Episode 133: What’s a Whoosh, Choosing a Goal Weight, Metabolic Flexibility, 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 1>How are you doing today?
<v Speaker 2>Sharing? I'm doing fabulous?
<v Speaker 1>How are you? I am doing great? I am wearing
<v Speaker 1>a pair of jeans that I hadn't worn in probably,
<v Speaker 1>I know, three years. They're just a little snug. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>now they're fitting great, fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>I know.
<v Speaker 1>I'm back down in like the part of my maintenance
<v Speaker 1>range where I feel a little better.
<v Speaker 2>Good.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, good, I know that feels good? Does feel good? Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>These jeans they were tight when I got them. They're
<v Speaker 1>like Levi's, you know how Levi's can be. Yeah, they
<v Speaker 1>were a little tight. I wore them for a little
<v Speaker 1>bit and I was like, they're just a little tight.
<v Speaker 1>But put them on today, I'm like, these feel pretty good.
<v Speaker 2>So well. I messaged in this morning and told her
<v Speaker 2>I had a woosh overnight. I was so excited.
<v Speaker 1>Explain a wosh for the people who don't know what
<v Speaker 1>it is.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so this is a term.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>This has been floating around.
<v Speaker 1>I know where it came from.
<v Speaker 2>Where did it come from?
<v Speaker 1>There is a blog post called of wishes and Squishy
<v Speaker 1>fat who wrote it? Okay, let me look and see
<v Speaker 1>if I can find that. Im'll have to google it.
<v Speaker 1>Of wushes.
<v Speaker 2>There used to be a little graphic I can visually.
<v Speaker 1>That graphic is just crap though.
<v Speaker 2>I know, but anytime I hear whoosh, I'm so sorry.
<v Speaker 2>I'm a visual person. I visualize that great. Right.
<v Speaker 1>This is two thousand It's a two thousand and nine
<v Speaker 1>blog post. May sixth two thousand and nine. The website
<v Speaker 1>is bodyrecomposition dot com. Oh okay, and the author is
<v Speaker 1>Lyle mcd. Whoever that is, I'm clicking on it. Lyle mcd.
<v Speaker 1>Apparently Lyle McDonald is his name. Apparently he's all into
<v Speaker 1>GLP ones or something. Oh but he wrote that blog
<v Speaker 1>post of wishes and squishy fat, and he's the one
<v Speaker 1>who hypothesized that our bodies were holding water in fat cells.
<v Speaker 1>I do not think that's true. I haven't been able
<v Speaker 1>to find any kind of confirmation for that in anything
<v Speaker 1>that I've ever looked at, like any kind of well
<v Speaker 1>confirmation that our body. But I think what our body
<v Speaker 1>is doing is keeping it in the lymphatic system. I
<v Speaker 1>think as we lose fat, because if you think about
<v Speaker 1>our lymphatic system is our body's sewer system, and you
<v Speaker 1>think about if you're losing fat, right, I don't think
<v Speaker 1>your body is releasing fat and putting water in your
<v Speaker 1>fat cells. I think what's more likely happening if you
<v Speaker 1>think about our fat cells or where our body boan
<v Speaker 1>like your.
<v Speaker 2>He hypothesized that your fat cells fill up with water
<v Speaker 2>and then it releases the Yes, okay, yeh see I'm
<v Speaker 2>thinking more like when you're in katosis, so you're burning
<v Speaker 2>fat for energy. It like katosis is diuretic, causes your
<v Speaker 2>kidneys to pull fluid out of your body. So I
<v Speaker 2>always assumed that something about us fat breaks down and
<v Speaker 2>becomes a key tone, that something about that causes the
<v Speaker 2>fluids fluid to release, which is why your kidneys then
<v Speaker 2>pull it out. But it's like no longer necessary fluid
<v Speaker 2>in your bod. That makes it kind of but I
<v Speaker 2>I think that's what it is. I don't think that's
<v Speaker 2>what it is. I've thought about it a lot. His
<v Speaker 2>hypothesis is, like I said that your body puts the
<v Speaker 2>water in your fat cell, which I have not been
<v Speaker 2>able to find anything that supports that. But we do
<v Speaker 2>know that when we're losing fat, your body's release in
<v Speaker 2>all sorts of other crap along with it that's been
<v Speaker 2>stored in your fat cells, and then it has to
<v Speaker 2>go through I think it might go through your lymphatic system,
<v Speaker 2>you know.
<v Speaker 1>How you'll see like a like I just know from
<v Speaker 1>back when I was losing weight and weighing, my weight
<v Speaker 1>would actually go up a little bit and then it
<v Speaker 1>would drop down. And so that was just part of
<v Speaker 1>my fat loss a little bit up down more, a
<v Speaker 1>little bit up down more, and so, but that somebody
<v Speaker 1>made that graphic as if it were fact, that the
<v Speaker 1>water's going in your fat cells and and slowly it
<v Speaker 1>just wishes, or it's slowly going in, and then your
<v Speaker 1>body releases it all at once. I just don't think
<v Speaker 1>that's happening in your fat cells. It could be. I
<v Speaker 1>just couldn't find any any scientific like nowhere could I
<v Speaker 1>find anything scientific that said that our body puts water
<v Speaker 1>in fat cells.
<v Speaker 2>Ever, Yeah, I said, I did hear a podcast years ago,
<v Speaker 2>and I know it was years ago because I lived
<v Speaker 2>at the house before this one, so it was prior
<v Speaker 2>to twenty eighteen about that you never really lose fat cells.
<v Speaker 2>I've heard that too, that they're always there waiting to
<v Speaker 2>be refilled. Yes, I am not sure that. But see
<v Speaker 2>then I heard another podcast from a different scientist because
<v Speaker 2>he talks a lot about fat conversion and the whole
<v Speaker 2>brown fat, right, you know, conversion, And so I don't
<v Speaker 2>know that anybody really truly knows.
<v Speaker 1>I know, but people just say stuff like it's fact,
<v Speaker 1>and then you keep repeating it over and over again,
<v Speaker 1>and so you're like, I've always heard that I've always
<v Speaker 1>heard we can't lose fat cells once we've made them.
<v Speaker 1>I've heard that a million times. But in my brain,
<v Speaker 1>I'm thinking, yeah, but what about autophogy. Let's imagine you've
<v Speaker 1>lost a lot of weight, you're fast and clean, your
<v Speaker 1>body is breaking down things that are not used or
<v Speaker 1>important or you don't need anymore. I think a body
<v Speaker 1>in that state could say, these old deflated fat cells,
<v Speaker 1>we don't need them anymore. But I don't know. I'm
<v Speaker 1>just that's just a hypothesis.
<v Speaker 2>And I would also think that with you know, with
<v Speaker 2>the taphagy, that it would just be like, this isn't
<v Speaker 2>you but this is not useful, right, I'm gonna.
<v Speaker 1>Break it down. So again, yeah, I don't know the
<v Speaker 1>answer to that, but that's why my mind works.
<v Speaker 2>So this is how my bush worked. You know. I've
<v Speaker 2>talked to y'all before that for the last couple of years,
<v Speaker 2>since perimenopause, since COVID, and that just really messed with
<v Speaker 2>my metabolic health. I had put on quite a bit away.
<v Speaker 2>I was not really happy with things that I was
<v Speaker 2>really struggling. I have worked really hard since August to
<v Speaker 2>really clean up my diet to move more to focus
<v Speaker 2>more on my sleep and recovery, stress reduction, trying to
<v Speaker 2>do everything right, and it's paying off slowly, but it's
<v Speaker 2>coming off. I'm down about sixteen pounds since August.
<v Speaker 1>That's awesome.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I feel better. My husband actually said I can
<v Speaker 2>tell you're really losing weight. He sees it in my
<v Speaker 2>face and anyway, So last Monday morning was this morning,
<v Speaker 2>after a down day, I hadn't eaten, had I got
<v Speaker 2>home from work. I was like, well, before I start eating,
<v Speaker 2>on my update, I'm going to weigh right. And it
<v Speaker 2>was a nice new low weight. Every day last week
<v Speaker 2>I never saw that weight again. It went up like
<v Speaker 2>two pounds and then down at half a pound, and
<v Speaker 2>then back up a quarter of a pound and then
<v Speaker 2>down at half a pound, and I'd never ever saw
<v Speaker 2>this number again. And I was like, well, that's whatever
<v Speaker 2>my body's gonna do. When my body's gonna do, I
<v Speaker 2>can only do so much right right, try not to
<v Speaker 2>micro manage it or stress out about it, So I
<v Speaker 2>just get on the scale way whatever, Monday's my day
<v Speaker 2>to check my weights. So I jumped on the sco
<v Speaker 2>yesterday morning. It was the morning of an up day
<v Speaker 2>again because I've been doing down days at work Sunday night,
<v Speaker 2>and it was higher than it was last Monday. And
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, well, I'm thinking, what did I do differently
<v Speaker 2>last week? And I really couldn't think of anything I
<v Speaker 2>did differently today. I woke up yesterday it was an
<v Speaker 2>up day. Today, I woke up and I weighed a
<v Speaker 2>pound and a half less than I did yesterday the morning, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>of my down day, and it's less than it was
<v Speaker 2>last Monday.
