Episode 52: Struggling With Sugar, Fasting While Sick, Losing More Weight After Previously Dieting, 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
exceptionally well. I'm so glad you'll know. I why My husband's out there
cleaning the house right now. That's pretty awesome. Are here like vacuuming three
times before? And we hear vacuuming? Uh no, are you having people
over? No, he just wants to clean all. His Birthday's Thursday.
We don't have the baby. She's at the Vets' surgery. The dog.
Sorry as the baby. Funny story. I called the vet last week and
I said I was calling about my daughter Lulu, and then I went,
I'm sorry my dog, and she said, your dogter just my docter.
That's funny. Ya. The baby's having her second knee surgery and it was
supposed to be today, but apparently there was a mess up, and so
they kept her and they're doing it first thing tomorrow and then we get her
back Thursday, and so we kind of have this like free day tomorrow that
we weren't expecting. And it's his day off and he wants to go kayaking.
So oh well that sounds fun. He said, when you go in
there, re Court, I think I'll clean up the house so that you
don't feel like you have to do that tomorrow on my day off. Love
it. He's motivated. There you go, we'll have fun kayaking. Yeah,
I'm excited. All right. Well, this week we have a celebration
from Rachel in Miami. Have you ever been to Miami? Jin? I
have been to Miami. We got on a cruise ship there one time,
and it was when we lived in Augusta and we had driven to Tampa before,
which is a ways away. We'd also driven to Jacksonville. We'd driven
to Orlando, and I'm like, Florida, look down there. Miami's not
that much farther. It is a long state. I was like, Florida,
why you so long. We just drove and drove and drove and drove,
and I said, I am never driving to Miami again. I also
went when I was a little girl and my stepfather at the time his parents
lived in Miami, and I remember going there as a little girl and there
were oranges on the tree. We went deep sea fishing and there were sharks.
I just remember that trip. And they were Polish. They were a
Polish family and they had beats and I was like, I'm not eating that,
but his dad was eating beats. So that's my Miami memory. I've
never been. It always looks like a rowdy time. I don't know,
like anytime I see videos of Miami or something, it always seems like a
fun kind of rowdy place. Yeah, I don't know, like it reminds
me of Vegas in a way like maybe always something happening, and yeah,
like a fun atmosphere. I don't know. We just went to the cruise
termin all that time then when I was a kid, I have no memory
of any kind of any of that. Well, I think there's supposed to
be amazing food in Miami, so yeah, I bet there is. Yeah,
all right, all right, Rachel and Miami, maybe we'll come visit
you. She said, Hi, Jennis Sherriot. I was going to just
post this as a response to the podcast episode on your website regarding the lurkers
in the community and encouraging them to post, but it just that maybe this
is really more of a celebration. I started intermittent fasting May the second,
twenty twenty four, and I have never looked back. And as we record
this today, it is June fourth, about a month in Yeah, I
have never felt such freedom from food. I know you both say that if
you're not going to weigh all the time to make sure to measure, I
don't do either. Intermittent fasting has truly given me the ability to just feel
good. I don't need weight or measurement to know I feel better. Last
time I weighed, which was December thirty first of twenty twenty three. Nothing
like setting yourself up for the new year. I was down eighteen pounds.
You know what I think. I think that she actually meant to say that
she started in twenty twenty three. You know now that I'm going to twenty
twenty three, so too, she's a year in. She's a year year
and a month in, not one month in. That. That helps to
clarify far about that, Rachel. But I think she's a year in.
So yeah, So she weighed December thirty first, she said I was down
with eighteen pounds. I am five foot five, one hundred and forty pounds,
not a fast weight loss by any means, but I'm a good weight
for my height, so I'm not looking to lose a whole lot more.
But the fact is, I don't even care if I lose more weight.
My body is smaller, my clothes fit better, my stomach is no longer
bloated, my legs are skinnier and firmer. I do walk every day,
and I do some body weights, but nothing crazy. But the fact is
I can see the changes, and if has given me the ability to not
care about the numbers at all. I had no troubles starting my fast at
sixteen eight, and I've since moved to twenty four. But often I shifted
around depending on what is going on that week. If we have an event
to go to or are going out with friends, I shift the window to
where I need it to be. I never stress about it. On what
diet were we ever able to not worry about it? I don't do honesty
pants or anything. I just know how I feel. If I'm bloated,
I can feel it, and I know I need to tighten my window up.
I think the freedom that comes with IF is just unmatchable. It has
changed my life for sure. I think the book should be called Fast Feast
Freedom Repeat. If weighing and measuring makes people feel good, great, But
for me, the mental wellbeing of just knowing I'm doing the right thing and
the freedom from worrying about anything regarding food is amazing and makes the weighing and
measuring unnecessary. I know I feel great doing IF, and I want to
thank you so much for bringing so much knowledge and education to us in your
podcast. I love that, Rachel, I love that, And congratulations for
the freedom. I'm just thinking about that. I don't. I have just
weighed like every day of my life for so long as what I do,
I can't even imagine not weighing. Yeah, I really think I have a
really I mean I have gone periods of time without weighing, and the scale
always is up when I get back on it. So I'm the kind of
person that I push the boundaries on things. I'm not exactly a rule follower.
