Episode 106: Cortisol Fears, Shifting Your Window, Not Finding Weight Loss Success, and More

Welcome to this week’s episode of Fast. Feast. Repeat. Intermittent Fasting for Life, with Gin Stephens and Sheri Bullock.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life. I'm
Jen Stevens, author of the New York Times bestseller Fast Feast.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Repeat, and I'm Sherry Bullock, longtime intermittent faster and health
and wellness advocate. Please keep in mind that this podcast
is for educational and motivational purposes only and is not
intended to provide medical or diagnostic advice. Jen and I
are not doctors, so make sure to check with your
trusted healthcare professionals before making changes, especially when it comes

(00:30):
to any medical treatments or medications.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Whether you're new to intermittent fasting or an experienced intermittent faster,
tune in each week to get inspired, to learn, and
to have some fun along the way. Hi, everybody, we
are so glad you're here today. Welcome to this week's
episode of the Fast Feast Repeat Intermittent Fasting for Life Podcast.
How are you doing today, Sherry?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I'm doing great.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
And guess what what the day that this comes out,
you will be here.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Oh, I will be I just looked up and saw
us the day after my birthday.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah, So the day that this comes out, we're recording this, Yeah,
month ahead of time. But the day it comes out,
you will be here at the beach with me, and
also Roxy will be here. So I'm excited for the
future us me.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Too, Me too, I am ready for that. I'm ready
for some sunshine. Well, I have raining for what feels.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Like we rain in here today. It's dreary.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, our local meteorologists actually just said expect rain every
single day for the next month. We cannot tell you
how much or when it's going to arrive until the
day of, but basically, plan for rain is what he said.
We're in a rainy season. We need the rain, right
So anyway, I can't remember if I've shared on the
podcast or not. Our son, who is twenty two, joined

(01:49):
the Marines. He left May the twentieth, so by the
time this comes out, we'll be getting closer to graduation.
But wow, we just got our first letter from him
the other day and actually came on my husband's birthday,
and he was like, what a great birthday present. Of course,
we're worried about him. We can't. You know, you're in
no contact for thirteen weeks pretty much, I mean telephone contact.

(02:12):
So we finally got our first letter. He's doing great.
He's got a great attitude. He's looking at this whole
thing as an adventure, which I love. Attitude makes or
breaks you, and so he says it's really hard. Oh yeah,
it made us feel better to know that he's really
doing great and he's learning a lot. He says, learned
a lot about history that he never really learned in school.
And they actually have a little app where you can

(02:35):
It sounds crazy, but you send them a letter through that.
I mean, you can send them a snail mail letter,
but you can send it through this app. You have
to pay to do it. They actually print off the
letter and you can send a picture every time you
send a letter. Eric and I both decided rather than pictures,
he doesn't care about seeing pictures of us, we're sending
him little motivational messages that they can print off for him. So, yeah,

(02:58):
we did that. We're tracking so by the end of
today he should get our first two messages back to him.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
And oh, I know, you're so proud of him.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yep, he's in South Carolina with you.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
And oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
It's funny because there's some Facebook groups and when people
are on base, they just take pictures of different platoons
out doing their thing, and then they'll post them and
everybody's like, I hope you see your kid or whatever.
It's so funny though, because I find myself every time
I get a post, I'm like looking for him, looking him.
But the funny thing is that they're usually so far away.
By the time you zoom in.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
You can't see.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Their faces are just a big blur. It could be
anybody's kid. But every once in a while you'll see
a mom that was like, oh I just saw my son,
thank you. And so far, a lot of moms are
super worried. But so far, all I'm worried about is
he's very fair, and he's in South Carolina, and I'm like,
do they get sunscreen? That's all I want to know.
Is he getting They've got their shaved bear heads out

(03:51):
there in the sudshine, and I'm like, is he getting
his poor bear head sunburned out there? Likely we'll be
going out there and off to see and graduates. Well,
let's celebrate oh Amelia in North Carolina. She said, Hi,
Jen and Cherry. I'm grateful to you both for your
commitment to learning the science behind the IF lifestyle and

(04:13):
sharing it with others. I found Jenn's Facebook group. In
twenty nineteen, I started clean fasting and quickly saw the
benefits and weight loss, reduced inflammation, and significant reduction in
cramps during my period. Even my dentists commented that my
teeth and gums look better than ever. Over the past
few years, I went back and forth with IF taking breaks,
primarily due to skepticism by doctors as to whether fasting

(04:36):
is the right choice for a perimenopausal woman, especially as
it relates to cortisol.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
Can I pop in and say something really quick about that,
you may? You know, we hear that a lot and
people are like, well, my doctor said I can't do
it because it's going to give me high cortisol. Here's
the thing. You don't have to guess this. Cortisol can
be measured, just a simple test. So if you think
you have high co cortisol, you can check it. It's

(05:02):
just like somebody saying I think fasting is going to
make my blood sugar crash. You can test your blood
sugar and see, and then you'll like, oh, look my
blood sugar is not crashing. Oh look my cortisol's fine.
So I don't want you to listen to any kind
of scary theories out there and assume that's going to
be true for you. Now, could someone who does intermittent
fasting end up with high cortisol, Well, yeah, cortisol can

(05:25):
be high for lots of things, stresses on the body
that are like too stressful, if something is too stressful.
But assuming that fasting is going to be a negative
stress for you, no one can say that. I think
fasting is a positive for my body. I am way
less stressed than I was prior to intermittent fasting, and
I've had my cortisol tested and it is on the

(05:46):
low end of optimal. It's normal, it's fine, And we
hear that.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
All the time. And you know, I don't know if
they assume that because you are fasting, that you're going
without energy and you're in this giant energy and that's
what increases corsol. But I mean, like a low calorie diet,
they know that increases total output of cortisol. And even
monitoring calories, tracking calories is an increased perceived stress on

(06:13):
the person, which can increase cortisol. So literally any method
of weight loss has the potential to increase cortisol. But
being significantly overweight and having high insulin levels that can
increase cortisol. Right, So I mean it's funny to me
that we just jump to, oh, you shouldn't fast because

(06:35):
it can increase cortisol. I mean, coffee can increase cortisol.
Too much exercise can increase cortisol. Not enough sleep can
increase cortisol. Being sick increases cortisol. So it's like, it's
funny to me that we focus on fasting. And then
I don't think most people understand clean fasting and the

(06:56):
body's ability to tap into energy stores. Yeah, when your
body has endless energy sources and you are metabolically flexible,
where is the stress exactly?

