Episode 92: Liver Enzymes & Exercise, Revisiting Your Why, Constipation & Minerals, 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 Life podcast.
<v Speaker 3>How are you doing today, Sherry? Hi am doing great.
<v Speaker 3>How are you doing fabulous? Well?
<v Speaker 1>As we get more light, it just makes me happy. Longer,
<v Speaker 1>longer amount of sunlight during the day always.
<v Speaker 3>A good thing.
<v Speaker 2>Always, Yes, I'm always jealous of these people who are
<v Speaker 2>posting pictures in the DDD community of like walking on
<v Speaker 2>the beach, I'm like in Australia, yes, yes, or California,
<v Speaker 2>And I'm always like, why do I live somewhere where
<v Speaker 2>I don't have summer year round?
<v Speaker 1>Well, I live somewhere that has a beach year around,
<v Speaker 1>but doesn't have summer year around. That's true that the
<v Speaker 1>beach is a very very cold place in the winter
<v Speaker 1>in South Carolina.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm like, maybe maybe I was destined for a
<v Speaker 2>Florida beach. But then I'm like, then I'd have to
<v Speaker 2>deal with hurricane.
<v Speaker 3>Uh huh, Yeah, that's true. Everything's trade off, Yes, yep, yes, yep.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well we have a weekly celebration from Bonnie
<v Speaker 2>in the DDD community. She wrote, Hi, I'm new to
<v Speaker 2>this community, but I'm not due to if. I stumbled
<v Speaker 2>on Jen's podcast about intermittent fasting stories and I started
<v Speaker 2>listening for inspiration, and that is where I first heard
<v Speaker 2>about clean fasting. I had no idea that I had
<v Speaker 2>been quote thirty fasting for the past three or so years,
<v Speaker 2>and I was wondered why I wasn't experiencing any of
<v Speaker 2>the fasting benefits that everyone else talked about. I didn't
<v Speaker 2>think that having lemon juice or apple cider, vinegar or
<v Speaker 2>flavored teas were ruining my fasts. At first, I was
<v Speaker 2>rather incredulous, but then I thought, wouldn't it be wonderful
<v Speaker 2>if that was the only tweak I had to make
<v Speaker 2>to turn my fasting into a success. I have been
<v Speaker 2>doing sixteen eight for the most part, and today, at
<v Speaker 2>day eight of clean fasting, I actually went to twenty
<v Speaker 2>three hours fasted and I didn't even feel hungry all day.
<v Speaker 2>This is the first time I've broken the eighteen to
<v Speaker 2>twenty hour barrier for fasting. I really I hope I
<v Speaker 2>can maintain this. I'm excited to see what health benefits.
<v Speaker 3>I can reap. Thank you all for listening. Hooray. I
<v Speaker 3>love that so much, Bonnie.
<v Speaker 1>And you know lemon juice, applesider, vinegar, flavored teas, right,
<v Speaker 1>you know, it's like, how could that possibly be making
<v Speaker 1>a difference? And other fastening communities might call those fasting aids.
<v Speaker 1>Guess what they're fasting? Make it harder? Beverages? Yes, they
<v Speaker 1>are detrimental. They are not helping you. They're not And
<v Speaker 1>I'm so glad that you're figuring that out. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to say his name, but Shery. You
<v Speaker 1>remember that influencer who had that YouTube channel that would
<v Speaker 1>make so many videos all the time about fasting and
<v Speaker 1>keto and it was back in like twenty eighteen and.
<v Speaker 2>Special drinks you should cost and drink while faster.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, he had a special concoction and I think it
<v Speaker 1>included maybe applesider, vinegar, lemon juice, potassium, I don't know both. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>I think it had all those things. But it might
<v Speaker 1>have even had stevia in it. I don't even know,
<v Speaker 1>but it had all this stuff that does break a fast.
<v Speaker 1>And he would make these videos and he would say,
<v Speaker 1>this does not break a fast, and also it helps
<v Speaker 1>you with faster because it's really hard to fast past
<v Speaker 1>sixteen hours. Like you would say that it's really hard
<v Speaker 1>to fast past sixteen hours, so drink this, it will
<v Speaker 1>help you. We're like, that is why it's so hard
<v Speaker 1>to fast past sixteen hours, buddy.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I just wanted to.
<v Speaker 1>Like tell him, but you know, he wouldn't believe me
<v Speaker 1>until he gave it up. And then you would see anyway, right,
<v Speaker 1>take the clean fast challenge. Everybody give up that thing
<v Speaker 1>that you know, that tea that another fasting guru is
<v Speaker 1>telling you does not break a fast.
<v Speaker 3>That special brand of tea.
<v Speaker 1>I get like emails from that company like literally every
<v Speaker 1>month asking if they can sponsor my podcast, and you're like, no, no,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, look, I wish you could drink those flavored
<v Speaker 1>teas and they were part of a clean Fast, they'd
<v Speaker 1>be sponsoring the heck out of all of our podcasts.
<v Speaker 1>But they don't work for the clean State. You know
<v Speaker 1>the brand I'm talking about, Yes, you know.
<v Speaker 2>ACV is always perplexing to me that people tell you
<v Speaker 2>should drink it while you're fasting, because like we know
<v Speaker 2>that when you have ACV in conjunction with food, it
<v Speaker 2>helps blunt your blood GUCOS response. But like, I don't
<v Speaker 2>know that I've ever been looked this up. I was
<v Speaker 2>just thinking about it, Like, what does it do when
<v Speaker 2>you don't have it in conjunction with food, Say you're
<v Speaker 2>not a faster, right, you're not a faster, you just
<v Speaker 2>take it.
<v Speaker 3>Does it drop your blood sugar which would be is
<v Speaker 3>it causing an insulin response?
<v Speaker 2>But right, right, right, it's clear that it's doing something
<v Speaker 2>to keep your blood sugar lower. And unless you have
<v Speaker 2>like out of control diabetes, I don't know why you
<v Speaker 2>would want your blood sugar lower during your fast because
<v Speaker 2>you're not going to feel You're not gonna feel good.
<v Speaker 3>Well, I think it's delayed. You're gonna get hungry. I
<v Speaker 3>wish it gets a clean fast.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, yes, if if apple cider vinegar was part of
<v Speaker 1>a clean fast, I would drink hot water with applesider
<v Speaker 1>and vinegar in it every single day during my fast
<v Speaker 1>because I love.
<v Speaker 3>It, sadly. Really yeah, I actually experimented with it back
<v Speaker 3>in the day.
<v Speaker 1>Long long time ago before I wrote Delayed on Deny,
<v Speaker 1>before we were using the terminology clean fast, and it
<v Speaker 1>was after I had made all the changes after reading
<v Speaker 1>the OBCD code. I was no longer having Steve Yes,
<v Speaker 1>so I was fast and clean. I was just having
<v Speaker 1>black coffee, plain water, that's it, because I don't like tea.
<v Speaker 1>So I experimented with applesider, vinegar and hot water and.
<v Speaker 3>I absolutely felt the difference.
<v Speaker 1>I was very disappointed to feel the difference, but it
<v Speaker 1>did not work for me at all. After knowing, you know,
<v Speaker 1>how the clean fast made a difference, I was like, well,
<v Speaker 1>this is definitely not part of it.
<v Speaker 2>So well, that is interesting. Yeah, I mean, this just
<v Speaker 2>says one study found that ACV significantly in pre blood
<v Speaker 2>gou close levels within thirty minutes of consumption, and the
<v Speaker 2>other one was done in consumption.
<v Speaker 3>With white bread.
<v Speaker 2>So it's definitely doing something and it's not going to
<v Speaker 2>make your fasting easier, I can assure you with that.
<v Speaker 3>I wish it did. Like I said, I'd be drinking
<v Speaker 3>it every day.
<v Speaker 2>Well.
<v Speaker 3>I used to do a.
<v Speaker 2>Little ACV with sparkling water and ginger and make like
<v Speaker 2>a and some rime during yes and to open my
<v Speaker 2>eating window. And I made like a mock mocked moscow
<v Speaker 2>mule with it, and I used to drink it all
<v Speaker 2>the time, and I just kind of got out of practice.
<v Speaker 3>But it was like really refreshing and a great eating
<v Speaker 3>my choice. I might have to try that again for
<v Speaker 3>a Like gingery beverages, I don't like them. Oh I
<v Speaker 3>just added ginger. Yeah, I don't like it.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>You don't ginger? You don't like ginger beer?
<v Speaker 2>Or no?
