When is a good time to start intermittent fasting

(Kellie) #1

I’m on week 4 of keto and wouldn’t like to see more weightloss progress. I’m wondering if I need to wait a few more weeks until my body is fat adapted to start fasting or if I can do that at any time. Also when will I know I’m fat adapted ? I feel I am pretty good with my diet the only thing the has had slips up is hidden sugars but even when I eat the hidden sugars like dextrose ( which I didn’t know was sugar because labels trick us by masking it with the fancy name and Iv been eating sasaugaes and salami ) I’m still in ketosis on my blood monitor

(Jay AM) #2

You should be eating enough low carb, moderate protein, fat to satiety at meals, while only eating when hungry and not when not hungry, that IF just sort of happens. When it happens is up to your body as long as you are intaking enough. As far as purposely fasting, wait until you’re fat adapted. It takes an average of 6-8 week but can take longer. Likely you’ll notice accidental IF once becoming fat adapted. Also noting that fasting isn’t about restricting calories to lose weight. Fasting should be followed by feasting.

(RL) #3

I started IF about a week after starting Keto (if that), and I admit I’m very lazy keto so I don’t even know how keto I’ve actually been, but I had no issues going to IF that early.

So I think you are more than o.k. to start IF now.

(Jay Patten) #4

When you feel ready :grin:

When I started I ate breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Now I eat one meal a day (24 hour fasting) pretty much every day. Sometimes I do 36 hour fasts (and the occasional 48 hour fast) as needed.

(Kellie) #5

That is just so crazy to me that a person could go like a whole day without eating but I guess if you think of it way way long ago we had to hunt for food we didn’t have the convience we have today with food being everywhere so our bodies probably are naturally designed to go periods of time without food

(charlie3) #6

Learning any new practice is better served if things are planned as a series of steps that are successful instead of the reverse. This is good for any kind of training. What I did first, working into keto, was to eliminate snacks. I ate meals and nothing more. When that was routine I started meal skipping, breakfast worked for me. In the first couple of weeks I needed to start eating out of my lunch box before the appointed time, noon. Now I’m always able to wait for lunch. Sometimes I have hunger pangs starting about 9:30 am. My experience is they mostly disappear by about 11:30 am.

Next I added skipping three meals on Saturdays meaning a 36 hour fast. I’ve got a routine for that now too. On Sunday I have an early breakfast and early dinner and usually a keto compatible desert. Then it all starts again on Monday.

All of this gets easier, especially now that I’ve learned that hunger pangs always fade if I wait them out. So I advocate patience, planning for successes and increasing confidence instead of pushing things too fast.

Eliminating snacks, 6 breakfasts plus all meals on Saturday reduces the number of times I eat from about 35 times to 12 per week. I believe that’s good for me in a lot of ways. I’m physically active, resistance training, cardio, walking, and long hours at work. I have plenty of energy for all that.

(LeeAnn Brooks) #7

I started it a bit too soon at 4 weeks. Wasn’t quite ready so I backed off. I had no problem with the hunger part, but my energy levels weren’t good yet.
I just started back up again at 6 weeks, though my energy is up a lot.

I would say your body will tell you if it’s too soon. If you struggle with hunger or energy, you aren’t ready yet. It should feel natural.

(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #8

To give you an idea, I am at beginning of week 3
Beforehand as a carb eater, I couldn’t make it past 9am without a stomach grumble.

Since starting Keto, without fail I have a BPC every morning around 8am, then start to feel hungry around 12

I’m now at the point where I am eating around 2-3pm, and last night I did not even eat dinner, so effectively I fasted for 18 hours yesterday.

I can feel the timing stretching out further but common sense tells me I am not yet fat adapted

If you can comfortably go that long a period of time without eating I’d say you are getting close, but it would definitely be best to wait. I am going to start my first 24 hour first on week 4.

(Alec) #9

Kellie
I am going to assume you mean you would like to see more/faster weight loss?

My opinion is that there is no harm in starting a fast, and seeing how you go. You need to listen to your body and brain carefully when you first start. The difficult thing is differentiating between a feeling of hunger that will pass and that you can easily ignore, and a feeling that is you not feeling well and not coping well with the fast. Only you can know what those 2 different things feel like, but pls go into it thinking about those 2 feelings. If you feel at all unwell at any stage, you should stop the fast, eat something at that point and try again another day.

So, you are looking for hunger signals that you can ignore. This might be a slight feeling of irritability, a thinking about food, some tummy rumblings. If the hunger signals come on strong and become overwhelming, you are not fat adapted yet, and you should eat something.

When fasting you should make sure you are having lots to drink, preferably with salts and electrolytes like ketoade. Or bone broth. I’ve tried both, both work great.

When I first started fasting (I’ve now fasted for 2 days per week for 10 months), I did get headaches in the evening, and I just charged through and it never got too bad. That lasted 2-3 weeks, then just stopped.

