Ep. 183 - Why predicting metabolic rate change is difficult during weight loss | Calories, macros, BMR, & TDEE vs. intuitive fasting | Fasting benefits, boosting growth hormone, & improving insulin sensitivity | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan
FREE RESOURCE - DOWNLOAD THE NEW BLUEPRINT TO FASTING FOR FAT LOSS!
- Learn how to RAMP UP into longer fasting windows!
- Gain insights into the non-weight loss benefits of fasting!
- Personalize your own fasting schedule and consistent FAT LOSS results!
- Get answers to what breaks a fast, how to break a fast, and tips and tricks to accelerate your fasting wins!
THE BLUEPRINT TO FASTING FOR FAT LOSS DOWNLOAD
In today’s episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss dealing with the fasting baggage, why calorie counting is not successful for many, simplifying the process and the fasted exercise component.
Nutrisense CGM LINK to Discount - Get $30 off and one-month free dietician support with the PROMO CODE “FASTINGORLIFE” www.nutrisense.io/fastingforlife
Get your FREE BOX OF LMNT hydration support for the perfect electrolyte balance for your fasting lifestyle with your first purchase here!
Get 30% off a Keto-Mojo blood glucose and ketone monitor (discount shown at checkout)! Click here!
Let’s continue the conversation. Click the link below to JOIN the Fasting For Life Community, a group of like-minded, new, and experienced fasters! The first two rules of fasting need not apply!
Fasting For Life Community - Join HERE
New to the podcast and wondering where to start? Head to the website and download our Fast Start Guide, 6 simple steps to put One Meal a Day Fasting (OMAD) into practice!
Get our NEW sleep guide here!
If you enjoy the podcast, would you please tap on the stars below and consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it helps bring you the best original content each week. We also enjoy reading them
Article Links
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/research-spotlight-metabolic-rate-prediction/
https://macrofactorapp.com/problems-with-calorie-counting/
Fasting For Life Ep. 183 Transcript
Hello. I'm Dr. Scott Watier.
And I'm Tommy Welling.
And you're
listening to the Fasting for Life podcast.
This podcast is about using fasting
as a tool to regain
your health, achieve ultimate wellness,
and live the life you truly deserve.
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.
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 on
my good friend and colleague, Tom Welling.
Good afternoon to you, sir.
Hey, Scott, how are you doing?
Fantastic, my friend.
We are going to put some calorie
myths to bed today
and give you some perspective
on adopting that fasting lifestyle to get
those weight loss and health results
that you've been looking for.
So I'm excited today
to have a fun conversation
around, dare I say, counting calories
and tracking macros.
So I call that dangling the carrot.
We're going to get into it.
We're going to talk about when in
if we do support it, how to use it,
talk about why
it is not successful for so many people,
including ourselves at certain points
in our journey and hopefully leave you
with something you can do today in terms
of leveling up your fasting experience
and getting those long term results
that we always talk about.
So welcome in
today's episode of your new listener.
Appreciate you giving us an opportunity
to become part of your fasting journey
and fasting lifestyle adaptation.
Head back to episode one If you want to
learn more about Tommy and I and how
we transformed our lives through fasting
and getting rid of our insulin resistance
and getting rid of the weight for good,
You're a long term listener.
Appreciate the shoutouts, appreciate the
encouragement, love the five star reviews,
keep them rolling in,
and we're just very appreciative as we now
past two and a half million downloads
in the last three years.
Thank you, guys. Thank you.
I just Tommy, we were just like,
Oh, let's go tell our story.
And here we are,
weekly episodes, every single week.
Never missed.
We love prepping them,
we love delivering on them.
And we do plan to continue to deliver
value and hopefully life transforming
action steps, as we like to say,
with each and every episode.
So truly appreciate
each and every one of you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Filled with gratitude that you chose
to listen to us and give us a shot.
So, Tommy, today's conversation,
sir, eat less, move more.
