Fasting, Fat Loss, and Fitness After 40 | Dr. Matt Chalmers’ Unfiltered Advice

Today's special guest is Dr. Matt Chalmers, and we're going to talk about hardcore wellness, fasting, hormones and biohacking. Enjoy the episode. The Lead On Purpose podcast is sponsored by NZ Mortgages. Learn more at nzmortgages.co nz. Dr. Chalmers, a huge welcome to the Lead On Purpose podcast.

Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited to chat to you. Why? Because over the last year, I. I've been on a health journey and it's been highs and lows. There's been lots of obstacles, there's been mixed messages, but someone who's in their late 30s, pushing towards 40, I'm starting to think about my health. I'm starting to consider mortality. And I want to have a longer life, but not just longer. I want a better, quality life. And so I've been looking at things, reading things, interviewing incredible people. When I came across your work, I said, God, we've got to chat, because I know you can help me. And if you can help me, it means you can help lots and lots of listeners as well, who are probably in a similar journey. So you wrote a book called the Pillars of Wellness. I'd like to start with this. What is the opposite of wellness?

It's feeling like crap all the time. So my definition of wellness is the highest quality of life for the longest period of time possible. So, you know, it's not just that you're sick. It's, you know, or people are like, well, I'm not throwing up. Yeah, but do you have lots of energy? Is your mind clear? Like, you know, are you good with sex drive? Like, where are you? Are you happy with your. With the way your body feels? And that's basically what wellness is for, what I'm looking at. So the opposite of that is just not being optimal.

Yeah. And that's what I want. I want to optimize. You know, I started working with this incredible guy. He was the human performance specialist for the Navy seals. And essentially he's a scientist, and he will look at your bloods and he will look at all different markers. It was just amazing, highlighting stuff that I'd never even considered. And then once I got all this information, I was like, okay, what do I do with it? How do I land the ship and keep moving? So in terms of these pillars, what are the pillars of wellness?

So the pillars I look at are the biomechanical, or how the body moves to making sure that we have full functional movement for the rest of our lives. And it's a strong, balanced, coordinated movement. The biochemistry which is the nutrition, like what you're eating, supplementation, your hormones, things like that, making sure that is set up right. And then the psychological pillar, which is how you think and how you react in the environment. And then the spiritual pillar, which is kind of like a legacy thing. It's what have you done to better the people behind you as you left? Like, what have you done to, to better society? Those are kind of the ways that we look at it because your legacy is a big piece of you, psychological psychology, and it is what you're going to leave no matter what. And so if we start focusing on it, we start changing who we are because we're trying to leave the best option we can for the planet. And so that's, that's kind of what those four pillars are.

Incredible. So there's a couple of those that I've kind of probably started stepping into over this last year. The whole biochemistry, those biomarkers. I'd like to talk a bit more about that because here was my experience and others might have done this as well. I went to my doctor, said, look, a final lump, bit worried and they're like, cool, it looks red. Take an antibiotic if it's still infected. Once you finish, antibiotics come back in. So it was still there, but the redness had gone down a little bit. We went in, okay, yeah, maybe we'll send you for a mammogram. So I go there and get that and I said, hey, can we do some bloods as well? And they're like, oh yeah, we'll send you for. So literally it was like total blood count, cholesterol, it was like four basic standard tests. And I was like, this is not going to tell me what I want. So I went with like a list of about 35 different markers, you know, looking at all the different stress hormones, looking at testosterone, estrogen, all the things. And the doctor said, no, no, no, no, no, we're not sending you for that. But I want to. No, no, the hospital won't like it if we do that. I don't really care what the hospital wants. Like I'm going to be selfish this one time and I'm going to tell you what I really want. And I just want to know, am I healthy? What can I do to get better supplements? What can I do to see if there's anything dangerous in there? They wouldn't encourage it. They didn't give me a rubber stamp. I had to literally go and self refer at a blood bank and they let me do it, which I never Knew I could do that, then started opening up a chain of events. So for someone who's listening right now, Dr. Chalmers, what would you suggest they do to get a bit of a baseline marker on their biochemistry?