Research as I can well research the people weigh on to maintain. Yeah,
that is, that is what research. Honest, people who weigh are
more likely to maintain. That is, but for kids that side out of
mind. That doesn't mean that that is true for one hundred percent of people,
because you know, I haven't weighed since twenty seventeen. So in general,
if we were going to make a blanket statement for most people, having
that accountability tool tends to be helpful, But that doesn't mean everybody needs to
weigh. You know, think about before scales, where people didn't have scales,
they just lived well. And I'll say too, like, I don't
think I had I don't think I've ever had a bad relationship with the scale,
no matter what it says to me. It's just data. Like I'm
not a person that gets tied up in like feeling bad about myself because of
my weight. Like, right, I'm either happy with my body or I'm
unhappy with my body at that point, and the scale doesn't really affect that
feeling for me. But I know for a lot of people, the scale
really affects how they feel. And so you know, if you're one of
those people that that scale is beating you up every time you step on it,
then I don't step on it. Well, that's exactly right. And
that was the thing for me because it made me start to feel like die
your brain. Yeah. And the other thing I was gonna say too in
maintenance, and I see this happen too, like especially with women. I
don't think. I don't know that men do this like women do. If
one hundred and thirty five is good, then one hundred and thirty must be
better, right, and like where when do you stop? Right? And
so then that can become really unhealthy, chasing that elusive you know, perfect
weight that doesn't exist. So anyways, congratulations, Rachel. I'm so glad
that you are feeling the freedom. All right. So now we have a
question from a listener. This question is from Struggling after one year. Hi,
I have been fausting for one year. Initially I lost seven kilograms within
the first five to six months, then my weight loss stopped. I am
one hundred and sixty three centimeters and currently eighty kilograms. I would need to
lose ten more kilograms ideally, but honestly, I would even be happy with
five. I am thirty four years old and when I was twenty I used
to weigh around sixty kilograms. My weight gain after having two kids when I
was around twenty six to twenty seven years old, so I also have pulled
this in. Sherry put some notes in here about that was she currently weighs
around one hundred and seventy five pounds and she's about five foot four. Her
goal weight is around one fifty five. Before kids. Oh yeah, before
kids, she weighed around one hundred and thirty two. And I also put
her into the smart Bmi because you like to do that. And according to
this, I didn't have her age, but I just saw it on there,
so I put it back in with her age, and according to the
smart Bmi, yes, she is in the Moderately Moderately everyweight she's not in
the healthy weight range quite yet, so I wanted to check that out because
sometimes people could be right in the middle of the healthy weight range and want
to lose you know, what we might call vanity pounds. But in this
case, she's slightly above the healthy weight range, so she said. I
do clean fasting for eighteen to nineteen hours a day, drinking only water.
Recently, I've been suffering even with my fasting periods. In the past,
it was fine, I could easily go eighteen hours, but in recent weeks,
I'm struggling and praying for the fast to be over. I do not
use chewing gum or medicine, but fasting stopped being a pleasure for me.
I can survive the fasting time I can force myself, but the problem is
that I am not losing anymore, and I am over eating in my window,
and I don't know how to stop it. I think I developed overeating
from fasting. I try to eat to satiety, but I always go much
beyond satiety. I've tried several techniques eating slowly pauses between meals, but have
not had any successes. In my eating window, I mostly eat home cooked
meals and a variety of vegetables, meat, and potatoes. But I don't
know how to stop eating sweets. I have tried several times and nothing worked
for a whole year. I thought that fasting would be my answer to keeping
weight off for a lifetime. But I started to feel that maybe I am
that one percent of unlucky people from whom fasting may not work. Any ideas
how to start losing again? Thanks Gosh, I wish I knew what protocol
she was using. Well, oh wait, we got fashing eighteen to nineteen
hours a day there. It is okay, eighteen to nineteen hours a day.
So I have a few thoughts for some people. You say eighteen nineteen
hours a day, I don't know how diligent are you about keeping your windows
tight. If I was to eat an indulgent six hour window every single day
where I ignored satiety, I would no longer be flipping the switch every day
and getting into katosis, which would make fasting hard every single day, because
you're getting to that hard part of the fast where your body wants to flip
the switch, but then you're opening the window, and then you're you're not
ever really depleting your glecogen stores, and you're kind of writing that edge of
fat adaptation, and so it makes fasting feel hard, kind of like in
the beginning before you started shifting into fat burning. And I have a feeling
that that is what's happening for you. I think you are no longer getting
a dictosis, So thoughts of food are prevalent, you're not getting the appetite
correction, You're not getting the benefits of it. So you got like like
I think maybe your windows were just a little too long, which kind of
sets you up for this sort of cycle of hard fasts, not having appetite
correction, over eating in your window, and that has now become your pattern.
