The BEST Keto and Intermittent Fasting Tips - Dr. Berg

The BEST Keto and Intermittent Fasting Tips

So I wanted to do this one video to explain the most important tips and tricks with doing keto and intermittent fasting to get the best results all in one video. It's not gonna be a long video, but I wanted to cover the most important things to help you be more successful and really experience the results that you're looking for.

So let's start at the beginning. You wake up in the morning what do you do? Well, most people drink a cup of coffee, right?

So the first goal is to skip your breakfast. And the best way to do that is to add some MCT oil to your coffee, start with one tablespoon because if you start with too much, you can end up with diarrhea.

So MCT oil is a type of fat. Usually from coconut oil, that's gonna allow you to not be hungry for the next several hours.

Keto and Intermittent Fasting Tips In The Morning

Okay?

So you put that in your coffee, and you mix it up. If you work up to two tablespoons, you're gonna find that <laugh>, you're not gonna be hungry. It's gonna give you energy. Now, what I normally do is after the coffee, and you can do this before the coffee, I like lemon water, but I take the whole lemon and I blend it with water. I don't take the juice of the lemon anymore.

Now it's gonna be very, very tart. So you can add, you know, several drops of Stevia, or what I do is I put my electrolyte powder in this mixture, like one scoop that way you get the potassium magnesium. So you have more energy. So we have this superpowered lemon water with electrolytes, or without it, that gives you a lot of vitamin and sea, but it also gives you something called citrus rates, which help prevent kidney stones.

Intermittent Fasting Until Noon

Okay? So now that you're not hungry in the morning, you go all the way to noon and you have your first meal. I recommend doing maybe a tablespoon outside of vinegar and a glass of water drink that will help you digest. It's also gonna help your blood sugars, but you don't have to necessarily do it before the meal. You can do it while you're fasting, but outside of vinegar is a really good thing to take.

When you're doing this for energy, for blood sugars, to help speed up the improvement of insulin resistance. Now, as far as the meal goes, I always recommend doing your vegetable or salad before your protein.

Why? Because I found that if you're gonna do what I usually recommend is between seven to 10 cups of vegetables per day, which a lot of people can't do. Initially, that means you're gonna have to do a big salad, right?

I mean, a five-cup salad is not that big and maybe you could do five cup salad and then for dinner, do like three cups or two cups, right? It's not hard to do that. Now, if you're doing other vegetables like broccoli cabbage Brussel sprouts, more dense vegetables, you're not gonna be doing seven to 10 cups. Okay. Maybe you do four to five cups.

So I recommended doing the vegetable or salad first because it's that way it seems to work out a little bit better. So on the salad one thing that I do that actually tastes quite good is I sprinkle nutritional yeast flakes on the salad. It's a way to get my B vitamins through the day. And it'll definitely reduce your stress and it actually tastes a little bit like Peran cheese. So it's, a great thing to sprinkle on your salad.

Vitamins, Nutrition, and Fasting on Keto Diet

I would highly recommend getting the one that's non-fortified because of the fortification, they put these synthetic vitamins in there and I'll put a link down below. If you want more information on that. The two major groups of nutrients that I recommend as a bare minimum would be electrolytes and B vitamins. When you're doing keto diet to prevent the keto fatigue, the keto rash, and any other symptoms because when you first started this, you're gonna dump a lot of water and you're gonna lose a lot of electrolytes. And some people get really tired after they do this and they become dehydrated.

So we wanna put back in the electrolytes, plus when you're burning more fat, you do need your B vitamins. And a lot of people are borderline deficient going into this. So they may have fatigue if they don't add the B vitamins, one of the best sources of the B vitamins is nutritional yeast.

So you have your vegetable, your protein, okay. How much protein? Well, that depends on, you know, your metabolism, your age, if you're male or female, I usually recommend between three to six to seven to eight ounces of actual protein. Now, if you're younger and you exercise have a little bit more, but if you do too much protein, especially at dinner, that could keep you from sleeping at night. All right. So at the end of the meal, I like to add some additional fat. Why? Because that way I can fast longer and I'm more satisfied.

