Episode 111: ADF for Metabolic Boosting, Confusion About Fasting, Women, & Protein, and More

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

To make a submission for the podcast, go to fastfeastrepeat.com/submit.  We are a community-driven podcast, and we look forward to sharing your questions, success stories, non-scale victories, IF tweaks, motivational quotes (and more!) on each episode of the podcast. 

Resources used in today’s episode: 

https://www.fastfeastrepeat.com/episodes-and-shownotes/episode-42-that-recent-fasting-study-if-while-eating-out-and-more 

https://www.fastfeastrepeat.com/episodes-and-shownotes/episode-28-dr-tabatha-barber-obgyn-and-fasting-for-women 

All about Hormones with Dr. Tabatha Barber:  https://youtu.be/7eaRbcri1EQ

Fasting and Women: Debunking the Myths, with Dr. Tabatha Barber:  https://youtu.be/A-cy1XwE8ws

To inquire about personal coaching, contact Sheri@ fastfeastrepeat.com

https://www.fastfeastrepeat.com/sheri.html  

https://crunchi.com/?als=SheriBullock 

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2019.00147/full 

Gin has a new YouTube Channel!  Visit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_frGNiTEoJ88rZOwvuG2CA and subscribe today so you never miss an intermittent fasting tip, a support session, or an interview with a past IF Stories guest or expert.

Want to learn more about BiOptimizer’s Magnesium Breakthrough? Visit www.bioptimizers.com/fastfeastrepeat and use code FFR10 to save 10% off any order. 

Go to fastfeastrepeat.com to see Gin’s and Sheri’s favorite things, and to shop with us.  Every purchase you make through links on our website help to support this podcast so we can keep bringing you episodes each week. 

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IF is free. You don’t need to join our community to fast. But if you’re looking for support from a community of like-minded IFers, we are here for you at  ginstephens.com/community. 

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 Repeat.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
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 to

(00:30):
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.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Today's Sherry, I'm doing great.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
I'm so glad.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Me too.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Hot?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, it is that time of year that it's really hot.
My husband is cranky. Have you ever seen that mate
that says, please forgive me for the things I said
while I was hot? No, that's my husband. He's very
heat intolerant.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Well, he wouldn't have liked my air conditioner going out
the other day. So luckily it's fixed now.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
So oh no, he would not have done well with
that at all.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
I woke up in the morning. I was like, why
am I so hot? Something's not right? Yeah, it was
not right. So we're fixed. It was easy. Drain line unclogged.
I like those repairs that take five minutes, right, right
as soon as guy walked in the door, it's like,
it's going to be your drain line.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I'm like, what he was crazy that you and I
had the exact same problem the same summer.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Well, it's the summer, and he said, in the summer,
if it's a problem, it's the drain line. Yeah, you know,
we live in a very humid climate, both of us.
Due Yeah, we got a lot of water to get
out of the air. A lot of draining needs to happen.
And thank goodness, it's you know, shut off my system
instead of flooding.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
But you're flooding like mine. Min's flog. Yeah, mine flood. Luckily,
the ac, the whole HVAC unit is above my garage
up in that attic. So I mean, I do have
now water stains on my garage ceiling that at some
point I'll have to tackle. But I needed to do
some work out there anyways. So yeah, but yeah, I
wasn't and luckily we were home, like it didn't happen

(02:17):
while we were out of town or something, because my
little valve shut off was broken, so that's why mine
just kept pumping water out into the attic. But yeah,
you know, first world problems, I guess.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Thank goodness for air conditioning. I just don't know how
people lived.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
It's when you have a day without air conditioning that
you're like, oh, my gosh, will survive before this? I think?
And people settled in the South where it's humid and hot.
Why did they do that? But during the wintertime, I
think about people who live up in Michigan, and our
house is different.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
You know when you think back to the southern, you know,
traditional houses, they were built with big doorways and windows
and you would catch the cross breeze and they built
them up high. And so you know, we we did it.
It took naps, we had sleeping porches. Yeah, we did it.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well, you know, I grew up as a kid without air.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
Conditioning for several summers because my parents bought an older
house the AC didn't work. It took them several summers
before they were able to afford to get a new
AC unit. And I remember there were several nights we
would sleep out on our deck just so you could
get a breeze through there. So, yeah, you just forget.
You get accustomed to living in climate controlled the world,

(03:33):
and then it seems worse when you you know, when
it's taken away from you. It's true anyway, Well, we
have a celebration today from Thelma. Thelma wrote ten years
ago I started IF. It's been a roller coaster ride,
but now it seems so much easier to fast. I
haven't lost too much weight, but I keep active. I
lift weight and I do some cardio. I can see

(03:55):
my arms toning and it's freaking awesome. My biggest non
steal victory is this one. Two years ago, my cholesterol
was over three hundred, and as of yesterday, my cholesterol
is one oh two. I just turned fifty this year,
and this is the best gift I have given myself
all my life. My cholesterol has always been super high.
Thank you, Jen and Cherry for all the great advice

(04:17):
you give you guys are awesome. Well, thank you, Elma,
and that is fantastic.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
So now we have a question from a listener. This
question is from seeking advice from the Mitten. Now I'm
going to guess is that going to be like? Is
that Michigan?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Is it Michigan? That's the Mitten looks like? Am what
I would think?