So a lot of it's depending upon goals, but the thing that I see over and over and over again that's, that's problematic is the things that are just not pulled. Testosterone free testosterone and sexual hormone binding globulin. So when you have a total testosterone and you have, that's just how much is in your blood free is how much can actually be like really beneficial in the body. And then the sexual hormone binding globulin basically is kind of why your, your free test might be low. And so there's things you can take. We use something called superior mineral that has boron in it, and it blocks sexual hormone binding globulin, freeing up more testosterone in your free test range. But so I would look at testosterone free testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin, and the most important hormone you can pull is insulin. If you figure out where your insulin is, that is the key to getting fat off your body. It's a key to, you know, ending diabetes. It's the key to all metabolic function in the body. So when you pull that and you understand where that one is, you want it basically below 10, the lower the better. But when you figure out that what that one is, that's gonna give you a lot more function. I'm always a big fan of, you know, I like the cbc, the cmp, because there's things in there that are really important. But like, anybody who's doing any hormone therapy needs to check their ALT AST a little bit, but they really need to check their H and H, the hemoglobin, hematocrit levels. Because the only reason testosterone is damaging to the heart or to causes heart attacks or strokes is because your hemoglobin, hematocrit levels get too high, your blood gets too thick, the pressure goes up inside your heart and inside your blood vessels, and that's where the problem arises. So it's completely safe as long as you watch those two levels. And, and so that's one of those things we usually like to see is, you know, where are those things? And a lot of times when we know that there's a lot of metabolic function we can now do. So that's basically it.

Dr. Chalmers, I love that you say that. Once we get that information, it's not just a, oh, you got the thing, it's a, hey, yeah, there's your marker. And here's what we can do. There's a lot that we can do to actually impact those levels, right?

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, when we have low testosterone, injectable testosterone is my favorite. You know, the creams work, but it's kind of an everyday thing. And some of those things have what's called transdermal penetrating factors in them, which are problematic. Pellets can come out, they can cause pocketing, which is damage to the tissue. And then the biggest issue I have with them is that it's hard to regulate the exact level. Because if you're doing injections and I pull your blood, it's easy to be like, we need to go up, we need to go down. Like, here's exactly what we need to do dose wise, and we can regulate a little bit easier. So I'm a big injection fan. You know, you can do the everyday ones. You can do the, like, the subcutaneous. You can do im. I'm an IM fan, but I've got a bunch of my pro bodybuilder buddies are big into the whole, like, everyday insulin version. I'm like, all right, that's fine. Like, smaller syringe and all that stuff. And I don't really, you know, I like the way I do it. So there's. There's a variety of different things, ways that you can bring the testosterone levels up, and then pulling your insulin levels down is just regulating your glycemic function. It's basically like a carbohydrate function. Bring that down, insulin comes down, and everything kind of regulates from there.

That's amazing. Look, Dr. Chalmers, I have a lot of people who talk to me about, you know, I want to improve my health, James. And so I coach individuals, and I'm not a health coach, but I'm able to direct them to the right professionals to do the work. And one thing that keeps coming up is, James, I'm counting my calories. I was like, okay, that seems interesting. It seems odd. So what do you believe from your own scientific background and your professional background around calories? Count them. Is that the way to go?

