Episode 44: Defining OMAD, Desserts and Weight Loss, and More

Welcome the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm Jen Stevens, author
of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock,
longtime intermittent faster and health and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this
podcast is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended to provide medical
or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are not doctors, so make sure to
check with your trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
any medical treatments or medications. Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced
intermittent faster, tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we are so
glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's episode of the Fast Feast Repeat
Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast. How are you doing Today's Sherry, I'm doing
wonderful. How are you? I'm so glad I am doing greatest. Well
Spring is in the air, and nothing makes me happier than more mother coming
you and me both well. A lot of things make me happy, but
that's on the list. Yes, I get it. I feel like summer
is right around the corner and I'm getting really excited for it. So I
know I talk a lot about, you know, like assuming the identity of
a faster, right, and I love it when people suddenly are like,
I'm an intermittent faster. It's no longer something that you do. I used
to be a person who was very active and athletic, right then COVID hit.
I got COVID several times, my energy tanked, my testosterone plummeted,
I went through perimenopause. I don't even know where I am on that spectrum
anymore. I just take my hormone replacement and I'm good to go. But
I've been working really hard at becoming a person who exercises again, and it's
definitely like a mindset shift, and it's work at first, Yeah, it
is. It's that whole habit formation, and I'm definitely employing some habit stacking.
But for three maybe going on before, I think this is my fourth
week, I've consistently used my toneal three times a week and I'm just trying
to make it part of my day. So all of you out there who
are trying to make INTERNT fasting and consistent part of your life. I get
it because while I've got INTERNT fasting nailed, I'm trying to get movement in
and get my weight training in. And when I first met you, you
were really into fitness. I mean you were very active. Oh it was
who I was for decades. It really was, like, I remember that.
And then when you had, you know, such a bad time with
COVID and not feeling well, and then you were having trouble with your hormones
because of the transition there, and yeah, you were struggling. So I'm
glad it's back to Sherry. I've lost so much muscle mass and I'm working
so hard to get it back. And one of the things I love about
Tonal is it actually gives you like a strength score, and so it's really
fun to see that my strength score is, you know, improving and getting
stronger with every month. Well, that is good, that's great to see.
And you know that's a great point. You know, you know you
lost muscle mass, and it's it's because if we don't use it, we
lose it. Right, the most important way to prevent muscle loss is by
using your muscles and we as we get older, you have to be intentional
with it. That's why I'm loving pilates. I think a lot of my
lost muscle mass was not only was I just not using it, but you
know, I had no idea that my testosterone had tanked, which I think
was a lot of why I did not have I would want to work out,
but I just like couldn't get myself to do it. You didn't have
the stamina, and I didn't have the stamina. I also didn't have any
recovery. I mean, like it would take me days to recover from a
twenty minute workout. So it's nice to feel good to get going and get
that those endorphins and feel good and then feel good afterwards. Well, I'm
really glad to hear it. I'm still loving pilates, though I don't know
what Sola Arge did this past time I went. She was on a let's
make jen worker a hard mode because oh my gosh, I was so sore.
Sometimes I leave it. I'm like, that just felt great. This
time. I was like, oh, I'm gonna feel it, and I
did. Yeah. Yeah, Well I forgot really how good it feels to
have that, Like next day workout, yeah, muscle burn pain. Yeah.
But the other day I think I worked out almost muscle failure because I
went to walk down my front steps and I almost fell down them. My
leg muscle said. No, it really does help to have an appointment that
I have to go to and she's pushing me, because otherwise I'd be like,
yeah, I just don't feel like it, but I've got the appointment
scheduled, so I have to go. Hey, when you've visit, do
you want to go with me? I would love it. Okay, she'll
do a double lesson when you're here, because everybody she here. He's visiting
me in July. I'm so excited. But oh, by the way,
I'm getting all my guest rooms back to normal. Good good. Yeah.
I would love that. Yep, So you can go do pilates with me
and I won't have to miss my session, hooray. Yeah. A guy
I work with, he's actually part of my Apple Watch Challenge group in the
community. We post a like solo and team challenge every month, and so
a guy I work with is actually in my group and he I worked with
him this weekend. I don't often, and he said it's really motivating.
For him to be part of the challenge because it keeps him honest and it
keeps them active when he doesn't want to be. Well. Community makes such
a difference with everything. It really does. It really does. Yeah,
you know we love community. Everybody. Well, let's share a weekly celebration,
and this week we have a celebration from Gary and Tennessee. Gary wrote,
I'm six feet tall and when I started intermint fasting, I weighed about
one hundred and eighty pounds. I have exercised daily for as long as I
can remember, but my weight had crept up as I have gotten older.
I thought I needed to lose five pounds or so off my waist. After
being an intermitt faster, I now weigh around one sixty, which is what
I weighed when I graduated high school fifty years ago. My waist has gone
from a tight thirty six to a loose thirty four. My BMI is right
in the middle of normal. I am truly amazed at what I have has
done for me. I lost all of the weight during the first five months,
and I have been at one hundred and sixty or just below ever since.
I must admit that I thought body recomposition was something you told people to
keep their spirits up when they hit a plateau. I love that so much.