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Yeah? Well, hello from the Mitten, Hygen and Sherry. I've
been a yoyo dieter for many years. I wasn't overweight
until I become a happily married adult, but over time
the weight crept on. At age thirty, I tried weight
watchers and lost thirty pounds, hit my goal and literally
started regaining the very next day. Not even kidding. Oh
my gosh, I believe it. I do that. That was

(04:57):
me with every diet before intermitten fasting, she said. Over
the years, I tried other diets, none with lasting success.
Most recently, regrettably, I joined the Optavia bandwagon. I think
that's how you say it optavia or is it optavia?

Speaker 2 (05:11):
I've heard it pronounced optavia, but I don't have any
idea how it's supposed.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
To whichever one. So she lost nearly sixty pounds getting
down to one fifty five, but as often happens, the
regain began. I'm currently back up to one eighty eight,
so I've regained nearly thirty five pounds. I stopped Optavia
Optavia whichever it is in late twenty twenty two and
have been intermittent fasting ever since. And I have to say,

(05:36):
I've heard that from some people who tried that program.
It's one of those classic low calorie diet that slows
your metabolism.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
There's a girl I worked with who's done it several times.
Like her and her husband will do it. They'll lose
a bunch of weight really fast, and then they stop
doing it and then they put the weight back on.
It's sort of like plus do it again, right, But then,
like the last time she did it, she didn't have
any results from it.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yep, the metabolics slowed down. And that is the part
that's so heartbreaking and also predictable. You know, when I
studied about the Minnesota starvation experiment, and I talk about
it in the Introduction of Fastiat Repeat and also the
Biggest Loser study. We understand, we understand why all these
programs work the first time and then you gain the
weight back plus more and then they don't work again.

(06:26):
That's that metabolic slow down. But the good news is
we can fix it, all right. So she goes on
to say, while I'm not currently losing, I do believe
intermittent fasting has helped slow the rebound. I clean fast
a minimum of twenty hours a day with a few
longer windows here and there, and I know it could
improve my food choices during my eating window. My goal

(06:46):
is to lose the remaining thirty to thirty five pounds
and maintain forever this time, I truly believe intermittent fasting
is my long term lifestyle. I recently had my fasting
insulin tested and it came back just over eight I've
since learned I should have tested my glucose at the
same time, so I plan to repeat that soon. Other
than an inflammatory autoimmune condition called all right, you're gonna

(07:09):
have to be my medical pronouncer, Sherry.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Thank alosing spondylitis.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
I've seen that a million times. It's like a type
of arthritis, right.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Uh, yes, like an autoimmune Yeah, but you're just gonna
have to read it for me every time, no more room.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
To retain that pronunciation. Let's see, she said, I consider
myself pretty healthy. I take a weekly injection of inbrel
and also use inceds and occasional pain medication is part
of my treatment. I'm mentioning this in case it's relevant
to my weight loss challenges or my insulin or metabolic response.
Other than that, I'm not on any medication. Here's what

(07:47):
I love your thoughts on. Do you think I have
trashed my metabolism to the point that I need to
incorporate some alternative fasting ADF or can someone heal their
metabolism just by sticking with a consistent daily eating window
over time months or even years. For context, I'm fifty
nine five to four, used to be fifty seven. Say

(08:09):
the word again? Should say it? Ankylosik spondylitis, Thank you
has compressed my spine. I'm one hundred and eighty eight
pounds currently. I've dabbled in fasting for years but never
lost more than a few pounds, and her disease that
I'm not going to say again primarily affects the spine
and the sec million joints, causing pain and stiffness. And

(08:31):
over time can lead to reduce to my ability or
spinal fusion. I've read all of Gen's books and listened
to the podcasts regularly. One small question when entering my
stats into a smart MEMI calculator, should I use my
current height or my former height? I can answer that
real quick, use your current height.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
Oh that would give you a different answer.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Oh you would say use former height?

Speaker 2 (08:51):
Absolutely? What? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Why?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Because her body itself has not really changed, Like her
femur length hasn't changed. Like when you think you're five
foot four, you have smaller femal lengths, smaller humorous lengths.
Your long bones are going to be smaller, your body's
going to be more compact when you're a smaller, shorter person.

(09:17):
But her, she's lost her height because basically she's lost
her matebral faces right well, the rest of her body
is that of a five foot seven person. You know
a lot of times with people with ankylosing spondylitis, they
kind of get a little hunched over, so they lose height.
That way, they lose their normal spinal curvature. And that's

(09:40):
why to lose height.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
I see that my great grandmother had osteoporosis and she
did have that real curvature in her back, So like
if it's curvature, so if you were dismeasured back out
and you could.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Stretch her spine back out where it's supposed to be,
she would still be five seven. She has a five
foot seven body, her frame, her frame, right, and her
muscles that go with that body, and her bones that
go with that body. So I would absolutely use her
original height.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
Well, thank you for explaining that. I still would probably
use the other one because I don't know, but I
understand your logic there. So you get to decide, like.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Her frame didn't shrink to match her shorter spine. Does
that make sense?

Speaker 1 (10:25):
I do understand what you're saying. Yeah, So now it's
like calling into question so many things about BMI and
hy BMI is flawed to begin with, because you know,
you can be compact in a different way, and it
can say that you're obese when you're just really high.
You know you have a lot of muscles. So I mean,
we know that BMI is flawed, right, And again, now

(10:46):
I guess it just goes to show that BMI is
extra flawed when you have gotten shorter for whatever reason.
There's another level of flaw that I hadn't considered.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
I mean, like, these are things I could question too,
because I have a patient that's had a amputation of
their entire leg right, and now you're trying to figure
out their BMI or there for you know, weight based
dosing of medications. So it's like, do you add I mean,
they say a leg is like one seventh of your

(11:18):
body weight, So do you do you add that one
seventh back? I mean, like, I mean, wouldn't you do?