So the problem we get into with calories is that there's a lot of research and study on them that doesn't make sense. So, for instance, the definition of a calorie is the amount of energy required to heat 1 kg of water 1 degree Celsius. So it's not a measurement of energy that's in the body. It's a measurement of heat. Like, like, you would use temperature degrees. Like if it's 70 degrees outside and then it goes to 80, there's 10 extra degrees. So if you take a bottle of water and you heat it one degree Celsius, you've added one calorie to it. And the problem we get into is that when we look at calories and we say, well, that's the energy source of the body. That's not accurate. The energy source of the body is ATP, which is a chemical thing. Fat is also a chemical. So my question is, how do we take. My question at the beginning when I started looking into this was, how do we take this energy thing that is not a chemical, and how do we create something. I can hold my hand, which is a chemical. So unless we're having energy to matter transversion in the body, there's something else going on. And so what I found out was it's about the hormone function between insulin and glucagon. Insulin stores sugars as fats. Glucagon burns fats, using proteins to create more sugar to balance the sugars in the body. So it's a little bit longer process, but that's kind of where. Where everything is. Because when I looked at the. When I looked at everything, everybody talks about losing fat, losing weight. And so you've got what's called. You have a somatype chart, which is ectomorph, mesomorph, endomorph, depending on how. How your body handles these hormones. So what we look at is like, well, how do we lose the fat? Well, if we cut the amount of nutrients we're bringing in, we cut the calories or the amount of food we bring back, then somebody loses weight. Their bodies are basically balanced between insulin and glucagon, and so they lose weight really easily. The guys who have really hard times losing weight are more what's called endomorphs. They're hypersensitive to insulin, not as sensitive to glucagon. So it's more difficult for them to lose weight. Now, the reason that I started figuring this out was because there's a group of people we never talk about. When you're talking about weight loss, the people you never talk about are those guys we all know that can eat whatever they want to and never gain an ounce. So here's the thing. If there's the guys who can eat tons of calories and not gain weight, and there's guys who can eat a little bit and gain weight, then you're like, well, their metabolisms are different. Well, that's not what the calories in calories out model shows. The calories in calories out means everybody's equal. And if Ted eats a thousand and I eat a thousand calories, we're going to be the same amount of fat or thin. And so when I started looking at this model, I was like, I know guys. I've hung out with guys who can eat 10 times more than I do and never gain an ounce. So I know these people exist. And so as we started putting, I started putting it together, I started realizing the sensitivity to the hormones and how your body reacts to them according to what the macros you're eating are. So fat gets absorbed as fat. Sugar gets turned into a triacetylglyceride molecule that then differentiates into ldl, hdl, chylomicrons, that type of thing, or is absorbed and born as fat. And then proteins are never gonna become fat. There's a whole process behind it. But those proteins will be broken down and then your body uses a process called gluconeogenesis to turn that protein into sugar to balance your blood sugars out. So that's kind of how those works. The glucagon burns the fat, makes the sugar, insulin stores the sugar as fat. So when we start looking at it, we have to look at the macro function of what you're actually eating and then break it down that way. So that's actually the way we do it. It works really well for mesomorphs. It's the only way we can get guys who are really, really lean who can't gain weight to gain weight. And it's the easiest way for endomorphs, guys like me, to actually start cutting the fat off and still get to eat with pizzas and stuff like that.

All the good stuff.

All the good stuff, yeah. So it's what's in the food, not what the calories are.

Right. And in terms of intermittent fasting over the last, I would say nine to 12 months, there's been a massive surge in people starting it, trying it. Obviously there's a few influential characters who've written books and a few influential influencers who've talked about it. I personally have been intermittent fasting since December and just time restricted, you know, stop eating at 6pm and I'll start again around 10 or 11am next day. And it's fine. I haven't noticed major changes. It seems fine. What is the, is the research around it? Is it a useful thing to do for health and well being?

Absolutely. So I do. So I run a I run a 23 one, so I eat once a day. And I've just came back to that because I was for about three months, I ran a 47 one where I'd eat once every two days. And the research, for the person that.

Doesn'T know anything about fasting, when you say 23:1, that means for 23 hours a day you don't eat. And one hour a day is your eating window correct. And then you did do 47:1 correct?

Yeah.

Wow. Okay, tell me more.

All right, so what happens is that when your body is put in a position because your body has to have sugar, it has to have blood sugar. Your blood can only run on glucose, which is pretty cool because your body will make it. And so when your body starts making the blood sugar to balance all your sugars out, it has to use something besides sugar as its fuel source. So it uses fat. So it'll start creating this sugar out of proteins, using fat and burning fat. But as it does that, your body will also start cannibalizing other nutrients and other things like that, trying to scrape up enough stuff to regenerate and heal and stuff like that. So that's why we get the autophage comments. That's where we get some of that type of stuff. But the real big benefit is that you are now using endogenous, or inside your body's abilities to create blood sugar, et cetera, the exogenous sources which are bringing it in from diet. And so it's a lot healthier for your liver, it's a lot healthier for your blood system because it regulates the sugars a little bit easier. And of course, it's burning fat. Now, the problem we get into with intermittent fasting, especially into with fasting, cardio and fasting working out, is that your body is going to start making that sugar out of proteins. If you don't put protein in the body, it's going to tear apart your muscle tissues to get that protein. And so if you really want to maximize the fasting, I have people take collagen. The collagen is a protein that with no glycemic effect, so it doesn't really break the fast, but it allows the body, a protein source to use and cannibalize instead of your muscle tissues to then create the sugars it needs to run the body off of. And so if you're going to do it, I always recommend to, like, you don't need to eat. Your body has enough fat in it to produce all the ATP your body needs. For energy. What it does need is methylated B vitamins, CoQ10 omega 3 fatty acids. So if you're going to have your body run, it needs both calories and nutrients. So if you take, you know, if you take the calorie piece or you take the ATP creation piece out and you allow the body to have the nutrients, it will use the fat on your body to produce all that ATP and keep you healthier the entire time, as long as it's got the nutrients to do it. So that's the big thing is you got to supplement as you diet, as you, as you intermittent fast to maintain all full function of the body.