Speaker 1 (07:09):
That's why I think also dirty fasting might cause all
sorts of issues that then people think are related to
fasting because you're not able to tap into your fat
stores well, because you're dirty fasting, and so that's going
to cause all sorts of problems. I think the clean
fast is completely different. So I think a lot of
people who say, I've known people who have fasted and
they've had these problems. XYZ were they fast and clean? Doubtful?

(07:33):
So yep, something to keep in mind. All right, back
to it all right.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
So back to the celebration. This spring, out of frustration
and feeling inflamed and tired in my late forties, I
jumped back into IF, and I felt better within days.
I've learned a couple of things that may be helpful
to your listeners. First, after returning to IF this spring,
I started ADF. I know that this isn't right for everyone,
especially in the beginning, but I am an experienced faster.

(07:58):
I had tried ADF and the past and found it
pretty intense, probably because I was an overachiever and I
incorrectly thought that skipping the five hundred calorie meals on
down days made me a better intermittent faster. This time around,
after two months, I am loving ADF. The five hundred
calorie meal makes a huge difference for me. It allows

(08:19):
me to have dinner every night with my family while
also having breakfast or lunch with a friend or colleague
on my up days. In addition, even though I feel
hungry sometimes on down days, I know I can hold
off until my five hundred calorie meal, and I am
encouraged by the thought that I can delay anything I'm
craving until the next morning when I'm free to have
whatever sounds good, and by then it's almost always something healthy.

(08:42):
I think ADF sounds more intimiding than it actually is.
My body is loving the digestive rest time. Second, I
am embracing my feelings of hunger. For years and years
I ignored my body's signals and dieting, and I'm relearning
how to listen to my body's wisdom. So when those
hunger feels come up, and they do, I thank my
body for letting me know I'm hungry. And if I'm midfast,

(09:05):
As silly as it sounds, I literally tell my body
that it's time to use the energy I have in
storage instead of taking new energy in right now. It
usually doesn't take long after that for my metabolic switch
to flip. A brisk walk helps if that switch needs
a boost, and then I'm good to go. Thank you
so much for sharing your insights. Your podcast helped me
with discipline and remembering my why on the days that

(09:28):
I need a mental boost.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
I love that, and I don't think it's silly at all. No,
I think that is like the best strategy anybody could use, honestly,
when you're feeling a wave of hunger, and you're in
your fast say, hey, body, use some stored fuel. That's
why it's there.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
That made me think. I recently read and my husband
sent me this article. Some researcher did research on basically
the power of words on the water molecules. Have you
seen this?

Speaker 1 (09:56):
I have seen that. Yes, energy, it's energy, it's all
energy and vibration.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, he took water, and I may not remember the
exact details of this little experiment he did, but like words,
kind words, loving words were spoke to the water, and
then there.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Was other water frozen that was negative.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Words for spoke to the water, and when they looked
at it under the microscope, the actual water molecules were
completely different. In the one where they spoke angry words,
mean words, the molecules were like very disordered, and so

(10:37):
it was basically then the whole thing went on to say, like,
you know, we're seventy percent water, So the words that
we speak to our body can actually change our body
was the concept of this article, and it was just
mind blowing to me that they could put water under
a microscope and see a difference.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
The one I was talking about might be different, but
I was when I said freight they froze it.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
There was an experimenter I can't say his name, masaru Imoto.
I don't know if I said that right, but he
did experiments where he studied the impact of spoken words
and intentions on the structure of ice crystals formed from
the water. Okay, similar kind of a thing. It was
so powerful. I actually was in an audience at a
conference one time, and it was very very similar to that.

(11:23):
They had somebody from random from the audience come up
on stage and then they took them out of the
room so they couldn't hear, and then they told us
either to think negative thoughts about that person when they
came in, like like send them negative thoughts or send
them positive thoughts. And the person didn't know which we
were going to be doing. And then they did like
muscle testing, like strength testing on the person when they

(11:46):
came back in. And so they did the strength testing
and the muscle testing on the person, and then they said,
all right, think the thoughts we told you to think,
and then we thought the thoughts. And when the person
when we sent them negative thoughts, they were weak, and
the people sent them the positive thoughts they were strong.
I mean it was fascinating. I mean, is there a
way that could have been faking it out? I mean,
maybe it may have been impacked on me. I don't know,

(12:10):
But the whole point of that was energy. I really
really think it's true. Something's going on at a level
that we don't always know. But your body, like you said,
is seventy percent water. So if you're sending your body negative,
hateful thoughts, how much of that is your body picking up.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
So yeah, definitely tell your body, send it the messages
you want to believe, and you want your body to believe.
You know, if you want your body to be a lean, mean,
glycogen fat burning machine.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Believe that you can be right. Body, You've got some fat,
hey burn some right here, all right Now, we have
a question from a listener. This question is from Melissa
in is Itmo? Missouri?

