The Win On Purpose Podcast
The Win On Purpose Podcast focuses primarily on health and fitness tips and discussions, but we love to celebrate ALL THINGS in regard to being the best you can possibly be in business, relationships, and personal development. Win on purpose means just that, purposefully taking action to become your best self, and following your purpose to develop the passion needed to excel at anything in life!
The Win On Purpose Podcast
Debunking Fitness & Nutrition Myths (Part 3)- Is Fasting Better Than Regular Eating?
Curious about whether skipping breakfast is a miracle fat-burning hack or just another passing trend? In this evidence-based episode, we cut through the noise surrounding intermittent fasting to reveal what science actually tells us about this popular eating pattern.
The truth might surprise you. Despite the countless social media posts portraying fasting as a metabolic miracle, high-quality research consistently shows that when calories are matched, intermittent fasting produces results virtually identical to traditional meal timing approaches. The real benefit? For many people, limiting their eating window naturally helps control total calorie intake – it's not that fasting triggers special fat-burning processes, but rather that it creates a structure that makes overconsumption harder.
We explore the fascinating psychology behind why fasting has gained such traction, examine five key scientific studies that reveal the truth about its effectiveness, and break down exactly when this approach might be beneficial – and when it could actually sabotage your progress. For those with disordered eating tendencies, high-energy demands, or certain hormonal sensitivities, intermittent fasting can potentially do more harm than good.
Rather than viewing nutrition through a black-and-white lens, we emphasize finding sustainable approaches that align with your unique lifestyle, hunger patterns, and psychological relationship with food. The most effective nutritional strategy isn't the trendiest one – it's the one you can maintain consistently while supporting your energy, performance, and quality of life. Whether you decide fasting fits your lifestyle or not, this episode equips you with the unbiased information you need to make an informed choice about your nutrition approach.
Studies Referenced:
- Lowe, D. A., Wu, N., Rohdin-Bibby, L., Moore, A. H., Kelly, N., Liu, Y., et al. (2020).
Effects of time-restricted eating on weight loss and other metabolic parameters in overweight and obese adults: a randomized clinical trial.
JAMA Internal Medicine, 180(11), 1491–1499.
https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.4153 - Templeman, N. M., et al. (2022).
Intermittent fasting, energy balance and associated health outcomes in humans.
Annual Review of Nutrition, 42, 135–158.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-nutr-122020-015743 - Harvie, M. N., & Howell, A. (2020).
Could intermittent fasting reduce breast cancer risk?
BMJ, 370, m2943.
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m2943 - Longo, V. D., & Panda, S. (2016).
Fasting, circadian rhythms, and time-restricted feeding in healthy lifespan.
Cell Metabolism, 23(6), 1048–1059.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2016.06.001 - Headland, M., Clifton, P. M., Carter, S., Keogh, J. B. (2021).
Weight-loss outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of intermittent energy restriction trials lasting a minimum of 6 months.
Obesity Reviews, 22(1), e13104.
https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13104
https://www.facebook.com/coachadamkelley/
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www.transformedhealthcoach.com
Welcome to the Win On Purpose podcast with Coach Adam Kelly. Fasting has exploded in popularity in recent years, with claims raging all the way from fat loss miracles to anti-aging benefits and everything in between. But is it actually better than regular eating, than a regular calorie deficit? In this episode, we're going to break down the facts behind intermittent fasting, we're going to compare it to traditional meal timing and we're going to look at what the science really says. So, whether you fast or not, this episode will help you make confident, informed choices about your nutrition, without the hype, the fear or the confusion. So, as always, guys, we will see you on the other side.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Win On Purpose podcast From health and fitness, business, personal development, relationships and more. We promise you will find inspiration to help you win on purpose in all areas of your life journey. Now for your host, adam Kelly.
Speaker 1:What's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Win On Purpose podcast or, if this is your first time listening, welcome to the Win On Purpose podcast, with Coach Adam Kelly here to bring you another episode. This is episode number 35, and we are continuing our five-part series titled Debunking Fitness and Nutrition Myths, and so, just to kind of recap a little bit, if you haven't listened to them yet, you want to go back and catch episode one and two. These are all different topics, different myths, different ideas, different assumptions, different rumors that are out there as far as what works and what doesn't. So you definitely want to check all these out, guys, because this is good stuff and, yeah, we're gonna help you weed through the lies, weed through the misconceptions and figure out what's actually true and stop wasting our time, alright. So episode one was about artificial sweeteners. Are they friend or foe? So are they good for us? Are they bad for us? Is it neutral? Do we see this in the literature, based on what we hear on social media, what the influencers are saying, what the people who are trying to sell you their nice book or their new supplement or their program, or they just want the popularity off of the new topic at hand. So we clear that one up, we nail it down and, yeah, really good stuff there.
