Intermittent fasting is a fantastic tool for losing weight, and combined with a high fat, low carb diet; it’s possible to lose more weight and crush those goals. Perhaps Intermittent fasting (IF) and if it is, that’s okay. In addition to going on the keto diet, there’s a lot to gain from committing to IF. We gathered some lessons from experts in the community and included them here for you. In the Body Reboot book, we address what the keto diet is and how combined with IF can lead to some incredible results. Below is a summary from Healthline of what IF is. Then we offer some incredible advice from people who have seen amazing results from IF. 

Intermittent fasting is an eating method that cycles between calorie restriction — or fasting — and normal food consumption during a specific time period.

There are many different types of intermittent fasting routines, including the 5:2 method, the Warrior Diet and alternate-day fasting.

Perhaps the most popular kind of intermittent fasting is the 16/8 method, which involves eating during an eight-hour timeframe before fasting for 16.

Intermittent fasting is mainly used as a weight loss technique.

However, studies found that it may benefit health in many other ways.

For example, intermittent fasting has been shown to reduce inflammation and improve brain function and blood sugar control.

Intermittent fasting may help your body reach ketosis quicker than the keto diet alone.

That’s because your body, when fasting, maintains its energy balance by shifting its fuel source from carbs to fats — the exact premise of the keto diet.

During fasting, insulin levels and glycogen stores decrease, leading your body to naturally start burning fat for fuel.

For anyone who struggles to reach ketosis while on a keto diet, adding intermittent fasting may effectively jumpstart your process.

It starts with your mind 

In his blog, James Clear talks about how the mental aspect of losing weight was challenging at first, but once you get over that hurdle, it’s a lot easier to stick to fasting.  

Implementing this diet is pretty simple, you just don't eat when you wake up. Then you eat and lunch and go about your day. At least, that's how I do it.

But there is a mental barrier to get over. “If I don't eat will I not be able to think? Will I faint? Will I feel sick? What will it be like?” These are all thoughts that went through my mind before I started.

What ended up happening? Nothing. Life went on just fine.

Thinking you need to eat every 3 hours or six meals a day or always have breakfast or whatever it is that you’re convinced you have to do to survive … is all mental. You believe it because you were told it, not because you actually tried it.

If there's one thing I've noticed that separates successful people from unsuccessful ones in life it's not just the ability to think differently, but the ability to act differently as well.

It’s not a way to ‘starve’ yourself; it’s a healthy lifestyle 

May Oshin shares his experience with intermittent fasting and why it worked for him. He also explains how IF isn’t a way to ‘starve’ yourself, but rather a way to improve your life. 

Most people I’ve shared the philosophy of intermittent fasting with, usually comment by saying, “oh yeah, I’ve done that before, you mean like starving yourself to lose weight right?!”

This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Intermittent fasting isn’t a diet. It’s a pattern of eating. Or to be more specific, it’s a lifestyle that can be sustained for a lifetime.

And as a lifestyle, it’s very important to track and measure your progress.

Here’s a quick overview of the measurements and tools I’ve successfully used:

MyFitnessPal: I’ve used this app to track the calories I consume on eat days. The best thing about this app is that after a few months of tracking calories, you’ll develop superman like abilities to eyeball common food items and estimate the total calories without using the app.

A scale: I’ve used a lightweight  Digital Scale to track my weight loss progress on a weekly basis. Just a quick tip: make sure to measure yourself at the same times of the day, otherwise your weight may appear to fluctuate.

Measuring tapes: I’ve used flexible measuring tapes each week, to get more accurate measurements of my body that scales often miss out on.

Water: Simple I know. But trust me, when you start intermittent fasting you’re going to get dehydrated and extremely hungry. Your best friend in those moments is a bottle of water, preferably a 1 liter water bottle.

It should fit your lifestyle 

If IF is hindering your lifestyle, perhaps it isn’t the right time for you to try it. However, if it’s something that works for you in conjunction with your low carb diet, then why not give it a try? Carly from Medium offers her thoughts on why IF should fit your lifestyle and not the other way around. 

There are many different methods of IF: the 16/8 method where you don’t eat for a 16-hour period and then have an 8-hour daily eating window (usually this means skipping breakfast each day); Eat-Stop-Eat where you do one full 24-hour fast one or two times per week; Alternate Day Fasting where you fast every other day; longer multi-day fasts at any given period, etc.

I started out doing what’s called The Warrior Diet, whereby you fast for 20 hours each day of the week and then have a 4-hour eating window (usually in the evening). And I was incredibly rigid about this 20:4 timing at first.

I would literally count down the minutes between meals, and thought that if I didn’t adhere to exactly 20 hours from one meal to the next, that any benefits of fasting would somehow be lost. (If I could go back and slap myself, I would.)

Over time, this rigidness started to become problematic in several ways:

– I would avoid outings that involved breakfast or lunch (or even an early dinner), which in turn started to impact my social life with friends, as well as my social life at work.

– On weekends, I would workout in the morning with heavy weights and then not eat anything until my set eating window began at night; not nourishing my body in the proper way after an intense workout, and feeling exhausted on those days and not making the gains I should have as a result.

It took me almost a year to realize that trying to fit my lifestyle around a very rigid approach to IF was not working for me.

So I decided to flip it around: instead of fitting my lifestyle around IF, I started making IF fit my lifestyle.

If you ask me what set method of IF I practice now, I would tell you: my own! Some days, I don’t eat until lunch, some days I don’t eat until dinner; some days I don’t fast at all; and then other times, I may fast for a couple days straight.

Going out for brunch on the weekend with friends now or out to grab lunch with colleagues at work is no longer an issue. And I always eat after I workout, giving my body what it needs to thrive when it needs it.

There is no set “eating window” now that I adhere to.

I just do what works best for my schedule, my body and my mind on any particular day — and this has made all the difference in allowing IF to fit naturally into my routine and become a healthy part of my day-to-day lifestyle that I can maintain with ease.

It helps with productivity

James Clear also shares how IF has helped him be more productive, especially early in the morning. He found that he had a lot of mental clarity in the morning, which he took advantage of by staying busy and getting stuff done. 

I'm most productive during the first 3 hours of my morning, which is about 12 to 15 hours into my daily fast. This is the exact opposite of what I expected when I started out. I assumed that if I didn't eat for hours, then I wouldn't have any energy to think. The reality is just the opposite.

I have a lot of mental clarity in the morning when I fast. I can't say for certain if this is due to the fasting or the fact that I'm just refreshed when I wake up, but one thing is clear: fasting is not hindering my ability to get things done in the morning. In fact, I'm almost always more productive in the morning when I'm fasted than in the afternoon when I'm fed.

It flexible to your schedule

That Helpful Dad said that for him, IF worked because he made his eating schedule more flexible. Here’s what he had to say about his agenda: 

When I am ready to break my fast (at 10-11am) I load up on protein – yogurt, milk, eggs, bacon, etc. I then eat lunch around 1.5-3 hours later, then have some fruit/snack around 330-4, and then dinner at 6ish. Many people say to avoid fruits because they are high in sugar and that impedes the fat loss – that may be true but I like fruits and believe their overall health benefits outweigh the negatives for long-term health.

To learn more about the keto diet, check out the Body Reboot book. Combined with IF you could experience some incredible results! To get a free copy of our book, help us cover shipping. Visit this page to get your free copy right away. 

Sources: Mayo Oshin, James Clear, Medium, That Helpful Dad, Healthline