So if I had a few suggestions for you, I one hundred percent
believe that this is going to work for you. You're going to have to
dial in your eating windows. So we've said this before. Don't like I
wouldn't pay attention to your fasts. You say you fast eighteen nineteen hours a
day. Ignore that part. Start focusing on your windows. Sounds like you're
cooking most of your foods from home, you know, vegetables, meat,
and potatoes, So just really focus on food quality in your window, really
focus on getting in touch with satiety in your window, and that that may
mean how you structure your windows. Are you opening with a hearty snack and
then you're closing with your meal? Are you opening with a meal and closing
with a snack if you need one? Are you doing two light meals,
one at the beginning of your window, one at the end of your window,
So you know, you can play with that a little bit. And
as for stopping eating sweets, don't buy them, don't put them in your
house, get them out of there. If you can get them out of
there, you can get those windows down to four to five hours every single
day. And really, really, you know, dialing in satiety you're gonna
get your body to flip the switch again. You're gonna shift back into fat
burning. You're faster, not gonna be hard anymore, and you're gonna start
to see the scale move again. Yeah. I was gonna zero in on
that sweet's part, because that's the part. Listen. Look, everybody who's
listening is one or two types of people. Want one of two. You're
either someone who can easily avoid sweets, and when you have them, you
can have a little bit and stop eating them Like me, I like ice
cream. If I have it in the house, I will eat too much
of it, so I don't have it. But overall I'm fine. But
there are other people who cannot moderate with sweets. And I have been around
the intermittent fasting world long enough to know that if you feel like you're someone
who cannot moderate with sugar, then you probably cannot. And there are people
who have to give up sugar, like like someone who is an alcoholic and
has to give up alcohol. And I didn't used to think that, you
know how we run everything through our own personal lens of like, well,
just you know you can have a little bit just like me, But I
really do now I've changed my thinking after being around people who genuinely cannot moderate
with sugar, and you know, hearing it the way it lights up your
brain light heroin for you know, I know, we don't. Our brains
don't all light up from the same substances. For me, it's cheese.
No, I'm not really addicted to cheese, but my brain really is happy
from cheese. But sugar is not my particular struggle. But if you let's
just flip it and talk. If it were alcohol, I don't know how
to stop drinking alcohol. I've tried several times and nothing worked. That would
be the way an alcoholic would describe their struggle with battling too much alcohol.
And the only thing that works for someone who is an alcoholic is to stop
consuming alcohol. If every time you have a little alcohol, you cannot stop
and you are out of control with it, that's how you say, oh,
I'm an alcoholic, and I want you to consider I don't know for
sure. I'm just going from what you said. I don't know how to
stop eating sweets. That sounds like similar are kind of a thing. If
you literally cannot stop eating sweets, you may be somebody who needs to have
zero sugar. That doesn't mean you can ever have fruit. That doesn't mean
you can't have things like that. But when we're talking about sweets, refined
sugar, ice cream, cookies, cake, chocolate bars, candy, if
you cannot stop eating those things, you've got to figure out a way to
stop stop having it, because if you can't moderate it with it, just
like an alcoholic can't moderate with alcohol, you may not be able to moderate
with sweets. And I know it's not easy to give something up that you
love and it's making your brain light up in a certain way. But you
know, we've had people in our community who have needed to give up sugar
for their own personal journey, and it's all about knowing yourself. I think,
oh, go ahead. Sorry, Well, I'm just gonna say,
and that could also if you're having a lot of sugar, that is another
reason why you're faster hard. You are putting that processed sugar, refined sugar.
It's very easy for your body to store away, refill those glycogen stores,
so it can keep you from ever burning fat. You're putting in a
lot of sugar, storing it away. You're never going to flip that metabolic
switch. Your window is just long enough. And you're craving that sugar,
and I know that you don't want to give it up, but you know
stopping fasting isn't going to help right either. It's to me, it really
sounds like sounds like a sugar issue. And I'm sorry to tell you that,
but I really think that that that's your answer. Yeah, And I
was just going to add to you, like, there are different reasons why
people crave sugar, and it could be your gut Yep. If you have
gut bugs that love sugar, you're gonna crave sugar. Your gut bugs want
that sugar fix. But if you know can abstain from sugar and you know,
work on your gut health, then a lot of those cravings could go
away. In addition, you know, some people crave sugar because they like
that dopamine hit. They need that dopamine hit, So figure out other ways
to get that dopamine hit. Exercise, meditation, time spent outdoors in the
sun, time spent in nature taking your shoes off and walking in the grass.
Like, there are so many other ways you can get dopamine hits that
make you feel good that aren't sugar. But we know sugar, you know,
our entire life. If you're having a bad day, if you're sad,
if you're if you're sick, somebody wants to give you a cookie,
a cake, a sucker, you know. So we're trained that when we're
not feeling our best and we need to feel good, that sugar will make
us feel good, right, and it does for a minute, right.
So if you can figure out other ways to feel good that are not sugar,
then you kind of start to create new habits and new responses, so
it doesn't always just come down to like, you know, I can't do
this, I'm weak. I you know ei, there's something wrong with me.
That's not it. A lot of it is just conditioning and what you're
conditioned to do over time. It's just the response that you are used to
having when you've had a hard day, that you reach for something sweet to
feel good. It could be your gut bugs. So a lot of it.
You can make tweaks and you can make changes and then you won't feel
that that need, like you can't go without sugar. Yeah, and it
all becomes so emergent. Feeling. One other hurdle that we often hear from
people. We hear it in the community. They'll say I'm having a hard
time with sugar. Will say do you get it out of the house,
and they'll say, well, it can't because dot dot dot. There's a
reason they can't get it out of the house. Their children have to have
it, their grandkids have to have it, they're has to have it.
