May 4, 2021 • 25 mins
14. This episode covers the basics of intermittent fasting. Learn the benefits of fasting, how to get started and whether IF is a good option for you.
Check out these additional resources:
The Complete Guide To Fasting by Jason Fung
Take the Happy Gut Key Quiz:
https://brigittefactor.com/happygutkeyquiz
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brigitte Factor (00:13):
Hello, and welcome to the hungry for truth
podcast. I'm your host, BrigitteFactor with truth seeker,
researcher, scientists,nutritionist, teacher in truth
teller, and awakening is coming.
Get ready for it.
(00:47):
Hello, and welcome back to thehungry for truth podcast. I'm so
glad that you're listening intoday, it's gonna be another
great episode today is a topicthat I've been wanting to tackle
for a while we're going to talkabout intermittent fasting
today. This I've been getting alot of questions about
intermittent fasting. So I'mgoing to spend some time going
(01:08):
through intermittent fasting.
But first, I want to share somefood for thought something I've
been thinking aboutcontemplating lessons I've been
learning in my life. And thereis a meme or a quote that you
see floating around socialmedia. And it's about a boiled
egg and a potato. And it saysthe same hot water that boils
(01:29):
the egg softens the potato. Andwhen you first look at that you
think Yeah, I'm strong, I'mtough my challenges, my hot
water, my trials makes mestronger, makes me tougher. But
then you can also look at that.
And think if you're in a potatomoment where you're feeling
(01:51):
pretty mushy, that yourchallenges are actually breaking
you down and making you softer.
And either way you look at thatyou're placing a judgment on the
boiled egg or the potato versionof that. And what I have
realized is that both the boiledegg and the potato have value.
(02:16):
And that if we can step backaway from the judgment that we
place on stories that we tellourselves, and we when we remove
that judgment, we can start tosee the value of the situation
that we're in. Because when weremove that judgment, we're
(02:37):
taking away that shame and thatnegativity in that story, we may
be telling ourselves, and we canjust sit and look at it. And
there's no shame in being theboiled egg or being in the mushy
potato. I have been insituations in hot water
situations where I felt like thepotato. And I have been in hot
(02:59):
water situations where I havefelt like the boiled egg. And
both of those situations taughtme very valuable lessons. And so
this is a quote that I wouldlike to share with you to
contemplate on. And that iscuriosity is the antidote to
judgment. If we can stay openand curious about the situations
(03:23):
that we go through, we willlearn a lot more than if we stay
closed minded and judgmental. SoI just wanted to share that
thought with you think on that,chew on that. And let me know
how that impacts you.
So now let's talk aboutintermittent fasting. This is a
(03:47):
hot topic floating around theweb and in the nutrition sphere.
And it can be a really wonderfultool for people to use to
incorporate. But it can also bejust an added stress for some
people and some people may notget the results that they want
trying to do this. So I kind ofwanted to dig through this and
(04:08):
explain what it is and how touse it and when it's useful. But
this idea of intermittentfasting is also interchangeable
with another phrase called atime restricted or time
restrictive eating. Basically,we're restricting the window of
when we eat and expanding thewindow of when we fast when we
(04:30):
don't eat and intermittentfasting. So fasting is something
that we do overnight, like wefast from the time we stopped
eating dinner to the time we eatbreakfast again. And in our
culture, we eat a lot we snack alot, we eat a lot we're always
eating, and we actually don'tget much time in a fasted state
(04:56):
except for being overnight. Soyou can think of a very general
definition of this term ofintermittent fasting is just
reducing food intake over a 24hour period. And there's
different ways to do that, youknow, typically you start or aim
(05:18):
for a 12 hour fast or a 12 hoursof digestive rest, where we're
giving our digestive system achance to rest, and reset, we're
giving our pancreas a chance torest because every time we eat,
we secrete digestive juices,including insulin and other
hormones as well as enzymes andthose other types of digestive
(05:42):
juices that our body produces.
So fasting allows that to taketime to rest that system, which
is important. So we can think ofthat 12 hour, overnight fast is
a fast, but really, the benefitsof intermittent fasting, start
to kick in, if we can extendthat window to 16 or 18 hours of
(06:05):
not in taking any food.
