Episode 74: Regain after Weight Loss Meds, Defining a Plateau, Adjusting to Black Coffee, and More

<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat, Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
<v Speaker 1>Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast
<v Speaker 1>Feast Repeat.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health and
<v Speaker 2>wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast is
<v Speaker 2>for educational and motivational purposes only and is not intended
<v Speaker 2>to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I are
<v Speaker 2>not doctors, so make sure to check with your trusted
<v Speaker 2>healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes to
<v Speaker 2>any medical treatments or medications.
<v Speaker 1>Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
<v Speaker 1>tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
<v Speaker 1>to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
<v Speaker 1>are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
<v Speaker 1>episode of the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Live podcast.
<v Speaker 1>How are you doing today, Sherry.
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing great. I see you're still getting over your little.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so got a little got a little tickli throat.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah that's going around.
<v Speaker 1>I feel fabulous, but it's just settled in a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, yep, I know, I know. All too, well,
<v Speaker 2>so interesting enough. You know, last week I pose this
<v Speaker 2>theory that there's a microbiome in the sinus cavity that
<v Speaker 2>might be improved with fasting, and so of course I
<v Speaker 2>did a deep dive into that and I found so
<v Speaker 2>much interesting information.
<v Speaker 1>They connected it to fasting. Like I didn't doubt there
<v Speaker 1>was a micro We have a microbiome everywhere, like on
<v Speaker 1>our skin and our mouth.
<v Speaker 2>Right right, So here's where I think fasting comes into play. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>So they know that the GI microbiome is important for
<v Speaker 2>your for a healthy airway microbiome. It actually improves, like
<v Speaker 2>the better your GI microbiome, it improves the actual microbes
<v Speaker 2>in your sinus and oral cavity.
<v Speaker 1>Well that makes sense, okay.
<v Speaker 2>So and like they're even like researching like targeted topical
<v Speaker 2>application of probiome for the upper airway, such as like
<v Speaker 2>nasal sprays. They're talking about possibly even working to give
<v Speaker 2>them to infants so that they can start to culture
<v Speaker 2>a healthy sinus microbiome to prevent upper respiratory infections in
<v Speaker 2>like small babies. So they also know the inflammation is
<v Speaker 2>linked to more like allergic granditis chronic sinus iis and
<v Speaker 2>that sort of thing. So I think, yes, fasting is
<v Speaker 2>helping all of that. So like the side effect of
<v Speaker 2>fasting is less allergic response and a healthier whole system microbiome,
<v Speaker 2>which improves allergies.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Well just when you have you know, less inflammation
<v Speaker 1>and responses, and I mean that's going to help with like,
<v Speaker 1>like I talked about in Cleanish the bucket effect, right,
<v Speaker 1>you know, like when your bucket is full, one more
<v Speaker 1>drop in causes it to spill over. So any thing
<v Speaker 1>that lowers your bucket, you're less likely to have an
<v Speaker 1>allergic response if your bucket is lower than if you're
<v Speaker 1>like at the very top.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. So really, like by improving because like leaky gut,
<v Speaker 2>it like allows these pathogens and stuff to get in
<v Speaker 2>your body. So like it, by improving your guts, then
<v Speaker 2>you improve like all the systems in your body, from
<v Speaker 2>cardiovascular airway to brain health to all of that because
<v Speaker 2>it all works together. Yep. I think we often think
<v Speaker 2>of like our bodies as independent systems, and they are,
<v Speaker 2>but then they all come together to create one big ecosystem.
<v Speaker 1>Well that's why functional medicine is so powerful, because we've
<v Speaker 1>gotten to the point where we have all these specialists
<v Speaker 1>in the medical field that think about like one little part, right,
<v Speaker 1>they're like astroentrologists or OBG buy in, But really it
<v Speaker 1>all works together. So that's the functional medicine doctor looking
<v Speaker 1>at the big picture and how the parts influence each other.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, In fact, I was just sharing in
<v Speaker 2>some It was actually just an ad on my Facebook.
<v Speaker 2>Ever since I got into mouth taping. Now I get
<v Speaker 2>all these ads for like mouth tape on my Facebook,
<v Speaker 2>and I looked at the comments on one it showed
<v Speaker 2>up and somebody said I've lost weight since I started
<v Speaker 2>mouth taping, and people were like laughing at her, like
<v Speaker 2>how's a piece of tape gonna make you lose weight?
<v Speaker 2>Or somebody's like yeah, because then you can't eat at
<v Speaker 2>night or whatever, And so I like popped in and
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, well, actually, I don't mean I could think
<v Speaker 2>they're sleep several ways that yeah, is going to benefit
<v Speaker 2>you as far as maintaining a healthy weight and lowering
<v Speaker 2>insulin resistance and YadA, YadA, YadA. And I gave a
<v Speaker 2>whole spiel so look good. Maybe they think I'm the
<v Speaker 2>crazy one, but I mean there I understanding.
<v Speaker 1>The link between FLEE and just so many different parts.
<v Speaker 2>Of metabolic health, right, like mental health, yeah, exactly, hormonal health.
<v Speaker 2>I'm like it's all linked. Yeah, So anyway, I just
<v Speaker 2>think it's fascinating. All right, Well, we have a weekly
<v Speaker 2>celebration this week from GEN. I am returning from a
<v Speaker 2>week's vacation in England, and I'm reflecting on all the
<v Speaker 2>things I was able to do on this trip that
<v Speaker 2>I simply could not have done a year and a
<v Speaker 2>half ago before starting IF, losing sixty pounds and reclaiming
<v Speaker 2>my health. And she goes on to list a bunch
<v Speaker 2>of winds, extra room in my airplane seat, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>able to sit with legs crossed, not feeling self conscious
<v Speaker 2>everywhere I went, no tugging on my clothes, and feeling
<v Speaker 2>good in my size mediums down from a one X.
<v Speaker 2>I know how that feels when you're not comfortablehen you're
<v Speaker 2>clothes and you're constantly messing with them. Walking up and down.
<v Speaker 2>I found so many steps, particularly to walk under busy
<v Speaker 2>intersections and at the underground subway. Tons of walking while
<v Speaker 2>sightseeing and not worrying about slowing others down, not having
<v Speaker 2>to take time to put on makeup because my IF
<v Speaker 2>skin is the clearest it's ever been not interrupting my
<v Speaker 2>sight seeing for breakfast and lunch, and saving so much
<v Speaker 2>time and money by only eating dinner, enjoying a multi
<v Speaker 2>course dinner each night with no guilt. My hotel robe
<v Speaker 2>fit perfectly. I rented a bicycle and rode fifteen miles
<v Speaker 2>round trip, allowing me to see sights in the English
<v Speaker 2>countryside that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to see.
<v Speaker 2>Confidence to say no to food that wasn't window worthy,
<v Speaker 2>and freedom to say yes to the indulgences that were.
<v Speaker 2>If is the gift that keeps on giving, And now
<v Speaker 2>it has given me a vacation to remember.
<v Speaker 1>I love that. I mean, I love all of them,
<v Speaker 1>but that last one. Confidence to say no to food
<v Speaker 1>that wasn't window worthy, but the freedom to say yes
<v Speaker 1>to the indulgences that were. That is just intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>in a nutshell right there. But having the confidence to
<v Speaker 1>say no is so important.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, and I love too that. You know, sometimes
<v Speaker 2>we go on vacation and we go in with this
<v Speaker 2>mindset of well, I don't want to restrict on vacation,
<v Speaker 2>so I'm not going to quote diet on vacation, And
<v Speaker 2>I just know that when I come back, I'm going
<v Speaker 2>to have to lose ten pounds that I gain on vacation, right,
<v Speaker 2>or you go on vacation with the mindset of, well,
<v Speaker 2>i've worked so hardily as way, I don't want to
<v Speaker 2>screw it up on vacation, and then you're miserable on
<v Speaker 2>vacation because you can't feel like you're enjoying yourself and
<v Speaker 2>trying the foods from another country or place that you're
<v Speaker 2>not used to being, which either way is stealing joy
<v Speaker 2>from your vacation.
