Episode 87: Hungrier After an Indulgent Day, Maintaining Muscle Mass, 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 Feast.
<v Speaker 2>Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health
<v Speaker 2>and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast
<v Speaker 2>is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not
<v Speaker 2>intended to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I
<v Speaker 2>are not doctors, so make sure to check with your
<v Speaker 2>trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes
<v Speaker 2>to 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 2>How are you doing today's Sherry, I'm doing pretty good.
<v Speaker 2>How are you?
<v Speaker 1>I am doing great? We are finally snow free. After
<v Speaker 1>we recorded last week. We were expecting some snow. We
<v Speaker 1>got four inches of snow here at the beach. The
<v Speaker 1>whole beach was covered with snow. The dunes were covered
<v Speaker 1>with snow.
<v Speaker 2>It looked really pretty.
<v Speaker 1>It was so pretty and it stuck around like literally
<v Speaker 1>yesterday was it's been a week, like today is Tuesday.
<v Speaker 2>It snowed last Tuesday. Yesterday it was a rainy day.
<v Speaker 1>And so finally all the rest of the snow, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>we still have chunks of it, like in parking lots.
<v Speaker 2>People who live in snow places know what I'm talking about.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, where they've piled it up, but we still have that.
<v Speaker 1>But it was crazy. I felt that only one time
<v Speaker 1>I slipped in the eyes and fell right on my bat.
<v Speaker 2>Oh no, yeah, but it's crazy to me that the sand.
<v Speaker 2>I would think it would really hold the heat from
<v Speaker 2>the sun and stuff. So it was crazy to me,
<v Speaker 2>Like I didn't think that the beach snow would stay.
<v Speaker 2>I thought it would be kind of like hot concrete
<v Speaker 2>or something like. It came so long, I couldn't believe it.
<v Speaker 1>But we had had a little bit of cold weather
<v Speaker 1>and it was so cold, like this was a huge
<v Speaker 1>cold snap, to the point that you had to like
<v Speaker 1>drip the faucets say that the pipes wouldn't burst. It
<v Speaker 1>was that kind of cold snap. Because our houses are
<v Speaker 1>not super winterized around here, but it didn't get above freezing,
<v Speaker 1>which is very unusual for us. You know, for days
<v Speaker 1>it was fun. I enjoyed it, and I was ready
<v Speaker 1>for it to go. Thank you, snow, goodbye.
<v Speaker 2>So this is something I'm curious about. We never dripped
<v Speaker 2>the faucets when I was a kid. That's not something
<v Speaker 2>I've ever done in my entire life.
<v Speaker 1>Well, you probably lived in a place where it got
<v Speaker 1>cold more frequently and your faucets were winterized and your
<v Speaker 1>house was built with that in mind.
<v Speaker 2>Well, that's what I'm wondering, Like, that's what I want
<v Speaker 2>to know. People who live like where it gets really
<v Speaker 2>cold all the time, like in Canada or Alaska, or
<v Speaker 2>you know in like really cold regions where they have
<v Speaker 2>a lot of ice and snow. Is that something that
<v Speaker 2>they have to worry about or is that a Southern
<v Speaker 2>thing or places where they just don't get really cold weather.
<v Speaker 1>And the beach house is elevated, right, our biggest problem
<v Speaker 1>is flooding from hurricane. So it's up on stilts. So
<v Speaker 1>that means that the water pipes coming up to the
<v Speaker 1>beach house, no matter how much you wrap post, they're
<v Speaker 1>still exposed. Versus pipes that might be buried in a foundation.
<v Speaker 1>Are you're coming under you know that it's just warmer
<v Speaker 1>in a crawl space or if it's in the foundation.
<v Speaker 1>Like Will, his house is on a slab and so
<v Speaker 1>it's mine. He hadn't had any trouble, Like he didn't
<v Speaker 1>have any problems last year. And when it was really
<v Speaker 1>really cold in January, our pipes going to our little
<v Speaker 1>guest bathroom here at the beach house frozen. They didn't burst,
<v Speaker 1>but they froze up because we didn't have them dripping right.
<v Speaker 1>But Will had zero problems because his house is just
<v Speaker 1>built differently. It's not by the beach. It's you know,
<v Speaker 1>nineteen fifties house with a regular foundation.
<v Speaker 2>So I think it just depends. Yeah, probably, Yeah, that
<v Speaker 2>was a new concept to me. It's always funny when
<v Speaker 2>you moved to a new location or whatever, like just
<v Speaker 2>the things that are different that I just like didn't
<v Speaker 2>even know, like, oh, really this is a thing.
<v Speaker 1>Dripping the water really does work though, because it got
<v Speaker 1>down to eighteen degrees one night here last week. Eighteen
<v Speaker 1>degrees is very very cold, the coldest I've steen since
<v Speaker 1>I've been at the beach, and we had the faucets
<v Speaker 1>dripping in nothing froze.
<v Speaker 2>Well that's good, yeah, because a burst pipe is no fun.
<v Speaker 2>I can say that the last few weeks, so this
<v Speaker 2>has been in January. It's the end of January when
<v Speaker 2>we're recording this. It's been cold all over the place
<v Speaker 2>in the Northern Hemisphere apparently. But so many people who
<v Speaker 2>are struggling to fast when it's cold outside. I get it.
<v Speaker 2>I think we're just like kind of wired that we
<v Speaker 2>want to hibernate. We want to tuck in when it's cold,
<v Speaker 2>and we want to eat tasty food for comfort, and
<v Speaker 2>you know, we're not getting those good and endorphins from
<v Speaker 2>like walking outside and getting the sunshine on us and
<v Speaker 2>that sort of thing. I just found that I was
<v Speaker 2>really satisfied. I'm sipping one now. I've just got a
<v Speaker 2>mug full of hot water that I'm sipping, and I've
<v Speaker 2>got my car coffee still. Today's like a little coy coffee. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>hug and a mug for your tummy. And I like it. Satisfy.
<v Speaker 1>It'll make you feel cozy without like I feel like
<v Speaker 1>you need to eat earlier.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well, let's dive into our weekly celebration. This week,
<v Speaker 2>we have a celebration from Jill. Jill wrote, I started
<v Speaker 2>on October the tenth, and I feel so great. I
<v Speaker 2>just wanted to check in with my progress. I'm down
<v Speaker 2>twelve pounds and quite a few inches. I still have
<v Speaker 2>about ten pounds more to go. I am thrilled with
<v Speaker 2>these results, considering that my interment fascting time has included Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
<v Speaker 2>and New Year's events as far as non scale victories,
<v Speaker 2>I feel so good. It's hard to explain, but my mood, energy,
<v Speaker 2>everything is just better. I was having a lot of
<v Speaker 2>extra bleeding due to uterine fibroids and that has stopped.
<v Speaker 2>I have stopped liking diet Doctor Pepper. This is huge
<v Speaker 2>for me. I have wanted to quit it, but I
<v Speaker 2>just loved it so much. My jeans are too big
<v Speaker 2>in the legs and the hips, unfortunately not in the
<v Speaker 2>waist yet. I'm fifty years old and perimenopausal and that
<v Speaker 2>minno belly is a real thing. Anyway, I just wanted
<v Speaker 2>to celebrate a bit and say thank you to Jin
<v Speaker 2>Sherry and all of the fasting community for the knowledge,
<v Speaker 2>support and encouragement along the way. Well. I love that
<v Speaker 2>Jill and congratulations. That is huge.
<v Speaker 1>Losing twelve pounds from October tenth throughout Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas,
<v Speaker 1>and New Year's that is huge because a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people will plateau over that time of the year, through
<v Speaker 1>all the festivities.
<v Speaker 2>So that's a huge success. And if you think about it,
<v Speaker 2>if she started October tenth, then that means her twenty
<v Speaker 2>eight days didn't end until like around the seventh of November,
<v Speaker 2>so December January. She sent this in like maybe the
<v Speaker 2>third week of January, so maybe she was nine weeks
<v Speaker 2>post her fast start and down twelve pounds, So that's exceptional.