Now, I just want to mention adisclaimer here. You don't want
to take this on, if you'retaking blood sugar regulation
medications, without yourdoctor's direct supervision,
(06:27):
because you don't want to findyourself in a low blood sugar
moment, because that can be verydangerous. And I've talked about
reversing insulin resistance inthe past two episodes. So that's
definitely a place to startbefore you think about doing
intermittent fasting. And I willalso list some references for
(06:48):
those that want to take a deeperdive into this topic. But if you
are someone who is ready to diveinto this and you're healthy and
metabolically flexible, then youcould potentially start with a
14, 16 or 18 hour window offasting. And what that means is
(07:11):
just stopping dinner, or anytype of food intake at 6 or 7pm.
And then not having anything toeat until 10, 11, or 12pm the
next day. So you have that longwindow of not eating and why do
(07:32):
we want to do this there areactually many, many benefits to
fasting if you're at a placewhere your body can tolerate
that. And that is fasting hasbeen shown to reverse insulin
resistance, which I talked aboutin the last episode. So it's
been shown to help with weightloss and fat loss and blood
sugar regulation. It's also hasa beneficial impact on brain
(07:57):
function, and longevity andhealthy aging. And what what
happens when we're in thatfasted state is there are a few
mechanisms that kick in tocompensate for that fasted
state. And it's triggering somedifferent pathways in the cells
(08:18):
in the body to help clean thingsup and reduce inflammation. So
it will turn on some pathwayscalled the NRF2 pathway and that
helps increase antioxidants anddetoxification and decrease free
radical production. And what allof that means is it just helps
(08:40):
decrease the compounds in thebody that are producing
inflammation so it helpsdecrease inflammation. It can
also turn on autophagy, which isanother word for cellular
cleaning, where the cells gothrough a cleanup process and
clean up any damaged or inflamedtissue.
(09:02):
Fasting has also been shown toimprove blood cholesterol
numbers blood pressures, itlessens the risk of neurological
degeneration because of itsbenefit to the brain. It also
has been shown to lessen therisk of certain cancers. A lot
of people try it because theywant that boosted energy. And so
(09:23):
if you're become fat adapted,and you can really dial in this
fasting formula for you, you canstart to get that sustained
energy, you have more mentalclarity or brain function is
clearer. And that has to do withreduced inflammation as well as
lower insulin levels. One of thethings that gets turned on in
(09:44):
the brain is a hormone or apathway called BDNF. And this is
like a growth hormone for thebrain where it tells the brain
to make new neural connections.
And this is really fascinatingbecause because for so long, you
know, we used to think that youcouldn't repair the brain, you
couldn't make new connectionsafter a certain time. But now
(10:06):
we're finding that that's notthe case. And there's things
that you can do to help withthat. And that's something I
learned working in a neurologyclinic and learning about this
process for the benefit of thebrain. So there's multiple
benefits to trying out someintermittent fasting. It's not
for everybody in everysituation, and I'll talk about
(10:29):
that in just a minute. But Iwant to share some more benefits
of what happens when we switchon that those fasting pathways.
This also sends a signal toourselves to make more
mitochondria. mitochondria arethe organelles that create the
ATP. So it actually stimulatesATP production as well as tells
the cells to make moremitochondria. Because there's a
(10:52):
greater man to be more energyefficient, we need to be able to
produce energy in this fastedstate. And so that's sending
that signal to the body to dothat. It also enhances the
production of the body's mostimportant antioxidant. And that
is glutathione and glutationehas a lot of benefits in the
(11:12):
body and functioning as anantioxidant, meaning it's
scavenging those free radicals.
And free radicals are justcompounds that have a lone pair
of electrons, that's that lonepair of electron is causing
damage to the cell. So I like tothink of it as little electron
zappers, free radicals orelectron zappers that are going
(11:34):
around causing damage in thecell, and in the body as well.
So this is why we're told to eata lot of antioxidants is because
they help scavenge or reduce thenumber of free radicals in the
body, which helps reduceinflammation, and helps promote
tissue repair and all kinds ofthings. So intermittent fasting
(11:56):
as a way to turn on some ofthese pathways that have a lot
of benefits. These benefits canget ramped up if you extend the
fasting window to a 24 hourperiod. This increases the
autophagy or the cellularcleanup processes. It also
(12:17):
increases growth hormone, whichis great for weight loss, and
muscle building. So there are ananti aging. So there are
benefits to extending thatwindow. Again, only if you're at
a place where you can toleratethat.
