What is Fruit Till Noon?
In this extensive monologue, Ryan Ayala explains his "Shredmaxing Protocol," a metabolic optimization system designed to up‑regulate metabolism, increase fuel efficiency, and mimic the benefits of intermittent fasting without the catabolic stress. He stresses that the protocol should be pulsed rather than followed permanently, describing the dangers of unknown long‑term effects and the importance of novelty. Ayala clarifies common misconceptions, especially the oversimplified "fruit‑till‑noon" approach, and outlines why respecting the Randle cycle is crucial. He details a modular supplement stack (taurine, L‑carnitine, vitamin B1, black ginger, cinnamon, apple cider vinegar, etc.) and explains how to adjust dosages based on carbohydrate intake. The talk covers typical pitfalls such as over‑eating, excessive sugar, and neglecting nutrient refeeds, and introduces a structured refeed strategy that incorporates high‑fat days, organ powders, shilajit, and other micronutrient sources. Ayala also explores the dopamine‑insulin link, noting his personal ADHD background and how sugar spikes affect his motivation. He then walks through a full day: morning hydration, light exposure (sunlight and red‑light therapy), initial supplements, a fruit‑till‑noon window, strategic workouts, timed meals (Greek yogurt, collagen, resistant‑starch carbs), electrolyte management, and an evening routine focused on magnesium, glycine, tart‑cherry juice, and red‑light exposure for optimal sleep. Finally, he mentions plans for a meal‑plan resource and a cohort‑based coaching model, inviting viewers to join. The video blends practical guidelines, metabolic theory, and personal anecdotes to present a comprehensive lifestyle protocol.
Chapters
Guys, what's up? How are we doing? I hope everyone's been enjoying the Shredmaxing Protocol and any of the other articles that I've had on the Substack so far. I wanted to use this video to give you guys a rundown of some of the nuances with the Shredmaxing Protocol. I also wanted to go through a day in the life of hyper-effective Shredmaxington, as I call it, or my optimal shred maxing full day. I wanted to go through some caveats and nuances as well as some other talking points. And just really give you guys the rundown of what I've learned this last year of refining, implementing, and hopping off and back on this protocol. Also what I've learned from talking to probably hundreds of people and implementing this with dozens of people as well. So getting right into it, the purpose of the Shred Maxing Protocol, as I've mentioned multiple, multiple times, is to upregulate your metabolism, right? To get your body extremely efficient at utilizing fuel for the right things and not the wrong things. Giving it abundant signals to say, hey, listen, you don't need to store this as reserve energy, which is what fat is, and also to get the benefits of intermittent fasting without having to get into this catabolic high cortisol state. As you guys know, I spent like 3 years doing intermittent fasting and low carb, and it kind of wrecked me. Now, I do pulse off of the Shredmaxing protocol, and I do it for a number of reasons. And this is something that's also important to talk about, is why you shouldn't do the Shredmaxing protocol for perpetuity. I think the biggest reason is because there's just unknown unknowns. I wanna know what I'm capable of doing something different. I'm more interested in novelty and the what-ifs than I am on saying, I have found something good, I'm just gonna spam it for eternity. Now that's the whole point of the Shred-Macking Protocol. You don't have to stick to it, right? If this was a protocol that required you to do it every day for the rest of your life, that would be a dependency thing. That would be no better than hopping on Ozempic. This is a protocol that you can pulse when needed, pulse when applicable, and then hop off when you feel fitting. So I hopped off for a little bit and honestly it was actually crazy how effectively I maintained that high metabolism that I was able to acquire on the protocol. I was trying to gain weight, but I was still respecting the Randall cycle to some extent, but I really pushed back on that as well. And I just like could not gain weight. I would just get more jacked, which was cool. You know, I stopped doing as much cardio. I started lifting more, but I wasn't getting like bulky and burly like I used to. It wasn't until I implemented high amounts of dairy. Now, if you think about dairy, it is the only food source on planet Earth, other than technically coconuts, but the only food source on planet Earth that combines all 3 primary macronutrients in one. High amounts of fat, high amounts of sugar, high amounts of protein. And if you think what the purpose of dairy is, is to take this small little animal and turn it into a giant cow, right? It takes a small little calf and turns it into an oxen. So, dairy is the breaker switch for the Shred Vaccine protocol. It took me months to figure out what would break it. I found out that it was just consuming copious amounts of dairy. That also goes to say, sorry, my raw milk fans, shred maxing protocol is not really aligned with dairy. