Ep. 165 - Do higher ketones help you lose weight & reduce hunger? | Should you eat low carb while fasting? | Effects of different eating styles on leptin & ghrelin hunger hormones | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan
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In today’s timely episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss ketosis and appetite-mediating nutrients, muting the hunger hormone, improving adherence to diets and weight Loss and ketogenic diet improving cognition.
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Research Reference Links:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36354157/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316622182763
https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn201390#article-info
Fasting For Life Ep. 165 Transcript
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Hello. I’m Dr. Scott Dr. Watier.
[Tommy Welling]
And I'm Tommy Welling. And you're listening to the Fasting for Life podcast.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
This podcast is about using fasting as a tool to regain your health, achieve ultimate wellness, and live the life you truly deserve.
[Tommy Welling]
Each episode is a short conversation on a single topic with immediate, actionable steps. We cover everything from fat loss and health and wellness to the science of lifestyle design.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
We started fasting for life because of how fasting has transformed our lives and we hope to share the tools that we have learned along the way. Hey everyone, welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name is Dr. Scott Water and I'm here as always. I'm a good friend and colleague, Tom Welling. Good afternoon to you, sir.
[Tommy Welling]
Hey, Scott, how are you doing?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Fantastic. My friend just realized that we always record in the afternoon one day. I'm just going to mix it up on y'all and drop a good morning, Tommy. How are you? See if everybody's listening. See if you're paying attention. Welcome into today's episode. I know. Well, that's all. Maybe I'll say. Evening. I don't know. With that, I want to welcome everybody into the episode if you are new.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Appreciate you all joining us for today's conversation. We want you to leave today with one or two actionable things that you can do to put into your fasting lifestyle and build those fasting habits. Today, you long term listeners, we are grateful for your continued support. We love the five star reviews, some really cool ones have come in as of late.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Just got an email recently. Tell me, I've got to tell you about this music. Hey was an episode whatever number you gave me a shout out about my review, keep up the great work. You guys are changing lives. I'm down like £35, etc., etc. And then we got another one was like, Hey, listen to this episode. Saw You gave me a shout out.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we do read the reviews and we do absolutely appreciate them because that continues to tell the podcast gods in the podcast world that we are delivering value. And if you are new and you want to learn more about who we are and why we do this each and every week, feel free to head back to episode one and hear our story about how fasting has transformed our lives.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And that sounds exactly like what I said in the promo or the introduction of our podcast as well. And we hope to be able to join your journey and deliver similar results for you as well. So to me, today's conversation is going to be a fun one because we're going to talk about ketones and ketosis and the effects on hunger and how it can really be valuable to the beginning stages or the re-engagement stage of being on or off with your fasting lifestyle or on or off with your weight loss journey.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And a little bit about ketones themselves and a couple of studies, some that had interesting results and some that had not so interesting results. And we're going to unpack that a little bit in the fasting for life way. So Tomi, first and foremost, the study that we're going to start with is going to be the one that had some not so interesting results.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You're like, okay, why would you start there? Well, one of the biggest things that we hear when somebody comes and finds our podcast or send us a message or joins a challenge or reaches out via email or on Facebook Messenger or Instagram is what about hunger? What do I do? Like, I'm afraid I'm going to be hungry or Yeah, how should I eat or what should I eat?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And if you listen long enough, we don't subscribe to one dietary lifestyle eating preference, right? You want to eat more high protein, low carb, high fat that you can be vegetarian and fast, you can be carnivore and fast. You can be quito and fast, right? You don't have to be any of these things. You have to figure out what is sustainable for you long term.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So there was a study in the Journal of Nutrition in December of 2022, so just at the end of last year and it's talking about the relationship between ketones, ghrelin and Appetite and Isaac caloric diets with varying carbohydrate quality in amount. So not just the type of carbs, the processed, refined, more processed versus non processed carbs, but the amount of them as well.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And these results were from a randomized controlled trial in people with obesity from the Carb Funk study and the results were pretty lackluster.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, I mean, when when we start thinking about what should we be eating, it goes hand-in-hand, right? Like, it's not all about the fast. Like the fast is really important, but how I break my fast and and what's on my plate, that that matters too. And so it matters between how hungry I feel, how easy or difficult my next fast is.