Thank you. That's really honestly, incredibly helpful to hear for someone who's on a plant based diet. Diet. What's your suggestion to them around getting the right amount of protein?

All right, so this brings up a very important point. The body doesn't really want protein. It wants amino acids and amino acids are in protein. And it sounds like I'm splitting hairs, but it's really important. When we talk about plant based diet or vegan diets, one of the most important amino acids you can get is tryptophan. Tryptophan turns into serotonin and also into melatonin. So when we see depression, we see things like that. I look at the diet and I'm like, you know, you're on a plant based, which is fine, but you're not getting the amino acids you need in. And so that's why a lot of times I'll talk to people and be like, okay, how plant based do we have to be? Because if you want to be plant based and you want to take the collagen, you're totally fine because you get all your amino acids you need. Now we just need to worry about CoQ10 and B12 and things like that, which you can also supplement in. But that's the issue we run into now. People bring up like, what about soy? And soy has some of these things in it and that's fine. But, but the problem we ran into the United States is that the last number I saw was 97% of the soybeans in this country are genetically modified. They also have a lot of them have glyphosate on them. So glyphosate is a, is a toxin that we basically only have in the US it's what. One of the big reasons we have all this gluten sensitivity issues is because it damages the gut. It's banned in most other countries. So I think New Zealand. You guys don't, you guys might, I can't remember. I don't think you guys have it. So that's the other issue with. Yeah, that's the other picture with soybeans is that they're genetically modified and they've got, they've got the glyphosate. But the other problem we run into is that they're a very strong phytoestrogen. And so we have to understand about estrogens is that you have, when you look at hormones, you have the actual hormone and you have the receptor site and the hormone attaches to the receptor site and then it makes things happen. So locks and keys. The problem is, is that there's other things that can attach that receptor site. Telling the body that it's getting estrogen when it doesn't have estrogen in the blood. So people will pull blood levels and be like, your estrogens are low. But then you end up with stuff like gynecomastia or you end up with, you know, other issues that resulting like, oh, well, this is very, very similar to estrogen dominance and you're getting it from these xeno and phytoestrogens. And so that's the problem with, with soy. Some people have a big issue with it, some people don't. But when you're looking at plant based, you've gotta make sure again, it's not proteins and fats, it's are we getting all of the different fats we need? Are we getting all the different amino acids we need? And you can supplement them. But you know, that's one of those things you have to be cognizant of when you're designing a diet.

That's really helpful. So for me, I should be considering collagen, I should be considering B12.

So make sure they're methylated. But yes. So fully methylated B12 is going to be what you're going to want. That's methylcobalamin.

Okay, brilliant. And anything else?

So there's a couple big ones. Methylated B6 and methylated folic acid. So methylated B6. Um, so the. You've heard of gallstones, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. So I tell people they don't really exist and there's a reason I say this. And the reason is because the gallbladder is a bag. It's like your pocket or a purse. Nothing's going to get into it unless you put something in it. And so what ends up happening is that bile salts are supposed to sit in the gallbladder. The bile Salts are made in the liver. If the liver runs out of methylated B6, those, those bile salts which are supposed to be like a WD40, really slick consistency, they start turning into basically rubber cement. So that's where we get these little balls. They're bile salts, they're bile salt balls because they've lost the methylated B6 that come down from the liver into the gallbladder and they get squished together into larger balls. And that's where we get gallstones. The reason this is important to realize these aren't gallstones that are liver stones is because if you cut the gallbladder out and go, we fixed the problem. No you didn't. The liver is still congested with these, with this lack of methylated B6. And so we need to really increase the levels of methyl B6 to make sure everything kind of balances out. So when we start talking about the B vitamins we should take, I tell people just, everybody just needs to take a full spectrum methylated B vitamin and you'll be fine. There's a lot of genetic issues. MtFHR, MTTR COMT. There's a bunch of them that cause methylation problems. And so if you just give your body the methylated B vitamins, you sidestep all that issue and you're fine. So take the methylated Bs and you'll be good.