Speaker 1:Episode number two targeting body fat. Is it possible? Can you burn belly fat by doing crunches general, versus what you hear people selling you in their programs that are going to melt body fat or melt belly fat by doing these certain exercises? All right, so that's part one and two. Definitely go back and catch those. So what is part three? Part three is titled, or the question that we're posing the myth that we're busting here is fasting better than regular eating? All right, so we know too much about just how much we see about fasting. Right, this is nothing new to most of us. If you've been paying attention to the health and fitness world, the nutrition world, the holistic especially holistic world, you know functional medicine, all of these things that are so popular. Now you have most likely heard of fasting as a health benefit. We're not talking about spiritual, so that's a different subject, which I have strong opinions on, but we're not talking about that. We're going to keep it in context. As far as physiology, biology, the human body, how it functions, how it operates, and what is the truth about fasting, is it miraculous for our health. Is it just a myth? Is it a wash? Does it actually help? Does it not? All right? So we're going to clear that up in this episode, all right? So I said the common myth. Golly, sorry, guys. The common myth is fasting is superior to eating throughout the day. All right.
Speaker 1:So people have this idea, based on what they've heard, that fasting is the best way to lose weight to, you know, get in shape, to reverse disease, prevent disease, to heal the body all these different things that people claim, depending on what source you're listening to. All right. So why is this so popular? All right, why is this idea so catchy and clicky? So you see a lot of success stories out there of people who have been implementing fasting different types of fasting and you hear them talk about how much they felt better, how, you know, their mental clarity, their energy, they lost this much weight. You know all these good things are happening. So, just like with any fad diet or strategy, you know, or technique, you're going to see the success stories of people who have made changes and seen improvement, and typically people attribute all of their results to this new thing that they're trying to do, and it may not be actually directly causing the benefits that they're seeing, but because that's the biggest change that they've made that they're conscious of, they believe that that's what's actually causing their results.
Speaker 1:Another reason why it's so popular is the simplicity of it. It's easy. It's easy to incorporate Less planning, less thinking ahead. When you're eating, you're eating. When it's time to stop eating, you stop eating. So pretty easy to get there. So that makes it very appealing because of the fact that it seems to be so easy. And then it's pretty popular because social media hype at the end of the day, that's really what this boils down to is the information that's being pushed out to the masses. And you have a lot of, like I said, holistic people, functional medicine doctors and I'm not against these people at all, don't get me wrong here. You know there's a place for everybody. But fasting is really one of the topics that they clinged on to you know, and promote their services with, and there's a lot of claims out there that just either aren't true, aren't backed by the data or way grossly over-exaggerated.
Speaker 1:All right, and that's not what we do here. Our job is not to sell you an idea. Our job is to help you transform your life and your health. So that's what transform health initiative is, our health coaching company, which you know. If you're interested, we have online coaching as well as a hybrid in-person with online coaching combined together. So if you live in the Moore area or the Oklahoma City area, that's a great option for you. But no matter where you are, where you live, we will gladly work with you. We have a coaching application form that you can access on our website, transformhealthcoachcom. You can fill out the application, see if we're a good fit and then, if we are, we'll move forward. So we'd love to work with you.
Speaker 1:But anyways, let's get back to the episode here. So let me make this very clear, guys, before we go into this topic, just like I'm doing on every one of these episodes, because, again, this is not to pick on anybody. This isn't to jump on anybody. This isn't to say ha ha, you're wrong, you don't know what you're doing. That's not what this never about the individual. There's a lot of good people out there that really want to help others or really want to help themselves, and they cling to ideas because it's appealing and there's promise with it. So don't get me wrong, guys.
Speaker 1:This is not about pushing for or against fasting. I'm taking a neutral approach completely, by looking at the data and then giving my expert, if you will, conclusion to that data and what you can do with it to actually see a benefit or maybe not a benefit. But, like I said, this is not promoting or bashing fasting. I'm just going to give you guys facts so you can decide if it's right for you, because, at the end of the day, all that matters is results and what works for the individual. I don't care about what strategy you use, I don't care about which methods you do. If you are bettering your health, okay, because you can do extreme things, you can do irresponsible things that actually harm your health in you know the disguise of helping. But as long as you're actually benefiting your health and you're developing habits and lifestyle that you can sustain for the long term, then I don't care what that looks like. Right, more power to you. You're going to win and I'm going to cheer you on, all right.
Speaker 1:So one thing I want to touch on is the most common type of fasting. Like I said, this is a strategy. This isn't a diet. Okay, so there's different types of fasting. All right, I'm going to talk about specifically intermittent fasting, so you have like long-term fasting, again that's more. You see that more with, like you know, functional doctors trying to treat disease and things like that. Or you see it more in the spiritual aspect. But as far as when it comes to the health benefits, fat loss, you know all those type of things we tend to see intermittent fasting being promoted the most or, if shortened, intermittent fasting.
