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Originally Posted by chassis
3PedalJake thanks. Is keto/time restricted eating/intermittent fasting and end unto itself, or a means to an end?
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Metabolic flexibility is the end goal. Here's the thing that eludes most ppl, the medical establishment included. It's not a question of "is it effective for weight loss AND issues like metabolic syndrome/T2D", they're one and the same thing on a sliding scale and almost everyone is at somewhere less than optimal on that sliding scale.
You have to learn the role of Insulin, what it does and how the body responds in it's presence and also absence. There are other hormones at play here too, Glucagon which is the inverse if Insulin and initiates fat burning, and Leptin and Ghrelin, the hunger/satiation hormones. Insulin is the elephant in the room tho, once you understand it the metabolic system starts to make sense. That was the key to my understanding what good keto is anyway.
When I say metabolic flexibility I mean the ability to transition from a fed to a fasted state with no appreciable change in basal metabolic rate. In a practical sense that means the ability to transition into ketosis rapidly when fasting, and also to begin utilizing and storing energy efficiently when taking in food. So the answer to your Q is it's a means to an end, the end being metabolic flexability. You only have to fast/be in ketosis to the extent that you CAN be in ketosis and transition in and out. That is the mythical "fat burning zone" touted by as seen on TV types, but that actually exists.