5 Minute Facts - Intermittent Fasting

This is episode 270 of the Empowered Team podcast, a rebroadcast of episode 146 on intermittent fasting. Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, vitality and peak performance coach, Kari Schneider.

All right, five minute facts for intermittent fasting. Here we are. First one, number one, intermittent fasting in science is technically referred to as fasting for at least 24 hours. However, what's become interchangeable in intermittent fasting is other ways of time restricted eating. So even though in science they like to refer to as fasting as being at least a 24 hour span of time, now because there's so many different types of fasts, intermittent fasting is typically a 24 hours fast, or an 18 and 6, meaning 18 hours of fasting, a six hour window of time of eating, or a 20 and 4, which is a 20 hour of fasting and four hour window of eating, or what's called an omad, which just stands for one meal a day. So that's number one. Number two, what happens when you are intermittent fasting? There's a number of things that happen, but some of the top things that are validated in research that happen are that cholesterol goes up, both your HDL and your ldl, insulin and glucose both go down. Fatty acid oxidation is typically the reason why people think that these things are happening, that the cholesterol is going up. Both the good and the bad cholesterol and the insulin and glucose are going down because the food sources aren't coming in. There's fatty acid oxidation going on, and that is causing ketone bodies to be released, which are a byproduct of fatty acid oxidation. That's number two. Number three, fat loss and muscle. So the fat loss, a lot of people will experience some fat loss over intermittent fasting, especially if they keep following some sort of cycling of intermittent fasting. And then the question becomes, well, is there going to be muscle loss? Not necessarily. Intermittent fasting can actually be anabolic in nature because when somebody comes off of a fast, they often have an increase in a little bit of testosterone and growth hormone. So it doesn't have to be catabolic on the muscle tissue, it can become anabolic. But there's a big deciding factor in there when it comes to fat loss and muscle tissue, and that deciding factor is the overall caloric intake. So, for instance, if somebody is intermittent fasting and it just so happens that their overall caloric intake is less than what it was before. Chances are they're going to experience some fat loss. If their caloric intake, even if they're just having one meal a day, is the same caloric intake as it was. If they were having three meals in a day, then that is going to mean that they likely maintain their weight overall and may not experience some fat loss. So there's a real kind of catch there when it comes to intermittent fasting because a lot of people dive into intermittent fasting for weight reasons and the weight reasons may not actually come to fruition for them if they are eating the same number of calories overall. But there are so many health benefits that come into play that it may be worth exploring even if somebody's not looking to lose weight overall. So what else? Number four, physiological performance and function go up when you are on intermittent fasting type of cycles. It slows the aging process. It also is disease protecting and immune boosting and it improves brain function clarity and what we call is now I can't think of it. It's learning. It's basically your neural capacity, your capacity to make more neurological connections. Number five are the contraindications for intermittent fasting. So the contraindications would come down to things like pregnancy. Also, some disease states are contraindicated for intermittent fasting, but a lot of it is because it's just an unknown. So for instance, if there is somebody with type 2 diabetes, it would make sense for them to potentially explore intermittent fasting. But still that's listed as one of the contraindications because there's a lot of unknowns overall. If there's complications with the type 2 diabetes, however, so there's a lot of gray area there, There's a lot of unknown. Another contraindication is eating disorders. If somebody's had some obsessive compulsive behaviors around eating, then having some intermittent fasting typically isn't a great call because they're already obsessing about eating or not eating food. So that would be another main contraindication. Another one that's come up as well is menopausal perimenopausal women because of hormonal changes and whether when somebody's close to menopause, whether fasting or not having readily available food or that's what the body perceives, will that send them into early menopause situation? So just to recap these really quickly, number one, it's a 24 hour 18 and six or 20 and four or one meal a day. Number two, there's lots of changes that happen. Cholesterol goes up. So if you've got a genetic predisposition for for high cholesterol, you might want to be aware of that ahead of time because the good and the bad cholesterol often go up. Insulin and glucose is going down. During a fast fatty acid oxidation is happening, releasing ketone bodies. And that's where