one-year old girl - Vivien). He thought that was a fantastic name if they have another girl.

You go, girrlll!


(Carl Keller) #7

Hi Valeria.

SInce you are used to not eating in the morning, I see no problem with continuing your current eating schedule when you switch to LCHF. The risk with any form of fasting is slowing your metabolism and as long as you are not forcing yourself to be insanely hungry on a regular basis, then that won’t occur.

One word of caution about the gym… as we transition from being a carb burner to a fat burner, there can be a struggle for consistent energy. Your workouts might suffer for the first month and it might be best to just take it easy while things figure themselves out. Eventually, you should find working out easier than you have ever known. More energy and shorter recovery time is typical in most people.


#8

I, like you, rarely ate breakfast my whole life. This stayed the same when I started keto. When I eventually learned about IF it was that much easier to just start prolonging the fasting duration over time (and shortening the eating window). Congrats on deciding to take charge of your health and best of luck on your journey. You are going to enjoy NEVER having to go hungry again.


(Valeria ) #9

Thank you everyone for the responses and information!

Regarding that eating too late, I was thinking of having my heaviest meal during lunch (1pm or so), I’m definitely going to cook most my meals on weekends just to have everything ready. I normally go to sleep very late, which I know is not a good thing. My normal sleeping schedule is between 12am-2am, and I wake up around 7:30 am (while doing Keto I will definitely try to go to sleep by 12 max as I know not getting enough sleep could affect my metabolism as well), so would it be okay if I have those 3-4 hours to digest my diner?

I exercise normally 2-3 times a week. I honestly don’t go hard at the gym, I’m a cardio bunny so I mostly do elliptical and treadmill for around an hour. I heard about the keto flu and having no energy the first couple of weeks while your body gets used to the no carbs. Would you guys suggest maybe lowering my exercising and doing maybe just 30 min at the beginning, or should I just quit for the first week or so until my body gets used to it? I mean, would this have any adverse effect on my weight loss?

I’m not going to lie, while I’m excited to start this new journey, at the same time I’m sorta terrified, specially of failing; and gaining weight instead of losing it. I think my biggest fear is the whole getting my macros correctly so my body can get into ketosis, and the whole portioning my meals without having too little/too much fat/proteins. Maybe I’m just overanalazying everything like I normally do, and I just need to go for it and just keep modifing things as I go and just go by trial and error. I guess at this point all I can do is try my best, and go for it. Once again, thank you all for the tips and suggestions, I’m definitely going to be on this forum a lot while I start my journey, if anyone has any more tips or suggestions please feel free to throw them my way :slight_smile:


(Valeria ) #10

Haha thank you! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I really love my name, specially since like you said, is not that common here. Is funny, because when I first came to the US, for a while I hated my name because nobody could pronounce it correcrly, plus most people tend to forget it because they would find it too difficult to pronounce. Now most people I know just call me Val, but whenever someone calls me by my full name and pronounces it correctly, I get so happy! :rofl:


(Sandy P) #11

Absolutely, if your lifestyle is already IF, this will be easy for you. I recommend you check out Dr. Berg on YouTube. He has great info on scientific studies concerning IF. Good luck to you