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. What I'm trying to say there is shred maxing can and should be pulsed. It's not something you have to do every day. It's not something you have to do every single month of the year. It's something that you should utilize when effective. So going right into it, another thing that I see a lot of people kind of, I wouldn't say messing up on, but missing the bigger picture for is thinking that the shred maxing protocol is just fruit till noon. Fruit till noon has become really, really trendy. Fruit till noon's been a thing. I wouldn't say it's been a thing. There's been people that have said that, "Yeah, I feel better eating just fruit until noon." And that's great. The benefit of consuming fruit till noon, aside from it giving you that space to kind of upregulate your metabolism, giving the metabolism furnace a bunch of small kindling so it can build this really hot fire that's gonna carry into the rest of the day, the primary reason that I love it is that it's a way to mimic the benefits of intermittent fasting without getting into that catabolic high cortisol state, both from a cognitive standpoint and an energy standpoint, but also from a caloric restriction standpoint. So when it comes to that fruit till noon window, I see a lot of people going straight into just consuming as much fruit as possible, consuming as much juice as possible. That's not the best move. For me personally, I try not to push that lever too high. I don't consume a crazy, crazy, crazy amount of sugar. I just consume a lot of foods that contain high amounts of sugar. I consume a lot of nonfat yogurt. I consume a lot of fruit. And I consume a lot of dried fruit. Like, there's just a lot of sugar in my diet from that, but I'm never going out and actively pursuing cane sugar. I mean, there's some things that I'll be like, yeah, there's cane sugar in this and it's probably good. Some of my electrolytes contain it and whatnot. But I think that's the biggest mistake a lot of people make in the beginning is they're like, cool, fruit till noon, I'm gonna drink a liter of orange juice in the morning when I went from a high-fat diet and a sedentary lifestyle. If your mitochondria are not optimized to utilize the fuel that you are giving them, they are gonna get overflooded and you're gonna experience negative effects. That's problem number 1. Problem number 2 is people are not respecting the Randle cycle. You must become a Randle cycle respecter. If you are forcing your cells to have, to compete for utilization of energy substrates, right, to decide whether they're going to burn carbs or fats, it's going to gunk up the whole system. There is going to be a cellular traffic jam. Some of that is going to get stored as fat And then whatever fuel source is preferentially used is not going to be as efficient because it's downgraded by the presence of either glucose or fat. So respect the Randle cycle. This is especially important in the beginning as you first start implementing the Shredmaxing protocol. As you become more advanced and as your mitochondria metabolism start to adapt, you can start getting a little bit more relaxed on that. Now, I pretty typically do have some fats with a higher carb meal I'll have a high-carb meal, and before that high-carb meal is even fully digested, I'll have fats. But I have gotten to that point after being very strict and being very targeted and specific and serious about respecting the Randle cycle for an extended period of time. Number 3 is the nuance around the supplement stack. So do I think that you can do this protocol without the supplement stack? Yes. If your mitochondria are damaged, you are not going to be able to jump into this protocol without some form of exogenous help, right? That's when the taurine comes in, that's when the L-carnitine comes in, that's when when the vitamin B1 comes in, and that's when the black ginger comes in. Black ginger is kind of like the PED component of this. Like, it's not a nutrient like these other things that you would get from food. It is an herbal support system. But anything that's going to increase glucose uptake, that's gonna increase insulin response, is something that makes sense to use here as you're transitioning into that new metabolic mode, I should say. And this goes past just supplements. It also goes to other food things like cinnamon, which is an insulin mimetic, apple cider vinegar, which can improve glucose response. What you're trying to do here is you're just trying to hedge your bets against overflowing on those carbohydrates when you're consuming them in large amounts, right? You're trying to inhibit the possible negative effects that you could get if you overdo it. So your two options are start slow, which I recommend everybody do, or be really adherent to utilizing those tools when you are consuming high amounts of carbohydrates. So when I was shred maxing seriously, What I would do is if— it