you're getting your energy from, is the ketones. You're not getting it from the glucose. Glucose is what your brain wants to thrive on and so does your immediate energy in your body, your blood glucose, your body wants to thrive on. So when you're not used to relying on a different energy source, it feels miserable at first, but then you can adapt to it. You become fat adapted and that makes a difference. And then there's the question of fat loss that depends on the overall caloric intake and the question of muscle loss as well. Physiological function and performance up slows aging. It is disease protectant, immune boosting, brain boosting and then contraindications, pregnancy, some diseases and eating disorders. So I want to open up the questions now. You can pop in the chat what your question might be and we will address any of those questions and they can be related to intermittent fasting. First with those questions we'll take first and then we will field any other questions with regard to training, wellness, nutrition, health, as long as I can look for the answer. Most doctors, dietitians, mix a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting and vice versa. Yes, that is true. A lot of doctors will recommend that. However, even neurologists recognize that intermittent fasting is very, very helpful for seizures and other related disorders for the brain. I talked to one neurologist who's very does a lot of research and has a lot of papers or a lot of patients with epilepsy and he said that they don't give intermittent fasting diets to adults because most adults have too hard of a time adhering to it. They only try that with children because the children can stick to it more readily and go into a ketogenic state and, and the adults simply don't. Now here's another thing I didn't add on those five minute facts and it's this that we typically do not advise purposefully going into a ketogenic state or intermittent fasting on the regular for power based athletes. So power based athletes produce more power from having the glycogen and the glucose stores, whereas personally I've had much more success with something like intermittent fasting and becoming more fat dependent for Endurance athletes. So athletes who are doing really long distance events, triathlon or 100 mile runs or ultras or things like that. So another question, what is allowed during the fasting time? Just water and how often and how long. So for instance, typically it's a minimum for a fast of 24 hours or an 18 hour fast with a 6 hour eating window, a 20 hour fast with a 4 eating window, or 1 meal a day. So the question would be, and I think the person asking this question I think already does kind of a protocol like that, maybe an 18 and 6, something along those lines, I would guess that you fall into that 18 and 6 and how you ordinarily eat. So the question being is typically just water or tea or coffee. And the standard is typically 5 calories or less. It's something that if there was a tiny squirt of lemon in it, it's that 5 calorie or less would still mean that you're still fasting and staying in the fasting protocol quite well. So that would usually fit into the fast people. There's a lot of debate over somebody doing something like a bulletproof coffee, where they've got butter, MCT oil or things like that in the bulletproof coffee because it's got so many of the calories. But the blend of fats typically still keep those ketone bodies going. So some people like to still call it fasting, but most hardcore intermittent fasters will say no, it's that 5 calories or less as staying on the fast in that span of time of the 24 hours, the 18, the 20 or the one meal a day. Okay, other questions, what else you got? Oh, and the how often? The other question is a lot of people cycle this. So cycling works much better for most people than trying to go through this all the time. So for instance, some people cycle four days on and then two days off and keep going on something like that. Some people do some form of fasting on the regular. What I recommend for my clients who are not necessarily intermittent fasting, I recommend that they have at least 12 hours of no eating. So 12 hours of just if they had their last meal at 8, they have their first meal at 8 in the morning. So at least a break from eating, because our body needs that. That's part of where, when you look at these other things happening, some of the physiological function and slowing aging, some of that has nothing to do with the fact that when it comes to the ketone bodies or some of the shifts there, some of what it has to do with is the cleanup process that goes on with the cells that when all of our energy isn't going for digestion. So some of it is just simply because our body needs a break from digesting and can go and do a lot of cleanup processes and cell apophagy, cell death, all of those good things that happen to clean up that process. So the how often is often cyclical for a lot of people. But minimally a 12 hour no eating span is a very healthy choice. Other questions or concerns any on fat loss or muscle gain and I'll bring in another question that someone else had. And feel free to unmute yourself if you have a specific question that you want to ask.