<v Speaker 2>Her body clearly loves fasting. All right, We have a
<v Speaker 2>question from a listener. This is from alex and Vancouver. Hey, ladies,
<v Speaker 2>I've been fasting since June of twenty twenty four.
<v Speaker 1>I'm forty one, five foot nine inches and fluctuate between
<v Speaker 1>one hundred and fifty two and one hundred and fifty
<v Speaker 1>six on any given day. My fasting style is flexible. However,
<v Speaker 1>I feel like I have reached fat adaptation as I'm
<v Speaker 1>not typically hungry even after a twenty hour fast. I
<v Speaker 1>try to maintain a five to six hour window. Sometimes
<v Speaker 1>it'll be less sometimes it'll be more. I have a
<v Speaker 1>young family, so I do like to enjoy food with them,
<v Speaker 1>and also to exhibit healthy eating behavior in front of
<v Speaker 1>my two little girls. Question for you, why is it
<v Speaker 1>that after an over indulgent day, or perhaps a longer
<v Speaker 1>window with heavier meals later in the evening, do I
<v Speaker 1>wake up starving the next day?
<v Speaker 2>It almost doesn't make sense.
<v Speaker 1>When you eat less, or eat within a shorter period
<v Speaker 1>of time and stop eating way in advance of your
<v Speaker 1>bedtime that I don't wake up hungry, whereas nights where
<v Speaker 1>I eat later than usual and have bigger meals, I
<v Speaker 1>actually wake up quite hungry. I guess I just want
<v Speaker 1>the science behind it, and to be completely honest, I
<v Speaker 1>don't like the way I feel the next day. I
<v Speaker 1>feel bloated, I slept horribly, I feel sluggish, and I'm
<v Speaker 1>also hungry, Whereas I don't think I should be as
<v Speaker 1>hungry as I am right now given the amount that
<v Speaker 1>I ate yesterday. Thanks for all your help and support
<v Speaker 1>and yay, this is a good one because there absolutely
<v Speaker 1>it makes a lot of sense.
<v Speaker 2>Alex, and you're going to totally get it in a minute.
<v Speaker 2>It could be multifold as well, so The first thing
<v Speaker 2>is if you're having a later window than you normally have,
<v Speaker 2>you're just delaying when your body's going to shift into
<v Speaker 2>fat burning during the day, So you could be sleeping
<v Speaker 2>during the hunger you're part of your fast normally, but
<v Speaker 2>then when you shift your window, you're now awake for
<v Speaker 2>that part of your fast, so you're just noticing it.
<v Speaker 2>In addition, it's true when we eat bigger, more indulgent meals,
<v Speaker 2>especially if they're higher in fat and sugar, and you're
<v Speaker 2>having blood sugar fluctuations through the night, you just do
<v Speaker 2>not sleep as well. And you know this is fact.
<v Speaker 2>I wear an aura ring that tracks my sleep. It
<v Speaker 2>tells me this. It'll say did you eat too much
<v Speaker 2>before bedtime? If I had a restless bad night of sleep,
<v Speaker 2>or it'll say did you consume alcohol and you're wedding.
<v Speaker 2>It can tell from my sleep patterns how much rim
<v Speaker 2>sleep I get, how restless I am. To my heart rate.
<v Speaker 2>If I eat a big meal, my heart rate does
<v Speaker 2>not come down until like closer to morning, instead of
<v Speaker 2>you know, a couple hours into sleep eating a big meal,
<v Speaker 2>eating high fat, high sugar meals that doesn't allow your
<v Speaker 2>body to return to your baseline blood sugar before you
<v Speaker 2>eat can impact your sleep, and when our sleep's impacted,
<v Speaker 2>we're extra hungry. I know this because I work night shifts,
<v Speaker 2>and I shift my eating window and my sleep around
<v Speaker 2>and when I have not slept or I've gone all
<v Speaker 2>night working and then I only catch a you know,
<v Speaker 2>hour to nap on Mondays, I am starving on Monday.
<v Speaker 2>I also don't close my eating window until about midnight
<v Speaker 2>Monday morning, so I'm having you know, in the afternoon.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not deeply fasted. I'm only about you know, twelve thirteen,
<v Speaker 2>fourteen hours fastest, which for me is my notoriously hungry
<v Speaker 2>part of my fast. So add to that, if you
<v Speaker 2>consume more energy, then your body can burn through the
<v Speaker 2>fast and get you into fat burning efficiently. Then you're
<v Speaker 2>just again not getting that fat burning, high energy, low
<v Speaker 2>hunger state. So I think I covered it. Do you
<v Speaker 2>have anything else you want to add?
<v Speaker 1>Nope, you absolutely nailed it, and you explained it the
<v Speaker 1>same way I.
<v Speaker 2>Would have, which is always awesome.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, you know, I actually always noticed that, even
<v Speaker 1>before I was an intermittent faster, if I ate a
<v Speaker 1>whole lot late at night, I could tell I woke
<v Speaker 1>up hungrier. Now we understand why, because our bodies are
<v Speaker 1>right like, all right, I'm done with that, give me something.
<v Speaker 2>Else, you know. Well, And it's really kind of the
<v Speaker 2>same phenomenon of people will say, I woke up this morning,
<v Speaker 2>I was really really hungry, and I felt like my
<v Speaker 2>body needed breakfast, and so I ate and I've just
<v Speaker 2>been hungrier the rest of the day. Yes, it's kind
<v Speaker 2>of that same principle. Once you feed the lion, the
<v Speaker 2>lion once more. Yeah, because your body's not tapping into
<v Speaker 2>those fat stores. Yeah, seem kind of principle. Once you
<v Speaker 2>get that blood sugar dysregulation going, and you've got excess
<v Speaker 2>like a gin running and you're not getting into fat
<v Speaker 2>burning and you're tired, so cortisols ramped up, which raises
<v Speaker 2>your insulin levels a little bit. It's just a recipe
<v Speaker 2>for extra hunger.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, But I'm really glad that Alex noticed that, Like
<v Speaker 1>she recognizes that the extra hunger is when she's had
<v Speaker 1>an over indulgent day or a longer window. So she
<v Speaker 1>has made that connection, which is good. Now she hopefully
<v Speaker 1>understands why.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, all right, so we have another question from Angela,
<v Speaker 2>and oh, Angelus says, thank you so much for the
<v Speaker 2>great information you share on the show. I have so
<v Speaker 2>appreciated the support, specific guidance and tweaks. I am thirty nine,
<v Speaker 2>five foot four, and I weigh one hundred and twenty
<v Speaker 2>six point nine pounds. I started intermittent fasting October twentieth,
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty four. I have lost seven pounds. I hope
<v Speaker 2>to lose another two to get back to my weight.
<v Speaker 2>I was a few years ago before perimenopause started and
<v Speaker 2>I gained weight, and I had a hard time sleeping. Kombucha,
<v Speaker 2>Kiefer and IF have helped a lot with improving my
<v Speaker 2>mental health, mood, sleep, and weight. My question relates to
<v Speaker 2>eating when my window opens. I have been doing a
<v Speaker 2>four to five hour window since I started opening around
<v Speaker 2>two pm. Sometimes I am not hungry when my window opens.
<v Speaker 2>I have heard you all say it's important to start
<v Speaker 2>eating when your window opens, even if you are not hungry.
<v Speaker 2>I know you have also said five hundred calories is
<v Speaker 2>more of a down day type meal amount. I know
<v Speaker 2>you don't want people counting calories either, but is there
<v Speaker 2>a minimum number of calories we should be aiming for?
<v Speaker 2>Maybe a rough guide of seventy to eighty percent of
<v Speaker 2>my caloric needs for the day to support weight loss.