It's not we're not just making it up, he says, But I
was wrong. I have definitely become leaner and stronger since I stopped losing weight.
So he's saying he's having benefits from fasting even though he's no longer,
you know, losing fat. He is losing fat, but he's losing fat,
but it's not shown up on the scale, right right, right,
strong. Yeah. Since I completed the twenty eight day fast start, I've
pretty much done in eighteen six. I open my window at noon and I
close it around six I only drink water during my fast. I do brush
my teeth in the morning with toothpaste and mouthwash, and it has never caused
me any problems. I don't normally get hungry during my fast, but if
I do, I just drink some more water. I have plenty of energy
during my fast, and I even play two or three hours of pick a
ball at the end of the fast twice a week. The only thing that
keeps me from saying if is a panacea for me is that I still have
the same joint pain I had before. I suppose the fact that most of
my joint pain is the result of old injuries makes the alleviation of that pain
a little too much to hope for. I know that there is no single
thing that will work for everyone, but intermint fasting has certainly been a blessing
to my wife and me. Thank you for all you have done to share
if with everyone. By the way, if y'all hear it, it sounds
like someone is drilling something. I did hear that. Then someone is drilling
something. I don't know who it is. I met my work condo and
I'm in my office and someone is out there somewhere close by drilling something.
So no need to be alarmed. Listener, someone is not doing work at
your house. It's happening here. I don't know. You might not be
able to hear it, but I did just hear it. A win what
that was? I was like, what at first off? Thought at airplane?
Yeah? Anyway, I love Gary's celebration. That is fantastic and it
does make me chuckle that he said he thought that body recomposition was something we
we just told people when they were in a plateau, and it really is
true. Though we've been around the community for so long that we've seen it
happen to so many people. Happened to me. Yeah, oh yeah,
Sherry has beautiful pictures of body recomposition. I went through a period where I
was just like, well, this is it. My body's not going to
change, this is where it's at. And then like kind of was like,
is fasting working for me? I had that thought. This was back
in like two thousand and eighteen, maybe twenty nineteen, and somebody asked me,
have you taken progress photos lately? And I said no, because I
mean I was at mikelweight, so I just thought I was done, right,
I took progress photos and I blew my own mind. It's true.
Yeah, so yeah, my body was drastically different. I actually weighed I
think I'd have to look at the picture two or three pounds more than I
did on the like first picture, the before photo. But my body is
like completely different. Yeah, it's powerful. As you as you lose fat
and build and maintain your muscle, you're going to weigh more possibly than you
did before, but you'll be smaller. So I love that Gary is noticing
body recomposition and as far as the joint pain, he makes a really good
point. You know, intermittent fasting is not going to cure all of your
ills, but it will reduce inflammation. So if you have joint pain related
to inflammation or from being overweight, it's very likely to help with that.
But if you have pain related to an old injury, it may or may
not help with that. It just really depends. It still could because inflammation,
you know, leads to pain right in general. So all right,
so now we have a question from a listener. This question is from Katie
in Key West. She says, Hi, girls, thanks for all you
do for us intermittent fasters. I came to intermittent fasting after reading fast Fused
Repeat, primarily for help like autophagy, but also for a little weight loss.
There's that drilling again. I don't know what they're doing, but like
they're remodeling the condo next to us for something like right this minute. I
didn't know anyway, she said, I didn't have a lot to lose,
but wanted to adios my muffin top. Three months in now I'm down six
pounds and muffin top is pretty much gone. Yay, like it sounds like
you're about to like drill a hole in you're the wall through the wall entire
anyway, Sorry, listeners, I can't control what the neighbor's doing, she
said. Three months in, I'm down six pounds and my muffin top is
pretty much gone. She said. I essentially alternate up and down days through
the week, with the odd day, which varies, being one meal a
day. I'm very comfortable with this schedule. But here's my dilemma. I
enjoy having dinner with my husband, but I like to save the last few
calories of my five hundred calorie down day meal for a little treat for myself
after dishes are done and my work is over, usually a forty five calorie
vegan oatmeal cookie with black coffee. This makes my five hundred calorie down day
eating window about ninety minutes. Is that too long? I want to make
the most of this wonderful lifestyle. Thanks so much, listen. I have
two answers for this question. You are doing this primarily for health, Like
atophagy, you want a little weight loss, so I mean you've achieve the
weight loss that you want. So is what you're doing working for you and
makes you happy? And keeps you compliant with the lifestyle. If that's what
you want to do, that's what you can do. But what is the
goal. The goal of the down day meal is to have it and have
it over with as quickly as possible. Now, I'm not telling you cram
your meal down in five minutes. You know, take your time, eat
your full meal, enjoy it. But then you're done, you stop.
You want one insulin response so that your body can quickly, you know,
burn through that meal that you ate and get back into fat burning mode.
So I mean essentially, by dragging that five hundred calories out over ninety minutes,
you're really delaying that happening. And again, it's going to be a
balance for you. I would not do that, And if weight loss was
my goal, I absolutely would not recommend that. What do you have to
say, Jen, Well, that's the thing, you know, it's all
about what are your goals? Right? Her goal is she likes the rhythm
of alternating up and down days through the week with one a one meal a
day here and there. She's not trying to lose any more weight. She's
doing this for help. So and when we look to the research on alternate
daily fasting done by Christa Verity. I mean they spread their five hundred calories
out over an entire day, which sounds crazy, but we now understand the
clean fast. They're trying to maximize the time that we're in the clean fast.
