Eating Healthy with the Ketogenic Diet & Intermittent Fasting (Keto/IF)

I’ve never been particularly thin most of my adult life with the exception of my time in college and while serving in the US Army. During that time, while I was fit, it wasn’t from eating right but from a high level of physical fitness training and activity that pretty much diminished after I left the Army. It didn’t take but a year or two for all of the fitness benefits that were achieved to disappear. For most of the last 30+ years, I’ve been overweight, sometimes a little and at times quite a lot.

Over the last 25 years or so, I’ve gone on and off the Atkins low carb eating plan and lost weight at times so I knew it worked. I’ve never been a fan of supplements to help lose weight as most are more hype than help and anyone knows that a pill alone isn’t going to melt away the fat, only eating a proper diet will do that. There’s still no magic in the way we gain or lose weight. If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. If you eat less calories than you burn, you lose weight. It really is that simple.

However, the interesting thing about low carb diets is that ketosis occurs and when it does, the body burns fat instead of glucose. There’s a lot of science behind the process but the interesting thing to note here is that even on the Keto//IF diet, you will eat less calories than you burn, it’s just that since you are getting most of the calories from fat and almost none from carbohydrates, your body adapts to burn the fat. First it burns the excess dietary fat, then it starts burning any fat, so as you reduce your dietary fat, the adapted body now consumes body fat, that’s where the magic of Keto begins.

This ketogenic process of burning fat often produces the first noticeable signs in the way clothing fits, often before the changes are registered on the scale. Keep in mind that muscle weighs more than fat so if you’re exercising, which is recommended but not essential to losing weight, you could lose fat and inches while only slowly registering weight loss on the scale. Don’t worry about that, the scale will eventually catch up with your progress.

After looking for the best way to lose weight and get fit I discovered the Ketogenic Diet which on the surface, looks much like the low carb diet first seen by most as the Atkins Diet or South Beach Diet. While it’s true that all 3 share a low carb philosophy that brings the body into a state of ketosis, the ketogenic diet appears to be not only effective for short term dieters, but as a long term healthy lifestyle that not only promotes getting and maintaining a health weight but also provides many other health benefits. When combined with Intermittent Fasting, not only is rapid healthy weight loss possible, it’s quite common. What makes it so much easier to follow is that you can eat a lot of food, never be hungry, lose unwanted weight, and get healthy by following a simple and straightforward eating plan.

The most noticeable difference between the Ketogenic diet and Atkins diet is that Atkins promotes eating more fat and protein and slowing adding carbs back into the diet, only promoting <20g of net carbs for the first 2 weeks, then adding carbs back in 5 gram increments. The Ketogenic diet, is much more balanced, promotes healthy fats as a way to satisfy hunger until cravings subside and fat adaptation occurs, while not reintroducing carbs back into the diet. While eating fats to avoid carbs is a good strategy to start, the body will continue to burn dietary fat if you don’t scale back as your body adapts.

The basic Ketogenic diet consists of eating a low carb diet <20g Net Carbs, 7-10 cups of Cruciferous Vegetables, and healthy fats such as Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Butter, Ghee, and fat and proteins from healthy animals, poultry, and fish which would also include eggs and dairy products. You should understand that healthy would pertain to naturally grown and harvested, organic, free range, grass fed, not grain fed, without any antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides. Starchy vegetables, beans, fruits, and grains are avoided due to their high carb content as well as all forms of sugar.

The goal of the diet is to eat up to 70% of your daily calories from healthy sources of fat, while getting the proper amount of protein, vitamins, and nutrients from the food. The 7-10 cups of cruciferous vegetables consist of many leafy greens, cauliflower, radishes, and more to obtain the balance of nutrition required. Water, Black Coffee, Tea, and Sparkling Water are among the most popular and healthy beverages to consume rather than drinking artificially sweetened soft drinks. Many people like to add a little bit of fresh lemon juice or Apple Cider Vinegar to their water for additional health benefits.

Intermittent fasting is another way to allow the body to get into ketosis, get healthy, and lose weight. When combined with the Ketogenic Diet, even the most stubborn fat will melt away. Most people will begin intermittent fasting shortly after starting their keto journey, usually after the initial cravings for food and sweets have diminished which normally occurs in about 2 weeks, while full adaptation to burning fat usually happens at around 4-6 weeks.

The initial goal of IF is to lengthen the fasting hours to 18 or more and reduce the meals from 3 down to 2 and then possibly to only one meal a day (OMAD). Snacks, even healthy ones, are avoided since they have a tendency to spike insulin and slow weight loss. The good news is that once you get started, the cravings stop quickly so won’t need snacks to keep from being hungry between meals.

There’s a lot more detail that I could go into but this is meant to give you the basic information to get started, there are great resources that you can use to help you on your journey. There’s also a lot of false information and fake news that could lead you in the wrong direction. For that reason, I’d suggest finding a couple good resources and stick with those to keep from going astray.

Here are some links to trustworthy professionals and experts in the healthcare and nutritional field that recommend the Ketogenic Diet plus Intermittent Fasting. Be sure to follow them on Facebook and YouTube to get their latest content. While I’m sure there are other good sources of information, I found these 3 to provide helpful and accurate information that’s easy to follow.

Eric Berg, DC – Dr Berg is a Chiropractor and Nutrition expert and his site and FB group have provided me with great tutorials, information, and products and his YouTube Channel has volumes of useful information on Keto/IF and how to overcome every obstacle. He’s written a couple best selling books on Keto/IF that offer detailed guidance and even recipes to help you adapt your cooking to the keto lifestyle.

Ken Berry, MD – Dr Berry is a practicing Physician with a YouTube library of great videos to help you on your journey as well as a best selling author. Dr Berry is straightforward and provides clear and concise information that will help you get healthy and lose weight.

Jason Fung, MD – Dr Fung is a Nephrologist and author of the Obesity Code. He’s an expert on diabetes and kidney function and how to improve your health with the Ketogenic diet and Fasting.

Joseph Mercola, DO – Dr Mercola is an Osteopath and has a great website with many great articles, books, and resources on all types of health issues, eating and staying healthy, and much more. as well as great insight on the ketogenic lifestyle and benefits of fasting.

Thomas DeLauer – Celebrity Trainer and YouTube channel celebrity. Thomas offers lots of great advice on eating healthy food on the Ketogenic diet. He’s also an advocate for Intermittent Fasting and High Intensity Interval Training.