<v Speaker 2>I've always been more of a black and white person,
<v Speaker 2>so I'm struggling a little to stop when satisfied. If
<v Speaker 2>I start eating when I'm not really hungry, it would
<v Speaker 2>be nice for this black and white girl to wait
<v Speaker 2>to start eating until my window opens and I am hungry,
<v Speaker 2>and then stop when satisfied. If you have any tips
<v Speaker 2>on what to eat when opening my window when not
<v Speaker 2>really hungry, that would be great. I have been doing
<v Speaker 2>Keifer with nuts and fruitd Thank you so much.
<v Speaker 1>All right, there's a lot of great little points in
<v Speaker 1>here that we need to unpack.
<v Speaker 2>First of all, I think you're mixing up two.
<v Speaker 1>Pieces of advice here when you say it's important that
<v Speaker 1>we have said it's important to start eating when your
<v Speaker 1>window opens, even if you're not hungry. I am one
<v Speaker 1>hundred percent sure that we have only said that in
<v Speaker 1>the idea of an up day. Would you say that
<v Speaker 1>that's true your.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I think we have this before.
<v Speaker 1>I don't think I've ever told anybody to start eating
<v Speaker 1>at a certain time on a regular day, have.
<v Speaker 2>I yes, because we've had a few people who were
<v Speaker 2>saying that they were having super short windows they weren't
<v Speaker 2>really hungry. They would delay opening their window and then
<v Speaker 2>it would get too late when their hunger would come,
<v Speaker 2>so they would close it because it was time to
<v Speaker 2>close it and they wanted to be on cycle for
<v Speaker 2>their next fast or whatever. And so we have on
<v Speaker 2>occasion said, look, you know, if you know you need
<v Speaker 2>a four to five hour eating window, even if you're
<v Speaker 2>not super hungry, you may need to go ahead and
<v Speaker 2>break your fast to stimulate hunger so that you can
<v Speaker 2>eat enough. Okay, But I mean that's the only time
<v Speaker 2>we've really said you have to eat if your window's open,
<v Speaker 2>because we've also said multiple times maybe you just need
<v Speaker 2>a shorter eating window that day. We just don't want
<v Speaker 2>it to be consistent.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want anybody to think that you must to
<v Speaker 1>open it too if you're not hungry every day, because
<v Speaker 1>I don't.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, me neither.
<v Speaker 1>So you do not have to have a four to
<v Speaker 1>five window every day, and you do not have to
<v Speaker 1>open at two every day if you're not hungry. The
<v Speaker 1>problem would come in, as Sherry said, if you find
<v Speaker 1>yourself never hungry and you're never opening and you're not
<v Speaker 1>eating enough right, And let's imagine that one day you
<v Speaker 1>are literally not.
<v Speaker 2>Hungry at all and you don't eat at all. You've
<v Speaker 2>just had a down day.
<v Speaker 1>The next day, have an upday, start eating first thing
<v Speaker 1>in the morning, whether you're hungry or not, because an
<v Speaker 1>upday has to follow a down day, and you just
<v Speaker 1>naturally did a cycle of ADF without even meaning to.
<v Speaker 1>That would absolutely be fine. And I one hundred percent
<v Speaker 1>want people to start opening early in the day on
<v Speaker 1>an up day, But I don't want you to think
<v Speaker 1>that you have to open it too just because that's
<v Speaker 1>when you had planned to open. If you're not hungry
<v Speaker 1>or if you're busy. Now let's talk about how much
<v Speaker 1>you're eating. You're right that if you accidentally eat five
<v Speaker 1>hundred calories or have a very small window, the next
<v Speaker 1>day needs to be an update. I don't know, Sherry,
<v Speaker 1>I'm just one of those feod that just seems so
<v Speaker 1>foreign to me, Like I've never once accidentally eaten.
<v Speaker 2>A tiny amount of food. I just get hungry. Do
<v Speaker 2>you ever accidentally eat a tiny amount of food? I
<v Speaker 2>know people do, so I might do. Saying that people don't,
<v Speaker 2>I just don't. I do because I tend to eat
<v Speaker 2>high volume foods, okay, which are not calorically dense foods.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm a volume eater. So if I eat a
<v Speaker 2>very high volume salad that's made with shredded kale and
<v Speaker 2>cabbage and broccoli and Brussels sprouts, and I throw some
<v Speaker 2>chicken on there, and I have some cranberries or blueberries
<v Speaker 2>in there, and I eat it, and I'm really full
<v Speaker 2>and get busy, I can forget or not feel like
<v Speaker 2>I need to eat, and I just don't get it.
<v Speaker 1>I've never struggled with that, so I just open disclosure.
<v Speaker 1>I've never had that.
<v Speaker 2>If I was to like go back and be like, hmm,
<v Speaker 2>how many and I do this on occasion, I'll be like,
<v Speaker 2>did I eat enough today? I feel like I'm not hungry.
<v Speaker 2>But when I go back and look, it's only maybe
<v Speaker 2>six five to six hundred calories five hundred and fifty calories.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, I have gotten in a rut when
<v Speaker 2>life is just really busy where I look back at
<v Speaker 2>my week and I'm like, wow, I've had some really
<v Speaker 2>low calorie days in here. So I have to really
<v Speaker 2>make an effort to be like, Okay, well, I'm just
<v Speaker 2>going to have an update tomorrow and just plan I
<v Speaker 2>you know, and Eric loves it. It's usually been after
<v Speaker 2>a long weekend of working and then you know, Monday,
<v Speaker 2>I tend to have a pretty short window and so
<v Speaker 2>by like Tuesday, I'm like, huh, I haven't really eaten
<v Speaker 2>very much for the last four days. So if Eric's off,
<v Speaker 2>I'll be like, okay, well I'm going to do an
<v Speaker 2>update and you can make me breakfast.
<v Speaker 1>So the reason that it's such not ever happens for
<v Speaker 1>me is because I am a volume eater and I'm
<v Speaker 1>choosing foods that are colorically dense butter and cheese. You know,
<v Speaker 1>when I make a meal kit meal, I throw in
<v Speaker 1>extra butter and whatever I have, I keep haaving cream
<v Speaker 1>on hand to add.
<v Speaker 2>So I believe you. But it's just that that seems
<v Speaker 2>foreign to me because I never struggle with that.
<v Speaker 1>So if you find, like Sherry that you accidentally are
<v Speaker 1>under eating, then then throw in an upday the next day,
<v Speaker 1>because I really don't want people to feel like you
<v Speaker 1>have to force feed yourself on a regular eating window day.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe you're someone who would really love ADF. If you
<v Speaker 1>tend to be more of a light eater, maybe you
<v Speaker 1>would really love having a five hundred calorie down day
<v Speaker 1>followed by an upday, right, and that would really suit
<v Speaker 1>you and you need maybe your body needs updays in
<v Speaker 1>order to not accidentally under eat. Again, that is foreign
<v Speaker 1>to me because I've never had had the issue of
<v Speaker 1>accidentally under eating, so that just seems so foreign to me.
<v Speaker 1>But I know that it's real, so I'm not discounting
<v Speaker 1>that that it's real.
<v Speaker 2>Well, then I also get a little confused, though, because
<v Speaker 2>she says, I've always been more of a black and
<v Speaker 2>white person, So I'm struggling a little to stop when
<v Speaker 2>satisfied if I start eating when I'm not really hungry.
<v Speaker 2>So my question is is if you're not really hungry
<v Speaker 2>and you eat something to break your fast and then
<v Speaker 2>you're having a hard time stopping, the question is why
<v Speaker 2>are you having a hard time stopping. Are you now
<v Speaker 2>truly hungry? Did you wake up your appetite that you
<v Speaker 2>just weren't in tune with because you were fat burning?
<v Speaker 2>Or are you eating because satiating for you like you
<v Speaker 2>had kifer and nuts and fruit. Maybe that's not what
<v Speaker 2>your body wanted or needed, or maybe emotionally that's not
<v Speaker 2>what you wanted or needed.
<v Speaker 1>It sounds like the and I'm going to say kaffir
<v Speaker 1>because that's is that.
<v Speaker 2>How you say it?
<v Speaker 1>Well, one time, you know, on YouTube, they'll show you
<v Speaker 1>how to pronounce things. Yeah, kafir is what it said.
