I salute you, dear reader, for attempting to do this. This is you doing three diets (!) all at once. Vegan, Keto, Intermittent Fasting. If your friends heard that, they won’t be able to believe you. But I can confidently tell them that it’s not as intimidating and complicated as it seems. It just needs some in-advance planning.
And that’s in-advance planning is exactly what we’re gonna do together today, with nine tips to make your journey easier.
1- Don’t Start Keto and Intermittent Fasting At The Same Time
If you’re just doing the research now and haven’t actually started the diet, I’m glad I caught you at the perfect timing. Don’t do the mistake of starting these two strict methods of eating at the same time. I’m saying 2, not 3, because I’m assuming you’ve been vegan for a while and the new additions to your routine now are Keto and Intermittent Fasting.
I recommend even for those wanting to do regular Keto along with Intermittent Fasting to start off with keto on its own at first, get the macros right, get a bit comfortable with it, and then adding intermittent fasting to the mix.
I believe that this is the better approach mainly because of the many, many cases of giving up that I have seen over the years by people attempting to go from their bad, old habits, into extremely healthy habits way too fast. Ripping the bandage off doesn’t work that well here, unfortunately.
On top of that, you’re slowly learning the foods that are allowed on your new diet, and which of those foods you tolerate and like.
I have compiled lists of food that can be consumed on Vegan Keto and have written them into two articles, the first focuses on Protein-Rich foods (read here), while the second is all about Fat-Rich foods (read here).
Read those articles to learn what you can and should be eating, and then give yourself the space and the time to do it right.
2- Differentiate Between Wanting To Eat And Needing To Eat
This is one of the most important things that keto and intermittent fasting teach us.As we get more fat-adapted, we start to only ask for food when we’re hungry. Not when we’re bored, angry, happy or having a sweet-tooth urge.
That’s why we must try to listen more to our bodies as we attempt keto and/or intermittent fasting, in order to give them the chance to their thing and transform our habits of eating, and make us forget what it’s like to reach for the fridge every half hour.
3- Learn How To Get Enough Protein
This is the most important macro when doing keto and/or intermittent fasting. This is especially true in the early stages where it can greatly help you feel more satiated and less hungry. This will lead to more commitment from you, and more importantly, will preserve your muscle mass and help you protect it.
There are many nuances when it comes to the sources of protein you can/should be consuming.
4- Find A Good Vegan Keto Protein Powder
As we have just touched on how important it is to get enough protein, and since you have a smaller window of eating and a smaller set of choices to choose from, all of this makes inserting protein powder into your diet a very good investment.
The question remains which one?
This is not an easy topic to be discussed inside a larger article. This is why I wrote a whole article just on that, breaking down the types of protein powders that can be consumed on vegan keto, which one suits *YOU* best, and which brand I find most worthy of your money. You can read it here.
5- Get Your Daily Fix Of Electrolytes
If protein is the most important macro nutrient, electrolytes should be on top of the micronutrients list that you should cross out first. It’ll save you a ton of inconveniences when you’re starting out, and will shorten, or even eliminate, the keto flu from your experience.
Keto flu happens because of the imbalance of the minerals within our bodies as a result to the excessive amount of water that get secreted out as our bodies are trying to use up the glycogen stores before they can move up to our fat storage and start to extract ketone bodies out of them.
5- Adjust Your Work Out Routine
There are two scenarios here:
- A- Those of you who are doing cardio to speed up your weight loss progress should be exercising within your fasting window.
What I find works best for me is when I do it towards the end of the fasting window, but there are still a couple of hours before I break my fast. - B- If, on the other hand, you’re doing resistance training and want to have a better workout, more stamina and achieve more volume, then it’s probably best to place it after a meal, especially the one that has the highest amount of carbs that you eat throughout the day.
6- Don’t Go All-In Too Fast With The Calorie Deficit
We have touched on the idea of not doing everything in the beginning all at once. What you should also look into, is not taking it too far with the calorie deficit especially at the beginning.
Your body is still getting adjusted to the new fuel, ketones, that you want it to start using. So before you get comfortable with eating the right keto macros and fasting enough hours throughout the day, it’s best not to try to eating less than your body is asking for. Give it what it needs, especially at the beginning, and once you’re ready, follow Tip #7.
7- Monopolise These Three Factors For Faster Results
After you’ve settled in and started to feel comfortable in your new lifestyle and now you want bigger and faster results, you can play around with three things.
The first one is your calorie intake.
It can be a bit tricky to calculate how much you need every day in order to create a good deficit or a surplus (depending on what your end goal is) but once you do figure your numbers out, it can be a great idea to take another step forward and mindfully take your calorie intake to the next level.
The second thing is exercise.
It’s one of the most effective ways to increase your metabolic rate and burn more calories every day, and also increase Growth Hormone which will help you preserve and build more muscle mass if that’s what you’re after in this journey.
Number three is your fasting window.
16 hours is scientifically the threshold of where the good stuff accomplished by fasting starts to happen. However, each hour beyond that is golden. It’s a very smart thing to gradually increase your fasting window and keep your hormones balanced for longer.
8- Break Your Fast Right
Carbs are the worst things you can break your fast with.
I know it’s tempting.
You’ve been fasting for hours, thinking about that damned baked potato.
But if you want better results, you should try to be stronger than that and delay your carb intake as much as you can.
Fat is the least of the three macros to increase insulin. It has almost no effect on it, making it the best thing to break a fast with, followed by protein.
So keep that in mind the next time you want to kick your eating window off.
9- Learn About The Vegan-Friendly Version Of Bulletproof Coffee
You might have heard about it but thought it’s not gonna be an option for you since it includes butter, which you can’t eat as a vegan.
However, there are many alternatives to butter that make for a great cup of bulletproof coffee.
My absolute favorite is Coconut Oil.
MCT oil is another great option.
When I went vegan, the best bulletproof coffee I prepared consisted of coconut milk, coconut oil, coffee, and stevia.
Simple. Elegant. Delicious.
Who says vegans shouldn’t be able to to enjoy delicious stuff?