[Tommy Welling]
Maybe what kind of cravings come up, right? Or, you know, you can you can have different things. You can be measuring things like blood sugar or like or ketones, and it's going to have an effect there too. So getting getting specific with this kind of stuff, as we we kind of, you know, go through that journey and then figure out what what's right for us long term to maintain those results is is pretty important too.
[Tommy Welling]
And I've never been like a like a huge fan of just ultra carb restricted diets. But but you know we've we've talked in the past about about their usefulness in in at least in small doses to potentially accelerate the process. So it's kind of interesting what we eat when we go into low carb, high fat diets, how they may actually suppress that increase in appetite that we can experience, especially as we are losing fat and kind of going through the fat loss process too, right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. So just a couple of terms to define here. So what are ketones, what's ketosis, What is the key nutrient diet? Ketogenic diet is really the restriction of carbohydrate intake to less than 50 grams per day, right? So a very small amount and it's Tommy said a few examples. There are very low carb diet, low carb diet, low carb, high fat.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. All the studies have different variations in the amounts varying anywhere from, you know, as low as 50 grams of carbohydrates. Right. And then if you have a more standard American diet, you're at 55 to 60% carbohydrates, which would be, you know, couple of hundred to 250 grams of carbs on any given day. So taking all that stuff aside, the definition of of the ketogenic diet would be, again, that less than 50 grams per day.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And the concept, the idea is is going from glucose as the primary fuel source to using fat or becoming fat adapted or the production of ketones. So as glycogen stores which are the stored form of glucose, right, is present in the liver and the muscle, once those are used up, the byproduct or the breakdown products of fat then start to be used, which is called ketones.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So once you burn through the glucose and the glycogen, then you start to break down the long term fat stores and the cells can then depend on ketones rather than glucose. Now there's three different forms of ketones and the one that's most important is the one that's studied in the research and through a fingerprint or a blood sample, not the urine strips or the breath monitors, but that is going to be the beta hydroxybutyrate, which is the ketone body that your body and your cells can use in the brain, which we'll talk about a little bit later.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Some cool studies about the effects on cognition as well. That's what we want. We want that ketone production. So nutritional ketosis is defined by blood ketone levels and this is important as to why the first study really didn't. It was not so interesting right in its in its results and we'll share a couple that really were interesting but this this level of 0.5 to 3.0 million miles per liter.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we're not talking about diabetic ketoacidosis. Right. Which is high blood ketone levels, 5 to 10 times higher than nutritional ketosis. And that's going to be really just in a situation where you have severe low insulin, like a type one diabetic that can't produce or when you have medication involved, that's that's messing with and altering the production of insulin inhibiting that or chemically changing blood sugar levels.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. So we really want to be focusing on that beta hydroxybutyrate. So that's the ketone side of things. And then the hormone, the the leptin and ghrelin, the hunger component, Right, which is something that we we see a lot during our challenges where people like they, they get into the transition phase and they start feeling a little wonky and we'll talk about that in a second.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. But the ghrelin is a hunger hormone that comes from your stomach that is going to when the stomach is empty, it's going to increase to tell your body, Hey, hey, look at me. I'm hungry. All right. Some of you maybe seen those old commercials where the stomach. I don't remember if it was like Tums or Pepto-Bismol or something, but they had these little these little caricatures, these little cartoons, like in the stomach, be like, Hey, I'm hungry.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Give me some food. And then everybody just throws down whatever's convenient. And then they're sitting there all miserable and uncomfortable being like, Oh, we need some help. I got some gastric heartburn going on right now. So I just picture the stomach empty and these little signals are telling your body, Hey, eat, eat. I'm hungry. And the opposite side of that is leptin, which is your satiety hormone.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And there's others, smaller players, But leptin is the opposite. And that actually is going to be coming from your fat stores. And that's why we talk about leptin resistance and insulin resistance, how they result in weight loss resistance, which is where fasting can kind of undo some of that. But reluctance side is also important because it's the opposite.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
It tells your body that, no, I'm full, I've got enough stores for winter, I don't need to eat anymore. And this study showed that there really wasn't much of a change in those ghrelin, those hunger hormone levels. But it was interesting because of the ketone numbers that we're seeing. I tell me.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, well, whenever we're actually looking at at our ketone levels, it matters. And like if you, if you track these things, you can start to feel like how the hunger is actually hitting you. And it's, it's kind of interesting because you look at the study and then even when we get to like the .3.4 milli moles per liter, like kind of knocking at the door of getting into that, that substantial nutritional ketosis like entering nutritional ketosis.