But if you're at your goal, I don't see an issue with having
a ninety minute down day. She's at her goal and she's enjoying the lifestyle.
She's not trying to lose more weight, she's happy where she is.
It really does depend on that, I mean what you're trying to do.
So will a forty five calorie vegan oatmeal cookie at the end of a ninety
minute, five hundred calorie down day window make a giant difference in her overall
results? I don't think so. In general, though, like Sherry said,
we do recommend that you have your down day one and done, not
trying to stretch it out with flavored beverages and all of that. We want
to keep our influin down. We want to keep our body in a short
period of time with that meal. Yeah, and I'm going to be honest,
Like for me, my blood glucose like when I eat, you know,
it goes up a little bit and it comes back down. Mine's pretty
much back down within ninety minutes to two hours. So if I now introduce
something else, especially just like a small vegan cookie, I'm fairly certain I
would be starving again then, Like I feel like that would be just that
would make you hungrier enough of a blood glucose rise and insular response that I
would be hungrier than just not doing it. Yeah, but it sounds like
it's working for Katie. And that's the key. Remember, we want you
to tweak it till it's easy and be your own study of one. Know
what your goals are, and someone who is, you know, stuck in
a plateau and wanting to lose more weight or to combat insulin resistance, we
would give a different answer to that person, right, And so that's the
thing, you know. I have a background in elementary education and one of
the buzzwords I don't know what they're still talking about now, but when I
was there, one of the buzzwords was differentiation, and that is understanding what
each person needs. Each student didn't get the same thing, you know,
and Katie, who is at her ideal weight and doesn't need to lose any
more weight, can get a different answer than someone who's struggling with obesity and
insulin resistance and at a plateau. So just something to keep in mind.
So if you feel like, why did they say she could have a cookie
and did ever they tell me to have my meal in an hour, Well,
it's just you know, you need something different, and it's a matter
of understanding where you are, what your goals are, and why you're doing
it. Yeah, even in the community, people will notice that we give
different answers to the same question to different people. But it really comes down
to us knowing the person who's asking the question and what their goals are and
what their struggles are and where they are in their journey, and so,
you know, we really do get to learn that the people in our community.
And so, you know, I sometimes Peel would be like, wait
a minute, you told so and so this earlier today, and now you're
saying this that happened this week. We had somebody who posted a question and
we answered it one way, and then someone else who we know really well
post a similar question and we're like, no, don't do that, and
somebody else, like I saw earlier that you said, I'm like, yeah,
it's because we know this person versus that person, and they're at different
places in their journey and different needs. There's a time when, like intermitten
fasting can be more flexible for you, but there's a time when you need
to knuckle down right and flexibility is great in certain times, and sometimes you
need to not have flexibility exactly exactly, yeah, because there are some people
who flex great, and then there's people who flex and that they kind of
lose the plot. So those are the people we're gonna be like, no,
don't flex, don't flex for that right, you know, keep doing
what you're doing. Don't rock the boat. All right, Well, let's
move on. We have an other question from Anne Marie in Toronto. She
says, I started twenty nineteen typically sixteen hours fasting a day. I am
now fifty five years old, one hundred and thirty five pounds. I was
one hundred and fifty five for most of my life fighting PCOS, and then
gained another ten pounds on a trip, which is what triggered the IF journey
in twenty nineteen. I have not looked back recently. I got educated about
how even a bit of milk can break the fast, so I want to
know how to fast with coffee and milk? Do I need a glucose monitor?
I would like to keep this easy. I'm five eight, so I
want to maintain my new healthy weight and muscle mass and not have it be
dramatic. Well, I'm going to make it super super easy and Marie,
but it's not going to be the answer you want. There is no way
to fast with coffee and milk. It's impossible because milk is food. So
no glucose monitor is going to answer this question for you. The answer is,
unfortunately, there is no fasting with coffee and milk. Aunt milk is
food and and I mean that's just what it is. Why do we have
milk? Well, it's nature's perfect food for building a baby mammal, So
it's never going to be fasting. If you went to have fasted blood work
or you went to have fasted surgery, you would not have milk before you
had that done. That would not be fasting. And I want to talk
about something here that that's really an interesting question. Do I need a gluecose
monitor? You can't use a glucose monitor to tell you whether something has broken
your fast. Your glucose monitor gives clues about what might be going on.
I was listening to an episode of the Mastering Diabetes podcast today in the car.
It downloaded automatically. I just had Cyrus coming on intermittent Fasting Stories,
which will come out in the summer. But so I was like, I
loved what they were doing. And it was an episode that was about using
a glucose monitor, and the host it was two ladies. I think that
they're coaches. So I was like, we have people in our community who
like to use blood glucose monitors, so I'm going to listen to this,
and I listened to it, and they're both type one diabetics. Leave I
don't know these ladies' stories completely, but I think they're both type one diabetics,
and they're talking about how confusing a blood glucose monitor can be because blood
glucose can go up and down for all sorts of things. They're like,
are you stressed, did you exercise, what are you doing? And so
you can't always form a cause and effect relationship based on what your blood glucose
is doing. Like if you drank some coffee with milk in it and your
blood glucose went down, why did it do that? Maybe it went down
because your body released insulin and it lowered your blood sugar. That's not what
we want. That we don't want infulin coming out extra hour while we're fasting.