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Don't you dose based on weight based on the way
that it's absorbed in the body, And if you have
less weight because you're missing your limb, then you would
need a smaller dose.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, that's an argument. I mean, I guess depends on
what it is is exactly, But I mean, so that's
the thing.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
It's all sort of lots of factors.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
Why was going to try to use the smart BMI
to figure out a weight for my body? And her
healthy body before she was hit with this disease was
five 'ot seven That is what I would use to calculate.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
All right, Well, I guess you can really choose to
do it either way you want, But I totally understand
is logic there, and then she goes on to say,
thank you so much for the amazing content you share.
I'm learning a ton and feeling hopeful with warm regards.
All right, take it away, Sherry.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Okay, so you started fasting in late twenty twenty two,
so you've got two and a half years of fasting
under your belt, and you are doing a clean fast
of a minimum of twenty hours a day. You said,
with a few longer windows here and there, you did
indicate that you could improve your food choices during your

(12:31):
eating window. You have a long history of restrictive calorie dieting,
and so you know with that, not only are you
slowing down your metabolic rate, but all of these diets
like this, you are going to compromise your muscle mass.
And so when you compromise your muscle mass, that also

(12:55):
further compounds and slows your metabolic rates, because you know,
the more muscle you have, the higher metablock rate, the
hotter your body burns. So because of all of that,
and you don't really say how active you are, and
I don't know what your limitations are with your condition,
but it seems to me like right now is a

(13:15):
time for ADF for you if you have been doing
this and you know, you don't really say like, are
you on a plateau? Are you still slowly losing? You
don't really say that, but I'm going to say, Okay,
you're back up to one hundred and eighty eight pounds currently.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
You say you don't.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
You're not currently losing, so I'm not really sure where.
I'm not sure how much weight loss you've achieved since
you started fasting, which would be kind of interesting to know.
But anyways, I do believe that fasting is really good
for your condition. It keeps inflammation low, anklosing spondylitis, it's
you know, an inflammatory arthritis. Some say it could be

(13:54):
an autoimmune type arthritis, sort of like rheumatoid. So, you know,
fasting and keeping inflammation it was gonna be really good
for that. Your fasting insulin came back at just over eight,
so it's good. It's not optimal yet, and so ADF
not only is going to give you the metabolic boost
that you need to really, you know, get your your

(14:14):
metabolism higher so that your body can shift into some
fat burning. I think ADF is your answer. Did you
trash your metabolism? Know have you downregulated your metabolism? Absolutely.
This is very common for anybody who has done a
lot of restrictive dieting. If you were going to quote

(14:34):
unquote heal your metabolism by sticking with a daily eating window,
you would have already gotten to your goal weight.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Is my thought.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
Right, You've been doing this two and a half years
and you have thirty to thirty five pounds, so it's
definitely time to shift something. Now. You said that there
is some room to improve you're eating if you want
to try that first, and that sounds like something that
you could tweak, and you're willing to make that a adjustment,
and you want you want to do that for a
little bit, go ahead and do that. It's not going

(15:05):
to hurt you. It's only going to help you. And
here's the thing. You can alternate day fast to give
it yourself a metabolic boost. But if you are not
eating a quality diet while you're doing ADF, then you
may not get some of the metabolic benefits and you
may not get the anti inflammatory benefits that you could

(15:28):
get from ADF. So you know, making some tweaks to
your diet, reducing sugar, incorporating lots of fruits and veggies,
whole grains, whole foods, and then shifting to ADF would
be a great plan for you. And it doesn't take
a lot of tweaks. I'm nobody's telling you to overhaul
the entire way you eat, but make some tweaks, you know,

(15:48):
start including more fiber fruits and veggies, and then when
you're mentally ready, do a down day. Don't forget you
have your five hundred dollars, five hundred dollars. I wish
I had a five hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
I have a.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Great encouragement to do ADF. Yeah, five hundred dollars is
deposit in my bank account every time I did down day. Wow,
don't forget you have the five hundred calorie down day
that you can use. And if you're not really familiar
with how to do auto day fasting correctly in a
way that's going to give you the metabolic boost that
you seek, definitely get Gen's second edition of Delay Don't Deny.

(16:23):
She goes into all the ins and outs and everything
you need to know about adjusting to an alternate day
fasting protocol, And yeah, that's my best advice to you.
Is definitely it's time to do some metabolic healing. I believe. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
And the thing about metabolisms is that, yes, you can
slaw your metabolism, but metabolisms don't permanently break. You can
boost your metabolism even if it's slowed from a low
calorie diet. But that is where the ADF is so important,
like Sherry said, and I don't think that a daily
eating window is going to boost to sload metabolism. Probably

(16:58):
that's where the ADF really does come in. So you
can do it.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
All right, So we do want to take a minute.
I get submissions for the podcast on a submission for them,
and I go through them, and that's where, you know,
come up with our weekly questions from listeners and our
success stories and our tweaks of the weeks and whatever.
And a lot of times we get a lot of
duplicate type questions, and we we do duplicate these questions
from time to time. You know, we definitely don't want

(17:24):
to leave anybody hanging. And some of these we've answered before.
But a refresher is always good. I mean, sometimes people
are just not in a mental space or it doesn't
apply to them, and so they hear it and discard it.
So it's always good to retouch on certain things. But
we I'm assuming there must have been somebody on a
recent podcast or they've suddenly taken to social media influencing.