<v Speaker 1>So the happy medium is intermittent fasting.
<v Speaker 2>Right, maintaining a daily eating window.
<v Speaker 1>I spent three nights in Nashville. I went to a
<v Speaker 1>little brief event there, and on two of the days
<v Speaker 1>I asked it straight through till dinner, just because I
<v Speaker 1>wanted to have an amazing dinner and there was wasn't
<v Speaker 1>gonna be anything amazing before that. There was like a
<v Speaker 1>lunch provided I took one look at it, it was like,
<v Speaker 1>definitely not that's not window worthy. It's like sandwiches and
<v Speaker 1>chips or something. But I had a great dinner each night.
<v Speaker 1>But then on the last day I was there, somebody
<v Speaker 1>was like, let's go out to brunch to this wonderful
<v Speaker 1>restaurant I've been to before, and I'm like, I will
<v Speaker 1>absolutely go to that window worthy brunch because I knew
<v Speaker 1>that was going to be the most window worthy meal
<v Speaker 1>of the day. So I had an earlier meal than usual,
<v Speaker 1>and I got to enjoy some amazing food zero guilt,
<v Speaker 1>and I said no to what it wasn't just spectacular.
<v Speaker 1>So I love that. Yeah. So now we have a
<v Speaker 1>question from a listener. The question is from Curious in
<v Speaker 1>New Jersey. During my last doctor visit, I requested my
<v Speaker 1>fasting insulin. When the doctor was ordering the blood work,
<v Speaker 1>she gave me the normal why look, Then she asked
<v Speaker 1>which one? Apparently there were many options on her sheet
<v Speaker 1>to choose from. At this point, I can't remember what
<v Speaker 1>the options were. Is there any way to guide me? Say,
<v Speaker 1>the next time I see her, I can give her
<v Speaker 1>clearer direction.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I'll just simplify it by saying, if you live
<v Speaker 2>in the United States, I have looked up the CPT
<v Speaker 2>code for her, And if anybody who works in healthcare
<v Speaker 2>is familiar with CPT codes, the CPT code for a
<v Speaker 2>fasting insulin, you're gonna want to bookmark this part of
<v Speaker 2>the podcast. You can come back to it or write
<v Speaker 2>it down. Is eight three five two five. And that's
<v Speaker 2>simply all she needs to know. It is simply a
<v Speaker 2>fasted insulin. It's not free and total. There's some that
<v Speaker 2>are mixed with some other things. This is simply a
<v Speaker 2>fasting insulin. It measures the insulin in your blood in
<v Speaker 2>that snapshot in time, and it's pretty much as simple
<v Speaker 2>as it can get.
<v Speaker 1>Put that in the show notes. Okay, awesome, Then people
<v Speaker 1>can find it there.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I was gonna say I didn't say earlier.
<v Speaker 2>When I was talking about the sinus microbiome and all that,
<v Speaker 2>I found several research articles and I figured somebody's probably
<v Speaker 2>as interested as I am, so I put all of
<v Speaker 2>those links in show notes as well. Awesome, all right,
<v Speaker 2>So we have a question for Mary Margaret and Mississippi.
<v Speaker 2>She says, I've been an intermittent faster since December sixteenth,
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty three. I started with the sixteen eight approach
<v Speaker 2>and quickly transitioned to twenty four. Most days, I practiced
<v Speaker 2>nineteen five or twenty four, with longer windows on the
<v Speaker 2>weekends to enjoy family meals. And for anybody who's new,
<v Speaker 2>that's listening. If we say twenty four, it's twenty hours
<v Speaker 2>of fasting and a four hour window. She says. I
<v Speaker 2>am forty two years old, five foot five, and I
<v Speaker 2>weigh one hundred and seventy four pounds. I started at
<v Speaker 2>one hundred and seventy nine pounds. By March of twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty four, i'd lost to one hundred and sixty nine pounds,
<v Speaker 2>but inpatient me didn't think that was good enough, so
<v Speaker 2>I took a GLP one medication to boost the weight loss.
<v Speaker 2>In just three months, I weighed one hundred and fifty
<v Speaker 2>six pounds. Insurance wouldn't renew the prescription. Yay insurance with sarcasm.
<v Speaker 2>So now I've gained back to one hundred and seventy
<v Speaker 2>four pounds. Part of my weight gain is due to
<v Speaker 2>the havoc I created within myself by taking the drug.
<v Speaker 2>The other part is for my very busy lifestyle as
<v Speaker 2>a mom of an athlete and school sponsor slash coach.
<v Speaker 2>Why I volunteer for these I don't know. Therefore, I
<v Speaker 2>don't eat as clean as I should. I prefer to
<v Speaker 2>eat at night because when my window is open, I
<v Speaker 2>struggle mentally to close it. I also have a powerful
<v Speaker 2>sweet tooth. How can I heal my body from the
<v Speaker 2>harmful effects of the medication and get back to weight loss.
<v Speaker 2>Any and all advice and scolding is appreciated. Thank you
<v Speaker 2>for all you do for us desperate people who are
<v Speaker 2>so very tired of being overweight.
<v Speaker 1>And Mary Margaret, I get it. There was a time,
<v Speaker 1>many times, many years of my life when I was
<v Speaker 1>struggling so hard that if these weight laws drugs that
<v Speaker 1>are available now had been available, I would have been
<v Speaker 1>all over them and do whatever I could to get them,
<v Speaker 1>because they would seem like the answer I'd been searching for.
<v Speaker 1>So I will never, never not understand why these drugs
<v Speaker 1>are so appealing. But I've also learned a whole lot
<v Speaker 1>more now, So the twenty twenty four me would never
<v Speaker 1>take these drugs knowing what I know now. The me
<v Speaker 1>that didn't understand would have, but the me that understands
<v Speaker 1>would not. And that is because I now understand what
<v Speaker 1>happens to our metabolisms when we do a really, really
<v Speaker 1>low calorie diet. And I know you know, if you've
<v Speaker 1>studied these medications and how they work, they're working in
<v Speaker 1>the body differently than perhaps the appetite suppressants we used
<v Speaker 1>to take. You know, they're doing different things in the body,
<v Speaker 1>but the result is you're on a very low calorie
<v Speaker 1>diet because you have no appetite. You're not eating for
<v Speaker 1>all the reasons that makes these drugs work the way
<v Speaker 1>they do. You are eating a very extreme low calorie diet.
<v Speaker 1>And we know what happens when we do a very
<v Speaker 1>low calorie diet. The Biggest Loser study showed us that
<v Speaker 1>the Minnesota starvation experiment showed us that it is not
<v Speaker 1>in question that a very very low calorie diet will
<v Speaker 1>cause your metabolic rate to tank. The good news is
<v Speaker 1>metabolisms are not like set in Stone. You don't like
<v Speaker 1>ruin it forever, Thank goodness, because if you did, mine
<v Speaker 1>would be ruined. But it isn't. I got it back.
<v Speaker 1>So after weight loss medication, I really think that you're
<v Speaker 1>going to want to do some ADF alternate daily fasting
<v Speaker 1>because you need the metabolic boost that comes from the upday.
<v Speaker 1>So imagine you know you did this low calorie diet
<v Speaker 1>due to the weight loss drugs, your metabolism has slowed.
<v Speaker 1>As soon as you start eating normally again, you regain
<v Speaker 1>the way because your metabolism has slowed, so you've got
<v Speaker 1>to rev up your metabolism again. So alternately fasting with
<v Speaker 1>the down days where you would tap into your fat
<v Speaker 1>and the up days where you boost your metabolic rate.