<v Speaker 1>AWO.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, that is.
<v Speaker 1>A woosh right, right? Is it? The blog post is
<v Speaker 1>called like I said it, y'all can google this of woshes,
<v Speaker 1>whoosahs and squishy fat, and it's all of his you know, hypotheses,
<v Speaker 1>but part of it I'm not. I haven't read it today,
<v Speaker 1>but what I can remember from reading it years ago
<v Speaker 1>is that he hypothesizes that after we had like you
<v Speaker 1>had an update, He said, wishes are often after days
<v Speaker 1>where we eat more and then our body is like
<v Speaker 1>finally pulling in that fluid and then releasing it all
<v Speaker 1>at once, and so his hypothesis is it's coming out
<v Speaker 1>of the fat cell. To me, that doesn't make a
<v Speaker 1>lot of sense, like that your fat cells just release
<v Speaker 1>all the fluid at once. To me, it makes more
<v Speaker 1>sense that it's somewhere like your lymphatic system where it's
<v Speaker 1>easier for that fluid to be get into, you know,
<v Speaker 1>to be excreted from your lymphatic system. I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>That's just my thoughts about it.
<v Speaker 2>But I asiance with a wosh too, is it's not
<v Speaker 2>even though we're talking about fluid, it's not water weight, right,
<v Speaker 2>because water weight is what I see fluctuating day to
<v Speaker 2>day to day to day, right, it's based off of
<v Speaker 2>what I eat and the inflammation of my body and
<v Speaker 2>my fluid balance or whatever. A woosh is very like discernible,
<v Speaker 2>and what my experience in the past with the wooshes.
<v Speaker 2>Once that's gone, it's like it's gone. Yeah, like my
<v Speaker 2>weight might go up, it might be variable again, right,
<v Speaker 2>but it's almost like I'm at this.
<v Speaker 1>New Yeah, that's yeah, yeah, and yeah, the only place
<v Speaker 1>that makes sense is to be in your lymphatic system
<v Speaker 1>to me, but I don't know. That's just like I said,
<v Speaker 1>that's my hypothesis. I've never heard anybody or seen a
<v Speaker 1>scientific article about it. But now everybody listening, not everybody
<v Speaker 1>goes through wushes. Because sometimes I remember back in the
<v Speaker 1>day on Facebook, when we would someone would have a whoosh,
<v Speaker 1>they would share that graphic that I think is not right. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>because it got passed around everywhere. They're like, this is
<v Speaker 1>a whoosh and I'm like, well, I don't think so,
<v Speaker 1>but okay. But then then there's people who would get
<v Speaker 1>in there and be like, well I don't have that.
<v Speaker 1>What's wrong with me?
<v Speaker 2>Right?
<v Speaker 1>And I'm like, there's nothing wrong with you. Or people
<v Speaker 1>would say when am I going to have a woosh?
<v Speaker 1>And I'm like, well, I can't tell you that, right,
<v Speaker 1>So I don't want everybody to be you know, and
<v Speaker 1>maybe that's not the pattern of what your body does.
<v Speaker 1>So don't be questioning is that. You know, why don't
<v Speaker 1>I do this? Why doesn't my body do that? Not
<v Speaker 1>all bodies well, especially since we don't know why it
<v Speaker 1>does it exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Because here's what's interesting too, is I had a lot
<v Speaker 2>of carbs yesterday, will and I'm not talking healthy carbs.
<v Speaker 2>I had a biscuit. It was not a great eating
<v Speaker 2>day for me yesterday. Yeah, I had a biscuit and
<v Speaker 2>I had hash browns, and then I had tortellini for dinner,
<v Speaker 2>and then I had a piece of cream, cheese, poptizza,
<v Speaker 2>bread fruit.
<v Speaker 1>That's why your body needed that extra fluid. That makes
<v Speaker 1>so much sense because it takes fluids. Usually if I
<v Speaker 1>have a Carbie day, I retall painting the water. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but your body had it and it was like here
<v Speaker 1>it comes and then whoosh, it's.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, trying to figure out your body you can't.
<v Speaker 1>And so see, then you could be like, well, I
<v Speaker 1>just learned those foods are my weight loss foods, but
<v Speaker 1>they aren't because you know, just is a pound and
<v Speaker 1>I had half a fat. So that's where the flaw
<v Speaker 1>comes in whenever we're trying to draw cause and effect
<v Speaker 1>relationships between one day and then tomorrow's weight. Right, You're like, well,
<v Speaker 1>I guess I just learned that biscuits are a great
<v Speaker 1>weight loss food for me.
<v Speaker 2>And do you know what the biscuit was?
<v Speaker 1>Gross? Was it gross? Well that's disappointed.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, it was from all those Waburger fans out there.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know that I've been to a Waterburger since, like, well, it's.
<v Speaker 2>Not a place I eat. But Eric's like, please get
<v Speaker 2>me water Burger on your way home from work, and yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, what the heck am I gonna eat at
<v Speaker 2>Waburger and I had an egg and cheese biscuit and
<v Speaker 2>it was salty, yeah, fake buttery. I gave half of
<v Speaker 2>it to Luna Belle and I went Mason yogurt and grapefruits.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I felt better.
<v Speaker 2>So funny.
<v Speaker 1>Anyway, we congratulations on your wosh, and I hope that
<v Speaker 1>helps everybody understand when it happens. But anything that happens quickly,
<v Speaker 1>whether it's up or down, is not represented of a
<v Speaker 1>fat loss. It's representative something else is happening. It's a
<v Speaker 1>fluid shift. It is something like that. Yep, all right,
<v Speaker 1>Well let's celebrate Raya Raya. I'm sorry, I don't know
<v Speaker 1>how to pronounce her name.
<v Speaker 2>How would you say it? Jin Raya Reyo in San Diego.
<v Speaker 2>She says, I've been loving your podcast and it's part
<v Speaker 2>of what has kept me focused on fasting. I'm in
<v Speaker 2>my mid thirties and I just had two kids back
<v Speaker 2>to back. I struggled to lose any weight while breastfeeding.
<v Speaker 2>Once I weaned, I struggled to find time to get
<v Speaker 2>to the gym. I wanted to find something that didn't
<v Speaker 2>take any extra time, money, or energy. I knew about fasting,
<v Speaker 2>but I had only ever done it loosely in the past.
<v Speaker 2>When I was done breastfeeding, I decided to try fasting again.
<v Speaker 2>I was initially breaking my fast with a cup of
<v Speaker 2>coffee around noon, with all the fixings collagen, powder, m
<v Speaker 2>see tea oil, cream, and vanilla extract. It came out
<v Speaker 2>to be about two hundred calories and I almost considered
<v Speaker 2>it a meal. Then I would eat a snack slash
<v Speaker 2>meal like eggs and cheese a while later, followed by dinner,
<v Speaker 2>which I would finish by eight PM. I had recently
<v Speaker 2>read another popular fasting book where the author said she
<v Speaker 2>would have something like butter in her coffee to quote
<v Speaker 2>extend her fasting time. I had joined some Facebook fasting
<v Speaker 2>groups and I had been hearing the term dirty fasting,
<v Speaker 2>which I know you ladies can't stand. I realized what
<v Speaker 2>this other author had been preaching and what I had
<v Speaker 2>been following, was this unofficial form of fasting. Thankfully, your
<v Speaker 2>book was mentioned in one of the Facebook groups. I
<v Speaker 2>bought it, read it, and I never looked back. I
<v Speaker 2>have been clean fasting for three months now and I'm
<v Speaker 2>only eight pounds away from where I was pre pregnancy.