Or maybe you drink the coffee with milk and your blood sugar went up,
which is very normal to drink coffee. Coffee alone's gonna raise your bloodluse,
It's true, and so you can't say what the milk did. You
could do a comparison, say, well, I drank coffee today and it
went up to one ten, and I drank coffee today with milk and it
was only ninety nine. Well, was it nice because your body pushed out
insulin to combat the milk with the coffee, or was it one ten because
your liver dumped some glycogen? Right? Exactly exactly were you more stress today?
Did you climb the stairs before you checked it? Did you not sleep
as well last night? Like every single thing in your life affects your blood
glucose. Right, And that was the whole point of their podcast episode.
They said, stress really really makes a huge difference on what their blood sugar
is doing. And these are ladies who are required to inject their own insulin
because their body doesn't make insulin, so they are just really in tune with
what their body is doing. They must be. They have to monitor it
that way. So everybody, please do not try to use a blood glucose
monitor to determine if you were breaking the fast or not, because they're just
way too many variables and you don't want to gain the system, right,
I mean, why would you have the milk because it's not going to add
any benefit to you're fast. There's zero percent chance that milk in your coffee
is going to improve your metabolic health. Zero percent chance. It's only going
to have the potential to mess things up. So remember why you're fasting.
Yeah, and she says she wants to maintain her new healthy way and muscle
mass and not have anything dramatic happening. Like I almost wonder if she I,
Like, I don't know, I don't know what her benefit for the
milk is, but like the best way to maintain your weight and muscle mass
is to clean, fast, fast, clean. Yeah. So, as
I said, Ian Marie, I'm sorry, I know that is not what
you wanted to hear. Because if we could add milk to our coffee.
We would all be doing it, right if it was part of the fast.
I'd probably be doing it, she would probably be doing it. But
it's not, and we want to maximize the benefits of the clean fast,
so you just can't cheat your body. I hope that that helped all right,
So now it's time for our segment called what's your Why. Most of
us have weight loss in mind when we start intermittent fasting, and we definitely
approve of that being part of your why, But there's so much more to
what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss. So in my book
twenty eight Day fast Art Day by Day, I asked readers to craft their
why statement before beginning. When your why is deeper than weight loss alone,
you're more likely to find long term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
So today we have a wife from Julie, and Julie wrote my original
why was to lose weight. I was unhappy with how I looked. My
energy level was low. I would get so tired of the afternoon, and
I just knew I didn't feel my best and I knew the extra weight was
not good for me. My mom died unexpectedly at fifty one years old of
a heart attack, and that has motivated me to take better care of myself.
She was not overweight, but she had unhealthy habits. I have been
fasting since January twenty twenty one, and the weight came off pretty quickly.
I lost about thirty five pounds in the first six state months, and I
have stayed around that for most of the time. I would like to lose
anther they're fifteen to twenty pounds. As I've learned more and more about all
the benefits, my why has changed. The autophagy and the knowledge that it
could help prevent Alzheimer's and dementia is a huge why now. Plus, I
honestly feel better in my fifties than I did in my thirties and forties.
I'm able to play and keep up with my grandkids. I want to be
around and see them all grow up, graduate, get married, and see
who they become as adults. That is something my mom missed out on.
There are honestly so many whys. I just know I will never not fast.
It is definitely my lifestyle. Yeah, I feel the same exact way,
Julie. Yeah, I can't imagine just waking up beside not to fast.
No, I can't either. Well, we have another question this week
from Missy and Florida. She wrote, Hello, I am fifty six years
old. I'm five foot five inches tall, and I have been an intermittent
faster for about one and a half years. I originally started out doing a
sixteen eight, then transitioned within about three months to one meal a day,
having some longer windows on weekends to six hours or longer only for special occasions
only. I started out at one hundred and sixty two pounds and then dropped
to one thirty three within six months. I've been stuck at that weight since
I'm unable to lose that last eight pounds. I had been a runner,
running between two to four miles per day, three to four days per week
since November, when the morning temperatures are cooler, and because of my early
work schedule, I stopped running about three months ago. I started working out
in my home for thirty minutes three days a week since, and I noticed
I'm putting on a few pounds five to be exact. Three weeks ago,
I went from one meal a day to twenty four thinking that we better for
me than one meal a day, breaking my fast with fruit and nuts,
just fruit or maybe some greens. Then I close out my eating window with
dinner and dessert. During my fast, I do a clean fast with black
coffee water, sand greeno sparkling water or club soda water. Only The problem
is those five pounds will not budge. I feel it my clothes, so
it's definitely weight gain and not body recomposition. I am thinking one reason I
know I can't lose any weight is I love to bake and have desserts after
every dinner. I cannot shake my sweet tooth and I enjoy baking so much.