[Tommy Welling]
And there's there's really not an effect. There's there's not a hunger lowering effect. And I can attest to that personally. Like, like being right there at that transitional kind of point, which, you know, depending on how long you might be fasting right now, if you've ever done like a 16 or 18 or 20 hour fast like that can be really like during that transitional kind of time.
[Tommy Welling]
And sometimes it just feels like, whoa, like this is this is hunger. It's nothing like compared to before I started fasting, the fear of the hunger, you know, like the longest I've ever gone is just a few hours without food. I can't see myself going 16 or 20 hours without food. But but at the same time, the hunger feels very real in that moment.
[Tommy Welling]
Now, of course, with long term fat stores, I know that there is there is more that I could tap into at that point. Like I don't really need to necessarily bring in food right at that moment, but it can feel very urgent, you know? Right. And and when when ketones are sitting at like a .3.4, I'm kind of knocking on the door of transition into ketosis there.
[Tommy Welling]
Those ketones don't help me with the hunger, not until they start reaching the higher levels. Right.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And that's why this study was interesting. But not really in that they looked at different groups. This was this was in an obese group as well. Right. And they were looking at the low carb, high fat principal versus there are three different dietary interventions. Right. And they were throughout the interventions, intakes of protein and energy were similar with all three eating patterns.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
They all had a similar reduction in body weight and visceral fat volume after the 12 months. But after three months, ghrelin increased significantly in two groups, but not with the low carb, high fat diet group.
[Tommy Welling]
Oh, okay.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I was like, okay, some benefit going a little low carb, short term, restricting those carbohydrates, right? Maybe not as restrictive as Quito or 50 or less, but potential. Right. There was a benefit there. Yeah. And then it said BHP. So the beta hydroxybutyrate, beta eight excuse me, increased significantly more with the low carb, high fat diet than with the other two groups, but it did not correspond to significant group difference in ghrelin.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So overall we saw some short term changes, but at the 12 month mark it didn't really seem to make much of a difference. And that speaks to that, that these were not included in a fasting regiment. So you were eating low carb, high super, you're eating 2000 to 2500 calories a day, probably all throughout the day. Higher insulin spikes, more blood sugar floating around in the system.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So your body was stuck in this endless cycle of being in transition. I don't know about you, but going back going back to when my voice was changing back in the day, going through transition, it was not fun. It was not stuck. It was awkward right? So physiologically, you are not getting into ketosis and this is where fasting can really come into play.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
But a lot of people will stop right before they get through. Get through the sticking point, right? Yeah. Dizziness, fatigue, low energy, mood swings, upset stomach brain for.
[Tommy Welling]
Some feeling tired.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Tired.
[Tommy Welling]
Weak.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. That's where it's like, okay, we've depleted the glycogen. Your body's going, I need some sugar, right? I need some glucose. But don't worry, your liver can produce it if you need it. But hydrating, going for a walk, using some salts and trace minerals, and you can push through with some fasting. Then we start to see where you're going to get some big changes in your hunger Hormone balancing, right.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Anecdotally speaking, we see this in our own life. We see this in our challenges. Once we push them through the first few days, then they're like, Oh yeah, I can extend my window. I do notice a difference and it is much easier for right, We don't say 50 carbs or less, but if you're starting fasting for wanting to get the scale moving and get that momentum going right, get the result you're looking for and get the scale moving so you're excited about the process, then eating 20% or less carbohydrate on your plate makes the fasting easier.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we will see this this change in your hunger hormones. So this one operating in the standard of, you know, low carb, high fat group eating throughout the day 20 or 2500 calories, you're not seeing that change. But they were right on the cusp of that transition. Right. And then the other two studies show, even though you're right at the cusp, you can still get some pretty cool results.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
This one was from the Lipids and Cardiovascular Metabolic Health Journal in 2013. Ketosis and appetite mediating nutrients and hormones after weight loss. And it showed that they got right to that point for eight plus or -0.07. So right at that point five mark. Right. And they showed that there was the weight loss induced an increase in ghrelin, but it was suppressed during the trial because beta hydroxybutyrate had elevated to that point five levels.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So ghrelin was actually suppressed after the two week feeding period. Boom came right back.