<v Speaker 2>I have saved time, money, food is expensive and energy
<v Speaker 2>thinking about and planning for food, I sometimes even get
<v Speaker 2>that surge of boundless energy that feels like an electrical current,
<v Speaker 2>and that helps me keep up with my two young kiddos.
<v Speaker 2>One thing that has really helped me when I'm craving
<v Speaker 2>my creamy coffee is just putting on your podcast. There's
<v Speaker 2>something about listening to you both talk about fasting that
<v Speaker 2>keeps me focused and fueled. When I feel like opening
<v Speaker 2>my window unnecessarily early unless the topic of baked potatoes
<v Speaker 2>come up, just delay. The power of suggestion is huge
<v Speaker 2>for me. So instead of talking about or thinking of
<v Speaker 2>food during my fast, I tried to instead think about
<v Speaker 2>fasting during my fast. It has been a game changer,
<v Speaker 2>and I'm so happy you have plenty of episodes to
<v Speaker 2>keep me on track. I also started doing my workouts
<v Speaker 2>in a fasted state, and I was blown away by
<v Speaker 2>the amount of stamina and strength I had, even after
<v Speaker 2>not having worked out for a while, Considering I have
<v Speaker 2>two kids and had two c sections back to back.
<v Speaker 2>I feel so incredible. I'm very thankful for your book
<v Speaker 2>and your podcast, which gives me unlimited amounts of good information.
<v Speaker 2>I'm so excited I've told everyone about your book, including
<v Speaker 2>a stranger at a gas station.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you well. I love that Raya, and it is
<v Speaker 1>it's hard to keep it to yourself when you just
<v Speaker 1>feel so good, right. And I love that she is
<v Speaker 1>enjoying her fasted workouts, because again, I can't imagine trying
<v Speaker 1>to do all that after eating fueling for your workout.
<v Speaker 1>You know you got the fuel already, It's already there.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, all right.
<v Speaker 1>So now we have a question from a listener. This
<v Speaker 1>question is from Evolving in North Carolina. I am a
<v Speaker 1>forty seven year old female that has always struggled with
<v Speaker 1>my weight. I've done what feels like every diet out
<v Speaker 1>there without maintained success. I was over two hundred pounds
<v Speaker 1>when I graduated high school, and by the time I
<v Speaker 1>was in grad school, I was two hundred and thirty pounds.
<v Speaker 1>Despite being extremely active, I was able to get below
<v Speaker 1>two hundred and maintained that for around twenty years in
<v Speaker 1>the high one eighties low one nineties, mostly due to
<v Speaker 1>whatever diet I was on at the time and distance running.
<v Speaker 1>I was always training for a race. Maintaining my weight
<v Speaker 1>was never easy, and losing more always seemed impossible. About
<v Speaker 1>five years ago, I crept up an over two hundred
<v Speaker 1>while increasing the heavy exercise due to increasing work stress
<v Speaker 1>and just not loving running like I used to. All
<v Speaker 1>the old tricks didn't work anymore, and I just couldn't
<v Speaker 1>budge the scale. I considered myself an I effort for
<v Speaker 1>years thanks to some Keto and Paleo diets in the past.
<v Speaker 1>But in the summer of this year, I had some
<v Speaker 1>food sensitivities identified and I cut out the heavy cream
<v Speaker 1>and my coffee. I came across fast feast repeat. During
<v Speaker 1>this time, cut out electrolytes and was finally clean fasting
<v Speaker 1>starting in mid July. I was two hundred and thirteen
<v Speaker 1>at the time. My question is related to my goal weight.
<v Speaker 1>When I started, I wrongly assumed it was like every
<v Speaker 1>other diet and that clean fasting couldn't make that big
<v Speaker 1>of a difference. So I picked one ninety as a
<v Speaker 1>goal weight. My weekly average is at one ninety one,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm quickly moving towards that goal. What suggestions would
<v Speaker 1>you have for choosing a goal weight. My diet brain
<v Speaker 1>side that continues to pop up at times is fearful
<v Speaker 1>picking something so far away that seems unattainable could be overwhelming.
<v Speaker 1>I would also like to have something to work towards,
<v Speaker 1>particularly if the scale continues to trend down. If I
<v Speaker 1>stayed this weight, I would not stop this lifestyle. It
<v Speaker 1>has so many health benefits and feels easy. I'm five
<v Speaker 1>foot six. My protocol is generally an eating window of
<v Speaker 1>three to five hours most days, one down slash up
<v Speaker 1>day a week, depending on my work and travel schedule.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for your insight and for all you do.
<v Speaker 1>You have truly changed my life. Well.
<v Speaker 2>As Jim was reading, my first thought was, you don't
<v Speaker 2>have to pick a goal weight. Your body will pick
<v Speaker 2>it for you. And I say this because a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people think, oh, well, I have to get to gold,
<v Speaker 2>and then when I get to goal, I have to
<v Speaker 2>do something different, and you don't. If you love the
<v Speaker 2>lifestyle and you have no intention of changing it, simply
<v Speaker 2>keep doing what you're doing. Make sure you're feeling well
<v Speaker 2>in your eating window. That being, you know, a variable
<v Speaker 2>window like you are three to five hours. You're doing
<v Speaker 2>a down day and an update each week. So all
<v Speaker 2>of that is going to be really great for helping
<v Speaker 2>your body to prevent you know it from adapting to
<v Speaker 2>what you're doing, and your body will work it out.
<v Speaker 2>When it gets to where it needs to get, it'll stop.
<v Speaker 2>And here's what's interesting. If you've doneet diets in the
<v Speaker 2>past where you compromised muscle mass, and let's say if
<v Speaker 2>you had done some other crash diet where you compromised
<v Speaker 2>muscle mass and you wanted to be a size eight
<v Speaker 2>because you felt great at a size eight, and that's
<v Speaker 2>your goal, that's what you have in mind, a size
<v Speaker 2>eight after doing intermittent fasting to get there. You're likely
<v Speaker 2>in a way more than you would have doing some
<v Speaker 2>other kind of diet because you're not compromising your muscle mass.
<v Speaker 2>So it's hard to even use an old weight from
<v Speaker 2>an old diet or a different time in your life
<v Speaker 2>to pick what you should weigh. So my best advice
<v Speaker 2>is to pick like a goal size, at what size
<v Speaker 2>do you feel good in your body? If you need
<v Speaker 2>something to work towards that or work towards a waste size,
<v Speaker 2>you can do your waist hip ratio or your waist
<v Speaker 2>height ratio, and you can look online. There's information about
<v Speaker 2>those and what those ratios should be, and those ratios
<v Speaker 2>if you meet them, Basically, what it says is like,
<v Speaker 2>if you have this ratio that you are supporting a
<v Speaker 2>healthy body, healthy metabolic state, that you'll be less prone
<v Speaker 2>to cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease. So you can use
<v Speaker 2>that as a goal. If you're supposed to be like
<v Speaker 2>under point eight for one of them, and you're above that,
<v Speaker 2>make your first goal to get to point eight. And
<v Speaker 2>then last, if you really really just need a number
<v Speaker 2>to look for on the scale, go to smart BMI.
<v Speaker 2>Put in your age, your height, put in your current weight.
<v Speaker 2>See where you are. Okay, then you can go back
<v Speaker 2>into where it says put in your current weight, just
<v Speaker 2>play around with it. Put some numbers in. You're five
<v Speaker 2>foot six, you know, maybe put in one hundred and
<v Speaker 2>seventy pounds and see that where you are in that
<v Speaker 2>healthy weight range. And you can use that kind of
<v Speaker 2>as a tool to figure out where you think you
<v Speaker 2>might want to land. But again with if our bodies
<v Speaker 2>are just different, and you'll get where you need to be,
<v Speaker 2>and then once you get there, you're not going to
<v Speaker 2>change your lifestyle. Really, I'm not sure that other than
<v Speaker 2>wanting a something to move towards for incentive, it's not
<v Speaker 2>really necessary to pick a weight because your body's going
<v Speaker 2>to do what it's going to do, right minded.
<v Speaker 1>Yeap, exactly. I love that sharing. That's very much what
<v Speaker 1>I was going to say. I just want to reiterate
<v Speaker 1>the idea of goal size. You know, as I was
<v Speaker 1>losing weight back in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, there was
<v Speaker 1>a dress that I had worn that I wanted to
<v Speaker 1>get back into. Actually, I had several several dresses I
<v Speaker 1>had worn, but one was my immediate wanted to get
<v Speaker 1>back into dress. Then I had like those dream dresses.