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Yes? Okay, Missouri, the show me state.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Okay. I've always been a very overweight, and like you, ladies,
I rode the diet roller coaster for many years. In
twenty seventeen, I started keto Ish low carb eating and
I lost eighty five pounds over the next year, but
then I plateaued around two hundred pounds I maintained until
the pandemic kicked my butt and I went back to

(13:17):
my old eating and I gained the weight back. In
January of twenty twenty four, I got back on track
with low carb eating. I lost eighteen pounds between January
second and June fourth. I was frustrated because I wanted
to lose weight faster since I have so much to lose,
and someone recommended intermittent fasting. I started with sixteen eight
and I quickly moved to eighteen six and nineteen five.

(13:41):
From June fourth to July fifteenth, I lost twelve point
four pounds, and then I decided to do ADF. From
July fifteenth to October fifth, I lost another twenty five
point eight pounds. At that point, I had lost fifty
six point four since January and I weighed two hundred
and twenty seven point six. I loved ADF and I

(14:02):
felt absolutely amazing while doing it. I even began getting
more exercise and being more active than before because I
felt so great while doing it. In late September, I
began to have a lot of pain in my right side.
I went to my doctor and had a CT scan done,
and they found that I had a fibroid on the
outside of my uterus that was the size of my uterus,

(14:24):
and the fibroid was pushing against my other organs. The
fibroid must have grown rather quickly, as I had had
a CT scan for something two years prior and there
was no fibroid. Then I'm forty two and done having children,
so I opted for a partial hysterectomy, and I still
have my ovaries. I had the surgery in December of
twenty twenty four, but because of the pain I was in,

(14:46):
I stopped doing intermittent fasting in November, and I struggled
to get back even after I was recovered from the surgery.
I have heard Jim say that it's not recommended for
breastfeeding women to do intermittent fasting because as we lose fat,
we can release toxins that were stored in our fat
into our bodies. As I was doing ADF, I dropped
a lot of weight quickly, and I'm wondering if I

(15:08):
accidentally flooded my system with excess toxins estrogen, she said,
I've read studies that fat cells store estrogen, and who
knows what and if that is what caused a quick
fibroid growth, as well as some possible liver inflammation. Let's
pause there and answer just that part.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, first of all, let's just address the liver inflammation.
We actually see the opposite with fasting. People who come
in with some liver inflammation, either non alcoholic fatty liver disease,
which I know they're changing the name of that. Maybe
they've already changed the name of it. I don't recall
it off the top of my head, so we're just

(15:44):
going to call it non acoholic fatty liver disease. We
see people clean up their livers and you're basically burning
through that stored glycogen and fat that's in your liver,
clogging up your liver. I've also seen people say that
they had some transient elevation of liver enzymes when they
first start fasting. Could it be because you're mobilizing all

(16:07):
of that out of there, maybe, But when they invariably
come to community and they're like, oh, my gosh, I
went to the doctor. My liver enzymes are suddenly high
and they weren't six months ago. We don't really know.
It's one of those things that you could have something
as small as a small virus that can increase your
liver enzymes and then invariably, you know, they go in
and have it rechecked in eight weeks, twelve weeks and

(16:29):
they're back down to normal. So it's hard to say.
Was it because they were moving toxins through their body? No,
But what we do know is long term, your liver
is going to be much healthier.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, a lot of it's just we're guessing right right.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
No. And then as far as estrogen, I mean, sure,
our fat cells do hold on to estrogen. There's different
kinds of estrogen, and you know there is what's classified
as like your good estrogen and your bad estrogen. Could
you have been mobilizing some of that bad estrogen? Well yes,
But you're also forty two and this is the time

(17:06):
women start having problems with fibroids, and it's more to
do with estrogen dominance and the fact that your body
is not producing as much progesterone to balance that out.
Coupled with being overweight, Estrogen dominance is pretty common. This
is also the time that people start having gallbladder issues

(17:26):
is in their forties, and it also it all comes
down to female hormones. Do I think that fasting and
losing weight caused your fibroid. I don't think so. I
think it's just life. Life caused it. Being a woman
caused it. Being overweight, and then your forties caused it.
And evil and resistance insulin resistance. Yeah, exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
Here's an anecdotal story from my life and fibroids. I
had fibroid surgery in twenty thirteen and I was forty
five at the time that I had it, and I
had been you. I'm certain these fibroids had been growing
for several years, and that was the time I was
not doing intermittent fasting. At that time, I was overweight
and I was not doing intermittent fasting, and I was
having really really heavy, bleeding, heavy periods, and so I

(18:13):
went to my doctor to see what they could do,
and they're like, oh my gosh, we got all these
fibroids in there. So I had to have fibroid surgery.
But that happened when I was not an intermittent faster,
so I can say that was just being like I said,
in my early to mid forties is when the fibroids
came on and I had to have surgery to have
them removed. So we like to make cause and effect relationships, right,

(18:34):
We like to say, well, I didn't have it two
years ago, and I have it, so it must be
because I lost the weight. And really it might not
be because of that. It could have been again, it might
have been, but we can't tell you for sure, Like
I said, we would just be guessing, so we don't know.
But it seems to me like you might have a
fear of losing weight quickly, like that's somehow bad for you,

(18:56):
and I want you to let that fear go, okay,
because having the toxin stored in your body is also
not great, you know, releasing them maybe you'll have a
little bit of uncomfortable symptoms as they go. I talked
about this in Cleanish a little bit. But if you
are releasing toxins from fat stores, we want to release them.
We want to get them out of there, and that's