<v Speaker 1>But I've heard people say anyways.
<v Speaker 2>I've heard it keifer, but that doesn't like you know, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>so you only know what you've heard. It's like tenetus
<v Speaker 2>versus tonightis yeah, I've heard professionals say both ways. Yeah. Well,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna take a fear.
<v Speaker 1>But it seems to me like perhaps the kafir, nuts
<v Speaker 1>and fruit are filling you up and then you can't
<v Speaker 1>fit in more and more of a meal after that,
<v Speaker 1>consider opening with your meal instead and see how that goes.
<v Speaker 1>And I wish it would be easy. I know you said,
<v Speaker 1>do you want you like the rules? You want us
<v Speaker 1>to just tell you? Unfortunately it's really complicated. There's also
<v Speaker 1>the factor of the fact that you are small. You know,
<v Speaker 1>you're five foot four UA one twenty six point nine
<v Speaker 1>and you're at a very healthy weight for your body.
<v Speaker 1>I also wanted to focus in on that you would
<v Speaker 1>like to lose two more pounds, two more pounds. You're
<v Speaker 1>not even going to notice that in your body really,
<v Speaker 1>I promise you you're I would just find a rhythm
<v Speaker 1>that feels good.
<v Speaker 2>And when you feel good.
<v Speaker 1>In your clothes, when your goal clothes fit, that's when
<v Speaker 1>you're there. And I also do want to say, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you want to get back to your weight that you
<v Speaker 1>were a few years ago before a perimenopause, you might
<v Speaker 1>not get to the same body shape ever again that
<v Speaker 1>you had before menopause. My wist is different after menopause
<v Speaker 1>than it was before. That's just the way it is.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I'm still wearing the same clothes, but there
<v Speaker 1>is a difference in my waist. Just that's menopause. Does
<v Speaker 1>that The last question that we had was about you know,
<v Speaker 1>she mentioned her minnow belly, right, and that's just one
<v Speaker 1>of those things. I think that we're going to have
<v Speaker 1>a slightly different shape after menopause than we did before,
<v Speaker 1>and so I would not focus on trying to lose
<v Speaker 1>two more pounds. I would just focus on settling to
<v Speaker 1>a rhythm that feels good. And you know, the big fear,
<v Speaker 1>We've talked about this before. The big fear with your
<v Speaker 1>body adapting to what you're doing is if you number
<v Speaker 1>one plateau at a higher weight than is healthy for
<v Speaker 1>your body. That's a real fear. And number two too,
<v Speaker 1>if you plan to start eating more or stop fasting,
<v Speaker 1>you know, then you could have inadvertently slagd or metabolism.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 1>But if you love what you're doing and it feels right,
<v Speaker 1>and you're satisfied, and you're eating enough and your body
<v Speaker 1>is settled into a healthy weight, then I wouldn't.
<v Speaker 2>Worry so much about it.
<v Speaker 1>Like right now, I have no idea how many calories
<v Speaker 1>I eat, but I know that my body is.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I'm in the ultimate plateau.
<v Speaker 1>I'm you know, I'm not going up, I'm not going down,
<v Speaker 1>and whatever my metabolic rate is doing doesn't matter because
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.
<v Speaker 2>Does that make sense, Sherry? Yes? Yes, And then I
<v Speaker 2>had one more thought too. Oh, by the way, I
<v Speaker 2>just looked it up. Americans can pronounce it either way.
<v Speaker 2>Apparently we get a free pass okay, good Kiefer or kaffir.
<v Speaker 2>Apparently other countries say kaffir okay. So I think I've
<v Speaker 2>heard Tim Spector say it. He might have said kafir.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe that's what sent me, or maybe he says keep
<v Speaker 2>Americans just americanize any word they want to. I'm not
<v Speaker 2>sure what that says about us. Anyway, I did have
<v Speaker 2>one thought, and that she said, you know she's opening
<v Speaker 2>with this, I mean that is a liquid food, and
<v Speaker 2>liquid foods to me are not satisfying. So while you know,
<v Speaker 2>I understand that it's great for gut health and stuff,
<v Speaker 2>maybe you might find a yogurt. I don't know, if
<v Speaker 2>you're making your own, maybe you could make your own
<v Speaker 2>yogurt instead, because to me, that just feels like a
<v Speaker 2>more satisfying meal than a glass of something to drink.
<v Speaker 2>That's just me, that's just my thought. I'm always going
<v Speaker 2>to feel more satiated with something solid than something liquid. Yep.
<v Speaker 1>All right, So I know we gave you a lot
<v Speaker 1>of information there, Angela, but never forget that you really
<v Speaker 1>are your own study of one, and you've got to
<v Speaker 1>figure out the rhythm that feels good to you.
<v Speaker 2>All right.
<v Speaker 1>Now, it's time for our segment called what's your Why.
<v Speaker 1>Most of us have weight loss in mind, so it's
<v Speaker 1>fine for that to be a big part of your why.
<v Speaker 1>There's so much more that intermittent fasting can do for
<v Speaker 1>us beyond weight loss, and so it can be really
<v Speaker 1>helpful to craft your why statement before you begin. When
<v Speaker 1>your why is 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. And I want to pot something else
<v Speaker 1>in their shery before you share the why. Somebody today
<v Speaker 1>in the community was asking she was having trouble coming
<v Speaker 1>up with a why beyond just weight loss. And for
<v Speaker 1>anybody who's doing that. You know, if you haven't gotten
<v Speaker 1>a copy of twenty eight day Fast Art Day by Day,
<v Speaker 1>I actually have a whole section in there that goes
<v Speaker 1>into that and like with a lot of ideas for
<v Speaker 1>what your why might be, So that might be something
<v Speaker 1>to work through. Like, get a copy of twenty eight
<v Speaker 1>day Fast Art Day by Day. There's a lot of
<v Speaker 1>good stuff in that book. Look at that section on
<v Speaker 1>crafting your why. You might have like light bulb moments
<v Speaker 1>as you read it.
<v Speaker 2>Well, and I've read something really interesting. It was like
<v Speaker 2>a behavior. You was writing about habits and identifying your
<v Speaker 2>why and why. That's so important because if you don't
<v Speaker 2>have a strong reason to do something, you're not likely
<v Speaker 2>to build the habit to do that thing right. They said,
<v Speaker 2>a lot of times you think, oh, I'm gonna do
<v Speaker 2>this because but that because has a deeper why. So
<v Speaker 2>it's I want to fast because I want to lose weight.
<v Speaker 2>Why do you want to lose weight? Oh that's good. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I want to lose weight because I'm tired of not
<v Speaker 2>feeling good in my clothes and I'm self conscious. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>why do you want to feel better in your clothes?
<v Speaker 1>Like?
<v Speaker 2>What is the next step that she going to get you?
<v Speaker 2>So keep digging because once you like, keep going through that.
<v Speaker 2>But why what will that change? How will I feel
<v Speaker 2>a lot of times when you dig down and you
<v Speaker 2>start uncovering these layers, that's where your real why is? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>I love that? So our why this week is Stacy.
<v Speaker 2>Stacy said about twelve years ago, in my mid forties,
<v Speaker 2>I was borderline obese. I had been for at least
<v Speaker 2>a decade. I had horrible eating and exercise habits. I
<v Speaker 2>avoided cameras and mirrors because if I don't see it,
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't exist. Right. I didn't care. I was coasting.
<v Speaker 2>I had zero motivation to lose weight, and I loved
<v Speaker 2>my fast food. At my annual checkup, my doctor sternly
<v Speaker 2>told me my feet were firmly planted on the road
<v Speaker 2>to diabetes that shook me. My paternal grandmother and aunt
<v Speaker 2>both had type one diabetes, and my aunt died in
<v Speaker 2>her twenties due to an accidental insulin overdose. My grandmother
<v Speaker 2>lived a pretty limited life into her seventies. There were
<v Speaker 2>a lot of medical emergencies and it was hard to watch.