<v Speaker 1>I never thought I would get back in. Back from
<v Speaker 1>my diet pills days, I was like, well, I'll never
<v Speaker 1>be that skinny again, right, because that was terrible. But
<v Speaker 1>when I fit into that first dress, I had it
<v Speaker 1>hanging on the back of my bathroom door, and I
<v Speaker 1>would try it on every now and then I couldn't
<v Speaker 1>even put it over my body, and then I couldn't.
<v Speaker 1>I could put it on, but it was like a
<v Speaker 1>sausage squeezed in it, but the zipper was like a
<v Speaker 1>mile apart. Then eventually I was able to zip it
<v Speaker 1>up a little bit. But the day that I was
<v Speaker 1>able to zip it all the way up, even though
<v Speaker 1>it didn't look good. It felt so good. I had
<v Speaker 1>confirmation my body was changing. And I don't still have
<v Speaker 1>that dress because it was too big. I had to
<v Speaker 1>get rid of it. But having that clothing made such
<v Speaker 1>a difference. You know, I had some clothing that I
<v Speaker 1>felt good in in the past, and I wanted to
<v Speaker 1>feel good in that clothing again. That was my goal,
<v Speaker 1>and I had some numbers in mind. But like Sherry said,
<v Speaker 1>I was smaller at it's just say one hundred and
<v Speaker 1>thirty than I had been at one hundred and thirty
<v Speaker 1>from the diet pills days. My body was smaller because
<v Speaker 1>I maintained muscle and had lost more fat. So that's
<v Speaker 1>just something to keep in mind. But yeah, live the
<v Speaker 1>lifestyle that you enjoy. I like to say, live your
<v Speaker 1>goal lifestyle, and then the body will come along with it,
<v Speaker 1>the body that supports that goal lifestyle. I mean, I
<v Speaker 1>could lose more weight, I don't want to. I could.
<v Speaker 1>I would have to diet and try different things if
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to be smaller, but I don't want to
<v Speaker 1>do that. I'm living the lifestyle I want to live
<v Speaker 1>right now, and it allows me to maintain here. I
<v Speaker 1>did talk about being in smaller genes. But I had
<v Speaker 1>a lot of ice cream over the summer. I'm eating
<v Speaker 1>a real actually, you know, probably what it was, Sherry.
<v Speaker 1>When I was working on Like a grown Up, that's
<v Speaker 1>when I started to focus more. I was like, I
<v Speaker 1>really do need to eat more like a grown up,
<v Speaker 1>you know, because I was by myself for the first
<v Speaker 1>time ever, right, living by myself, no one was watching
<v Speaker 1>me eat. I was eating quicker things and right, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>a lot of friends visited ate out a lot. So honestly,
<v Speaker 1>I do think when I started working on el Like
<v Speaker 1>a grown Up, I was like, Okay, time for me
<v Speaker 1>to live it.
<v Speaker 2>About that, because it was really when I was coaching
<v Speaker 2>that that I started coaching again that I was like,
<v Speaker 2>I really need to practice what I'm preaching. I know
<v Speaker 2>all the things I need to do. But you know,
<v Speaker 2>I was letting my husband derail me too often. He
<v Speaker 2>wanted to eat something and I'm like, that's not healthy.
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to eat that. But I would get
<v Speaker 2>tired of arguing with him and I'd be like, sign whatever.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Then I finally just had to say, look, you can
<v Speaker 2>eat whatever it is you want to eat. I don't care.
<v Speaker 2>This is your life. If you want to be unhealthy,
<v Speaker 2>that's why I'm you. But I'm going to do what
<v Speaker 2>I want to do. So you take care of your food.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna take care of my food.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yeah, again. I think I started eating more like
<v Speaker 1>a grown up and it made a difference. So food quality,
<v Speaker 1>food quality makes much difference for me. You know, the
<v Speaker 1>more I focus on eating a variety of plants, I'm
<v Speaker 1>not plant based. I'm eating meat, but I'm eating cheese,
<v Speaker 1>I eating dairy, I'm having eggs, but I'm just being
<v Speaker 1>mindful of everything. And it just the higher quality of
<v Speaker 1>the food that I eat, the better my body likes it. Anyway,
<v Speaker 1>all right, Well, our next question is from Vicki in California.
<v Speaker 1>She said, Hello, ladies.
<v Speaker 2>I'm thirty nine years old, five foot four and one
<v Speaker 2>hundred and seventy two pounds. I started I have three
<v Speaker 2>months ago at two hundred pounds. I jumped straight into
<v Speaker 2>EIGHTYF and I love the way it makes me feel.
<v Speaker 2>It's mentally easier for me to not eat one day
<v Speaker 2>and then eat normally the next. I still have about
<v Speaker 2>forty pounds I would like to lose. Would it be
<v Speaker 2>okay to continue EIGHTYF until I get to my goal
<v Speaker 2>weight or should I switch it up. I'm loving this
<v Speaker 2>new lifestyle and I can't believe how easy it's been
<v Speaker 2>to lose weight. But I'm also scared to hit a plateau.
<v Speaker 2>I've heard you recommend people whose weight loss stop to
<v Speaker 2>try ADF. But what if I started with ADF? What
<v Speaker 2>will I do if I stop losing weight? I know
<v Speaker 2>I'm getting ahead of myself, but I want to make
<v Speaker 2>sure that I'm setting myself up for success. Thank you
<v Speaker 2>so much for all you do.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it is absolutely fine to do ADF as long
<v Speaker 1>as you like it and it feels good. Because ADF
<v Speaker 1>is switching it up, right, You're switching it up from
<v Speaker 1>one day to the next. Down, then you're up, then
<v Speaker 1>you're down, then you're up. The switching it up is
<v Speaker 1>built in. So what will you do when you stop
<v Speaker 1>losing weight? Like what we just talked about, Eventually, your
<v Speaker 1>body's going to stop losing weight. That just happens. Your
<v Speaker 1>body's like, all right, we're good. You may even find
<v Speaker 1>that it happens. You may have a plateau along the
<v Speaker 1>way that is not where you want to be and
<v Speaker 1>your body's regrouping, and I don't want you to freak out.
<v Speaker 1>Well if and when that happens. Cause again, when I
<v Speaker 1>was writing Fast East Repeat, when I was writing it
<v Speaker 1>in twenty nineteen, I did a survey in my Facebook group,
<v Speaker 1>how did you get past a plateau? The number one
<v Speaker 1>answer was time, You know, rather than thinking you have
<v Speaker 1>to frantically change things up, let your body regroup, and
<v Speaker 1>then eventually your body be like, Okay, we can start
<v Speaker 1>releasing more weight. But you know, with ADF you've got
<v Speaker 1>the down for fat loss, you've got the up for
<v Speaker 1>the metabolic boost and to let your body know that
<v Speaker 1>there's plenty coming in. So like, the one thing you
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't want to do is start having your up days
<v Speaker 1>be diet days, right. You don't want to be like
<v Speaker 1>down then diet day, than down than diet day, because
<v Speaker 1>you're going to miss the metabolic boost.
<v Speaker 2>I love that you brought up the fact too, that
<v Speaker 2>she may have a pause in weight loss while her
<v Speaker 2>body regroups. We see this often, and I was going
<v Speaker 2>to say, she's right about that spot where it happens
<v Speaker 2>for people a lot of times when people lose twenty
<v Speaker 2>thirty pounds pretty rapidly and three months and twenty eight
<v Speaker 2>pounds if my map is fast. That was pretty fast,
<v Speaker 2>And so when that happens a lot of times, my
<v Speaker 2>theory is your body's like, whoa hold up, what's going on?
<v Speaker 2>And it's doing a systems check? Right, is everything okay?
<v Speaker 2>Is their illness? Are we being well fueled? Is there
<v Speaker 2>some sort of threat? And when it realizes like everything's good,
<v Speaker 2>food's coming in, you know, you're balancing your fasting with feasting,
<v Speaker 2>then it goes on and starts to relot resume.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah we're passing.
<v Speaker 2>Wait, and so yeah, I think it's just because you
<v Speaker 2>hit a plateau doesn't mean you need to do anything differently.
