Fasting for Kids

Taking ketones in the first couple days of a fast does help. The reason it helps is because your body is not really used to using ketones. It's not efficient at burning fat to make a really high level of ketones. So assisting that will absolutely help. Hydrogen water that you've talked a lot about on your show is dramatic, actually. Studies show that it actually helps with ghrelin, so it cuts hunger, and so it really does. And it also takes a lot of. Of the. You know, the first two or three days of a fast is typically when you get most of your symptoms. It knocks down a lot of those symptoms that you may get. Now, you have to understand, fasting symptoms are normal during a fast. In the beginning, for some people, I can fast. I get no symptoms, but I fast a lot. But most people will get symptoms just like when they go into ketosis. They'll get symptoms just because they're getting rid of a lot of electrolytes. Right. And they need. Taking electrolytes can be very helpful in the beginning of a fast, just like going into ketosis.

I think that's super interesting how your kids have actually gone through fasting protocols. So tell me a little bit about that, like how you incorporate fasting with your kids, because I think a lot of people just assume, based on the need for MTOR activation or, you know, rapidly expanding endocrine systems and hormones and puberty, that fasting would somehow hold a kid back. But tell me about your take on fasting, especially for kids.

First of all, they choose to do it. We don't choose it for them.

They've been educated on the benefits of it, of course. And then at some point, they come to us and ask more questions.

In my book, Beyond Fasting, I told the story of Simon. And one day, he was looking. I was preparing a PowerPoint presentation, and he saw this horrible skin condition. I mean, nasty, horrible eczema. And he said, oh, my gosh, dad, what is wrong with her? And I explained. I said, basically, what you see there is kind of what's happening on your head. Now, you have to understand, he's my youngest son. He did not follow the pomp away by the last son. When you have five kids, you kind of just like, they'll figure it out their own. And they actually do. And he did as well. But he was definitely not our healthiest child. He had these little spots on his head he was always worried about. I said, well, that is this expanded. You could end up here if you don't change your ways, son. Anyways, he leaves the room, and I'm like, okay, maybe he heard me. He comes back and says, well, dad, did you help her? I said, well, look, you didn't get to see the after picture. That's what she looks like now. He said, what did she do? Well, my detox, but she also fasted a few times, right? So he leaves the room, comes back and says, okay, I want to fast. I'm like, okay, yeah, sure.

How old was he?

How old was Simon? How old was he?

I was actually just about to find the picture because it came up in Facebook memory, and I sent it to the whole tribe.

Yeah, was he like, I'm at a 14?

I think it was two. I'm going to.

Well, we'll find out.

This might have been close to the time that I first met Simon. I think it was at a conference that you and I were speaking at, Dan, and. And, I mean, I'd, you know, not. Not to offend him or anything, but I did notice that Simon was, like, a little bit more overweight than some of your other kids.

Yeah, you're being very kind.

He seemed like, yeah, a little less fit, and he had some skin issues. And then I don't think I saw him for, like, two years. And the next time I saw him, he was, like, lean and mean and buff and apparently had gone through a few different fasts after that point, so. So it definitely did something.

Well, he ended up water fat. He said. I said, okay, you want to fast? Just, you know, set out a simple goal. You know, do three days. Well, you know, he ends up going three. First of all, I didn't think he'd make it to dinner. That's the honest truth. Okay. He was carb addicted. I didn't think he made it to dinner. For some reason, he did. He went one day. He went two days, three days.

He went out of town.

He ended up going 10 and a half days, to be exact.

We left town, and days later, he said, you know, I'm still fasting.

So the bottom line is he fixed his skin issue. He broke his carb addiction. After that, he never gained the weight back, which was extraordinary because he was very carb addicted. But that one fast transformed his life. All of my kids have fasted. All of them, five out of five, multiple times, as Mary, like, pointed out. Daniel, my biological oldest, is on day 10 right now of another fast, and that's pure water. Now, there's partial fasting, there's water fasting. But our family, we love water fast.

So for parents listening in who know the benefits of fasting or know that's good or maybe are already fasting themselves. Do you guys have any tips for them if they wanted to incorporate their kids with fasting and also.

Include with that, like what age this might be appropriate to begin with with with your.

Kids in the United States, it's not appropriate. I'll put quotes around it. To have children fast in most other countries in the world, children fast a lot. So just understanding cultural norms. One of the things I talk about in my book a lot is the feast is as important as the famine. Now, you could say it the other way. The famine is as important as the feast. You mentioned mtor. MTOR is a process that can be good. You can put on muscle, you can heal too long. Time in MTOR is not good. You can develop bad cells, cells that are inflammatory and tumor cells, et cetera. Likewise with the fast or the famine, too much time, fasting or low caloric intake is not good either. But we need times of feast and we need times of famine. So the advice is that you have to teach your kids that both are very important. So if they're going to fast, they should have times of feasting. Now, feasting could be higher calories than normal, more meals than normal. Feasting could be higher protein than you typically take in. Feasting could be high carbs, especially if you're low carbs. All of that will drive mtor. Again, short term, good, long term, not. Same with fasting. Autophagy happens in the fast. That's the pathway where your body's getting rid of cells, opposite of mtor, where your body's making cells. So doing time where you're fasting to get rid of bad cells is as important, I think, for something like a partial fast is appropriate for kids who have health problems. Probably as a starting point, Simon jumped right into a water fast, which is definitely probably more appropriate for a heavier child.

Which to clarify, by the way, that's no calorie intake, but water is included in the fast.

Yes, correct.

And I think it was about 2017. I was trying to find the video of you and him that you did together, but I think it was about 2017. He's 19 now, so he was about 14 years old.

