Over the last 10 years we’ve seen multiple diets gain popularity and become health and fitness trends. Typically these dietary trends happen in isolation to one another however, recently people have been trying to combine two popular diets, low-carb living and intermittent fasting. If you’re here, you probably already know what low-carb living or a keto diet is all about (If not you can read all about it here), but what is intermittent fasting? 

Put simply,  intermittent fasting is a focused eating pattern where you alternate between periods of eating and fasting. The most popular form of intermittent fasting is known as the 16/8 method. People following this method will create an 8 hour window where they allow themselves to consume calories followed by a 16 hour period where they fast. During this fasting period no food is allowed however, one may drink calorie free beverages such as water, black tea, black coffee, etc. Following this eating pattern, people tend to consume less calories throughout the day, leading them to lose weight.

Apart from weight-loss, there are various other benefits associated with intermittent fasting. According to research the trending eating pattern has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, allowing your body to utilize glucose more efficiently. This lowers the chances of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.  Intermittent fasting is also proven to reduce the amount of inflammation in the body. This can lead to decreased risk of diseases including cancers and various heart diseases. The diet has even been linked to cognitive benefits, including improved brain health and cognitive function as well as enhanced brain plasticity. 

It’s clear that there are multiple benefits associated with the eating pattern when paired with a traditional diet, but what about the pairing of intermittent fasting and a low-carb diet? In an article published by everydayhealth.com, experts say that the pairing of the two diets makes sense. This is due to the fact that both diets result in the body relying on ketones for energy as opposed to glucose causing your body to burn fat. The introduction of intermittent fasting to a low-carb diet is said to  act as a way to level up your diet, as the addition of intermittent fasting to a low-carb or keto diet is often a way to further  reduce your caloric intake.  This allows people to lose weight faster or potentially break through weight-loss plateaus they have been experiencing. 

The combination of these two diets may not be suitable for people with chronic kidney diseases, cancer patients, pregnant or breastfeeding women and people with a history of eating disorders. Always check with your physician before making drastic changes to your eating habits, if you have a medical condition. The combination of the diet in itself can also be hard to follow as initially this form of eating can come as a massive shock to the system leaving you to feel tired and weak or even binge eat.

What do we think?