E277: Muscle, Metabolism, and Fasting: A Smarter Way to Think About Intermittent Fasting

This episode covers:

In this week’s episode of Wellness Your Way, I revisit episode 18 where I take a grounded, science-based look at what intermittent fasting actually does in the body, who it can help, and who should approach it with caution.

Links mentioned during this episode:

Prenuvo scan $300 discount: https://www.prenuvo.com/ref/ZITXQC

BodySpec scan $10 discount: https://www.bodyspec.com/r/8KwGBI

Visceral fat / brain health study: https://www.rsna.org/media/press/2025/2614

Intermittent fasting blog post: https://www.thelyonsshare.org/2019/11/19/is-intermittent-fasting-healthy/

Free Initial Consultation: https://p.bttr.to/3a9lfYk

Join our free weekly newsletter: www.thelyonsshare.org/newsletter

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thelyonsshare

Lyons' Share website: www.thelyonsshare.org

Transcript

[00:11] Dr. Megan: Welcome to wellness you way.

[00:14] I'm your host, Dr. Megan Lyons, and I've helped tens of thousands of people find their own way to wellness through the functional nutrition services offered at the Lion's Share Wellness.

[00:26] Wellness you Way is an extension of that work aimed to help you find your unique path to feeling your very best.

[00:35] Each week we'll go through tactical strategies you can use to improve your health,

[00:40] happiness and quality of life.

[00:43] Dr. Megan: So grab a mug of tea or.

[00:44] Dr. Megan: Lace up your walking shoes. We're about to dive in.

[00:54] Dr. Megan: Welcome Back to episode 277 of Wellness your Way. I hope this episode finds you enjoying February and the winter and all of the pleasures. Let's put it in the positive sense that that brings.

[01:09] I am, as always, truly honored that you continue to show up and listen to Wellness your Way week after week, month after month, year after year.

[01:19] It is such an honor to be able to share with so many hundreds of thousands of you over the years, which is incredible.

[01:28] We have lots of exciting topics today, as usual. First we're going to discuss a study that gives us yet another reason to take care of our bodies and also to measure our visceral fat, which is not the fat you see, but it's the fat inside your body, around your organs.

[01:45] And this reason to take care of our bodies has nothing to do with bikinis or the summer coming up or anything like that.

[01:53] Then we're going to dive into intermittent fasting.

[01:56] I actually aired this second portion of the episode a few years ago, but the information still applies. So if you need a reminder, stay tuned until the end.

[02:06] For now, let's dive in.

[02:14] In health news you can use today, we have a pretty amazing reminder that body composition isn't just about aesthetics.

[02:23] It may be linked to how our brains age.

[02:27] This is a study presented at the Radiological Society of North America. Their annual meeting at the beginning of 2026 looked at a specific body profile and how it tracks with brain age,

[02:39] which was a computer estimated measure of how old the brain appeared based on an Mr.

[02:46] And the key takeaway here is that people with more muscle and less visceral fat we'll talk about what that is. But more muscle, less visceral fat, they tended to have younger brains.

[02:59] Amazing.

[03:00] So here's what the researchers did. They studied 1,164 healthy adults across four locations with an average age of 55.17 years. 52% of these were women. So pretty good sample size split average split between men and women 55 years old on average.

[03:21] This is A great study population.

[03:24] Everyone received a whole body MRI and the team used AI to quantify their total muscle volume, their visceral fat, which, this is the deep abdominal fat around your organ. So it's actually quite small and every single cubic millimeter makes a big difference.

[03:44] Difference.

[03:45] This is different from the fat you can pinch on, you know, closer to your skin or in your belly or something like that. This visceral fat is deep around the organs and that is the stuff that's most detrimental.

[03:57] So they measured muscle volume, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, which is the fat under the skin, and then brain age, which was estimated from that mri. And they found that the key result was about the visceral fat to muscle ratio.

[04:12] So a higher ratio, more visceral, visceral fat versus muscle was associated with a higher brain age or an older looking brain.

[04:22] And the subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that most of us spend our time caring about, the stuff that we can see, basically, or, or that you might look at in the mirror and say you'd like to lose some of that, which,

[04:36] that's valid too, but it's not what we're talking about today.

[04:40] This was not associated with brain age, believe it or not. I'm actually a little bit surprised by that. But there was no associ.