<v Speaker 2>My dad and four of his five brothers were diagnosed
<v Speaker 2>with type two diabetes at varying stages of their lives,
<v Speaker 2>requiring insulin injections. Yuck. My psychological switch had been flipped.
<v Speaker 2>I was bound and determined to avoid that fate. I
<v Speaker 2>changed my eating habits and I was able to get
<v Speaker 2>my weight down to a healthier range. My mirrors and
<v Speaker 2>photos showed a better me. I was good. Fast forward
<v Speaker 2>to December twenty twenty four. I'm sixty and a little
<v Speaker 2>more aware of my mortality. So I did a genetics
<v Speaker 2>test to see what's in store for me health wise
<v Speaker 2>based on my gene mutations. At the session to discuss
<v Speaker 2>the results, my doctor started the conversation with, oh, wow,
<v Speaker 2>you have a lot of challenges. After a very informative
<v Speaker 2>discussion about my challenges, she told me that interment fasting
<v Speaker 2>was my best bet to address slash mitigate said challenges.
<v Speaker 2>My switch was once again flipped. I absolutely want to
<v Speaker 2>change my ways for health reasons, not necessarily for weight loss.
<v Speaker 2>So here I am I have found my why.
<v Speaker 1>I love that watching our family struggle is really really powerful.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I know, you watched your dad struggle at the
<v Speaker 2>last times of his life, and I I mean, you know,
<v Speaker 2>a lot of years.
<v Speaker 1>Right, he was my age, He was fifty five. I'm
<v Speaker 1>fifty five. He was fifty five when he got his
<v Speaker 1>type two diabetes diagnosis, the same age I am now.
<v Speaker 2>So twenty years he wait, twenty five was a sure
<v Speaker 2>twenty five Yeah, twenty five years. He died at the
<v Speaker 2>age of eighty. So he struggled with that for twenty
<v Speaker 2>five years and.
<v Speaker 1>It was a challenge. And then you know, his kidneys
<v Speaker 1>were not not doing.
<v Speaker 2>Well, so he really passed away from complications. He did diabetes,
<v Speaker 2>Yes he did.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, we all have the right to choose
<v Speaker 1>how we want to live our lives, right and do
<v Speaker 1>we want to make the changes in how we eat
<v Speaker 1>or what we do? And he decided he didn't. He
<v Speaker 1>didn't want to, and we all have the right to
<v Speaker 1>decide that. I just wanted to decide something different. You know,
<v Speaker 1>maybe if you had had learned a different way at
<v Speaker 1>the age of fifty five, he would have made those changes.
<v Speaker 1>But I guess maybe by the time he realized that
<v Speaker 1>you could do some things to change it, maybe it.
<v Speaker 2>Was he felt like it was too late. Well, and
<v Speaker 2>I think twenty five years ago, once you were given
<v Speaker 2>a diagnosis of diabetes, that was it. Your fate was sealed.
<v Speaker 2>And I think we know now that you can absolutely
<v Speaker 2>reverse type two diabetes. And I believe that there are
<v Speaker 2>some healthcare providers out there today still telling people, oh,
<v Speaker 2>you know, you can't reverse diabetes, but we are seeing
<v Speaker 2>again and again and again that yes, you can, you
<v Speaker 2>can reverse diabetes.
<v Speaker 1>And part of it might have been a generational thing,
<v Speaker 1>whereas you just have always thought, well, you get something,
<v Speaker 1>you take a pill, you take the medication, and that's
<v Speaker 1>what you do. Whereas I think, maybe are we just
<v Speaker 1>maybe it's just a different era where we're like, well, no,
<v Speaker 1>I don't want that pill. I would like to fix
<v Speaker 1>it myself. Maybe recognizing that we have a lot more power,
<v Speaker 1>not even just with type two diabetes, but so many things.
<v Speaker 1>We can control food as medicine, and that's really important
<v Speaker 1>but I have no doubt that I would have been
<v Speaker 1>type two diabetic earlier than fifty five had I continued
<v Speaker 1>down the path I was going. You know, I've got
<v Speaker 1>the genes for it. And I was two hundred and
<v Speaker 1>ten pounds, I was obese, I had huge amount of
<v Speaker 1>visceral fat, big big belly. So thank goodness for intermitt
<v Speaker 1>and fasting. I just am so grateful.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Yeah, it definitely changed the direction that your life
<v Speaker 2>was going. Absolutely I was. I was headed in that direction.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, again, if I had thought, well, that's
<v Speaker 1>just you know, happing to my dad, It's just the
<v Speaker 1>way it is. What can I do, Nothing I can do,
<v Speaker 1>then I would have felt like I'm a victim. I'm well,
<v Speaker 1>that's just my genes, nothing I can do. I'm just
<v Speaker 1>going to live this unhealthy path. And instead I was
<v Speaker 1>like no, but but thank goodness, there's enough information right
<v Speaker 1>that I recognized that I could do something about it.
<v Speaker 2>And I found something that I could do that I enjoy. Yep.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Well we have a question sent in from
<v Speaker 2>Michelle in Surrey, UK. She said, hello, both of you.
<v Speaker 2>I wish this was a success story, but unfortunately things
<v Speaker 2>have started to spiral and my happy scale is not
<v Speaker 2>so happy. I wrote to you back in December of
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty three, after panicking about my weight loss slowing down.
<v Speaker 2>You were right to advise me to keep going. Things
<v Speaker 2>started moving, and I reached my goal weight of sixty
<v Speaker 2>eight kilograms in July of twenty twenty four. I started
<v Speaker 2>at seventy eight kilograms in October of twenty twenty three.
<v Speaker 2>I am forty six now, and I'm one hundred and
<v Speaker 2>seventy one centimeters tall. I've reached that goal by doing
<v Speaker 2>a nineteen to five protocol with relaxed sixteen eight on Sundays.
<v Speaker 2>I also only ate healthy food and not too much.
<v Speaker 2>Some days were a huge binge, but I think I
<v Speaker 2>was overly restricting. The weight slowed, and I managed to
<v Speaker 2>maintain sixty eight kilograms for four months until October, when
<v Speaker 2>the scales started to go up and up. I am
<v Speaker 2>now seventy two point six kilograms. My windows were creeping,
<v Speaker 2>but my food choices were still mostly good, and I've
<v Speaker 2>been keeping to my running and strength training. My smart
<v Speaker 2>scales say I am increasing body fat. I started at
<v Speaker 2>forty percent, went to thirty three, and now I'm back
<v Speaker 2>at thirty seven and that I'm losing lean muscle. I'm
<v Speaker 2>so disappointed. I started watching my windows again, my portion sizes,
<v Speaker 2>and added in some longer twenty four hour fasts with
<v Speaker 2>a single meal more than five hundred calories for twenty minutes,
<v Speaker 2>and then I would close, and then I would fast
<v Speaker 2>again the next day to twenty hours and eat two
<v Speaker 2>meals and four hours. I found this easy, and I'm
<v Speaker 2>happy fasting, but nothing is moving the scale. What should
<v Speaker 2>the day after twenty four hours of fasting beat eating
<v Speaker 2>or fasting. I'm wondering when do people just start right over.
<v Speaker 2>I'm tempted to go back to page one and week one.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure there's much more I can do unless
<v Speaker 2>you tell me again to give it time. I've been
<v Speaker 2>paying close attention to my food and windows for six weeks.
<v Speaker 2>I thought maybe i'd lose a tiny amount, but zero.
<v Speaker 2>This could be a struggle with hormones. But I don't
<v Speaker 2>think going on HRT will be a magic weight loss solution.
<v Speaker 2>Is there anything I can try? When you say to
<v Speaker 2>try ADF, how long do you do this for? Do
<v Speaker 2>I do it until I'm back to sixty eight kilograms?