But in the past one and a half years, my dessert habit was
always there. Do you have any thoughts, any ideas on how to rid
myself of this craving and habit. I am missing something somewhere else. I
have read all of your books and I love them, and I recently found
your podcast and love it too. I would like to get down to around
one hundred and twenty five pounds, but I'm now stuck at one thirty eight.
Help. Thank you for all your support. All right, so there's
a lot to unpack here. First, of all, I want to do
a little lingo unpacking, and that is one meal a day. She said
she went from one meal a day to twenty four and I would like to
say that those two things, to me are really synonymous. So I'm really
wondering what she was doing when she was calling it one meal a day.
And I am afraid I would suspect she was doing like twenty three one.
Yeah, I am afraid that what you have been doing, Missie, is
a very very very tight one meal a day, and now you have had
it loosened up one meal a day. So I want to take some time
to define one meal a day what it is. And we've talked about this
before, but I think it's worth repeating what it is, what it isn't,
and what not to do. Right. So when you hear the term
one meal a day, I mean, if I could go back in time,
I would take this terminology away. We would not use it because I
think that it encourages confusion and it encourages people to think, oh, I'm
having one plate of food. I sit down, I eat one plate of
food. That's it for the day. That is one meal a day,
And would that be one meal a day. Yes, that would be one
meal a day. You're only having one meal. But any paradigm we're only
having one meal in your day would be one meal a day, the original
way that I intended people to think of one meal a day. If you
go all the way back to twenty fifteen when I founded the one Meal a
Day Facebook group. Why did I start that Facebook group? Well, I
was in doctor Bert Hearing's Fast five group Fast five. He had a nineteen
to five approach with a five hour eating window, and there were a lot
of people struggling in that group with the five hour eating window, and they
were trying to fit as much eating opportunity as they could into a five hour
window, and like having two full meals. And I did that too at
the beginning, right, I'm like, oh, I can eat within five
hours. I can eat as much as I want. I'd been a dieter.
I was trying to squeeze in a full meal to open and a full
meal to close. And to me, a full meal is just that a
full meal? Right? So? And yes, So then I reread the
Fast five book and he says within it, you're only having one meal,
so dot dot dot and I'm like, wait a minute. He intended us
to not just pack in as much food as we can within five hours,
but we're only eating one actual meal. And he structured his eating window from
five pm till ten pm, so you know, clearly you're probably not fitting
it, you know, lunch and dinner from five pm to ten pm.
So I was like, well, there we go. That's where I was
going wrong early on, or some people have gone wrong. Let's just think
about it as a multi course meal over a five hour period. And I
tried to say that to a few people in the fast five group. They're
like, no, he just has five hours. It's just five hours.
I'm like, fine. You know, I knew early on I didn't want
to argue with people on Facebook, so I started my own group one Meal
a Day, and we were thinking of it as structuring one multi course meal
over five hours, instead of trying to cram it into a short window.
We were having it over five hours. But over time, more and more
people would join that group, and then suddenly people were like, oh,
twenty three to one, that's one meal a day. And then the terminology
was getting broader out into the world of intermittent fasting, and some people were
defining one meal a day as twenty three to one, and so I think
it's just gotten really really confusing out there, and so I want to encourage
everyone not to define one meal a day as twenty three to one or one
plate of food because why why do we not want to eat in a one
hour window every day or have one plate of food? That is not enough
food for your body day after day. It is going to be over restrictive
long term. I don't care who you are, there is no way that
you're going to eat enough food in one hour a day to be enough food
for your body. Not to think something's going on right. Over time,
your body will adapt to that. How do I know it. We've seen
it over and over and over again. So everybody, please do not think
that one meal a day number one. Don't think that that is what everyone
should aspire to. We should not all be thing like everybody should be one
meal a day. That's it. That's the only way you should do and
written fasting. But second of all, please don't define one meal a day
as a really short window and think that that is desirable or aspirational. I
have one hour windows sometimes very rarely. Sometimes it just has to do it
if I'm busy or depending you know, what I'm doing that day. But
I think nineteen five as a one meal a day pair of time is still
a really good way of looking at it. You're fitting in a multi course
meal within five hours, and think about it as an appetizer course, a
salad course. But you're not trying to squeeze in two full meals and call
it one meal a day. Right. I don't care what you call it,
honestly, as long as it's working for you. But having a really
really tight short window day after day is not going to work for you necessarily
long term if you plateau and then you want to lose a little bit more.
So we're talking here with Missy who had gotten down to one hundred and
thirty three pounds, which is a very very healthy weight for someone who's five
point five, especially if you're experiencing body recomposition. But then three weeks ago
she has lengthened her window a little bit to twenty four. I'm wondering if
she had just been too restrictive for so long, especially when you couple it
with how much she was running every week. Yeah, So if you were
maintaining a very very short eating window and not eating a full day's worth of
intake in that very short eating window, coupled with all of that activity,
right, I feel certain your body has really downregulated your metabolism to adapt to
that. And now that you have stopped running so much, and then you
know, I think your your body knows the difference, right. It's honestly,
if you like eating in a very short window, I think you would
do great with an ADF protocol, which is really going to help your metabolism.