(12:38):
So some things to think about ifthis is a good thing for you to
try Are you want to consider areCan you go three to four hours,
or four to five hours withouteating? Or do your blood sugar
starts to drop? Do you getreally shaky or headachy or
hungry or angry or Moody, if youcan't go that long of a time
(13:00):
between meals. If that's thecase, that's where you want to
start, you want to start byincreasing the amount of time
that you can go between meals,unfortunately, we're told as a
society that we're supposed tobe eating every couple of hours.
And that's not actually how weare designed to live it to me,
(13:21):
it's if you have to eat everycouple of hours, it's just a
very poor way of managing bloodsugar response. Because our body
is metabolically designed tohave these longer periods of
time. Where we don't have to eatwe should be able to tap into
our metabolism and subsist onour stored energy. And that is
(13:46):
called being metabolicallyflexible. So what that means is
that you can switch from burningcarbohydrates as your source of
energy to burning fats areketones as your source of
energy, and enzymatically inthat metabolism pathway.
Ultimately, the carbohydratemolecule and the fatty acid
(14:07):
molecule get broken down intoacetyl. co a and everything in
the acetyl. co a is what getsfed into that Krebs cycle sorry
to get really nerdy with you.
But it's just a matter of beingable to switch back and forth.
And if we're insulin resistant,that makes it really really hard
for us to switch and use thosefatty acid molecules as a fuel
source, in times of need. Sothat's where we want to start
(14:34):
first is being able to eat abalanced meal of nutrient dense
Whole Foods, where we can keepour blood sugars balanced and be
able to go longer periods oftime between meals, and then you
want to be able to have that 12hour window overnight of not
eating and once you are at thatplace, then you can consider
(14:57):
extending that window to that 16to 18 hour range and trying that
once, maybe twice, and then ifit feels good, or if it's
working out for you, then youcan do that a few times a week.
And the gauge that you want touse is looking at how you feel,
are you is your energy levelsustained? Are you having
(15:23):
fluctuations with energy? Isyour sleep quality doing well is
it if fasting is affecting yoursleep, then that's a sign that
it's too much of a stress.
So intermittent fasting is ahormetic stressor, which a
hormetic stressor is abeneficial stress to the body to
(15:44):
make it stronger and adapt, justlike lifting weights is a stress
to the muscles, which help themto build and become stronger.
But in some people, if theirstress levels are high, and
their sleep quality is poor, andtheir blood sugar's are all over
the place, then intermittentfasting is not going to work for
(16:06):
you, it's just going to beanother added stress. So that is
definitely something to considerbefore trying this type of
strategy. Another thing to payattention to is your hunger
levels during these times, Now,of course, you're naturally
going to be hungry. But if youdo it fast, have you know 16, 18
(16:30):
or 24 hours, and then you diveheadfirst and just binge eat
into whatever you want, and youjust overeat following that,
then that's a sign that yourbody is not ready for that
intermittent fasting, just yet,you need to ease into it.
Because really one of thebenefits that another benefit, I
(16:54):
should say, of intermittentfasting is being able to
naturally tune into your body'sown hunger and satiety
mechanisms. And that and whenyou get to that place where
you're in tune with your body,and you can tell Okay, today is
going to be a good day for me tofast, I'm not feeling that
(17:15):
hungry, I'm feeling pretty leveland stable, then that's what
makes it beautiful is you'reyou're tapping into that
intuition. And learning that nowsome people are gonna have to
start off with boundaries, untilthey can learn to tap into that
internal intuition ofunderstanding our hunger and
(17:35):
satiety signals. But if you'restarving and shaky and angry,
and your mood is not in a goodplace, it's probably not a good
idea to intermittent fast thatday, or to attempt this. Again,
the benefits come when you're atthat stable place. And you can
just take it up to that nextlevel. By introducing some of
(17:56):
these intermittent fastingstrategies, you also want to
make sure that you're stayingwell hydrated if you're trying
this, again, checking in on yoursleep, your energy, your mood,
and your stress levels. Somepeople can have a cortisol
response. So as they come out ofthat fast and they break their
(18:19):
fast again, if you break yourfast, you want to you start
small with a small meal to breakthat fast. And some people can
have a cortisol response to thatwhich causes our blood sugars to
disproportionately increasebreaking that fast. So that's,
again, something that you canpay attention to if you're
measuring your blood sugarsduring this time. It's also
(18:42):
really, really important to makesure you're getting adequate
protein. A lot of us are proteindeficient, we don't get enough
protein in our diet, that'sgoing to help us feel very
satiated, help us to be able togo long periods of time. So
without eating so like the nightbefore getting lots of protein,
lots of vegetables, lots offiber, some good healthy fats is
(19:04):
going to help sustain you ifyou're going to do a fast next
ended pass the following day. Sothose are things to think about
as you're going into this.