[Tommy Welling]
Wow. So, you know, as as the results kind of come in, then we can we can see if we are in control of some of the things that we're eating, at least most of the time, that we have an easier time kind of getting there. And then even as we're losing the weight, that can be a little bit more comfortable and might be a little bit easier to maintain too, with a little more carbohydrate control, this kind of gets to that practical application that we hear a lot, which is, can I just eat whatever I want while fasting, Right.
[Tommy Welling]
Which sometimes is. Yeah. And that's kind of where I kind of started. I had some, some, you know, some eating habits that, you know, that I wouldn't I wouldn't go back to. And I and I felt very uncomfortable with. But at the same time, they were very habitually kind of ingrained. But as as I started getting better and more consistent with what I was doing with my fasting, it started to become less, less craveable to do more of that stuff.
[Tommy Welling]
And then each fast got a little bit more comfortable as well. And it was and it's it's confirmed in, in some of these research studies which is, which is really, really cool. Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And it's just the this is another study in ketogenic diets and appetite regulation it talks about the same thing but the research article that I just mentioned where they got to that point five level, it states that the increase in circulating ghrelin and subjective appetite with accompanying dietary weight reduction were mitigated right that increase in ghrelin when weight reduced participants were key topic.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So you got the benefit right, you got that muting of that hunger hormone which allowed you then to be more compliant, which then allowed you to stick with it longer. Right? We don't want to lose the weight and regain it and get off this crazy weight loss rollercoaster, right?
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. So this one last study had also mentioned that the appetite suppressant effect of ketogenic diets may be an important asset for improving adherence to energy restricted diets and weight loss outcomes. So again, beginning with the end in mind and this study also mentioned even you call our diets containing up to 25% total energy from carbohydrates. So up to 190 carbs a day.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
We're still allowing folks to see that 0.5 number on their ketone level and still getting the benefit of decreasing that ghrelin or that hunger hormone spike. So this is why when people come home, I'm just going to cut off all carbohydrates and I'm like, okay, but for how long? Now we're not talking about refined, processed crap. That's part of the food supply these days, right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Sure. Like real natural, unrefined, unprocessed forms of carbohydrates. Right. We're not saying they're not. You can have fruit. Right? Okay. Don't cut out all fruit. If somebody tells you to cut on all fruit, run away. Nobody got £30 overweight and has metabolic disease or obesity because they do much broccoli or strawberries or blueberries. Right. Like, sure, yeah. It's OC.
[Tommy Welling]
Or sweet potatoes.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Or sweet potatoes. Right. Well, my wife might be able to win our sweet potatoes together. She can actually potatoes every day And I might just the smell of those things I'll pass. So the studies are showing that there is that benefit to being able to get into ketosis. And that's what all of these studies are missing, is that we are not compartmentalizing or using time restricted eating to our benefit, to our lower body to produce ketones irrespective of the way you decide to eat.
[Tommy Welling]
Sure.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. Whatever you choose. However you choose to build your plate, we recommend about a 40, 40, 20. Right. Prioritizing protein fat and then minimizing those carbohydrates to about 20% because it makes the fasting easier. Well, you also get the additional ketone production, which then mutes the ghrelin, which then makes the process more enjoyable.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, Yeah. It's it's kind of like how long does my fasting to be? Well, depends. Are you getting the results that you're looking for now might need to be just a little bit longer. And the same thing with how low my carbohydrates need to be or how high do my ketones need to be. Well, you might just be kind of just knocking at the door right before you see some some even better results than than what you initially got.