Speaker 1:So what is intermittent fasting? It is an eating pattern that cycles between periods of eating and periods of fasting, hence the intermittent part. So some common protocols with intermittent fasting, you know, are 16-8. So that's, like you know, a 16 hour fasting window with an eight hour eating window. Obviously this is a 24 hour structure. Or, you know, some people do an 18 hour, six hours. So 18 hour fasting, six hour eating, om. Or you know only one meal a day or more of, like you know, alternative day fasting. Or like a five to ratio, which is like, basically, five days of eating, two days of fasting each week. So those are some of the most common types of intermittent fasting protocols you'll see.
Speaker 1:So you know, just again to clarify, guys, intermittent fasting is not a diet, all right, it is not a diet, it's a eating schedule At the end of the day it's, it's monitoring when you eat and when you don't, ok, so let's be very clear there, because a lot of people treat intermittent fasting like it's a diet and it's not OK. So why do people use intermittent fasting? Why are people drawn to it? What are, what are they hoping to get out of it? So we have weight loss benefits that people claim, the simplicity benefits that people claim, blood sugar control, digestion, longevity claims of you know, anti-aging effects, things like that, and we're going to talk a little bit about some of those. But those are, you know, why most people do it. Like I said, some people do have really good success, some people don't. So that's why I said it depends on what's best for you at the end of the day. That's how you determine that.
Speaker 1:But let's look into some of the claims about fasting in a little bit more detail. Ok, so one of the biggest claims about intermittent fasting or fasting, you know, for health purposes is fasting boosts fat burning. Ok, so you see people implementing it with fasted cardio, where you know they stop eating at a certain time the day before they get up in the morning, fasted, have an eight for eight, 10, 12 hours and then they go do some certain amount of cardio, believing that, because they haven't ate anything, that their body has to pull from body fat, because there's no food in your system to use for energy to fuel that cardio, which is false. Okay, that's not the way it works. Real quick, guys, if you're enjoying this episode and you like what you're hearing and this is helpful to you, if you don't mind, just real quick hitting the like button. Give us a share, send it to someone that you know, give us five stars, leave some comments. All of this engagement lets us know what type of content helps our listeners the most and how we can be the most beneficial. So, guys, help, help us out there, help us get this good, sound, practical information out there to the masses to help transform more lives and create people who become who they want to become. Thanks, guys. Back to the episode.
Speaker 1:Fasted workouts are another one. You'll see people boast and talk about fasting and using the sauna to detoxify and, to you know, sweat out toxins, all that stuff. So you see, you know different ideas of how it helps you with burning fat. And then another one is fasting improves insulin sensitivity, so, rather, if that's directly or indirectly. So you know, rather, if it directly causes that because of the fasting or because you're fasting and consuming less sugars or you're more time, you know, without high blood sugar levels versus low blood sugar levels, that this is going to help you improve insulin sensitivity. Ok, another claim is fasting helps you live longer. So things like cell regeneration, cell autophagy, you know, so on, so forth. You hear a lot of people, especially again in the functional medicine world and the holistic world, when we're talking about aging and anti-aging and longevity, a lot of people promote fasting for that benefit.
Speaker 1:Next, uh, we have fasting helps with mental clarity and focus. So, basically, being in that like acute ketogenic state because you haven't had carbohydrates in so long that this is believed to help with mental clarity and focus, which that's why you see a lot of like the low carb, keto carnivore people you know world. They really tend to be the ones who implement and promote intermittent fasting the most. They kind of go hand in hand for some reason. So that's the claims there. So are these true? Is it just marketing? Does it just sound good? Does it just sell books and programs? Well, let's see what the research says Because, again, this is not about opinion.
Speaker 1:This is not about what I think is best. We're going to take some evidence, we're going to take some research, some meta-analysis, some randomized controlled trials so high quality data and we're going to look at that and see what the conclusion of it is, all right. So we've got five studies that we're going to look at. So, again, like all the other episodes, I'm going to briefly talk about the conclusion of the study and then I and then they never actually show you what that study is. You can't actually go research it yourself. And a lot of times, guys this is what's crazy.
Speaker 1:A lot of times, even with these experts, they'll claim this study, this certain study. They'll even give you the name of what the study is and that it showed this, this and this. And when you actually go look yourself, especially if you know how to read, you know actually, you know evidence papers, if you know how to read the literature, then you know a lot of times it actually shows the exact opposite of what the person's claiming that the study shows, because they didn't read it all the way through. They heard someone else quote this study, but they didn't look at it themselves. They don't have any idea how to go to the conclusion of the scientists, of what they concluded, and read their evidence, or read their opinion based on the evidence. So that's why I'm going to do it like that. I want to make sure you guys know I'm not just pulling stuff out of a hat and just making up studies. You'll be able to look it up, so check the show notes for that.