<v Speaker 2>Usually after a few weeks, it's like shakes loose and
<v Speaker 2>weight loss resumes again. But I also wanted to say
<v Speaker 2>there have been a few people who have done ADF
<v Speaker 2>as their protocol, and they will get to sort of
<v Speaker 2>a place where they're a little stuck and they switch
<v Speaker 2>to a daily eating window and then they see weight
<v Speaker 2>start to come off again. So the body's unpredictable. Sometimes
<v Speaker 2>anything you just shift can create enough change that your
<v Speaker 2>body starts to release weight again. And I could see
<v Speaker 2>that being true if you were like kind of maybe
<v Speaker 2>accidentally not having an up enough update yeah, and feeding
<v Speaker 2>it every day then, or you know, if you're not
<v Speaker 2>using the five hundred calorie day, you know, add the
<v Speaker 2>five hundred calorie day on the down day. You know,
<v Speaker 2>there's different things you can kind of tweak within your
<v Speaker 2>protocol to promote your body to release more weight.
<v Speaker 1>And I also want to emphasize that if you're doing
<v Speaker 1>ADF and like, let's imagine Vicky, that you're doing ADF
<v Speaker 1>and you love it, and you're like, you know, I
<v Speaker 1>think I just want to have a daily eating window
<v Speaker 1>for a while. That's just going to feel better for now.
<v Speaker 1>And you switch to a daily five hour eating window,
<v Speaker 1>let's just say, and your weight jumps up five pounds
<v Speaker 1>and stays five pounds up. That's when people freak out
<v Speaker 1>and they say, well, I can't do a daily eating
<v Speaker 1>window now. I have to do IDEA forever because my
<v Speaker 1>weight goes up when I switch to a daily eating window.
<v Speaker 1>But again, if when you switch to a daily eating window,
<v Speaker 1>your weight goes up every week for ten weeks in
<v Speaker 1>a row, that's a sign your weight is going up.
<v Speaker 1>But if it pops up and just stays steady, that
<v Speaker 1>doesn't mean you just gain five pounds of fat. It
<v Speaker 1>just shows that maybe your body just weighs more because
<v Speaker 1>of what's going on in your digestive system and your
<v Speaker 1>water retention in the food. If you're having a daily
<v Speaker 1>eating window versus up down half the time you're not
<v Speaker 1>eating those days. Don't be alarmed with what your weight
<v Speaker 1>does when you switch from one protocol to another, what
<v Speaker 1>it does in the very short term, because there are
<v Speaker 1>people who are like I can't switch to a daily
<v Speaker 1>eating window because every time I do, I gain five pounds.
<v Speaker 1>But do you gain five pounds and keep gaining or
<v Speaker 1>just bam their those five pounds? Just something to keep
<v Speaker 1>it in mind. And you did talk about you know,
<v Speaker 1>is there anything else you can do for plateau down
<v Speaker 1>the line? And I'm always going to come back to
<v Speaker 1>food quality because that's it, right. We can still make
<v Speaker 1>choices on ADF updays we're supposed to, you know, slightly overeat.
<v Speaker 1>That's the point of the protocol, that's how it was designed.
<v Speaker 1>But food quality can make a difference as well for us.
<v Speaker 1>So you know, if you're eating a lot of ultra
<v Speaker 1>processed food and you're not nourishing your body well on
<v Speaker 1>the up day, then working on food quality can make
<v Speaker 1>a difference. So some people do find that on up
<v Speaker 1>days they start getting into the it's my up day,
<v Speaker 1>let's go. You know, now they're eating banana splits or
<v Speaker 1>having a pizza, and they're just overdoing it on the
<v Speaker 1>foods that are not as nourishing. So that would be
<v Speaker 1>the one thing to think about. You know, am I
<v Speaker 1>making great nutritional decisions on my up day that are
<v Speaker 1>sorting my health day yesterday? We all have days like that.
<v Speaker 1>It happens, and you were rewarded with a bush, But
<v Speaker 1>that does not mean you should do that as a
<v Speaker 1>fat loss strategy. Oh all right, So now it's time
<v Speaker 1>for our segment called What's Your Why. Most of us
<v Speaker 1>have weight loss in mind, which is a great reason
<v Speaker 1>to start intermittent fasting, but there is so much more
<v Speaker 1>to what intermittent fasting can do for us beyond weight loss.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, I'm pretty convinced that when you have
<v Speaker 1>a why that's deeper than weight loss alone, you're more
<v Speaker 1>likely to find long term success and view intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>as a lifestyle. So this week we have a wife
<v Speaker 1>from transforming from down Under. What's my why? Short answer
<v Speaker 1>gut Brain access health. See the long answer below I
<v Speaker 1>am a forty nine year old woman who is currently
<v Speaker 1>in the healthy range for weight, but I have a
<v Speaker 1>good ten pounds I can lose to feel at my best.
<v Speaker 1>I had a healthy diet lots of beans, lentils, and veggies,
<v Speaker 1>but also had unhealthy foods on occasion, and those occasions
<v Speaker 1>were slowly increasing. Under stress or when overtired, I used
<v Speaker 1>to reach for quick, feel good fixes such as ultra
<v Speaker 1>processed foods, sugary treats, and alcohol for that dopamine and
<v Speaker 1>serotonin boost. These gave temporary relief but caused long term harm.
<v Speaker 1>Gut inflammation disrupted microbiome and more cravings. The gut brain
<v Speaker 1>axis is powerful and I had no idea how much
<v Speaker 1>it affected my mental and physical health. I've had ibs
<v Speaker 1>with constipation and diarrhea most of my adult life. This
<v Speaker 1>was painful, embarrassing, and disruptive. Medical advice was usually fiber
<v Speaker 1>and laxatives, which didn't help long term. Over the past
<v Speaker 1>six years, I tried fasting off and on, but in
<v Speaker 1>June twenty twenty five, I committed to clean fasting and
<v Speaker 1>focused on diet quality. I added probiotic foods and daily
<v Speaker 1>cilium husk, and for the first time, my IBS symptoms improved.
<v Speaker 1>I am now regular and pain free. Fasting also changed
<v Speaker 1>my cravings. With a five hour eating window, my nightly
<v Speaker 1>sugar cravings faded. I noticed that I can still binge
<v Speaker 1>on baked goods, so it is easiest if I keep
<v Speaker 1>them out of the house, but I think that is
<v Speaker 1>more habit than anything. Overall, jump food and sweets feel
<v Speaker 1>less tempting, almost boring. I'll think about picking up drive through,
<v Speaker 1>but the thought doesn't light up my brain like it
<v Speaker 1>used to. It's like, Eh, too much trouble. I'll have
<v Speaker 1>some toast at home and read a book instead. Most importantly,
<v Speaker 1>I've also noticed this change in cravings with alcohol consumption.
<v Speaker 1>I've never had an issue with addiction, but I used
<v Speaker 1>alcohol to relax and feel more comfortable in social situations,
<v Speaker 1>and I've had my share of regrettable occasions that involved alcohol.
<v Speaker 1>In May of twenty twenty five, I embarrassed myself in
<v Speaker 1>an event after having two drinks. This incident forced me
<v Speaker 1>to admit that alcohol is a problem for me. Clearly,
<v Speaker 1>my tolerance changed over time, and even just one drink
<v Speaker 1>impact did my sleep and my digestive issues. After deciding
<v Speaker 1>that I was no longer going to risk my dignity,
<v Speaker 1>my sleep, or my health. I told myself my body
<v Speaker 1>does not process alcohol well, and I choose to avoid it.
<v Speaker 1>Since improving my gut health, avoiding alcohol has been surprisingly easy.
<v Speaker 1>If I am out, I may enjoy a zero alcohol beer.
<v Speaker 1>I am one of those that actually likes the bitter
<v Speaker 1>taste of beer, and I love leaving events feeling light,
<v Speaker 1>sleeping well, and waking up clear headed.
<v Speaker 2>Today. I rarely drink, maybe one drink a month if
<v Speaker 2>I met an event, but I don't miss it. I'm
<v Speaker 2>not sure if these results are typical, but I think
<v Speaker 2>the transformation feels so significant because I spent years dealing
<v Speaker 2>with IBS symptoms and an imbalanced gut microbiome. Fasting and
<v Speaker 2>improving my gut health have completely changed my life.
<v Speaker 1>I love that, and I wanted to pop in something
<v Speaker 1>about alcohol because I saw a story about it. Did
<v Speaker 1>you see that story earlier this week about alcohol.