(19:16):
just part of the process. So I wouldn't let that
be a deterrent for you, all right. So she goes
on to say, I began doing intermittent fasting again on
March fourteenth of twenty twenty five, and I started off
with a sixteen eight. I found it to be much
harder this time than last time, But that's likely because
of the food I was eating. I also want to
pop in there, Sherry. She was low carb before when

(19:39):
she started, So when you're low carb, you already have
depleted your glycogen stores to the point that like when
I started intermittent fasting in twenty fourteen, I had been
failing at keto, but I was fat adapted from the
keto right, So it was really that was the time
it was easy for me to do intermittent fasting because
I had been keto in so my body was already
producing keytones. I wasn't losing any person fat. I was

(20:00):
just burning the fat I was eating. But it makes
sense that if you started coming off the standard American
diet that it would be harder than if you started
after coming off low carb, just because of that metabolic
flexibility and the flipping that metabolic switch and the being
fat adapted part. Okay, so she said it's likely because
of the food I was eating. We agree. She said,
I've been gradually making better food choices and trying to

(20:21):
shorten my windows. I've often been much more active as
the weather has finally allowed me to be outside doing landscaping,
gardening and all of that fun stuff. However, I have
not lost even one pound. On March fourteenth, I was
to sixty two point eight, and today May seventh, I
am to sixty two point four. I wasn't expecting the

(20:42):
weight to just fall off, but I am very worried
that in almost two months I haven't lost even a pound.
I'm trying not to panic. Definitely don't panic, no panicking needed,
but the thought of being two hundred and sixty pounds
for the rest of my life is terrifying. For reference,
I am five foot five inches. So what are my questions?
Number One? Should I have been doing something different when

(21:04):
I was losing weight so fast? And is the quick
weight loss what could have caused my issues my fibroid
and my inflamed liver. If I decide to do ADF again,
is there something I can do to help flush the
release toxins out of my body? Say they don't harm
my system? Again, Let's just answer that real quick. I
wouldn't worry about that.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
I would not worry about that at all.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yeah, No, I don't think that that charmed your system.
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Yeah, I don't think and it's a good thing to
get these toxins out of your body. And I will
just say while Jen was talking, I did just do
a little quick search. They do know that like high
fat dairy and even eating a lot of high fat
red meat like saturated fat, has been linked to an

(21:51):
increased risk of fibroids. Yeah, so I think it's probably
more likely that.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
It's was good choice.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
If it truly grew that quickly, it could have potentially
been the keto diets leading to that. But again that's
just a guess. We don't know what happens.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
We don't know that you were eating a lot of dairy.
But I will say dairy is growth promoting, and I'm
not anti dairy. I love dairy, I eat diary.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
Jena is the cheese queen I loved, I love cream,
I love butter, I love dairy.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Dairy is delicious. But dairy is nature's perfect food for
mammal babies at the period of their life or they're
growing the fastest. It's got like is the correct word
in growth factors. I don't know, but it's growth promoting.
It's literally designed for growth. So it makes sense that
something funky that might be growing if you're having a
lot of something that promotes growth. Anyway, I don't want

(22:43):
you to worry about that you've harmed your system. I
do want to say you can support your body. When
I was writing Cleanish, guess what helps our body detox beautifully?
Fruits and vegetables, whole grains, fiber, eating real food, carbohydrates
help our bodies deal with toxins. It helps our liver

(23:05):
clear things out because they're the vitamins, the minerals, and
the fiber helps in our gut, all sorts of different things.
All right, So number two, why am I having so
much trouble losing any weight at all this time? Is
it possible that I've permanently damaged something somehow? No, well,
we'll talk about that in a minute. Three. Is there
anything specifically I should or can do to lose weight

(23:26):
post ysterectomy? The doctor said it would not send me
in a menopause since I still have my ovaries. But
I'm just not sure what's going on. Thank you so
much for all you do and all the information you give.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
Okay, well, you said that you started again with sixteen eight.
You don't really say that you've progressed from that.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah, she said it's hard.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Yeah, So if you're still doing sixteen eight, you're find
it hard. You're not losing weight. That's not going to
be a weight loss protocol for you, and it is
not a weight loss protocol for very many people.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
What'sn't for me?

Speaker 2 (23:57):
So you definitely want to shift to a shorter eating window.
You know, if you found yourself in enjoining ADF, you
might pivot back to that and see, you know if
that's for you, or just shorten that eating window up.
Get that eating window down to five hours every single day.
It's going to feel better. You're going to naturally make

(24:19):
better food choices in your window, we've found. So yeah,
get that window shorten. You just have havet to power
through and do it. You can do it, and that
is going to really get your body to shift into
fat burning. As for you said, you know, why are
you having trouble losing weight this time around? I think
that's probably it. Now. If you've already shortened your window
and you're not losing weight, then you could just be

(24:41):
somebody who just really really does need to be low
carb right now. Your body may still have a lot
of healing to do. If you've been significantly overweight for
a long period of time. Something you could do is
get a fasting insulin drawn. See where that stands. Calculate
your homa IR score, which is your insulin resistance score.

(25:02):
There's homer IR, it's homa dash IR calculators online. You
need a fasting glucose and a fasting insulin level. You
put those in and it gives you a score that
can give you something to work towards even if weight
loss is slow for you. And then you know you
asked about weight loss post hysterectomy, and I don't want
to contradict your doctor, but I have to. There's research

(25:25):
out there that I'm just going to read it to you.
Women undergoing hysterectomy, we're at a nearly a twofold increased
risk for ovarian failure as compared to women with an
intact uterus after hysterectomy. Twenty five percent of ovaries fail
within six months and forty percent fail within three years.
You could be having some hormonal issues, so that is

(25:47):
something that you know. You can get your labs tested,
you can start journaling symptoms, and you know it's very
possible that that surgery can or did send you into menopause,
which can make way loss more stubborn. But the first
thing I would really do is just shorten that eating window,
get a fasting insulin and fasting glucose, then create a

(26:10):
fasting protocol that is going to support healing your body,
healing your insulin resistance, and shedding the fat that you're
trying to shed.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
And I really want to just zero in on that
one question that you said, is it possible that I
have permanently damaged something? Somehow? Bodies are resilient, Thank goodness, right,
Our bodies want to heal. Your body doesn't want to
be two hundred and sixty pounds, and when you give
it the right circumstances to release the weight, it will happen.