Speaker 1:So let's get into it, guys. This is a mixture between meta-analysis, which are basically a big study of other studies that are looking at the same thing, and then the researchers come to their educated conclusion based on all of those different studies. So it's a lot better than just taking one study and putting all your eggs in that basket or cherry picking, anything like that and then randomized, controlled trials that's this very well orchestrated trials, studies that can be replicated, and so it's a much better than, again, just a one-off study that may have completely different results than what another 100 studies studying the same thing found. Okay, so study number one this is in the JAMA internal medicine. So I don't know if I'm even saying that. Right, guys, it's J-A-M-A, so JAMA, that's what I'm going to call it, because that sounds cool man. Jama, man.
Speaker 1:This study is from 2020, and it was published by Lau et al, l-o-w-e, and their conclusion is that time restricted eating, specifically the 18-6 window, you know the 18 or sorry 16-8 window, so 16 hours fasted, eight hours eating resulted in no greater weight loss or metabolic benefit compared to regular eating. When calories were equated that last part of that statement calories were equated is so important to understand when it comes to all studies on diet, when it comes to nutrition, all of that. When you equate for calories meaning that calories were equal across studying participants based on their height, weight, their logistics, in other words, that's what we want to see. So when you have studies that don't equate for calories, you're going to see all kinds of different things pointing towards what that person wants the evidence to say. Because you're missing that huge control factor, you can't really say this diet is better than that diet, this strategy is better than this strategy, if you're not equating for calories and even protein, in my personal opinion and preference, but at least calories, all right. So study number two we have this was published in the annual review of nutrition in 2022. So a bit newer study and their conclusion is that intermittent fasting may produce similar benefits to continuous calorie restriction just regular eating and a calorie deficit, but no clear superiority, okay. So again, we don't see any benefit of fasting that is more or greater or better than just a boring old calorie deficit. Calories in, calories out approach Okay, the true diet approach All right.
Speaker 1:Next up study number three this is published in the BMJ uh in 2020. All right, and this was published by by Harvey and Howell, and their conclusion was intermittent fasting can be effective for weight loss, but mainly because it helps reduce calorie intake overall. Okay, so they admit the fact that we do see weight loss happen when people use intermittent fasting, but that's because it helps reduce their overall calorie intake. So, in other words, if within their feeding window, they're over-consuming calories, they're getting in more calories than their body is able to burn any given day. You're still going to gain body fat, okay. There's nothing particular about intermittent fasting that's going to help with your weight loss. If you're not in a calorie deficit, okay, and this is a really easy way to help you get into a calorie deficit. If you can sustain this for the long term, all right. Study a really easy way to help you get into a calorie deficit if you can sustain this for the long term, all right.
Speaker 1:Study number four this was published in the Cell Metabolism Journal in 2018, and it was published by Longo, l-o-n-g-o and Panda. Okay, so their conclusion is intermittent fasting shows some cellular and metabolic benefits in animals, but human trials are less clear, especially long term. So, in other words, there could be some cellular benefit, there could be some metabolic benefit in humans, but we haven't had enough time to study this idea because intermittent fasting again, it's not a new concept, but as far as its popularity and our look into it or study on it, it's still pretty new. Ok, so we don't have long term 50, 60, 100 year studies like we have on artificial sweeteners and, you know, vegetable oils and different things like that. We don't. We just don't have that available, so we're not really sure at the end of the day, but there is some promise there, ok.
Speaker 1:And then our last study, number five this is published in the Obesity Reviews Journal in 2021 by Headland et al. And their conclusion they compared intermittent fasting with traditional calorie restriction across multiple randomized, controlled trials. This is a meta-analysis. They're looking at multiple high quality, well-structured, well-controlled studies and what was their conclusion? No significant difference in body composition outcomes, that's with basic calorie restriction being in a calorie deficit versus intermittent fasting, they saw no significant difference in body composition outcomes. And obviously calories are going to be equated in these randomized control trials because that's the best way to really standardize and control the study and the outcome, to make sure it's just honest that there's no bias there.
Speaker 1:So there's five studies, guys, and what is the conclusion on those? Either we see no greater weight loss or metabolic effect when compared to just basic calorie deficit. When calories are equated, you know we may see some benefits similar to continuous calorie restriction, but no clear superiority. So it seems to kind of level out be the same. It can be effective for weight loss, but mainly because it helps reduce calorie intake overall. So again coming back to calories at the end of the day, as far as cell metabolism, like I said, we don't see a whole lot in humans because we just don't have the long-term data yet to really support those claims. So if someone's claiming that for a fact fasting helps with metabolic benefits and cellular benefits, they are looking beyond what the research shows. And then, compared to again calorie restriction over multiple randomized controlled trials, there's no significant difference in body composition outcomes. So fat loss versus muscle gain, we don't really see any difference when calories are controlled with a calorie deficit and intermittent fasting, okay.