<v Speaker 2>The one that less Americans are drinking now ever before
<v Speaker 2>in history, and the US adult younger? Yeah? Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>The percentage of US adults who say they consume alcohol
<v Speaker 1>has fallen to fifty four percent, the lowest in a
<v Speaker 1>ninety year trend.
<v Speaker 2>Doctor Mark Hyman had a post about it.
<v Speaker 1>That's where I saw it. Yeah, yeah, I thought that
<v Speaker 1>was interesting. We're a little bit ahead of the curve
<v Speaker 1>over here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah and yeah. One of the things they're saying is
<v Speaker 2>like the younger generation, they're more knowledgeable about just brain health,
<v Speaker 2>gut health, longevity, and they are more health conscious, and
<v Speaker 2>they're choosing to abstain for that reason.
<v Speaker 1>She's right, you don't want to embarrass yourself with having
<v Speaker 1>too much to drink. I've been in those situations You're like,
<v Speaker 1>oh my gosh, what did I do? What did I say?
<v Speaker 1>You know, lost the filter, doing something silly. Yeah, when
<v Speaker 1>you're not drinking, you know what you said, you know
<v Speaker 1>what you did. It feels good to wake up and
<v Speaker 1>not have a hangover, yeah, and not worry, oh my gosh,
<v Speaker 1>what did I do?
<v Speaker 2>All Right, So we have a question from Struggling in Virginia. Hi,
<v Speaker 2>I love your podcast. I am fifty two and in menopause.
<v Speaker 2>I am five foot two and I weigh one hundred
<v Speaker 2>and forty pounds. I have about fifteen pounds I've been
<v Speaker 2>trying to lose around my mid section for years. I
<v Speaker 2>walked two miles five times a week, and I play
<v Speaker 2>pickleball for a couple of hours three times a week.
<v Speaker 2>There are a lot of hereditary health conditions I'm looking
<v Speaker 2>to avoid, and I want to keep my weight in check.
<v Speaker 2>According to my blood work and doctor, I am very
<v Speaker 2>healthy and I want to keep it that way as
<v Speaker 2>long as I can. Being overweight runs in my family.
<v Speaker 2>I tried fasting before when the first delay Don't Deny
<v Speaker 2>was published. I'm pretty sure I was not clean fasting
<v Speaker 2>at the time. I gave it a few months, and
<v Speaker 2>then I gave up. I have tried many diets in
<v Speaker 2>the past, but none that I feel like were extremely restrictive.
<v Speaker 2>Calorie wise. I would eat around fourteen hundred calories a day.
<v Speaker 2>I have been skipping breakfast for years, so I've done
<v Speaker 2>it at least a sixteen to eight for years. I
<v Speaker 2>bought Jen's second edition of DDD in August of twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty five. I've been doing a four hour eating window
<v Speaker 2>most days from about three pm to seven for two months,
<v Speaker 2>and I'm not seeing results, not in weight average or measurements.
<v Speaker 2>I eat whole foods and very little processed food. I
<v Speaker 2>do not eat many sweets. As I know this is
<v Speaker 2>not helpful. I fast clean, I have water with Readmans
<v Speaker 2>salt or black coffee. I do drink occasionally for special occasions.
<v Speaker 2>Sunday's is a family lunch day, so my window is
<v Speaker 2>longer on that day, and honestly, if a friend asked
<v Speaker 2>me to lunch, maybe two times a month I go
<v Speaker 2>on those days Sunday Lunch and an occasional social lunch.
<v Speaker 2>I usually do eat dinner as well, because I have
<v Speaker 2>to cook for my family and I'm not good at
<v Speaker 2>fasting when I'm preparing and around food. Are those days
<v Speaker 2>messing me up? Or maybe I'm not eating enough in
<v Speaker 2>my window? I have tried not to count calories or
<v Speaker 2>macros because that's what I want to get away from.
<v Speaker 2>I try really hard to listen to my body and
<v Speaker 2>eat until I'm satisfied. I'm not sure if it matters,
<v Speaker 2>but late summer I also began bioidentical hormone replacement therapy
<v Speaker 2>to help with brain fog, mood, and sleep, which has
<v Speaker 2>helped my symptoms. Could this hormone adjustment make a difference
<v Speaker 2>in weight loss? Should I try for to three with
<v Speaker 2>Sundays being an eating window day for our family lunch,
<v Speaker 2>and then I could go to lunch with friends a
<v Speaker 2>couple of times a month. I've been reluctant to do
<v Speaker 2>four three because I'm afraid that I cannot stop at
<v Speaker 2>five hundred calories on a down day, and I don't
<v Speaker 2>think I can cook for my family and not eat
<v Speaker 2>at all. I'm just frustrated doing some encouragement and advice.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So struggling in Virginia fifty two and in menopause.
<v Speaker 1>I get it. And you've got some weight you want
<v Speaker 1>to lose around your mid section. I understand that.
<v Speaker 2>The thing I'm not sure about that I was not
<v Speaker 2>clear about though. I was going to say, she said
<v Speaker 2>she bought your book in August, but then she said
<v Speaker 2>she's been doing a four hour eating window for two months,
<v Speaker 2>so it sounds like maybe she's only eight weeks in.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, okay, good catch there. Okay, if she had been,
<v Speaker 1>because I was thinking from August until today, which is
<v Speaker 1>you know, we're recording this in December. It comes out
<v Speaker 1>in January. But it's a whole different story. If she's
<v Speaker 1>only been doing it for two months and not seeing results,
<v Speaker 1>that's a good point, she said. With weight average or measurements,
<v Speaker 1>if you're not seeing any results in your weight average.
<v Speaker 1>The first month, we don't expect to see weight loss,
<v Speaker 1>right and then the second month you know you're weighing daily,
<v Speaker 1>and then once a week you're finding your weekly average.
<v Speaker 1>If your weekly average is trending down even a little
<v Speaker 1>bit from one week to the next over time, then
<v Speaker 1>you are seeing results. So just really really make sure
<v Speaker 1>that's what's happening. Make sure your weekly average really is
<v Speaker 1>not changing. But if it isn't. I did run your
<v Speaker 1>smart BMI, which I'm sure does not surprise anyone, and
<v Speaker 1>you were in the probably upper like right at the
<v Speaker 1>point if you divided it into four the healthy weight
<v Speaker 1>range into four sections, you're just right at that bottom
<v Speaker 1>of the or twenty five percent. So you're in the
<v Speaker 1>healthy weight range, but up a little bit, not quite
<v Speaker 1>in the middle of it. So the thing about being
<v Speaker 1>in that healthy weight range means it might be harder
<v Speaker 1>to get lower. And I do think that perhaps a
<v Speaker 1>down day here and there might be a great strategy,
<v Speaker 1>especially if Sunday is always a longer window day, give
<v Speaker 1>yourself a down day. If you could do a down
<v Speaker 1>day on Saturday and then Sunday have a full up day,
<v Speaker 1>and I wouldn't just have lunch. I would have breakfast,
<v Speaker 1>lunch and dinner on that on those Sundays, So down day, Saturday,
<v Speaker 1>Sunday up day. And I know you know your brain
<v Speaker 1>is telling you. Oh, by the way, though, if you're
<v Speaker 1>only two months in, that might be a different recommendation,
<v Speaker 1>because I was thinking that you'd start with several summer Yeah, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you might not be ready for ADF and just I
<v Speaker 1>might would just keep going and Sunday, Okay, you're having
<v Speaker 1>family lunch. That doesn't mean you have to have a
<v Speaker 1>longer window. Okay, you could shift your window and still
<v Speaker 1>have your normal eating window length even on Sundays, So
<v Speaker 1>keep that in mind. Just because you're having lunch doesn't
<v Speaker 1>mean you need to have lunch and dinner something to
<v Speaker 1>file away. You might be like me, and if I
<v Speaker 1>shift my window earlier, I have a hard time closing.
<v Speaker 1>So if I eat lunch, I'm also going to eat dinner.
<v Speaker 1>So I get it. But there are some people who
<v Speaker 1>are fine with just having lunch a lunch window and
<v Speaker 1>then closing, So maybe that would work for you. Try
<v Speaker 1>it and see and when you're ready to try some ADF.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe not now, but maybe a little bit later. You
<v Speaker 1>said that you're afraid you can't stop at five hundred calories,
<v Speaker 1>and that is a very common fear. But when you
<v Speaker 1>have the right five hundred calorie meal, you can. You can.