(26:39):
And you loved adf before you mentioned that you have
battled with being obese for most of your life. I
would bet that you do have high levels of insulin,
and like Sherry said, getting that you got to have
the fasting insulin in the fasting glucose at the same time,
like you have to have them at the same time,
Like a new fasting insulin and an old fasting glucose
aren't going to help you right to make sure you

(26:59):
get I'm drawn at the same time to find your
insulin resistance score. But it makes sense why you did
so great with ADF before, because that's great for lowering insulin,
and I have a hunch that that's an issue. And again,
high insulin is often linked to fibroid growth as well.
And I don't want you to feel like you hurt
yourself or you've damaged your body permanently. Because bodies heal.

(27:21):
We see it on the surface of our skin. We
cut our skin, it heals. So things heal on the
inside too, where we can't see them. So I want
you to have confidence that your body can do this.
You have the tools, between your fasting strategies, your food choices,
you can figure out what works. But we would both
say that what you're doing right now the eight hour
window is not going to be your fat loss protocol.

(27:44):
And I don't want you to be afraid of losing fat.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
There's one caveat I just wanted to add is the
only way you could have done any damage to your
metabolism with doing ADF is if you were not doing
sufficient updates. And if you were doing ADF and not
doing sufficient up days. Then yes, you could downregulate your
metabolism to where you are now struggling to lose weight.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
That's true.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Yeah, but normally, if that's what's happening, then you have
pretty quick and significant weight regain. And it would be
hard to do that for several months like you did.
I think you did ADF for three months. It'd be
really hard to significantly under eat for three months at
a time like that. Your body would have been giving you
signs and you didn't reference that, but I did just
want to kind of throw that out there.

Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, that's a good point. And the good news about
that is metabolisms are also resilient, so even if your
metabolism slowed, you can boost it.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
And if you think that was you, then I would
just jump back into ADF. So we have a question
from Jody from South Dakota. She says, Hello, I've been
fasting since around February this year, but the end of April,
about a month ago, I was recommended Jin's book by
our family doctor. Hooray, and for the first time heard
of clean fasting. I'm five foot one and I was

(28:57):
at one hundred and ninety one pounds. The heaviest I've
ever been. I'm thirty four and I've had four kids
in six years. I'm happy to say that now at
the end of May, I have lost around ten pounds
and I'm wearing leggings I haven't worn for a year
because they were too tight. I'm so happy about this
and how easy the lifestyle change was. My question is

(29:19):
how to find the best eating window for you. I
could wait until one pm, but sometimes I find myself
eating earlier because if we go out for the day,
I don't want to pack food for myself. Yet waiting
until five or six pm seems like too much for me.
Do I need to have a consistent eating window or
can it be flexible based on the day. For example,

(29:39):
if we are taking a day trip to the zoo,
can I eat before we leave and close my eating
window early, and then when we are home all day
wait until after to eat or is it better to
have the same window time every single day. Any thoughts
are appreciated. Noe. Sometimes I get shaky if I'm truly
hungry and don't feel well, so I'm nervous to be

(30:01):
out and about with kids on an empty stomach.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
All right, Jody, great questions and I see that you're
just one month into the clean fast. That really explains
why you're still getting a little hungry. Maybe when you're
out and about, your body may not have flipped the
metabolic switch yet. That is possible once you are fat
adapted and your body is able to feel a little

(30:25):
hunger for a minute, and then you know, like we
talked about earlier, say all right, body, get some stored fuel.
Your body can do it. If you are fast and clean,
you should not get shaky. If your body can flip
that switch and tap into your fat stores. So I
don't want you to think, you know, back in the past,
when you were eating all all, you know, starting the

(30:45):
day with breakfast, having snacks, all of that, you could
get shaky. You have that blood sugar drop because your
body's wanting more food to come in. It's not flipping
the switch. But now that you're fast and clean, your
body should be able to flip the switch, and you
should not have that bloodhor crashed to make you shaky.
So be confident that your body knows what to do.
If you do find you know, once you've been fasting

(31:07):
sufficiently long enough that you should be flipping the switch.
If you find that you're getting shaky during your fast,
then I would really examine your fast and see if
you're accidentally somehow breaking your fast. It could be something
like a bottled coffee or tea product, or something you're
grabbing while you're out. And about one time, I got
really shaky after a McDonald's black coffee. And I don't

(31:27):
think McDonald's black coffee as a rule, should break the fast,
but it was just a random day. I don't know.
Maybe they'd clean the machine in a weird way, or
maybe they'd accidentally who knows what it was contaminated with,
but I was fasting, I had some of that coffee.
I got really shaky. So there was something about that
particular coffee that broke my fast that day, And I
don't know what it.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Could have been. Something as silly as they love to
add their sugar syrup to their coffee.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Maybe they accidentally, maybe they did.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
It, they dumped your coffee cup and they re used
the same cup. I mean, you just never know.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Who knows what it was. But I got shaky that time,
and it was just a very strange situation because I
don't get shaky after black coffee, but something in that
coffee made me shaky. I don't know what it was.
It could be if you're taking vitamins on an empty stomach,
supplements on an empty stomach, any of that, or just
like I said, just that you're not fat adapted yet.
So when it comes to when do you have to

(32:19):
have your window, does it have to be the same
exact time every day? No, you can slide it around
as works for you. Shift it earlier, shift it later.
I would just think of it as like a little
sliding scale.