Speaker 1:So next we're going to look at fasting versus what you're comparing it to. Okay, so let's get some context behind this discussion. So intermittent fasting can work well, but mostly because it limits eating window and calories. So again, there's no magic guys in intermittent fasting. It's not magically going to make body fat melt off of you. What it can do is help you control how much you eat and how often you eat and this can make it a lot easier to be in a calorie deficit, like I said and how often you eat, and this can make it a lot easier to be in a calorie deficit, like I said.
Speaker 1:So if you're fasting for 16 hours and then you are eating for eight hours or maybe six hours, versus 18 hours fasting, by the time you eat that first meal, for most people it's very filling and they get full fast and they feel really full because their stomach is shrunk they haven't ate in so many hours and then maybe they get in time for another meal or two or a snack in between and then, boom, your time is up. Now it's back to not eating. So it's way easier to control your calories rather than if you have 2000 calories to eat to get to your goal weight and you're trying to break that up over an 18 hour period. A 16 hour period that you're awake. It's a lot harder to do that because you have a lot more opportunity to eat and therefore overeat. But if you're able to cut it off at your fasting window or cut off your eating window at the end and you're able to sustain that fast for that next 16, 18 hours or whatever you choose, there's no magical number there either, guys. 16 hours is not special, 18 hours isn't special. That's just what people go with. But if you're able to do that, then you know that's going to help you be in a calorie deficit a little bit easier maybe, which is going to help you lose body fat. But again, it boils down to your calories how much you're consuming, if you're overeating or if you're undereating. That's going to determine your results with intermittent fasting or not.
Speaker 1:So some people naturally eat less with fewer meals, and other people tend to binge after fasting. So this is where we can see this being a problem, especially with disordered eating. If you have a history of binging, unfortunately intermittent fasting can really aid to that problem because, again, you're going so long without eating. That tends to make people really food focused. Or like you're constantly thinking about your next meal because you're so hungry. You're getting close to the end of your fasting window and you're so hungry All you can do is think about food, what you're going to eat, the smells of all the food in the air, like food that's at the office. You're just constantly food focused. So when you finally allow yourself to eat because you're out of your magical fasting window, the ability to control yourself may be gone and then it's like, hey, I just need to eat as much as I can because I'm so hungry and so food focused.
Speaker 1:So people like I said, if you have a history of binge eating, this can definitely be a problem for you and you may want to consider not implementing intermittent fasting or at least starting very small, maybe like 12 hours on, 12 hours off. That way you know you eat two hours before bed, you sleep eight hours. You don't eat two hours until after you wake up. Pretty easy there, you're not awake very long for the time that you're fasting, so then you have 12 hours to eat. That's still narrowing the window down for a lot of people, and then you can progress at that over time, making that eating window smaller and the fasting window bigger if you want to. But again, there's nothing magical there and it's unnecessary. If it doesn't help, you stay in a calorie deficit.
Speaker 1:So what are some things that are more important than fasting when it comes to, again, weight loss, body composition, health goals, things like that? So, total calorie intake again, at the end of the day, if your goal is to lose body fat I don't care if you're using intermittent fasting or not you need to be eating less calories than it takes to maintain your body weight. That's going to put you in what's called a calorie deficit and this is going to cause your body to have to take resources from your body to use for energy rather than the food you're eating, because you're not eating enough food to sustain your life and your body weight and all of the functions of your organs, your brain, all of that. Okay. So when your body is deficient in nutrients and energy from the food you're eating, it can't create energy on its own. Okay, so it has to pull that energy from either food that's in your GI tract that you've eaten, or from stored energy in the form of body fat or muscle tissue. So that leads into some of these other ones.
Speaker 1:But another important thing to focus on, more than just thinking fasting is going to solve all your problems nutrient quality. So making sure that we're eating high nutritious foods, fueling our body well, because sometimes with intermittent fasting or longer term fasting, we tend to see some of these nutrient deficiencies pop up, because not only are people eating less often, they typically eat less food in general because they're full longer. And if you're not getting in plenty of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and fiber and protein, then you're not going to have the outcome you're expecting. Even if you lose weight, you're going to lose a ton of muscle mass, you're going to look worse, your metabolism is going to drop down, you're going to gain weight even easier and it's going to be 10 times harder to sustain that weight loss than if you do it the right way. Okay, so nutrient quality. Protein intake is another one making sure you're getting adequate protein. Again, you're not eating for a long time.