<v Speaker 1>I mean I could drink a ginger ale ginger ale, yes,
<v Speaker 1>but like all that kombucha that's ginger.
<v Speaker 3>I don't have any o. Those are my favorite. Those
<v Speaker 3>are the ones I do not like.
<v Speaker 1>That's so funny. I got like a gingerbread cookie. Don'tkay
<v Speaker 1>me wrong. I'll eat a gingerbread. I like ginger with sweetness, like,
<v Speaker 1>not with that sour kind of eh. No, okay, we're
<v Speaker 1>all so different, and I do not like a moscow mule.
<v Speaker 2>Did you know that ginger increases transit time in your gut?
<v Speaker 2>Git in?
<v Speaker 3>So it is it?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, and that is why it helps people when they
<v Speaker 2>have like indigestion after eating. So if you have ginger
<v Speaker 2>after eating, it's like been known that that can help
<v Speaker 2>sethe your stomach. And really it just helps your body
<v Speaker 2>like digest your food faster. Oh no, gets it like
<v Speaker 2>it increases your gut motility.
<v Speaker 1>I know that it was good for nausea. Yeah, and
<v Speaker 1>ginger helps with nausea, but I didn't know that. All right,
<v Speaker 1>So interesting. The body is fascinating. There's so much going on.
<v Speaker 1>So now we have a question from Deb in Indianapolis.
<v Speaker 1>Hijen and Sherry, I love listening to your podcast on
<v Speaker 1>my way home from work. It makes my drive time
<v Speaker 1>go so quickly. I am fifty nine years old. I'm
<v Speaker 1>a post and an apozzle female. I'm five foot one
<v Speaker 1>and a half inches tall and one hundred and twenty
<v Speaker 1>three pounds. In twenty twenty I lost twenty pounds through
<v Speaker 1>weight Watchers and have mostly kept off the weights then,
<v Speaker 1>with a few blips around the holidays and summer months.
<v Speaker 1>It has always been my struggle to maintain a healthy weight,
<v Speaker 1>as my pattern, like many was to diet to lose weight,
<v Speaker 1>then once the weight was off, go back to my
<v Speaker 1>regular eating, and very gradually put the weight back on.
<v Speaker 1>This was a repeating pattern my whole life, but never
<v Speaker 1>much more than a twenty pounds loss gain loss gain.
<v Speaker 1>I started clean fasting September of twenty twenty four with
<v Speaker 1>a twenty eight day fast start delayed on deny Facebook community.
<v Speaker 1>By the way, I do want to put it but
<v Speaker 1>out there that we do not have a Facebook community,
<v Speaker 1>so I'm not really sure what group that was. We
<v Speaker 1>are not affiliated with any kind of fasting Facebook communities anymore,
<v Speaker 1>although I do know there are a lot out there
<v Speaker 1>that use either fast east repeat or delayed on tonight
<v Speaker 1>in the name of them. I've actually gotten emails before
<v Speaker 1>from people who were mad at something that happens in
<v Speaker 1>one of those groups, and I'm like, I'm.
<v Speaker 3>Not in that group. That is not me. Do much.
<v Speaker 3>I didn't know that. You didn't know. I've gotten emails
<v Speaker 3>like that.
<v Speaker 1>No, huh, No, I get emails from people who are
<v Speaker 1>like I was in the such and such delayed on
<v Speaker 1>deny for women over fifty or I don't even know I'm
<v Speaker 1>making that up.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know what the name of the group might be.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, the moderator banned me from the group, but I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not in that group. I don't know who those
<v Speaker 1>people are. I don't know anything about it. That is
<v Speaker 1>not me. So y'all, that is not me. I just
<v Speaker 1>wanted to say, do you not go to Facebook and
<v Speaker 1>look for me. You will not find me there?
<v Speaker 3>All right?
<v Speaker 1>So she said, I wanted to start fasting not to
<v Speaker 1>lose weight, but to try to maintain my weight. I
<v Speaker 1>am sold on clean fasting as this holiday season I
<v Speaker 1>did not gain my usual five to eight pounds. Fasting
<v Speaker 1>is so much easier than counting points or carbs or macros.
<v Speaker 3>Ay by men.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, my fasting routine is normally eighteen six and this
<v Speaker 1>works for me to maintain my weight. All right, So
<v Speaker 1>she said, my question slash dilemma. My clean fast started
<v Speaker 1>September second of twenty twenty four. Then, almost three months
<v Speaker 1>into my fast, November twenty sixth I had an annual
<v Speaker 1>wellness check with my primary care physician. As usual, my
<v Speaker 1>doctor ordered fasting blood work. Prior to my appointment, I
<v Speaker 1>had heard from others in the community that their cholesterol
<v Speaker 1>levels went wonky after starting to clean fast, and mine
<v Speaker 1>did the same. No surprise there. My cholesterol level was
<v Speaker 1>about the same as before, but the good cluster drawl
<v Speaker 1>was down and the bad cholesterowl was up. What concerns
<v Speaker 1>me most is my AST level was fifty six. My
<v Speaker 1>doctor told me I have fatty liver disease. This really
<v Speaker 1>threw me for a loop because I had stopped drinking
<v Speaker 1>alcohol in February of twenty twenty four. Prior to clean fasting,
<v Speaker 1>I had been cruising along for the past ten years
<v Speaker 1>with my AST level around twenty Have you heard of
<v Speaker 1>clean fasting having this effect on others. The day of
<v Speaker 1>the blood draw, I was in a fasted state around
<v Speaker 1>fourteen hours and had done a CrossFit workout that morning.
<v Speaker 3>Was it the workout? Was it being longer than twelve
<v Speaker 3>hours fasted?
<v Speaker 1>As far as my diet goes, I have a pretty
<v Speaker 1>healthy diet, very little fast food or fried foods, and
<v Speaker 1>to focus on whole food, plant based. And I hadn't
<v Speaker 1>changed anything in the way I eat except for clean fasting.
<v Speaker 1>Any light you can shed on this is greatly appreciated,
<v Speaker 1>as my doctor is having me repeat the blood test
<v Speaker 1>in February of twenty twenty five, which is already passed,
<v Speaker 1>so we'd love for you to reach back out.
<v Speaker 3>And let us know. She said.
<v Speaker 1>My hope is that I can get this number back
<v Speaker 1>into the twenties before that time. Thank you both so
<v Speaker 1>much for all you do for the fasting community.
<v Speaker 2>So yes, so my suggestions coming late, and I hope
<v Speaker 2>it was better, but if it wasn't, I want you
<v Speaker 2>to I hope you hear this.
<v Speaker 3>So I had this.
<v Speaker 2>Happen to me at one point randomly.
<v Speaker 3>My doctor called me at work.
<v Speaker 2>He was like super amped up, which my doctor isn't
<v Speaker 2>and he wanted to know if I had been you know,
<v Speaker 2>like binge drinking or taking a lot of tile and all,
<v Speaker 2>because my ast level was elevated.
<v Speaker 3>And I said, nope, I haven't been well.
<v Speaker 2>What I was doing was packing up an entire house
<v Speaker 2>to move, and on top of that, I was doing
<v Speaker 2>some pretty intense workouts. So This is what I learned,
<v Speaker 2>and I want to share it with anybody here because
<v Speaker 2>we do randomly hear things like this. So a few
<v Speaker 2>things can raise liver enzymes, dehydration, fighting off a common virus,
<v Speaker 2>certain medications, alcohol as we all know, and then, as
<v Speaker 2>your doctor suggested, fatty liver disease. But you can't diagnose
<v Speaker 2>fatty deliver disease from a blood test alone. You have
<v Speaker 2>to do some imaging as well. So on top of
<v Speaker 2>all that, exercise, especially intense workouts like weightlifting CrossFit, can
<v Speaker 2>cause transient elevated levels of AST and alt, which are
<v Speaker 2>both liver enzymes, due to inflammation and muscle damage from
<v Speaker 2>these types of workouts. So anytime your work and your
<v Speaker 2>muscles and you're trying to grow your muscles or make
<v Speaker 2>them stronger, you're actually damaging your muscle fibers, breaking them down,
<v Speaker 2>and then when they heal you they grow back stronger.
<v Speaker 2>And so your muscles as well as your liver have
<v Speaker 2>a lot of ast in them, so as you break
<v Speaker 2>them down, it gets out into your bloodstream. So also
<v Speaker 2>if you're doing intense workouts, oxygen is diverted from your
<v Speaker 2>liver to your muscles to your body to your lungs,
<v Speaker 2>and that can cause an intermittent rise in liver enzymes.