<v Speaker 2>I can't do downs and ups, not that I've tried
<v Speaker 2>more than once a week, as I don't like to
<v Speaker 2>think about planning all those meals to take to work anymore,
<v Speaker 2>and I'll make bad food choices if my window was
<v Speaker 2>open at work, since work is full of cake. Thank
<v Speaker 2>you for all your advice. I was so thrilled when
<v Speaker 2>you read out my question before, and I felt so special.
<v Speaker 2>I urge everyone to contribute to the show and feel
<v Speaker 2>like a VIP.
<v Speaker 1>Well, thank you so much for reaching out, Michelle, And
<v Speaker 1>let's dig in just a bit. So I calculated your
<v Speaker 1>smart Bami two ways. First of all, with the weight
<v Speaker 1>you are right this minute, which is seventy two point
<v Speaker 1>six kilograms, and then I calculated it based on the
<v Speaker 1>weight you had been, which was sixty eight kilograms. Both
<v Speaker 1>of them are right smack down in the middle of
<v Speaker 1>the green zone. Seventy two put you just a little
<v Speaker 1>above the halfway point of the green zone, which is
<v Speaker 1>the healthy zone, and sixty eight puts you, you know,
<v Speaker 1>down a little bit obviously in the green zone, but
<v Speaker 1>you were still at a very healthy wait for your body,
<v Speaker 1>so I wanted to put that in there just a bit.
<v Speaker 2>Now.
<v Speaker 1>You maintained sixty eight for four months with a nineteen
<v Speaker 1>five during the week and sixteen eight on Sundays, eating
<v Speaker 1>healthy food and not too much. Now you mentioned there
<v Speaker 1>you said some days were a huge binge, but you
<v Speaker 1>think you were overly restricting.
<v Speaker 2>I don't quite get that, because if you're.
<v Speaker 1>Eating nineteen five five days a week and relax sixteen
<v Speaker 1>eight on Sundays, that doesn't seem like overrestricting to me.
<v Speaker 2>Do you have anything to add with that, Sherry, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I don't see how that was over restricting unless she
<v Speaker 2>was trying to diet within her five hour eating weight right.
<v Speaker 1>Which is possible. That is possible if you were dieting
<v Speaker 1>within your five hour window and then more relax on Sunday,
<v Speaker 1>eating healthy food but not too much. It's hard for
<v Speaker 1>us to know what was happening. And as far as
<v Speaker 1>the binging, binging can be related to two things. One, yes, overrestricting.
<v Speaker 1>If you're overrestricting, your body will send you the your
<v Speaker 1>urge to binge.
<v Speaker 2>That is true.
<v Speaker 1>But it also can be related to food choices and
<v Speaker 1>if you're having ultra processed foods, like for example, if
<v Speaker 1>you find that whenever you open with ultra processed foods
<v Speaker 1>or start having sugar, you always end up binging. That's
<v Speaker 1>the increased strive to eat from the ultra processed foods.
<v Speaker 1>You probably are not binging on vegetables and high quality
<v Speaker 1>protein sources and things like that. I would really make
<v Speaker 1>that distinction. And if you're only binging on the ultra
<v Speaker 1>processed foods, then maybe you need to get those out
<v Speaker 1>of the house. So you said you managed to maintain
<v Speaker 1>for four months until October and the scales started going up.
<v Speaker 1>Now you also said that your windows were creeping and
<v Speaker 1>your food choices were still mostly good. Okay, Now I
<v Speaker 1>really want you to dig in and think about that.
<v Speaker 1>If your windows were creeping up and your food choices
<v Speaker 1>were still mostly good, then it does make sense that
<v Speaker 1>you might would see some weight gain after that. Because
<v Speaker 1>when I experience window creep and when my windows are
<v Speaker 1>not quite as good with the healthy food choices, I'm
<v Speaker 1>having more ice cream, I'm having more desserts, my windows
<v Speaker 1>are stretching longer, that's when my honesty pants get tight.
<v Speaker 1>Now I don't weigh, so I'm not really sure how
<v Speaker 1>much my fluctuation range is.
<v Speaker 2>But it's just something to keep in mind.
<v Speaker 1>It sounds like you know what was happening, You know
<v Speaker 1>why your weight started to go up, and as far
<v Speaker 1>as you said, you mentioned that you're losing lean muscle.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I wanted to address that too. And that's the
<v Speaker 2>thing that I don't know. It depends on what kind of
<v Speaker 2>scale that you're using. Some of those scales are not
<v Speaker 2>very much higher repeated and scale. Yeah, I always stand
<v Speaker 2>on it at home.
<v Speaker 1>They're not always accurate with what's going on in your
<v Speaker 1>body because it's like running the electrical signal through your body.
<v Speaker 2>Those are the least accurate. It has to do with hydration.
<v Speaker 2>It can be affected by whether or not you're like
<v Speaker 2>fasted or fed what I mean, your digestive system exactly exactly, yep.
<v Speaker 1>Right, So if the only thing you're basing that on
<v Speaker 1>is your bioimpedance scale at home, I would be a
<v Speaker 1>little more cautious of that. If you think you're losing
<v Speaker 1>lean muscle, the way to get more muscle is working out.
<v Speaker 2>You're working back, She says, she's doing strength training. So
<v Speaker 2>that's why I'm thinking, if you are truly doing strength training,
<v Speaker 2>if you're doing two to three solid strength training sessions
<v Speaker 2>a week, and you're eating sufficiently in you're eating window
<v Speaker 2>and not overly restricting you should not and you're clean fasting,
<v Speaker 2>you should not be losing muscle mass. Can HRT help?
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I think it depends on if the hormones
<v Speaker 1>are the problem, and we don't know that yet, right
<v Speaker 1>to me, I also did some backwards math, and you
<v Speaker 1>said that six weeks ago you started trying to tighten
<v Speaker 1>things back up again, and this week's from today. I'm
<v Speaker 1>not sure when this came in, but six weeks from
<v Speaker 1>today was December seventeenth, so that was right, and the
<v Speaker 1>nod of the holidays. So if you're in America, we
<v Speaker 1>tend to the holidays tend to be a little more indulgent.
<v Speaker 1>So even if you were trying to tighten things up,
<v Speaker 1>I bet there was still some more indulging going on.
<v Speaker 1>I would absolutely throw the idea of ADF out right now,
<v Speaker 1>because it sounds like you're just kind of does it
<v Speaker 1>feel a.
<v Speaker 2>Little frantic Sherry.
<v Speaker 1>Like she's frantically like, oh my god, I've got to
<v Speaker 1>do something. I'm gonna do the twenty four hour fast.
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to eat a little meal. I'm gonna I
<v Speaker 1>would take a deep breath and stop with that. I
<v Speaker 1>would say, all right, five hour window seven days a week.
<v Speaker 1>Nourish your body well, exhale, relax into it. I want
<v Speaker 1>you to weigh every day, and you might find that
<v Speaker 1>it helps to weigh in pounds instead of kilograms because
<v Speaker 1>it's just a little more precise as far as like,
<v Speaker 1>if you measure pounds to the nearest tenth, the changes
<v Speaker 1>are a little more apparent. So I would just try
<v Speaker 1>for a while measuring in pounds to the nearest tenth
<v Speaker 1>every single day. Once a week, add up all seven weights,
<v Speaker 1>divide by seven to get your weekly average, and see
<v Speaker 1>what your weight does over the next four weeks. Stop
<v Speaker 1>trying to throw everything at the wall and see what sticks.
<v Speaker 1>Just nourish your body well within five hours. Be very
<v Speaker 1>honest with your food choices and the length of your window.
<v Speaker 1>We're into the new year, the holidays are behind us.
<v Speaker 1>See what happens, and don't panic. Right, there's no need
<v Speaker 1>to panic and just try to do a lot of things.
<v Speaker 1>You are still in a healthy weight range. I know
<v Speaker 1>that you felt better at sixty eight versus seventy two
<v Speaker 1>point six. I get it, but all the panic isn't
<v Speaker 1>going to help. And trying to do a lot of
<v Speaker 1>long fast and write stress comes into play it does.
<v Speaker 1>Panic is never a good thing you do.