Speaker 1:Your body has to pull energy off your body. It wants to break down muscle tissue first, before body fat, because it understands that it only needs a small amount of muscle tissue density to perform daily life actions. But if you run out of body fat, you die. Okay, so your body wants to hold body fat and it will burn muscle first If you're not providing enough amino acids in the form of protein. You know amino acids are the broken down form, or broken. When proteins broken down, it breaks down into amino acids. If you're not consuming enough of those, your body has to get them from somewhere. Again, it can't manufacture these amino acids I can some of them, but not all of them and your muscles are made of amino acids. So your body will break down that muscle tissue, convert it back into those amino acids so we can use them throughout your body. Because protein amino acids are used for so much more than just muscle. Don't think it's just about building muscle or sustaining muscle. There's hundreds of processes in the body that amino acids are responsible for or take part in. So making sure you have protein in it Sorry.
Speaker 1:Adequate protein intake will help possibly curve some of that muscle loss. If you're pairing it with resistance training, progressive overload so you know training harder and harder as time goes on. If you're pairing that with protein intake, you can definitely still grow muscle and lose body fat using intermittent fasting. This has been shown. There used to be an idea that intermittent fasting would kill your gains, that you're going to burn up all your muscle because you're going to be catabolic while you're fasting. Well, we know that to not be so true now. Okay, again, this is not about picking a side, having an opinion. This is about what does the evidence show and rocking with that until we have more data. And it appears that, as long as protein intake, you know, on a day-to-day basis, is adequate, where it needs to be, rather, if that's in a six hour, two hour or 18 hour window, and you're getting in enough nutrients overall, enough calories overall, then you'll still be able to build muscle and keep muscle while intermittent fasting okay.
Speaker 1:And then consistency over time is the most important thing, and that's more important than all of these, although all of these are vital for your transformation. That consistency over time is the biggest one, because if you're not consistent, then nothing else you do matters. It doesn't matter if you got the best weight loss drugs. It doesn't matter if you got the best weight loss drugs. It doesn't matter if you have the best program, the best coaches, the best motivation, the best, anything and everything. It doesn't matter if you are not consistent. Okay. Being consistent with your nutrition over time is much more important than trying fasting in the hopes to speed up the process or something like that.
Speaker 1:So now we're going to take a little bit of different turn. Okay, because it sounds like again that we're being very biased here against fasting and, like I said, I want to clarify I'm not that we're being very biased here against fasting and, like I said, I want to clarify I'm not against fasting. We're not against fasting here. We're just against false information or misinformation. Okay, so now we're going to look at some of the actual benefits of fasting that we see in studies. All right, when fasting does make sense for your plan or program, all right.
Speaker 1:So one of the biggest benefits of fasting literally the biggest benefit of fasting for health, for fat loss, is the simplicity. Okay, so you got fewer meals, less planning, less organizing, less trying to figure out what you're going to eat next, less trying to space your calories out. So this can be very beneficial. Okay, if you need that simplicity, if it's hard to try to break up all your food throughout the day and manage hunger in between meals and all that. Hey, this may be a great option for you if you can sustain it, okay, and if you do it right. Another benefit that we see is appetite control for some people, okay, some people, you know, during that fasting time, once they get past a certain point, they start to feel not as hungry. You know, it's probably due to hormones, it's probably due to some of that stomach shrinkage, and then when they do eat they get full a lot faster, and so, you know, it helps them control their appetite better. But for some people it has the exact opposite effect.
Speaker 1:That was me. I did intermittent fasting for, you know, probably like a year, pretty consistently for the most part, and I really struggled because I also had a very physical job. That's something we're going to touch on. But you know, I really struggled because I was able to do it. But I would be so food focused that last two or three hours because usually I had to work super early in the morning, get up super early, so you know it'd be four or five, six, seven hours before I'd be able to eat. I'd be so food focused that it, you know, as soon as I would start eating it'd be really hard for me to shut it off and I'd make excuses for eating more because I fasting is going to do the job for me. And boy was I wrong.
Speaker 1:So another benefit is cultural, religious alignment. Like I said, the spiritual side of fasting is a whole different topic. That I'm for. That I believe, just based on my personal you know belief. But that can be a big benefit when it comes to your religious stand, your spirituality, things like that, but not so much when it comes to your health, again as a cause rather than a byproduct. So it can be a useful tool for fat loss if it fits your lifestyle. Again, if you can make this work, it can be a useful tool, don't get me wrong. All right, it's great for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:I know a lot of people who just kind of naturally sustain a intermittent fasting schedule, or maybe intentionally, and it's just they've been doing it so long, it's just normal to them. I know people who, like you know, they're the ones that don't like eating anything when they get up and make some nauseous sluggish. So it's easier for them to wait, you know, until lunchtime or somewhere around there before they eat their first meal. I mean, you're basically intermittent fasting unless you're staying up super late eating. So you know, that may work well for those type of people, but not if you're someone that's ravishly hungry when you wake up. Like me, I'm usually pretty dang hungry when I wake up in the morning, so it's like I'll fight the entire day until my, you know, until I end. That fasting window, which cortisol spikes up during that time, makes cravings go up, energy down. You know just a host of different issues can come from that if you're constantly having to fight hunger. All right.