Speaker 2 (32:30):
You know.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
Let's say you're having a five hour window. Just slide
that five hours down, slide it up, make it work,
and make it fit your schedule for the day. Now
that being set, if I open too early, I have
a hard time keeping my window closed because I legitimately
get hungry again before bedtime. I have learned that about myself.
Like if I'm like, well, I'll just have a really big,

(32:52):
you know, brunch at ten o'clock and I'll close by
after that big brunch, you know, I'm stuffed, it's new
and I'm closing. I'm done by the time eight o'clock
rolls around, I'm like starving, can't sleep. Legitimately hungry. Those
early windows don't work well for me. So this is
where experimenting comes in. And again, you're just a month
into the clean fast and so you will be able

(33:13):
to figure out what window shifting works well for you
and if you can wait until five on certain days,
and then you can if you're fat adapted, right, not
every day. I'm not saying every day you should wait
until five, but I absolutely I could go till five, six, seven, eight.
I could just go on and on if I had to,

(33:33):
because I'm busy.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, And I have to wonder too as far as
window length, because she doesn't say her window length. If
you are absolutely sure that you're clean fasting, you get
to six or seven weeks of clean fasting and you're
still feeling this way before opening your window, it could
be that you need to tweak your window length.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Yep, it could be too long for you to be
shifting into fab beting. Yeah. All right, now it's time
for our segment called What's your Why. Most of us
begin intermittent fasting with weight loss in mind, and that
is a great reason to begin. But I genuinely believe
when your why is deeper than weight loss alone, you're
more likely to find long term success and view intermittent

(34:14):
fasting as a lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
All right, So this week we have a why from Katie.
She said, what's my why? I've been reflecting deeply on
this question. While my initial journey into endermint fasting began
with the goal of losing weight, what I've discovered along
the way has been so much more profound. Over the
past few months, as I've immersed myself in your podcast,
your words have nudged me to look inward and truly

(34:38):
explore what's behind my desire for change. This journey has
become about far more than just numbers on a scale.
I've struggled with my weight since I was a little
girl around eight years old. Food in my home was
tied to emotion. It was comfort during sadness, of reward
during stress, and a way to feel safe when life
was anything. But my childhood was marked by loss and

(34:59):
respect wot's ability far too early. My mom became seriously
ill when I was just ten, with something very similar
to motor neuron disease, and by twelve, my dad had
to stop working to care for her. Sadly, he turned
to alcohol as a way to cope and life at
home quickly became chaotic. By the time I was fourteen,
my mom had gone into full time care and I

(35:20):
was left to keep the house running, managing bills, cooking,
and simply trying to survive. School fell by the wayside.
I lost my mom just after I turned nineteen. A
few months later I lost my dad too. My teenage
years were shaped by grief and survival skills I developed
to endure it. Food became my escape, my comfort, and

(35:40):
eventually my prison. Over the years, my weight has fluctuated drastically,
from one hundred and sixty pounds on my wedding day
to two hundred and fifty pounds after lockdown. But no
matter than number, I always felt like I wasn't in control.
That is until I found intermittent fasting and more importantly,
your community. It has been a year since I began,

(36:01):
and for the first time in my life, I feel empowered.
I finally feel like I am not at war with food.
So what is my why? I am now forty three.
I have two beautiful children with my wonderful husband, a
twenty year old son and a fifteen year old daughter.
They are my heart. I refuse to leave them without
a mother. I want to be there as they grow
into the incredible adults I know that they're becoming. I

(36:24):
want to dance at their weddings, meet my grandchildren, and
be the kind of grandparent that my children never had
the chance to know. I will meet my grandkids, and
I'm doing this for me too. I want to live
a life where I am in control, where food doesn't
dictate my emotions, my energy, or my worth. I've found
that freedom through interment, fasting, and i know in my

(36:45):
heart this is for life. Thank you Jin and Sherry
for the love, wisdom, and support you pour into every
podcast and every corner of the delay. Don't deny community.
I'm so deeply grateful with love. Katie in the Isle
of Man, Wow, huh, I'm so sorry for all that
you went through. While I was reading that, I went

(37:06):
I started thinking, you know, I know that people who
are over weight are so unfairly judged by.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Society, anxiety, ourselves.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
And it just really just goes to show you have
no idea what a person has battled in their life
right and how they have coped. Yep, And it's true.
Food is a really powerful comfort coping mechanism, and that
becomes a habit. It becomes a habit to use food

(37:36):
as a shield, as a comfort, to make yourself feel
better on a bad day. It's not just about shedding
the weight. It's about learning new coping habits right, and
coping mechanisms. That's where I think intermittent fasting, you take
that pause from eating, and you are really forced to

(37:58):
identify what are you really feeling? What do you really need?
That's why it causes so much just I feel like personal.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
Growth, right, and especially if we have been used to
numbing our feelings with food. We developed that habit for
whatever reason. And you know, good Lord Katie went through
terrible situations with her mom passing away and then her
dad turning to alcohol. And you know, I've had alcoholic
family members. I totally get how hard that is, and
especially it's chaotic when you're young and you're running the

(38:26):
household yourself. I mean, that is more than any fourteen
year old should be bearing. Right, You've developed the habit
of food is there. Food is comforting, and so then
you start intermittent fasting and you no longer are turning
to food for comfort because you have that boundary, the
boundary of intermittent fasting requires you to sit more with