[Tommy Welling]
And it's an interesting process, but it's also one that takes some time. You know, you kind of start to associate some of the hunger signals and what the scale is doing. And with if you're measuring like your ketone numbers or your blood sugar numbers and things like that. But there's there's definitely a lot to be said about even just a little a little reduction in carbohydrates or a little bit of improvement in what's on the plate like for consistency and then being able to enjoy the process even more.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So I want to talk for a second time. You just mentioned making those changes on your plate, right? We get a lot of questions about low carb and different food choices and what should my plate look like and do you guys have any meal plan recommendations? The reality is, is know, as important as those decisions are, each and every one of us is a little bit different.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And that's why I want to mention nutrients and the fact that we have officially partnered with them and it's been incredible. It's a long time coming, but they are a company that has nutrition. The company itself combines cutting edge technology and human expertise. So we can see in real time and I'll share an example here in a second of how those different food choices affect our blood sugar in real time on their incredible app exercise, stress, sleep, all of those things.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You can see how it affects your blood sugar. And if we always say you've been listening long enough, beginning with the end in mind, we want to be making decisions that serve our long term weight loss and health goals. And I know that with this continuous glucose monitor or the CGM, the biosensor in itself combined with the app and their expert guidance, their dietitian guidance, you're going to see some incredible results.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I've seen some incredible results just recently had a poor night of sleep and woke up and my my, my numbers were high. I haven't been high in a long time. And I'm like, well, what's going on? Follow them throughout the day. Kept my fast going, broke my fast in the middle of the afternoon, and my blood sugar levels stayed elevated about 15 to 20 points higher than they normally would.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And it was all because of a poor night of sleep. Never mind. I mentioned it how I felt that day, my cravings were increased, etc. So the CGM is a small device, it's a wearable device. The application is easy and painless. The device lasts for 14 days. You get the incredible app too that automatically scans the data in.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You can visualize the data, you can log your meals, you can trial and error with different types of foods and run little experiments. And then you have their expert dietician guidance as well, who when I had questions about Berberine when I first started using it, they actually went and pulled research articles for me and it was just incredible.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So seeing all this data in real time makes it easy to identify what we are doing and where the improvement is. So weight loss, less cravings, like we talked about, better food choices, etc. So head to the show notes Nutrition Scott EO forward slash fasting for life nutrition. Scott EO forward slash fasting for life. The promo code is fasting for life.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You're going to get 30 bucks off and you're going to get one month free of the dietician support. You go to the website, you fill out a little personalized survey, takes 3 to 5 minutes, and I'm going to encourage you not to do what I did and just do a 14 day. I'm going to encourage you to sign up for the six or 12 month subscription because I just signed up for six months and I've been doing this a long time, but I still have so much room to improve and I'm just really excited that we're officially partnering with Nutrition.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So Tommy and I are back on board, not stopping this time. We're getting there. We're in it to win it. Nutrition start IO forward slash fasting for life. Fasting for life is the promo code. It'll save you 30 bucks and get you one month free Dietitian support. So Tommy, there's a couple more things here that we want to share in terms of the ketogenic diet and its benefits.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And the study actually came out and it was looking at does the ketogenic diet improve cognition? Right? So we're talking all about ketones in ketosis today, but this is a systemic review of 22 animal and 27 human studies reported that the ketogenic diet may potentially improve cognition. So you're like, okay, that's a lot of studies. They do say that.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
However, the use of subjective measures, varied study designs and low quality methods suggest that caution is warranted when interpreting the results. I want to encourage you that if you have never tried the ketogenic diet to try it because you are going to feel the difference. And how do you figure out how do you know? How do you how do you know if it's a solution for you?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Well, we've done an episode on the fact that 90 days can be incredibly powerful for diabetes, remission and reversal. But looking at the studies, the number was pretty staggering in terms of success rates when kind of grouping them all together. Right. I think it was 80%, right?
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. Yeah. Over 80% of the of the human studies reported a favorable effect of the ketogenic diet on things like cognition. And, you know, the incredible thing is that it was I remember back to when we first started talking fasting a few years ago and then actually feeling that effect like I had heard things like brain fog. But that's such a such a broad term, like what is brain fog anyway?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So mine went away. I didn't know.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, yeah. It's like I couldn't even understand the term until, until it started to kind of drop down and, you know, so, so turns out, you know, the relationship between, you know, blood sugar actually dropping a little bit, ketones starting to accumulate, starting to to get a little bit more fat adapted which could be, you know, just based on on fasting or could also be as a byproduct of of something like a ketogenic diet starting to feel less of the brain fog.