Speaker 1:So again, just understand, there's no magic here. It's just another tool in the toolbox. Okay, you can pull it out when you want to. Maybe life is busier, you're traveling more. You know you're really trying to control your eating for a specific end goal. That you know. You just need to get a little bit more intense because you're really struggling there. It may be something worth trying, but that does not mean it's going to give you excellent results just because you do it. All right.
Speaker 1:So next up, real quick, we're going to look at some of the downsides of fasting, when it doesn't make sense to utilize intermittent fasting. Okay. So we've already kind of touched on some of these, but we're going to do it again. So it can lead to under eating or overeating. Okay, like I said, some people they get so full from their first meal or two that they don't want to eat anymore because they're just full and they're sluggish and now they're sleepy and so they don't want to eat more. So they end up way under eating calories, which is a big problem. It sounds like that would be the better option, like, hey, I'll just lose faster if I eat less.
Speaker 1:But we know that if we lose that too fast of a rate, it can throw off our hormones. It can really throw off our food cravings and our appetite regulation. It can affect our mood, our energy levels and eventually cause, you know, rapid loss of muscle tissue and then making sustaining our results much harder because by the time you're done with your diet or you want to start introducing more calories, you've been eating at such low calories Now, like your body's going to be more prone to gaining that weight back. Lots of bad things that happen from under eating, in other words. And then we can see the same thing, like I said, with overeating, like my example with me, where I was so hungry, so food focused, that I would end up just overeating because it's like, hey, I've only got this much time to eat, let me get in what I can. Oh, it's okay, I'll be fasting all the rest of the day and all through the night so I can get away with eating these extra calories. And that can still lead to weight gain, body fat gain if you're not controlling those calories.
Speaker 1:So another downside of fasting it may impair performance or recovery if misused, especially in the beginning when people are trying to so-called adapt to fasting and your body's not really used to this, you can really see an issue with performance and recovery, especially, again, if you're under eating, if you're not getting in your protein, if you're not getting in your nutrients, if you're not getting enough sleep, we can really see this be a problem with performance and recovery and just energy in general. In the gym, if you're trying to work out, you're trying to go and do a heavy leg day and you have an 8 and 12, 13, 14, 16 hours like Ooh, you're probably going to be going through it, through that workout to push through, just because your body is literally running on fumes. Okay, because we just really don't break down body fat very fast. It's much slower process than you may think so. You know the idea that because you're fasted, all your body's running off of his body fat although that's true to a degree, uh, it just doesn't happen that fast enough to fuel your workout. So although your body's burning more body fat, you're not really converting that into ready energy like you would from carbohydrates consuming carbohydrates or having them in your bloodstream in the form of glucose or glycogen in the muscle and liver. Okay, so it's really not ideal, or I would definitely not recommend intermittent fasting for people who have a history of disordered eating. Again, I recommend intermittent fasting for people who have a history of disordered eating. Again, binging, bulimia, anorexia these can all definitely be intensified by intermittent fasting. It can definitely be taken too far. So if you have any of these type of issues or symptoms like these, then probably not a good idea for you to do intermittent fasting.
Speaker 1:High energy demand, so you work a very active job. You're a construction worker, a waiter, waitress. You're an athlete, so you work a very active job. You're a construction worker, a waiter, waitress. You're an athlete, so you're training all the time. You're expending a lot of energy. You're breaking your body down all the time. This can really be an issue with getting in enough energy and spacing that energy throughout the day to fuel all of this work, to fuel your eight-hour construction job and then your hour-and-a-half training in the gym and then getting in your steps and your cardio. That's a lot of demand on your body, Okay, and it's really going to be difficult for a lot of people to match those energy demands when they're literally not eating anything for long periods of time. And then hormonal sensitivity, especially in women. So we can see, you know, intermittent fasting potentially throwing off hormones if they're not getting enough fat, and just the fact of over fasting, know we can see hormones be thrown off from this.
Speaker 1:So a few other things like hunger, irritability, poor focus, so those make it not for everyone all right. So again, if you're super focused, all you're thinking about is what you want to eat or you're getting hangry. You know I deal with this. It's another reason why intermittent fasting was a problem for me, because you get hangry but you can't eat. You can only chug so much water or diet Coke before like okay, you start snapping and getting snippy with people and if you have, like, a high demand life, you know where you have a lot on your plate. You're a business owner, you're a manager and you're you know running things and you have so much that you have to accomplish and stay sharp with. This can be a big problem if all you can think about is eating right. So what are our practical takeaways from this? Let's sum all this up all right, and then we're going to get out of here.