I was going to add one thing that's just through my probably last year of experimenting with intermittent fasting and ketogenic diets is a lot of evidence shows like if you're actually utilizing ketones, right? It actually whether it be endogenous through a ketogenic diet or intermittent fasting or exogenous through BHP beta hydroxybutyrate, it decreases ghrelin, which is the hunger hormone. So so many times my friends are like how did you. Last week I just found myself working and I went through a 26 hour fast and I was like, oh crap, like I should eat. My friends are like how do you just end up doing that? And I was like, honestly, like by the by this point, like I'm just not hungry per se, but I know that I need to eat. And a lot of that goes down to the hunger hormone ghrelin, which spikes so much when you're having those insulin spikes and so on that you were referring to at the beginning. I mean you could go down a whole rabbit hole for hours and hours and hours upon all this. But that's one thing that actually helps fend off the hunger pangs and whatnot.

It's a huge point that you're going for here because this is key because what deters people from trying an intermittent fast is the almost unmanageable hunger and what you're pointing to with that. So what he's talking about in terms of the ketone bodies, he's basically saying that you're either going to produce your own ketones or you can take them externally. And when you take them externally, it produces some of the same responses in your body, gets you into a state of ketosis faster. But I'm going to stick it with mostly just the intermittent fasting because the intermittent fasting, if you go for 24 hours of intermittent fasting that's going to produce the ketonic state right there. So it's one of the fastest ways to produce that ketonic state. The problem is that physiologically, most of our bodies are adapted to having carbs fairly regularly. Now, I don't want to make it sound as though carbs are the devil or the worst thing in the world or anything like that. That's not the point. The point is that our bodies are designed to go for spans of time without eating. And the way that our world is structured is that we are being fed food all of the time. So what is happening with those hormones? What he is pointing to with the hormones is that ghrelin, this hormone that says feed me now, is stimulated with your glucose, goes up, and then we've got insulin goes up to bring the glucose down. But as soon as that happens, the insulin response triggers the ghrelin response, and that ghrelin goes, feed me now. As soon as this goes up and down just a little bit, it says, give me more glucose. Keep feeding the cycle, give me more glucose. And so what you want is this other hormone called leptin. And leptin is this hormone that basically is going. It says, oh, I've got this fullness from all the fiber you gave me, from the fluid you gave me, from that really nourishing nutrients and all the stuff you gave me. So there's little receptors in your stomach. There's also a signal to your brain, and both of those signal this other hormone called leptin that just says, hey, you're satiated, you're full, you feel good. But the thing about intermittent fasting to bring this all together, intermittent fasting allows you to start to rely more on your fat stores. Then instead of constantly relying on the glucose and the glycogen, the glucose is the sugar in your blood, and the glycogen is your stored sugar in your muscles and in your liver. So instead of constantly relying on your immediate sugar in your blood or your stored sugar in your muscles or your liver, what intermittent fasting does is trains your body to start to eat the fat instead, to start to rely on the fat as a fuel source and break that down. And when you get to that adapted space, you're going to stop feeling hungry. Whether you're getting the ketones from that fat breaking down or you're getting those ketones from an outside source taking them externally. But either way, you're going to start to rely on the fat as a fuel source. And when that happens, that's the magic spot where you're not going up and down with your glucose and insulin and you're not feeling like you are ravenous. You are not feeling like you are starving all the time. And that is the difference. And the easiest way to get there is to take the 12 hours of not eating and add an hour to it and add another hour to it. The easiest way to get there that I have had with clients consistently, like some people have the mindset like, oh, I am doing this, and then they do it. And it might be really hard at first, but once they realize they can do it, they keep going with it. And I am guessing that that's what Andrew has gone through, is that he kind of like was really hard at first. He forced him through and now it's like a cakewalk. He's got it. But a lot of people struggle so hard that they can't quite get to that point. So 12 hours, most people can do. And then if they've done 12 hours for say four days, maybe they want to