[Tommy Welling]
Well, turns out that there's all kinds of cool things happening actually within the nervous system that go along with that metabolically speaking. And it's really cool for quality of life as we get older, but it's also something that we can tap into intentionally regardless of our age. And so it's it's just incredible potential right there.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And half of the animal studies, right. Okay. Animal studies are good, but 79% of the human studies reported cognitive improvements, right? Yeah. Memory and attention. Okay. You men that are married out there, ask your wife if that's important. Right. Valentine's Day just passed. How is your memory? How's your attention been?
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, it's got a birthday anniversary.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, we have two anniversaries, right? Yeah. So for sure. Benefit there now for the general population, right? Four out of the six human random patrols trials reported a favorable effect from the intervention. And yes, there are some limitations based on the subjective measures, quality methods, varied study design. But the reality is, is there are many articles and a lot of research out there that shows that there are benefits, especially early going as far as treating certain neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsy, epilepsy, you know, staying in a constant state of ketosis can actually prevent seizures, the prevention with Alzheimer's and those types of things and dementia.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And I don't know about you, but if I'm 41 years old and I'm already struggling with attention and memory, then I'm going to want to do everything that I possibly can to increase the DNF, which is that brain derived neutrophil factor and you can get increased BD INF through a ketogenic diet and the production of ketones if they are doing if they are that powerful to be able to manage conditions such as neurodegenerative illnesses or mood disorders, then they are definitely something that I want to cycle through in my day to day life.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I want to get into ketosis. I want to see those ketone numbers. I want to balance my blood sugar. I need all of those benefits. We're not just talking about weight loss here, but we're talking about the ketone production, the ketogenic diet, right? Fasting, It's a fasting podcast. Well, how do you get into ketosis? The easiest way is to set your time.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
How do you have an easier fast decrease your carbohydrates and make better decisions during your nutrition windows? Right. So it's all connected. And that's why I was really excited about the conversation today, Tommy, because there's so many different applications. The reality is you're going to have to go try some stuff. So that's why we created the blueprint to fasting for Fat Loss as well.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, Notice on that blueprint that it has some examples, like how do I get into a little bit longer fast, right? How do I, how do I push a little bit further, which again might be exactly where you, you are now or you've been for a while or what what can feel like a plateau. Right. Is the fact that I just need to push a little bit, a little bit farther.
[Tommy Welling]
And then so the cool thing is the research shows at 24 hours we get a large increase in that brain, brain derived neurotrophic factor as well as serotonin as well. So, you know, you start to feel differently, like your brain is literally the chemistry is is changing at that point and you can feel it. So you talk about lower brain fog and higher cognitive function.
[Tommy Welling]
It also does have like a mood elevating effect. It's part of that euphoria that that people will talk about sometimes. And so it's a it's an awesome process. And it is it is also helpful in enjoying the process and accelerating the fat loss process, too, if that's what you're you're doing fasting for.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. When I first started fasting, my wife was like, You seem happier. Like this is like years ago. She's like, Yeah, I'm happier. I'm like, You're right. I think I am. I think I'm less moody. Yeah, it's incredible. So the blueprint of fasting for fat loss, it's a free resource. It's in our show notes. You can click the link, we'll send it over to you.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
It's 20 pages. It gives you some insight into why getting the weight off matters, why reducing insulin resistance matters, why and how to really start the process and ramp up those fasting windows. So there's definitely some things that you can do to put fasting level up your fasting or get back on the fasting track after this episodes, we won't encourage you to head to the Shownotes, click the link, grab the blueprint to fasting for fat loss.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Tommy as always, great conversation today. I appreciate the conversation, sir, and we'll talk soon.
[Tommy Welling]
Cool. Thanks. Bye. So you've heard today's episode and you may be wondering where do I start? Head on over to the fasting for life icon and sign up for our newsletter where you'll receive fasting tips and strategies to maximize results and fit fasting into your day to day life.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
While you're there, download your free Fast Start guide to get started today. Don't forget to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure to leave us a five star review and we'll be back next week with another episode of Fasting for Life and.