(38:48):
your feelings, to feel them you're not numbing them, or
how to care for yourself and feel those feelings. And
then as you know that you can do it, it feels empowering.
Just like Katie said, you're no longer at war with
the food because you've got that boundary that is helping you, right,
and so you're like, well, it's not even a possibility
that I'm going to soothe myself with the bag of

(39:09):
Doritos because my window is closed. So Katie, that was
absolutely beautiful and thank you so much for sharing it.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
All right, So we have a question from Amanda in
South Wales, UK. Hi both love the podcast, but I'm
getting despondent on my journey to nowhere. I am a
ninety four kilogram fifty eight year old female with arthritis
and hypothyroidism, and I have dieted since I was sixteen.
I found keto in twenty nineteen and I thought it
was the answer. I lost twenty pounds but no more

(39:38):
and I have found it restrictive, so gradually phased to
low carb top tip. The keto helped massively with my
joint pain and I came off of my painkillers thanks
to it. Then I found doctor Fung and I tried fasting,
but I didn't get anywhere. And this year, thanks to
the encouragement of my friend Lucy, I have dedicated twenty
twenty five to intermittent. I started the twenty eight day

(40:02):
fastart on January first, and I have continued to fast
with the aim of a daily eating window of five
hours or less. It is now April twenty third, but
I'm not losing weight. I know you say give it
time and trust the process, but it's a pound a
month too much to ask for. I just don't understand.
I clean fast, I eat whole foods, I have cut
back the alcohol. What to tweak During my window, I

(40:25):
either eat one large meal of two courses, or one
snack and one meal, depending on the day. I know
that thyroid problems can hinder weight loss, but I also
see success stories, and I want to have a success story. Currently,
my success is that a five hour eating window means
I don't gain weight, and that is a success. I
acknowledge that, but I really want to lose twenty pounds,

(40:46):
if only to help my poor arthritic needs. It's hard
work to keep doing this with no results. My friends
are all on the jabs and looking great, and I
am sitting here, fasting and fat. Any help would be
greatly appreciated. I really want this to work and be
my lifestyle, but I am hanging on by a thread.
Thank you for all you do. I love the success stories,

(41:07):
but a few struggle stories would help to I feel
like I'm not the only one losing weight in the
whole f FI world. What do you have for her? Jin?

Speaker 1 (41:15):
All right, well, I've got a lot. First of all,
I had to do a little math calculation because ninety
four kilograms is two hundred and seven pounds. I'm not
really sure how tall you are, but regardless of your height,
two hundred and seven you're going to want to lose
some weight from that. So you're fifty eight, and you
have arthritis, and you have hypothyroidism, and you have now
been doing intermittent fasting for Shane, it looks like just

(41:39):
over four months as of this, like four months, and
you're not losing weight.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
So and also she's dieted since she was sixteen.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
I think that's really really an important factor. So here's
the thing I don't want you to feel despondent. And
I also don't want you to think that the JAB
is going to be your answer. And here's why. It
doesn't sound like you're overeating. You're eating in a window
one large meal of two courses or one snack and
one meal. So I bet if you counted your calories,

(42:09):
you are not over eating. So let's see what the
weight loss job does. Is it lowers your hunger levels, right,
it makes you feel full so you can't eat. It
does lots of other things too, But what it would
do is it would restrict your calories more, so you'd
be on even a more of a low calorie diet.
The research is finding that it really is causing a

(42:29):
loss of a lot of muscle mass. So you're fifty
eight years old, you do not want to lose a
lot of muscle mass. I saw a video on YouTube
where someone was going through all that. It is going
to cause you so much more trouble if you're not
feeling strong now. If you go on a weight loss injection,
even lower calorie than you're doing now, you could expect

(42:53):
to lose a lot of muscle. And yes, you might
be smaller in size in your body, but you're not
going to be strong, you're not going to be healthier.
It's not going to help set you up for a
better success. So here's what we know so far. The
eating window approach that you're using right now is not
causing your body to lose weight. That's what we know.
But does that mean that there is no weight loss

(43:16):
approach that is going to work for you except for
weight loss shots. I don't believe that's true. And you know,
I know you said at the end that you would
like some struggle stories. I'm pretty sure that every one
of these episodes of Fast Feast Repeat has people who
are struggling in it. So I want you to recognize
that so many of our questions are with people who
are struggling. You're not alone. Now, if you're only listening

(43:36):
to intermittent fasting stories, then well, those people it's like
a different self selection process, right. People who have had
incredible success self select for intermittent fasting stories and they
come on that podcast and tell about their success. Versus
here on Fast Feast Repeat. We have people with questions
and more so, yes, we have some celebrations, but if
you listen to the questions every week, there are people

(43:59):
who are struggling every single day. You are not alone
in your struggle. So everybody get that out of your head.
Not everybody starts intermitting fasting has a five hour window,
all the weight falls off, Boom done. It's not like
that for a whole lot of people. And the longer
you've been overweight, the longer you've struggled with this, the

(44:20):
more dieting you've done in your life, that signifies it's
going to be harder for you. And it's not your fault.
So I don't want you to take on a lot
of self blame when it comes to this, but I
want you to know that you're working with what you're
working with. Your past history made you who you are today.
And if you've got a body that was obese for
decades and you've been dieting for decades, you've got some

(44:43):
consequences that come along with that, And again, it's not
your fault. It's just the fact of the state of
your body. When I was two hundred and ten pounds,
I got there through what I had been doing with
my body. My hunch is that your successful approach is
going to be adf alternate daily fasting. I want you
to get a copy of the second edition of Delayed

(45:04):
on Tonight. Make sure it's Delayed on Tony. Make sure
it's the second edition. The paperback is available on Amazon,
the ebook is available the audiobook anywhere you get your ebooks,
your audiobooks. And I want you to read about ADF.
You're going to have down days and you're going to
have updays. Make sure your updays I would say, have
a twelve hour upday with three meals early breakfast first

(45:26):
thing in the morning, lunch in the middle of the day,
dinner at night. And then on your down day, you
can either choose the full fast option or you can
choose the five hundred calorie down day, and you'll structure
that in a short window. All of that is in
Delayed on Tonight, the second edition. But I really genuinely
think you probably need the metabolic boost of the upday.
It sounds to me like that's super important for you.