<v Speaker 1>If you have the wrong five hundred calory meal, you're correct,
<v Speaker 1>you will not be able to stop. But if you
<v Speaker 1>have the right one, you can. You can have a
<v Speaker 1>very large, satisfying five hundred calorie meal in the you know,
<v Speaker 1>to eat like a grown up videos. You know, I
<v Speaker 1>talk about what gives us satiety, what makes us full.
<v Speaker 1>Think about high nutrient and heavy, and they're going to
<v Speaker 1>engage your stretch receptors, your nutrient sensors, your stretch receptors.
<v Speaker 1>Your body's going to feel the weight of that food
<v Speaker 1>and think a heavy, bulky, satisfying meal. It's going to
<v Speaker 1>stick with you the fiber. That's why I keep coming
<v Speaker 1>back to the bait potato because for me, that just
<v Speaker 1>is the perfect blend of stretches out. My stretch receptors,
<v Speaker 1>my nutrient sensors are happy. I feel full. It takes
<v Speaker 1>the wall from my body to digest it, so I'm
<v Speaker 1>not starving. I'm like really full. If I had a
<v Speaker 1>big bait potato with toppings on there.
<v Speaker 2>And everybody's different with their down day. It's true because
<v Speaker 2>I need a lot of protein to be satisfied on
<v Speaker 2>my down day and volume. So like I've found if
<v Speaker 2>I make up a big sturfry with some chicken breast
<v Speaker 2>and a bunch of veggies, like I can eat a
<v Speaker 2>giant bowl of sturfry for five hundred calories and be
<v Speaker 2>very sad.
<v Speaker 1>For me, I have to have starchy carbs to be satisfied,
<v Speaker 1>which is like for whatever reason I do. And I
<v Speaker 1>can have a big, a big salad kind of a
<v Speaker 1>thing like that with the high volume, with the veggies
<v Speaker 1>and whatever. If I put it in a wrap, yeah, tortilla.
<v Speaker 1>Now I'm stuffed. I don't understand what it is, but
<v Speaker 1>that's what my body needs. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so yeah, downdays do take some practice to find
<v Speaker 2>the right sort of combination of foods that satisfies you.
<v Speaker 1>All right. Our next question is from Olivia in Oregon.
<v Speaker 1>I'm questioning metabolic flexibility and what that really looks like.
<v Speaker 1>I love the IF lifestyle. I'm easing back in after
<v Speaker 1>pregnancy and breastfeeding. He's almost too. Here's where my questioning
<v Speaker 1>mind is going listening to almost all of the stories
<v Speaker 1>and catching up on podcasts. Many ifirs talk about how
<v Speaker 1>much energy they have during their fast because they're metabolically
<v Speaker 1>flexible and tapping into their fat stores, but their energy
<v Speaker 1>crashes at eating. Seems as if they don't want to
<v Speaker 1>do anything after breaking the fast. Shouldn't we be metabolically flexible,
<v Speaker 1>meaning we can switch back and forth between fasting and eating.
<v Speaker 1>With these I can think of only one intermittent fasting
<v Speaker 1>story where she specifically said she didn't crash after eating
<v Speaker 1>but kept steady energy. Just about everyone else seems to
<v Speaker 1>say the opposite thoughts. Well, I have several thoughts on yeah,
<v Speaker 1>me too, and the big one, I mean, crash, right,
<v Speaker 1>you shouldn't be crashing.
<v Speaker 2>You should not be crashed. No one should be crashing.
<v Speaker 2>Are you going to feel more sleepy? Less alert? Here's
<v Speaker 2>the thing, Okay, when you eat all day every day,
<v Speaker 2>you're having blood sugar fluctuations all day every day, and
<v Speaker 2>these affect your mood and your energy, your hunger. And
<v Speaker 2>then when we take away eating all day and we're
<v Speaker 2>fasting most of the day, we are clear headed, we
<v Speaker 2>have this good fasting energy. We're not having what sugar
<v Speaker 2>fluctuations our moods are stable, we feel great, and then
<v Speaker 2>we eat, and that is a you're going to feel
<v Speaker 2>different than you did before you ate. Now a lot
<v Speaker 2>of times that's just feeling like you used to feel
<v Speaker 2>before you ever fasted. You just didn't realize how you
<v Speaker 2>were feeling because you didn't have anything to compare it to.
<v Speaker 2>So one of the reasons why you know a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people choose a late afternoon and evening window is
<v Speaker 2>because they get the brunt of their day over with
<v Speaker 2>where they need their brain to be. There's clear headed, thinking, productive,
<v Speaker 2>creative when they need the energy to get through their
<v Speaker 2>workouts and child rearing and whatever they need to be
<v Speaker 2>on at work. So they like that. They like the
<v Speaker 2>boost they get from fasting, and so they like to
<v Speaker 2>maintain that for the brunt of their day. Then you eat,
<v Speaker 2>and now your body is using a lot of energy
<v Speaker 2>for digestion. You're no longer have your body doesn't need
<v Speaker 2>the key tones that you have circulating. So your body's
<v Speaker 2>going to get rid of those key tones and you're
<v Speaker 2>going to start experiencing some blood sugar fluctuations again, You're
<v Speaker 2>going to be heavy. It's normal to be sleepy after
<v Speaker 2>you eat. You know, why do they have siestas. In
<v Speaker 2>some countries they take a nap after they eat their
<v Speaker 2>big meal of the day. It's normal to have less
<v Speaker 2>energy after eating. Now, if you are crashing. If you
<v Speaker 2>are you eat and now you can't get up off
<v Speaker 2>the couch, that's a different issue. And that is a
<v Speaker 2>blood sugar regulation issue. That means that you are eating
<v Speaker 2>something that is not working for your body. You know,
<v Speaker 2>your blood sugar is rising to the point that your
<v Speaker 2>body is pushing out a bunch of insulin to get
<v Speaker 2>it back down, and for whatever reason, it's making your
<v Speaker 2>body your blood sugar drop too low and you're going
<v Speaker 2>to feel cold, sluggish, foggy headed. Now with that said, also,
<v Speaker 2>I had an episode a couple months ago where I
<v Speaker 2>what was a very healthy meal cmon brown rice and
<v Speaker 2>green beans. My blood sugar went to two twenty. I
<v Speaker 2>felt goofy. I couldn't think, I was not clear headed.
<v Speaker 2>That meal doesn't work for me. After that, then my
<v Speaker 2>blood sugar crashed and I felt even worse. If people
<v Speaker 2>are crashing after they're eating, then they're not eating the
<v Speaker 2>right foods for their body. Right. So, and there's things
<v Speaker 2>you can do, like take a walk, after you eat.
<v Speaker 2>That's gonna help your body, is gonna help your blood
<v Speaker 2>glucose management. You're gonna have more stable blood sugars. Just
<v Speaker 2>to tend to twenty minute frisk walk after eating is
<v Speaker 2>great for your metabolism. You're gonna feel better. I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you record these podcasts. Do people really say
<v Speaker 2>they crash after eating or they just don't have the
<v Speaker 2>facetted energy anymore?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Yeahah's that's really more of what it is. Like
<v Speaker 1>we have great mental clarity and energy and stamina because
<v Speaker 1>we're metabolically flexible during the fast. You might have a
<v Speaker 1>little hunger in the morning as your body is flipping
<v Speaker 1>the switch. Once you flip the switch, you know you're
<v Speaker 1>flipping the switch because you're able to keep fasting and
<v Speaker 1>the hunger doesn't just build and build and build, and
<v Speaker 1>suddenly you have more energy and you feel better. But
<v Speaker 1>with the crashing that does, like you said, that indicates
<v Speaker 1>that what you're eating is not working well for you.
<v Speaker 1>Like I find I've learned through my experiments of being
<v Speaker 1>plant based and then reintroducing things, the things that make
<v Speaker 1>me more likely to have that really sluggish, tired feeling
<v Speaker 1>after eating eggs meat trip to fan. Those make me crash, right,
<v Speaker 1>Eggs and meat make me crash, whereas somebody else might
<v Speaker 1>be like, that's the very best thing that they could
<v Speaker 1>eat to feel great. Like yesterday I had at about
<v Speaker 1>three point thirty, I had butternut squash lasagna if so good.
<v Speaker 1>And I had a spinach salad with some almonds and
<v Speaker 1>cranberries and a homemade dressing. And I had a whole
<v Speaker 1>wheat roll with butter some water. That was my meal.