People who need to be verycareful about fasting or should
avoid fasting again, are goingto be children. Fasting is not
for children, we want to sendthe message to a child's body
(19:27):
that they're growing and thatwe're nourishing them. We don't
want to send a differentmessage. So fasting is not for
children. If you're underweight,it's probably not a good idea
disordered eating. So if youhave any type of disordered
eating patterns, again, thisfasting can seem very rigid and
and trigger some of thatdisordered eating. So being
(19:47):
careful, they're elderly.
Generally, you know, it depends.
Again, if they should try this,again, having the guidance of a
trained practitioner in thisfield is going to be important
if this is something that youwant to implement, if you're in
an in any of these categories.
Also, if you're pregnant orbreastfeeding, if you're
(20:08):
nourishing a child, again, youneed to make sure you're staying
well nourished, to nourish thatchild. So that's it's not a good
idea. In those cases, again,there are always exceptions. So
that's taking responsibility forwhat's best for you, instead of
just relying on someone to tellyou what to do, I am a huge fan
of taking responsibility. But Ilike to put this information out
(20:31):
there for people to think about,as well, because it can be
beneficial. I have worked withclients that have tried fasting,
and they just weren't ready forit, you know, there were still
too much stress on their systemfor different reasons. And they
weren't getting the benefitsthat they wanted from it. And so
in that case, we work on thoselifestyle factors first, and
(20:53):
start to identify and removesome of the stressors in the
system, to help them get to apoint where they can benefit
from intermittent fasting.
So again, if that's somethingthat you're curious about and
want to talk to me about, youcan reach out to me through my
(21:13):
website and set up a claritycall. And I can be happy to talk
to you about working togetherand figuring out how to
implement this kind of plan foryou. There's also resources
available. Dr. Fung book, TheUltimate Guide to fasting is an
excellent book. And he goesthrough the different types of
(21:34):
fast from these short,intermittent fast, where you're,
you know, fasting for less thana day. And then he talks about
the benefits of doing a longerfast, you know, three days, five
days, seven days, as well. Soit's a really, really great
resource for looking at thedifferent ways that you can
implement this into your life,and determine if that's going to
(21:57):
be a benefit to you and how todo that. So I hope that has
given you some information onintermittent fasting that you
can think about and see ifyou're at a place that you want
to try that. Or if you need alittle help implementing it, I'm
here to help out those that wantto work together one on one to
do that. Also, you know, a lotof the population is has blood
(22:22):
sugar dysregulation and insulinresistance like I've talked
about before, I have a reallygreat group program to help
people start down that path ofstabilizing their blood sugar's
you know, reframing how theythink about food and dieting,
because I've talked before aboutgetting out of that diet mindset
(22:44):
in this program is calledFinally Free. And I'm starting
another session in May. So youcan check out my website at
BrigitteFactor.com/finally-free.
And I'll post the link in theshow notes. If that's something
that you want to embark on. It'sa really great group program,
it's a great way to introduceyourself into some of this. And
(23:05):
it's about intuitive eating. Soit's about learning to self
regulate around food. And thatis one of the things that, you
know, I feel that intermittentfasting is good as teaching you
how to tap into your owninternal hunger and satiety
signals, as well. So we don'ttalk about intermittent fasting
(23:28):
in the first part of thatprogram. So it's really a great
place to start if you're notready to implement intermittent
fasting, or you're just startingon trying to figure out what's
the best approach for you, andyou need consistency and support
and implementing a healthy diet,as well as reframing our mindset
about food and our bodies. Andit's, you know, getting away
(23:51):
from this idea that there's badfoods and good foods. And you
know, I just need to try harder.
Oftentimes, when we're in aplace where things aren't
working. And we think, oh, wejust need to try harder and
harder. That's why it's notworking. Well, sometimes we just
need a reframe. And this programhelps us to set up that reframe,
(24:15):
as well. So I'm super excitedabout it. I'm loving this
program and want to offer itmore. So check that out. And
also make sure you get on myemail list. And so we can stay
in communication you can beaware of when I offer programs
and offer updates and all thatstuff. I will post a link in the
(24:39):
show notes. And you can also goto my website and sign up as
well.