And if sugar is a real problem for you and you're struggling with it,
then your kids are not. They don't need it either. Honestly, I
remember Will said to me when he was in high school. I was like,
why why is our food so weird at home? Why do we not
have because we didn't have those kinds like we didn't have little Debby cakes,
we didn't have sodas in the fridge. My children just didn't have those kinds
of snacks. That's how our household was set up. So you know,
they might mutiny at first, but you're you're the boss, you're the parent,
you're the one who buys the food, and just say, you know,
I've decided that I need to not have this in the house for me
right now, and it's not good for my body, and here's why.
And you're not like saying this is a bad food or never. No,
you're just saying this is we're not going to have this in the house right
now, because if it's not good for you, it is not good for
your children, your grandchildren, for the people that you love either. So
that's just something I wanted to pop in there. And I definitely don't think
it's because you're weak. It's just something you're lights up your brain, just
like I don't think alcoholics are weak. I think it's just their body responds
in a different kind of way, and so you can do it. Though,
And I did have a suggestion while you were talking. You know,
I'm not going to tell someone that they should be low carb or they should
be keto, but I have a feeling if she just two weeks of low
carb. Yeah, like for two weeks, go low carb plus you're fasting,
and then add back in high quality real food carbs. Like you said
the cooked meals, your vegetables, your meat, and your potatoes. Fruit.
That fruit is a great But two weeks of low carb, it's like
kind of a reset. You're probably gonna have keto flu and feel terrible and
like literally feel like you have the flu, but you're like, you know,
killing out the gut bugs that love the sugar. And then you're not
going to add back into sugar and it'll be like like a refresh. So
and then add back in those good quality carbs. I saw this just that
made me think too, oh, and you adding in good quality carbs,
Michael. I saw something that Michael Moseley was on and he had said that
he cited I want to say it was like research that showed that the more
fiber you add to your diet the less sugar that you'll crave. And I
thought it had something to do with the gut bugs. Yeah, and I
guess it still could. But he said it actually has to do with your
brain. It has to do with your brain and the craving that something about
the fiber and the fullness factor turns off the brain's craving for sugars. Well,
that makes sense. You have to you know, society is linked to
those stretch receptors and fasting and eating and fiber and all of those things go
together to help your body have the you be more in tune with your satiety.
But also the fiber is important. I think I just said words salad,
but hopefully everybody can take it wrong. What I died, You know
what I meant. I'm tired. It's been a long week. I knew
what you meant. Good all right. We have another question. It's when
we get a lot in the DDD community, and this is from HK in
Pennsylvania. Good day, ladies. I just had a quick question. When
you feel an illness coming, should you fast. I woke up in the
middle of the night with a sore throat and just feeling overall crappy. I
chose to break my fast in order to take vitamins and probiotics, since I,
of course didn't take them for the last few weeks. I always tend
to forget to take them during my eating window. I didn't want to have
to wait twelve more hours until my window was open at its natural time.
I'm not very far into my interment and fasting journey, and I'm still working
through my twenty eight day fast start. Thank you for any info. I'm
a big fan of listening to your body when you're sick, and if you
feel like you absolutely need to eat, eat, then you should eat.
Like if you feel shaky, if you feel nauseous, really really weak,
and you feel like for me, whenever I'm sick, I feel like I
need to eat oranges. Like I'm like, check out of the store getting
oranges. Yeah. Like literally, I only crave orange juice when I'm sick.
I never drink it, but I'm like, go get me some orangejees.
I want the kind of pulp I have to say that every time.
I like the pulp for whatever reason. But I listen to my body.
But I also feel like fasting is healing, right, if we're you know,
you've seen animals who are sick and they fast. Like we had a
cat. It was Will's cat, and something was wrong with him and he
just laid around for like two days and he didn't eat. You just later
around, literally did not eat. I tried to give him food, he
would not eat it. His little cat body said, do not eat right
now. I don't know what was going on in there, but he recovered.
He was fine. So our bodies need to direct resources to healing.
So this is where if it feels good to fast fast, if you feel
like you need something, have it. Sometimes you do need to set fasting
aside to take a medication. We get a lot of people asking about lozenges
and cough drops, and I have not taken a lozenger cough drop since before
I was an intermittent faster. Even when I've been sick, I just gargle
with hot salty water. Maybe sip a little hot salty water if I'm sick.
It soothes the throat, use a little vix Vapo rub, and I'm
not having to break my fast. You know, I don't want to take
a cough drop, and I've never really sound that to help me very much.
I don't know does that help you if you're coughing? It really doesn't.
If what I have found, usually if you have a tickle in your
throat, it's because you have post nasal drip and you may not even know
you do, but she drinks. That's what's giving you that tickle in your
throat. So drinking some hot water opens up your airways, steaming your face,
you know, all that evening you can get to open up your airways.
Hot water helps with that. Drinking hot water. Actually, you know,
I was an asthmatic child, and you know, my asthma doctor told
my mom when I was little to give me hot tea to drink, because
just having something hot, if you've got like bronchitis or something, it opens
your airways up and it can help, you know, can help alleviate that
sort of irritating cough from having tight airways. And then I was going to
suggest to anything you can get in liquid form, you can pretty much get
in pill form. So if you can take you know, a cough rather
than taking a cough syrup, if you can get like I take a delsum
for my coughs and it comes in a pill form, and I'll take it
rather than the cough syrup, just so that I'm not bothering my my fasts
by taking it. Yeah, I haven't taken anything before fasting. I guess
I don't tend to have coughs. Uh yeah, when you have lungs like
mine. That's thee I was not as but just don't cough. No,
sorry, I don't understand people who cough. I will say I used to
get bronchitis every single fall without fail. Since I started fasting, other than
a couple of bouts with COVID, I have not had prunkitis knock would one
time. Now that being said, I remember I used to always get croup.