You should be able to lose weight.
Okay.
I'm going to set my calorie deficit.
I'm going to dust off my fitness pal,
going to get my gym clothes ready,
and I'm going to workout five days a week.
I'm going to do upper body, lower body
cardio, all these all mapped out.
Got them all mapped out.
I'll sneak in an elliptical session
for another
I got my WOOP on.
Or maybe you've got your Garmin
or your Fitbit.
Apple Watch, right?
Yeah. I've never never got down
on the Apple Watch.
I was too connected as is,
so I didn't need another thing telling me,
hey, someone wants to get a hold of you,
and then I'd have to go find my phone.
So I can never get down on that.
But we're going to talk
through the most common pitfalls
and why that system could be.
If you've tried in the past,
never mind just undermining your progress
physically and psychologically.
Because when the results don't match the
effort, you get discouraged and you quit.
Oh, man.
But there's also some some metabolic rate
prediction equations and calorie
counting equations and technology
that is not as accurate as you think.
So the article that we came
across was Stronger by Science
by Eric Dressler in March of 2023,
and the title of the article
is Most metabolic rate prediction
equations are bad when weight is stable
and worse when it isn't. Oh,
so either you're
gaining weight or you've lost some weight.
The equations
on how to get your basal metabolic rate,
your total daily energy expenditure
set your caloric deficit in go.
Never mind all the actual application
of tracking the times you need
it most are the times
that it is not as accurate.
Oh man.
I mean, like what would a bad friend
write?
Like it's not going to be there
when you need it like that.
That's terrible.
Because if I'm going through the effort
of actually calculating these things out,
it's because I'm planning to take action
based on on the numbers, right?
So I want to have
a certain level of confidence
so that I can make my next decision.
And I can
I can stick to it, I can feel motivated.
I can feel a continuous source
of motivation behind what I'm doing.
But like you said,
if the results aren't matching my effort,
then that can become
a very frustrating cycle very quickly.
Can also, you know,
and usually that that comes in the form
of a weight
loss plateau like the scale stops moving.
I mean that I saw that 100 times
and then it was kind of like you feel
this decrease in motivation
and then, you know, when you
when you kind of get back
on, it's time to recalculate these things.
Maybe you bust out a new meal plan,
maybe try a new type of meal plan design,
or maybe increase the exercise intensity,
maybe hire a personal trainer,
something else,
one of those couple of levers, right?
Yeah, Maybe I'll pull that lever
a little bit harder, but
not really with a whole lot of confidence
because you know
that most of the variables
are still kind of the same.
You're just kind of hoping
for a different result at that point.
So some of you're going,
wait a minute, isn't the fasting podcast?
Yeah, it is.
But so many of us come from this model
and fasting has additional benefits
that we could never find or figure out in.
And I say we collectively, as a lot of you
listeners out there as well,
where you get your your meal plan,
you get your
your deficit, you get your myfitnesspal,
you set your goals, and at some point
the goal line starts to deviate
from what the scales telling
you line on a day to day basis.
Yeah. That like £1 a week line. Yeah.
And the expectation
doesn't match the reality.
So there's frustration
and the reality is, is that these
predictive equations that are being used
aren't as accurate.
We'll share some numbers here in a minute
as you would think.
So you come to fasting. Hey, let me try
fasting.
Fasting immediately puts you into
a caloric restrictive situation, Right?
So you're decreasing your intake,
which is great.
It's fantastic.
Fasting, however, also has the added
benefit of working on insulin,
which is one of the main drivers of weight
loss resistance, meaning it's harder
to get the weight off
after chronic or constant yo yo dieting
or chronic caloric restriction
over the years.
Fasting can boost your growth hormone,
it can boost your noradrenaline,
it can actually increase your metabolism
in a short in the short term.