<v Speaker 2>There is a research study in twenty twenty three that
<v Speaker 2>is suggesting that they change They were proposing the idea
<v Speaker 2>of changing the current recommendations for testing for blood tests
<v Speaker 2>to check liver enzymes, and they are going to I mean,
<v Speaker 2>they suggested that healthcare providers should encourage abstinence from physical
<v Speaker 2>exercise for seven days leading up to a blood draw
<v Speaker 2>to get the mo most accurate report. So I've included
<v Speaker 2>that research article in show notes for you. So I
<v Speaker 2>was going to tell you to have it retested in
<v Speaker 2>six eight weeks, it looks like you have probably already
<v Speaker 2>done that. So if you know you're having anybody listening
<v Speaker 2>and you're going to have a physical and they're going
<v Speaker 2>to test your liver enzymes, which most doctors do about
<v Speaker 2>once a year, avoid taking talent. I'll avoid drinking and
<v Speaker 2>then abstain from like you know, hard intense workouts for
<v Speaker 2>like a week prior, like daily walking. Some yoga shouldn't
<v Speaker 2>be causing any problem, but if you're weightlifting, doing CrossFit,
<v Speaker 2>that sort of thing, try to avoid that, all right.
<v Speaker 1>So just to clarify number one, the fact that she
<v Speaker 1>had done a crossfoot workout that morning prior to the
<v Speaker 1>blood draw is very possibly a factor in having higher
<v Speaker 1>AST levels, right, yep. And number two, a doctor should
<v Speaker 1>not be diagnosing you with fatty liver solely from just
<v Speaker 1>one AST level.
<v Speaker 3>Correct. You need to have imaging in order to diagnose it. Correct. Okay,
<v Speaker 3>so is your liver even fatty? We don't know, so that.
<v Speaker 1>I would definitely take all that into considerations. Y'all didn't
<v Speaker 1>know that about ASD. I'm not in the medical profession,
<v Speaker 1>so I'm glad that you are and you know a
<v Speaker 1>lot more about it. But you know, we go to
<v Speaker 1>the doctor, they say, oh, look, your level is this,
<v Speaker 1>and this is what it means.
<v Speaker 3>You just assume that is what it means.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, my husband's came back really elevated, and
<v Speaker 2>the doctor called him super stressed out about it.
<v Speaker 3>And then Eric is off the phone and I said,
<v Speaker 3>what are you doing?
<v Speaker 2>Well? One, he was doing a very physical job. And
<v Speaker 2>two he would come home and his neck he's had
<v Speaker 2>an ex surgery before, would hurt, or he would have
<v Speaker 2>a headache and he would just pop tile and all
<v Speaker 2>a candy, right, And I said, stop taking talal and
<v Speaker 2>all like today, do not take it. And he went
<v Speaker 2>and had his liver enzymes drawn four weeks later and
<v Speaker 2>they were completely fine.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, So I think that's really really important fortion to have.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, I do want to talk about fatty
<v Speaker 1>liver just in general. We're not we're not sure you
<v Speaker 1>have fatty liver based on that information obviously, but if
<v Speaker 1>someone does have fatty liver, what is one of the
<v Speaker 1>very best things you can do?
<v Speaker 3>Fasting?
<v Speaker 1>Because when you're fasting clean and your body is having
<v Speaker 1>to dig down into fuel stores, what's the first thing
<v Speaker 1>your body's going to do. It's going to clear out
<v Speaker 1>all the gunk in your liver. It's going to clear
<v Speaker 1>out that fat from your liver or the glicoden from
<v Speaker 1>your liver. So fasting is the best thing to do
<v Speaker 1>for a fatty liver. So keep that in mind, all right.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So we have a question from Laura in Topeka, Kansas.
<v Speaker 1>She said, Hi, guys, I'm a sixty year old lifetime
<v Speaker 1>dieter who has lost and gained my whole life. I
<v Speaker 1>started IF September twenty of twenty twenty four, and it
<v Speaker 1>honestly has been life changing. I started at two hundred
<v Speaker 1>and forty six pounds at five foot seven, and after
<v Speaker 1>five months, have lost twenty nine pounds. The food noise
<v Speaker 1>has stopped, my diet brain has calmed, and I'm finding
<v Speaker 1>appetite control without trying. My protocol is nineteen five and
<v Speaker 1>I have always fasted clean. I know that this rate
<v Speaker 1>of losing will slow, but there are tools I plan
<v Speaker 1>on using when that time comes, like ADF and honestly,
<v Speaker 1>I haven't really paid attention to my food choices, even
<v Speaker 1>though I'm starting to want healthier food. But changing my
<v Speaker 1>eating also will help keep me losing. I'm excited to
<v Speaker 1>see where, if and my body takes me and where
<v Speaker 1>weight wise I will be at maintenance. My goal is
<v Speaker 1>one hundred and sixty pounds, but I will let my
<v Speaker 1>body show me where it wants to be, and I
<v Speaker 1>love that. That leads me to my question. You both
<v Speaker 1>have said that you are not trying to lose weight.
<v Speaker 1>Jen doesn't even weigh herself, yet you both say you
<v Speaker 1>try to stick to a certain eating window so as
<v Speaker 1>to get into fat burning. Why would a person in
<v Speaker 1>maintenance need to be in a fat burning state once
<v Speaker 1>you are in maintenance, wouldn't it just be your body
<v Speaker 1>using the fuelic it's each day.
<v Speaker 2>It's the student in me that loves the teacher in
<v Speaker 2>you both, and I'm trying to understand the process.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you.
<v Speaker 2>I listened each week to both podcasts and I would
<v Speaker 2>love to hear you discuss this topic.
<v Speaker 3>All right, great question.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So if you're not trying to lose additional fat
<v Speaker 1>from your body, you do not want to burn more
<v Speaker 1>fat than you're putting in. Right, Yes, that does make sense.
<v Speaker 1>You want to be in balance. That's the homeostasis that
<v Speaker 1>we're looking for in maintenance. But I want you to
<v Speaker 1>think about the way that I eat. I'm eating in
<v Speaker 1>an eating window.
<v Speaker 2>Can we just back up and clarify one thing. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you said you don't want to burn more fat than
<v Speaker 2>you put in, but really we don't want to burn
<v Speaker 2>more energy than I put in.
<v Speaker 3>Right, exactly.
<v Speaker 1>But I was the way I said fat is because
<v Speaker 1>she said getting a fat burning Yeah, so I was
<v Speaker 1>talking about fat.
<v Speaker 3>So I just didn't want to be confused.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, thanks for clarifying. If it sounds confusing, always clarify.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So I do all of my I'm eating
<v Speaker 1>in a window of time, and I don't need all
<v Speaker 1>that fuel that I'm taking in in that window of time.
<v Speaker 1>In that window of time, like, I'm just gonna make
<v Speaker 1>up some numbers. I don't even have any idea I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna say eighteen hundred calories. I'm just making that number up.
<v Speaker 1>I don't count my calories. I have no idea how
<v Speaker 1>much I'm eating. I'm not saying that I'm eating eighteen
<v Speaker 1>hundred calories. That's just a magical, made up number. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>let's just say two thousand calories, because let's imagine that
<v Speaker 1>that's what they say. They say, I've seen this number
<v Speaker 1>on packages. They say that a woman might need two
<v Speaker 1>thousand calories a day. Let's just play pretend with that number.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not telling you you need two thousand calories a day,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm not counting my calories. But let's imagine that
<v Speaker 1>I need two thousand calories to fuel my body every
<v Speaker 1>single day. And let's imagine that I am such an
<v Speaker 1>amazing magician of eating that I eat exactly two.
<v Speaker 3>Thousand calories a day. Right, Let's just pretend.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm eating those two thousand calories within five hours,
<v Speaker 1>but I still have nineteen other hours of the day
<v Speaker 1>that my body needs to be fueled by something, and
<v Speaker 1>so when I eat those two thousand calories that made
<v Speaker 1>up number. Remember I'm not counting my calories. My body
<v Speaker 1>uses what it needs at the time. But then it
<v Speaker 1>puts some stuff away into glicogen. It puts some stuff
<v Speaker 1>away into my fat stores because it's coming in, it
<v Speaker 1>put stores it away. It's like when you get home
<v Speaker 1>from the grocery store and you have bought more food
<v Speaker 1>than you're gonna eat right at that minute, so you
<v Speaker 1>put it in the pantry, you put it in the refrigerator.