So I might consume a handful of pecans. I might do a whole avocado. I might do. Macadamian nuts. I might add more olive oil to the salad. I might just have some more butter on my food, but that fat will help me to fast longer. Now, at the end of this meal, some people might feel full, but they not, might not feel satisfied.

Insulin Resistance and The Importance of Nutrition

And there are a couple of reasons for that. Number one, they have insulin resistance. Okay. And that's gonna take some time to fix that. And when you have insulin resistance, you just don't pull the nutrients that much. So you're always gonna feel a little unsatisfied. So that tends to cause you to eat more. The other reason why you might not feel satisfied is the food that you're eating is not nutrient-dense. Okay. When you do grass-fed beef, oh my gosh, it has so many more nutrients than corn-fed beef. And you won't know it until you try it. So even though it might have more of an I don't know, earthy taste to it, or a kind of a, a different taste, it's way more nutrient-dense, more omega-three fatty acids there are even phytonutrients in there because the cow has eaten a lot of grass.

So we have way more beta carotene and way more retinol, vitamin a and vitamin E, and more trace minerals. I mean, if you think about it, a cow that is fed a lot of corn that is very unnatural has much more marbled, fatty protein, like their, their muscles are fattier. Well, guess what? Some of these cows develop insulin resistance and that creates a nutritional deficiency in the cow. And then you eat that meat and you have less nutrition. So ideally to feel more satisfied, you have more nutrient-dense food. So grass-fed beef seafood is really nutrient-dense, especially with trace minerals. Shellfish is another good one. If you could do liver, that would be good. Eggs pasture-raised organic eggs are very nutrient-dense. Wild-cut fish is more nutrient-dense like salmon versus a skinless chicken breast or protein powder, or getting your food from a fast-food restaurant but avoid farm-raised salmon.

Even though you take the bun off to make it keto-friendly, it's low quality, but I don't wanna overwhelm you. Okay. So there are really two phases to this. The first phase is just to do low carb, even if it's dirty, keto doesn't matter. Just start doing low carb. The second phase is to increase the quality of what you're eating. Okay. And that takes a little bit more knowledge, a little bit more time. So do what you can.

Something is better than nothing. So if you have to start doing low carb and regardless of the quality do that, so we have this first meal. Now we're gonna fast until dinner. Okay. Now, a couple of tips for fasting. You can do different types of herbal teas. Green tea is a really good one. Turmeric tea is a really good one to help you last longer and to spike a toy, which gives you all these other cool benefits of anti-aging and more brain health.

All right, we get to the second meal. You can do another drink outside of vinegar, with water to help your digestion and then do your fat at this time. Maybe you wanna do a good handful of sunflower seeds, which gives you a little bit more fat. And B one.

Now at this time, it might be six o'clock. Okay. Let's say hypothetically, you're gonna go to bed at 10 o'clock. I wouldn't recommend it if you're older and you potentially might have bladder problems waking up in the middle of the night. I would recommend not drinking past, like, I don't know, seven. So that would be three hours before you go to bed. So in other words, drink a lot of water throughout the day. And definitely maybe after dinner and maybe right at seven, but not drink a lot of liquid, like seven, eight or nine o'clock because that sleep is gonna be very, very important.

And the less water you drink the better. Now, this is a really key thing between the last meal. And before you go to bed a lot of times I know this might be hard to believe they wanna snack on foods. And this is the killer for staying in ketosis. Then, some people nonstop snacking between the time that they eat dinner and the time they go to bed.

So the most important tip is to just not have snack foods in your house, get these potential tempting snacks out of the house. If you absolutely must eat something, just eat celery, it's crunchy. And that way it'll give you something to chew on. But boy, this is a real problem for a lot of people. So if you do what I said, eat nutrient-dense foods and more fat at the end of the meal, your chances of snacking will be less.

Snacking and The Effects on Ketosis

All right. Sleeping is going to be very important if you don't sleep well, you're going to find that you're gonna crave it in the morning because it's gonna increase cortisol.

You'll be more stressed. It's gonna be harder to get the results that you want. It's gonna affect your metabolism. So a couple of little tips for sleeping during the day. If you can exercise, that would be awesome because exercise will deplete your energy. It improves your blood sugars. It will help your sleep. If you can exercise outside or be outside during the day, that's also gonna be important because the exposure to the sun is gonna give you a lot of melatonin. Melatonin is gonna help you sleep.