It's going to fire it back up again. You can do the five
hundred calorie down day meal and then have an update to follow and do that
for a while. I really think that that you really short eating window for
this long period of time is kind of maybe coming back to bite you a
little bit. Yeah, And I also think though you might see even a
little more regain at first, like you might want to ease in, like
have one down day a week and then follow it with one up day eight
to twelve hours for your upday to boost that metabolism and then back to you
know, maybe nineteen five the next day. See how that goes. Because
you want to rev up your metabolism, but you don't want to get scared
by a sudden weight gain that will happen. There's something, there's a concept
out there. I didn't make it up. It's called reverse dieting. It's
a protocol that you can find if you google it. Reverse dieting and ADF
is very much like reverse dieting. Right, You've got the dieting part on
the and of course what I call it dieting, but you know what I
mean. The fat burning part is the down day, and the upday is
the metabolic boost. But the whole premise of the reverse diet is if you
have over restricted long term, then you've got to rev your metabolism back up.
But it is well known that you will gain weight during the process.
Yes, so I think I did reverse dieting by accident, just because all
those years that I gave up and got up to two hundred and ten pounds,
and I think that that healed my metabolism. And I'm certainly not recommending
anyone give up for years and regain all the weight like that, but I
think it really helped my metabolism after all the years of dieting. So,
but we've got ADF as our tool for so anybody who's listening, if you
misunderstood one meal a day, and you know, I think how I wrote
about it, and even in Delay, don't deny. I never said the
goal is to have a really really short window. But I think people just
hear it and then they just say, well, this is easy, I
can do this. It makes sense. Then you get into that pattern and
before you know it, you're just there, you are with your right one
hour window. Yeah, and I also really want to encourage her to you
know, you have this idea that you should weigh one hundred and twenty five
pounds, And I don't know where that one hundred and twenty five pounds is
really coming from. Where that number is coming from, unless that's something that
you've weighed at some point in your life and you're trying to get back there.
But something that's important it might come from the formula. Well, something
that's really important to remember is that you know the diets we've done in the
past, which we are not preserving muscle mass with. It absolutely makes a
difference in what your goal weight's going to be. And if you've always been
a runner and you've restricted calories in the past or whatever you do, burn
through some muscle that way, and now you're clean fasting. You say that
you're working out at home. Now I don't know if you're working on some
strengthening. So it's very normal too to see your weight go up a little
bit when you start strength training, if nothing else, because it does create
inflammation in the body and your muscles hold onto someme water and you can feel
fluffy during that muscle building phase. But when I run your numbers through the
smart BMI calculator, first of all, your normal BMI if you do a
conventional BMI is twenty three, which is a very very healthy BMI for a
woman. And if I run it through the smart BMI, which takes into
account your age, you are thirty four out of seventy and an ideal range
is thirty to thirty nine out of seventy, so you're right in the middle
there. You're at a very healthy weight. And it actually said that you
would not benefit for health reasons from losing any weight whatsoever. So if you're
you know, if you don't want to find in your body and body recomposition
or whatever, you know, strength training is going to be your friend and
then a little ADF, a little ADF and just a little starting out of
that restrictive eating pattern. And I really, just like I said, I
want to encourage everyone to please don't think that more fasting is the answer.
I just have really been in about a five hour window for a long long
time. That just feels right to me. Some days it's shorter, some
days it's longer. But it'd be interesting to see my average, but shorter
is not always better. I also want to take a few minutes to talk
about dessert. Yep, yes, because we have this come up all the
time in the community. People struggle with sugar. And I've been listening to
some interesting stuff on hyperpalatability Sherry, and you know, the whole idea of
satiety and hyperpalatability and foods and even you know, some people feel like they're
addicted to certain foods like sugar for example, or they want to have something
sweet after they eat. And I think this is a great example of that.
Like Missy has said that she he always wants to have dessert, and
she loves baking and she can't shake her sweet tooth. And I know we've
talked about this before, but it's worth mentioning again. I don't think there's
anything wrong with having a sweet tooth because I have one. You've got one,
right, Sherry. Yep, it's built into us. I think it's
biology and we're supposed to have a sweet tooth. It's not something to feel
bad about or feel ashamed of, or think it's a bad habit that you
have to break. But what you choose to meet your sweet cravings can make
a lot of difference if your goal is weight loss. You know, Chad
and I had gotten into a habit of getting ice cream. Lately, we
had some people come over. We've had more ice cream, both of us.
Even Chad said he had noticed his pants are a little tighter. He's
got a little fluffiness going on. Well, there's the ice cream showing up
for both of us, both Chad and Iron. You know, quote maintenance.
Neither of us are wanting to gain weight though we're not trying to lose
a lot of weight, but we still have to be mindful of what we're
eating and whether that leads to weight gain or weight loss. So even Chad,
who is lean, always been lean, never gone on a diet to
lose weight, in his entire life. Noticed we're having too much ice cream.
I'm getting a little fluffy, so we've stopped to have an ice cream
instead. Those Shery. He's eating all my daily harvest bites all the time,
because you can have one of those and it's like made from high quality
foods and it doesn't have any added sugar and it meets your sweet tooth.
I'm like, where's all my banana ones? He's like, I don't remember,
he said, You're like, well, I remember, they're gone.