And we're talking anywhere from 18 to 36,
sometimes 48 to 72 hour fast,
you know, used in a cyclical fashion,
rotating those times
when you'll get the protective nature,
the growth hormone spike
to protect your lean muscle tissue
and you'll get the hunger
hormones and hormones balancing
and the decreased insulin
and the increased fat burning
and the ability to get into ketosis
and burn more fat or oxidize
more fat and then breathe
that fat out through your lungs.
And when you get to fasting,
there's two situations
that we typically see that
that relate to a similar situation
that this article is referencing,
where the equations aren't giving you
the accurate data to use to
then go get the result you want.
And those are with fasting
is you come to fasting
and you start doing an intermittent type
window, a 16 or 18 hour
window, and it,
it just doesn't move the scale.
Yeah.
Or you start fasting
and you get some pretty significant weight
loss pretty quickly over the first
Yeah, I wonder
which one of those is more common.
We definitely hear from people
who have suffered
from both of those situations,
but probably, I guess if I had to
if I had a guess,
it would be the 1680 situation
because I feel like a lot of folks
have a hard time kind of getting off
the starting block where you take
your first major, move into fasting
and then don't really see this
like this, this unicorn of a situation
that you might have heard about,
maybe some other friends and family,
maybe last lost
some substantial weight with fasting
or you know, you heard
you heard some stories like that.
And then you start diligently doing
these like 16
hour long fasting, your timer
and then but you just the scale
just never really moves
or move the first couple of pounds
and then just never really moved again
after that.
But we could definitely be at a
at a caloric balance at that point
without even really realizing it.
No, because you might not
be tracking everything or even if you are,
might not even realize that,
oh, you've sworn off tracking
because of previous right.
Where we exactly
where you were going through.
I mean,
and there's also the situation that maybe
you lost a bunch of weight in the past
and then maybe the equation that you're
using isn't predicting your caloric burn
right anymore.
Because like you
said, it's not really a good friend
when you really need it, because
if you had some significant changes,
it's it's not really accurate anymore.
Yeah.
I want to unpack the inactive
RC of the actual BMR
and TDE or basal metabolic rate
and total daily energy expenditure
equations here in just a minute.
But from that fasting perspective,
the answer isn't if you can't
get the scale to move, typically
the answer is very your fasting windows,
but a little bit of intention
into what you're breaking your fast with
and increase that fasting window
until the scale starts moving.
But if you've had success with fasting
and then the scale stops, then what?
Okay, so there's a quote in this article
from Macro Factor
that says, If you're one of the people
that successfully loses weight in a
one size fits all or a low calorie diet
type situation, using these equations,
the skills
you learn to stick with your diet, let's
just whenever we say the word diet,
let's use the word fast.
You're fasting, right?
Are likely to be incompatible with
successful long term weight maintenance.
And we talk about this
a lot from that Morris Berkeley article
where they looked at weight loss managers
and what they did to be successful.
And it says in effect
you got really good at crash
remember dieting, air quotes, fasting,
fasting and dealing
with caloric restriction but not normal
sustainable eating habits or patterns.
This can lead to years of
yo yo dieting, a.k.a.
fasting, rather than long term success.
So the reason we felt a need
to talk about this conversation come from
this perspective is that recently
in our VIP coaching experience,
which is a six month coaching program
which typically starts
for most people with one of our seven day
fasting lifestyle challenges.
That's the majority, the place
where the majority of folks come through.
But we also have the master classes
and and our, you know, emails
and Facebook messages and Instagram
and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah.
But in our community group
on Facebook as well.
But we get to a point where we have
a lot of people that are crushing it
when they first start
or come out of a seven day challenge.
Right.
And as we go through,
we give you a weekly fasting schedule
to focus on and we teach you how to
how to apply it to your day to day life.
Like, okay,
take your fasting windows for the week.
What are your non-negotiables?
Do you have a business lunch, a date
night of a kit like what is in your life
that will stop you
from sticking to your air?
Quotes diet a.k.a. fasting
lifestyle right.
What are those things? Okay, set it right.