was just if-then statements, right? If I ate a lot of carbohydrates, then I would have those carbohydrates with taurine. If I, you know, ate a lot of, yeah, carbohydrates, I would have those with vitamin B1. The more that I consumed, the more of those I would take, and it would just be modular. So that's really important there. I think number 3 on the most common mistakes that I see people making would be eating too much, right? Just simply eating too much. They think that, "Oh, this is a trick for me to be able to eat as much as I want whenever I want, however I want." That's not the case. You cannot, you can't trick thermodynamics, right? You cannot surpass the rules of thermodynamics. This is going to make your baseline metabolic rate a lot higher. It's gonna enable you to consume a lot more carbohydrates and calories in general. And it's gonna enable you to utilize those calories in the way that you want them to, right? Utilizing them as fuel and as building blocks for your muscles as opposed to being stored as fat. But if you are getting fat on this protocol, either A, your mitochondria and your metabolism are not teed up to the level that they need to be to welcome and actually properly utilize this level of fuel, or B, you're just eating too much. So if you are drinking that fruit juice in the morning, if you're going out and having candy and sugar and all that stuff, Stop doing that, right? Stop doing that. Go back to low glycemic fruits, right? Even now, like, I consume primarily low glycemic fruits because I went through that period of copious amounts of sugar. And here's the reality: when you're utilizing a bunch of fuel, your engine's running really hot. And think about what happens when you're driving a car a bunch and you're driving it in sport mode and you're just guzzling through gas, right? You're just guzzling through gas. You're gonna need to do more maintenance on that car. That car and that engine is going to wear down in certain ways. It's gonna use up other cofactors for that engine, just like we have cofactors in our human body, to utilize all of that gas. So the more you rev that engine, the more you need to maintain that engine and give it what it needs, right? Oil changes, like swap out the window washer fluid, get your tires aligned and whatnot. Your tires are gonna tread out. This is kind of the important part of the refeed portion and the nutrient-dense prioritization portion of the Shredmaxing protocol. If you are going to upregulate your metabolism, you are going to go through more nutrients. And if you are going to go through more nutrients, you need to be proactive about popping off those nutrients. And this is hard to do when people are fixating on the Randle cycle and fixating on eating nothing but fruit. They forget to do those refeeds. So that's why I say one high-fat meal a day, one high-fat meal, or one high-fat day a week, and then one high-fat week every 45 days. The purpose of that is to give you the space to get those nutrient refeeds in. So once a week, typically on Fridays, my only objective for eating that day is to just consume the optimal amount of nutrients that I think that I'm missing out on or that I need. So I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go on nutrient side quests. I'm gonna get a dozen oysters. I'm gonna consume extra extra virgin olive oil that day. I'm going to maybe have an avocado. I'm gonna have food that I have not been eating and I'm gonna be optimizing for nutrients in other ways, shapes, and forms. This is also why I take shilajit. I take it for the minerals and the electrolytes, some electrolytes I guess, but primarily for the minerals and the energy. Humic and fulvic acids are a plus there. I consume bee pollen. I consume a lot of random animal products. I typically didn't consume beef liver or anything, but after doing this protocol, now I'll use desiccated beef organs, right? So I'll have pancreas, spleen, kidney, heart. I eat a wide array of animal products to make sure that I'm hitting those nutrient goals, right? And that's what those fat periods are for, because a lot of these nutrients and vitamins are fat soluble. They're fat soluble vitamins. So you have to be really, really on top of your game when it comes to optimizing for nutrient consumption if you are going to run this protocol, especially if you're going to run it long term. Now, one other thing that I do want to add, and one reason why I do typically take breaks from this protocol is because I'm now a little bit interested in the dopamine-insulin connection, right? We know that a lot of people are addicted to sugar. We know that sugar gives you somewhat of a dopamine spike. It just releases dopamine, right? Because your body's like, oh my God, this is really good, we want more of this. Like, we are rewarding the response and the pursuit of you getting whatever this delicious thing is, which in this case is sugar. And as you know, I have ADHD, so I already have very low baseline dopamine and I am prone to dopamine-seeking behavior. It's interesting for me to say that since I've