(17:48):
I don't know, but we're getting some really specific questions
on some subjects.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
I know exactly who there are walking it's a.

Speaker 2 (17:55):
Few people in the health and wellness to feel one person,
then let's call them from people. Right now, we have
several of these related these subjects, and you know, Jen
and I just really feel that some of these concerns
that are put out there, they just do not apply
to the people who follow the clean fast, the people
in our community who adhere to a clean fast every day,

(18:18):
people who eat well in their eating windows, who are
not restricting they're not trying to do restrictive dieting in
their eating windows. Like, we just don't feel that these
apply to our members. So some of these are related
to cautionary tales about women in fasting, or this idea
that we need to eat protein within thirty minutes of

(18:38):
waking up or fasting around minstrel cycles, are needing to
work out or eat like as soon as we work out.
Now we have to go feed our body to repair
our muscles. Like there's a lot of information out there,
it gets really muddy and confusing, and then people get
this kind of analysis paralysis where they don't know what
to do, and they get from frustrated. And we hear

(19:00):
from people like I tried doing this, and I tried
doing that, and then pretty soon I wasn't clean fasting anymore,
and now I feel awful, and now I'm starting over.
We don't want that to happen to you, Okay. There
was a news report in twenty twenty four, and it
surfaces from time to time regarding some correlation between people
who eat in a very short period each day potentially
having an increase in cardiovaster disease.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
And I don't.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Remember what the article is called, but they inferred these
people were doing intermittent fasting, but they were.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
Nash reports all said intermittent fasting, but they were not
fast None of the people were actually fasting. They were
just like reported that they only ate one meal, right,
and that's not the same thing as fasting. Like I
told the story in twenty eight day fast art day
by day in the negative Nelly's chapter about a friend
of mine who said, oh, yeah, I do the thing

(19:49):
that you do. I only eat one meal a day.
I'm like, oh, tell me about that. She's like, well,
wake up and I have a green juice and then
I have a latte, and then she's not fasting, right,
she thinks she's If someone said how many meals do
you eat, she would say one? But is she fasting?
Not even close? Not even close. So you have to

(20:10):
really understand that the clean fast is intentional and it's
not the same as skipping meals.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Right. You could be a person who smokes all day
long and drinks coffee with cream and sugar all day long,
and then you want to mask your breath from smoking
and coffee, so you suck on peppermints all day long.
But then you only eat dinner.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
Yeah, like's aunt, No, she only ate one meal a day.
My husband's aunt ate one meal a day, one actual meal,
but she drank a lot of coke all day long
and ate candy bars. Like that's how she's she's throughout
the day. She had coke and candy bars, and she
ate one meal a day. So if you asked her
how many meals do you ate? She would say one.

(20:53):
If you were asked her to take a survey, that's
what she would have said. And so you know, if
you say to how many meals do you eat? That
doesn't mean they're fasting right anyway, But that caused so
much confusion. Did you start reading it, You're like, this
is not a fasting study. These people were not fasting right.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
So anyways, we really broke that down and even how
to really take a look at when people relay what
they're calling research. Sometimes it's not a really true controlled
research project. It's simply we interviewed a bunch of people

(21:32):
and this is what they're reported, and you take all
of these people, then this is what we see. This
is a trend we see or whatever, and that's kind
of how this so called research was conducted. And again
it just was there was so many flaws in this
and although this came out in some cardiac conference or something,

(21:54):
there have been a lot of people since then who've
broken this down and just said, like this data was
essentially not useful and it is not intermittent fasting. So anyways,
there I did put the link to that episode in
show notes, So if you were one that was concerned
about that and you send in a question about that,
please go back and listen to episode forty two and then, Jen,

(22:17):
do you want to discuss the idea that's been presented
that women shouldn't fast, or they need to fast differently
than men, or they need to fast a certain way
that aligns with their cycles. And yes, all of that confusion.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
And the very best way to counter this confusion is
to listen to real fasting experts who are also hormone experts.
One of the people who's go out and about sharing
all this information about women is a chiropractor, not to
name any names, but presenting herself as a doctor. She's
a chiropractor. No shade against chiropractors. However, I get my

(22:53):
information about women and hormones from hormone experts, like my
friend doctor Tabitha Barber, who's a functional medicine doctor. She
started off as an abgyn, went back and got more
training about hormones and functional medicine and she loves fasting.
And so we did a deep dive on YouTube and

(23:14):
I have put links to two different YouTube episodes where
we talk about literally every one of these questions. One
of them is called all about Hormones with Doctor Tabitha Barber,
and the other one is called Fasting and Women Debunking
the Myths with doctor Tabatha Barber. They're on my YouTube channel.
You can find the links and show notes, or just
search for it on YouTube. To find me, you can

(23:34):
search atgen dot Stevens. That's how you find my channel.
And so, I mean you'd rather hear it from her.
I would really get my information from Tabitha versus a chiropractor.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Right.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
And as far as that exercise stuff, there's one person,
and some of these people just really like to go
on a lot of podcasts and they share it all
over the place, and we have this feeling that if
someone is saying it on a big name podcast, has
to be true. But I'm not discounting that this person
who's saying, you know, about women and fasting and exercise

(24:07):
and all this is bad. I'm not discounting that this
person might not have run into a lot of women
who are not fast and clean, overfasting and over exercising
and then having problems. I believe that's probably likely. If
you are overfasting, under eating, not fasting clean, doing a