(45:47):
And then the down days is where you're going to
tap into fat and you've got to be patient. You
might actually see a little bit of weight gain at first,
because it's going to take time to upregulate your metabolism.
But as I said earlier, bodies are not broken forever.
Bodies are resilient, and if your metabolism is slow, you
can boost it. Food quality is also going to make

(46:08):
a big difference. If you've found great success with a
lower carb approach, then maybe you can combine the two.
We got to work with the bodies that we have.
That is the main thing that I want everyone to
always understand. You have to work with the body that
you have. And I know that it's so tempting when
you see your friends that seem to be losing weight
so fast. But ten years from now, what shape is

(46:28):
their body going to be in. Are they going to
have muscle mass, are they going to be strong and healthy?
Or are they going to have stopped taking the shots?
Now they've regained it all, but it's now, it's all fat.
Comparison is the thief of joy. And don't compare yourself
to them. Compare yourself today to how you're going to
be in the future when you really find the intermitt
and fasting lifestyle that works for you. So before we
get to our week of the week, I want to

(46:49):
take a minute to tell you my books and I
just mentioned Delayed on tonight, the second edition and that
is really the one that I recommend everybody start with.
It is to me, the best quick introduction to intermittent
fasting out there, not just because I wrote it. I
think that it is my school teacher voice comes through
and it tells you everything you know to get started,
and it might be all that you need to know,

(47:10):
and so I would start with that. You can find
it on Amazon if you want the paperback or the
ebook and the audiobook wherever you get your ebooks and
your audio books. If you're somebody who quit intermittent fasting
for a while and you're struggling to get back started,
that's where twenty eight day fast Start day by day
can come in. That is a very useful tool for
either starting or restarting, but it's especially seems to be

(47:32):
helpful for people who quit for a long period of
time and they want to get back started, but they
want to jump right in where they had been before,
and they're having a hard time. Twenty eight day fast
Start day by day can help you. And that you
can find that wherever you buy your books. So now
it's time for our tweak of the week. You know
I always say tweak it till it's easy. But the
tweak that works for me might not be the one
that works for you. And that is why it's super

(47:53):
helpful to hear how other intermittent fasters are making intermittent
fasting work for them. And again, like I said, comparison
can be the thief of joy. We've got to find
the tweak that works for us. You can't just say, well,
I'm going to do exactly what Jen didn't get the
same results. You're different than me. I'm different than you.
Scherry is different than me. We all have different tweaks
that work for us and different things that we enjoy.

(48:15):
So this is what has worked for Cindy in Minnesota.
She says her focus is on living well with balanced
days with a focus on more than just the fast
and the feast. Hello Jin and Sherry, thank you for
letting me submit this new tweek.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (48:30):
Hopefully by the time this is shared, it will have
become a new habit. Here is my tweak. Every day
I try to move my body, I do something kind
for myself or others. I reach my daily intermittent fasting goals.
I eat healthy and wholesome foods, and at the end
of the day, if I have hit three of these

(48:51):
four goals, I can rest my head on the pillow
and give myself a pat on the back. I love
that I do too. Move your body, do something kind
for yourself for others. Reach your daily if goal, eat
healthy and wholesome foods. Yeah, relax into the process.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
And I love that she's not aiming for perfection. Exactly
three of those four goals and she's satisfied.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
All right. So this week we have an inspirational quote.
Or actually it's not even inspirational quote. It is an affirmation,
and I love affirmations. This is from Triple J in Alabama.
The affirmation is I am ready to start a new
chapter in my life. And that sounds so simple, but
it can be so profound. He went on to write,

(49:35):
Hello DDD community, your happy ending is still within your grasp.
Let's keep going even if we stumble or fall, get up,
shake the dust off your feet. Remember that every setback
is a learning experience and an opportunity for growth. And
he is so right.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
I love Trouble Jay. I actually just interviewed him last
week for Intermittent Fasting Stories. His episode comes out September
twenty fifth, so you're going to have to wait everybody
till September twenty fifth. But he is just such an
inspiration and I loved talking to him.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Yeah, I'm really enjoying having him in the community. And
he comes in and just brings joy every time he
comes into Kennedy. And he's had a hard life and
he's had a lot of health issues and struggles loss.
One day he just said enough's enough and he took
his life back.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
We talked about energy at the beginning of the episode today,
about the energy. He just puts out so much positive
energy in the world. Love it, and you know there
are people that just do that and he's one of them.
Thanks so much for listening today. We would love to
have you join us in the Delayed on Tonight community,
where you can interact with both me and Sherry, plus
the most supportive bunch of intermittent fasters you'll find anywhere.

(50:51):
Go to Jen Stevens dot com slash community to join us.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite podcast,
and if you haven't already, please leave us a five
star review that helps new listeners find the show, and
we really appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
We are a community driven podcast, so to submit your
success stories, your questions, your favorite tweak it till It's Easy, moments,
or anything else you want us to share on the podcast,
go to fast Feast Repeat dot com slash submit and
then listen each week to see if we share your
submission or answer your question

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Until next week, Thanks for listening,