My view is that fasting is keto on steroids. It really helps with insulin lowering (zero carb/protein = low insulin), but be aware that stress leads to cortisol, which leads to insulin. Fasting can be a stressor, especially if you are not well fat adapted yet, and you feel rotten when fasting. So, that’s the reason for stopping a fast if you feel rotten. You’re not actually getting the result you want which is lowered insulin, and improved IR.

But if you want to increase the pace of your keto, go ahead and try a fast. Just make sure you are listening to your body and brain, and that you completely understand there is always another day to fast if things get rough. Fasting is like a muscle, you get better at it with practice.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Cheers
Alec

#10

I think that you can start IF at any time. I actually started IF before I started Keto. I mainly started Keto to make IF easier. An easy way to begin is to just skip breakfast. Over time, move your lunch later and later in the day. Over time, you may work your way down to one meal a day (OMAD).

With regard to fat adaptation, if you’re into doing endurance activities (bicycling, running, etc.), you’ll know that you are fat adapted if you can go for a number of hours - maybe three or four depending on the intensity of the activity - without bonking and without consuming sugary drinks or gels.

(Jay AM) #11

Adding to this that a fast is not meant for restricting overall calories. Fast/feast. Not, fast/barely eat.

(Raven) #12

I’m on day 3 of week 2. I IF super easily now and it’s so subconscious.

For example, After a few days on keto, I started realizing I could go longer and longer without food. Now? I track my fasts on an app and it helps. I IF every day and I stop the timer whenever it’s time to eat. I usually wake up at 11/12pm and don’t eat until around 7pm because I just prefer to eat at night. I do snack during the feasting times because I love snacks and withou them, Keto wouldn’t be sustainable to me. But I take a lot of low carb / high fat snacks and turn them into a meal and it usually keeps me satiates until the next day. I agree with everyone, it sort of just happens. Lol

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(Jay Patten) #13

If I can do it, anyone can!

I used to be Mr “Gotta Have Hot Breakfast”

Not a cold breakfast… hot breakfast (like McDonalds)

Now I IF 23.5 hours and only eat when I get home from work

(Roy D Rushing Jr ) #14

I think you can start fasting without being fat adapted. I’ve done IF for at least the last two years and I’ve only been keto for a little over a month. Admittedly its a lot easier now, but my body did get accustomed to receiving no food all day without being fat adapted.

(Doug) #15

One can certainly try it. Even while being one of the biggest carb-fiends on earth, I often just had black coffee in the morning and no lunch. I think this helped when it came time to fast “for real” and eat ketogenically. Fasting and being fat-adapted go together well; I think one aids the other.

(Omar) #16

keto is supposed to help fasting because you do not feel hungry like when you had carbs in your diet.

So when you reach consistent feelings regarding satisfactory satity you will be equipped with the required tools.

(Bella) #17

Hi,
IF has helped me continue with my weightless and taught me control.
There have been times when I have slipped off keto but had have stuck to IF, some days I don’t eat till 6/7 in the evening. It becomes so easy especially when your busy.
For the past 2 weeks I have eaten about 50+ in carbs and still lost weight - to my absolute surprise.
The best thing is I don’t obsess, in the early days of keto I was watching YouTube all the time and freaking if I ate a tomato - theres no need for that.
Keto and IF is a way of life and not a diet. A “slip day” is no longer a disaster as my appetite is smaller, but I also feel so positive now - no diet (and I have tried them all) has ever made me feel this way.

(Brian) #18

Fasting could be defined by any time you’re not eating. The time between when you eat supper (assuming that’s your last eating of the day) and breakfast (assuming that’s your first eating of the day), would be a “fast”. The time between meals (when there are no snacks) is fasting.

I think Dr. Berg laid it out pretty simply in one or two of his videos. You don’t start out eating six meals a day and right away go into a 7 day water fast.

If you eat three meals a day plus snacks, your first step is to eliminate the snacks such that you fast between each meal. Once you’re eating three meals a day, you move to two meals a day. Once you’re eating two meals a day, you can go to one meal a day. Once you’re eating one meal a day, you can try alternate day fasting or a number of other types of fasting. At that point, your body will be better acclimated to the idea of fasting and it won’t be a big deal. You can go from there and figure out if you want to do multi-day fasts. Some do, some don’t. There’s no one right way that everyone has to do it. I don’t often think about fasting but occasionally do one meal a day and it’s really a non-event. But I’ve been eating keto since last August. I’ve done a few short fasts along the way but have never really wanted to go longer than about 2 to 3 days. But that’s just me. I’m in no particular hurry to lose that last 25 pounds or so. It’s coming off slowly and my body is pretty happy with a slower removal of fat stores. To me, it seems less traumatic and much more laid back. Others might see it differently. It might take me several months to take off another 5 pounds. I’m good with that.

Tiny steps in the right direction add up.

There are times when you’ll make a schedule and your body will decide it doesn’t like it. You can decide to fast before your body is ready. Or you can find out by surprise that your body is ready before you thought it would be, as mentioned above by those who suggest that it can happen almost by accident with something like one day you’re just not hungry. Go with the flow. Don’t force it, at least not in the early stages of keto. You’ve got time. This is a long term thing.

Good luck!