<v Speaker 1>You don't just eat everything that came from the grocery
<v Speaker 1>store immediately. You store it away for later. Same thing
<v Speaker 1>in my body, my body stores that energy away and
<v Speaker 1>then the next day or you know, after I'm done eating,
<v Speaker 1>my body digests the food finishes processing it. At some
<v Speaker 1>point my body flips that metabolic switch and it's you know,
<v Speaker 1>using the stored glycogen. It might need to get some
<v Speaker 1>of the fat that I stored away yesterday and use that.
<v Speaker 1>That's the fat I ate yesterday that it just kind
<v Speaker 1>of stashed to the side. So I hope that that helps,
<v Speaker 1>and I hope that that was a clear explanation. You
<v Speaker 1>want to be in balance and maintenance over well.
<v Speaker 2>And I wanted to say too, why, like she wanted
<v Speaker 2>to know, like why would you want to get into
<v Speaker 2>fat burning if you're in maintenance. And there's a lot
<v Speaker 2>of reasons beyond weight at all, that you might want
<v Speaker 2>to be in increased ketones, you stable energy, getting off
<v Speaker 2>that diet, brain set, mindset of constantly thinking about food.
<v Speaker 2>It's good for like hunger control, appetite correction, keeps your
<v Speaker 2>insulin low. It's good for brain health, It's potentially good
<v Speaker 2>for cancer to help prevent cancer growth. And then you
<v Speaker 2>know it helps with inflammation management. As we get older,
<v Speaker 2>you know, our bodies don't heal as quickly. We have
<v Speaker 2>more oxidative stress and more inflammation, and so when we
<v Speaker 2>are in katosis, you know, it kind of dials all
<v Speaker 2>that back. And addition to that, you know it helps
<v Speaker 2>some hormones like human growth hormone, and helps keep us
<v Speaker 2>strong and helps keep our endurance up our energy. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>So there's a lot of reasons why you would want
<v Speaker 2>to tap into some katosis every day that have nothing
<v Speaker 2>to do with weight or weight loss. It's just about
<v Speaker 2>finding the balance of food and fasting that gets you
<v Speaker 2>there but without spending you know, a long time in
<v Speaker 2>fat burning every day.
<v Speaker 3>It's that whole balance that you just talked about.
<v Speaker 1>And that doctor Mark mattson TED talk that we talked
<v Speaker 1>about last week, that he did in twenty fourteen.
<v Speaker 3>You can see doctor Mark Matson.
<v Speaker 1>He's a very lean man and he's been doing intermitten
<v Speaker 1>fasting since the eighties. He's somebody who has an afternoon
<v Speaker 1>eating window. But he talks about in that TED talk
<v Speaker 1>about flipping the metabocks, which he doesn't use that terminology
<v Speaker 1>yet by twenty fourteen, although he started using that terminology
<v Speaker 1>maybe twenty eighteen. He wrote a paper called Flipping the metabolocks,
<v Speaker 1>which which is where I got that wording from him,
<v Speaker 1>and he said that that happens around twelve to fourteen
<v Speaker 1>hours of fasting.
<v Speaker 3>That's also it's going to depend.
<v Speaker 1>It might be later for you, depending on what you
<v Speaker 1>ate the day before, how active you are, that sort
<v Speaker 1>of thing. But you know, he values flipping that daily
<v Speaker 1>metabolic switch so his brain can have some time to
<v Speaker 1>produce key tone, or his brain doesn't produce the key tones,
<v Speaker 1>but his brain is running on the key tones that
<v Speaker 1>his body produces, right, So you know it is beneficial
<v Speaker 1>to have some time in that state every day, but
<v Speaker 1>you're not going to just keep losing more fat, you know,
<v Speaker 1>Like I found when I got to my goal and
<v Speaker 1>my body was happy, my appetite increased naturally because your
<v Speaker 1>body does not want you to lose so much fat
<v Speaker 1>that you have an unhealthy amount of body fat. So
<v Speaker 1>my appetite increased. I started eating a little bit more
<v Speaker 1>naturally to reach that homeostasis, that balance. But that is
<v Speaker 1>a really good question.
<v Speaker 2>Kind of like people who eat keto as a lifestyle,
<v Speaker 2>and so you know their goal is to stay into katosis. Right, Well,
<v Speaker 2>if you're in katosis, you're burning fat for energy. But
<v Speaker 2>they don't wither or a weight to nothing, like there's
<v Speaker 2>a there's a balance that their body finds, and the
<v Speaker 2>body really is going to stop losing weight when it's
<v Speaker 2>at a healthy weight. And that's why we're going to
<v Speaker 2>appright exactly exactly, all.
<v Speaker 1>Right, So now it's time for our segment called What's
<v Speaker 1>Your Why? And most of us begin intermittent fasting with
<v Speaker 1>weight loss in mind. That is a great reason to
<v Speaker 1>get started, but there is so much more to what
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss in
<v Speaker 1>twenty eight day fast start day by day. For example,
<v Speaker 1>I ask readers to craft their why statement before even beginning,
<v Speaker 1>and if you haven't done it yet, even if you've
<v Speaker 1>been fasting long term, take some time to come up
<v Speaker 1>with your why. I genuinely believe when your why is
<v Speaker 1>deeper than weight loss alone, you're more likely to find
<v Speaker 1>long term success and view intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>And I love us why from Becky and I Actually
<v Speaker 2>I had forgotten what she wrote, and as you were talking,
<v Speaker 2>and you said, if you haven't done it in a while,
<v Speaker 2>recraft your why, because it people do find that it
<v Speaker 2>changes like the longer they've been doing if and so
<v Speaker 2>that is what Becky shares. She says, my why changes
<v Speaker 2>from one point to the next. The first was to
<v Speaker 2>stop low carb dieting, not that it didn't work, but
<v Speaker 2>I had dieting fatigue. The other part of that was
<v Speaker 2>to keep my heart issues under control without pills. Now
<v Speaker 2>it's to help keep my cancer and remission, as I'm
<v Speaker 2>really believing cancer is a metabolic issue. Each time my
<v Speaker 2>why gets realized, I find a new why. It is
<v Speaker 2>my ongoing evaluation process.
<v Speaker 3>I love it. Yeah, I love that.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, I think the more we learn about
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting, the deeper r Y gets right. You know,
<v Speaker 1>when I first started in twenty fourteen, everything you run me,
<v Speaker 1>I hadn't watched doctor mart Madson's Ted Talk yet, even
<v Speaker 1>though it came out in twenty fourteen. Also, I don't
<v Speaker 1>think I had YouTube, like we were still watching like
<v Speaker 1>DVR stuff. Yeah, we were not streaming back in twenty fourteen.
<v Speaker 1>I certainly wasn't watching YouTube or stuff like that. But
<v Speaker 1>everything I read about intermittent fasting back in the day
<v Speaker 1>was just, oh, it helps you eat your calories.
<v Speaker 3>There you go, boom, that's it.
<v Speaker 1>And it wasn't until twenty sixteen when the Nobel Prize
<v Speaker 1>was awarded to someone doing research on autophogy. And we
<v Speaker 1>are starting to understand, oh, fasting is more than just
<v Speaker 1>you're eating less food and you're losing the weight. The
<v Speaker 1>more I have understood about what fasting does for you
<v Speaker 1>beyond the weight loss, the more excited I am that
<v Speaker 1>I found it when I did. Just so many, so
<v Speaker 1>many reasons to be excited about it, from the brain
<v Speaker 1>health potential, you know, talking about doctor Mark Mattson and
<v Speaker 1>his work on the brain to cardiologists who recommend intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting to just all sorts of reasons to live interm
<v Speaker 1>fasting as a healthy lifestyle.
<v Speaker 2>But I think two, as you get older and you
<v Speaker 2>do this for years, you know, I'm coming up on
<v Speaker 2>ten years, my reason for intermittent fasting every day is
<v Speaker 2>completely different at fifty one than it was at forty one. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you know, the older you get, the more you're worried
<v Speaker 2>about just feeling gray every day and staying energetic and
<v Speaker 2>you know, staying youthful in mind, body and spirit. And
<v Speaker 2>for me, that's what that's what fasting does for me, exactly.
<v Speaker 1>I came for the weight loss and stuck around for
<v Speaker 1>the rest of it exactly.