started consuming high amounts of sugar, that my baseline dopamine, I think, has lowered a little bit. I think that dopamine that I would otherwise get out of doing hard things is now being pursued or achieved by consuming sugar. Now, is this a good thing? Is this a bad thing? Is Is life meant to be masochistic? That's a question there, but I think that I want to experience both. So sometimes I taper off of the sugar exclusively to make my food more boring, right? To force myself to get dopamine hits from other things like writing articles. I will say though that like my life improved significantly after implementing this protocol in every single area, and it declined when I went off of this protocol. So the question there is like, is masochism really, really worth it? Do you need to deprive yourself of things like sugar get shit done. Um, looking at it objectively, that was not the case for me. So that's pretty good there. Anyway, going into it, let's just talk about an optimal day in the life in the Shredmaxing protocol for me personally, right? So I wake up, the first thing I do after I wake up is I hydrate and I take my like preferred like absorption, highest priority absorption compounds in the morning. So for me right now, that's L-glutamine. L-glutamine is the one thing that I've found to be able to to make me not get acne when I eat dairy, and it completely solved my dairy acne problem entirely. It was actually a miracle. So I'll do that, and then what I'll do is I'll have some aloe vera with just a little bit of juice of my choice—orange juice, pomegranate juice, tangerine juice, whatever I have on hand. Not a lot. And then I sip it with molecular hydrogen. So that's kind of just gearing up my mitochondria, right? I'm not going in and I'm not slamming fruit juices right when I wake up. I'm not trying to get that massive insulin spike right then and there. So I sip on that for a little bit while I go outside in the sun. I think that the sun is a really important component of this whole protocol because it's a— I mean, you're in the sun, like, it's going to optimize everything, it's going to make everything better. I read a study not too long ago about sitting in front of a red light improving insulin response. So I do think that light diet is a huge component here. We know that blue light induces insulin resistance. There's studies showing that they were able to induce insulin resistance in mice by exposing them to blue light, I think because it disrupted their circadian rhythm. So if you really want to reap the benefits of this Shredmaxing protocol, utilize light diet, right? Get into morning sunlight, get some level of midday sunlight. Not to mention, you're just going to look better if you're tan. That's your objective with this protocol. Why would you not want to be tan? I really like using red lights. I love red light panels. I think that's something that I just enjoy because it's a passive thing. It's a one-time investment that I'm able to utilize and reap the rewards of pretty much every day. So anyway, I do that, I take my morning liquid of choice, I take my morning supplements of choice. So when I'm running the protocol, that is taurine, that is vitamin B1, and that is L-carnitine. That's when I'll take those. And at that time, as I'm taking those, I go into the fruit window. So I'll have whatever fruits that I'm having for that day, and I nibble on these things. Throughout the morning. I'm not sitting there spamming, right? I want to nibble because I want this to carry me through the entire morning. So what I'll do is I'll have a bunch of pears or whatever seasonal fruit is like around, or whatever I'm craving, and I'll munch on that, I'll munch on that, I'll munch on that. I'll go to a coffee shop, I'll get my caffeine, which is actually synergistic with this protocol. And when I go there, I bring fruit with me. And if I don't bring actual fruit with me, which I almost always do, I always have dried fruit with me as well. I have mangoes, like the mangones, which are like the dried mangoes. I have like this, these like tamarind balls, which are really good. And that's just, you know, tamarind and a little bit of sugar. So I just always have that with me. And then I let that carry me over. I get a bunch of work done. I'm pretty like, I'm in a very dopaminergic state. Vitamin B1 is dopaminergic, taurine is GABAergic, caffeine, you know, adenosine agonist has dopaminergic properties as well. So I'm pretty geeked up and I'm getting a bunch of work done. And by the end of that, like my engine is revving pretty fast. So fast to the point that like I need to get that energy out, which is perfect because then I go from that coffee shop to either A, if I have an early morning, I'll go to boxing class or some sort of MMA class in the morning at 10 AM. If I do that, I'm gonna front load my calories a little bit more. I'm gonna front load that fruit if I have more strenuous physical activity, but it's still just all fruit. If I do that, it goes from 10 to 12, 12 o'clock I get home and I have Greek yogurt and fruit. Fruit waiting