When I was a kid. I would have a creepy kind of cough.
Oh yeah, but as an adult, I haven't had anything like that.
So all right, Well, listen to your body, do what you
need to do. Okay, now it's time for our segment called what's your
Why? Most of us begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind, Sherry
did I did nothing wrong with that, But there is so much more to
what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss. You've probably heard me
say before one of the first things I want you to do is to craft
your why statement. And if you're using twenty eight day fast art day by
day, that's right in there. There's like a lot of suggestions for you
before you get started. When your why is deeper than weight loss alone,
we're likely to find long term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
So this week we have a wife from Anne. She said, I've been
thinking about my why so much lately through the intermittent fasting stories and the fast
FEUs Repeat Wednesday podcast, I have realized that weight maintenance and appearance are not
the primary reason I do intermittent fasting. Self acceptance and good health are so
much more important. Recognizing satiety and eating real foods that serve me is so
much more important than anything else. It sounds easy, but recognizing when I
don't need to eat anymore is such a difficult task for me. I seem
to think that I should be eating more, or that the amount of food
I eat isn't going to be enough, and then I overeat. I know
I will live a long time, and I want that time to be enjoyed
in good health. Yeah, that can really be a challenge, right because
we don't know, you know, we're taught from a young age finish your
plate, no matter what, finish the late pyramid, and yeah, you
should have this many servings of this, this, this, this, and
then we lose our diets we've been and you know that. Yeah, you
do do get to a point where you're like, am I eating too much?
Am I eating not enough? And that's where the confusion comes in.
How do I know if I've had enough protein or vitamins or nutrients. Then
we look at animals and nature. Every single animal that is not fed by
humans is precisely how much to eat and when to stop. They're just eating
the natural foods for their bodies. And I always think about that. Yeah,
and your body will let you know, just like you know mine lets
me know when I don't eat enough protein. And that was my focus this
weekend. The last two weekends, I did not take enough protein to work
with me. And by Monday and Tuesday, I was just I wasn't hung
like, I wasn't satisfied all weekend of work. I think I talked about
this on the last podcast. Just wasn't so satisfied. I went to bed
hungry. I woke up hungry, and so I did not learn my lesson.
I still didn't take enough the next weekend, and this past weekend I
took plenty of protein. I had protein in my opening snack, I had
protein in my meal, and I felt all the difference. And that's my
body. I know my body's needs. So you still don't have to count
it. No, I don't count a thing. Yeah, how many protein
grams you have eaten and add them up and say that wasn't enough? No,
you know, because you're not satisfied, right, And I don't need
as much protein as you do, right, Yeah, yeah, No,
I eat my protein and then gin's leftover on her plate, it's true.
And then I give her my bread. Yeah, that's true too. We're
perfect dining partners, that's right. My call droom mate was like that with
me. With eggs. We'd go to the dining hall. This is you
know, way back in the eighties. We'd go to breakfast and we'd get
fried eggs and we'd out at the middle part and I would eat the yellow
and she would eat the white. Oh that's funny. I know, I
like the yolk better. She didn't like the Yolk, so we literally would
share the Fridays anyway. That just brought me back to that, all right.
So now we have a question from Lynn in New Brunswick, Canada.
She said, I'm fifty eight years young and I'm five foot four. I've
been on a weight loss journey since two thousand and twenty one, when I
started weight Watchers, and I lost eighty pounds in less than a year.
I've been trying to lose about another twenty pounds since twenty twenty two, but
I have been stuck at one hundred and seventy five pounds. Last October,
I bought fast Fee's Repeat and I have been if since then. I've been
consistently fasting, and yet I've only lost about five pounds. I've lost a
few inches, but not much. During my fast, I only drink black
coffee and water. I try to eat the best I can, but I
do indulge in a few treats here and there. I'm trying to figure out
what to tweak to bump up my weight loss, but I don't know what
to do. My fasts vary from eighteen to twenty four hours. I mostly
eat just a light lunch. When I break fast at around twelve thirty or
one. Sometimes it could be later than that, and then I always close
my window between five and six. Is it better to stick to a protocol
of always the same consistent eighteen six, nineteen five or twenty four. I'm
trying to figure this out here as I'm six months in and I've not lost
much. I understand it can take a while and everybody is different, but
I feel like I should be losing more as I've been following a very clean
fasting method. I've started listening to your podcast since October and I love all
the information I get from you and the fasting community. Any help would be
greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. All right, well, first,
I would like to congratulate e Lynn on your great results so far from when
you started with weight Watchers. You're down eighty pounds from weight Watchers plus another
five so you were down eighty five pounds and name I'm bringing that so just
to know, very few people are able to lose a significant amount of their
starting weight and keep it off just in general. So if the only thing
that happens is you maintain at eighty five pounds down for the rest of your
life. That is one of the biggest victories that you should just celebrate every
day because that is huge. Now Here we are and you would like to
lose about twenty more pounds, and you are feeling very stuck at eighty five
pounds down, and I get that. So you were dieting with weight Watchers,
and I imagine you're counting the points and eating less because weight Watchers is
basically a low calorie kind of way of eating over time, and your body
is likely adapted to that. Then you started fasting after being stuck on weight
Watchers, and you did lose five more pounds, but now you're stuck again.