<v Speaker 2>All right, So we have a question this week from
<v Speaker 2>Jane in Eders, Pennsylvania. She said, Hijen and Cherry, thank
<v Speaker 2>you so much for the podcast. It's my favorite part
<v Speaker 2>of my Wednesdays when a new episode drops. For some background,
<v Speaker 2>I'm thirty six and I've been clean fasting since twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty minus a period where I was pregnant and breastfeeding
<v Speaker 2>my second A year ago. I hit a plateau and
<v Speaker 2>I knew food choices were part of the problem. So
<v Speaker 2>I recently did ZOE. It has been truly eye opening
<v Speaker 2>so far, and while i have excellent blood, fat and
<v Speaker 2>sugar control, I'm still waiting on my gut microbiome results.
<v Speaker 2>My diet scored poorly. I've found on fiber deficient and
<v Speaker 2>I am very active weight training, biking, running, so watching
<v Speaker 2>my fiber and protein intake are important. With the data
<v Speaker 2>Zoe tracts, I quickly found myself going down a diet
<v Speaker 2>brain rabbit hole, concerned that I was not eating enough
<v Speaker 2>on days I'm truly not hungry in fear that I'm
<v Speaker 2>not getting in enough protein or fiber.
<v Speaker 3>For example, some.
<v Speaker 2>Days I may do only a one hour eating window
<v Speaker 2>and the next I'll have a full two or even
<v Speaker 2>three meal window. My question is this, do you have
<v Speaker 2>any recommendations around fiber intake or protein intake and how
<v Speaker 2>to balance it out long term for an uppish, downish schedule?
<v Speaker 2>And while my intentions were good, how do I avoid
<v Speaker 2>this diet brain mentality and make sure I'm listening to
<v Speaker 2>my body. For I'm five foot one and one hundred
<v Speaker 2>and fifty pounds, so I know that I do have
<v Speaker 2>more weight to lose, all.
<v Speaker 1>Right, So great question it sounds like you're balancing your
<v Speaker 1>windows beautifully. One day you might have a one hour
<v Speaker 1>eating window, but the next day you have two to
<v Speaker 1>three meals.
<v Speaker 3>Think about ADF. That's ADF right there.
<v Speaker 1>You know, ADF as the five hundred calorie day or
<v Speaker 1>the complete fast followed by you know, the up day
<v Speaker 1>three meals. That is a very healthy pattern to follow.
<v Speaker 1>And instead of worrying, oh, gosh, I didn't get enough
<v Speaker 1>fiber on this day that I had a one hour window,
<v Speaker 1>didn't have enough protein of fiber that day, It's more
<v Speaker 1>important to look at the big picture of what you're
<v Speaker 1>getting over the course of your whole week. Right I
<v Speaker 1>remember when my boys were little, and you know, of
<v Speaker 1>course very interested in are they eating enough? Are they
<v Speaker 1>eating enough nutrients? What it would have today? All he
<v Speaker 1>ate was apple sauce, you know. I remember the advice
<v Speaker 1>from pediatricians was to feed your children of avariety of
<v Speaker 1>things and over time they will get what they need,
<v Speaker 1>even if they don't get it all on each individual day.
<v Speaker 1>And that is true for fiber and protein as well.
<v Speaker 1>So if you end up with a shorter eating window
<v Speaker 1>one day and then you balance that with a longer
<v Speaker 1>eating window, than next. The key is making sure you
<v Speaker 1>have sufficient fiber in every meal or day.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe not in every meal.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I might have cheese and crackers one day,
<v Speaker 1>no fiber there, right, That's not gonna be my whole
<v Speaker 1>day though, and then later I'll have some vegetables.
<v Speaker 3>So it's just a matter of over time.
<v Speaker 2>You know.
<v Speaker 3>One thing that Zoe tells us that I think is
<v Speaker 3>a really good thing. You know, instead of tracking grams
<v Speaker 3>of protein, you know how many grams of fiber you're having,
<v Speaker 3>keep it simple. Thirty different plants a week.
<v Speaker 1>That's what Tim Specter has recommended over and over again.
<v Speaker 1>If you're eating thirty different plants a week, you're probably
<v Speaker 1>getting a good bit of fiber.
<v Speaker 3>Just vary it up.
<v Speaker 1>And if you're eating enough protein so that you are
<v Speaker 1>satisfied in your window, then that is also probably sufficient.
<v Speaker 1>You know, we get our protein from the food that
<v Speaker 1>we eat, but also when you're fasting, we have increased
<v Speaker 1>autophagy and our body recycles old junkie proteins. So not
<v Speaker 1>all of the protein that you're getting is coming from
<v Speaker 1>what you're putting into your body. Some of it is
<v Speaker 1>being recycled inside your body. So instead eat to society,
<v Speaker 1>vary your fiber and don't get too caught up in
<v Speaker 1>the diet brain. That is why I didn't use the
<v Speaker 1>Zoe app long term, because I don't want to do
<v Speaker 1>that kind of tracking. I don't want Zoe to tell
<v Speaker 1>me that that avocado in the olive oil is too
<v Speaker 1>much fat.
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to hear it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I don't want bossy Zoe to tell me not
<v Speaker 1>to eat that fat.
<v Speaker 2>And I just want to throw this out there too.
<v Speaker 2>So if you're worried about getting the fiber on a
<v Speaker 2>day that you're having a downish day and you're just
<v Speaker 2>kind of eaten meal in a short window and the
<v Speaker 2>next day you're doing an uppish day, Right, why do
<v Speaker 2>we need fiber? Okay, we need fiber because it helps
<v Speaker 2>with blood sugar control. But if you're not really eating
<v Speaker 2>all day, do you need the twenty five thirty grams
<v Speaker 2>of fiber to across the day to manage your blood
<v Speaker 2>sugar control? No, because it's being managed through fasting. We
<v Speaker 2>want it for digestive health and so that we're not
<v Speaker 2>having constipation, so that all the meat and cheese that
<v Speaker 2>we eat aren't getting log jammed. Right, But if you're
<v Speaker 2>not eating then log jam.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sorry that fourth grade school teacher humor run sorry everybody.
<v Speaker 2>Oh lord, yeah, So, I mean there's a reason why
<v Speaker 2>we need fiber in our diet, but we need fiber
<v Speaker 2>in our diet and our food eating windows and our
<v Speaker 2>food eating window to help our bodies better use the.
<v Speaker 3>Rest of the food that we are eating.
<v Speaker 2>And yes, it's good for your gut microbiome, but you
<v Speaker 2>know what else is good for your gut micryome.
<v Speaker 3>Fast casting, right, got rest.
<v Speaker 2>So if you can really think about it like that,
<v Speaker 2>then you're like, oh, well, if I'm not really eating today,
<v Speaker 2>I'm just having this one quick meal and a short
<v Speaker 2>eating window, then I don't need all that fiber because
<v Speaker 2>I'm not eating the rest of the food that would
<v Speaker 2>cause issues that I need the fiber to help balance out,
<v Speaker 2>right exactly.
<v Speaker 1>And again it's it's more about what you get over time,
<v Speaker 1>having a variety of foods, aim for those thirty plants.
<v Speaker 3>That's a lot more fun to me. Like I did that.
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to see how many plants I could get
<v Speaker 1>in a month, and I did it for a couple
<v Speaker 1>of months.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, twenty twenty one.
<v Speaker 1>It was a long time ago, and I kept track
<v Speaker 1>of every different plant food that I ate over that month,
<v Speaker 1>and I was like it was really fun every time
<v Speaker 1>I got a new one, and I was like over
<v Speaker 1>one hundred different plant foods in the month. Yes, And
<v Speaker 1>it was actually saying apps out there that you can Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it felt like a fun game instead of like, oh
<v Speaker 1>I'm diet, I'm restricting.
<v Speaker 3>It was like, oh what else can I add? You know?
<v Speaker 1>So that that was like really fun and I knew
<v Speaker 1>I was getting variety and it made me eat some
<v Speaker 1>things I might not have eaten. You know, get a
<v Speaker 1>different green at the grocery store instead of the one
<v Speaker 1>you always get, just something like that grapes because that's
<v Speaker 1>always differently than the green grapes have to be.
<v Speaker 2>All fruits and vegetables either. I mean you've got seeds
<v Speaker 2>and nuts and those your plants. Doctor Haver, I think
<v Speaker 2>is her, Yeah, yeah, yeah, the metopause specialist. She has
<v Speaker 2>like a challenge where she encourages to eat thirty plants
<v Speaker 2>a week.
<v Speaker 3>And she said, guess what dark chocolate counts?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, one, so thirty times and counter that is one
<v Speaker 1>dark has one?
<v Speaker 3>Right right?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, all right. We have a question from Emily in
<v Speaker 1>Northern Illinois. I have been on and off the IF
<v Speaker 1>wagon since twenty twenty when I read fast feat Repeat.