<v Speaker 1>I did not crash. Now somebody else might eat that
<v Speaker 1>exact same meal and have a blood sugar crash after
<v Speaker 1>eating it. That wouldn't work for them. So I felt
<v Speaker 1>great even though I was no longer fasting, and I
<v Speaker 1>didn't have the maybe the energy in mental clarity that
<v Speaker 1>I have while fasting. I didn't have a crash, I
<v Speaker 1>didn't need to nap, I didn't need to lay down right.
<v Speaker 1>So but if i'd had like an omelet or something,
<v Speaker 1>I might have felt differently. But again that's just my
<v Speaker 1>body has let me know. So you're going to have
<v Speaker 1>to experiment, right, And when I eat plant based, no,
<v Speaker 1>not dairy and maybe doesn't make me as tired. But
<v Speaker 1>the eggs and the meat do so like I could
<v Speaker 1>be a vegetarian. My energy levels work really well with
<v Speaker 1>vegetarian eating with the dairy in there too, so something
<v Speaker 1>to think about.
<v Speaker 2>Well, and she says I do have pretty good energy
<v Speaker 2>after break my fast, no crash provided that.
<v Speaker 1>Oh I didn't read that. I thought were it's hissly.
<v Speaker 2>Healthy homemade food. Yeah, I think you missed that. I
<v Speaker 2>did like you answered it right there, she answered, All
<v Speaker 2>study really matters as far as keeping balanced blood suggers,
<v Speaker 2>and that should be your goal. So yeah, all right, Well,
<v Speaker 2>has your skin taken a beating this winter or is
<v Speaker 2>it just not looking as firm and bright as you
<v Speaker 2>would like? Y'all know, I am a questioner. I was
<v Speaker 2>just telling my mom about this this morning. I am
<v Speaker 2>a questioner, that's me. I'm not really an early adopter
<v Speaker 2>of the next like too good to be true products.
<v Speaker 2>But Crunchy released a new age defying body treatment a
<v Speaker 2>few months ago and they sent me a tube. And
<v Speaker 2>I didn't break into it immediately because I still had
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of beauty counter lotion I was using up.
<v Speaker 2>But I started using it about probably six weeks ago
<v Speaker 2>after I get out of the shower and I am
<v Speaker 2>loving it, and the more than one hundred and eighty
<v Speaker 2>five star reviews agree that this daily treatment, infused with
<v Speaker 2>advanced peptide technology, stable vitamin C and certify organic mango butter,
<v Speaker 2>helps visibly firm, tone and brighten your skin and making
<v Speaker 2>it more smoother and youthful looking. And it's just a
<v Speaker 2>really beautiful cream. It's got a subtle, fresh, natural, non
<v Speaker 2>toxic sent keeps your skin soft and moisturized all day.
<v Speaker 2>I cannot. I almost sent you some for Christmas, but
<v Speaker 2>I realized you don't. You're not a big lotion person. No,
<v Speaker 2>I'd be like, thank you, and then I would never
<v Speaker 2>use it exactly. But I love it. That's how much
<v Speaker 2>I love it. I gave some to Laurie, my coworker.
<v Speaker 2>If you'd like to check it out, check out the
<v Speaker 2>link in the show notes, or you can go to
<v Speaker 2>fast feastrepeat dot com slash Sherry SAGRII and I have
<v Speaker 2>a link there.
<v Speaker 1>And now it's time for our tweak of the week,
<v Speaker 1>Hijen and Shery. I'd like to tell you about me
<v Speaker 1>and my intermittent fasting buddy Joe. I contacted her back
<v Speaker 1>in April. I'd seen her post in the community about
<v Speaker 1>how she was struggling to lose weight. She was the
<v Speaker 1>same age as me in the UK and vegan like me,
<v Speaker 1>I was also having the same problems. We had so
<v Speaker 1>much in common. I asked her if she'd like to
<v Speaker 1>keep in touch and see if we could support each
<v Speaker 1>other or encourage each other and just be there for
<v Speaker 1>a win, a moan, or an idea. Since April eighth,
<v Speaker 1>eight months at the time of writing, we have messaged
<v Speaker 1>every day. We send each other pictures of everything we've
<v Speaker 1>eaten that day. For me, that really helps keep me
<v Speaker 1>focused on food quality and making better choices. When I'm
<v Speaker 1>having a day where I feel defeated, fed up, or
<v Speaker 1>wondering about what I should do, Joe reminds me of
<v Speaker 1>some of the wisdom from your books, gen and helps
<v Speaker 1>me make the right decisions. Sometimes Joe and I go
<v Speaker 1>off topic, and we've discovered we have very similar outlooks
<v Speaker 1>on the world, life and values, so we often have
<v Speaker 1>a chat about that. I just read Joe's original post
<v Speaker 1>again in which she said she'd never try ADF. Well,
<v Speaker 1>we've both since discussed and tried ADF, and for me,
<v Speaker 1>I found it's really helped shift my weight down and
<v Speaker 1>now I much prefer it as a protocol for me.
<v Speaker 1>Being buddies with Joe has been amazing and helps keep
<v Speaker 1>us both positive and motivated. We're both committed to intermittent
<v Speaker 1>fasting and having us order is a real boost. Hopefully
<v Speaker 1>we will meet face to face in twenty twenty six.
<v Speaker 1>I would thoroughly recommend others find their own Joe. I
<v Speaker 1>love that love.
<v Speaker 2>That's all right. Well, we love to leave you with
<v Speaker 2>inspiration or motivational quotes, so this week we have a
<v Speaker 2>quote from Pam. Pam wrote, have you ever heard of
<v Speaker 2>the capability gap?
<v Speaker 1>I saw?
<v Speaker 2>In reference to Nick Saban, an ex Alabama football coach,
<v Speaker 2>the capability gap is the difference between what you are
<v Speaker 2>truly capable of and what you're actually doing right now.
<v Speaker 2>Let that sink in. How many of us aren't getting
<v Speaker 2>the results we want from if? I think the answer
<v Speaker 2>lies in the capability gap? Saban says the answer to
<v Speaker 2>closing the capability gap is to surround yourself with people
<v Speaker 2>who will remind you of what you are capable of
<v Speaker 2>and tell you the truth about what you're actually doing.
<v Speaker 2>I think that is why the DDD community is so valuable.
<v Speaker 2>We do that for each other in it. Jin Sherry
<v Speaker 2>and Roxy have all set the tone for telling us
<v Speaker 2>the truth in love, even when it is tough to hear,
<v Speaker 2>and I am grateful. So maybe the next time you
<v Speaker 2>get frustrated with your results, look at your capability gap.
<v Speaker 2>I think it might help. What do you think?
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, I certainly think so. And I talked about this,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm not sure which my books, perhaps twenty eight
<v Speaker 1>day fast Start day by day. But you know, I
<v Speaker 1>was a teacher for twenty eight years with elementary kids.
<v Speaker 1>And when you ask an elementary kid what do you
<v Speaker 1>think you did wrong? What do you think is holding
<v Speaker 1>you back? They usually can figure it out. And I
<v Speaker 1>think adults are the same way. You know, if you
<v Speaker 1>ask yourself honestly, what do you think you're doing wrong?
<v Speaker 1>You probably know. But again, coming into the community and
<v Speaker 1>asking can also be big help. But again, like like
<v Speaker 1>she said, you know, we're going to tell you the
<v Speaker 1>truth in love. It may not be what you want
<v Speaker 1>to hear. Sometimes people do get mad. Sometimes they do like, well,
<v Speaker 1>maybe you shouldn't have asked me at all, because I'm
<v Speaker 1>not gonna just lie to you. No, we're not here.
<v Speaker 1>I'm incapable of telling you what you want to hear.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Well, and when you think about it, if something's
<v Speaker 2>holding you back, and usually you know what's holding right, right,
<v Speaker 2>But we like to be comfortable, right, and it's comfortable
<v Speaker 2>sitting there and pretending like everything's okay. It's not you.
<v Speaker 2>It must be something else, right, And sometimes we need
<v Speaker 2>to hear that, we need to be a little uncomfortable. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>because you know, growth comes from discomfort, It's true.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to
<v Speaker 1>have you join us in the Delay Don't Tonight community,
<v Speaker 1>where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus
<v Speaker 1>the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere.
<v Speaker 1>Go to Jenstevens dot com slash 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. To submit your success stories,
<v Speaker 1>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.
<v Speaker 2>Until next week. Thanks for listening.