SPEAKER_00 0:00

Peter, you started a five-day fast. You're on day four, I believe, in the very beginning of the year. So for those of us who are not familiar with fasting and why maybe you're doing it, I think we all we'd all love to hear.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Yeah. So I uh this is not my first time doing this. Uh a five-day fast is pretty intense. Um, it's a water fast, and it is uh something that there's multiple reasons for it. It's um let's talk, and we can talk about the so I'm doing it for spiritual reasons. Uh you know, it's something that my church does every single year with a whole um we have I'm part of this church called Every Nation Church, and the whole every nation body actually does a five-day fast. Now, uh a five-day fast is pretty intense. A lot of people um sh should actually be careful when doing a five-day fast because there can be a lot of um health issues actually, um, like having lower blood pressure or you know being very dizzy or nauseous. Um, there are people who have passed out, and there are people who um, if you have diabetes, should be very careful. But the benefits of it um are quite substantial. Uh, as you know, you've probably heard of like autophagy, and you've probably heard let's we could break some of these things down. But um one of the things I've actually seen was that you can uh lose a substantial amount of weight. Um, if you go three to five days, you could lose up to I think it was anywhere between two to five or eight percent. Let me just uh verify that. But then if you go past five days, you can go um even higher than that. Um, hold on, let me just get the actual uh while you do that.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

I have a quick little factoid. Um so what do you think is the longest fast that anybody has ever done with or without supervision?

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Uh I all I know is is Jesus, and that was 40 days, but I do know people have done longer than 40 days.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yeah, so the longest medically supervised fast, I think that's a really you know important point, like you said, is like 300 plus days. And that's because that person was overweight, he was you know severely obese. Um, but I think it's just a point to drive home for people to think that you're not gonna die as long as you know you're not on medication. Um for women, it can be a difficult thing during certain parts of your menstrual menstrual cycle. I talked to my wife about this, and there's like books on this stuff. But you know, you have fat in your body. And if you have fat in your body and you're not on you know medication, then it's it can be a great tool. But please continue.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah, so the five-day fast, uh, it can it can be you know four to six percent of the body weight loss. Um, and then extended uh seven to ten days could yield about two to ten percent. And I've actually seen videos of people who have done longer fasts, like I think it was like a month plus, um, even like I think it was even like 60 days, and you just see this guy, like he's he's pretty large, and he um even he did a very long fast, and you just see him losing like ridiculous amounts of of weight. Um, but the other benefits of that is that it's not just weight, you can also uh reduce LDL cholesterol, which is the bad cholesterol, right? It's a lower lipid cholesterol, and um uh up to five to twenty percent, actually. Uh and then uh you can reduce triglycerides, again, another you know, bad cholesterol, uh, up to 50 percent. So pretty significant stuff. Um and the I I think one of the problems with the uh the weight loss is that um actually you could potentially lose a lot of the weight loss could be lean muscle mass as well. So you gotta you you gotta kind of be careful uh when doing the fast. Um but I would say it's it's I think it's very powerful. You know, you hear about people with uh cancer and they do like a fast, um, they start going into ketones and then you know, them healing or um, you know, of course, there's autophagy, which is your body like basically you know recycling yourself, like eating its own proteins or eating itself um as a way to kind of recycle and and heal. Um and then you get all of these health benefits. I mean, it I I I don't think it's um I don't think it's pseudoscience anymore. I I think it's pretty well known, and there's been a lot of studies that uh a fast can be very powerful. I think what is more practical than a longer fast, even though I do recommend a longer fast every once in a while, at least three days, um, you know, the intermittent fasting, I believe, is a very powerful thing, which something is something that you and I have been doing. So, what can you tell us about your experiences with uh fasting?

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Um actually, I would like to hear your experience first, just because you're in it. So, you know, I've seen you in the early parts of your fast on like your second day, and then now you're on your fourth, and I guess tomorrow is your last day. Yeah. Um, can you just kind of tell us what you've been going through and what benefits, how you're feeling? Is it crazy? Crazy? Did you pass out? Like what's going on?