<v Speaker 1>One thing that I have remained constant with is the
<v Speaker 1>clean fast and no breakfast, generally not eating until eleven.
<v Speaker 1>I most recently began working towards a one meal a
<v Speaker 1>day eating window about three weeks ago. While I have
<v Speaker 1>not accomplished eating one meal a day, I made a
<v Speaker 1>promise to myself that I would not eat anything before
<v Speaker 1>three or after seven. This has been going very well
<v Speaker 1>and I'm seeing a drop on the scale.
<v Speaker 3>Finally.
<v Speaker 1>During the day, I practice the clean fast, drinking black coffee,
<v Speaker 1>ginger tea, and a ton of water, around sixty ounces
<v Speaker 1>of water a day. Okay, I have some really bad
<v Speaker 1>news that I need to tell you right now, Emily.
<v Speaker 1>Ginger tea is not part of the clean fast. So
<v Speaker 1>get that ginger tea out of your fast right now.
<v Speaker 1>That is not part of the clean fast. And yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you know what I said earlier. It stimulates digestion. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and I need to stop right now. I know we've
<v Speaker 1>got a lot more going on here in the in
<v Speaker 1>the question, but I want to stop right now. And
<v Speaker 1>I would say, Emily, you have accomplished eating one meal
<v Speaker 1>a day because you're eating in four hours.
<v Speaker 3>I always can to address that as well.
<v Speaker 1>Emily, if you're eating within four hours, it is highly
<v Speaker 1>unlikely that you're eating two full meals in four hours.
<v Speaker 1>You are actually only eating one maybe multi course meal.
<v Speaker 1>And I think this gets into the idea of how
<v Speaker 1>do you define one meal a day.
<v Speaker 3>We do not want you to.
<v Speaker 1>Aim for a daily one meal a day pattern that
<v Speaker 1>you define as one hour or one plate of food
<v Speaker 1>or eating in one setting or one sitting. I guess
<v Speaker 1>that would be the best word for it. That is
<v Speaker 1>not what I want anyone. Some days you might have
<v Speaker 1>that happen, like maybe you go out to eat and
<v Speaker 1>you're at a restaurant and you have literally in one
<v Speaker 1>hour and that your stuff, and that's all you had
<v Speaker 1>for the day. But that would not be what we
<v Speaker 1>would want you to do every single day. So if
<v Speaker 1>you are eating between three pm and seven pm, I
<v Speaker 1>would be shocked. If you're eating two full meals in
<v Speaker 1>four hours, you are already doing it. Okay, So oh,
<v Speaker 1>now she's like explaining what she's eating and guess what
<v Speaker 1>you'll see?
<v Speaker 3>It is going to be one meal, all right?
<v Speaker 1>She says, I usually break my fast with a large
<v Speaker 1>salad with lots of veggies.
<v Speaker 3>Kale and broccoli.
<v Speaker 1>Dinner is with my family, and I try to eat
<v Speaker 1>what they are eating, but I make modifications such as
<v Speaker 1>having zoodles instead of pasta, or cauliflower rice instead of
<v Speaker 1>white rice. A new development since practicing this eating window
<v Speaker 1>has been constipation. I feel like I eat a lot
<v Speaker 1>of vegetables and drink plenty of fluids, but it's not
<v Speaker 1>made a difference in my bill function. All right, So
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to stop right now and just go back
<v Speaker 1>to address what she said about she's having a large
<v Speaker 1>salad and then dinner with her family. That is one
<v Speaker 1>meal a day. Absolutely, it's a multi course meal. Like
<v Speaker 1>how many times have you been to a restaurant and
<v Speaker 1>they give you a salad and then later you have
<v Speaker 1>your main dish, all right, Like if you go to
<v Speaker 1>a wedding reception, I want you to think of your
<v Speaker 1>eating window as like a wedding reception. Right, If you
<v Speaker 1>go to the wedding reception, they might pass around some
<v Speaker 1>appetizers and then later like two hours later, even who knows,
<v Speaker 1>it could be a long wedding reception. Two hours later
<v Speaker 1>you sit down and you have the salad, and then
<v Speaker 1>like another hour later, finally you're getting your main course
<v Speaker 1>followed by the You could be at that wedding reception
<v Speaker 1>for hours. Yes, they didn't feed you two meals. It
<v Speaker 1>was one multi course meal spread out, and so that
<v Speaker 1>is what you're doing, all right. So now we're getting
<v Speaker 1>into the constipation question. She said, what can I do
<v Speaker 1>to alleviate the constipation? I did hear that breaking your
<v Speaker 1>fast with a bowl of oat meal could be beneficial. However,
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to spike my insulin. All right, let's
<v Speaker 1>address that right now, Sherry.
<v Speaker 3>Yep.
<v Speaker 2>As soon as you break your fast, you have spiked
<v Speaker 2>your insulin. That is why we clean fast. We want
<v Speaker 2>to keep insulin low. But then when you open your
<v Speaker 2>eating window, you are going to have an insulin release period.
<v Speaker 2>So I I wouldn't I wouldn't worry about that at all.
<v Speaker 2>Here's the thing with insulin. We don't want insulin low
<v Speaker 2>all the time, right, What we don't want is insulin
<v Speaker 2>high all the time. But insulin has very beneficial uses,
<v Speaker 2>and I mean even as far as promoting muscle growth.
<v Speaker 2>So once you eat, your windows open, there shouldn't be
<v Speaker 2>a concern about spiking your insulin in your eating window.
<v Speaker 2>It's more about choosing foods that support a healthy blood
<v Speaker 2>guodcost response in your eating window and after you close
<v Speaker 2>your eating window, so that your body can return to
<v Speaker 2>baseline within a couple of hours after closing your window.
<v Speaker 1>And so if you want to eat oatmeal, eat the oatmeal,
<v Speaker 1>all right. So I'm gonna keep reading, she said, what
<v Speaker 1>is your recommendation? Is constipation a common issue with intermittent fasting?
<v Speaker 1>Is it usually resolve itself after your body adjusts and
<v Speaker 1>adapts to intermittent fasting. If so, how long does that
<v Speaker 1>usually take? And she says, I don't want to quit
<v Speaker 1>intermittent fasting because of the constipation, but I'm having pain, bloating,
<v Speaker 1>and cramping. I'm forty eight. I've been on HRT for
<v Speaker 1>pyramidopause for the past year. I'm five foot six inches.
<v Speaker 1>I started at two thirteen and I'm down to two
<v Speaker 1>oh six. My ultimate goal is to live a long
<v Speaker 1>and healthy lifestyle free from the risks of cancers and
<v Speaker 1>diabetes that run in my family. I want to be
<v Speaker 1>around for my kiddos who are twelve, fifteen, and nineteen,
<v Speaker 1>and hopefully one day, grandkids.
<v Speaker 3>My goal weight is one sixty five.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Well your question is is this a common issue? Yes,
<v Speaker 2>this is something we hear a lot. Number a few
<v Speaker 2>things are happening with constipation and fasting. Number one, At first,
<v Speaker 2>your body is having to get on a new cycle.
<v Speaker 2>Our bowels run on a circadian rhythm, just like our sleep,
<v Speaker 2>just like our hormones. It's all timed inside. Right, So
<v Speaker 2>when you're no longer eating all day, the timing your
<v Speaker 2>bowel transit, all of that has to adapt and it
<v Speaker 2>has to find its new rhythm. And less in means
<v Speaker 2>less out, So it's not uncommon to go less frequently. Now,
<v Speaker 2>what also happens as you adapt to fasting and you
<v Speaker 2>start getting into daily katosis.
<v Speaker 3>Katosis does act like a natural diuretic. It does pull
<v Speaker 3>minerals sodium, potassium, magnesium out of your body and you
<v Speaker 3>excrete it in your urine. For some people who are
<v Speaker 3>more sensitive to that, like me, you may find that
<v Speaker 3>you're constipated. Now for a lot of people, as your body.
<v Speaker 2>Adapts to katosis, that sort of balances itself back out.
<v Speaker 2>But you'll find that a lot of fasters learn that
<v Speaker 2>they really do need some magnesium once they start fasting,
<v Speaker 2>because when you're not eating all day long, they have
<v Speaker 2>a little bit harder time keeping their magnesium levels up,
<v Speaker 2>which you'll hear us talk about people are deficient and
<v Speaker 2>magnesium anyway. So you may have been coasting along okay,
<v Speaker 2>just you know, riding the edge, but then fasting has
<v Speaker 2>really made it more pronounced that you need more magnesium.
