KETO and/or Intermittent Fasting - Thoughts and Experiences?

Forums › Health and fitness › KETO and/or Intermittent Fasting - Thoughts and Experiences?

tdgeek

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#321484 21-Aug-2025 11:51

I've watched a LOT of Youtubes on these, and figured out what channels are better.

I'm looking at IF soon, then progressing to Keto, and while Youtube etc can be very informative, its always good to hear from real world people

The channels I find trustworthy are Dr Berg and Sten Ekberg

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#3406052 21-Aug-2025 11:59

I largely ended up doing intermitted fasting by accident through getting up and forgetting to have breakfast, as I don't tend to get hungry in the morning.

After getting used to, and enjoying the feeling of being a bit hungry, I ended up gamifying it, seeing how long I could get through the day before eating. This often turned in a 'one meal per day' situation.

My own experience is that it works for losing weight, as long as you don't gorge yourself during the eating period.

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#3406099 21-Aug-2025 12:24

There's a really good PodCast called "Science Vs." - they have done a recording on IF, it's well worth a listen. Less opinion, more science.

johno1234

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#3406100 21-Aug-2025 12:25

I'm a fan of low carb or Keto. Took me about a year to lose 10kg. Never really did the IF thing. If you are traveling a lot it can be hard to avoid carbs as restaurant food often seems to sit on potatoes and rice. If you are shopping and preparing your own food I found it quite easy. Just don't buy them. There are plenty of low carb cookbooks around.

Even if you are not too worried about losing weight, sugary foods and drinks are evil and you are so much better off eliminating them.

nitro

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#3406103 21-Aug-2025 12:41

is there a reason behind this motivation? or you just want a potentially different and better lifestyle?

in my case, intermittent fasting did wonders for my blood glucose level. i was also advised by my doctor (perhaps for my specific case) not to go full keto, so i didn't.

so i was "allowed" coffee in place of breakfast, but in the thick of it i didn't even have that regularly. in the same exercise, i also significantly reduced alcohol intake, and gave up rice completely. in my mind i got it down to giving up either rice or bread, and made the choice.

this was 4.5 years ago, and while i've eased up on it quite a bit, i haven't had breakfast since.

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#3406109 21-Aug-2025 13:20

I was up and down the rabbit holes of this stuff for many years until I managed the situation a bit differently. The main goal of both is to make your body favour using stored energy reserves (fat) instead of energy from the food you're consuming meal-to-meal.

Something I learned that others seem to still suffer the negative results from is:

It takes time to get into ketosis, but it takes no time at all to kick yourself out of ketosis. It's not the sort of lifestyle where you can just have a small dessert one night, or a carb loaded sandwich for lunch while you're sticking to the rules for breakfast and dinner. It takes about 3 days to fully kick your metabolism over to ketosis from your body realising it's not getting carbs (simplistic description, I know, but good enough for this purpose). As soon as your body recognises that you've ingested carbs again it says "ok, don't need ketosis anymore" and you need another few days to get back to where you were.

Intermittent fasting is a bit different than a full ketosis approach as the thinking is it leverages your circadian rhythm. There was some evidence in recent years that different organs have different circadian rhythms - the sleep one is well known, but the research I was reading at the time was exploring that the stomach also had it's own independent rhythm where it's basically "dormant" after a certain number of hours without the stomach being engaged. However, once the first thing you eat in a day hits your stomach, then you've got a timeframe of around 6 hours where your body optimally processes food into energy. Outside of that timeframe you are more likely to store the energy in reserve, or process it inefficiently. So it's another thing that really requires discipline to maintain the non-eating and eating timeframes day-to-day.

TL:DR both Keto and IF aren't lifestyles that you can have "cheat" meals with, because you're working against your body and it takes time to get back to a baseline.

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#3406110 21-Aug-2025 13:22

I did it for a while and got quite thin 😀 but also lost muscle mass 😬 - I'm now getting older and subscribing to the idea that I need more protein so eat generally 2 to 3 times a day with a focus on protein, vegetables and fruit. Feel pretty good and maintain healthy weight.

IF also seemed to make my breath smell (so said my wife) - I no longer hear those complaints.