(24:31):
ton of high intensity exercise, that's not good for you, right,
so perhaps she's made her conclusions based on people who
are not fasting in the way we would recommend. That's
what I really think. I don't think she's purposefully out there,
you know, trying to disparage fasting. I think she's probably
seen a lot of people who had problems based on
the way that we're doing it, and instead of counseling

(24:53):
them about their fasting, she's like, oh, fasting is bad
and don't do that. And so that's really important to
keep in mind. When we had doctor to have with
a barber on an earlier episode of this podcast, we
talked about that same thing, and she mentioned how Olympic athletes.
Women who are Olympic athletes often lose their periods because
they're eating in a very specific way for their training

(25:15):
and they are really really doing a lot of activity
more than is really good for our hormones. To be
an elite athlete, you have to really do that, and
that is not good for your hormones.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Right, And having very very low body fats right does
it's wart healthy hormone balance exactly.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
So you know, there are many many things that are
bad for women's hormones, and over exercising under eating over restriction.
Those are all bad for women's hormones. But we talked
about all the ways that we recommend you do fasting,
a daily eating one day where you're nourishing your body well,
ADF with a full up day, Those are not overly restrictive.

(25:58):
I actually think a typical twelve calorie diet where you're eating,
you know, six to eight small meals throughout the day,
I think that is probably hormonally worse than the clean
fast and eating in a window. And you know, why
does no one say that ozembic is bad for a
woman's hormones? Right, you know, because it is. That's even
more restrictive. And anyway, I think, you know, maybe there's

(26:21):
some nuggets of truth to what these people are saying,
but it's not the whole picture, right of what's really
going on.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
There's this theory that if you work out fasted, that
you cannot build muscle, and that your body's burning up
your muscles for the energy that you need to work out. Okay, Now,
if you were a person who woke up and you
had your creamy milkshake coffee protein drink before you went

(26:50):
to the gym with your pre workout, your body is
no longer in a fat burning state. It can't burn
fat because you're fed. And when you're fed and you
have that insulant, at least you are no longer in
a fat burning state. So your body can't tap into
your fat stores for energy during your workout. And if

(27:12):
that is the case, then yes, could that be bad
for your body? Could that be a stress on your body?
Could it cause you to not see gains that you're
trying to get in the gym. Yes, But if you
are waking up in the morning and you're having your
black coffee and you're going to the gym and you're
working out while you are clean fasted, you do not

(27:34):
have a lack of energy source. You have all this
abundant energy source on your body in the form of
stored fat. So when you look at it from that standpoint,
why on earth would your body try to break down
muscle and convert it to energy when you have a
readily available fat source to burn for energy, one sort

(27:55):
of a clean energy, and one's a really difficult energy
that that is not in your body's best interest. So
why would your body choose the more harmful energy source.

Speaker 1 (28:06):
It only does it if it has to right, and
Tabitha and I also talked about cortisol and adrenal fatigue
and all of that, and those are not reasons why
you shouldn't fast all of that. So I also wanted
to share about SK. Give a shout out to SK
in our community. You know I'm talking about sharing. She's
a doctor Australia. I just love her and she's so inspirational.

(28:26):
But she's the doctor. She's a medical doctor, works with
patients and so she of course understands how the body works.
But she also went down that protein rabbit hole because
she works out, she wants to build muscles, so she
was like, well, I gotta eat more protein. So she
was forcing herself to hit protein target and she started
gaining fat.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
And she was in maintenance. She was her goal weight, maintaining.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Working on building muscles, started eating more protein, started gaining fat.
So then she realized what was happening, became intuitive about
her protein again instead of of trying to eat a target.
And for the past few weeks she's been posting in
the community that she is actually smashing personal records for strength,

(29:10):
yes in the fasted state, while backing off on protein.
So she get backed off on protein, working out in
the fasted state.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Eating in a shorter eating window. She was lengthening her
eating window to try to include all this proteins, so
she thought she had to yea that she needed.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
Right, But she is hitting new strength records everybody. So yes,
when someone is giving advice about fasting, ask if the
people they've worked with were fast and clean, because that
really changes everything. It really really does. The clean fast
changes the whole experience. I once talk to somebody who
is an influencer herself. She's like, well, I've tried to

(29:48):
work in the fast work out in the fasted state.
I just don't have good endurance. But I know for
a fact she wasn't fast and clean, Like she takes
creatine before she works out and all the pre workouts,
and so I don't like to argue with people who
are really firmly entrenched and you know. So I was like, well, okay,
that's interesting. Yeah, I feel great when I work out
in the fasted state. But I mean it's because you

(30:10):
wasn't fast and clean. But she didn't think that the
clean fast mattered. So you know, if you don't think
it matters, you're not going to try it, I guess,
but anyway.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Yeah, and then so there's also always some questions about
how am I supposed to incorporate my workout if I
want to work out in the morning, but I don't
eat in the evening because so and so says, if
you don't eat within thirty minutes of working out, you
won't see muscle synthesis, you won't see gains. So, of
course I did some research into this, and this is

(30:40):
what I've learned. This is through a lot of different
academic research, and what they've concluded is that muscle protein synthesis,
the process where your body builds and repairs muscle tissue,
it generally remains elevated for twenty four to forty eight
hours after our workout, while some studies suggest an even
longer duration, more like seventy two hours, but the most

(31:02):
common consensus is that forty eight hours is like a
typical timeframe for elevated muscle protein synthesis. So as long
as you are eating sufficiently within twenty four to forty
eight hours of a workout, you don't have anything to
worry about. Yeah, it's not like you work out and
then you eat and your body says oh, I'm going

