Sheree 0:00
Okay, guys, today's topic is one that we both get asked about constantly. And it is something that especially coming from woman, there's so much confusion around. And that's fasting, should we be fasting? How often should we be fasting? Is there a perfect time in our cycle to be fasting? Is it different for men and women to be fasting? Are there different types of fasting for different things? And when should we hone in on them? And when should we pull back on them? Are there different ages and stages of life, and we're going to be answering all of those questions in this, I want this to be a super valuable resource for you to come back to it anytime. And if you are a woman listening and your menstrual years, please hear me out on this, because, as we know, so much of the science is not done on women of reproductive age. And that really, is a huge reason why we think about intermittent fasting, which tends to be the most popular form of fasting, I am not a huge advocate for when it comes to the people like myself at this point in the journey, once you're postmenopausal, it's totally fine. But let me just get that out there right off the bat, it is gonna miss your hormones up something chronic if it's a long term choice.
Christa 1:19
Yeah. Yeah, I think there's a lot of confusion around because there's so many sources talking about fasting, and is it appropriate, is it not appropriate, I will go ahead and start with those it's not appropriate for and when I have patients come in here, and they have been doing, they've been beating up their body, right, they have been doing long hours, they live in a chronic state of stress, self induced or not, but just stress from any source. And they are doing things like hit workouts, and they're really thinking, hey, I'm doing all the right things. And somehow I can't lose weight. Lo and behold, I'll look into some of their symptoms and some of their blood work. Sometimes it's a saliva test, but we can look at the adrenals. And when the adrenals are taxed, meaning you've been, you know, in stress, and you're putting up cortisol left and right, whether it's through anxiety, or it's through hit workouts, fasting is a stressor. And when we go without food, there are many benefits, and we're going to talk about it, but it's a stressor to the body. And the thing is about stressors is when they are in moderation. They're super helpful, they help the body wake up and say, Hey, we got to step up the plate and do better. But when you're starting out already depleted, because you've you've had a strenuous life, or work life, whatever it may be, then adding fasting to that is actually doing more harm more damage than it is good because now the adrenals are like we have not eaten where's our nutrients? Where's our food, right. And so that is who I would say right off the bat, it is not for it's the off the table, like when you're already coming in with chronic fatigue, because you've been so stressed out for the past five years, going longer than let's say 14 hours is off the table in my book. Yeah,
Sheree 3:08
I'm a huge fan of fasting in the right ways in the right applications for people. And so if we think about that, because I don't want to demonize it by any means if we think about the benefits of fasting, one of the biggest ones is something called autophagy, right, or some people call it autophagy. And that's the cell turnover, the cell repair the cell renewal, think of it like every little cell needs a good little vacuum, a good little clean up, needs to go in there and clear out the crap every now and again. And so fasting is incredible for doing that. And it's really been proven that once you hit that 36 hours, it actually increases the autophagy actually increases by 300%. And so for this reason, I'm not recommending everyone go out and do a 36 hour fast or a 48 hour bust. I personally integrate fasting in a very specific way in my life, I pick a certain point in my cycle I have done for days, like bone broth fast or gut first to really support this autophagy. Or I'll do a two day one now, which means I hit that 48 hour window. But there again, it's very, very specific in my nervous system is regulated, my body can handle the stress, and I am supporting my body's cell turnover and the actual repair of everything in a very, very targeted way. So one of the biggest things is that cell repair and cell turnover, you can do that through, you know the water fast, the electrolyte faster, even the bone broth fasting, and so it's not all bad. It really can support our energy production. It I know the amount of times when I do these two or four day fasts, the mental clarity that I will have the ability to just focus and be productive, you know, the ability for my body to have a metabolic reset, and also have a microbiome reset. So the four days is super, super beneficial to really read Sit your microbiome. So if you're someone that's sitting here going, okay, like I've got IBS, or I'm struggling with digestive issues, or I've had bloating for the longest period of time, or I've got a whole lot of food sensitivities during a four day, but I particularly am a huge fan of the bone broth fast. But doing a four day bone broth fast, can be really powerful in giving your body the nutrients to kind of heal, but also reducing all the inflammation and a huge amount of the stress that's loaded and burden on our bodies with the foods that we're consuming. So it has so many beautiful, beautiful benefits. And this works, you know, both males and females, to have this as an option to really, really support our health and our well being.