That's seriously helpful. Thank you. And yeah, for me, I'm plant dominant, so I'm not opposed to trying some other things. My partner is ethical vegan, so for her it's like, no, it's going to be absolutely strict and I respect that. So that's seriously helpful. And this kind of chemastia that I have and started a year ago, potentially it could be to do with what I'm consuming or not consuming.

Well, so that's the thing is you also have to look at everything, be like, okay, this came from somewhere, this chemistry happened for some reason. And so like a lot of times we'll see this type of thing. And you know, one of the things we'll use for gynecomastia type of stuff, especially for on testosterone, something like that is something like Arimidex or anastrozole, which blocks the conversion of testosterone into estrogen. And so we decrease the total amount of estrogen that's in the body. And then for like plant based stuff, I give people dim all the time and dim helps basically bind and pull out some of the xeno and phytoestrogens as well. So there's. There's a. There's a couple of things we can do on that. I. I like using different, like, estroflavones and things like that, especially in coffee enemas, to bind and pull a lot of stuff out, those extra estrogens out. But at the end of the day, gynecomastia is an estrogen issue. And so if we pull your blood and your estrogens are totally fine in your blood, which they do from somewhere else. Yeah, yeah.

My testosterone was normal, Estrogen was normal. And the doctors were scratching their heads like, I don't know. And that's where they stopped. They just stopped there. And I want to know. It's like, let's go deeper.

Yeah, well. And that's. So that's like. That's where we start going into. So I love, like, I do giant amounts of Western medicine testing. Like, whenever somebody comes in, they're like, my cholesterol. And I'm like, I don't want to hear about your cholesterol. If you want to talk about your cardiovascular health, don't talk about cholesterol. They're not tied to each other at all. Like, we did a study here in 2009, 136,000 people. I say we. UCLA did the study. UCLA Medical did a study. 136,000 people in the hospital for a heart attack, and 75% of them had good cholesterol levels. So the amount of cholesterol doesn't really matter. It's lipid peroxidation, which is an oxidative stress issue. But if you want to know, don't pull your blood, get an echocardiogram, which is a video of the heart actually beating. So we can see, oh, you have leaky valves, you have myocarditis, you've got hole in your heart, whatever. We can actually see the heart physically beating, like, the inside of it. And then you get what's called a calcium CT. I prefer the ones with dye, the CTAs. But now we can look inside your blood vessels and go, do you have any plaquing? Because if you have plaquing, now, we need to do something about it to fix the reason why you're plaquing so that we don't have a heart attack or stroke. So as we're going through some of these things, that testing is phenomenal. But what I really, really like is we use Eastern medicine testing, muscle testing, energy medicine, to go through and figure out different things about people. So parasitic infections. We can go through and test the gynecomastia spot itself and be like, yeah, you've got xeno and phytoestrogens in here. And so we can use X, Y and Z to help strip those out. So I love to use a lot of the Eastern and the Western medicine together because I think if you look at it from two different vantage points, you get a lot more information about something than if you just looked at.

It from 1, 100%. And Dr. Chalmers, can people say in Australia, South Africa, UK, who are not close to you physically, can they go and speak with specialists in that Eastern medicine?

There's a lot of guys out who are doing muscle testing. It just. So the problem we get into with muscle testing is it's just information. It's like when you hand somebody a lab and they look at it and go, yeah, you're fine. When they shouldn't have said that. You know, it depends on the information this person gets and how well they know how to use the information. But yeah, there's people all over who are doing muscle testing and stuff like that. So the possibility of getting. It's great. The level I can't really speak to.

Yeah, okay, great. And I want to go back to intermittent fasting for a second. So for people that are listening, you're not going to see Dr. Chalmers right now, but if you want to go and see him physically, go to YouTube and you'll see that he's ripped and he is a solid human. He's like a rugby player ready to go. Right, so you are not eating for 23 hours a day. You've got a one hour window. You are not wasting away. So I want to probably highlight that to start with, is that I feel that there's this fear that, oh my goodness, if I only have my windows, probably like six, sometimes eight hours of eating, it's quite significant. God, I'm going to waste away. I haven't found that to be the case and clearly you haven't. So what is the ideal window for the majority, if that's even a thing, or is there a certain window that you think we should all be aiming for?