(31:23):
to send this protein shake straight to my muscles for repair.
It doesn't work like that. And again I link the
study and show notes just so you can review that
for yourself if you want to.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, but you know, I just really think it's so
important to trust your own study of one. And I
say this all the time. You know, if you're trying
to build muscle and you can't do it, then I think,
wonder why I can't build muscle? What's happening? But that's
not usually what we hear from people. People who try
to build muscle can can usually build the muscle I can.
When I was doing pilates regularly, my plot went once

(31:57):
a week my plot and always in the fasted state.
My plot instructor was like, wow, you sure do build
muscle quickly. So you be your own study of one.
Trust the clean fast, trust what's happening for you. And
if certain influencers are making you really confused, stop following them.
It's okay, right, Yeah, I could find you. Like I

(32:18):
talked about this, what was it in maybe in Feasts
without Fear Shary. I played a game with Chad one
time on a road trup. It's like name of food,
and I'll tell you a diet that says that's bad
for you, right, like, literally, you name something, I can
tell you a diet exactly it says it's bad for you.
There's a book called Protein Power that was all about
eating more protein, and then there's another book called protein Aholic,
which talks about how we're eating too much protein and

(32:39):
that's bad for you. Both of them were written by doctors.
So tell me something with the diet and I can
find you an expert. And I'm putting quotation marks so
I can find you an expert who agrees with oponusday
literally and with very convincing wording.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Anything.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
And then there's also this confusion too that you must
start your day with protein, and people are like, well,
this person was on this podcast and they said you
need to wake up and you need to immediately start
eating protein.

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (33:09):
I again did a deep dive into this, and these
are the thoughts. This is the thought process for why
people tell people to start their day with protein. Okay,
sustained energy. Protein helps regulate blood sugar levels, preventing energy
crashes and promoting sustained energy throughout the morning. What does
fasting do same thing. All those things increased satiety. A

(33:33):
protein rich breakfast can make you feel full longer, reducing
cravings throughout the day.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
So does fasting. What does fast do?

Speaker 2 (33:42):
So most experts agree there is no best time to
eat protein. Again, as long as you are including quality
protein sources in your day, you're fine. So there's no
rules behind the best time to work out the best
time to eat protein. The I mean like we wanted
people want to create all these rules and just throw

(34:05):
the rules out the window. As long as you are
a clean fasting, that is the only rule. Clean fast,
fuel well, sleep well, wake up, and repeat the next day.
And listen to your body.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
If you are fast and clean and you have found
a routine that makes you feel better and better. Now,
I'm not talking about during the first month. During the
first months when you're adapting, you're gonna feel all sorts
of ways. Trust us that you will feel better or
none of us could do this. But once you're fat adapted,
once you found a routine that fits into your lifestyle,
you're clean fasting, you're feeling good. You're going to feel
better and better as time goes on, not worse and worse.

(34:40):
If you do start feeling worse and worse and worse
and worse. Then that means something's not.

Speaker 2 (34:44):
Right, and then it's time to mak something.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
Trust yourself, right, that's it. I want you to feel
empowered to trust yourself. And I actually did a support
session for you too with someone where issue was influence
or confusion. We talked through a bunch of them, but
it was all the same stuff, all of this. And
she had started any more protein, and she said she
actually felt worse, and like, there you go.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
Yeah, And you know, for me, fasting and I think
this comes down to faith, right, I just had blind
faith that this was my answer. Once I understood the
science of it and how it works in the body
and how it helps heal the body, and how it
keeps your blood sugars level which helped keep your emotions level,
which helps you know, everything feeds off of each other, right,

(35:30):
And once I understood all that, I was like, this
is it. This is my answer. I just one hundred
when I say fasting quieted the noise. It quieted the
noise in my head about foods and what to do
and what next diet and you know, all of that,
it just worked itself out right. But for me, part

(35:50):
of that was I stopped listening to everybody else because
it just created confusion. Right. So if you find yourself
getting caught up in the you know, social media influencer
Instagram reels and this and.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
That YouTube video and all of them.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Check out, you will give yourself diet brain, and you
will lose faith in the process of fasting that it
has the ability to heal you, that it has the
ability of helping you tune into what your body needs,
because you know best what you need and your body
will tell you when you tune into it. But that
means you got to tune out all that other stuff

(36:29):
that's happening out there.

Speaker 1 (36:31):
And now it's time for our segment called What's Your Why?
And weight loss is a great reason to start intermittent fasting,
but there is so much more to what intermittent fasting
can do for us beyond weight loss. I genuinely believe
that when your why is deeper than weight loss alone,
you're more likely to find long term success and view
intermittent fasting as a lifestyle.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
So this week we have away from Steph from Oklahoma,
Steph Road. I became a grandma in twenty twenty four,
and I want to continue to be healthy, slash strong,
and not just watch him grow, but be present and
active with him and any future grandkids. I sit on
the floor to play with him, and I can get
upholding him without an issue. I want to be strong

(37:12):
for as long as possible. I make sure I can
stand up from the floor without using my hands, which,
by the way, for anybody who wonders, the significance of
that is linked to longevity.