Christa 5:42
I think another thing to consider with any kind of fasting or any sort of caloric restriction is the muscle mass that we could potentially use. So muscle is expensive, and metabolically to our body. And so when we're going and I'm not talking about, you know, daily intermittent fasting, but I am talking about maybe a four day fasts are trying to work up to those, we just have to keep in mind, what are we doing it at the expense of, and what are our actual goals. So if we're really working on building up muscle mass, and we're, let's say, nearing our mid to late 40s, and muscle becomes kind of the prized possession, we really want to preserve that, right. So that's another instance where I would say it's just not in your best interest for your health goals to go long periods of time, because you will do that at the expense of muscle tissue. But I I'm definitely on board with the fact the benefits of it. Intermittent fasting, I think can be helpful for kind of that longer, let's say moderately, like, where you're going 14 hours every night. So that looks like what eating at 7pm for your last meal. And then the next day, you're not eating until 9am. I mean, that's pretty doable, right? That's 14 hours. I think in that sense, it's pretty safe for most people all the time, it really does offer your gut long amount of on within a 24 hour period, 14 of it is where you're it's not having to digest and it's not having to work, you're not stimulating insulin, blood sugar, or you're not stimulating or feeding any bacteria that might be, you know, keen on overgrowing. So I think that a moderate day to day fast can be really, really helpful. I just think that people need to be aware of, you know, when it's not appropriate for them. And you mentioned different times of your cycle. And so when do you find based on our menstrual cycle that it's safest to do for women, I
Sheree 7:36
normally recommend is two points in your menstrual cycle that I recommend that you do a fast and I'm talking like a two day fast or four day fast. The first will be generally after your period or anytime from day three. But you don't want to do it, I would recommend a two day fast there the four day fast, maybe not so much because you are needing a lot of energy to ovulate. And so we go into a mess of four day calorie restriction where you're either just having water and electrolytes or just having some bone broth every day. And that's one of the other reasons I love the bone broth because that is that protein component, you are going to be hitting some protein to preserve some of that muscle mass. But you're not going to be preserving what you need. And you're gonna give your body the energy that it may need to really support ovulation especially if if you are someone who already ovulates a little bit weaker or you're not quite hitting that high quality ovulation yet, which a lot of people aren't because of the stress factors that we've got going on. The other time is right after ovulation, which just before you get real deep into that luteal phase, where your body is craving way more calories. And before you get into your blood, you don't want to be at a point of rest and feeling really low, really low energy, which you know, can actually be exacerbated by a fast, you want to be able to feel supported. So after ovulation is great. And so those would be the two times I would typically suggest it and to bring it back to intimate fasting in hormone regulation. This is where like you've talked about the stress levels are a big thing I know you've even talked about different times of your cycle. We've done that in another episode actually, where you can maximize the intermittent fasting window but you're not doing it all cycle long. And I think that's what we're really trying to communicate here is there is a time and a place for fasting. There is the different times of your cycle that you can optimize if you are a menstruating woman. And also like you said that 10 To 12 to 14 hours overnight has been shown scientifically time and time again, to have the exact same benefits and to really tie that in from a gut health perspective. You are giving your body that digestive break but we are made to rise and sit with the Sun we are made to be live in sync with our circadian rhythm. And so you then have breakfast and do not fly. Do not eat until way way late in the night or you fast overnight and you don't eat till one or two in the afternoon. You're not teaching your metabolism your not teaching your body that this is the rhythm you want to be set up in. And that then leads to the opportunity. Maybe you're not someone who's already stressed, you are now creating extra stress on your body, you are now driving that cortisol response, you're not communicating to your body. There is no food in the world. When I get up, you're I'm running around in survival. And hey, we might actually be going into a famine. Oh, look, we get to eat it too. Yum. And we've got a really short window, okay, maybe maybe I'll beautiful, you know, Caveman have bought us back some meat, we get to eat this hope we don't know what we're gonna get to eat again. And we're fasting again overnight. And so you're putting your body into such a state of stress. So yes, it's fantastic for clearing brain fog. It's great for gut benefits. It's amazing for your energy. It's great for insulin sensitivity, cell turnover, all that sort of thing. But like Krista said, you can get the same benefits overnight. And I think it's really important to understand that, yes, there's a time and a place. However, if you're a male, and you're listening to this, you can go hard on the intermittent fasting if you want as long as again, your stress levels are managed, we're coming back to the things that we're not trying to preserve a whole lot of muscle mass. But just like any diet, and this is I do classify fasting as a form of diet, especially because there's caloric restriction, there is an element of restriction to it. And unless it's going to be a continued lifelong change, it can be a great little reset at some point in time. But it's generally not going to be something that you're going to want to do for the rest of your life, you're going to want to live without breakfast for the rest of your life. Probably not. Yes. So pick your battles. Yeah,
Christa 11:37
I think that it can be helpful when I find there's a high level of insulin resistance. So if I have a patient who maybe doesn't not have a lot of adrenal fatigue, you know, that's the layman's terms for that they're not living under a lot of stress, but they're having a really difficult time losing weight. And that is partly in part because of gut dysbiosis. And that overgrowth of you know, you got a lot of GI issues and they have insulin resistance, I will recommend the 14 to 16 hour intermittent fasting regularly, because that does help kind of calm everything down, right, it comes in inflammation, it can, you're not feeding the bacteria all the time, the insulin is not being spiked, so the cell is going a bit more time to refresh. So there are definitely instances where I think it can be really beneficial. But if people are just using it for weight loss, you know, you have to be careful with that. Because just as you mentioned, you're training the metabolism, you're training the circadian rhythm, to the metabolism in particular, especially if your eating window isn't wide enough. Like let's say you are doing an 18 hour intermittent fasting, you're only eating six hours in the day, if you're regularly doing that you run the risk of lowering metabolism because the body is in survival mode. And that's not what you want. So you just it really is a n equals one that kind of a situation, it is not for everyone, but it can be really beneficial depending on who you are, depending on where you're at in your health and depending on your goals. So I think, you know, this conversation hopefully has been helpful for people to kind of weed out like, Yes, that's me. No, that's not me. Yes, that's me. Yeah, I think that it's, it's not for everyone big and even official periodically, and it can be beneficial for certain types of situations.