And so I would bet that you are adapted to exactly where you are
right now, and if you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to
stay exactly where you are, which is great because eighty five pounds down is
wonderful, but you would like to lose more. So, Sherry, any
guess what I'm going to suggest. I'm I'm going to guess that you're going
to suggest like a four to three ye A protocol. Yeah, I'm going
to suggest ADF because you know, when we're troubleshooting with people in the community,
on my list of troubleshooting questions, one of them is what has your
weight been doing for the past few years? Have you lost weight through any
other method? And if you have lost a substantial amount of weight through another
plan, a diet kind of plan, then it is very likely your metabolism
is slower, because that's what diets do. We know that from all the
research on dieting. We know the biggest loser study, the Minnesota starvation experiment.
When we diet, when we restrict for a long period of time,
our body slows our metabolic rate to protect us. It's this this why weight
maintenance is so elusive yep on most diet plants. Yep. So in order
to boost your metabolic rate, you're going to have to do something about that.
And that is where ADF comes in. And that is where the up
day is so important. The down day where you either choose to have one
five hundred calorie meal or you choose to fast and you're like for thirty six
hours straight, clean fast for thirty six hours. That is where your body
can tap into fat. You're not bringing any new fuel in. Your body
has no choice but to tap into stored fuel. That's what that day does.
But the upday is for the metabolic boost, which is why you want
to start eating early on the up day, like with breakfast and have three
meals. We're not trying to lose weight on the up day. You're actually
trying to slightly overeat. So like if you think of the rhythm of it,
lose a little fat on your down day. Maybe you gain a tiny
bit of fat on your update, but it's not going to be as much
as you lost on the down day. And you just keep repeating that over
and over again. Lose the fat on your down day, have the metabolic
boost day. Yeah, you're gonna put some back into storage, but that
not as much as you took out on the down day. And so that
rhythm will boost your metabolic rate and will very slowly you'll start to see that
up and down, up and down. Your weight will start to go down.
Now you might some people who've been dieting for a long time might actually
see a little weight gain at first because the update, your body's not boosted
yet. It takes some time. Just like our metalloism doesn't slow down overnight,
it doesn't get boosted overnight as well. But when you've been overly restricting
for a while, you can rest assured your body has slowed that metabolic rate.
Yep, I agree, that's really all I could add to that.
Yeah, if you you just absolutely don't want to do ADF, some people
don't. The only thing you can do really is to have a more of
illumine this window for a while, knowing one hundred percent that you're going to
gain some weight, just because basically that's kind of like a reverse diet,
and so you want to, you know, increase what you're eating in your
window over just having one up day a week even though you aren't having any
down days, right, and then got a boost that over time you can
get that little metabolic boost so that then you can you know, go back
to a window like you're doing now and start to see like some weight loss
because you've you've boosted your metabolism that way. But it's going to be a
much slower process and it probably is not going to work as well as an
ADF schedule. And I also want to throw in here because I think this
is important to always mention. You know, she's she's lost eighty five pounds
since twenty twenty one, and she's fifty eight years old, and I need
people to think way back their whole life diet history. If you have had
decades of battling with your weight, if you were overweight in middle school,
high school, and you've always been like, let's say that you graduated high
school at one seventy five, you know, forty years ago. That might
be your body's natural place where it wants to settle. And so you might
be fighting a battle that your body is not going to let you win with
getting below your body's set point. And I know that is really hard to
hear because we all are like, well, we can all get to our
goal weight if we try hard enough, because that's what the diet industry tells
you. But you can only fight your body to get to a point where
your body is comfortable letting you be. Your body has all sorts of mechanisms
in place. You know. You can look at, you know, the
size you were growing up. You can look at your grandmother that you look
like, you know, and look to your relatives and just see what genetics
are you working with. And that's just one of those things that we have
to come to terms with. This is the body that I I have,
Yes, and I was not born with the body that I wish that I
had been born with, But you were given the body that you have got,
and so you've got to work with that body. So I just wanted
to put that out there because you could make yourself miserable trying to fight a
body in a submission that is not going to submit to a lower weight,
just because that's your genetics. And I have one more thing I want to
add to this is why using more than the scale as a measurement tool is
so important. Because when you were doing White Watchers, I guarantee you you
lost muscle mass along with fat. You didn't lose eighty pounds of fat.