[04:49] So in plain English, it wasn't the fat in general that tracked with the older brain age, it was the hidden belly fat, that visceral fat relative to the muscle. And the people with more visceral fat and less muscle, they had the older brains.

[05:03] The senior author of the study is Dr. Cyrus Raji,

[05:07] framed it very simply and said healthier bodies with more muscle and less visceral fat are more likely to have youthful brains. And that may translate to lower risk for future brain diseases like Alzheimer's.

[05:19] So what does this mean for us? Well, wellness your way, listeners.

[05:23] Strength is brain health. If you need one more reason to lift some weights, do Pilates,

[05:31] eat a little bit healthier, or a lot healthier for that matter, go for a walk, something like that. Here it is. Muscle is not just metabolic, that's important as well.

[05:40] But in this study it tracked with a younger brain profile. So we really need to care about that visceral fat that's around our organs. And this is strongly influen by all of the things we talk about here.

[05:54] Dr. Megan: By sleep, by stress, by alcohol, by.

[05:56] Dr. Megan: Ultra processed foods, by consistent movement, protein and fiber at meals, all of these levers can help you reduce your visceral fat.

[06:05] It's not just about weight loss at all costs. It's really about health and preserving that muscle as we lose the visceral fat.

[06:16] So one quick reality check or quality check with this study, it was an association study, so it does not prove causation. It does not prove that if every single person builds two pounds of muscle they reduce brain age by X years or something like that.

[06:34] It just does reinforce the theme that muscle, muscle and visceral fat matter a lot for long term health.

[06:42] So bottom line, build muscle on purpose, reduce visceral fat gently and consistently.

[06:48] That's going to support a younger brain as you age.

[06:52] And now the very last thing in this health news you can use is that many of you are wondering how in the world do you measure that visceral fat?

[06:58] Well, there are a lot of at home scales, you've surely been targeted by some on social media lately and they're what I call directionally correct. Like are they completely off base?

[07:09] No.

[07:10] Are they that accurate?

[07:12] No. For the most part. If you really care about precision, you'll want to go for something else. But if you like to have and I have a not super fancy but an at home body fat scale, if I like to have that measurement periodically, fine.

[07:30] However, what I do is I use body spec, which is a full DEXA scan that is a much more accurate look at your muscle composition, body fat, subcutaneous fat, visceral fat, all of that.

[07:42] I do it about every six to 12 months. My aim is six months but sometimes it happens every 12 months and I'll put a discount code for that in the show notes.

[07:50] And then the best what they used in the study is a full body MRI. So I interviewed Dr. Daniel Durand, who's the chief medical officer of Prenuvo. I interviewed him on my podcast a couple of years ago.

[08:03] He's actually the co author of this study as the chief medical officer of Prenuvo, which I think is the best consumer facing full body MRI. I got my prenuvo scan my first one two years ago.

[08:15] I'm intending to do this every 2 1/2 to 3 years on average. I think that's on the high. On the more frequent side, maybe every every five years would be just as great.

[08:26] It is expensive but it is the gold standard for full body prevention. If you want to take a look at every organ system in your body,

[08:36] this is a great test to consider. And I do have a $300 off link for you for Prenuvo, which I'll put in the show notes as well.

[08:45] Finally, I will put the link to this study in the show notes. And for now, let's dive in to the Veggies of the Matter. Foreign.

[09:00] It's time for the Veggies of the Matter and for this week's episode, I am revisiting a topic that I blogged about about 13 months ago, but it's still relevant. This trend is sticking around and the trend is intermittent fasting.

[09:19] And so I already said a word that kind of makes me have the heebie jeebies, which is trend.

[09:24] If you don't yet know how I feel about health trends, basically I feel that everyone's looking for a magic bullet in order to make health really easy.

[09:35] And I don't think there's a magic bullet.

[09:37] The diet industry is a multi billion dollar industry because people just don't want to do the real answer, which is whole foods,

[09:47] lots of vegetables, healthy fats, lean protein, reduce your sugar, move your body, manage stress, sleep better.

[09:54] All of those things are the real deal. But people want something fast and easy.

[10:01] So that's how I feel about trends in general.

[10:04] Intermittent fasting is kind of a trend, meaning it got popular, but honestly, it's been around for a long time.

[10:14] So today I'm going to talk about what intermittent fasting is,

[10:18] how you would do it, what the benefits are, and then a bunch of contraindications or reasons why intermittent fasting might not be for you.

