Intermittent Fasting & Ketosis

INTRODUCTION

This article is constructed to introduce someone to intermittent-fasting and nutrition protocols which may lead to a state of metabolic ketosis. 

The guidance on offer is not intended as medical advice; and it's encouraged that you consider professional medical insight before making choices you think could negatively affect your health. 

Intermittently fasting will help kickstart your metabolism towards transforming fat cells into usable energy. Your benefit is the sense of greater energy that runs cleaner, feels better, and produces more output than what you may be familiar with. 

Intermittent fasting is the scheduled reduction of food for a duration of time lasting no less than twelve (12) hours, in general; and extending for as long as 30 days, or even more for certain rituals, practices, and observations. 

We can perceive intermittent fasting as practice for our metabolic forces to burn through available glucose (sugar) in the blood and then shift gears into metabolizing fat, thus liberating tons of energy. 

And that’s no hyperbole; in fact, per molecule fat produces 400% more energy than sugar AND produces less metabolic waste compared to sugar, too. 

This is why people report an abundance of energy as well as a more focused mind and clearer thoughts as their metabolism starts to utilize fat for energy, or what is known as “fat-adapted”. 

To help you become fat-adapted as quickly as your metabolism will allow*, I have constructed this outline for you to follow. 

*Each of us are coded from different genetic sequences which lay the foundation for how certain metabolic and physiologic processes occur, so we will all respond with slight variations to things like nutrition adjustments*

With that said, even though each of our genetic codes has slight variations, the fundamentals and principles that govern your code also govern my code as well as everyone else’s on earth. So, so long as you mind the protocol to a high degree of accuracy of 90 percent or better, then it’s highly probable you’ll experience benefits representative of what’s described above. 

Keep in mind, you will not experience the acceleration into fat-adaption, and you may not experience the adaptation whatsoever, if you only maintain 70 or even 80 percent accuracy with this protocol. So, commit now to sustain and sacrifice through the challenges you may experience...it’s worth it. 

EXECUTION - WEEKS 1 AND 2

Start with reduced eating in the morning after waking up. You wake up early, so you can have a cup of coffee with Brain Octane before training OR…I encourage you to use a low- or no-stimulant pre-training shooter like Oxylent or ONNIT Pre-Workout or even just a straight shot of BCAA’s. This will allow you to have your coffee after you train and before and/or as you get to the office. In this case your morning, afternoon, and evening nutrition routine will  look like this:

5:00: Wake up

5:30: Coffee - Start with just ½ cup and save other half for once you’ve finished this first half; like two half-cups of coffee, instead of one whole cup 

6:00: Move Your Body. Either a foam roll and active stretch routine or a brisk walk for 15-20min or even a light to moderate jog that even has some running involved for about 20min is a useful tradeoff for the current morning routine prior to readying the kids for school and beginning work. 

The idea here is to activate your metabolism and get it hot BEFORE you start putting food into your stomach; like turning on your stove before cooking food in the pot. The pot has to be hot if it’s going to cook anything.         

6:30-7:00: Have second half-cup of coffee after morning activation and continue the morning routine of preparing kids for school and getting started on work.   

7:00-10:00: Drink water and other non-caloric beverages AS WELL AS staying away from any synthetic sweeteners and taste-enhancers. Those will aggravate the process considerably and should be avoided at ALL TIMES. This is NOT about calorie restriction, but rather about kick-starting your fat burning systems to begin churning out fat cells for energy usage.

10:00: If you notice any “physical hunger”, like your stomach growling, and even burping or flatulence on an empty stomach can indicate that your metabolic forces are “turned on” and scoping out your blood, stomach, liver, and other places for molecules it can break down into fuel then START with a 10 to 16-ounce drink of water. If you’re still hungry then: 

1. Have second cup of coffee; this time with ½ TB of MCT oil blended with ¼ TB of Kerry Gold or Ghee butter
   or
2. Have 15gr Whey Protein and 5gr Collagen Protein with 10-16 ounces of water
   or
3. ¼ to ½ avocado
   or 
4. 1 serving Focus with 10-16 ounces of water 

 10:00-12:00: Continue to monitor based upon whether you chose one of the four options above. If you didn’t, and you continued to fast, then if you sense a real hunger that must be satisfied then go to one of those four. BUT, if you already did AND YOU STILL feel a real hunger then do this: 

1. If you had coffee before then do the Whey + Collagen option this time
   
   
2. If you did whey + collagen then do the coffee + MCT this time
   
   
3. If you did either the avocado OR the Focus then eat a meal of food to officially break your fast

12:00: If this is when you break the fast then eat a light to moderately-sized meal (300-600 cal) with a mixed variation of macros scaling around: 50% (Fat) 30% (Protein) and 20% (Carb)

1:00-4:00: Regular hydration and sporadic snacks that are CLEAN, not processed, and low on glycemic index. Depending upon your training time will determine the time you stop fueling; but, in general, you’d like NO FOOD starting around 90 minutes prior to exercise and even 120 minutes for some people. 

30-MINUTES BEFORE TRAINING: Non-caffeinated Fuel-5 + 1 scoop Focus + 1 scoop creatine

10-3O MINUTES AFTER TRAINING: 15gr Whey Protein + 10gr Collagen with 10-16 ounces of water. 

7:00-7:30: Eating dinner around this time or even closer to 8:00 p.m. will work; but you don’t want to eat too long after 8:00 p.m. or within two hours of bed time. This could slow sleep recovery as it’s possible food leftover in your stomach will have to be metabolized and/or digested before any REAL sleep can occur.

Your dinner meal will be the largest of the day for the first two weeks and your real focus here is getting clean, quality food sources with a macro breakdown around: 30% (Fat), 50% (Protein), 20% (Carb). This macro breakdown is for DINNER ONLY and for early in the adaptation process to keep your fat-burning systems online while providing your body enough carbohydrate to replenish glycogen stores so you can still train hard in sessions. 

CONSIDERATIONS

While intermittent fasting at various durations could be done every day to good effect, questions linger on the efficacy of a long-term metabolic state of ketosis for high performance outputs. 

While a more in-depth article is necessary on the topic, there is literature to support long-term ketosis for high aerobic output. However; literature also exists which holds competition to the efficacy of long-term ketosis...

So, as I said, a more in-depth article will better detail the features, benefits, and setbacks of long-term ketosis.