try 13 hours, 14 hours. For most people, the easiest one to do for an extended period of time is 16, 16 and 8. And they step into that. And a lot of people stick with a 16 and 8 for life and feel fan freaking tastic. So a lot of people I pointed to what the most common intermittent fasting methods are, but a lot of people don't even consider themselves intermittent fasting anymore. It's more of a time restricted eating. And they just go with a 16 and an 8 because it fits their lifestyle. Or a lot of people who do an 18 and a 6 or a 20 and 4, they go and have this window of eating be somewhere between say 4pm and 9pm somewhere in there, because that's where it's most socially acceptable. And then they're not missing out on the social connection of eating with other people or connecting with other people over food. So that's usually where people who want to cyclically intermittent fast, they usually put their window in that time. Just saying, listening to a podcast, you regulate your leptin response best by regulating your circadian rhythm. Yes. So your sleep cycle is one of the biggest contributors to leptin regulation and response. Absolutely. There are so many things that contribute to that circadian rhythm. So your circadian rhythm is your 24 hour cycle that our bodies are with. And there are so many things that influence it being things like light food. Those two things, light and food, really influence your circadian rhythm. So that can also give you some of the cues. So for instance, if I Do it's not a fast, but If I do 48 hours of a juice cleanse, I know exactly when I'm going to be hungry. Not because of, I'm not hungry at the times that you would think I would be hungry because it has been two days of only some juice. I am hungry at the times I normally eat because my body's been physiologically trained and I am on the circadian rhythm. And within that circadian rhythm, our body goes through also these 90 minute cycles as well. I can go into that for working purposes, but that is key because our body wants to eat at that specific time because we have trained it to. So we can also untrain it to do that as well. So I would always feel hungry at for sure the afternoon right before dinner. The first day, the second day. But the second day in, I have been fast. I have been juice cleansing, not fasting, but juice cleansing for two days. And on the third day of the morning, most of my family would think I'm ravenous and ready for a meal and, you know, ready to dive in. And I'm not. I'm not at all, I'm fine. Even though I'd normally have a meal. Then by that point it's just like, yeah, I could take it or leave it, whatever, you know. So what else, what else does. There was another fat loss for sure. Okay, so fat loss and intermittent fasting, there's just a simple key here for that. And it just means that your overall caloric intake has to be a little bit less than what your overall caloric intake would have been if you weren't intermittent fasting. Now what happens for a lot of people when you time restrict your eating, it Suddenly cuts out one or two snack times that would just fill that two to 500 calories that you would just need to put your, put your overall intake down a notch. So if you're looking for overall fat burning, it's as easy as sometimes just going a 16 hour fast or intermittently going through that or simply deciding that, you know, on I know one person does a 24 hour fast every Sunday because that's one of the easiest places to do it based on their training cycle. So here's the other thing, and this is what a lot of the research does not talk about. It's training, it's weightlifting, running, all of those things while you're in intermittent fasting, because that can throw a bit of a wrench into the plans when you want to have that energy coming through. So a lot of power training is you're going to feel like you're struggling because you don't have the stored glycogen in your muscles. However you learn to, your body adapts and you can still get the energy you need. You're just not going to have your top notch power output if you're looking for that. But you can absolutely train through in a fasted state. And, and it's not going to hurt you. There's going to be an exception to the rule. You know, you want to make sure you're healthy overall. But those, I want to throw those steps in there too. Okay, other questions that you have on intermittent fasting, or we have time for one or two other questions unrelated. Or you can keep it all related to intermittent fasting if you'd like. What do you got? No, no, no, nothing.

I'll just say one thing. One of my hacks, if you will, is carbonated water, I find is so much more satiating than flat water. And I mean, if you were to talk to maybe and you alluded to this, Kari, like tea and coffee are completely kosher from my knowledge, unless you're doing a complete water cleanse or even a dry fast or water faster. A dry fast. Because coffee, although it's got a bean and all that, it's technically calorie free or at least five or less.