<v Speaker 1>So that is what I would recommend for that and
<v Speaker 1>I totally get wanting it to be more quick, but
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to tell you not one of the times
<v Speaker 1>that I did something really really quick, whether it was
<v Speaker 1>the hCG or the whatever it might have been, the
<v Speaker 1>five byte diet, they never gave me the long lasting
<v Speaker 1>results that intermitten fasting did.
<v Speaker 2>So I want to throw into as I was reading
<v Speaker 2>this when you said that you are very, very busy,
<v Speaker 2>and you're the mom of an athlete and a school sponsor,
<v Speaker 2>and then you said you don't know why you've all
<v Speaker 2>care for these I get being a very busy mom.
<v Speaker 2>I've been there, and it's hard to make time for
<v Speaker 2>yourself when you're in that phase of your life. But
<v Speaker 2>self care is important, and sometimes self care looks like
<v Speaker 2>saying no to things that don't bring you joy. So
<v Speaker 2>if you truly don't enjoy the time that it takes
<v Speaker 2>you to contribute in this way, I would encourage you
<v Speaker 2>to find a different way to contribute in a way
<v Speaker 2>that does bring you joy. Because stress is not good
<v Speaker 2>for a weight loss. It's not good for giving us
<v Speaker 2>the time that we need and the brain power and
<v Speaker 2>the mental energy that we need to come up with
<v Speaker 2>healthy meals. And you know, if it's causing stress and
<v Speaker 2>then you're stress eating, that's not helping you. So I
<v Speaker 2>think anytime that you have a lot of stress in
<v Speaker 2>your life or you're just go, go go, it's so
<v Speaker 2>important to find things in your life that bring you
<v Speaker 2>joy and that are self care just for you. And
<v Speaker 2>like I said, a lot of times, that starts by
<v Speaker 2>saying no to the things that don't bring you joy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, very well. Put as a busy mom, getting your
<v Speaker 1>kid to the sport hard enough, making sure everyone has
<v Speaker 1>food and meals and all of that. So I know
<v Speaker 1>that it might sound like ADF might sound a little
<v Speaker 1>intimidating in light of your busyness, but think about you know,
<v Speaker 1>the down days can really help with your busy schedule,
<v Speaker 1>and you're you're not gonna have to worry about eating
<v Speaker 1>on the updates. You're going to have to be more
<v Speaker 1>intentional about eating, but you can do it.
<v Speaker 2>What I think it's gonna help with the sweet tooth too,
<v Speaker 2>because listen, there's just not room in a five hundred
<v Speaker 2>calorie dout day for a sweet tooth. Right, So that's
<v Speaker 2>automatically if you're doing four, let's have.
<v Speaker 1>One date or a few frozen grapes, you could do it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, well, I'm gonna get as much real food in
<v Speaker 2>my body as possible when I'm doing a five hundred
<v Speaker 2>calorie day. But anyway, I was just gonna say that
<v Speaker 2>automatically takes out like three days of the week where
<v Speaker 2>you're eliminating sweets just by doing ADF or.
<v Speaker 1>The high calorie loads sweets right right, right, So now
<v Speaker 1>it's time fire segment called What's Your Why? And most
<v Speaker 1>of us come to intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind.
<v Speaker 1>That makes a lot of sense, but there is so
<v Speaker 1>much more to what intermittent fasting can do for us
<v Speaker 1>beyond weight loss. If you craft a why statement that
<v Speaker 1>is much deeper than weight loss alone, I believe you're
<v Speaker 1>more likely to find long term success and view intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>So this week we have a WY from Celeste in Dayton, Ohio.
<v Speaker 2>She says, I'm a fifth grade teacher, and I had
<v Speaker 2>always maintained my weight decently until I had my two
<v Speaker 2>daughters back to back in my thirties, the weight was
<v Speaker 2>just stubborn. I went from one hundred and forty five
<v Speaker 2>pounds to one hundred and ninety five, and those fifty
<v Speaker 2>pounds would not budge. In twenty twenty two, I read
<v Speaker 2>delayed not deny, and thought, well, it can't hurt to
<v Speaker 2>try it. I practice clean fasting sixteen eight Sunday through Friday.
<v Speaker 2>I just needed to have that wiggle room of Saturday
<v Speaker 2>in the back of my mind, despite knowing that weekends
<v Speaker 2>are not a special occasion. Even so, after three weeks,
<v Speaker 2>I started getting so many non scale benefits. I went
<v Speaker 2>from having to pee ten times a day to maybe
<v Speaker 2>three times, despite drinking more water than I ever had
<v Speaker 2>in my life. I started sleeping straight through the night
<v Speaker 2>instead of waking up to use the bathroom or just
<v Speaker 2>tossing and turning. My inflammation became non existent, my energy
<v Speaker 2>was through the roof, and my brain fog disappeared. I
<v Speaker 2>only lost eight pounds over the seven months that I
<v Speaker 2>practiced intermittent fasting. I'm sure due to my weekend binges,
<v Speaker 2>but I loved how I was feeling, I went on
<v Speaker 2>a vacation, I fell off the wagon. All of my
<v Speaker 2>non scale winds lasted for the next six months, even
<v Speaker 2>though I wasn't actively fasting. Then I started noticing that
<v Speaker 2>my inflammation was starting back a couple of months ago,
<v Speaker 2>and that I was getting more tired throughout the day.
<v Speaker 2>I gained eight pounds back, and I'm now restarting my
<v Speaker 2>sixteen eight fasting. This time, I don't plan on taking
<v Speaker 2>my cheat days in hopes of maybe losing a bit
<v Speaker 2>more weight. However, even if I don't, I'm looking so
<v Speaker 2>forward to the non scale benefits that I plan on
<v Speaker 2>continuing with this lifestyle. Thank you for all you do
<v Speaker 2>and the forum You've given so many that helps to
<v Speaker 2>give hope.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I'm so glad that you're ready to come back
<v Speaker 1>to intermitt and fasting. And I would like everybody to
<v Speaker 1>purge the wording cheat day out of your vocabulary. Just
<v Speaker 1>purge that right out. You know, have a planned indulgence
<v Speaker 1>day if that is something that you know you've got
<v Speaker 1>a special occasion, right you know, like this episode is
<v Speaker 1>coming out the day before Thanksgiving in the United States tomorrow.
<v Speaker 1>If you're listening to this on Wednesday, Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.
<v Speaker 1>It is not a cheat day. It is a planned indulgence.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, you can have a lot of planned
<v Speaker 1>indulgence in an eight hour window. So you don't need
<v Speaker 1>to say I don't fast on Saturday, or I don't
<v Speaker 1>fast on whatever. You're not cheating, you're planning and you're
<v Speaker 1>being intentional about it to support your goals.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, and I'll just share too, since tomorrow's Thanksgiving,
<v Speaker 2>if you're listening, this is my buffet strategy. If you
<v Speaker 2>ever go to a buffet, I try not to they're
<v Speaker 2>not my favorite. But you never really know what's gonna
<v Speaker 2>be good. So I take a little bit of everything
<v Speaker 2>and I taste it all and if I don't like it,
<v Speaker 2>I don't eat it, and I don't feel bad because
<v Speaker 2>I just took a little bit of everything. So you
<v Speaker 2>can absolutely try every single thing at your Thanksgiving dinner
<v Speaker 2>and if you don't love it, save room for the
<v Speaker 2>things you do.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's a very good tip because it doesn't end
<v Speaker 1>up being like a buffet if people in the family
<v Speaker 1>bring different things, right. Yeah, And you might not know
<v Speaker 1>if you're gonna like it or not, like you said,
<v Speaker 1>but you don't want a giant portion of it.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, yeah, all right, So we have another question
<v Speaker 2>from Cantch in Maryland. She said, Hi, Jen and Sherry.