for me. So the Greek yogurt is what I use when I'm like in a pseudo fruit 'til noon state. If I wanna ease my way into my actual food window, I'll utilize yogurt. There's something about milk protein that doesn't seem to have the same inhibitory effect as animal protein. If you think about it, fruit has some protein as well. I don't really know what it is. It could be the amino acid profile. It could be just because there is zero fat, but that is like something that I use when I do the modified Fruitarian protocol and I still want to feel light in the morning. I'll just have Greek yogurt. So anyway, nonfat Greek yogurt, I'll have that. I'll like shower after that. I have the Greek yogurt with collagen powder oftentimes, or beef protein isolate sometimes as well, which has a very similar amino acid profile to collagen. So I'll have that and then I will go shower. Typically I will Well, actually, let's rewind. If I don't go to that 10 AM martial arts training, I will work until noon. And then when noon comes around, I'll go to a park by the coffee shop that I go to, and I'll get some pull-ups in, I'll get some light movement in, some form of movement that gets my heart rate up and more importantly gets blood flowing to my muscles. So for a number of reasons, it's just going to improve my insulin response with that meal that I get. It's also going to help I think like this is— this isn't even pseudoscience, but it's just like a common sense thing which can be backed up by science. But if you have blood flowing to a certain area of the body, or just blood flowing in general, and then you're consuming nutrients and you're consuming fuel, that fuel is then absorbed into your bloodstream. That's then going to be shuttled to whatever area your blood is flowing. So that is something that I just really see as an op— like pretty much a non-negotiable is some form of movement, even if it's just 10 push-ups before that first real meal. So you go, you have that first real meal, you get some movement in before. I really like having that first meal outside. I think it just primes my digestion really well. And then if I have the time, I'll go on a walk after that. It doesn't even have to be long. I just try to get that postprandial movement in for gut motility. I want this meal to digest as soon as possible. I don't want it sitting around because because I have to get all of my nutrients in, and especially now because my metabolism, metabolism's so upregulated, I need to eat a lot of food. So I don't want food sitting in my stomach, I want it in and out. I'm optimizing for gut motility. If I really need to get a meal digested, I'll have digestive enzymes. I use Masszyme, sometimes I'll just use exclusively Bromelain or Papain to help speed up that process and improve nutrient utilization. If I'm doing the serious shred maxing protocol, this is when I will have black ginger, Sometimes I'll have black ginger in the morning. Black ginger is very dopaminergic and it's acetylcholinergic, so it actually is stimulating in a way that you'd want. It's very easy to get overstimulated when taking L-carnitine, particularly acetyl-L-carnitine, with black ginger and then also taking that with vitamin B1. That might be too much dopaminergic activity. So sometimes I'll take that black ginger at lunch and then I'll take C3G, cyanidin-3-glucoside. That is the advanced advanced protocol. It's not super necessary, but it's very effective. It's too expensive. It's kind of like expensive too, so I, I don't take it that frequently just because it's very expensive. I'd rather just take taurine and the other stuff. Um, anyway, so I take that, I get a walk in. I will typically have calls then because that's just when I'm the most talkative. I've got my deep work out of the way in the morning, time to do calls or whatever menial work, and then I'll do that for a few hours. Honestly, about 45 minutes to an hour after I have that first meal, that's when I will have another meal. Right? So I have that first meal at noon, I'll have my next meal at 1 or 1:30, and depending if I'm working out or not later that day, I'll either have another just like carb and protein meal, or I'll have a high-fat, high-protein meal there. If I am having the high-fat, high-protein meal, it's not always like high, high fat. Sometimes it's like a little bit of fat, a little bit of carbs, and then protein. That's okay. The big thing with the Randall cycle is you just you don't want to have high carbs and high fat. If you have a little carb, little fat, not a big deal. So anyway, if I'm having the high-fat meal, that's when I'm going to take the fat-soluble vitamins. So that's primarily coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10 was something that I took for a little bit. I think if you do have mitochondrial or cardiovascular issues, coenzyme Q10 makes a lot of sense. Um, I consume a lot of beef heart, so my coenzyme Q10 requirements aren't as much as the average person, and I also do other cardiovascular mitochondrial enhancing protocols. So that's when you would take Coenzyme Q10 