So if possible, ideally you wanna get at least one hour, at least one hour of exposure to the sun. Not necessarily being the direct sunlight, but just being outside. Even if you have a hat on or clothes because the UV light from the sun will penetrate your clothing and your hat.

Sleep and Melatonin Why It's Important

And that will start building up your melatonin. Okay? Not to mention getting the vitamin D helps your sleep. So during the winter if you're not getting enough sun and you, and you wanna spike your, your sleep takes about 10,000 IUs of vitamin D three, right before sleep, okay, that's gonna help your sleep cycles. And if you have this excessive thinking before bed B one before sleep is very, very effective.

So we wanna limit too much protein in the second meal, especially to help you sleep. Because if you're sitting on a tremendous amount of protein, that's undigested it's gonna affect your sleep.

Make sure you get enough melatonin by getting sun. Don't take the melatonin supplement. Okay. That's gonna create another problem. Get your melatonin from the infrared wave from the sun. And then you have the B one and then the D three. All right. And I forgot to mention this with exercise, to maintain energy with exercise. You need your electrolytes, especially sodium, okay. And potassium. So make sure when you do this keto that you start adding more sea salt to your meals. 

If you don't, you'll be deficient in sodium and that's going to make weak muscles, you're gonna feel like, wow, I just don't have the energy to exercise. It's usually low sodium, which is very easily handled by putting more sea salt on your foods. Now, as far as the potassium, that's another electrolyte.

That's gonna keep your energy up and you can, you're gonna get potassium and magnesium from your salads and the electrolyte powder. And I even want people to feel the difference by adding just more sea salt and potassium to how much more effective their exercise is in endurance strength and the desire to exercise versus being deficient in those oh boy, it's dramatic.

You just don't feel like working out. You don't have the energy you're dragging all day. Now, a couple more important things. So if you've checked out, just checked back in, cuz this is gonna be really important.

Staying in Ketosis While Fasting

We don't want you to plateau, right? It's the little things that make a big difference. For example, one way to knock yourself outta ketosis is by doing a diet of artificial sweeteners. Okay. They can really mess you up. So that's a really important point. The other point is there is hidden sugar in even keto-friendly bars, desserts snacks.

Yes. And even though you might be below the 50 grams of carbs, maltodextrin is not classified as sugar. Believe it or not, I've done a whole video on that and I do not recommend a fast mimicking diet it's not really fasting it's low calorie. As for snacks don't trust it, read the ingredients first. In fact, if you can avoid the keto snacks altogether, you're probably gonna be in better shape. Also the so-called keto, electrolyte powders out there have maltodextrin hidden in their natural flavor reigns. Yes. So that's another thing that I didn't even know until probably a year and a half ago, but they used maltodextrin as a spray agent to dry out certain flavorings.

So I had a hard time finding a company that didn't add maltodextrin to the ingredients, both in the citrate form of the minerals, as well as in the natural flavorings. So maltodextrin is worse than sugar. It's worse than glucose. It's like really high on the glycemic index. All right. A couple of things, honey is sugar. Okay. Avoid it, read ingredients with honey and avoid it. And there are a lot of other forms of sugar, like date sugar and coconut water.

There's a lot of sugar in that. And so realized just a little bit of that sugar or carb can knock you out of ketosis for a considerable amount of time, up to 48 hours. So if you're wondering why you're not getting results, because every other day you're having these hidden sweeteners. That's why you see the goal is to get you to do this right long enough for you to feel what you should feel like as far as the energy, the cognitive benefits, not just the weight loss, but just feeling really good because that healthy feeling, that feeling of wellness, the feeling of being energetic is so, so important.

Especially as you get older, you'll find out it's very valuable. Last a few tips.

The best indicator to know that this is working is your appetite, okay? Your appetite goes away, not weight loss because it's getting healthy, then lose weight, not lose weight to get healthy. So one of the best indicators of getting healthy is switching over to burning your fat. That's a very, very healthy state. That's gonna create a lot of additional health benefits. So the loss of appetite means that you're doing this.