<v Speaker 2>First of all, thank you so much for the book
<v Speaker 2>and the podcast of Fast Feast Repeat. As a scientist
<v Speaker 2>by training, I really like the content and rationale for
<v Speaker 2>the intermitt and fasting life lifestyle, and I have learned
<v Speaker 2>a lot from you. I'm a forty year old currently
<v Speaker 2>five foot three weighing one hundred and sixty one pound
<v Speaker 2>woman with two boys under six years old, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>trying to lose weight as I want to be healthier
<v Speaker 2>and as active as possible down the road with my
<v Speaker 2>very active boys. I've been trying IF for a couple
<v Speaker 2>of years now, mainly sixteen eight with mixed results of
<v Speaker 2>bounts of weight loss and weight gain. But that was
<v Speaker 2>before I found your book in Clean Fasting and I
<v Speaker 2>started following your guidance since July of twenty twenty four
<v Speaker 2>at one hundred and seventy five pounds, I started with
<v Speaker 2>the four to three method and lost ten pounds within
<v Speaker 2>the first six to seven weeks. I noticed a plateau
<v Speaker 2>for like two weeks, then I started adyf with clean
<v Speaker 2>fasting on down days with a five hundred calorie meal
<v Speaker 2>followed by an upday to expedite the weight loss. I
<v Speaker 2>feel like I have again faced a plateau. Is I
<v Speaker 2>am still stuck at one hundred and sixty one pounds.
<v Speaker 2>I weigh myself daily for thing in the morning, and
<v Speaker 2>I see a pound or two weight gain after the
<v Speaker 2>up day, and then I lose that pound on the
<v Speaker 2>down day. And it's been the same for a couple
<v Speaker 2>of weeks. Now. I do enter my weights on the
<v Speaker 2>Happy Scale app and it shows that I'm in the
<v Speaker 2>green zone. But I'd really like to know if I'm
<v Speaker 2>doing anything wrong, especially on my up day. Although I
<v Speaker 2>try to eat within an eight to twelve hour window,
<v Speaker 2>I mostly get time to eat a proper dinner after
<v Speaker 2>my two year old goes to sleep and I notice
<v Speaker 2>that I have gone past the twelve hours Sometimes? Is
<v Speaker 2>this something I should tightly control? Also, I know your
<v Speaker 2>advice to slightly overeat on the upday, but do you
<v Speaker 2>think I have been overeating? What do you do when
<v Speaker 2>you face a plateau on ADF? As I know that
<v Speaker 2>starting ADF would be the next step when you face
<v Speaker 2>a plateau on other methods. Thank you so much for
<v Speaker 2>any advice.
<v Speaker 1>I have some advice, and there is one giant thing
<v Speaker 1>that you are doing wrong, and that is thinking that
<v Speaker 1>you're on a plateau. And here's why. Your happy scale
<v Speaker 1>graph is green and a happy that is green. And
<v Speaker 1>that's an app for anybody who doesn't know about it.
<v Speaker 1>It's only available on iOS. There's something similar available on Android.
<v Speaker 1>I think it might be called Libra or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>But it shows what your trend is doing. And you
<v Speaker 1>are facing a very very common problem with ADF practitioners,
<v Speaker 1>and that is you're letting the fluctuations from day to
<v Speaker 1>day make you think that you are not losing weight.
<v Speaker 1>You think you're on a plateau. But your happy scale
<v Speaker 1>is green. So if your happy scale is green, that
<v Speaker 1>shows your trend is going down. So that's super important.
<v Speaker 1>Thinking you're on a plateau when you're not on a
<v Speaker 1>plateau can be very very discouraging. And this is one
<v Speaker 1>you know. I love happy Scale if you're really looking
<v Speaker 1>at it and really focusing on the trend. I still
<v Speaker 1>think that for a lot of people, taking the time
<v Speaker 1>to calculate your weekly average manually once a week, like
<v Speaker 1>writing it down or on an Excel spreadsheet or however
<v Speaker 1>you like to do it. And just having that one
<v Speaker 1>number a week, Happy scale can have a lot of
<v Speaker 1>noise within it because it gives you a different trend
<v Speaker 1>number every day, so you're still seeing that trend change
<v Speaker 1>every day, whereas one day a week where you find
<v Speaker 1>your weekly average through whatever method you like, you've got
<v Speaker 1>like one concrete number to compare to one concrete number
<v Speaker 1>from last week. And if your trend is going down,
<v Speaker 1>you were not on a plateau. So if your happy
<v Speaker 1>scale graph is green, you are not on a plateau.
<v Speaker 1>Like in the community, a lot of the time, people
<v Speaker 1>will be talking about happy scale and being on a plateau,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, show me a screenshot of your graph,
<v Speaker 1>and they'll show me the graph and then I can
<v Speaker 1>see if they're on a plateau, and if it's green,
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, good news, you're not on a plateau. Then
<v Speaker 1>we dig in and we look at what that trend
<v Speaker 1>is doing. Well.
<v Speaker 2>There is a lot of data and I do use
<v Speaker 2>happy Scale, but there are two pieces of advice that
<v Speaker 2>I try to get people when using happy Scale. There's
<v Speaker 2>a little section in your summary that's called weight trends,
<v Speaker 2>and one of those sections actually says lost in seven days,
<v Speaker 2>and it calculates that for you. And I mean that's
<v Speaker 2>not gonna be exact because that's based off of a trend.
<v Speaker 2>And you can adjust that trend whether you want to
<v Speaker 2>see what your weight is doing over ten days, or
<v Speaker 2>you can compare moving averages for seven days ten days,
<v Speaker 2>and then you can actually adjust how it calculates that average. So,
<v Speaker 2>I mean there's a lot of little weeks you can
<v Speaker 2>make to make it more user friendly for you. You
<v Speaker 2>can turn off information, you can turn on information. But
<v Speaker 2>the most important thing I think is to look at
<v Speaker 2>your log book and only look at it on it
<v Speaker 2>one day of the week. Stop looking at it every day.
<v Speaker 2>So my day is Monday, So on Mondays, I look
<v Speaker 2>at my moving average and then I scroll down my
<v Speaker 2>logbook to the Monday before and you can tell because
<v Speaker 2>the days are listed. It has the date and the day. Right,
<v Speaker 2>scroll back and look at your Monday before and compare
<v Speaker 2>that moving average and stop looking at the like six
<v Speaker 2>days in between. Don't look at Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
<v Speaker 2>look at Monday. Look at Monday. That's going to tell
<v Speaker 2>you what your moving average did from Monday to Monday.
<v Speaker 1>Right, and you're not letting every day because even on
<v Speaker 1>happy scale, you're going to see you know as your
<v Speaker 1>weight fluctual weight, so well your average loss at all
<v Speaker 1>of that. So if you're only focusing one day of
<v Speaker 1>the week, like Sherry you just said, that'll help a
<v Speaker 1>lot with that.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, Yeah, it doesn't matter what's happening in between there.
<v Speaker 2>You want your you want your average from one week.
<v Speaker 2>You want your average seven days later. You want your
<v Speaker 2>average seven days later. And then you can even go
<v Speaker 2>back and you can see what was my way. It's
<v Speaker 2>now you know November first, what was my weight on
<v Speaker 2>October first? And see what you did for the month
<v Speaker 2>of October, and just really really work on ignoring those
<v Speaker 2>daily functions because they really don't matter. People are like, well,
<v Speaker 2>how did they not matter? They contribute to my average,
<v Speaker 2>But our weight moves, it fluctuates, it's normal, So those
<v Speaker 2>little weigh ins they just really don't matter. It's really
<v Speaker 2>only that average that matters.
<v Speaker 1>And say that you were on a plateau, okay, because
<v Speaker 1>it is possible to be on a plateau even with ADF.