Speaker 1 (37:23):
She says.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
I also want my daughters to see me as an
inspiration and stay healthy themselves as they get older and
out of their twenties. They do not do intermint fasting,
but they also do not have any weight or health
issues either. They are both urns and they know all
about me and if and support me. My husband is
also fit and never had a weight problem. He does
more of a traditional gym workout in cardio, but no

(37:46):
if if he did a clean fast I would call
him an if er because he only eats when hungry
and does go eighteen plus hours at times without eating,
but not clean fasting since he's not really doing it
on purpose. But it's interesting me when you look at
people who are naturally thin and stuff. They often are
more tuned into their hunger and they never lost the connodus. Yeah,

(38:10):
they never lost that connection. It's a true hunger. Another
why is retirement is coming soon for me, and I'm
ready to travel a lot more and have more adventures.
I want active travel with physical activities, not just lying around.
I want to ski, hike, river, raft, paddleboard, zip line
and all the fun adventure stuff for years to come.
I hate sitting around and doing nothing, and those are

(38:33):
all great whys. Living an active, strong, healthy lifestyle is
a great why.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
Yep, I think so.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
All right, so we have time for another question. This
was sent in by Struggling in the South. Hi, jen
Is Sherry love your podcast. You become my walking companions
and help me get through so many fasts. This is
not exactly an interesting story. I don't expect you to
read it all out, but we will because it's important.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
Facts matter.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
I'm in my mid thirties. I'm one hundred and sixty
eight centimeters tall and seventy seven kilograms. I've been fasting
for two years now. My first goalweight was seventy five kilograms,
but I would love to get below seventy eventually. I
weighed eighty six when I started fasting, and over the
first year I got down to seventy four kilograms. I
was comfortable there, so I stopped weighing and stuck to

(39:22):
my fasting windows. I felt amazing and have generally kept
doing the same fasting links and playing with different variations
to keep it interesting. My fasting links are varied throughout
the week, such as Sunday sixteen eight, Monday twenty four,
Tuesday OMAD, Wednesday twenty four to thirty six hours, with
Thursday being an upday, Friday twenty four hour fast Saturday

(39:44):
eighteen six. I decided that maybe it was at the
right size for me, which was when I weighed myself again.
But my clothes have been feeling a bit snug again,
and I was so disappointed to see that I am
at seventy seven kilograms and my BMI now says I'm
back overweight. I've been consistently walking and doing more exercises
than I ever have in my life. I've really struggled

(40:05):
with ADF when I've tried it, I tend to binge
on the upday. My current protocol means I eat all
day Thursday, and I kind of dread that, but I
enjoyed doing one long fast in a week. Would it
be better for me to try consistent twenty four protocol
or similar I followed a fasting protocol for women, but
I have had a hysterectomy, so I'm unsure what to

(40:27):
follow now. I to only take fishal a, vitamin DA magnesium.
My husband and I doing our best to treat our
bodies well. We do two workouts per week with a
personal trainer. I limit alcohol to the weekends. We eat
pretty decent food. We enjoy our food, and both enjoy cooking,
trying new things and new cuisines. Anyway, thanks for reading,
and I would love any help and a guidance that

(40:48):
you can offer. What can you say?

Speaker 1 (40:50):
All right, Well, struggling in the South, that is a
lot that you're doing. And I just ran your stats
through the smart BMI based on mid thirties. I just
put in thirty five, one hundred and sixty eight centimeters
tall and seventy four kilograms, and so you are in
the healthy weight range at the very top of it.

(41:11):
So I just wanted to pop that out there. Even
when it was seventy seven, that was still right there
at the very top of the healthy weight range. So
to me, it seems like you're fasting protocol. I don't know.
It made me a little tired to hear it does
make you a little tired to hear it. Share you
all that clubs, you know, Sunday sixteen eight, Monday twenty four, Tuesday,

(41:35):
one meal a day, Wednesday twenty four to thirty six hours,
Thursday up day, Friday twenty four, Saturday eighteen six. That's
very complicated, you know. When I keep saying I want
you to tweak it till it's easy, I mean it.
That does not sound easy. You also mentioned that you
tried a fasting protocol for women, So I'm guessing it's
that book that we've heard about so many times that
was about women. And you don't need to have it

(41:57):
be that complicated, And I would just follow the eating
window that feels good to you, honestly, just try a
daily five hour window. That if you have a goal
of a daily five hour window, then maybe one day
you're really busy and your window ends up be in
three hours. Maybe another day you haven't event stretches a

(42:17):
little longer, your window ends up being six. Let it happen.
Naturally instead of forcing it. And if you don't like updays,
stop tuning them right now. You would have to do
it after one long fast, but I mean, if you're
doing a down day, you would need to have an upday.
But I would just stick to a daily eating window.

(42:38):
I would give yourself just a couple months of a
daily eating window and that's it. Set it and forget it.
Like it said on that old ron Co commercial or
whatever it was, just do it, relax into it, and
you know you're eating decent food, you're working out. You
do not need to fast differently because you're a woman.

(43:00):
And I would just find what feels like a day
to day routine that you're not having to force. What
do you think, Cherry?

Speaker 2 (43:08):
I agree? And there's I mean, there's so much variability
in there. And even though like she's doing the longer fast,
it's like she's having a full up day on Thursday,
and then Saturday and Sunday she's having longer eating windows.
And then I'm not really sure. So Wednesday she says
twenty four to thirty six hours with an up day
on Thursday. But if you're only fasting twenty four hours

(43:31):
on Wednesday, you wouldn't need an up day on Thursday.
So I think that much flexibility, that much variability is
really kind of throwing you off, and you might be
having more eating going on than you need to have
going on.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
That's what I think. Yeah, I think there's more eating
in there than you need to have going on. And
just you know, eating until you're satisfied within a daily
five hour window is such a simpler way to do it,
if you could could make that work for you, So
just real quick, you know, there's sometimes confusion about a
twenty four hour fast being a down day because twenty
four seems like, you know, oh, I have best for