So, again, I thank you so muchfor listening. I really hope you
found this information helpful.
I would love to hear from yousee how it's helping you and
until next time grace and peaceto you.
Hello, and welcome to the hungry for truth
podcast. I'm your host, BrigitteFactor with truth seeker,
researcher, scientists,nutritionist, teacher in truth
teller, and awakening is coming.
Get ready for it.
(00:47):
Hello, and welcome back to thehungry for truth podcast. I'm so
glad that you're listening intoday, it's gonna be another
great episode today is a topicthat I've been wanting to tackle
for a while we're going to talkabout intermittent fasting
today. This I've been getting alot of questions about
intermittent fasting. So I'mgoing to spend some time going
(01:08):
through intermittent fasting.
But first, I want to share somefood for thought something I've
been thinking aboutcontemplating lessons I've been
learning in my life. And thereis a meme or a quote that you
see floating around socialmedia. And it's about a boiled
egg and a potato. And it saysthe same hot water that boils
(01:29):
the egg softens the potato. Andwhen you first look at that you
think Yeah, I'm strong, I'mtough my challenges, my hot
water, my trials makes mestronger, makes me tougher. But
then you can also look at that.
And think if you're in a potatomoment where you're feeling
(01:51):
pretty mushy, that yourchallenges are actually breaking
you down and making you softer.
And either way you look at thatyou're placing a judgment on the
boiled egg or the potato versionof that. And what I have
realized is that both the boiledegg and the potato have value.
(02:16):
And that if we can step backaway from the judgment that we
place on stories that we tellourselves, and we when we remove
that judgment, we can start tosee the value of the situation
that we're in. Because when weremove that judgment, we're
(02:37):
taking away that shame and thatnegativity in that story, we may
be telling ourselves, and we canjust sit and look at it. And
there's no shame in being theboiled egg or being in the mushy
potato. I have been insituations in hot water
situations where I felt like thepotato. And I have been in hot
(02:59):
water situations where I havefelt like the boiled egg. And
both of those situations taughtme very valuable lessons. And so
this is a quote that I wouldlike to share with you to
contemplate on. And that iscuriosity is the antidote to
judgment. If we can stay openand curious about the situations
(03:23):
that we go through, we willlearn a lot more than if we stay
closed minded and judgmental. SoI just wanted to share that
thought with you think on that,chew on that. And let me know
how that impacts you.
So now let's talk aboutintermittent fasting. This is a
(03:47):
hot topic floating around theweb and in the nutrition sphere.
And it can be a really wonderfultool for people to use to
incorporate. But it can also bejust an added stress for some
people and some people may notget the results that they want
trying to do this. So I kind ofwanted to dig through this and
(04:08):
explain what it is and how touse it and when it's useful. But
this idea of intermittentfasting is also interchangeable
with another phrase called atime restricted or time
restrictive eating. Basically,we're restricting the window of
when we eat and expanding thewindow of when we fast when we
(04:30):
don't eat and intermittentfasting. So fasting is something
that we do overnight, like wefast from the time we stopped
eating dinner to the time we eatbreakfast again. And in our
culture, we eat a lot we snack alot, we eat a lot we're always
eating, and we actually don'tget much time in a fasted state
(04:56):
except for being overnight. Soyou can think of a very general
definition of this term ofintermittent fasting is just
reducing food intake over a 24hour period. And there's
different ways to do that, youknow, typically you start or aim
(05:18):
for a 12 hour fast or a 12 hoursof digestive rest, where we're
giving our digestive system achance to rest, and reset, we're
giving our pancreas a chance torest because every time we eat,
we secrete digestive juices,including insulin and other
hormones as well as enzymes andthose other types of digestive
(05:42):
juices that our body produces.
So fasting allows that to taketime to rest that system, which
is important. So we can think ofthat 12 hour, overnight fast is
a fast, but really, the benefitsof intermittent fasting, start
to kick in, if we can extendthat window to 16 or 18 hours of
(06:05):
not in taking any food.
Now, I just want to mention adisclaimer here. You don't want
to take this on, if you'retaking blood sugar regulation
medications, without yourdoctor's direct supervision,
(06:27):
because you don't want to findyourself in a low blood sugar
moment, because that can be verydangerous. And I've talked about
reversing insulin resistance inthe past two episodes. So that's
definitely a place to startbefore you think about doing
intermittent fasting. And I willalso list some references for
(06:48):
those that want to take a deeperdive into this topic. But if you
are someone who is ready to diveinto this and you're healthy and
metabolically flexible, then youcould potentially start with a
14, 16 or 18 hour window offasting. And what that means is
(07:11):
just stopping dinner, or anytype of food intake at 6 or 7pm.