Speaker 1:So, number one intermittent fasting is not better than regular eating. It's just different. Okay, it's a different approach to your diet, it's a different approach to eating, but it's not better than regular eating. It's not better than just spacing out your calories, eating in a calorie deficit, eating less calories than your body needs to maintain your body weight, spacing that out through the hours that you're awake is just as effective as intermittent fasting when calories are equated. Ok, so just different method. So the best approach is the one that you can stick to long term.
Speaker 1:Again, at the end of the day, if you cannot sustain it, it's a waste of time. Ok, I don't care if it gives you. I don't care if you lose 50 pounds in two weeks. You can't sustain that. You're going to gain it back and probably deal with some serious health issues. So you know, this is a big one that really, really bothers me when I see you know people, athletes, influencers, and they post oh I did a 72 hour water fast or I did a seven day water fast, and then they show that they lost 15 pounds and they show their comparison because they dropped all that water and glycogen out of their body. So you see a pretty drastic difference in their before and after in such a short amount of time. It's so appealing. But, guys, that's just. They don't show you that once they introduce the food back in, that they gain the weight back, that they put the water and glycogen back in their body, so they don't look any different after they've refilled their body up. Okay, so you're not going to see that on the highlight reel.
Speaker 1:We also want to choose a method that supports our energy, our lifestyle, our workouts and our sanity. Okay, because, again, if you're going crazy because you haven't ate and no one wants to be around you, and when people recognize that you're fasting, this is a problem. You know Messiah in the scriptures he said that you know, whenever you fast, don't do like. You know those people do where you know they look miserable, they act miserable, basically paraphrasing. But you know those people do where you know they look miserable, they act miserable. Basically paraphrasing Uh, but you know, wash your face, show yourself presentable. Like your fasting should be something you're doing for yourself.
Speaker 1:Everyone doesn't need to know that you're intermittent fasting, just like that You're a vegan. You don't need to tell everybody on the street corner and everybody you pass and everybody in the office oh nope, I'm still in my fasting window, I'm not going to eat with you. Guys, like, or you're snapping on people and they're like, oh yeah, they must be getting close to time to eat, like. That shouldn't happen, guys. That can be a big problem and you know we don't want to get caught up in extremes. All right, balance and consistency win every time. So not getting caught up in any type of extremes, whether if it's cutting out whole food sources, like cutting out all your carbs, cutting out all your fats, cutting out your protein which is really a thing, it's crazy, you know or over-exercising, or doing all these different methods fasting, taking weight loss drugs just because we don't want to actually try to change our lifestyle, doing all these extremes never wins in the end, guys. It may give you temporary results, but you're not going to keep those results. So we want balance and consistency over time. That's how you win on purpose, all right. So you know.
Speaker 1:Recapping this episode, fasting can work for sure. All right, depending on what you're wanting to use it for, depending on who you are as a person, it can work, but it's not magical nor mandatory. You can never fast for the rest of your life. Again, this health purposes. You can never fast and you can get the exact same benefits as someone who's using intermittent fasting.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I want you guys to do something for me. Okay, this is your homework assignment. I want you to look, sit down with yourself right, get a pen and pad, or look at yourself in the mirror, and I want you to have a conversation with yourself about hey, let me be real with who I am. Am I someone who would do well with this strategy? Am I someone who would do well with that strategy? What would be the pros of me doing this strategy? What would be the cons of me doing this strategy? What other options are there out there for me? And really think about this, guys, because you don't want to waste your own time, you don't want to do something that you think is going to work but actually ends up doing the opposite, and that's not what we want for you guys. We want to be successful. We don't have time to waste. We've wasted enough time and energy and effort. We want to do things the best way we can.
Speaker 1:All right, so a little tease for the next episode. Ok, the next episode is going to be titled Do Carbs Make you Fat? All right, we're tackling the age old assumption that carbohydrates directly cause weight gain, fat gain. If you eat carbs, it turns into fat, goes right into fat stores. You know, if you eat carbs, it turns into fat, goes right into fat stores. You know. If you eat carbs after this certain time, it does this.
Speaker 1:All these ideas. We're going to address these. We're going to look at the evidence, see if it's true, see if that's what it's pointing to at least, and then come to a conclusion and I'll give my recommendations on what actually works versus what is myth or mystical. Okay, so I hope you guys appreciate this episode. I hope you guys appreciate this episode. I hope you guys enjoy this series. I hope you guys are liking what you're hearing so far and definitely stay tuned for the next two episodes, because it just gets better from here. So, as always, with whatever you do with this information, make sure you do something good for yourself, something good for your health, something good for those you care about and, whatever you do, make sure you win on purpose. Talk to you next time.