<v Speaker 1>So if you are on a plateau and you find
<v Speaker 1>that your weight trend is not trending downward. Then this
<v Speaker 1>is where you can think about food quality as a
<v Speaker 1>really big tweak that you can use. Like for me,
<v Speaker 1>I just talked about going on my trip and I
<v Speaker 1>might have only had one meal a day on those
<v Speaker 1>two days, but they were very rich, heavy meals. I'm
<v Speaker 1>real puffy today. Sure we can see because I ate
<v Speaker 1>at restaurants for four days in a row, and so
<v Speaker 1>I'm really puffy. And for me, food quality, especially the
<v Speaker 1>older I get, food quality matters more so. The me
<v Speaker 1>from twenty fifteen may have been able to eat differently
<v Speaker 1>than the me in twenty twenty four. Now that I'm
<v Speaker 1>a little older on the other side of menopause, food
<v Speaker 1>quality does matter more so. Even though when I was
<v Speaker 1>losing the weight initially back in twenty fifteen, when I
<v Speaker 1>was trying to get to gol faster, what tweak did
<v Speaker 1>I pull in It was food quality. That was when
<v Speaker 1>I delayed alcohol and ultra processed foods to get to
<v Speaker 1>my goal weight. So you know, I've always used that
<v Speaker 1>as a tool in my toolbox. So that's something I
<v Speaker 1>would definitely look at well.
<v Speaker 2>And then two, I was going to say, you know,
<v Speaker 2>she said that she was trying if for a couple
<v Speaker 2>of years, but she wasn't clean fasting, So because of that,
<v Speaker 2>you weren't working on improving insulin sensitivity. And so you know,
<v Speaker 2>now that's something that your body is working on and
<v Speaker 2>is keeling any insulin resistance, improving your insulin sensitivity. And
<v Speaker 2>so you know the fact that you've been overweight for
<v Speaker 2>several years, you may have a degree of insulin resistance
<v Speaker 2>going on. So if you really you know, you say
<v Speaker 2>you're a scientist, so you know, I know you're going
<v Speaker 2>to like data, just like I like data. You may
<v Speaker 2>get a fasting insulin test and see where your fasting
<v Speaker 2>insulin is, because even if the weight isn't coming off
<v Speaker 2>as quickly as you would like, if three months from
<v Speaker 2>now you repeat your fasting insulin tests and it's come down,
<v Speaker 2>you might have kind of high fasting insulin. We like
<v Speaker 2>to see it right around five. Two and a half
<v Speaker 2>to five is optimal. So if you're sitting at eighteen
<v Speaker 2>and three months from now it's down to fourteen, you
<v Speaker 2>know that you're fasting is healing your body, and a
<v Speaker 2>healthy body is going to lose weight. So you may
<v Speaker 2>not be losing as fast as you want, but you're
<v Speaker 2>setting up the foundation to lose the weight that you're
<v Speaker 2>wanting to lose and keep it off.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I think that's a really good point. And having
<v Speaker 1>other tools to know what's happening with your body, that's where,
<v Speaker 1>how are your clothes fitting, what are your product photos
<v Speaker 1>looking like? Because you know, especially if you're working out,
<v Speaker 1>if you're building muscle and losing fat happening at the
<v Speaker 1>same time. We call that body recomposition. You're not going
<v Speaker 1>to see a lot of change on the scale, but
<v Speaker 1>you could be shrinking in size dramatically and the scale
<v Speaker 1>isn't showing it. So defining whether you're really on a
<v Speaker 1>plateau or not. If your weight doesn't budge but you've
<v Speaker 1>lost a gene size orre you on a plateau. No,
<v Speaker 1>So a plateau is like when you're not losing any
<v Speaker 1>more fat. So so many tools in your toolbox to
<v Speaker 1>see what's really going on with your body. And so
<v Speaker 1>I keep working with the ADF, especially if you enjoy it,
<v Speaker 1>and use all the tools to see what really is
<v Speaker 1>happening with your trend, not just on the scale, but
<v Speaker 1>in your clothes and your progress photos and all of that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and then I want to just take a second.
<v Speaker 2>I read all of the submission forms that come in,
<v Speaker 2>and we can a lot of questions and I kind
<v Speaker 2>of feel like we go over this, but yet there's
<v Speaker 2>still a lot of questions, and so I want to
<v Speaker 2>just take a second. People really are struggling to understand
<v Speaker 2>what is the difference between blood glucose and insulin and
<v Speaker 2>what is a hemoglobin A and C, So just really quick.
<v Speaker 2>Insulin is a hormone and it basically drives your body's
<v Speaker 2>blood glucose control. It's sort of when blood glucose is high,
<v Speaker 2>your body releases insulin to bring your blood glucose back
<v Speaker 2>down to a normal range. When people have to start
<v Speaker 2>injecting insulin with diabetes, it's often because their bodies can
<v Speaker 2>no longer either produce enough insulin or they are so
<v Speaker 2>insulin resistant that their body isn't using the insulin.
<v Speaker 1>Efficiently bonding to it right right.
<v Speaker 2>So I know sometimes people will ask their doctor for
<v Speaker 2>a fasting insulin, and their doctor thinks that they're confused
<v Speaker 2>and they just order a blood glucose because that is
<v Speaker 2>customarily what is tested. But you could be having a
<v Speaker 2>great fasting glucose, but you could be having a prolonged
<v Speaker 2>insulin response due to the foods that you're eating, and
<v Speaker 2>your insulin could be staying up really high through the
<v Speaker 2>night because your blood glucose is staying up really high
<v Speaker 2>through the night. Jen noticed this when she was wearing
<v Speaker 2>a CGM is that her blood glucose it wasn't rising dramatically,
<v Speaker 2>she wasn't having sharp spikes in her blood glucoase, but
<v Speaker 2>it was going up and then just staying up, so
<v Speaker 2>her body's continually working to try to bring that back down.
<v Speaker 2>So that is where your fasting insulin's going to be helpful.
<v Speaker 2>And then a HEMA globe in A and C. It's
<v Speaker 2>basically the short and suite of it is it's giving
<v Speaker 2>you an average of your blood glucose over a period
<v Speaker 2>of time like three months, so it can really kind
<v Speaker 2>of let you know what your blood cohost is doing
<v Speaker 2>on an average. That's the difference between the three. So
<v Speaker 2>I just wanted to share that really quick.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's important. And also I read an article I
<v Speaker 1>think it was written by a nurse practitioner, but it
<v Speaker 1>basically was like, are we testing the wrong thing? You know,
<v Speaker 1>you can have a beautiful A one C and a
<v Speaker 1>beautiful fasting blood glucose and your fasting insulin is edging
<v Speaker 1>up up up over time, but you don't know that
<v Speaker 1>because you haven't tested your fasting insulin. And your glucose
<v Speaker 1>looks great, and you're a one C looks great, but
<v Speaker 1>that fasting insulin's ticking up. It's taking more and more
<v Speaker 1>to do the work because you're becoming more insulin resistant.
<v Speaker 1>And so then eventually you're going to start seeing a
<v Speaker 1>one C as your body can't keep up anymore. Then
<v Speaker 1>your glucos will start going up. Then your A one
<v Speaker 1>and C will start going up. So fasting insulin could
<v Speaker 1>be a leading indicator that metabolic problems are coming. You
<v Speaker 1>just aren't there yet. So the article that I read
<v Speaker 1>was like, are we testing the wrong thing? We should
<v Speaker 1>really be keeping our eye on what you're insulin is
<v Speaker 1>doing so we can get that down so you don't
<v Speaker 1>develop the insulin resistance. Right, all right, So we have
<v Speaker 1>another question. I'm wondering if y'all can talk about weight
<v Speaker 1>training and lifting to muscle fatigue. I heard Cherry mention
<v Speaker 1>it recently, and I'd love to learn more or learn
<v Speaker 1>where you found your information so I can learn more too.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks ladies, still listening to every episode of Yours and
<v Speaker 1>loving every minute of it.
<v Speaker 2>Well, there's a lot of information out there, and there's
<v Speaker 2>a lot of contradictory information out there.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, and the.