(44:09):
twenty four hours, that was a complete fast a down day.
There are two guidelines, two things that would be considered
a down day. One is if you have two overnight
periods where you don't eat, Like if you eat one
day and then you go to bed, and the entire
next day you don't eat, and then you go to
bed again, then you wake up the next day, that

(44:30):
was a down day. But I could conceivably fast for
twenty four hours and then have a ton of food.
So just because you fasted for twenty four hours, that
doesn't mean that you have a down day. So the
second down day for the definition is a five hundred
calorie meal. So if you fasted for twenty four hours
then had a five hundred calorie meal, that would count

(44:52):
because you had a five hundred calorie down day. But
if you fasted for twenty four hours, you could literally
fast for twenty four hours then eat for eight hours
depending on how your schedule's going, and that of course
would not be a down day. That would be pretty up.
So I wouldn't assume that you need a down day
unless you're fausting for two overnight periods or you're sticking
to five hundred calories. It's just a little, yeah, an update.

(45:15):
That's when you would need an update. If you had
two overnight periods, that's a down day, or one meal
that was five hundred calories, that's a down day. All right.

Speaker 2 (45:25):
Well, before we get to the tweak of the week,
I just want to take a minute to share some
exciting news. I've noticed the years of coaching people in
the health of monas Field that there are some people
who just really do best when they have individualized support
and help working the steps to creating a lasting lifestyle
one on one so not to mention those who just
really struggle with negative self talk, poor body image, or

(45:47):
honoring their personal commitments. And I've been that person. I
know what it's like, and I've always enjoyed helping friends
and family on a one on one basis. But now
I'm going to open this up to our listeners. I'm
offering some one on one coaching with short term commitments.
Whether that means we do a one on one session
to problem solve and find some tweaks and solutions for

(46:08):
you on a one time basis, or it's ongoing support
on a weekly basis, we can work together to help
you find the success you seek. If you would like
to learn more, you can email me at Sherry at
fast feastrepeat dot com and give me your basic information
what you're looking for, and I will get back with
you and we can work together to help you find
the success that you're looking for.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
I love that you know. People ask me all the
time if I do one on one coaching, and I don't,
and so I love that you're doing it, because if
someone's going to need some coaching, I want that I
did it.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Several years ago before COVID and then life got crazy,
and I was working a lot and I away from that.
Then we started the community and I got really busy
with that, and so it's really been in my heart
for several months now to get back to it, and
so now's the time.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
I love it. So now it's time for our tweak
of the week. And 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's why it is super helpful to hear how
other intermittent fasters are making intermittent fasting work for them.
Sally shared, I keep in mind and review these journal entries.

(47:15):
Often stick with the plan, support my health goals every day,
take one day at a time. Stop eating when I
reach satiety, eat gently and wait, don't eat with your eyes,
Celebrate the goodness of black coffee. Be thankful for every

(47:37):
healing hour. I can do hard things and stick to
my goals. I enjoy feeling great. Tweak it till it works,
so she added, I also want to share that my
primary care doctor is very supportive of my intermittent fasting lifestyle,
and he told me to keep doing what I am
doing because it is working. My husband is also very

(48:01):
supportive and even has started to fast clean until eleven
am every morning.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
I love that, and I think these are great little
mindset tweaks when you're having a hard day, If you
have some little self check ins like this, it can
get you mentally back on the right path.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Yeah, and I like that. Tweak it till it works, man,
I always say, tweak it till it's easy. But we
want it to feel easy and work. That's true, but
it's other important.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Yeah. All right, Well, we'd love to leave you with
inspiration and motivational messages, and this week we have a
fantastic analogy shared by Kim, a member of the DDD community.
Kim wrote, I'm an office manager for a custom home builder.
I recently recognized a correlation between building a home and
the IF journey. That may be a helpful way of
looking at the development of IF in your life. When

(48:46):
we are ready to begin building a client's home, the
most important step is to build a solid foundation. Once
the concrete is poured, it has to cure before we
can build on it. You want the foundation to be
strong because it is essential for the stability and longevity
of the house. The building process doesn't happen quickly. It
takes time. If we make a mistake during the process,
we don't tear down the house and start over. We

(49:07):
make your repair and move forward with the construction. If
a client makes a modification, we readjust the plan to accommodate.
If there's bad weather, we may have to delay outside
construction and schedule work to be done indoors. Someone may
drive by one of our homes and think nothing is
being done because they can't see work being performed on
the outside, and it's because work is being done inside.

(49:30):
Something we pride ourselves on in our company is paying
attention to the details, not just the big picture. Every
decision we make during the building process influences the final product.
Once the house is complete, the building process is done, However,
there will forever be homeowner maintenance upkeep that needs to
be done to keep a home functioning well. In many ways,

(49:51):
this mirrors our IF experience. We can't build a home rapidly.
We can't expect if to change our body rapidly. If
you experience window cres, make modifications and move forward. Just
because you can't see results outside your body doesn't mean
that there isn't a lot of construction going on inside
our homeowners get excited about each stage of the building process,

(50:12):
pay attention to the details along the way, and celebrate
all the non scale victories. Once you reach your goal,
you have entered maintenance, but you still have to actively
make decisions to upkeep your goal.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Body.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Let's build our homes on a solid foundation and make
magnificent selections along the way that will compliment the final
product beautifully.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
That is such a beautiful analogy. And Kim, thank you
so much. I love it. It's true, it is true. 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. Go
to Jenstevens dot com slash community to join us.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast to your favorite
podcast app, 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 (51:08):
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.