[10:27] The only reason I give you this information is so you can make your own decision. Because honestly, I don't believe the answer is yes or no.

[10:36] Some people, the answer is a vehement yes,

[10:39] resounding yes.

[10:41] And for some people, the answer is, eh, probably not the best idea for you, honestly. So this podcast is intended to help you figure that out.

[10:50] So back to intermittent fasting.

[10:52] What is intermittent fasting? It's simply extending the period of the day during which you're not eating.

[10:59] So all of us do this every day. We all fast every day because we're not eating overnight as we sleep, I hope.

[11:07] Um, and if you've ever thought of the word breakfast, a lot of people say I don't eat breakfast. Well, everyone eats breakfast because the word means break your fast.

[11:16] Break fast breakfast.

[11:18] When you break your fast, it doesn't matter if it's 8am, it doesn't matter if it's 3pm, it doesn't matter if you're eating donuts or if you're eating Brussels sprouts. You are breaking your fast, so you're eating breakfast.

[11:30] So I kind of chuckle when People say they don't eat breakfast. What they mean is they don't eat in the morning, which is fine, as we're going to talk about.

[11:37] But intermittent fasting is designed to just extend that period of time during which we're not eating.

[11:44] So if you think about this, you would think, oh, that's kind of normal. But most Americans, we eat right up until we go to bed, like have that last bit of treat or sweet or whatever right before bed.

[11:56] And then we wake up, we put sugar in our coffee, like literally before we do anything else.

[12:01] Sugar, cream,

[12:03] donut, whatever else.

[12:05] So that period of time during which we're awake but not eating is really, really small. And intermittent fasting is just encouraging us to extend this from 12 hours to even up to 20 hours.

[12:17] Or I've seen people do 22 hour intermittent fasting.

[12:21] The most popular variety is called 16 8, which means that you fast for 16 hours during the day and you eat four for eight hours during the day. So people might eat from noon to 8pm or from 8am to 4pm, and during the rest of the hours of the day they are fasting.

[12:38] There are some other varieties like the 5:2 diet, which means you eat normally five days per week and you have a lower calorie intake on the other two days. Or you have the variety that's called Eat Stop Eat, which is a 24 hour fast once a week.

[12:55] There are several different varieties.

[12:57] So if this is all sounding complicated and confusing,

[13:01] just go back to,

[13:03] I don't know, 500 years ago,

[13:05] intermittent fasting was normal. No one had electricity,

[13:09] no one was timing their fast. It just was really rare to eat after sundown or before sunrise.

[13:17] So this is a normal thing. It's not relatively new, it's human nature,

[13:23] but today's world kind of makes it more complicated.

[13:26] So if you're interested in fasting, here's how you would do it.

[13:32] And I'll just say right here, if any of this is triggering to you based on a history or current experience of eating disorder, why don't you just tune in to next week's episode?

[13:42] I care about this information and I won't be saying it in a restriction promoting way.

[13:49] But you know yourself best and if this is not helpful to you, then please tune out. I will talk about how I do not recommend intermittent fasting for people with eating disorders, but I'm realizing now that that comes after I explain what it is.

[14:04] So if you know yourself and this is not for you, I will see you next week.

[14:09] Uh, if you're still here.

[14:11] Here is how you would do intermittent fasting if you're interested. You would basically choose a fasting window. So I recommend just starting with 12 hours,

[14:19] meaning if you finish eating at 8pm, you start eating again at 8am and then during your fasting window you don't eat. You can still consume water.

[14:28] Most people would say you can still consume tea or black coffee, just no additives in that,

[14:34] but you just don't eat. And then during your feeding window, according to interman fasting,

[14:40] you know,

[14:41] rules, I guess you can eat whatever you want.

[14:44] I'm encouraging you not to do that. Like cramming, you know,

[14:49] five whoppers in your mouth during your four hour feeding window is not really going to be healthy no matter what the benefits are of fasting. But basically you just eat during your feeding window and you don't eat during your fasting window.

[15:09] Dr. Megan: I hope you are loving this episode my friends, though I promise to get.

[15:14] Dr. Megan: You back to it within 60 seconds.

[15:17] Dr. Megan: But I wanted to tell you that I have so many people go through our functional nutrition programs at the Lion's Share Wellness and they'll say something like, oh my goodness, I've been listening to Wellness your way for years and I loved it and I felt really educated but I had no idea how to.

[15:36] Dr. Megan: Fit it into my own routine and.