<v Speaker 2>Recommendation changes with the times. But years and years and
<v Speaker 2>years ago, I did a lot of weight training. I
<v Speaker 2>was an athlete in high school, and the idea then
<v Speaker 2>was that you lifted to muscle failure. But what they're
<v Speaker 2>finding as that you're better off lifting to muscle fatigue
<v Speaker 2>because it leads to less injury, better easier recovery, better compliance.
<v Speaker 2>If you're really, really really sore because you are lifting
<v Speaker 2>to muscle failure, you're less likely to then want to
<v Speaker 2>work out again when it's time to work out again.
<v Speaker 2>And so a pretty prevalent thought right now is lifting
<v Speaker 2>to fatigue. So I use a tonal at home, and
<v Speaker 2>there's a coach on there that I really really like.
<v Speaker 2>According to him, if you're trying to build muscle, you
<v Speaker 2>should be lifting heavy enough that you feel like you
<v Speaker 2>could do no more than two additional reps, which are
<v Speaker 2>known as reps in reserve when you finish your set,
<v Speaker 2>so you're not hitting failure, but if you feel like
<v Speaker 2>you could still rip out another five, eight or ten reps.
<v Speaker 2>When you're done, then you're lifting to light. He says
<v Speaker 2>a lot of people really underestimate what they can do
<v Speaker 2>and that they lift a bit too light. And this
<v Speaker 2>is true. I've read this in many, many different articles,
<v Speaker 2>that people really don't push themselves enough, and a lot
<v Speaker 2>of times women especially they're like, well, I don't want
<v Speaker 2>to get bulky. Well, when you lift to failure and
<v Speaker 2>you progressively increase your muscle weight or your lifting weights,
<v Speaker 2>you're not going to get bulky. Women's bodies were just
<v Speaker 2>not designed like that. You have to really be working
<v Speaker 2>hard to do that. I mean that takes a lot
<v Speaker 2>of work, a lot of training, So that's something that
<v Speaker 2>you don't really have to worry about. But I have
<v Speaker 2>included a few links and shown notes with some information
<v Speaker 2>about this, once from the Mayo Clinic, So take a
<v Speaker 2>look at that and then you know, go from there.
<v Speaker 2>So we have a shout out for help from Abby
<v Speaker 2>and Blairsville, Georgia. She says, I'm having difficulty remaining consistent
<v Speaker 2>with if not due to food, but with my morning coffee.
<v Speaker 2>I use Pure brand creamer and Stevia. I know that
<v Speaker 2>it's considered dirty fasting. But I really despise black coffee
<v Speaker 2>and I have tried hot tea to trick my brain,
<v Speaker 2>but it doesn't. I really see the value in if
<v Speaker 2>and I know I need to get over this hurdle,
<v Speaker 2>but I could use some guidance. Thank you, all right, and.
<v Speaker 1>We can help you with it, Abby, but you're going
<v Speaker 1>to have to just do it. So let's think about
<v Speaker 1>you said that you know what you're doing is considered dirty,
<v Speaker 1>and I actually want you to, just like I said,
<v Speaker 1>get rid of the idea of cheat day, get rid
<v Speaker 1>of dirty fasting out of your brain, because I do
<v Speaker 1>not believe that dirty fasting exists. Okay, And I know
<v Speaker 1>we like to do in our minds categorize things, and
<v Speaker 1>we talk about the clean fast. So if there's something
<v Speaker 1>called the clean fast, then there would have to be
<v Speaker 1>something called the dirty fast, right. Actually no, I actually
<v Speaker 1>think you're either fasting clean or you're not fasting at all.
<v Speaker 1>So as soon as you put anything in there like
<v Speaker 1>the creamer, the stevia, you're following a low calorie diet.
<v Speaker 1>So you are either fasting clean or you are a
<v Speaker 1>low calorie dieting. And we know what happens if you
<v Speaker 1>low calorie diet. Can you lose weight with a low
<v Speaker 1>calorie diet? Yes? Are you going to get the bin
<v Speaker 1>if it's a fasting?
<v Speaker 2>No?
<v Speaker 1>So I mean, if you're gonna put stuff in your coffee,
<v Speaker 1>you might as well have a little breakfast at the
<v Speaker 1>same time. I mean, it's really doing the same thing
<v Speaker 1>that little bit of creamer that's stevia. It's causing an
<v Speaker 1>insulin response. It is stopping your body from doing all
<v Speaker 1>the things we want to see happen during the clean fast.
<v Speaker 1>You're not going to be tapping into your fat stores.
<v Speaker 1>You're going to get angry. So I want you to
<v Speaker 1>think that you deserve the benefits of the clean fast.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I despised black coffee too when I started,
<v Speaker 1>and I was like, you know what, though, I want
<v Speaker 1>the benefits more than I care about not liking this,
<v Speaker 1>so I've forced myself to drink it, and my taste
<v Speaker 1>buds adapted. Now that being said, the kind of coffee
<v Speaker 1>that you're having could be part of the problem. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I really like a Cuban roast, a dark Cuban roast.
<v Speaker 1>It tastes the best to me. This weekend, I stayed
<v Speaker 1>with a friend or one of the nights that I
<v Speaker 1>was in Nashville and she had this really high quality
<v Speaker 1>organic coffee that was a light roast. I did not
<v Speaker 1>like it.
<v Speaker 2>It.
<v Speaker 1>Well, no, I think it's a low acid like she's
<v Speaker 1>got low acid organic light roast whatever. It has that
<v Speaker 1>floral undertone that I despise in coffee, like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>I don't like IPAs. I don't like that kind of
<v Speaker 1>notes and beer and so like. It tastes disgusting to me.
<v Speaker 1>And so I was like, oh, I don't like this coffee,
<v Speaker 1>and I was so excited to get back home to
<v Speaker 1>my Cuban dark roast. So you might not be drinking
<v Speaker 1>the kind of coffee that your taste buds are going
<v Speaker 1>to like. So for me, I don't like a light roast.
<v Speaker 1>I like a Cuban dark roast. Whatever kind you've got
<v Speaker 1>right now that you despise, try something different and see
<v Speaker 1>if it might just be the coffee. You know, if
<v Speaker 1>you're using like coffee pods like a curerig, that definitely
<v Speaker 1>could be part of what you don't like.
<v Speaker 2>Well, see, I have amazing coffee pods and they're delicious, yep,
<v Speaker 2>but I don't get them at the grocery store and
<v Speaker 2>they're special pods, and I order them online and I
<v Speaker 2>actually was gonna actually share this website that I use.
<v Speaker 2>They don't sponsor the podcast, they don't have anything to
<v Speaker 2>do with it, but they have a quiz and you
<v Speaker 2>can basically find the flavor profile of coffee that you like,
<v Speaker 2>and they help you find the right coffee, and then
<v Speaker 2>you can even filter it down if you want mold,
<v Speaker 2>micotoxin free coffee, if you want organic. It's got all
<v Speaker 2>these different ways you can filter it down, and then
<v Speaker 2>you can order some sample packs. So that might be
<v Speaker 2>a good way for you to sample different coffees, because
<v Speaker 2>I actually ordered a sample pack from them when I
<v Speaker 2>first started ordering from them, and there were several of
<v Speaker 2>them that I just absolutely didn't like. I didn't like
<v Speaker 2>the flavor of the coffee just based off of where
<v Speaker 2>it's grown, coffee, based off of where it's grown, what
<v Speaker 2>kind of coffee it is, with the humidity, the temperature,
<v Speaker 2>it all affects the flavor of the coffee. And so
<v Speaker 2>I currently am using a dark Mexican one that I
<v Speaker 2>really really like, but there was like one from Guatemala
<v Speaker 2>that tasted like water to me. So and then there
<v Speaker 2>were some networm or bitter. So I would really encourage
<v Speaker 2>you to play around with your coffee, because the one
<v Speaker 2>that I didn't like from Guatemala, my friend at work loves.