Okay. So go by that as the most important thing, especially when you start out, don't weigh yourself too frequently because we don't wanna focus on your weight. Okay. We want to focus on energy, appetite, cravings going away, and then your clothes feeling looser. And last little point, if this is overwhelming, something is better than nothing. Just do low carb, okay. Or just do fasting as a starting entry point. Because even if you have to start with dirty keto and, and do the Atkins bars to help you, which are loaded with a bunch of crap, but at least it's below 50 grams of carbs, that would be better than nothing.

Now the next best video, I, I think you, you should watch would be the one that I did on the seven to 10 cups of vegetables. Check that one out. I put it right here.

Include these high-quality products in your keto plan:

Check out Dr. Berg's Keto Combo (Electrolytes and B Vitamins) Here 

Check out Dr. Berg's Nutritional Yeast Flakes Here 

Check out Dr. Berg's D3 & K2 Here 

Check out Dr. Berg's Keto Fasting Tea Here 

Kick-start your Healthy Keto and intermittent fasting plan with these useful tips and tricks.

0:00 Introduction: The best keto and fasting tips

0:22 Tip #1 - MCT oil

1:03 Tip #2 - Lemon water

1:45 Tip #3 - Apple cider vinegar

2:10 Tip #4 - Have your salad first

2:55 Tip #5 - Nutritional yeast

3:25 Tip #6 - Electrolytes and B vitamins

4:10 Tip #7 - Consume moderate amounts of protein

4:33 Tip #8 - Have fat at the end of the meal

5:25 Tip #9 - Consume high-quality foods

7:38 Tip #10 - Extend fasting with herbal tea

8:50 Tip #11 - Don’t snack

9:45 Tip #12 - Get quality sleep

11:37 Tip #13 - Replenish electrolytes

12:45 Tip #14 - Avoid hidden ingredients

15:22 Tip #15 - Look for this sign of keto-adaptation

15:55 Tip #16 - Something is better than nothing

In this video, I’m going to share some of my best tips and tricks for Healthy Keto and intermittent fasting.

Tip #1 - Have MCT oil in your coffee every morning to reduce hunger and cravings. Start with one tablespoon.

Tip #2 - Blend one whole lemon in water. This provides a boost of vitamin C and phytonutrients. Add stevia or electrolyte powder to enhance the flavor and nutrients.

Tip #3 - Have one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water in the afternoon. This helps improve insulin sensitivity and energy.

Tip #4 - Have a large salad before each meal to help you achieve 7 to 10 cups of vegetables a day.

Tip #5 - Add non-fortified nutritional yeast flakes to your salad and other foods to replenish your B vitamins, reduce stress, and enhance flavor.

Tip #6 - Replenish electrolytes and B vitamins to prevent keto flu symptoms.

Tip #7 - Have 3 to 6 oz of protein per meal. You can have up to 8 oz if you exercise and have a great metabolism.

Tip #8 - Add additional fat to the end of your meal to increase your fasting window and reduce cravings.

Tip #9 - Increase the quality of your foods. Always choose organic, grass-fed, pasture-raised, and wild-caught products—they contain more nutrients. Avoid processed foods.

Tip #10 - Use herbal tea to help you fast longer.

Tip #11 - Don’t snack—especially after dinner and during your fasting window. Never keep snack foods in your home.

Tip #12 - Get quality sleep. Poor sleep increases cortisol, hunger, and cravings. Exercise and sun exposure during the day will increase melatonin at night. Vitamin B1 and 10,000 IU of vitamin D will also help improve your sleep.

Tip #13 - Replenish your electrolytes after exercise with sea salt, vegetables, and electrolyte powder.

Tip #14 - Check all products for hidden ingredients, like unhealthy artificial sweeteners, sugar, maltodextrin, and carbs.

Tip #15 - If your appetite is gone, you know it’s working.

Tip #16 - Something is better than nothing. Do dirty keto and work your way up to Healthy Keto if you need.

AVOID These Synthetic Vitamins: ▶️ https://youtu.be/mAlaexDCC44

The #1 Worst Ingredient in the World (MALTODEXTRIN): ▶️ https://youtu.be/Dkbu16d0qX0