So when you started fasting in October, I would bet you have increased your
muscle mass since then. So maybe the scale says you're only down five pounds,
but I bet you're down more than five pounds of fat. That's a
good point because now you're getting that. You know that we talked about the
increased human growth hormone, and we are sparing muscle while we're losing fat with
this. And I would guess that your body today is not the same body
from October. And you know I would bet you're still I bet you have
lost more size than five pounds, would reflect. Does that make sense A
good point? Yep? Yeah, all right. We have a book recommendation
from Phil in Alabama. He said, I've been practicing intermittent fasting five to
six days a week for a few months until I read your book. I
hadn't heard the term clean fast before. My main goal for intermittent fasting is
to prevent progression of non insulin dependent diabetes. I'm also working my way through
the podcasts and I'm up to episode nine. So now I am fast and
clean seventeen to eighteen hours per day, depending on my schedule. I have
a book recommendation for your consideration. I've read it several times and shared with
friends. The title is Change Anything, The New Science of Personal Success by
Patterson Grinny, Maxfield, Macmillan and Switzer, published in twenty eleven. It's
a practical guide to using multiple interventions to literally change anything. Fitness, career,
spending, whatever, is a source of discomfort in your life. And
my answer to the comment that fasting is hard, diabetes is hard. Being
out of shape as hard, aging poorly as hard. Yes, correct fasting
is not always easier easy, but it is easier than the alternatives of poorly
managed diabetes and other chronic health conditions. Wow, and I love that,
Phil. You are exactly right. You know everything is going to be hard.
Eating all day was really hard? Yep yep. Here's the book description
from Amazon. For example, why is it that ninety five percent of all
diet attempts fail? Why do New Year's resolutions last no more more than a
few days. Why can't people with good intentions seem to make consistent and positive
strides? Based on the latest research in a number of psychological and medical fields,
the authors of Change Anything will show that traditional willpower is not necessarily the
answer to these strivings, that people are affected in their behaviors by far more
subtle influences. Change Anything shows how individuals can come to understand these powerful and
influential forces, and how to put these forces to work in a positive manner
that brings real and meaningful results. That sounds really good. I've never heard
it does sounded good? No, I hadn't, but it actually kind of
reminds me what I said in the last episode when I was talking about somebody
who was fighting their sugar cravings is like, that was this episode? Was
it this episode? Yeah? Oh okay, but then we are recorded to
today everybody, in case you're like, what's happening, we're recording too in
a row. So we've been recording now for like two hours through that's to
end this episode. So that was my whole point as they talk about how
they said, you know, individuals can come to understand these powerful and influential
forces or that were affected by behaviors, you know, by subtle influences.
And that's the thing is every single thing in our life has influenced like our
thoughts and our feelings and our behaviors and our habits, and like you don't
even realize that they're happening. They can just be little little things here and
there. And sometimes it's like understanding all those little pieces to the puzzle so
that you can put the puzzle together in a different way. And that's kind
of way when I was reading through the description of this book that it made
me kind of think of that kind of get to the source of the problem
that you want to change. Yeah, So we have one more question this
week, and this is from Struggling in Scotland. Hi, I'm five foot
four inch forty three year old female. My current weight is fifty two kilograms,
so that's in my head roughly one hundred and eight pounds maybe, and
I have lost approximately fifteen kilograms since July of twenty twenty two. I started
IF as I'm always interested in health and longevity, but I'm finding really hard
to get out of the diet mindset. Less is more mindset, and I'd
really like some help with regards to food intake and possible advice on what foods
help you to not feel sluggish while trying to eat healthy and in a longer
window. I've been doing a later one to one and a half hour window
approximately four pm, three to four days a week, and then eating earlier
in the days I don't work. However, this week I have been taking
some Greek yogurt to have at my break at work in order to try to
open earlier with a smaller window. But I'm unsure what to start with.
I feel like I'm stuck in a rut, and I've been speaking to my
doctor as I have calcium deficiency and rain syndrome. My hormones are okay,
but I do have low blood pressure. They are aware of the IE of
lifestyle, and they haven't commented either way. I understand we are all different
in what works for someone doesn't necessarily work for another. I would like to
mention I'm a very healthy eater. I usually open my window with suakraut and
then some homemade soup with oat cakes. I enjoy a bowl of brussels zucchini,
chopped carrots, mushroom, and red pepperst or fried in some oil with
garlic seasoning daily. So the calcium deficiency is tricky as I eat lots of
foods which should benefit my calcium results. I enjoyed chicken, fish, vegetables,
stews, all grains, especially lentils, split peas, dark chocolate,
and some fruits. But I've suffered from ibs previously, so I tend to
stick to the same ones in rotation. Sorry for the long message, but
I hope I've given you enough info. I enjoy the I of lifestyle as
I like the freedom from thinking about food constantly. However, at the moment
I don't have that freedom, as I feel I need to get out of
this current mindset. Okay, I just did some calculations and she weighs about
one hundred and fifteen pounds at five four and I ran that through the smart
BMI is she's on the very low end of the healthy weight range, so
it sounded pretty low to me. Yeah, and it seems to me like
you might be accidentally over restricting. You do not need a one hour to
one and a half hour window. You need a longer window. And the
thing is is that I know it sounds to me like you're stuck in diet
brain maybe. And you know you've you've done great with your weight laws.
You're at a healthy weight, but almost to the point that you don't want
to lose anymore. Would you say that that you agree without sherry? Yeah?
So, and the problem is she's sluggish, is that what That's what
I'm getting. That's what I'm getting, Like that she's not eating in a
longer window because she gets sluggish after eating. So it sounds like she's waiting
until after work to eat, which is leaving her with a very short window.