<v Speaker 2>So we all have different tastes and that's why there's
<v Speaker 2>ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall, right, not everybody.
<v Speaker 2>Not everybody likes the same beer. Now one likes the
<v Speaker 2>same coffee. So I would encourage you to play around
<v Speaker 2>with your coffees and see if you can find a
<v Speaker 2>coffee that you enjoy.
<v Speaker 1>But no more dirty fasting, because remember that's not really fasting.
<v Speaker 1>You deserve to fast clean, all.
<v Speaker 2>Right, So we have a submission, and I just want
<v Speaker 2>to point out to this came from our website. Somebody
<v Speaker 2>shared it as like a comment to an episode. And
<v Speaker 2>if you're going to go to the website, there's actually
<v Speaker 2>a page on the website, or you can just go
<v Speaker 2>to it directly. It's fast feasrepeat dot com, forward, slash
<v Speaker 2>submit and use the submission form there. Because I don't
<v Speaker 2>get notifications when people leave comments on our website, so
<v Speaker 2>it's only if I'm like in the website working on
<v Speaker 2>it that I really see those sometimes. And she posted
<v Speaker 2>this months ago, so I'm sorry we didn't see this,
<v Speaker 2>but for anybody listening, please use the submission form. And
<v Speaker 2>with that said, we could really really use some great
<v Speaker 2>submissions from the listeners. You guys help make this podcast possible.
<v Speaker 2>She wrote, Hello, I wish I had a success story
<v Speaker 2>to share, but today I'm writing to ask for your help.
<v Speaker 2>I first read Gen's book back in twenty nineteen, and
<v Speaker 2>I was very successful at losing fifty pounds. I loved
<v Speaker 2>clean fasting. My skin was tight, my face was clear.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't have the gross cravings like I do now.
<v Speaker 2>Somehow I fell off the bandwagon and I have gained
<v Speaker 2>all the weight back plus some. In the last few years.
<v Speaker 2>I've tried going back to intermittent fasting like I did
<v Speaker 2>when I first started first, fasting for twenty hours and
<v Speaker 2>twenty four hours here and there, and I simply gave
<v Speaker 2>up because my body would not release the weight. It's
<v Speaker 2>like my body remembered what I did back in twenty
<v Speaker 2>nineteen and said, oh, heck no. I'm very discouraged now
<v Speaker 2>and I want to get back into IF as a
<v Speaker 2>long term lifestyle. I'm just so discouraged because it's not
<v Speaker 2>working anymore. What should I do? I open my window
<v Speaker 2>with chicken broth or something that does not spike my insulin,
<v Speaker 2>and I keep my eating window to four hours. Thank
<v Speaker 2>you so much. It's been fun to share your story
<v Speaker 2>with others.
<v Speaker 1>Share it all, right, Sharon. So there's a lot going
<v Speaker 1>on here, and you know, I don't quite know what
<v Speaker 1>you've been doing to try to get back to it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm wondering if you are accidentally over restricting it, like
<v Speaker 1>I'm not sure if you've been consistent. First of all,
<v Speaker 1>because you said you've been trying to get back to
<v Speaker 1>it and you're having a hard time getting back to it.
<v Speaker 1>So let's separate into two different types of advice. First,
<v Speaker 1>if you're just not being consistent because you can't get
<v Speaker 1>back to it, then I would get twenty eight day
<v Speaker 1>fast art day by day and start as if you've
<v Speaker 1>never fasted before. Choose a plan, follow it as if
<v Speaker 1>you've never fasted before, like I said, and let your
<v Speaker 1>body adapt to fasting again, not weighing through the entire
<v Speaker 1>twenty eight days, and then day twenty nine, start weighing
<v Speaker 1>daily and calculating your weekly average and see what your
<v Speaker 1>trend does. On the other hand, it may be that
<v Speaker 1>you have been being consistent with twenty hours, with an
<v Speaker 1>occasional twenty four in there here and there, and you
<v Speaker 1>hadn't been losing the weight. And if that's the case,
<v Speaker 1>I have some clues from what you said. You're opening
<v Speaker 1>your window with chicken broth and then sticking to four hours.
<v Speaker 1>Now you said, and here's a common misconception. You said
<v Speaker 1>that you're opening with something that doesn't spike your insulin.
<v Speaker 1>That's the time to not be worried about spiking your insulin.
<v Speaker 1>Eating causes insulin response, So we want to keep our
<v Speaker 1>insulin low during the fast, and then we eat, you're
<v Speaker 1>going to have an insulin response. When I first heard
<v Speaker 1>about insulin response with food, that was back in the
<v Speaker 1>day when the low carbon community was really talking about
<v Speaker 1>the carbohydrate insulin hypothesis, and that was basically, to summarize it,
<v Speaker 1>all of the problems we have with our weight are
<v Speaker 1>because carbohydrates are making you have insulin it's too high,
<v Speaker 1>and that is why you can't lose weight. Well, we've
<v Speaker 1>now realized that's not true. Other things cause our bodies
<v Speaker 1>to release insulin, not just carbohydrates. In twenty seventeen, I
<v Speaker 1>found something I stumbled across the insulin index. Just like you,
<v Speaker 1>we're used to the glycemic index and what that does
<v Speaker 1>for causing our blood sugar response. The insulin index measured
<v Speaker 1>how much insulin was released in response to food, and
<v Speaker 1>ground beef caused our body causes our body to release
<v Speaker 1>a good deal of insulin. And I can't remember what
<v Speaker 1>it was like more than some like corn or something.
<v Speaker 1>I'm just I'm trying to remember. It's been a long
<v Speaker 1>time since I've looked at the insulin index, but.
<v Speaker 2>It's still like was that in Fast Feast Repeat?
<v Speaker 1>I did talk about it in Fast Feast Repeat? Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but no, no, no, no, it's not in Fast Feast Repeat.
<v Speaker 1>It's in Feast Without Fear. Oh okay, yeah, Feast without Fear.
<v Speaker 1>That was when I was researching feasts without Fear, So
<v Speaker 1>I talked about the insulin index there. So when your
<v Speaker 1>window is open, we're not hyper focusing on you, because
<v Speaker 1>now I don't want people to suddenly start worrying about
<v Speaker 1>ground beef. Right, you know, we're not. When your window
<v Speaker 1>is open. You do not have to like drink chicken
<v Speaker 1>broth to open your window because you're trying to keep
<v Speaker 1>your body from releasing insulin. When you're eating, your body
<v Speaker 1>is going to release insulin, so you need to keep
<v Speaker 1>your insulin low during the fast and then nourish your
<v Speaker 1>body well during your eating window. But if you're opening
<v Speaker 1>with broth and then eating within four hours, you might
<v Speaker 1>be accidentally over restricting. And in that case, you're gonna
<v Speaker 1>need ADF because anytime you've accidentally over restricted and slowed
<v Speaker 1>your metabolic rate, you know your body's adapted to what
<v Speaker 1>you're doing, you need to rev up that metabolic rate again.
<v Speaker 1>And that's where ADF is. So is there, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you're like kind of saying, you know, why has intermitten
<v Speaker 1>fasting stopped working for me? And the thing is is
<v Speaker 1>that the clean fast never stops working. But weight loss
<v Speaker 1>is more complicated than just you know how long you're
<v Speaker 1>fasting and how short your window is, and we can
<v Speaker 1>actually have too short of a window and too much restriction,
<v Speaker 1>and that's when you need ADF well.