Yeah, yeah. Calorie coffee fits, tea fits. Water carbonated water fits. As long as there's not other calories in it all fits in, but as one person's pointing out, does not. The thought of drinking coffee black when they're not normally drinking coffee black but not with milk. Yeah, I didn't see that. Okay, so that, that one though is. I've seen people wean themselves off of that too. And you know, I've run retreats where much to people's agony, we've done them with no, with no coffee. So we've run retreats. And one of them was for a week in Mexico. And I thought they were going to kill me on the first couple days, like complete anarchy. And anyway by the end of it, but actually by the fourth day they were feeling fantastic. Most people's coffee, it's a caffeine addiction, but coffee fits into an intermittent fast, no problem as long as you can just kind of cut that milk out a little bit. But that's, that's up to you. And the other thing to consider is, like I said, it's going with the time restricted, eating first. And then you wouldn't even find that that's a pain. Point. So once you just start blending that 12 hour into 13 hour into 14 hour, then you know, oh, I'm just going to have my coffee at 10am instead of 8am or I'm going to have my coffee at 8am instead of 6am then it's an easier thing to stomach. And the other thing I was gonna say with coffee, what was it? I can't remember. But yeah, coffee totally fits in as long as it's black. But this is the A lot of people find mentally that it is so relieving to not be worrying about their food all of the time or their intake all of the time. It's just like, oh, I'm not eating until then. So then it happens. Personally for me, I have such a hard time eating a larger meal. I like my meals smaller. I feel better with smaller meals. So then that means I'm eating a little more frequently and I don't want to go. But I go a long period of time without eating because then I find I can't get enough food in because I feel gross if I'm eating a bigger meal. So that is one of the things that is some of the hurdles I have. But I also find on the flip side that if it has been Christmas or we have been traveling and I am eating foods that maybe was a small meal but it is so much richer than I am used to having, maybe it is duck confit or you know, a Christmas dinner or whatever, then I will find the easiest thing is is I don't have my evening snack so I've cut it out there. So maybe the Last meal was 6pm and then if I'm still feeling like it's really then I'll just go right until noon and miss my breakfast meal, then turn that into just a time restricted eating and then I feel fantastic even though it's been a super rich meal or super different than maybe what I would have ordinarily eaten. One last question before we go through anything specific to that or different. You can add anything you'd like. I love that we've stuck to this topic the whole time because I think it'll really add value for those who are uncertain. Yeah. Lastly, I would just say that the hunger thing, like anything takes some adaptation and it usually takes people the first one to two weeks to feel better with that. And that's why I just suggest those little hour increases of going without food to add that in. And the only other thing I would say is that some clients I've seen who have gone into intermittent fasting, then they feel like when they, if they have a cheat day or they have a day that's not intermittent fasting, if they have that kind of a little bit of obsessiveness around food, then they start eating a whole bunch on that off day. But you know that you really, you realize that it's not about the food. When you are finding that you're feeling better and better and that's the reward. And oftentimes you'll find that if it's, if it's, if somebody's going into it and it's all about the weight or they want the weight right away or things like that, then that's probably not the way to go. Is intermittent fasting because you want to step into it for feeling better, you want to step into it for a long term fat loss, a long term health change. So then it's just small changes and incremental.

Yeah.

I think Andrew and I could talk about this topic for hours too. That's awesome. Ok, beautiful questions everyone. Thank you for your interest in this. I hope this opens up for you and also feel free to, if you try it out, if you try out some intermittent fasting a little bit here or there, then let us know your experience and by all means ask the questions. You can put it in our topics in the communication part. If you've tried it and you have a question, put it in there because I will address that question. So pop it in that chat spot. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of your day. If you enjoy listening to the Empowered Team podcast, you'll love being on the team. The Empowered Team runs year round. It is our group coaching and accountability program where we take mindset and physical performance concepts and break them down to usable action steps that optimize results. To join, email us at info at empowerconditioning. Com with subject line Team. That's info at empowerconditioning. Com. We can't wait for you to be on the team.