I don't have a window for everybody. I don't like to do blanket stuff because everyone's metabolic chemistry is so different. I've got people who eat once every two days. The once a day thing works for a lot of really busy adults. And so like when, when we, when we start getting through things like what I. The way I do diets is I say bring me your 10 favorite foods and the 10 foods you never want to eat again. I'll build a diet out of your favorite foods. And so they come in, they're like, great. And as we start going through it, I'm like, how important is breakfast to you? And I get the same answer every time. They're like, man, I love breakfast foods. And I'm like, it's me, too. Not what I asked, but, like, the actual meal of breakfast. And people are like, you know, if I just have my coffee, I could skip breakfast. I'm like, then just skip breakfast. This is how we start doing them in our fatness, fasting. They go, okay, so they skip breakfast. And I'm like, how was lunch? They're like, I was pretty hungry for lunch. I'm like, well, then eat lunch. I'm like, now, if you eat a big lunch, are you. Are you hungry at dinner? They're like, not really. I'm like, well, then eat something smaller. Don't eat at all. And so what ends up happening is that people kind of find their window. What happened with me was I quit eating breakfast. And then I was like, man, I don't have time to work out the way I want to and eat lunch. And so I was just like, you know what? I'm going to see if I can work out and not eat. And so I started doing that, and I was like, man, this is a lot better. And the other thing about me is I like to eat a lot. Like, when I start eating, I want to eat a bunch of stuff. So it doesn't matter if I eat three times a day or once. I'm going to eat a lot because that's how I enjoy doing it. And so if I went to dinner, I could eat a giant amount of food, really, really enjoy it, and still lose the fat. So, like, I'm using this for bodybuilding. So I'm going to be on stage December 7th at super heavyweight, and my goal is to be on stage for bodybuilding at about 250 pounds, and I'm eating, like I said, once a day, so unreal.

And do you use any steroids?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So the. The argument that testosterone is not healthy for you or is bad for you is absurd. There's been no research that shows anything about it outside of that, you know, making sure that the. Your. Your hemoglobin macro levels are okay. So I. I use testosterone. I use cipionate. I use nandrolone decanate. I'm a big Anavar and Windstrol fan. And now on the oral pieces, you know, this is One of the things we work with people all the time on because they're like, well, those are toxic and they're liver toxic. Right? That's the big thing everybody talks about. Not really. So what happens is that you ask people, like, well, it's toxic over time. You know, it's not the first two weeks you take them. It's like two months in. So what you have to understand about chemistry is that things run on what's called a limiting reagent. So let's say we're baking cakes. We have a lot of flour and a lot of sugar, but we don't have any eggs. You can't make very many cakes because you've run out of eggs. That was your limiting reagent. And so what ends up happening is that when you take some of these anabolics, your liver has to process them at a different rate, and it runs out of the chemicals it's using to process those chemicals. And so it ends up having to cut and break over other chemistry to get the chemicals it needs to do the metabolic processes of flushing them out. So if you feed the liver giant amounts of nutrients, it can actually maintain that function for a longer period of time. And again, it goes back to the chemistry of the body. What does the body need chemically? Give it that those things, and it'll be fine. So I always have good chemicals in, bad chemicals out. Everything runs just fine. It's a chemical engine. Don't put morality on these things. It's a chemistry equation. Put the right chemistry in, everything works the way it's supposed to. So that's how we do a lot of the anabolics and things like that.

Thanks for sharing that, because I think it's one. A topic most people like, let's not talk about it. And it's also a topic where there's, like, a generalization that, hey, steroids are just bad. Like, stay away. They're bad. So I've never had an experience with them myself. As you can see. I'm not exactly a bodybuilder, but I've known a lot of people who have used them. But you're the first person who's actually explained very clearly chemically how it works, and that's very helpful. And in terms of, again, the fasting, if someone was to go and fast for, let's say, 18 hours a day consistently, would they be getting into that autophagy window?