And then not having anything toeat until 10, 11, or 12pm the
next day. So you have that longwindow of not eating and why do
(07:32):
we want to do this there areactually many, many benefits to
fasting if you're at a placewhere your body can tolerate
that. And that is fasting hasbeen shown to reverse insulin
resistance, which I talked aboutin the last episode. So it's
been shown to help with weightloss and fat loss and blood
sugar regulation. It's also hasa beneficial impact on brain
(07:57):
function, and longevity andhealthy aging. And what what
happens when we're in thatfasted state is there are a few
mechanisms that kick in tocompensate for that fasted
state. And it's triggering somedifferent pathways in the cells
(08:18):
in the body to help clean thingsup and reduce inflammation. So
it will turn on some pathwayscalled the NRF2 pathway and that
helps increase antioxidants anddetoxification and decrease free
radical production. And what allof that means is it just helps
(08:40):
decrease the compounds in thebody that are producing
inflammation so it helpsdecrease inflammation. It can
also turn on autophagy, which isanother word for cellular
cleaning, where the cells gothrough a cleanup process and
clean up any damaged or inflamedtissue.
(09:02):
Fasting has also been shown toimprove blood cholesterol
numbers blood pressures, itlessens the risk of neurological
degeneration because of itsbenefit to the brain. It also
has been shown to lessen therisk of certain cancers. A lot
of people try it because theywant that boosted energy. And so
(09:23):
if you're become fat adapted,and you can really dial in this
fasting formula for you, you canstart to get that sustained
energy, you have more mentalclarity or brain function is
clearer. And that has to do withreduced inflammation as well as
lower insulin levels. One of thethings that gets turned on in
(09:44):
the brain is a hormone or apathway called BDNF. And this is
like a growth hormone for thebrain where it tells the brain
to make new neural connections.
And this is really fascinatingbecause because for so long, you
know, we used to think that youcouldn't repair the brain, you
couldn't make new connectionsafter a certain time. But now
(10:06):
we're finding that that's notthe case. And there's things
that you can do to help withthat. And that's something I
learned working in a neurologyclinic and learning about this
process for the benefit of thebrain. So there's multiple
benefits to trying out someintermittent fasting. It's not
for everybody in everysituation, and I'll talk about
(10:29):
that in just a minute. But Iwant to share some more benefits
of what happens when we switchon that those fasting pathways.
This also sends a signal toourselves to make more
mitochondria. mitochondria arethe organelles that create the
ATP. So it actually stimulatesATP production as well as tells
the cells to make moremitochondria. Because there's a
(10:52):
greater man to be more energyefficient, we need to be able to
produce energy in this fastedstate. And so that's sending
that signal to the body to dothat. It also enhances the
production of the body's mostimportant antioxidant. And that
is glutathione and glutationehas a lot of benefits in the
(11:12):
body and functioning as anantioxidant, meaning it's
scavenging those free radicals.
And free radicals are justcompounds that have a lone pair
of electrons, that's that lonepair of electron is causing
damage to the cell. So I like tothink of it as little electron
zappers, free radicals orelectron zappers that are going
(11:34):
around causing damage in thecell, and in the body as well.
So this is why we're told to eata lot of antioxidants is because
they help scavenge or reduce thenumber of free radicals in the
body, which helps reduceinflammation, and helps promote
tissue repair and all kinds ofthings. So intermittent fasting
(11:56):
as a way to turn on some ofthese pathways that have a lot
of benefits. These benefits canget ramped up if you extend the
fasting window to a 24 hourperiod. This increases the
autophagy or the cellularcleanup processes. It also
(12:17):
increases growth hormone, whichis great for weight loss, and
muscle building. So there are ananti aging. So there are
benefits to extending thatwindow. Again, only if you're at
a place where you can toleratethat.
(12:38):
So some things to think about ifthis is a good thing for you to
try Are you want to consider areCan you go three to four hours,
or four to five hours withouteating? Or do your blood sugar
starts to drop? Do you getreally shaky or headachy or
hungry or angry or Moody, if youcan't go that long of a time
(13:00):
between meals. If that's thecase, that's where you want to
start, you want to start byincreasing the amount of time
that you can go between meals,unfortunately, we're told as a
society that we're supposed tobe eating every couple of hours.