I'm going to just have to order more. But even when you're at a
healthy weight, desserts can lead to weight gain. I'm just gonna say that
again. You know, I'm never going to live in a world where there's
not going to be something sweet if I need something sweet. But what you
choose can make a difference. And even in maintenance, even Chad Stevens,
you can gain weight if you're choosing too much dessert. Everybody knows dessert is
not a weight loss food. But there are actually things you can have that
would be like berries. I have strawberries. I have blackberries in my fridge
right now. I can eat those well, and that's my thing. I
am the person that after I eat, I like to have a bite of
something sweet too. That is my like. Once I do that, that's
kind of my signal that my windows closed. It really is satisfying to me.
But am I eating sweets? Am I eating conventional dessert? No?
I have over the years really figured out what is really satisfying to me that
tastes sweet, that is nutritious, and that is not going to set me
back in my goals. And for me, most of the time, that
looks like some Greek yogurt with a chopped apple in it, or some berries
in it, or even I like some vanilla yogurt with bananas in it.
It's a banana split to me. So there's if you use fruit in lieu
of sugar, it's very satisfying. It's got fiber in it, it's got
you know, all kinds of good stuff in it. So maybe start there,
find some fruits you like, start to substitute those with your with your
baked goods, yep, exactly, and avoid those hyperpalatable sweets like the ice
cream and the cookies and the cake. And it's those combinations of really high
fat and really high sugar. Also, Sherry I listened to a really interesting
podcast. And if someone who studies hyperpalatability like she's a researcher, you know,
I love the researchers here are doing the work. Salt plus fat,
yeah, really hyper palatable yep, and drives you to just keep eating and
eating and eating. And it made me think of my own salty crunchy thing
problem. Right yep, salt and fats, sugar and fat, right right.
It drives us to keep eating carbohydrates and sodium. Yep. Bank potato
chips, corn crackers. If you can't eat just one, that's true,
find something else. If you're struggling with it, that is all right.
We have a question sent in by Jim. Jim says I started intermittent fasting
on July third, twenty twenty three. It worked great. I lost eighteen
pounds by September thirtieth on a twenty four schedule, so we had a four
hour eating window. Unfortunately, my wife and I took a two week trip
through England, followed by a two week cruise back home in October, which
blew my fasting out of the water. No pun intended. I'm back on
the same plan and I've lost five pounds in two weeks, but we have
more trips planned, and I'm afraid of how I'm going to deal with formal
meals. I just reread the ADF section of fast Feast Repeat and think I
might be able to do that. However, because I'm on meds for cardiac
and diabetes issues, I normally don't take those meds on an empty stomach,
and my wife loads me up with healthy supplements, which I take at the
same time. Time. Well, taking those meds and supplements on a down
day completely violate the ADF protocol. If not, I can put up with
the stomach upset that taking forty two tablets and capsules entails not really forty two,
but it just seems like it. I would prefer the full fast method
over the five hundred calorie method. Thanks well. First of all, any
medications that you take and prescribe you need to take regardless of the fast.
Don't even take into account how is this going to affect? You? Know
my fast that if you need to take those for health reasons, you need
to take those. Although I would like to pop in there that you need
to check with your doctor to make sure it's safe to take it. While
you're fastest, right, because certain diabetes meds could cause your blood sugar to
go down, and just work with your doctor on that timing. As far
as supplements, I don't think you're going to feel very good taking supplements in
a completely fasted state. No, And so many supplements too really are going
to affect like your insulin levels and that sort of thing. I have no
idea what you're taking. But if I'm doing a full fast ADF protocol,
I'm skipping my supplements the days that I'm doing the full fast, so I
would just not take them that day. There's not any supplement unless you're on
it from your doctor is requiring you to take it for medical reasons, in
which case considered a medication. There's no supplement that your wife has put you
on that you're going to suffer from having every other day, right, That's
the way I look at it. I mean, if it's something you need
medically, talk to your doctor about it. And there are supplements that someone
could need medically, so definitely you need to take those. But in which
case you might want to have the five hundred calorie down to a meal.
Uh huh, That's what I'm thinking. If you're Yeah, if you really
want to take them, I would absolutely use the five hundred calorie option and
take them with that and real quick. I just want to say, you
know, if you're going on all these trips and vacations, that is really
something you've going to have to figure out how to faster. And I would
stick to an eating window before I would try to do ADF on vacation.
Honestly, I really think that you're going to find that a nice five hour
eating window if you're someone who travels a lot, like on a two week
cruise. I would one hundred percent stick to a five hour window on a
cruise ship if I were going to be on it for two weeks, no
question in my mind, because I would feel terrible if I tried to eat
for longer than that. For two weeks, Yeah, well that's a lot
of eating on the update that's going to kind of weigh you down and slow
you down. I feel like yeah, And then I mean, as far
as you know, coming from an area of like Fomo, and I don't
want to go a whole day without eating delicious foods while I'm on vacation.
Yeah, I want an eating window, and I want to be able to
enjoy, you know, whatever foods present themselves to me in areas that I
you know, I don't live in and I'm exploring exactly, but you can
fit in some delicious, window worthy food in five hours. All right.