[15:38] Dr. Megan: Figure out which pieces to implement for me. And if this is you,

[15:43] our team can help.

[15:44] At the Lion's Share we specialize in bio individual functional nutrition, in personalized supplement protocols, and in behavioral coaching to help.

[15:53] Dr. Megan: You reach your goals.

[15:56] Dr. Megan: So if you'd like to book a free initial consultation to chat with me directly about a program that would work for you. But scroll on down to the show notes, you'll find the link to book that.

[16:05] If you want to check out more, go to www.thelionshare.org and all the information is there. Okay, now back to the episode.

[16:21] Dr. Megan: So why would you do this? A couple benefits. The reason most people do it is for improved body composition and reduced body fat. So when we don't eat for an extended period of time, our body basically has to burn fat.

[16:35] This can make you more insulin sensitive as well. This is a good thing. Insulin sensitive kind of sounds not healthy to people,

[16:42] but this is a good thing. This just means that you can better handle sugar and fasting can allow you to do that. So there are a lot of studies that show that it doesn't.

[16:54] Intermittent fasting doesn't actually help you reduce weight, but it can help you change body composition, meaning you can gain more muscle and lose more fat.

[17:05] So the second benefit I mentioned, insulin sensitivity. Basically you can keep your blood sugar more stable over the long term, which is great.

[17:13] Improve digestion. Your digestive tract just really benefits from a rest. So not having food in it all the time,

[17:20] that's another benefit. And then there are benefits for longevity and disease prevention.

[17:25] Some of the research is still fairly new, but research linking intermittent fasting to reduced incidence of cancer and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and stroke and heart disease and all kinds of things are emerging.

[17:40] So there are several benefits and if you don't fall into any of the categories I'm about to mention, I would recommend giving it a try. I think no one needs to be eating 24 hours a day, so why not start with trying a 12 hour fast and then seeing if you feel good.

[17:56] If you want to extend it to 13, if you want to extend it to 14,

[17:59] great.

[18:00] I am not one who promotes eating a in a two hour period or something because I just think the digestive impact is reversed in that case. Digesting all your calories in two hours is really rough on your body.

[18:14] So for the vast majority of people, the shortest window eating window that I would suggest would be like an eight hour, maybe a six hour,

[18:24] but actually not an eight hour window would be the very, very shortest. I would recommend. Recommend,

[18:31] like I said for most people, Recommend Starting at 12.

[18:35] So why would you not want to do this?

[18:37] First of all, if you're female,

[18:39] which I don't have statistics, but I am guessing 70% of my audience is female. So listen up. Females are actually less likely to be successful while fasting. And this is because our bodies are really attuned to stress.

[18:57] A female's body is prioritizing fertility very often, which is why we as females tend to have higher body fat percentage than males.

[19:07] Our body just wants to be sure that if we're of premenopausal age that we can carry a baby at any time that, that that situation happens to us. So your body's trying to protect you in that way.

[19:23] But when we fast, sometimes your body can see that as a stressor and can actually panic during a fast,

[19:31] which will result in actually more fat storage. The exact opposite of what most of us are going for is if your body panics, your cortisol increases that stress hormone and then you can have more fat storage.

[19:47] So I'm going to link to an article that's really, really great on females and intermittent fasting.

[19:54] But suffice it to say, if you're of a low body fat range and you're female and you're premenopausal, I would have extreme caution going for a very long fast.

[20:06] Second one kind of related is if you have any hormonal imbalance,

[20:11] intermittent fasting has been shown to improve male hormones.

[20:14] But on some females, it some females who already have altered hormonal bal,

[20:21] it can exacerbate that. It can lead to amenorrhea, which is a lack of period.

[20:28] It can basically start to shut down your reproductive system, which is not good.

[20:32] Third bucket is if you're doing intense exercise, fasting can be a little tricky.

[20:38] Like I said, it's great for promoting fat burning.

[20:41] But if you're doing a two hour workout in the morning and it's an intense workout,

[20:47] it is not as likely to be beneficial. Your body is going to think, oh my goodness, I need some glycogen. It's going to release glycogen from your liver and from your muscles.

