Fasting is not keto

Keto can be a medical tool. Intermittent fasting can be a schedule. Neither is what Ash Wednesday is for.

A Catholic fast is directed. It has a face: Christ in the desert, Christ on the Cross, the poor man at the door. You are not burning fat for a photograph. You are making room. Hunger becomes a teacher because it is offered, not because it is efficient.

That difference matters on a Friday in Ordinary Time. Meatless is almost nothing as a diet. As obedience it is huge. A household that can skip the obvious pleasure because the Church asked is a household that can skip a lot of other noise later.

Use electrolytes if you are doing a longer fast and your doctor did not forbid it. Eat enough on feast days. Do not fast if you are pregnant, ill, or if food has already become a battlefield — that is not ascesis, and a priest and a physician should be in the room.

The tell that you have slipped into keto-with-a-crucifix: you talk more about the protocol than about prayer. Put the protocol down. Keep Friday. Go to Mass.