Sheree 13:21
Oh, 100%. And, you know, I always say, you can be the scientist in your own body and see how it benefits you and the amount of woman that I have come to me and going oh my gosh, I did it for like eight weeks, or I did it for a few months and saw incredible results. And now everything's halted. Why is that? Or on the flip side of that, you know, people have healed hormonal imbalances and just in dysregulation, because they've gone and done a four day fast a few times across the course of a year, I'm not talking, this is going on regularly. So there's a time and place for all of it, even the five to sometimes the body's looking for a reset. And so I do encourage you to get support if you are looking at doing fasting. So you are guided through this as opposed to just trialing it on yourself. Because I know the first time I tried to bust I did a four day when I didn't realize he was you know, how to calm my nervous system down in the evening. So I was lying there. Why till three in the morning, right? There's so many elements of this that we do factor in and like I say, Be have fun experiment with your body. But just keep these precautions in mind because it's it's always gonna be amazing for everyone.
Christa 14:26
Yeah, and I would say you've got to work out too. I personally have never done a two day fast. I think the longest I've done is 24. And even then, I mean, I just I just I have not pushed myself and I think that I've definitely seen people like you doing longer fasts, but I think it's something that has to be done a lot, say quarterly or less, but also to work up to it right. Don't just jump out the gate and say and not eat for two days. I'm not going to eat for four days. I mean, that's just setting yourself up for failure. So yeah, it's got to be somewhat of a get yourself to where your body is really metabolically flexible where your body can tap in and use a fat for fuel, otherwise, you're going to feel the effects pretty quickly, of lightheadedness and brain fog of fuel of knots, your brain has got to understand where it can get fuel where it can be sourced. And so becoming more metabolically flexible by slowly expanding that length of time, I think is where do you want to start with that?
Sheree 15:20
100%?
Christa 15:23
Yeah, have you done any of the prolong or the fasting mimicking diets ever?
Sheree 15:28
No, I haven't, I've kind of seen them. And I'm one of them. Rather jump in the deep end.
Christa 15:35
I've never done them either. But I know, that's basically we're eating under 500 calories for a period of time. So it's kind of a, you're not completely fasting. But it it's still, when when we say fasting, mimicking it kind of stimulates mitochondrial health, that autophagy that you're talking about, without completely going without food and nutrients. But I've never had any experience with those either. I would love to hear from you. If you have if you're listening to this, and you have let us know. So I want to know your experiences. I've done a
Sheree 16:01
juice cleanse, I've done a couple of three day juice cleanses. And I was guided through that with adding like wheatgrass and different things to make sure that the protein wasn't dropping too low. But I didn't feel anywhere near as much benefit in terms of doing like a bone broth fast or full day water fast or something like that. Because your take on it cannot speak to the mental health benefits enough like the mental clarity and focus and the energy that you get from that. And it's a cumulative effect, like I did one against your photo, photo fast, once a quarter for two years for a period of two years. And that really did repair and support my gut healing journey. And now, they don't interest me in the slightest, but they're great. They're great tools. That's where you're kind of starting from.
Christa 16:45
Yeah, I love that. Well, have you guys found this helpful. And you know, if we are practitioners, we're not your practitioner. So before you dive into any of this, I would definitely consult with somebody who knows your physical health and can help guide you in this. But yeah, I hope this has helped kind of lay out the pros, the cons, the good, the bad, the ugly, of fasting and the benefits of it, but also just those of you who should kind of take a backseat to this and not necessarily jump into fasting for your adrenal health and whatnot. So until next time,
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