And that's not actually how weare designed to live it to me,
(13:21):
it's if you have to eat everycouple of hours, it's just a
very poor way of managing bloodsugar response. Because our body
is metabolically designed tohave these longer periods of
time. Where we don't have to eatwe should be able to tap into
our metabolism and subsist onour stored energy. And that is
(13:46):
called being metabolicallyflexible. So what that means is
that you can switch from burningcarbohydrates as your source of
energy to burning fats areketones as your source of
energy, and enzymatically inthat metabolism pathway.
Ultimately, the carbohydratemolecule and the fatty acid
(14:07):
molecule get broken down intoacetyl. co a and everything in
the acetyl. co a is what getsfed into that Krebs cycle sorry
to get really nerdy with you.
But it's just a matter of beingable to switch back and forth.
And if we're insulin resistant,that makes it really really hard
for us to switch and use thosefatty acid molecules as a fuel
source, in times of need. Sothat's where we want to start
(14:34):
first is being able to eat abalanced meal of nutrient dense
Whole Foods, where we can keepour blood sugars balanced and be
able to go longer periods oftime between meals, and then you
want to be able to have that 12hour window overnight of not
eating and once you are at thatplace, then you can consider
(14:57):
extending that window to that 16to 18 hour range and trying that
once, maybe twice, and then ifit feels good, or if it's
working out for you, then youcan do that a few times a week.
And the gauge that you want touse is looking at how you feel,
are you is your energy levelsustained? Are you having
(15:23):
fluctuations with energy? Isyour sleep quality doing well is
it if fasting is affecting yoursleep, then that's a sign that
it's too much of a stress.
So intermittent fasting is ahormetic stressor, which a
hormetic stressor is abeneficial stress to the body to
(15:44):
make it stronger and adapt, justlike lifting weights is a stress
to the muscles, which help themto build and become stronger.
But in some people, if theirstress levels are high, and
their sleep quality is poor, andtheir blood sugar's are all over
the place, then intermittentfasting is not going to work for
(16:06):
you, it's just going to beanother added stress. So that is
definitely something to considerbefore trying this type of
strategy. Another thing to payattention to is your hunger
levels during these times, Now,of course, you're naturally
going to be hungry. But if youdo it fast, have you know 16, 18
(16:30):
or 24 hours, and then you diveheadfirst and just binge eat
into whatever you want, and youjust overeat following that,
then that's a sign that yourbody is not ready for that
intermittent fasting, just yet,you need to ease into it.
Because really one of thebenefits that another benefit, I
(16:54):
should say, of intermittentfasting is being able to
naturally tune into your body'sown hunger and satiety
mechanisms. And that and whenyou get to that place where
you're in tune with your body,and you can tell Okay, today is
going to be a good day for me tofast, I'm not feeling that
(17:15):
hungry, I'm feeling pretty leveland stable, then that's what
makes it beautiful is you'reyou're tapping into that
intuition. And learning that nowsome people are gonna have to
start off with boundaries, untilthey can learn to tap into that
internal intuition ofunderstanding our hunger and
(17:35):
satiety signals. But if you'restarving and shaky and angry,
and your mood is not in a goodplace, it's probably not a good
idea to intermittent fast thatday, or to attempt this. Again,
the benefits come when you're atthat stable place. And you can
just take it up to that nextlevel. By introducing some of
(17:56):
these intermittent fastingstrategies, you also want to
make sure that you're stayingwell hydrated if you're trying
this, again, checking in on yoursleep, your energy, your mood,
and your stress levels. Somepeople can have a cortisol
response. So as they come out ofthat fast and they break their
(18:19):
fast again, if you break yourfast, you want to you start
small with a small meal to breakthat fast. And some people can
have a cortisol response to thatwhich causes our blood sugars to
disproportionately increasebreaking that fast. So that's,
again, something that you canpay attention to if you're
measuring your blood sugarsduring this time. It's also
(18:42):
really, really important to makesure you're getting adequate
protein. A lot of us are proteindeficient, we don't get enough
protein in our diet, that'sgoing to help us feel very
satiated, help us to be able togo long periods of time. So
without eating so like the nightbefore getting lots of protein,
lots of vegetables, lots offiber, some good healthy fats is
(19:04):
going to help sustain you ifyou're going to do a fast next
ended pass the following day. Sothose are things to think about
as you're going into this.