<v Speaker 2>Mention meaning forty six. So if your sleep is starting
<v Speaker 2>to suffer a little bit because of your hormonal shifts,
<v Speaker 2>that can make a difference in your body and how
<v Speaker 2>you're b body uses energy and stuff. And then if
<v Speaker 2>you truly feel like by assessing your body, I did
<v Speaker 2>go through a period where I was losing muscle mass.
<v Speaker 2>If you truly feel like that, I know you're in
<v Speaker 2>the UK, so I don't know. I know your guys's
<v Speaker 2>options as far as you know healthcare are a little
<v Speaker 2>bit different than what we have here in America, But
<v Speaker 2>a lot of people don't know this. One of the
<v Speaker 2>reasons that we lose muscle mass as we go into
<v Speaker 2>perimenopause is that all of your sex hormones help support
<v Speaker 2>your testosterone levels. If your estrogen and progesterone is tanking,
<v Speaker 2>then your testosterone could be tanking right along with it.
<v Speaker 2>This is one of the reasons why I like a
<v Speaker 2>lot of the menopause specialists I follow. They're not anti
<v Speaker 2>testosterone replacement therapy for women, but one of the things
<v Speaker 2>that they say is do not start it until after
<v Speaker 2>you have been on estrogen and progesterone for a while,
<v Speaker 2>because once you get those levels up, your body will
<v Speaker 2>start processing and making testosterone better. So can perimenophase affect
<v Speaker 2>your body composition, absolutely, But if your strengthening and you're
<v Speaker 2>focusing on some quality protein in your window and eating
<v Speaker 2>to satiety, muscle mass loss is not something I would
<v Speaker 2>be anticipating.
<v Speaker 1>So with you, Shary, you said you had some muscle
<v Speaker 1>mass loss as you were having those hormonal changes. Yep,
<v Speaker 1>and so you started some testosterone and that made a
<v Speaker 1>difference for you.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, Yeah, that's really important.
<v Speaker 1>Our bodies are so complicated and there's so many factors.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and my smart scale did tell me I was
<v Speaker 2>losing muscle mass and I am watching it come back up.
<v Speaker 2>And actually my smart scale just told me yesterday I
<v Speaker 2>had excellently body mass. So that's good. Yeah, that was
<v Speaker 2>good to know.
<v Speaker 1>So watching the trend so even though they might not
<v Speaker 1>be completely accurate, when your trend is going one direction
<v Speaker 1>over time, that rankings, even though that the percentage might
<v Speaker 1>not be exactly right. If your trend is muscle mask
<v Speaker 1>going down, muscle mask going down, and that continues, then
<v Speaker 1>you can be like, probably that's what's happening. But that
<v Speaker 1>still might not be the right percentage as if you
<v Speaker 1>had like a DEXA scan, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, so I would definitely definitely keep all that in mind.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, HRT.
<v Speaker 1>I will never say that HRT is a magic weight
<v Speaker 1>loss solution, because that's not why I want people to
<v Speaker 1>consider HRT. If the only reason you're considering HRT is
<v Speaker 1>because you think it's going to be a magic weight
<v Speaker 1>loss solution, you're probably going to be disappointed.
<v Speaker 2>Some people even gain a little weight.
<v Speaker 1>I am fully sold on HRT as a healthy thing
<v Speaker 1>to do to keep my cardiovascular system healthy, keep my
<v Speaker 1>bone density solid, support metabolic health, It supports metabolic health.
<v Speaker 1>It's supporting so many things once you start really understanding
<v Speaker 1>that those female hormones do so much for our body. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you know, you might notice a difference in your weight.
<v Speaker 1>I know that if we want to lose weight, that's
<v Speaker 1>a huge you know, we got that on her mind.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't want people to think that the only
<v Speaker 1>reason to do HRT is because of the effect that
<v Speaker 1>it will have on your weight. Right up ordin like,
<v Speaker 1>if it made me gain weight, I would still do it.
<v Speaker 2>It comes back to that a healthy body that is
<v Speaker 2>in balance right, is more likely to maintain a healthy weight. Right.
<v Speaker 2>So it's one piece of the puzzle. But if you
<v Speaker 2>have a really disrupted gut microbiome, then your body can't
<v Speaker 2>even use the hormones efficiently. Like, it all comes into play.
<v Speaker 2>It's your gut, it's your liver, it's your thyroid, it's
<v Speaker 2>your sex hormones. It's your food quality. It's your sleep,
<v Speaker 2>it's your exercise, it's your muscle mass. It is a
<v Speaker 2>big picture, and you have to have all those pieces
<v Speaker 2>of the puzzle put together in the right order to
<v Speaker 2>achieve maximal health and a healthy body weight.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, all right, we have a question from Maryland Mama.
<v Speaker 1>She says, Hi, y'all, I'm grateful for finding IF and
<v Speaker 1>for the support you gods give on as podcast. Here's
<v Speaker 1>my background. I started IF when I was gaining weight
<v Speaker 1>for what seemed like no reason. I hadn't changed my
<v Speaker 1>eating habits, but I just kept putting on weight. After
<v Speaker 1>finding IF and doing the twenty eight day Fast Start
<v Speaker 1>and reading Fast Feast Repeat, I came to the conclusion
<v Speaker 1>that the weight gain was likely due to previously doing
<v Speaker 1>NOOM and overrestricting with calorie counting. I did that for
<v Speaker 1>about five months max. Before burning out.
<v Speaker 2>Anyway.
<v Speaker 1>I started IF July one of twenty twenty four. I'm
<v Speaker 1>forty years old and five foot four inches tall. Before
<v Speaker 1>starting IF, I was one hundred and seventy six pounds,
<v Speaker 1>the heaviest I've ever been, and in the obese range
<v Speaker 1>for my height. After the twenty eight day fast start,
<v Speaker 1>I lost around ten inches and eleven pounds. I believe
<v Speaker 1>that some of that weight loss was due to reduced
<v Speaker 1>inflammation because I see so much puffiness in the before pictures.
<v Speaker 1>After that, for a few months, I had an average
<v Speaker 1>weight loss of one pound per week, some weeks with
<v Speaker 1>a little to no loss, and closer to two pounds.
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember when exactly, but at some point after
<v Speaker 1>a few months in I started doing one thirty six
<v Speaker 1>hour fast per week, more for religious reasons than for
<v Speaker 1>anything else. However, I was finding it hard to do
<v Speaker 1>an up day afterwards because my stomach was wrecked. The
<v Speaker 1>food seemed to go right through me all day. This
<v Speaker 1>made me have a low appetite, and I felt like
<v Speaker 1>I was forcing myself to eat rather than enjoying an
<v Speaker 1>up day.
<v Speaker 2>At that time, I noticed the.
<v Speaker 1>Scale wasn't trending down as consistently as it had been
<v Speaker 1>with a daily eating window, So I went back to
<v Speaker 1>the daily eating window. Fast forward to the present. During
<v Speaker 1>the months of November and December, I took a more
<v Speaker 1>relaxed approach to if I had been sticking to nineteen five,
<v Speaker 1>but during the holidays I relaxed relaxed to eighteen six
<v Speaker 1>or even sixteen eight. Here's where things get less clear,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm looking for some advice. After opening my window wider,
<v Speaker 1>I found it hard to tighten back up, and I
<v Speaker 1>had allowed myself more treats during the holidays. I felt
<v Speaker 1>like I needed a palette reset. So when my friend
<v Speaker 1>asked me to join her for Whole thirty, I agreed.
