What Is The Difference Between Ketosis Caused By Intermittent Fasting And A Ketogenic Diet?
IF Insider No. 21
In this week’s IF Insider:
In this issue, we answer a question submitted by one of the participants in our current 10 Day Fast Factor Intermittent Fasting Challenge: What is the difference between the ketosis caused by IF versus ketosis caused by a ketogenic diet?
And as always, we will bring you the news on what we’re currently reading or watching. For our premium subscribers, in this issue’s Research Spotlight we are going to look at the up to date research on the health effects of coffee. Many people who practice intermittent fasting drink black coffee daily and over the years, the research seems to periodically switch from saying “coffee is bad for you” to “coffee is good for you.” We will bring you up to date!
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What Is The Difference Between Ketosis Caused By Intermittent Fasting And A Ketogenic Diet?
In our last IF Insider (IF Insider No. 20) we looked at the question: “How should I handle intermittent fasting during the holidays” In each and every issue we cover one specific intermittent fasting topic as well as highlight what we are reading, watching, and studying.
So let’s address today’s question:
“What is the difference between ketosis caused by intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet?”
This question was asked by one of the participants in our current 10 day Fast Factor Intermittent Fasting Challenge. Because many of our participants are relatively new to fasting, there is naturally some confusion around the topic of ketosis. But even experienced intermittent fasters may have questions, so we thought we would address this topic here.
Let’s define ketosis. But first, a lesson in basic nutrition is in order to help you understand things more easily.
All foods can be grouped into one of three categories, called macronutrients or “macros” for short: protein, carbohydrates or “carbs” and fats. Your body breaks down and uses carbohydrates and fats for energy and uses the components in protein as the building blocks for the biological machinery of the body to make enzymes, hormones, and muscle, among other things.
Carbohydrates are broken down into sugars, primarily glucose which is used to fuel your cells. A short-term supply is stored in your liver in the form of glycogen, to get you through short periods when you can’t eat. Any excess glucose is stored as fat.
As you fast daily, the glycogen stores in your liver are gradually depleted and your body naturally turns to fat stores (around your abdomen and other areas) and begins to burn that fat for energy.
When you are eating a ketogenic diet, you are choosing to severely limit the amount of carbohydrates in your diet, as this “keto” diet as it’s called, is nearly 75% fat. This diet forces your body to burn fat for fuel, as there are just not enough carbs available for the body’s energy requirements.
Either way, by adopting the “keto” diet or by doing intermittent fasting, your body is at times using fat for fuel. Fats are broken down into triglycerides for use as energy but there are some cells in the body, namely your brain cells, which cannot use this form of fat directly. The fat is processed in the liver, and a by-product of that processing is something called ketone bodies which are used by the brain as fuel instead of the usual glucose that it normally burns.
Research has shown that ketones are a more efficient fuel than glucose, providing more energy per unit of oxygen used than sugar.
So why do intermittent fasting when you could just eat a keto diet all the time?
A keto diet, high in fat and very low in carbs, like all restrictive dietary programs, is simply not sustainable. People who are on keto diets may be more susceptible to kidney stones, as well as micronutrient deficiencies.
But in my opinion, here’s one of the major differences: people who do daily intermittent fasting and have done it long enough to become fat-adapted, enjoy what is known as metabolic flexibility. This is the ability to easily burn carbs while eating and then easily switching to fat burning while fasting.
People who are depending on a keto diet to force their bodies into burning fat for fuel do not have this metabolic flexibility. Intermittent fasting is a much more natural, sustainable, and healthier way to achieve ketosis than forcing yourself to always be on a keto diet.
So keep calm and fast on!
Why It Matters
It really doesn’t matter how good something is for you if you can’t sustain it. Keto diets are not sustainable for the majority of people and also have several downsides which we discussed above. Intermittent fasting, with its focus on metabolic flexibility, is healthy and sustainable for most people.
“Life is movement. The more life there is, the more flexibility there is. The more fluid you are, the more you are alive.”
~ Arnaud Desjardins - French author and acclaimed filmmaker born in 1925 in Paris. He traveled to Japan and India where he recorded the lives of great sages. He died in 2011.
What We Are Reading 📚
With each issue, we both bring you a short blurb on what we are currently reading or watching, including books, articles, podcasts, videos, movies, and research papers of value.
Denise - A while back I recommended Dr. Jason Fung’s interview on Lewis Howes’ podcast, School of Greatness. And now, I recommend Dr. Peter Attia’s interview on the same podcast. Howes talks with Dr. Attia about Key Health Habits to Live Over 100 and Prevent Chronic Diseases.
I’ve been following, reading, and listening to Dr. Attia for a couple of years. He focuses on the applied science of longevity, the extension of human life, and overall well-being. Sometimes I have trouble following his high-level discussion on the science and studies about longevity, but ultimately I learn a lot about how to live a longer, healthier life, a.k.a healthspan.
Ellen - Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything by B.J. Fogg, Ph.D. When I first heard about this book, I thought I was going to be a repeat of some of the other books about habits that are out there…like Atomic Habits, The One Thing, and others. Not to disparage those books at all, but Tiny Habits is in a Universe all its own.
I was serendipitously pulled into a remarkable three-hour group conversation with the author, who is a professor and researcher at Stanford, on Clubhouse, the new invitation-only, strictly audio social media platform that right now is available only to iPhone users. Dr. Fogg, a delightfully unassuming man who clearly explained his extensive research on habits, had me completely enthralled.
His thesis is that we can forget all that stuff we thought we knew about habits…things like it takes 21 one days to form a new habit and that adopting new habits is hard.
Turns out, if you are having trouble integrating a new habit into your life, it’s not because it’s hard, it’s a matter of design. You have to know exactly how to design the habit so it’s doable and exactly how to insert it into your life. Once you get those things right, then the habit becomes second nature.
Oh and one more thing. You also need to do one more simple thing every time you implement the habit. You have to make yourself feel a positive emotion. Those people who can experience the most positive emotion will have the most success in implementing the new habit. And yes, he tells you how to do this. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. As Dr. Fogg explains, his system is not guesswork, as he has tested it on an astounding 40,000 people during his years of research and refinement.
Using the Tiny Habits “recipe” methodology, I’ve already integrated six new habits into my routine, everything from regularly drinking a bowl of matcha tea daily to consistently spending twenty minutes in my zero gravity chair listening to a binaural beat meditation. And I’m just getting started. Get Tiny Habits and let me know what you think!
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