[20:58] You're going to get a blood sugar spike and then your body has to secrete insulin. It is just not as helpful for long, intense workouts. Plus, logistically it is,

[21:11] you know, it's just hard to get in enough fuel during a shorter period of time. For people who have high calorie or high daily calorie requirements,

[21:23] next bucket is if you are under a lot of stress, if you already have high cortisol,

[21:29] which is a stress hormone,

[21:31] or it's a crazy time at work, or you're fighting off a sickness or something like that, adding an extra stressor like fasting is not always a good idea. And then finally, like I briefly mentioned before,

[21:47] those with a history of eating disorders, I would not recommend fasting in general.

[21:52] Of course, if you're working with a practitioner that's recommending it,

[21:55] listen to him or her.

[21:57] But I like to be very cautious and I don't want extra restrictions on those for whom they might not be helpful.

[22:04] So what's the bottom line? Intermittent fasting is not a magic bullet. No such thing exists.

[22:10] But I do think there are benefits for longevity, digestion,

[22:16] fat burning, body composition, things like that.

[22:20] So if you fall in one of those categories that I mentioned, you are under extreme stress, you have a history of eating disorder,

[22:27] you have hormonal imbalance, you engage in daily intense endurance exercise, then go on doing what you're doing.

[22:38] If you're not in those categories, then I Recommend Trying a 12 hour fast. For most people that's doable and very healthy.

[22:47] Um,

[22:47] and I recommend giving it a Try seeing how you feel and then experimenting. You know your body. If we really listen, your body will tell you the answer. So if you feel amazing, go for it.

[22:58] If you don't feel amazing, then stop. That's the basic lesson here, but hopefully that gave you a little more color on what the rage is for about intermittent fasting. And I would love to hear your experiences with intermittent fasting as well.

[23:13] So always if you have feedback or follow up for me, you can shoot me an email or DM me on Instagram helionshare.

[23:21] Dr. Megan: I'd love to hear from you. It's time for a little story, my friends. And this story is not just about another client.

[23:28] This story is about me.

[23:31] I want to take you all the way back to 2019 when I got the opportunity to wear my very first continuous glucose monitor.

[23:38] And I'll admit I went into it a little braggadocious. I thought,

[23:42] at this point, I've owned my nutrition business for five and a half years.

[23:47] I eat really well.

[23:48] My continuous glucose monitor is probably going to look perfect.

[23:53] And this started one of the biggest aha moments in my own health journey because I thought I was eating well and I was eating well. Tons of vegetables,

[24:04] not a lot of processed food or added sugar.

[24:07] But I was honestly shocked at how certain things like stress and poor sleep and even some meals that I would have considered lighter that weren't balanced enough by protein,

[24:19] healthy fat and fiber. I was shocked at how these spiked my blood sugar. And even though I felt fine and operated fine and looked fine on the outside,

[24:28] I had some things in my labs that didn't match up with what I thought they should be. My A1C was a little more elevated than I thought it should be, my hormones were more imbalanced than I thought they should be.

[24:41] And once I learned through the continuous glucose monitor what worked for my body,

[24:46] honestly, everything changed. Steadier energy,

[24:50] fewer cravings, better metabolism,

[24:53] and more confidence that I knew exactly what foods would work for me.

[25:01] And this is why I created Reignite youe Metabolism, which is the Lion's Share's 30 day program to give you that same experience with your own continuous glucose monitor so you can see real time what foods work for your body and what don't.

[25:17] We also pair that with one to one nutrition consultations so we can help you extrapolate the right insights and interpret them and put them into action in your own life and then tons of powerful resources that you can use for a lifetime to help make this process so much easier.

[25:38] So if you are ready to finally understand your metabolism,

[25:42] go ahead and head down into the show notes where you can register register directly for Reignite your metabolism.

[25:49] You can also go to bit ly reigniteprogram. It's all lowercase. Bit ly reigniteprogram no space all lowercase. We cannot wait to have you in this program and help you finally understand your own metabolism.

[26:14] Dr. Megan: Thanks for listening to another episode of Wellness you Way with Megan Lyons. I always love connecting with listeners, so be sure to follow me on social media.

[26:23] And don't forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss brand new episodes each week.

[26:29] If you love Wellness your Way, please leave us a rating and review. I appreciate it so much.

[26:36] Stay well and I'll be back next week.

[26:49] Dr. Megan: The Wellness you Way podcast is provided for information only and should not be misconstrued as medical advice. Please consult with your physician or otherwise.

[26:59] Dr. Megan: Qualified practitioner on any matters regarding your.

[27:02] Dr. Megan: Health and well being, or on any opinions expressed within this podcast or the Lion's Share website.