16 hours is pretty close. Like, there's gonna be some people who are like, anybody who's like, it's this amount of time, that's not how the body works. Like, some people are gonna get into about eight or nine, some people are gonna get into about 23 or 24. You know, again, metabolically, we're a little bit different. That's why tracking things properly and like, when I work with people, it's like, hey, tell me how this thing went. How'd you feel here? Like, we can even track ketosis with blood work. So there's all sorts of things we can do to figure out where your specific window is. But most people, if you, if you hit a 16, you know, eight spread, you're going to do really well. So you know that I like the 16, 8, but I try to. People tell people you need a lot less food than you think you do. Like, you need a lot more nutrients than you think you do, but the actual amount of food, you don't need that much. And so if you will start, you know, spreading out your meals or radically reducing what you're consuming and monitor the hormone function from it, you can control anything you want to in the body. So, like, losing fat's really easy. Gaining muscles pretty easy. As long as you can regulate the chemistry that's going on, that's all you gotta do. So if you can eat less, it's gonna be easier for you on both sides. Gaining muscle and losing fat.

And in terms of autophagy, if that's new for someone, how do you explain it and what are the benefits of it?

It's basically like recycling. So let's say your body has a lot of old dying cells, and they're like, hey, you're, you're. You're kind of on the way out. You're gonna go through what's called apoptosis sooner or later anyway. So we're gonna like, kill you now and take the nutrients that are in you to repair and create new tissues and new cells, which is. It sounds terrible, but that's exactly what you want your body to do. Turnover of cells is extremely important. So it's how well your body is turning over your cells is how well you're going to age as you go. And so again, that's the. Are you getting all the chemicals and you need. Are you getting all the chemicals you need out? Out? And that's really where that thing lies in, is that your body's basically taking the stuff that's already in it, tearing it apart, utilizing, cannibalizing, if you will, whatever the good stuff is, and then throwing the rest of the junk away.

Really, really good For a lot of people, they may be familiar with that, but a lot are not. And the fact that that's a tool that we can use and tap into very quickly through intermittent fasting, how amazing. The other thing I want to ask you about is, let's say, you know, from my own experience, I'm getting close to 40, got a young family, there's lots going on, there's business, there's responsibilities, there's maybe some stress, there's not lots of time, but there is some time to work out and focus on health. What should someone my age and stage be doing in terms of physical exercise? Is it the big long runs? Is it getting to the gym and pumping iron? Is it a mixture? What do you think is the best thing if you're short on time? That at this age and stage we should focus on?

So again, everything I like to do is goal based. So I'll tell you that if you go out and you run five miles and it clears your head and you can relax and you can kind of calm, calm down into it and you get done, you're like, ah, like all the problems of the day have washed away. Run, you need to go run. The shift that calming down is a shift between the neurologic state of sympathetic, which is fight, flight, freeze, and parasympathetic, which is resting, digesting. The most important thing exercise actually does for us is shift us neurologically from sympathetic to parasympathetic and allows our body to regenerate and heal. So running could be your thing as long as it really clears your head. But if you're wanting to look for things that are like, okay, biggest impact on long term health. I like weight bearing exercises, but I like them, I, I take away all the bars and the reason I do that is because, so if you do a single leg squat, let's say you're doing a right leg single leg squat or a single leg step up on a bench. Your right ankle, your right hip, your right knee, the right low back and the left low back have to strengthen and stabilize for you to do that motion. So what does that do? It builds your quads and your butt and everything looks good and feels good. However, we've just radically increased your balance, your coordination, your stability. So as you age, we worked on your neurology and we worked on your body's ability to move. So it's really, really important. And so as we start building those things up, it works great. So one of the things I can tell people is if you're doing bicep curls. If you use dumbbells and you just do a bicep curls where you're standing up, that motion of coming up, as long as you lock your core and try not to move at all. Really, really good form your core. So everything attaches to your pelvis, your low back, your abs. Everything has to lock you in and hold on to you and stabilize you while that weight is moving. So again, we're working our biceps and we're working our core. And so there's a lot of things you can do that way. Because one of the things we see long term is, let's say it's easiest to say with old women, but it happens to old men all the time too, because they haven't been doing. They don't have any testosterone. And because they have not been working out, their bones get brittle and then they haven't been working out. So the balance gets messed up and so they fall, they break their hips. There's a lot of times where the active old lady breaks her hip and then she ends up because she's got a, you know, she's sedentary now, she has to do that. We see dbts and we see all sorts of massive health problems come from that, that issue. So building your core, your balance, your coordination, and putting that physiological, that stress on the body. Physiological, neurological, stress on the body helps rebuild your bone tissue. So that's why I would tell people that lifting. Right. Resisted weights is probably the best thing from those arguments I think you can get, you can get into. So I definitely resisted. Weight based workouts are gonna be important.