Yeah, I guess I'm never right. So that's really odd. Yeah.

And how often do your kids fast now? Like, is it systematic where you guys have certain periods of the year, like a religious fast?

Would you do it once or twice a year? Yeah, once or twice a year. We all fast.

Not Together? Never. Don't recommend fasting together. Him and I fast together.

I was gonna say, why not fast together? Because it seems like there'd be some accountability worked in.

Well, you know, that's because Merilee can't. Look, everyone has their ways, right? Marilee can't be around food. She gets grumpy because food is very emotional for her. So.

God, it's very social for me.

Emotional. Okay, that's emotional, Right?

Emotionally, socially emotional.

My. So Daniel, like, he's fasting. He's cooking his wife food. He's in the kitchen.

Oh, my gosh. He's on a roll.

Actually, he's been working. My son Daniel, he runs Pompa program, which has 200 employees. He's CEO, and he's running that. He's on day 10 of a fast. I was on a meeting with him already today, and his brain's functioning better than ever, and he doesn't want to.

Quit as fast, which is scary.

But her, not so much.

Yeah, no. I literally pine away. I shut myself in the house. No one is allowed to cook. I don't want to smell it. I really prefer not to see many people just because I don't even really like to talk to people.

So do we answer your question? Why we don't fast together?

No. You and I do.

Yeah, you and I do.

We get each other.

Okay, so for a typical day of fasting or a period of fasting for a kid or an adolescent, how many days do you think is good? Or if there is, like, a set gold standard protocol? And besides water, are there certain things that you think would, especially for a kid who's fasting, help them with the transition or even assist the results of the fasting, Whether that's like, ketones or certain supplements or anything like that?

Yeah, I mean, taking ketones in the first couple days of a fast does help. The reason it helps is because your body is not really used to using ketones. It's not efficient at burning fat to make a really high level of ketones. So assisting that will absolutely help. Hydrogen water that you've talked a lot about on your show is dramatic. Actually. Studies show that it actually helps with ghrelin. So it cuts hunger. It really does. And it also takes a lot of the first two or three days of a fast is typically when you get most of your symptoms, it knocks down a lot of those symptoms that you may get. Now, you have to understand, fasting symptoms are normal during a fast. In the beginning for some people, I can fast. I get no Symptoms, but I fast a lot. But most people will get symptoms just like when they go into ketosis. They'll get symptoms just because they're getting rid of a lot of electrolytes.

Right.

And they need taking electrolytes can be very helpful in the beginning of a fast, just like going into ketosis. So, yeah, I mean, there's a couple little tips for sure. In my book, I talk about, you don't just run a marathon, right. To get the best results, you want to train for it. So the book, I take you up, what you can do ahead of a fast to actually get the best results during a fast and actually make it easier.

That's the book beyond fasting.

Yeah.

And is that based on the idea that when you fast, you're shifting into metabolic ketosis and so are you just like shifting macronutrient ratios leading into a fast, like higher fats, lower carbs, or use of ketones, et cetera, to make.

That transition easier, it's best to go into ketosis first. And what I've noticed is I have a way of measuring when you hit max autophagy. And for your audience, that just means your audience probably knows what it means, but getting rid of a lot of cells, so when your body goes into this max autophagy, you're just crushing bad cells. So what we've noted is if you go into ketosis first, you can shift into max autophagy and within a day or two. Otherwise, the average human, it takes almost four days for most people because they're coming off standard American diet, they don't hit that max autophagy. That's why I used to fast people on average for five days, because it would take them four days to get into max autophagy. And I wanted to run it out at least one more day. Now, if you get into max autophagy faster, you could technically, and you're healthier, you could do a three day fast and still get a lot of benefits.

Yeah, the first, the first fast that Jess and I did was like a juice fast. And I didn't do a lot of research prior, and I felt like crap for about the first 24 hours. And this was like super low calorie juices, like 20 or 30 calorie vegetable juices that we were doing about three or four juices of during the fast. So maybe 100 to 150 calories a day. And I didn't experiment much with shifting to a high fat diet prior to or using ketone esters or ketone supplementation. To shift myself into nutritional ketosis prior. But I wish I'd have known that before because since then, you know, using some of the information from your book and elsewhere, Dan, I've used ketones and carbohydrate mitigation in the one to two days prior to a fast. And it's way, way easier.

Yeah, way easier. And you know, obviously even doing some intermittent fasting ahead of it, this diet variation strategy that I'm talking about, feast famine weekly helps, but that's in the book. And right now the book, we're re editing it. So I think you have to get it. If you go to BeyondFastingBook.com is the only place to get it right now.

Okay.

But.

I think the other important note is that when most people fasting, it's an art, right? Most ancient cultures were forced into times of feasting. When they had killed, they feasted, but also famine. I visited a tribe like that that just came out of the mountains in Africa. I believe I was the first white person they ever saw. And they were fasting for just, I think, two days before I saw them. They really hadn't eaten. But again, famine represents a very little amount of food. So you mentioned juice fasting. I'm not a fan of juice fasting because most juice people drink is going to be very high in glucose. And a glucose spike shuts down autophagy, just like too much protein. So I'm a fan of partial fasting where you have to limit your calories, typically below 800 calories, depending on body size, and you have to lower protein, typically under 20 grams of protein a day. So if you eat too much protein, you'll shut off autophagy. If you eat too many carbohydrates, you'll shut off autophagy. So juice fasting can shut down autophagy. Now, obviously you can get back in autophagy, but you're really messing with the innate intelligence of what it wants to do to kick in this healing process.