So before we get to our teek of the week, I want to take
a minute to talk about my books and which ones you need. If you
are new to intermittent fasting, or you're restarting after a break, or you're
just in need of a refresh, then you're going to want twenty eight day
fast Start, Day by day, the ultimate guide to starting or restarting your
intermittent fasting lifestyle, so it sticks. I also want to take a minute
to encourage you to choose the paperback edition because it's got a write in component.
I think of the kindle version and the audio versions as being more of
a supplement, Like if you want to listen to the daily lesson and then
come back and write in your paperback, or if you want to read something
on your kindle while you're out and about, but you really need the paperback
version. So if you're only going to get one, that's the one that
I would get. And since that book is a companion book for Fast Feast
Repeat. You're going to want that one as well. When you're farther along
on your journey, you'll want to refer to it. And I also send
you to sections of Fast Feast Repeat in the twenty eight day Fast Start book.
If you're a settled intermittent faster and you know you want to clean up
what you're eating or your personal care products, your cleaning products, and I
think you'll enjoy cleanish. I wrote it say that the process of cleaning up
would feel less daunting. There's a step by step approach that you control every
step of the way. And now it's time for our tweak of the week.
You know, we always say tweak it till it's easy. But the
tweak that works for me might not be the one that works for you.
And that's why it's super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making the
intermittent fasting lifestyle work for them. This tweak was submitted by Elizabeth in Chicago.
She says, I have been an intermittent faster since January of twenty twenty,
and I was even a guest on Intermittent Fasting Stories in July of twenty
twenty one. I love everything about intermittent fasting, most of all the peace
and freedom. In twenty twenty two, I started gaining weight and wasn't sure
exactly what to do. I was doing twenty hours pretty consistently and it wasn't
difficult, but I knew I had to change something within if I was very
hesitant to do ADFS. I'm a creature of habit and I like consistency.
I decided to pay attention to what I was eating in July of twenty twenty
three. I don't count anything, but I'm eating more, low carb,
higher fat. I have found out what works for my body. I'm down
twenty pounds in three months. I'm finding out what I can live without bread,
chips, crackers, and what I can't. I will never go to
a Mexican restaurant and not have chips in guacamole. It's about balance. I
started intermittent fasting in twenty twenty and part two in twenty twenty three. What
I eat is just as important as how long I fast. Another bonus,
my fasted insulin was twenty four in June of twenty twenty three and now is
ten thanks Sherry and Jen for this new podcast. It's a highlight of my
week. I love that figuring out what works for her body. I love
that too, and that is just so important. You know, as we
as we change, we have to respond to what's going on in our bodies,
and you know, things slow down as we get older. Our bodies
do change hormonally in so many ways. The way that I eat now is
not the same that as I ate when I was younger. Yes, I
need to be more mindful as I get older, and that is just true.
Is it because intermittent fasting is let me down? No, it's just
a Most women gain weight as they get older. I don't want to be
one of those women, So I've got to work on my food choices.
Yeah. I had a lot more freedom and what I ate when I was
thirty five and forty than I do now at fifty. I think that's true.
Really, Like I said, every single woman, whether you're an intermittent
faster or not, you have to work with your changing body. So does
that stink a little bit? Yeah? That stinks little bit. Yeah.
I would like to have ice cream every night with Chad, But guess who
else can't have ice cream every night. Chad, Chad, so because he
is Also he's a little younger than me, not by much. He was
born in nineteen seventy I was born in nineteen sixty nine. So but Chad,
older body also can't do ice cream every night. Well, this week
we have a motivational message for you from Amy Joe in Mississippi. Amy Joe
wrote, for almost twenty years, I've had this quote on the bulletin board
in my classroom. The quote is whatever you feed will grow. As a
high school teacher and now as a college instructor, it has been a reminder
to my students to guard what they watch, what music they listen to,
what friends they surround themselves with. Now, as an intermittent faster about to
celebrate my fourth anniversary of intermittent fasting, it is a reminder to me and
to all of us that this lifestyle is about so much more than losing weight.
We could all take that quote and apply it in a dozen ways,
but for me, it is about peace. Fasting has given me control and
calm and the chaos of teaching through COVID. People are amazed I didn't quit
fasting during that era, but they don't understand what we know about fasting,
that it is simply part of a lifestyle, just like showering, brushing our
teeth, doing the laundry. For me, fasting has also held me up
during the last year through the loss of my mother and caregiving for my father.
I had an eating window every day. Still today, every day I
give myself the gift of a clean fast. Food won't fix whatever it is.
Clean fast, feast on mostly read real food, and repeat. Trust
that you are growing something good for your body, your mind, and your
soul. Remember, whatever you feed will grow. I love that. Thank
you for sharing it, Amy Joe. Thanks so much for listening today.
We would love to have you join us in the Delay don Tonight community,
where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch
of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash community to
join us. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite podcast app,
and if you haven't already, please leave us a five star review that
helps new listeners find the show, and we really appreciate it. We are
a community driven podcast, so to submit your success stories your questions, your
favorite tweak it till It's Easy moments, or anything else you want us to
share on the podcast. Go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and
then listen each week to see if we share your submission or answer your question
until next week. Thanks for listening.