That's so helpful to hear. And in terms of the collagen piece, to get specific, you know, if I am wanting to do a clean fast, can I have collagen? Like I have my black coffee during a clean fast, can I have the collagen as well? Or would I wait and put it within the window?

Oh, no, you can do your collagen throughout. Throughout. And so like I always tell people, look, if you're gonna work so hard to build the muscle, don't, don't eat it. Don't let your body eat it. And so, because what'll happen a lot of times is people go, they do fasting cardio, they go, do fasting workouts, and they go in and they do this workout and their body goes, look, I gotta have some blood tissue. I got some blood. So it tears apart the muscle tissue, creates a little bit of sugar and we're good. And then so you've lost the Muscle tissue. So you go home and you have your protein drink and your body rebuilds the tissue that you just lost. So you're basically spinning your wheels. And so that's why I tell people, take your collagen in the morning and give her 30 so minutes to start breaking down. Then go work out or then go do your hit work or then go do whatever you're going to do. And people are like, well, I like to just get up and leave. No, you don't. No one does that. So keep your collagen by your bedside. Wake up, take it, then go to the bathroom, then put your clothes on and put your shoes on and, you know, walk around the house, really, because you've got about 20, 30 minutes in there sooner or later because you're going to go to the bathroom or something like that. Take your collagen immediately, then by the time you're out, ready to run, you should be good.

Great. It could be in different forms. Powder, capsule, doesn't matter.

Yeah. So the joke I tell everybody is I like to be like, which one do you like? The capsules that are on my website. I take all the time. And the reason I prefer capsules is because I. I apparently do not possess the ability to scoop a powder from a container and put it into another container without getting it all over the counter. Like, I just, I have tried so hard for so long and I just can't do it. So I'm like, screw it, just give me the capsules. It's easier for me. I'm too messy without them.

That's so good. I love it. Good advice. And for me, this is not about being huge and, you know, big and bug. This is to me, when I'm 70, 80, 90, being able to walk, maybe even run, climb a hill, lift the shopping bags, not have to go into care because I have not looked after myself. So I really love that you're saying, James, you do your run if you want for your mental clarity, but actually the most important thing is resistance training. Yeah, amazing. And what's your stance on alcohol? So a lot of my listeners are busy people. They have to socialize a lot, maybe entertain clients. Alcohol is a big part of their lives. What's your thoughts on its benefits to wellness?

So let me preface this by saying I actually designed a supplement that completely blocks hangovers. Because I used to drink so much, I didn't want to have hangovers, so I had to. I had to fix it. So I designed a supplement that completely blocks hangovers. Having said that, I don't So I actually don't drink anymore. I quit drinking for bodybuilding. Not like you're like, that's such a great thing. Like, no, I did it because it's easier to burn the fat to get rid of the fat if you don't drink alcohol. So that's why I gave it up. But after about six months, I started looking at it. I was like, I don't miss it at all. Now I use a decent amount of cannabis, but. And I did a TED Talk on replacing opioids with cannabis. I've done tons of research on cannabis, and I'm a big, big fan of cannabis for what it does. However, the only positive I'll give you on alcohol is if you come home and you take that glass of wine or you take even that scotch or whatever, and you take that first sip and you set that glass down and you just go.

And you feel the day melt off you. That is you shifting from parrot from stressed out sympathetic back to parasympathetic. So that glass is important. The next four, not so much. But that one, that one's fine. So if you're like, this is the thing, this is what my. This is why I. I tell my body, we're done for the day. We can relax, we can calm down. That drink is very, very valuable. So that's great. Having said that, if you can find another way of doing it, alcohol is pretty toxic all the way around. So outside of neurologic function, I'd tell you you probably want to cut back as much as you can.

This is so good to hear. And, you know, all the experts that I've had on the show in terms of health have all said the same thing around alcohol. They struggle to identify one positive thing for wellness. I'm coming up five years of alcohol free. Feel great, don't miss it. And I do find other ways to get that shift into parasympathetic. For me, it's breath work. And that allows me maybe even a physiological sigh is sometimes enough to activate that. But you did mention cannabis, Dr. Chalmers, so let's chat. It's a bit of a taboo topic in a lot of places, particularly in the workspace, particularly in professional services. This is kind of. It's kind of frowned upon. However, it has been legalized and decriminalized in a lot of countries. It's now available in New Zealand through prescription. It's still quite heavily regulated, but for.