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trig42

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#3406111 21-Aug-2025 13:28

We did Keto for about 2 years (2019-2020) and I lost about 40kg.
It works, but you do need to be aware it is a high-fat diet. This means if you don't go into ketosis (ie., you sneak Carbs in, or aren't aware what has carbs in it) you'll end up piling it on.

Carbs hide in lots of places (milk for example).

We ended up getting really sick of the fat (I was off cheese for quite some time), and I missed foods with the texture that Carbs have (like Pasta, or toast).

We're now on more of a portion controlled diet - not following a diet plan or anything just eating less and it seems to be working.

tdgeek

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#3406112 21-Aug-2025 13:32

johno1234:

I'm a fan of low carb or Keto. Took me about a year to lose 10kg. Never really did the IF thing. If you are traveling a lot it can be hard to avoid carbs as restaurant food often seems to sit on potatoes and rice. If you are shopping and preparing your own food I found it quite easy. Just don't buy them. There are plenty of low carb cookbooks around.

Even if you are not too worried about losing weight, sugary foods and drinks are evil and you are so much better off eliminating them.

Yes sugar is evil. Spikes insulin, the fat storing hormone. Table sugars, sugar added to processed food, its endless. Carbs turn to glucose, same deal

My interest is improving health as I age. Weight is no issue, but the benefits I've learned from endless clips about Keto and IF seem huge. Ketones great for the brain, autophagy is great for the body

trig42

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#3406113 21-Aug-2025 13:40

It is really great for inflammation too.

I found all my creaky knee pain went away (losing 40kgs helped that too - but it went away before the weight came off).

johno1234

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#3406124 21-Aug-2025 14:00

I really missed two things when hard out on Keto - milk and orange juice. I didn't care at all about dropping rice, pasta, bread and potatoes. I also noticed that I became more taste sensitive to sweetness and sugars. I would sneak a sip of milk to remind myself of its taste and it genuinely tastes like vanilla ice cream to me now.

johno1234

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#3406126 21-Aug-2025 14:04

Dulouz:

I did it for a while and got quite thin 😀 but also lost muscle mass 😬 - I'm now getting older and subscribing to the idea that I need more protein so eat generally 2 to 3 times a day with a focus on protein, vegetables and fruit. Feel pretty good and maintain healthy weight.

IF also seemed to make my breath smell (so said my wife) - I no longer hear those complaints.

It is the ketones (acetone) from ketosis that makes your breath (and pee) smell funny. You can gorge on protein on keto so should be able to avoid muscle wasting.

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#3406227 21-Aug-2025 19:23

If you got the dollars you can get GLP1 prescription online in New Zealand now for weight loss, Costs about 500$ a month, $150 initial Consult, and 99$ for Checkups.

MadEngineer

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#3406279 21-Aug-2025 19:37

I used to do this on occasion.

I’d have sugar free porridge on the Friday morning for breakfast then only consume water for the rest of the day. After getting home I’d have a herbal tea drink with lemon.

Saturday, still fasting, I’d take my son to sports and make myself super active by running around helping to set up, chase balls etc. You quickly become energised by some kind of a slight rush and a boost in mood. Probably your body giving you energy to go hunt.

After that it’s a case of staying away from the things that trigger eating, for me it was sitting at a computer. Sometimes I’d find myself almost on autopilot opening the pantry to grab a snack. Sipping lemon and herbal tea for all of Saturday then having a healthy meal on Sunday evening.

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#3406329 22-Aug-2025 08:22

johno1234:

I'm a fan of low carb or Keto. Took me about a year to lose 10kg. Never really did the IF thing. If you are traveling a lot it can be hard to avoid carbs as restaurant food often seems to sit on potatoes and rice. If you are shopping and preparing your own food I found it quite easy. Just don't buy them. There are plenty of low carb cookbooks around.

Even if you are not too worried about losing weight, sugary foods and drinks are evil and you are so much better off eliminating them.

agree with the sugar comment. Remove sugar from your diet over any fasting or keto etc.

Burn the calories you are consuming and depending on goals, body recomp etc burn more calories than consuming.

The little things make the biggest difference.

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#3406692 22-Aug-2025 22:20

Intermittent fasting is just how I've eaten over the past few decades, got into the habit of not having breakfast before, or lunch during school. Otherwise I'm the opposite of Keto in terms of macros, pretty much what would be described as whole food, plant-based, e.g. https://theproof.com/?s=Keto

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