Low Carbs AND intermittent fasting (IF) - my great results

[icehorse]

I started on a Keto diet last October. At the same time I started doing a daily IF eating schedule that's a roughly a 7 hour eating / 17 hour fasting schedule. In a few months my BMI went from about 26 to about 23. In other words I lost about 18 pounds. So I was only a bit overweight, but now I think I'm at a good weight. My blood sugar numbers are great and very stable.

I've backed off the Keto a bit, but I'm sticking with the low-carb approach. My intuition is that I can bump my daily carbs from 30 up to 50 without any negative consequences.

I have to say that IF has not been hard to maintain. I have a STRONG intuition that IF would be much harder if I wasn't also doing low carbs. In other words, I think if I maintained my old carb intake, I would find IF very emotionally challenging.

(As an aside, I used to have maybe 5 beers / week. Now I have 2 / month. One alternative I found is "hop water" - it's great!)

The hardest part for me has been getting enough variety in my diet. I think that if I relax to about 50 carbs a day, but stick with the IF, I might get the best of all worlds:

- great blood sugar levels, and very stable (no spikes)
- easier to get a varied diet
- more cognitive stamina
- easy weight maintenance.

Anyone had similar (or not) experiences?

 

[Shaul]

I have been using intermittent fasting for about a month with good results. I do a 16 hour fast/8 hour eating window. I use it in combination with low carb (keto like) and exercise (running). I have l lost about 10 pounds over the last year. I was not overweight to begin with. My BMI is probably 22. I haven't had any great difficulty in adjusting to intermittent fasting.

 

[Mock Turtle]

My particular take on this is, or was, known as the 5:2 diet here in the UK, where one restricted the intake of calories on two days a week - in my case, sandwiches replacing a full meal. This also coincided with more exercise occurring on the two days, but not excessive since it just meant walking a bit more than normal - whilst carrying some heavy gear. I lost enough to see my waist size reduce by four inches, and from slightly overweight to very much normal. But this did occur over 18 months. Not that I was actually trying to lose weight but this just happened, and I believe before the 5:2 became known. Not that I am claiming ownership of this.

 

[HonestJoe]

Eating less leading to weight loss is hardly a surprise. That's pretty much what all labelled diets or regimes boil down to, either by design or simply as a consequence of the practicality of the restrictions. People who start diets will also tend to do other beneficial things too (like the alcohol reduction you mentioned).

If you've found a balance that works for you that's great but remember that weight or BMI is far from the be-all and end-all of good health. If you're not careful, some restrictive diets can leave you lacking in other key elements. The simplest diet is just a good balance of fresh food and not consuming as much as the typical westerner.

 

[metis]

With carbs, it's best to have them more in the morning so as to burn them off.

The Mediterranean diets are still the best for overall health, but I especially like the Flexitarian Diet because 1 day a week you can "let it all hang out!". To stick to a restrictive diet 7 days a week usually ends up with getting so bored with missing our favorite foods that we give it up and usually gain even more weight back.

Also, exercise is very important, but even doing simple gardening is quite good for us.

 

[Quagmire]

I've been doing intermittent fasting for decades, before I even knew what it was called.

It's a leftover from my hitchhiking days where I would spend the whole day traveling and didn't usually eat until I set up camp somewhere, usually in the late evening.

I did it for so long that even after I settled down I didn't usually get hungry until late afternoon, and if I ate anything before that it was typically just some kind of fruit.

I was really happy to discover that I'd been doing something really good for myself all along.

I don't know how much IF had to do with it but I was always ridiculously healthy and in exceptionally good shape. On top of that people typically took me for someone in their early twenties well into my 40s.

I practice actual fasting too: going without any food at all for days, or restricting my diet to citrus fruit and juice. I'm a believer.

@icehorse a word of caution about keto: a lot of keto based prepared foods use erythritol, an artificial sweetener, and for some reason they don't have to list it on the label.

Apparently it's pretty bad news:

Zero calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds

A sugar replacement called erythritol — used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monk-fruit, and keto reduced-sugar products — has been linked to blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death, according to a new study.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[anna.]

My lab work has always been good - blood sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. So I didn't need to make dietary changes other than that I'd started to realize that when I ate a lot of carbs in a meal I didn't feel good afterwards, for hours. I felt sluggish, slow, headachy and foggy. I decided at the beginning of the year to skip breakfast because it was usually toast, and for about six months now, I have an eating window of about 7 hours, so a 17:7 instead of 16:8. I don't miss breakfast and find as lunchtime approaches, I'm often not hungry enough to notice. In addition to that, I'd gone back to my whole foods approach of eating as much as possible from single source foods, since processed foods are going to be the death of a lot of people in the developed world where an abundance of chemically processed foods has drowned out simpler, healthier basic foods. Avocados. Nuts, Seeds. Whole fruit, whole vegetables, whole grains. Keto or paleo isn't for me, because they prohibit a lot of very healthy foods. /soapbox

 

[JustGeorge]

Apparently it's pretty bad news:

Zero calorie sweetener linked to heart attack and stroke, study finds

A sugar replacement called erythritol — used to add bulk or sweeten stevia, monk-fruit, and keto reduced-sugar products — has been linked to blood clotting, stroke, heart attack and death, according to a new study.

www.cbsnews.com

Of course you give me this news right when I'm drinking my morning caffeine; I flip to see the label, and its the second ingredient.

 

[Revoltingest]

In the news....

MSN

Excerpted...
Intermittent fasting — when people only eat at certain times of day — has exploded in popularity in recent years. But now a surprising new study suggests that there might be reason to be cautious: It found that some intermittent fasters were more likely to die of heart disease.

The findings were presented Monday at an American Heart Association meeting in Chicago and focused on a popular version of intermittent fasting that involves eating all your meals in just eight hours or less — resulting in at least a 16-hour daily fast, commonly known as “time-restricted” eating.

The study analyzed data on the dietary habits of 20,000 adults across the United States who were followed from 2003 to 2018. They found that people who adhered to the eight-hour eating plan had a 91 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease compared to people who followed a more traditional dietary pattern of eating their food across 12 to 16 hours each day.

 

[Secret Chief]

Of course you give me this news right when I'm drinking my morning caffeine; I flip to see the label, and its the second ingredient.

Did you know caffeine causes insanity?

 

[JustGeorge]

Did you know caffeine causes insanity?

What's wrong with that?