because it is fat soluble. I will say that if you're looking for an endurance boost, taking Coenzyme Q10 pre-workout is absurd, especially when you stack it with taurine. It's actually nuts. Um, if I do that, that's what I take it with. If I'm having a high carb, high fat, or high protein meal, that usually means I'm working out an hour after that. So then I'm going to have that probably with taurine just to make sure that my glycogen stores are fully filled. So anyway, I'll have that meal and then I will go work out. And in between all of this, I'm just snacking on fruit. Like, I'll have a banana, I'll have a pear, you know, sometimes I'll just have some like dried fruit. I just really, really like fruit and it just keeps me going. It gives me those micro boosts of dopamine and micro boost of energy because it's sugar, it's fuel. So I'll continue doing that throughout the day. I'll go work out. I prioritize electrolytes around my workout. Sometimes I'll have a little bit more caffeine pre-workout. Taurine is a great pre-workout as well here, but you know, I try to keep my taurine down to 3 grams a day max, and then I'll taper off just because I've taken taurine for so long. So I will do that, I will work out, and then when I get home, that's when I just have my big meal. That's just when I go crazy with starchy carbs. I try to have starchy carbs before my training window and after my training window. The biggest thing, especially if you're easing into this protocol, if you are going to have starchy carbs, make them resistant starch. And the way that you make resistant starch, if you look at my super rice recipe, it's just you cook, you cool, you wait 12 hours, and then you cook again. So what that looks like for me is I'll just make like 12 potatoes in advance, I'll cool all those, and I'll have resistant starch potatoes for the week. Or I'll make 5 cups of rice, I'll cool all of it, and then I'll just have resistant starch rice for the week. That helps with the insulin response. It also feeds good bacteria, particularly bacteria that produce butyrate. If you guys know the supplement sodium butyrate, butyrate's incredible for mood, it's incredible for gut health, uh, one of the best things that you could probably implement if you are dealing with gut issues. So anyway, I'll do that and then I'll relax. I'll slam probably like 4 sparkling waters throughout the day. I just, I love mineral water. I love Gerolsteiner in particular, so I'm ripping those throughout the day. Uh, sometimes I'll have it with molecular hydrogen if I'm on an an empty stomach. And then when nighttime comes, I am, uh, I have a very overexcitatory brain, so I have a lot of glutamate activity. So I do prioritize GABAergics. That's part of the reason why I like taurine. But that's when I'll consume a pretty significant amount of magnesium, and I'll typically have that magnesium with glycine and tart cherry juice. Tart cherry juice does seem to increase melatonin. Glycine improves REM sleep. If you take it with magnesium, it's going to help inhibit glutamate. Um, sometimes, you know, depending on how you react to it, it could actually increase glutamate just because of its impact on the NMDA receptor. But you also have glycine receptors in your, like, uh, brainstem, spinal— yeah, technically in your brainstem. Uh, so those are inhibitory, um, like, signaling, uh, inhibitory signalers. So that's going to help you chill out, improve REM sleep, Combine that with magnesium. Like I said, guys, if we're consuming a lot of carbohydrates and a lot of fuel and we're burning a lot of fuel, we're going to be running through a lot of nutrients as well. So it's important that you go and you prioritize these minerals and nutrients like magnesium. I love magnesium glycinate. Um, so anyway, yep, I'll do that. I will probably sit in front of the red light for a little bit, play Catan, chill out, and then I'll sleep and I'll have the best sleep of my life every single night. Um, and then I'll wake up and I'll do it all over do it all over again. So yeah, that's kind of all that is. You know, watch this video, watch it on 2x speed. I hope it was helpful. Let me know what other questions you guys have. I'm still gonna make the Shredmaxing meal plan, which is where I'll just put all of the meals that I've consumed over the last year into their respective categories. I'll just give you guys a bunch of ideas for that. I would like to run a cohort with you guys. I think the one-on-one coaching, it's a little bit difficult for me, and it's also a little bit difficult for you guys. It just doesn't really make sense. But the cohort, it's a move, right? There's accountability, we can have groups. So I had a lot of you guys DM me about that. Send me another message. I'll actually maybe try to create a group, figure out what the best way to do this is in terms of getting the best results for everyone and keeping everyone on track. If anybody knows how to operate a cohort, let me know and we'll run it, guys. Anyway, thanks a ton for being here. I hope this was helpful. I will talk to you all soon.