<v Speaker 2>So magnesium can help with constipation. In addition, if magnesium
<v Speaker 2>doesn't do it for you, it did not for me.
<v Speaker 2>It wasn't until I found out that I was deficient
<v Speaker 2>potassium as well, and I started taking potassium that I
<v Speaker 2>finally became regular for the first time in my life.
<v Speaker 2>So big win there. It's usually a mineral balance problem.
<v Speaker 2>Adding more fiber to it actually could make it worse,
<v Speaker 2>ye more pain, And it's a mineral balance problem because
<v Speaker 2>now you're putting in more and it needs to come
<v Speaker 2>out and it's stuck, right, And so those minerals, magnesium, potassium,
<v Speaker 2>they have to do with nerve impulses, muscle movements, relaxing
<v Speaker 2>the bowel, and actually moisture in your stool, because if
<v Speaker 2>you're dehydrated, then you're not going to have nice fluffy stool.
<v Speaker 2>Like you're supposed to have. So there's my poop talk
<v Speaker 2>for the day. So definitely, you know, Jen and I
<v Speaker 2>recommend by Optimizers magnesium breakthrough, and we recommend it because
<v Speaker 2>we know it, we love it, I know it works.
<v Speaker 3>Every week.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, there's a Lincoln show notes. Check it out and
<v Speaker 2>try that. And yes, it can get better. No, you
<v Speaker 2>shouldn't have to stop intermittent fasting because of constipation. You'll
<v Speaker 2>figure out the solution.
<v Speaker 1>And Emily, again, I want to congratulate you because you
<v Speaker 1>are achieving one mil a day the way we recommend
<v Speaker 1>that you do it.
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely, I would not try.
<v Speaker 1>To shrink it any more than what you're doing, because
<v Speaker 1>you don't want to. The goal is not just to
<v Speaker 1>shrink it down to the shortest possible window. We got
<v Speaker 1>to have that balance in there. And I really don't
<v Speaker 1>think most of us can eat sufficiently in one hour
<v Speaker 1>a day every single day. No, I don't think you can.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think that is sufficient. I don't think we
<v Speaker 1>can do it. I think if you are trying to
<v Speaker 1>eat in one hour a day every single day, you're
<v Speaker 1>accidentally going to end up overrestricting. And so I wouldn't
<v Speaker 1>make that be a goal sometimes Is it okay to
<v Speaker 1>have a shorter window like that.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, and then you balance it out a little bit. Yep.
<v Speaker 3>All right.
<v Speaker 1>Before we get to our tweak of the week, I
<v Speaker 1>want to take a minute to tell you about my books.
<v Speaker 1>I am and always will be a teacher at heart,
<v Speaker 1>so it makes me very happy to have a wide
<v Speaker 1>variety of resources for you no matter where you are
<v Speaker 1>in your intermittent fasting journey. I recommend everybody start with
<v Speaker 1>Delayed on Deny, which I think is the best quick
<v Speaker 1>introduction to intermittent fasting out there, and it actually has
<v Speaker 1>the best ADF explanation that you'll find. And anybody who's
<v Speaker 1>thinking about ADF, even or maybe even especially if you've
<v Speaker 1>read Fast Feast Repeat, I think you should read the
<v Speaker 1>ADF chapter of Delayed on to my second edition because
<v Speaker 1>some of the stuff I wrote in.
<v Speaker 3>Fast East Repeat.
<v Speaker 1>We've slightly changed our recommendations because we realize some people
<v Speaker 1>were in it up with too short of an upday
<v Speaker 1>because what I said was minimum, they thought that was
<v Speaker 1>the goal. And we've even realized the minimum that I
<v Speaker 1>suggested and FASTIAT Repeat one't quite long enough for some people.
<v Speaker 3>So you need a.
<v Speaker 1>If you're interested in ADF you definitely need the second
<v Speaker 1>edition of Delayed Do Deny, but that might be the
<v Speaker 1>only book that you need. The second edition is available
<v Speaker 1>in paperback and hardback only on Amazon, and it's an
<v Speaker 1>ebook and audiobook wherever you find your ebooks and audio books.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to dig into DDD a little bit
<v Speaker 1>deeper on your own or in a book study group
<v Speaker 1>with a friend or a group of friends, I created
<v Speaker 1>a book study companion work book called Delay Don't Deny
<v Speaker 1>Digging Deeper, and it was updated to match the twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty four DDD updates and it's definitely got a lot
<v Speaker 1>of school teacher gin coming through on every page, and
<v Speaker 1>it allows you to reflect on how to apply the
<v Speaker 1>concepts into your own life. You know, we all know
<v Speaker 1>reading a book is one thing, Applying it is another.
<v Speaker 1>And Delay, Lay Don't Deny Digging Deeper was designed to
<v Speaker 1>help you apply the concepts from Delay Don't Deny in
<v Speaker 1>a meaningful way. Now, if you're looking for a way
<v Speaker 1>to keep track of all sorts of things such as
<v Speaker 1>your daily fast, you're eating windows, your daily weights, weekly averaging,
<v Speaker 1>goal setting, non scale victories, food and exercise journals, a
<v Speaker 1>daily reflection and more, then you might enjoy the Delay
<v Speaker 1>Don't Deny Life Journal. And again, people who worked through
<v Speaker 1>twenty eight day fast start day by day, they got
<v Speaker 1>to the end of it, they're like, now what, that's
<v Speaker 1>where the Delay Don't Deny Life Journal can come in
<v Speaker 1>because it's got lots of tools for you to use,
<v Speaker 1>it's designed to last you for six months, and it's
<v Speaker 1>a great place to keep track of all sorts of things.
<v Speaker 1>Both Delay Don't Deny Digging Deeper and The Delay Don't
<v Speaker 1>Deny Life Journal are available in paperback form only on Amazon,
<v Speaker 1>and Digging Deeper is also available as an ebook wherever
<v Speaker 1>you get your ebooks.
<v Speaker 3>So now it's time for our tweak of the week.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I always say tweak it till it's easy,
<v Speaker 1>But a tweak that works for me might not be
<v Speaker 1>the one that works for you. That's why it's super
<v Speaker 1>helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting work for them. This week we have a tip
<v Speaker 1>from Jody. I just looked at my weight app. I
<v Speaker 1>haven't really looked in there for a while, and I
<v Speaker 1>was surprised to see that it's been over a year
<v Speaker 1>since I started my intermittent fasting journey. Already some mornings
<v Speaker 1>I wake up on the wrong side of the bed,
<v Speaker 1>and I think, I really just want to eat breakfast
<v Speaker 1>and eat all the ultra process junk and binge TV
<v Speaker 1>while doing it. To hell with waiting until four pm
<v Speaker 1>to open my window. But I started a little trick
<v Speaker 1>with myself. I moved my fasting timer to sixteen eight
<v Speaker 1>and say to myself, I'll delay until the sixteen hour
<v Speaker 1>mark at least, And in the meantime, I'll get up,
<v Speaker 1>have my coffee, do what I need to do, come back,
<v Speaker 1>prep dinner, prep what I'll open my window with. I'll
<v Speaker 1>have an intermittent fasting story playing in the background while
<v Speaker 1>I'm getting my chores done. By the time all of
<v Speaker 1>that is said and done, I'll forget about.
<v Speaker 3>It with my suki. Wah wah. Did I say that right, Sherry?
<v Speaker 2>I guess I'm thinking she's foreign and this is the
<v Speaker 2>same wah wah.
<v Speaker 1>I think I've heard it before. It sounds midwestern to me,
<v Speaker 1>is it. I don't know, all right? Uh wah wah,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. Somebody let us know. But she says,
<v Speaker 1>I'll forget all about my suki wah wah morning and
<v Speaker 1>have a little triumphant giggle to myself when my fasting
<v Speaker 1>app tells me your fast is over at the sixteen
<v Speaker 1>hour mark. By then I'll just it back to the
<v Speaker 1>twenty four fasting protocol. Sometimes it turns into a five
<v Speaker 1>hour window rather than four. I appreciate having my meal prepped,
<v Speaker 1>so I keep my inner toddler in check.
<v Speaker 3>I plan what I really.
<v Speaker 1>Want to eat and end up feeling way more satisfied
<v Speaker 1>compared to just eating anything and everything and then overeating
<v Speaker 1>as well.
<v Speaker 3>Did you look it up, Cherry? Did you look up Suki?
<v Speaker 2>Why?
