In the quest for a healthy body and effective weight loss methods, individuals often encounter a variety of diets, each with its own set of principles and promises. Among the popular eating styles are the ketogenic diet (keto) and intermittent fasting. Both approaches have garnered attention for their potential health benefits, particularly in supporting metabolic health and achieving weight loss goals.
Amy Harris, MS, RN, CNM, wrote on February 3, 2023: Keto, intermittent fasting, paleo, warrior…what diet will be in the spotlight next? You are not alone in asking this question. Unfortunately, there is not one easy answer because everyone’s body is different. Everlywell’s new g1p1 weight loss telehealth service is committed to finding that healthy weight for every body, even yours. In this post, we’ll help you understand the pros and cons of two approaches to weight loss: keto vs.
Understanding the Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet, commonly known as keto, is a high-fat, very low-carb diet initially used to treat epilepsy in children. The keto diet is all about cutting carbs and eating more fat, similar to the Atkins diet from the 1970s. Those who follow the keto diet consume more than half of their calorie intake from fat while consuming only 10-15% of their calories from carbohydrates. Some versions of the keto diet recommend that as much as 80% of your calories come from fat, 15% from protein, and only 5% from carbohydrates. The keto diet reduces your total carb intake to less than 50 grams a day. For reference, this is the equivalent of a cup of white rice.
While many types of low-carb diets exist, the keto diet is unique in that due to the low availability of carbohydrates, the body is forced to shift from using glucose to drive energy production to using stored fat as the body’s primary fuel source. This metabolic shift generates a compound called ketone, which are then used by cells to create energy. When the body is in this state, it breaks down fats into molecules called ketones, which serve as an alternative fuel source. Roshini G. Merneedi, RD, a dietitian at Northwestern Medicine, explains that your body's primary energy source is glucose, which comes from the breakdown of carbohydrates. The keto diet limits carbohydrates, forcing your body to burn fat for fuel instead. When these stores are full, they are converted into fat.
To reach ketosis, one must significantly reduce their carbohydrate intake. The keto diet excludes carb-rich foods like grains, beans, fruits and starchy vegetables.
Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers
Exploring Intermittent Fasting
In contrast, intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that includes hours or days with no or minimal food consumption (called fasting) interspersed with hours or days when you eat a regular diet. Intermittent fasting is an umbrella term describing any meal pattern where eating and drinking are confined to set times during the day or week. In other words, while many diets focus on what you can eat, intermittent fasting focuses on when you can.
Intermittent fasting is helpful because there are substantial periods where no energy is consumed, and the total amount of time spent getting in energy is cut short. Fasting has been practiced throughout human history as a part of religious and cultural traditions. Generally speaking, weight loss requires burning more energy than you bring in.
Different intermittent fasting plans include:
- Alternate day intermittent fasting: This plan involves switching between “fast” days, where very small amounts of food are eaten, and “feast” days, where eating is largely unrestricted.
- Periodic fasting: This involves periods of 24 hours or more of fasting followed by normal, unrestricted eating for a set amount of time. Some may choose to consume up to 25% of their daily requirements during the fasting period, making this style slightly easier to stick to.
- Time-restricted fasting: This focuses on a restricted eating window for a set number of hours during a 24-hour period. The bulk of the fast takes place during sleeping hours. 16:8 is a common method, where a person fasts for 16 hours daily and confines eating to 8 hours daily. Skipping meals or limiting eating to one meal a day are also examples of time-restricted fasting.
During the fasting periods, the individual typically abstains from consuming anything other than water, black coffee, or unsweetened tea.
Keto vs. Intermittent Fasting: Key Differences
The main difference between the two diet plans lies in their fundamental principles. "Keto" is short for ketogenic, which describes when your body uses fat as its primary fuel source instead of carbohydrates (carbs). While both eating styles can help to manage a healthy weight and offer several health benefits, they differ in their methodologies and potential side effects.
Read also: Keto Calorie Counting: A Detailed Guide
One important question is: is it possible to eat a normal diet and get ketones from supplements, like keto esters or keto salt drinks? In other words, can we get the benefits of the keto diet without its problems, like weaker bones and potentially higher cholesterol?
Potential Benefits of Combining Keto and Intermittent Fasting
If you commit to the ketogenic diet while doing intermittent fasting as well, it could offer the following benefits.
- May smooth your path to ketosis: 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.
- May lead to more fat loss: Combining the diet and the fast may help you burn more fat than the diet alone. Because intermittent fasting boosts metabolism by promoting thermogenesis, or heat production, your body may start utilizing stubborn fat stores.
Considerations and Potential Risks
Many people choose the keto diet as a “quick fix” diet - a way to quickly drop some weight, but not as a major life change. Healthcare providers, nutritionists, and researchers have serious concerns about the long-term risks of following the keto diet beyond six months.
Furthermore, there are risks associated with the keto diet. Short-term complications related to the diet include nausea, vomiting, headache, fatigue, dizziness, and insomnia. Longer-term side effects include hepatic steatosis, hypoproteinemia, kidney stones, and vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
The high-fat nature of the diet could also have negative impacts on heart health. The American Heart Association recommends limiting saturated fat intake to less than 6%. “In practice, many people eat high amounts of saturated fats, which could increase your risk of heart disease,” says Dr. Cheema. “You may be eating a lot of fatty meat thinking it’s a good thing for you because it's high in fat. This can dramatically alter your lipid profile. While high-fat diets can elevate LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, the type of saturated fat matters. The bottom line is that having more fats in your diet can lead to higher cholesterol.
Read also: Magnesium Supplements for Keto
The keto diet may not be appropriate for everyone, specifically people with kidney disease. “Although more research is needed in that area, there is some suggestion that it can make kidney disease worse over time,” says Dr. Some people also experience dehydration on the keto diet because they’re eliminating glycogen, which holds water, from the bloodstream.
Fasting, even for a couple of hours, is not for everyone. It’s also important to mention that everyone should not practice intermittent fasting. For pregnant women, children, people with a history of disordered eating, and those with diabetes and blood sugar issues, intermittent fasting could be dangerous.
Research Studies
Research studies have shown that repeated fluctuations in weight (as might happen if you repeatedly stop and start the keto diet) result in a steady increase in body weight over time.
Over months and years, however, more people can successfully maintain a meaningful weight loss (5-10 percent of their original body weight) for more than a year following intermittent fasting plans. The variety of intermittent fasting plans, their flexibility, and their lack of prohibiting entire food groups make them more attractive and feasible than keto diets.
Making an Informed Decision
There is no best diet for everyone, as everyone has nutrition requirements as unique as they are. With these diets or others, find something you can stick to while still enjoying food. If you are looking for weight loss, calorie reduction is the first step, and it doesn’t have to mean fasting or cutting out whole food groups! You can also consider working with a registered dietitian for sustainable weight loss. Your dietitian will take into account your medical history, cultural food preferences, lifestyle, and environment, and work with you on a nutrition plan that helps you achieve your goals. It may not be strictly keto or intermittent fasting, rather it will be a plan that is tailored to your specific needs and your ability to maintain it in your daily life.
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