Right. And here's the thing, you're you're right that you're probably always
not going to feel the same amount of energy after you eat that you felt
well fasting, because digestion takes a lot of energy. But you may find
that what you eat makes a big difference. Like here's an example. When
I have periods where I am more whole food plant based, I don't get
the ups and downs and crashes and lulls whole food plant based. When I
eat I feel great energy. I realized after being whole food plant based for
whatever that period of time was the first time I trod it, and then
I reintroduced everything. I realized eggs make me sluggish, meat makes me sluggish,
dairy makes me sluggish. But if I eat whole food plant based,
I do not feel sluggish. So you may figure out you know, it's
what you're eating. But I would highly encourage you to widen that window because
you don't want to lose any more weight, and I think that you might
need just maybe like a five hour window, I don't know, and really
pay attention to what foods make you feel feel more sluggish after you eat them?
Yeah, do you have anything to add? I really don't. I
mean, definitely, for me, I know which foods make me feel sluggish
after I eat them, and as long as I stick with like high fiber
veggies like a salad, I'm not gonna get sluggish. If I have some
high fiber veggies, and I feel you know, I have a salad that's
got different greens and cabbage and red bell pepper and you know, cucumber and
some protein in it. I'm not gonna be sluggish after that. I'm not
going to notice a change in my energy at all. But the minute I
eat like a heavy meal that's higher in fat and has you know, like
less high fiber carbs like pasta or rice, I am going to get that
after I've eaten kind of slow, sluggish, snooze feeling. So that's why
I tend to save those for you know, the end of my eating window,
when I'm ready to wind down for the night, and I tend to
open my eating window with with more vegetables and some lean proteins. For me,
white cottage cheese and fruit is a great opening. For Gin, that's
not a great opening. Fruit makes her not feel great to open her window
with. Yeah, I can have it stuff I've eaten something else, but
not to open with. So yeah, I think it's really going to just
depend on volume two. Like I can't eat a big volume meal to open
my window because then all of a sudden, I've got this really full stomach
and all my energy is going to digest that food. So I do much
better with either like a light meal or several little small, snacky type things.
Yeah. Like I would really encourage her to maybe just like lengthen and
spread out what she's eating. Mm hmm yep, because that's the other problem
too. If you're trying to keep a short window, you're getting a large
volume of food at once, and you're gonna have a greater blood glucose response.
True. Yeah, then if you you know, kind of spread that
out, that you're not going to have that sharp spike in blood glue coast
and then it'll fall. It's going to kind of kind of go up,
and it's going to kind of stay a little bit elevated, and then it's
going to gradually come back down. And that's that's gonna be better. It's
gonna make you feel better. You'll, Like I think about American Thanksgiving,
everybody needs to take a nap after that big meal. You know, it's
not usually a very long meal, but we're stuffed and we need to rest
after that. All Right, Before we get to our tweak of the week,
I want to take a minute to talk about my books in 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, you're gonna want
twenty eight day Fast Art Day by Day. You also are gonna need fast
Feast Repeat, because twenty eight day Fast Art Day by Day is a companion
book to fast feat Repeat, And as you go along your intermittent fasting lifestyle,
going to want to have that as your resource. And if you're a
settled intermittent faster and you know you want to clean up what you're eating,
your personal care products, and the cleaning products you use in your home,
then I think you will enjoy cleanish. I wrote it so that the process
of cleaning up would seem less daunting. You can take a step by step
approach, and you control it every step of the way, and you don't
have to make any changes you're not ready for yet. Although I'm still over
here wearing my clean deadorant super exciting, are you? Yeah, I'm on
my second summer. Did you use it all through last summer? Yeah?
I never have stopped using it? Really? Yeah? Okay, all right,
well I might have to give it a try you should. All right,
Now it's time for our tweak of the week. You know, I
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 is why it's
super helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work for them.
This tweet was submitted by Kate in Seattle. She says, I'm still
new at this. I've been clean fasting since February, but I found an
important tweak for opening my window. I'll start with something liquid, maybe coffee
with cream in it, but more likely a cup of hot broth or iced
herbal tea. Then an avocado, followed by a more hearty thing like an
open faced sandwich with chicken vegetable soup or split piece soup or a cob salad.
The idea is to ease into the heavier food first, wake up my
insulin response with the creamy coffee or the flavored tea, and my digestive system
knows something is on the way, all right. That can also help if
someone sends to have bathroom urgency immediately after opening. Waking up slowly with something
like that like the bral you say no to that. I mean, it
depends on why they're having bathroom emergency. That's true. Yeah, I don't
have that problem. So sometimes you don't want to add more liquid to the
equation. I've seen some people that this really works well for them, opening
with yeah I can. And it's that whole bio individual to figure out what
works for you exactly. See now I wouldn't do well, I know,
Kate suggests ice herbal tea would make me sick, and so would coffee with
cream. Want an empty stomach like I would have a crash. Yes I
would too, so get nauseous. Probably me too. And again this is
why the tweak that works for me might not be the one that works for
you. If I just had coffee with cream, I would get shaky and
starving because my blood sugar would crash. And also the herbal tea would do
the same thing. So it's all about figuring out what works for you and
what your body needs. Yep, all right, Well, we love to
leave you with inspiration or motivational quotes, and this week we have a message
from Kathy in Colorado. She wrote, maybe I heard this on the internet,
fasting Stories podcast, but I can't truly remember where I heard it,
but it really makes me think about making healthy choices for ourselves in order to
be there for our family. The quote is, of course you would for
your child, but would you love healthy for them? Ooh that's powerful.
That is very powerful. Thanks so much for listening today. We would love
to have you join us in the Delayed on 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.