<v Speaker 2>And then I wanted to say too back when she started,
<v Speaker 2>depending on what her history was before that, she said
<v Speaker 2>she was successful at losing fifty pounds sometimes. And I've
<v Speaker 2>heard this from other people who were intermitten fasters. A
<v Speaker 2>lot of people stepped away during COVID, life got crazy
<v Speaker 2>and unpredictable, and then once things settled back down, they
<v Speaker 2>came back. They're like, okay, I'm here, I'm back, and
<v Speaker 2>then we would hear this isn't working like I did
<v Speaker 2>last time. Here's what I think people use to gauge working,
<v Speaker 2>and that is often when people start in fasting for
<v Speaker 2>the first time, they see a rapid reduction in inflammation
<v Speaker 2>in their body, and they may lose ten pounds their
<v Speaker 2>first month, they're fourteen pounds their first month, But a
<v Speaker 2>lot of that is inflammation that their body's been hanging
<v Speaker 2>onto and all of that digestive rest and dialing down,
<v Speaker 2>you know, insulin while we're fasting, and all of that
<v Speaker 2>helps us shed that toxic inflammation. And then when they
<v Speaker 2>return to fasting, they're just in a they're metabolically healthier
<v Speaker 2>because of their time fasting, and they're not holding onto
<v Speaker 2>all that inflammation that they were before. And so sometimes
<v Speaker 2>they don't see that drastic just drop in the first
<v Speaker 2>month or six weeks and they think it's not working
<v Speaker 2>this time. Right, it is working. You're just in a
<v Speaker 2>healthier state than you were the first time that you
<v Speaker 2>used to fasting. So things don't seem so dramatic right
<v Speaker 2>out of the gate.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's that's really important to note. But another variable
<v Speaker 1>that I thought of while you were talking is you
<v Speaker 1>could be in a different place hormonally than you were
<v Speaker 1>in twenty nineteen because in twenty nineteen I had not
<v Speaker 1>yet gone through menopause, and my body changed after I
<v Speaker 1>went through menopause. So you know, there's so many factors.
<v Speaker 1>You might not be in the same physical situation for
<v Speaker 1>whatever reason as you were in twenty nineteen. But we
<v Speaker 1>have all these tools in our toolbox, food quality, you know,
<v Speaker 1>fasting strategy, all of those things. And you know it's
<v Speaker 1>not just as simple as well you just need to
<v Speaker 1>eat less, or you need to even have a shorter window.
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes you need metabolic boost from the up day, or
<v Speaker 1>maybe you need to have your hormones looked at. There's
<v Speaker 1>so many things that could be could be going on
<v Speaker 1>all right. Before we get to our tweak of the week,
<v Speaker 1>I want to talk about my books, and today I
<v Speaker 1>am celebrating the audiobook version of Delayed On Tonight's second
<v Speaker 1>edition is available, so if you've been waiting to get it,
<v Speaker 1>it is out. It's on Audible, it's on Amazon. It's
<v Speaker 1>on Apple Audiobooks, and so I assume it's wherever you
<v Speaker 1>can get audiobooks. If you're new to intermittent fasting or
<v Speaker 1>if you're sharing intermittent fasting with others. Delayed on tonight
<v Speaker 1>is what I recommend that you start with. I am
<v Speaker 1>losing my voice, Sherry. Sorry, everybody, I sound super scratchy.
<v Speaker 1>I did a lot of talking when I was in Nashville,
<v Speaker 1>so I've also worn out my voice. So the second
<v Speaker 1>edition is now available in paperback, hardback, kindle version, audiobook
<v Speaker 1>through Amazon and through all of the other ebook retailers
<v Speaker 1>and audiobook retailers that you prefer. If you're on Amazon
<v Speaker 1>trying to find the paperback, make sure you get the
<v Speaker 1>second edition, not the first edition. And I would avoid
<v Speaker 1>any used copies because you might accidentally end up with
<v Speaker 1>a used copy of the first edition. So make sure
<v Speaker 1>you're getting the one that was published in August of
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty four. And if you go to get the books,
<v Speaker 1>which is the Lincoln Show Notes, you will know that
<v Speaker 1>you are getting the right one. All right. So now
<v Speaker 1>it's time for our tweak of the week. You know
<v Speaker 1>I always say tweak it till it's easy, and this
<v Speaker 1>is from Sarah in Nebraska. She said, my tweak is
<v Speaker 1>for anyone who is not ready to seriously commit to
<v Speaker 1>an exercise program but wants to be more active. Work
<v Speaker 1>in walking. However, you can a friend and I have
<v Speaker 1>been meeting daily to walk up and down the stairs
<v Speaker 1>at work for fifteen to twenty minutes each morning. It
<v Speaker 1>really helps me start the day energized yet calm. I
<v Speaker 1>started using my daughter's piano lesson time to take a walk,
<v Speaker 1>and any evening I have time, I will walk and
<v Speaker 1>listen to podcasts. Exercise doesn't need to be all or nothing.
<v Speaker 1>It can be as simple as a walk with a
<v Speaker 1>friend until you decide you're ready for something more. I
<v Speaker 1>love that.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's a great tip. And it's really interesting
<v Speaker 2>because if you have an Apple Watch, you'll know that
<v Speaker 2>you get you're supposed to close your activity ring and
<v Speaker 2>you stand twelve hours or twelve out of twelve hours
<v Speaker 2>out of the day. You have to be standing or
<v Speaker 2>moving for at least I think it's three minutes out
<v Speaker 2>of that hour, right, because they know that too much
<v Speaker 2>of a sedentary lifestyle leads to disease. And interesting enough,
<v Speaker 2>I have an r ring as well, and it monitors
<v Speaker 2>my active time and it also wants you to move
<v Speaker 2>every hour that you're awake. So again, this isn't telling
<v Speaker 2>you that you have to exercise every day. You just
<v Speaker 2>have to get up and move around and be more active.
<v Speaker 2>So get up on commercial breaks while you're watching TV
<v Speaker 2>and march in place, or jog in place, or do
<v Speaker 2>jumping jacks, or just keep your body moving. It keeps
<v Speaker 2>you more energized, helps you sleep, and it's just so
<v Speaker 2>good for your blood, good hoose control and everything.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like we've talked about this before, but after you eat,
<v Speaker 1>go for a short walk.
<v Speaker 2>All right. Well, we love to leave you with inspiration
<v Speaker 2>or motivational quotes, and this week we have a truly
<v Speaker 2>powerful quote that was shared by Karen in the DDD community.
<v Speaker 2>The quote from Gnome Chompski, who is known as the
<v Speaker 2>founder of cognitive science, is optimism is a strategy for
<v Speaker 2>making a better future. Because unless you believe that the
<v Speaker 2>future can be better, it's unlikely that the future can
<v Speaker 2>be better. It's unlikely you will step up and take
<v Speaker 2>responsibility for making it. So if you assume that there's
<v Speaker 2>no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope.
<v Speaker 2>Karen wrote, I posted this today because I'm doing a
<v Speaker 2>twenty eight day optimism challenge with the Action for Happiness website.
<v Speaker 2>This site has some amazing resources and is all free
<v Speaker 2>and free of advertisements, and so I checked it out.
<v Speaker 2>It looks like a really cool website. They actually looks
<v Speaker 2>like they have an app, have different resources and you
<v Speaker 2>can get daily inspirational emails or whatever. And so if
<v Speaker 2>you want to check it out, I have included a
<v Speaker 2>link in show notes.
<v Speaker 1>Oh that sounds wonderful. Thanks so much for listening today.
<v Speaker 1>We would love to have you join us in the
<v Speaker 1>Delayed On Tonight community, where you can interact with both
<v Speaker 1>me and Sherry, plus the most supportive bunch of intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasters you'll find anywhere. Go to Jenstevens dot com slash
<v Speaker 1>community to join us.
<v Speaker 2>Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
<v Speaker 2>podcast app, and if you haven't already, please leave us
<v Speaker 2>a five star review that helps new listeners find the
<v Speaker 2>show and we really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
<v Speaker 1>success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's easy, moments,
<v Speaker 1>or anything else you want us to share on the podcast.
<v Speaker 1>Go to Fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and
<v Speaker 1>then listen each week to see if we share your
<v Speaker 1>submission or answer your question until next week.
<v Speaker 2>Thanks for listening.