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah, my honest assessment uh on what happened is first of all, I've been doing an intermittent fasting for a long time. Um, which means you know, I would basically my first meal would be at like one o'clock or 12 o'clock. Um, my last meal would be like seven, you know, it's like a 16-hour window typically or plus. And um, that's no problem for me. I'm actually pretty used to it. I recommend people do it. But uh, this longer fast, uh, it's rough. Uh, I would say the first day, not too bad. Um, the first time I did it, I remember like at night, I was feeling pretty like down. Um, you lose energy, you feel lightheaded, you can't think as well. Um, it's real. I mean, food makes an absolute real difference. And then by the second day, uh, I was pretty dead. I mean, um, the first time I've done it, that the even this time, I was I mean, I was like really energy-less. I I should have just been a bedridden. It was that bad. And I'm not, I'm not a guy. I'm a guy who works out when when I'm sick, you know. I I don't let that stuff stop me, but I was really, really low energy. I had to watch my kid in the morning. It was really rough. Um, I just had no energy. I didn't want to talk to anyone. I felt nauseous. I went to throw up. It wasn't more than the hunger pain. I was just like, it was like drinking, it was like being force-fed like six beers, and you're just really lightheaded and you're just really tired, but life is pushing you to uh function. And so, but what's funny is uh I hear that your body starts moving into ketones uh after a certain time, uh, you know, after you know, 48 or 72 hours, your body starts going into ketones, and all of a sudden on on um my third day, the energy starts coming back. This happened, this happened before as well. The energy starts coming back, and uh you feel actually a little bit more clear headed than you normally are. Like right now, I'm uh you know, I'm on the fourth day, I'm feeling more clear-headed. Um and listen, I I I I I wish I had food in my body, but I'm feeling that's what happens when you start uh going off ketones, which is why a lot of people uh they endorse the key uh keto diet, because you actually get this a different kind of energy and mental clarity when you're on ketones. Um, so it gets better, but those first couple of days, uh and I did do a workout by the way. I did a workout on I think Monday or Tuesday, I think it was Monday. Um yeah, it's rough in the beginning, it gets better though.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yeah, so uh just to share what I've you know researched and what I've experienced through friends like you or you know, my other friends who've tried it, I think the the number one thing that's really valuable is your detachment from food. Um, you know, even as a parent, like I'm trying to feed my kid all the time. And obviously, I I don't know if kids should be fasting because they have a different metabolic need than us, but you know, when you can separate one of your, I mean, after air and water, it's food, right? And if you can separate that kind of physical need from because there's a voice that tells you you must get food. And if you look at people who diet all the time, like competitive bodybuilders or athletes, like when you get to a really crazy level of you know body fat or whatever, like people are like people turn into animals, they're like smelling food from like two rooms away, and they can hear like the crinkling of paper, like wrapping paper or whatever it is. But what the what I realized or or figured out is when you start with a small fast, I mean, the real the reason why breakfast is called breakfast is called you're breaking your fast. And historically, we didn't have snacks at night, right? We didn't have a Dairy Queen or McDonald's. We used to work, till the fields, you know, milk the cows, whatever, and then you would you know eat your supper, dinner at six, maybe seven, go to sleep and wake up in 12 hours and actually eat again, breaking your fast. So, what I tell people who want to try it, and people who want to experience weight loss, you know, clarity, kind of that detachment from food to kind of gain control over that urge is like every time you sleep, you're already fasting, right? So if you even if you have a late night snack at 9 p.m. and you sleep for eight hours, six hours, that's still like a nine hour fast. So then maybe you add in an hour and it's 10 and it's 11 and it's 12, you know. So, and then I think you and I both worked up to like a 12-hour fast, and it's like, oh, it's not too bad, and then 16, and then we did the one meal a day thing. I think we were doing that for a little bit, and then um, I think we both kind of did okay, well, what if it's 24 and then 36 and then 48 and you know, whatever. Um, there is, and again, really, it's not for everybody in every part of their life. If you're an athlete, for example, if you work out a lot, if you have a lot of energy expenditure, it's probably not the right fit for you. Um, and I also going back to the whole you know menstrual cycle, if you're a woman, it's completely different. There's actually a book called Fast Like a Girl that my wife read, and I learned a lot about that. But you know, sometimes your joints even feel better. Um, the clarity is real. Um, sometimes, and the the thing I also learned is that there's a hormone called ghrelin that gets produced in your body during the times that you're normally uh eating. So what seems like hunger pangs that might last forever is actually an hour. So if I eat at nine and one and six, I guess, right? Like most people, from nine to ten, maybe 10:30, you're gonna feel this intense hunger, like your body's craving for food. And the key is to be doing something, right? Like you're watching your kid. Uh, you maybe you're working, maybe you're taking a walk, doing something. And by 10, 10:30, you realize that ghrelin has gone down, you don't feel that crazy hunger pang anymore, and then all of a sudden at 1 p.m., you get that thing again. So you can kind of start to really rewrite your biology in a way. Um, and people have you know reverse diabetes. This is actually like a clinical practice. So, what they'll do is they will um for people for there's a lot of people who have diabetes, and they will start fasting people to lower their blood sugar, to not need as much insulin, and then sometimes they'll go to like a full day of eating normal, and then a 500-calorie day, kind of a fast, right? Maybe like a small snack for the whole day, back and forth, back and forth, and people will actually improve diabetes and all these other things. Uh, so anyway, I think it's a really good thing for people to try, and I will definitely look into it as a topic. Um, and you know what? Honestly, it saves you so much time to not have to make and eat one meal of the day. You can get right up in the morning, and there's different types of fasting too, right? So, like you mentioned, there's like the keto diet where you eat a certain type of food, so maybe it's a fast from a type of like from carbs. It could be uh well, water fast, a dry fast, it could be a bone broth fast. You know, there's all these things that you can do, but I would highly recommend people look into it.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

So, yeah, I mean to be honest, I I've kept a pretty good uh weight. Um, I would say I've been pretty happy with my weights um for many, many years. I think when we get to like our age, which is you know almost 40s, we tend to gain weight, especially having kids and just the stress of that and you know the busyness of life, we don't work out as much. But one of the best methods uh for maintaining good uh weight is intermittent fasting, just skipping that breakfast because um it really does a number on you. So I would just recommend everyone to consider it doing intermittent fasting. Uh, for if you're a guy, you know, just make sure you're having enough protein when you are eating, try to eat as much as you can in terms of protein. I mean, you you heard the CDC, you know, I'm sure you heard RFK, you know, talking about how they kind of flip the pyramid and now they want to uh do a lot more proteins, uh, a lot more fats. Uh, as you know, I think it's pretty clear now that eating a bunch of carbs actually don't do uh you justice in terms of what your body actually needs. And so a lot of proteins are important. So if you're a guy, make sure you're having as much protein as possible uh during your your windows to eat. Uh but for sorry, for time's sake, we should we should probably move on to uh some of our other topics, whether it's Trump or Venezuela.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Yeah, real quick, um, I do feel like it's important to say that um there's a lot of autoimmune disease as well. So there's Crohn's disease, there's IBS, and you know, it's actually a medical thing to recommend a carnivore diet. And there's so much stuff and pesticides and ultra processing of these carbs, whether it's pasta or or whatever, you know, what have you, that if you go onto like a carnivore uh diet, you actually can heal yourself of all of these issues. So it's not only for lifestyle, but it's actually for healing. And uh there's a lot of gut issues going around. So I did want to mention that.