People who need to be verycareful about fasting or should
avoid fasting again, are goingto be children. Fasting is not
for children, we want to sendthe message to a child's body
(19:27):
that they're growing and thatwe're nourishing them. We don't
want to send a differentmessage. So fasting is not for
children. If you're underweight,it's probably not a good idea
disordered eating. So if youhave any type of disordered
eating patterns, again, thisfasting can seem very rigid and
and trigger some of thatdisordered eating. So being
(19:47):
careful, they're elderly.
Generally, you know, it depends.
Again, if they should try this,again, having the guidance of a
trained practitioner in thisfield is going to be important
if this is something that youwant to implement, if you're in
an in any of these categories.
Also, if you're pregnant orbreastfeeding, if you're
(20:08):
nourishing a child, again, youneed to make sure you're staying
well nourished, to nourish thatchild. So that's it's not a good
idea. In those cases, again,there are always exceptions. So
that's taking responsibility forwhat's best for you, instead of
just relying on someone to tellyou what to do, I am a huge fan
of taking responsibility. But Ilike to put this information out
(20:31):
there for people to think about,as well, because it can be
beneficial. I have worked withclients that have tried fasting,
and they just weren't ready forit, you know, there were still
too much stress on their systemfor different reasons. And they
weren't getting the benefitsthat they wanted from it. And so
in that case, we work on thoselifestyle factors first, and
(20:53):
start to identify and removesome of the stressors in the
system, to help them get to apoint where they can benefit
from intermittent fasting.
So again, if that's somethingthat you're curious about and
want to talk to me about, youcan reach out to me through my
(21:13):
website and set up a claritycall. And I can be happy to talk
to you about working togetherand figuring out how to
implement this kind of plan foryou. There's also resources
available. Dr. Fung book, TheUltimate Guide to fasting is an
excellent book. And he goesthrough the different types of
(21:34):
fast from these short,intermittent fast, where you're,
you know, fasting for less thana day. And then he talks about
the benefits of doing a longerfast, you know, three days, five
days, seven days, as well. Soit's a really, really great
resource for looking at thedifferent ways that you can
implement this into your life,and determine if that's going to
(21:57):
be a benefit to you and how todo that. So I hope that has
given you some information onintermittent fasting that you
can think about and see ifyou're at a place that you want
to try that. Or if you need alittle help implementing it, I'm
here to help out those that wantto work together one on one to
do that. Also, you know, a lotof the population is has blood
(22:22):
sugar dysregulation and insulinresistance like I've talked
about before, I have a reallygreat group program to help
people start down that path ofstabilizing their blood sugar's
you know, reframing how theythink about food and dieting,
because I've talked before aboutgetting out of that diet mindset
(22:44):
in this program is calledFinally Free. And I'm starting
another session in May. So youcan check out my website at
BrigitteFactor.com/finally-free.
And I'll post the link in theshow notes. If that's something
that you want to embark on. It'sa really great group program,
it's a great way to introduceyourself into some of this. And
(23:05):
it's about intuitive eating. Soit's about learning to self
regulate around food. And thatis one of the things that, you
know, I feel that intermittentfasting is good as teaching you
how to tap into your owninternal hunger and satiety
signals, as well. So we don'ttalk about intermittent fasting
(23:28):
in the first part of thatprogram. So it's really a great
place to start if you're notready to implement intermittent
fasting, or you're just startingon trying to figure out what's
the best approach for you, andyou need consistency and support
and implementing a healthy diet,as well as reframing our mindset
about food and our bodies. Andit's, you know, getting away
(23:51):
from this idea that there's badfoods and good foods. And you
know, I just need to try harder.
Oftentimes, when we're in aplace where things aren't
working. And we think, oh, wejust need to try harder and
harder. That's why it's notworking. Well, sometimes we just
need a reframe. And this programhelps us to set up that reframe,
(24:15):
as well. So I'm super excitedabout it. I'm loving this
program and want to offer itmore. So check that out. And
also make sure you get on myemail list. And so we can stay
in communication you can beaware of when I offer programs
and offer updates and all thatstuff. I will post a link in the
(24:39):
show notes. And you can also goto my website and sign up as
well.
So, again, I thank you so muchfor listening. I really hope you
found this information helpful.
I would love to hear from yousee how it's helping you and
until next time grace and peaceto you.
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