<v Speaker 3>I have? Yes, of course, you know idea. I heard
<v Speaker 3>you typing.
<v Speaker 2>I could see Suki Lallas something with Australian. But now
<v Speaker 2>I've not found anything with Suki Woa.
<v Speaker 3>So maybe it's Australia. Joni, your God, let us snow.
<v Speaker 3>Now we want to know. Inquiring minds want to know.
<v Speaker 1>But I think that's a great trick because you're just
<v Speaker 1>feeling like, oh, I just want to eat all the things.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not feeling good. But the thing about that is
<v Speaker 1>you won't feel good after you do that either. It
<v Speaker 1>never helps, does it? Opening early eating the breakfast, eating
<v Speaker 1>the junk. Then now you've done it and the reason
<v Speaker 1>for the suki wah wah is still there. And now
<v Speaker 1>you've had a junkie morning, and now you have two
<v Speaker 1>reasons to be upset.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, we all have that little inner toddler,
<v Speaker 2>so we do and think back to when you had toddlers. Toddler,
<v Speaker 2>did you trick them? You know, like, you know, you
<v Speaker 2>can manipulate them a little bit. They want a little something.
<v Speaker 2>You can kind of trick them. So I mean, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I think it's great to trick your inner toddler. And
<v Speaker 2>like mind games, we played mind games with ourselves. But
<v Speaker 2>do it to the advantage of your goals?
<v Speaker 1>Well, I think it was telling yourself'll I just have
<v Speaker 1>to get to sixteen. You know, I don't write my
<v Speaker 1>fast so my I always write my eating windows. So
<v Speaker 1>for me, it would be if I open now, five
<v Speaker 1>hours is going to come way too early, and I
<v Speaker 1>don't way plas that early, so I would rather I
<v Speaker 1>want my five hour window to close close enough to bedtime.
<v Speaker 1>So I just think about that. But if if what
<v Speaker 1>helps you is saying I just have to get to
<v Speaker 1>sixteen today, I just have to get to sixteen, and
<v Speaker 1>then once you get there, you're probably feeling better.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Listen, we had a water pipe burst on the top
<v Speaker 2>of our hot water heater last week and it was
<v Speaker 2>a mess. And I haven't day drink in over a decade,
<v Speaker 2>but about ten forty five that morning, I was like,
<v Speaker 2>what are the rules regarding day drinking? And then my
<v Speaker 2>next immediate thought was, oh, I'm fasting. I can't day
<v Speaker 2>drink anyways. And Eric said, well, you can drink at lunch,
<v Speaker 2>and I was like, okay, well, if I'm still feeling
<v Speaker 2>this way at noon, maybe I'll just open my window early.
<v Speaker 3>And guess what. Noon came and went.
<v Speaker 2>The next thing I know, it was two o'clock and
<v Speaker 2>at that point I was over nineteen hours fasted. And
<v Speaker 2>you know, sometimes if we have these thoughts and if
<v Speaker 2>you just like say, nope, not now, that's not working.
<v Speaker 3>Now just delay it, delay it. See what I happened.
<v Speaker 2>But sometimes she's giving yourself permission, so telling myself like, okay,
<v Speaker 2>maybe at noon and I just went about my day,
<v Speaker 2>and then you just go about your day and you're
<v Speaker 2>not focused on it because you've already given yourself permission. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that is no true, And then the desire goes away.
<v Speaker 1>I'll find that, you know. Like I generally say my
<v Speaker 1>window is now about two to seven. That doesn't mean
<v Speaker 1>I automatically started eating it too, But it's kind of
<v Speaker 1>like the permission opens up, and you know, some days
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, looking at the clock, I'm like, it's two,
<v Speaker 1>I'll eat.
<v Speaker 3>But some days I look at the clock and it's
<v Speaker 3>two and I'm.
<v Speaker 1>Like, yeah, but I'm in the middle of something, right, yep.
<v Speaker 1>And I don't even want to stop. I could if
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to, but I don't, so I keep fasting. Well,
<v Speaker 1>and we all have a little rebel inside of us, yea,
<v Speaker 1>some more than others, you know. And I'm the kind
<v Speaker 1>of person that if I can't do something, it makes
<v Speaker 1>me want to do.
<v Speaker 3>Tell me I can't eat something, and that's the only
<v Speaker 3>thing I want to eat. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>This is why I work better as a moderator than
<v Speaker 2>an abstainer from things, because the minute you tell me
<v Speaker 2>you can never eat that, that is all I want
<v Speaker 2>to eat. Okay, So the minute I tell my body, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you can do that, but just wait, I try to
<v Speaker 2>split the difference, like, wait two hours. My window's not
<v Speaker 2>going to open for about four hours, but wait, to
<v Speaker 2>two hours, and if I'm still feeling like I really
<v Speaker 2>want that at two hours, I can have it, right,
<v Speaker 2>And then I've now given myself permission. I'm not saying
<v Speaker 2>I can't have it.
<v Speaker 3>I can.
<v Speaker 2>But then more often than not, that time comes that
<v Speaker 2>time frame and you're like, eh, I don't really want
<v Speaker 2>that anymore, because usually those decisions are driven by emotion. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>You know, when you said all that, it made me think.
<v Speaker 1>I wonder if that's why it took me so long
<v Speaker 1>to finally stop drinking alcohol completely, even though I knew
<v Speaker 1>it made me feel like crap and it wasn't good
<v Speaker 1>for my body, because it was that whole.
<v Speaker 3>As soon as I told myself.
<v Speaker 1>No, then I just wanted it, and you wanted it, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And I was like, yeah, but drinking wine is fun,
<v Speaker 1>and so then I would like get really mad.
<v Speaker 3>But then enough times of trying it and knowing how
<v Speaker 3>bad it might feel, then fine.
<v Speaker 2>Inner toddler stopped its foot and said, but I like
<v Speaker 2>wine and I want to drink.
<v Speaker 3>It, and my friends can drink it and they feel fine.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yep, inner toddler. Yeap toddler should not be drinking
<v Speaker 3>alcohol anyway. By the way, oh my gosh.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, we love to leave you guys with
<v Speaker 2>inspiration or motivational quotes, and this week we have an
<v Speaker 2>inspirational share from sk She is in our DDD community
<v Speaker 2>and I loved this one. It's titled sixteen ways to
<v Speaker 2>calm yourself when life gets to when you're in her
<v Speaker 2>toddlers being a bratt Oh. Walk Walking helps clear your
<v Speaker 2>mind and offers a different perspective.
<v Speaker 3>Indulge.
<v Speaker 2>Take a day off to spend doing something, doing exactly
<v Speaker 2>what you want to do. Be generous, give something to
<v Speaker 2>a total stranger. Acts of giving make us feel warm
<v Speaker 2>and fuzzy inside. And can I say that can even
<v Speaker 2>be something as simple as a compliment.
<v Speaker 3>Oh yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Observe Sit in a coffee shop or on a busy
<v Speaker 2>street and soak up your surroundings.
<v Speaker 3>You don't have to talk to people.
<v Speaker 2>Educate yourself, research what you are experiencing. Arm yourself with
<v Speaker 2>knowledge and the resources to tackle the problems head on. Preparation,
<v Speaker 2>write the days to do list the evening before strengths.
<v Speaker 2>Write down a list of twenty of your strengths. Keep
<v Speaker 2>going forward, keep taking small steps no matter what. Being
<v Speaker 2>stagnant doesn't serve you revisit an old hobby. If you
<v Speaker 2>don't have one, adopt one. Prioritize, decide what's important right now.
<v Speaker 2>Say no to extra obligations. Sleep, get enough rest, sleep
<v Speaker 2>seven to nine hours each night. Be silly, do something
<v Speaker 2>that you did as a child. Don't take life too seriously. Cry,
<v Speaker 2>release all that emotion. You'll feel better. Check your negative
<v Speaker 2>self talk. Negative self talk does not serve you.
<v Speaker 3>Journal.
<v Speaker 2>Develop a habit of journaling. This will help free your mind.
<v Speaker 2>And last, remind yourself that life is a journey. Remember
<v Speaker 2>that what you're going through is temporary and it will pass.
<v Speaker 2>And I just thought all of those were great and
<v Speaker 2>all of them can apply to life in general, but
<v Speaker 2>also life as an intermittent faster.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, well, thank you so much for.
<v Speaker 1>Sharing that sk Thanks so much for listening today. We
<v Speaker 1>would love to have you join us in the delay
<v Speaker 1>don't tonight come Unity, 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 show,
<v Speaker 2>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, Thanks for listening,