Two week on Keto and Intermittent fasting

(Karen ) #1

Happy Friday!

I’m new to Keto - only on my 2nd week. I do 16/8 fast 5 times a week. It’s been great so far. I do feel a little sluggish around noon daily but it hasn’t been that bad. The hardest part has been drinking black coffee in the mornings because i fast until about 11am. No fun! It’s been 2 weeks and i still don’t love it! I hope I get used it! :nauseated_face: Otherwise, these two weeks have been great! I really feel great! I’m happy to join this forum and read everyone’s advice and experiences!

#2

Hello! This is my fasting window as well – nothing before 11 or noon. But I am confused. Do you not enjoy coffee or just not black coffee? There isn’t a rule that says you have to have coffee. :slight_smile:

(Karen ) #3

I just don’t enjoy black coffee.

#4

Ahhh gotcha. Well you can add heavy cream or try tea (or water)? I tried butter in mine once. That was a no-go for me. Too slippery! But I love my coffee black anyway.

I was just posting about Coconut Bai the other day and there are a lot of replies with some other beverage options. Don’t torture yourself! Haha!

(Karen ) #5

I read that adding butter or MST powder or anything would break my fast. Is that not true?

(John) #6

So don’t drink black coffee. Either add something to it, or drink something else.

I like unsweetened almond milk as a drink. 8 ounces is between 30 and 40 calories, with around 1g of carbs, and some of that is fiber, and the rest from fat. So 1/8 cup = 2 tbsp = about 5 calories, or 1/4 cup = 10 calories, mostly from fat. Put that in the coffee as a lightener if you want.

Or just drink tea, or water, or whatever you like to drink.

#7

Oh I get it now. Sorry. I was focused more on the coffee and not on the fasting. Yes, as I understand it, anything with a calorie would break a fast. That said, I think Stevia, waters, and green teas would all be ok and not break your fast. Someone way more versed in the science of this than me will know for sure.

(Joey) #8

Still quite new to this keto-thing, but I understand there’s an important distinction - and some cross-currents - to be drawn between IF fasting windows and coffee (without or without any fat sources in it).

If you’re new to keto (2 weeks?), it might be advisable to NOT worry at all about fasting windows. Let your body become fully keto-adapted first … while keeping your carbs restricted (e.g., <20g/day) and maintaining a prudent level of protein (based on your lean body weight), then eat as many of those delicious fats as you have a genuine hunger for … whenever that hunger might arise!

The more you get your metabolism solidly into the fat-burning (ketone-producing) stage, and your brain and vital organs and muscles get reoriented to burn the ketones rather than the glucose from carbs, the better results you’ll get with EVERYTHING else you do inside your keto eating habits.

There’s a time and place for fasting (either intermittent or longer duration), but I would suggest to you that the first and most critical thing to do - upon which all other measures depend - is to get yourself into that fat-adapted state which typically takes several weeks to a month or more. For women, it often takes longer than for men.

So… eat (fat), drink (fat), and be merry. Enjoy that coffee with whatever you like in it (other than carbs) at whatever time of day you wish. There’ll be plenty of time to try out things like IF and other add-on measures to further enhance progress along your longer term goals.

Best of luck!

(Tyler) #9

You could add heavy cream to it

(Full Metal KETO AF) #10

There are many goals for fasting. Keeping insulin low is the biggest one. Adding butter and MCT oil to coffee doesn’t add carbohydrates to your drink so there is no insulin spike. Heavy cream will not allow this. At this point I think it’s fine to drink coffee this way. If your fasting goals center around autophagy (recycling of excess protein from dying cells, excess skin and unnecessary protein structures in breaking down body fat) then water fasting is better, but a little fat doesn’t kill the process. You might not burn body fat until the exogenous fat consumed has been used though.

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

I think Joey is on the right track. Two weeks into this way of eating is not the time to force fasting on yourself. Allow yourself to adapt, and let fasting happen naturally. A lot of people find that they are so satisfied when they eat mostly fat and protein and very little carbohydrate that they just naturally start skipping meals, because they aren’t hungry. If you listen to your body, eating when it tells you it needs energy and stopping when it tells you you’ve given it enough, you will be surprised how easy fasting becomes. Once you are fully adapted to metabolising fatty acids instead of glucose, then you can venture easily into full-day and multi-day fasts.

(Susan) #12

I hate coffee, so I drink some green tea or flavoured herbal tea =).