Keto and Intermittent Fasting (IF)

dcristo213

I've been back on keto now for about 12 weeks and weight loss wise I am doing good....so far down about 22 lbs. I am considering IF in combination with Keto. The IF schedule I plan to target is 16 hour fast followed by 8 hour of eating. I would eat only from 12noon to 8pm each day. I still plan on eating keto during those 8 hours. I work out (Crossfit) 4 times a week in a fasted state typically at 5am and plan to start supplementing with BCAA. I am interested in hearing about your experiences on Keto and IF as well as BCAA.

KnitOrMiss

I did IF for a while, but without a set window, just basically skipping a meal as it occurred naturally. Since I have a tendency to binge eat, stress eat, etc., for me, not eating when I was actually hungry is as bad for my mental state as eating when I'm nowhere near hungry... Add to that that I'm missing my gallbladder (removed in 2000), and any extended fasts lead to very uncomfortable bathroom events (I would expel straight bile, burning delicate tissues).

As a result, I followed it only when it happened naturally, and I would generally skip lunch, not breakfast, in order to avoid the other issue. So I'd end up on a 1/11/1/11 or 2/10/2/10 type of schedule, and I know it helped my fasting insulin and glucose numbers drop well, but I started out with a goal of 4 times a week, but the planned restrictions lead to over eating at other times, and ended up doing it about once a week for a while.

Circumstances changed, and I'm not back to fat adaption yet, so it hasn't occurred organically, other than once, and it only delayed my meal time by 4 or 5 hours, but it still worked. I'm struggling especially this time around, because I'm a "okay, decision made, plan it out, frustrated/bored, jump in 100% with both feet" type of person, and the last time I did that, it overstressed already weak parts of my metabolism and body, and 18+ months later, I'm still partially recovering.

Knowing I can't just dive back into the deep end makes finding some sort of middle ground frustrating. But regardless, I had good luck with IF overall, keto is ... under consideration for long term, and I've never used BCAA's. I've been told that at my age, 40, I really should use them when working out (rarely atm), as it's much easier for my body to deplete of those resources, than say a 20 something college student with a fabulous metabolism... I'd love to hear if folks have favorite brands, etc.

I do use some amino acids to help with neurotransmitter/mood precursors, but they aren't the same ones used in most BCAA formulas, from what I can tell. But, because of my experiences there, I'm definitely on board with the overall power of aminos!!!

Looking forward to the coming discussion.