<v Speaker 1>I am not a fan of elimination diets long term,
<v Speaker 1>but found them useful in the past to detox from
<v Speaker 1>the added sugars that are in everything. I decided to
<v Speaker 1>join my friend to regroup and refocus on making window
<v Speaker 1>worthy food choices, clean up on the ultra processed foods
<v Speaker 1>I had let slip back into my regular eating habits. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>here's where my question comes in. Prior to starting Whole thirty,
<v Speaker 1>I had been lazy about getting an accurate weight What
<v Speaker 1>I mean by this is it's winter and I'm cold,
<v Speaker 1>so often I keep my warm jammies on for my
<v Speaker 1>daily weight. I am not someone who gets too discouraged
<v Speaker 1>by daily fluctuations and figuring I should still see an
<v Speaker 1>overall downward trend. However, I wish now I would have
<v Speaker 1>been more diligent because I just had a significant drop
<v Speaker 1>in weight after starting whole thirty, and I don't know
<v Speaker 1>what to think with starting whole thirty. I have also
<v Speaker 1>made a switch back to a tighter window of nineteen
<v Speaker 1>five on average. I find that nineteen five is a
<v Speaker 1>good weight loss window for me, and any larger window
<v Speaker 1>is more maintenance. Yeah, that's true for a lot of people.
<v Speaker 1>I just have bought that in there. My average weight
<v Speaker 1>from the week before starting hole thirty was one fifty
<v Speaker 1>four and that was on Okay, let's not even talk
<v Speaker 1>about the weight.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there she goes on with all the weight here.
<v Speaker 1>I would absolutely not stress about the fact that your
<v Speaker 1>weight just pop down a few pounds.
<v Speaker 2>That seems to me the key, and it's kind of
<v Speaker 2>multi factoral. And the fact that she admitted that she
<v Speaker 2>was having long indulgent windows over the holidays up to
<v Speaker 2>eight hour windows, and then she was eating all the foods. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>and now she has tightened her windows up to five
<v Speaker 2>hour windows and she's eating highly nutritious real food.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, So basically, instead of going through all the detail here,
<v Speaker 1>she's gone from one fifty four to one forty eight
<v Speaker 1>point five in a week.
<v Speaker 2>And so she's worried that she's muscle mass. It isn't.
<v Speaker 1>It isn't muscle mass, and it isn't fat. I promise
<v Speaker 1>you do not lose either muscle mass or fat quickly.
<v Speaker 1>You don't, right, So I would not be worried that
<v Speaker 1>you're losing too much fat or too much muscle mass.
<v Speaker 1>It is going to be the inflammation from having the
<v Speaker 1>indulgent windows. And also you said you mentioned that you
<v Speaker 1>had your cycle in there, you didn't have an accurate
<v Speaker 1>weight before starting.
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't stress out about.
<v Speaker 1>Any of what's happened in one week after doing Whole
<v Speaker 1>thirty and tightening up your windows.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I was just gonna say the listeners so that
<v Speaker 2>they know her concern is that she's losing weight too quickly,
<v Speaker 2>and she's concerned that she's losing you know, muscle mass
<v Speaker 2>or something she's wanting to know if she needs to
<v Speaker 2>have a longer window since she's fueling her body better
<v Speaker 2>with whole thirty. But one week of this or two
<v Speaker 2>weeks of this, that's not showing you a long term trend.
<v Speaker 2>You're not doing whole thirty forever. I would guess this
<v Speaker 2>is absolutely inflammation weight that you are losing, because that
<v Speaker 2>is what we see when we do these eliminade diets.
<v Speaker 2>And this was your experience when you started or mint fasting.
<v Speaker 2>Your experience was you were very inflamed and you lost
<v Speaker 2>ten inches and eleven pounds after your twenty eight day
<v Speaker 2>fast start. So if you look at what you were
<v Speaker 2>doing and then you shifted back to nineteen five, you're
<v Speaker 2>getting back into fat burning, you're decreasing inflammation, you're getting
<v Speaker 2>rid of the sugars in your window and whatever, then
<v Speaker 2>that's what you're seeing, is you're seeing inflammation loss. I
<v Speaker 2>mean I can go on vacation for a week, eat
<v Speaker 2>indulgent foods, have longer windows, travel, retain water, all of that,
<v Speaker 2>and come back eight pounds heavier and drop it in
<v Speaker 2>a week. It wasn't fat, it wasn't muscle, It was
<v Speaker 2>just inflammation. So speaking of healthy foods, I'd like to
<v Speaker 2>take a minute talk to you about Hungry Roots. I
<v Speaker 2>love to eat fresh, healthy, and delicious food, but I'm
<v Speaker 2>never going to be that person who enjoys spending time
<v Speaker 2>looking up recipes, shopping, prepping, and cleaning up these meals.
<v Speaker 2>Add to that, my husband and I eat quite differently.
<v Speaker 2>No matter how how hard I try, I'm just not
<v Speaker 2>going to get that man to love veggies. I love
<v Speaker 2>Hungry Grout because everything comes prepped. I can design my
<v Speaker 2>meals and his around the grocery items that we do love.
<v Speaker 2>I can filter out foods that I never want to
<v Speaker 2>see offered to me. Many of their quality meats come
<v Speaker 2>pre cooked, which makes it even faster. This week, my
<v Speaker 2>husband's having grass fed burgers with Hungry Roots ready to
<v Speaker 2>heat macaroni and cheese that he loves, and it's a
<v Speaker 2>quick meal that I can prepare while I make some
<v Speaker 2>ground turkey three bean chili over a baked potato. We
<v Speaker 2>both get to eat healthy, We're both happy. It works
<v Speaker 2>great for us. For under one hundred dollars, I could
<v Speaker 2>stock my refrigerator with nutritious foods that cook up in minutes.
<v Speaker 2>Best of all, all their food is free of partially
<v Speaker 2>hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners, corn syrups, artificial colors and preservatives.
<v Speaker 2>So it's like a cross between meal kit delivery and
<v Speaker 2>grocery delivery. I can order entire meals or individual grocery
<v Speaker 2>items and create my own meals the choice of mine
<v Speaker 2>each week. Check out my Lincoln show notes and you
<v Speaker 2>can say fifty dollars on your first trial week.
<v Speaker 1>And now it's time for our tweak of the week.
<v Speaker 1>This is from anonymous. I have found a fantastic tweak
<v Speaker 1>to help me through adf I plan intimacy with my
<v Speaker 1>husband at the end of my down day. It feels
<v Speaker 1>hard to admit this because we never did this when
<v Speaker 1>we were in our twenties, but it has been a
<v Speaker 1>great way to really enjoy my down days. It helps
<v Speaker 1>me sleep, and it has added an entire new dimension
<v Speaker 1>to life to rekindle some butterflies and flames in our
<v Speaker 1>relationship that were so persistent fifteen years ago before we
<v Speaker 1>had kids.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, kids sure does make a difference. Yeah, so that
<v Speaker 2>kids years, he said.
<v Speaker 1>I hardly hear anyone ever talk about sex in these podcasts,
<v Speaker 1>but I think it can be worthwhile to have that conversation.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I totally get it.
<v Speaker 1>And look, I'm not feeling super sexy after a giant,
<v Speaker 1>heavy meal, right exactly that you might feel exactly and
<v Speaker 1>sexy on a down day if I've just had a
<v Speaker 1>giant meal, I'm like.
<v Speaker 2>Ooh, I'm gonna say, there's nothing I hate more than
<v Speaker 2>planned sex. Okay, my husband likes it. He wants it
<v Speaker 2>on the schedule and he wants to know when, and
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, this is not sexy. But you know what
<v Speaker 2>also isn't sexy is waiting until I've had a big
<v Speaker 2>meal and my belly's full and I'm comfy and lazy,
<v Speaker 2>and then I'm like, not now, I'm too full. So
<v Speaker 2>I think this is a great strategy. I think so too.
<v Speaker 2>My husband could get down with ADF and if I
<v Speaker 2>used her strategy, love it all? Right? Well, we love
<v Speaker 2>to leave you with inspiration our motivational quotes, and this
<v Speaker 2>week we have a quote from a member in our community, Carl.
<v Speaker 2>The quote is, don't do the thing, be the thing.
<v Speaker 2>Carl added don't do fasting, be a faster and I
<v Speaker 2>love that.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to
<v Speaker 1>have you join us in the Delayed on 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, 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.
<v Speaker 2>Until next week. Thanks for listening