Set it and forget it. Right.
As in the old infomercials.
But you can't just set it and forget it.
So when we're looking
at these weekly schedules, we have one
where we do an ADF week, an alternate day
fasting week.
Now alternate day
fasting is a very powerful fasting tool
and we require everyone or we ask,
we can't make them do it,
lead the horse to water,
but you can't make them drink
where we say, okay,
we want you to dust off your tracker's
set, some TDE and BMR calorie targets
we want you to track for this week,
and then we want to be able to interpret
those results with you
and tell you
if you need to upshift or downshift.
And in the fasting world, it's
either increase your fasting,
decrease your consumption,
or make better food choices, right?
So yeah, you're under fasting and over
consuming
or over fasting and under consuming.
And that's typically what we find
when the scale stops
doing what you
what you think you want it to do.
So we encourage our folks to go
and do seven, ten,
sometimes 14 days of exactly
what these articles are saying
aren't exactly as accurate
as what you're thinking.
Sure.
So if you remove the fasting
and now you're not already setting
yourself up for caloric restriction
and all the additional other benefits
of fasting increased
be enough stem cells, autophagy,
balancing hunger, hormones,
feelings of euphoria, better
sleep, better libido, better energy, etc.
The tools you literally have are these
broken ones here in front of you.
Never mind all of the other past.
I've done it before, but man, it's hard
now. I got to go do it again.
Psychological diet,
culture type type mindset stuff as well.
The baggage that diet baggage, that
fasting baggage that can be heavy like.
Yes. And sometimes you don't even realize
what you're actually bringing
along with you.
But I mean, focusing on actually
just diluting it in
temporarily is one of those things
that it's a huge part of of the process,
like coming in and doing that on occasion
when it's necessary.
But you know what, like my mental block
and I've talked to a lot of folks
who can identify with this as well,
is that they're just looking for a plan
that they can just set it and forget it,
like you said, and just go, okay,
that's the thing that I need to do.
I'm not going to need
to make any changes to it.
Let me just do it
until I hit that goal weight
and then I'll figure it out from there.
Is essentially it.
But just just understanding that like one
single method is not going to be
the perfect way to do this
because the body's variable,
the body loves homeostasis.
It's very adaptable.
Your food choices aren't the exact same
every day.
Your energy expenditure and stress levels.
Sleep. Yeah, Hydration.
Yeah. Like
every facet is not the exact same.
You're not going to feel the same. It's
going to be exact, same duration.
All these,
all these kind of things, right?
So there is variability in the system.
So understanding that
and having a little bit of flexibility
along the way is, is one of those
like I'm giving myself mental permission
that I'm going to need to adjust the plan
a couple of times
and maybe even a few more than that.
And that's okay.
This also comes up when you've
you've gotten to that last few pounds
before your air quotes, goal weight
or maintenance, right.
Like or whatever that number is.
But there are inherent problems
with calorie counting
and why it's not successful
for so many. Right.
So I want to go through them
to find some terms and then put together
a simple way as a faster
that you can simplify this process
and use some of these tools
in a way that King can help
you break through the plateau
or get the scale moving.
Initially
or get you through to that end result
where you're going to figure out
what maintenance looks like.
But again, just like it said in this
article, the skills you use to get there.
So with fasting weight can come off
pretty quick, which means we need to be
really good at knowing and interpreting
how we're feeling
and putting intention
into what we're breaking our fast with.
Yeah, and then what you're going to do as
you get closer to your maintenance goal.
And it's no different than on a a weight
loss journey.
Let's say if you hire a nutrition coach
tonight or you're using app, right?
Yeah.
So some of the things here is
calorie counting should be an ideal method
of gaining or losing or maintaining way.
Scientists pretty straightforward.
We also talk a lot
about the hormonal systems as well.
So calories aren't king,
insulin isn't king,
But they both have a very complex,
storied history together.
Right?
You can decrease the calories, increase
the calories, decrease your consumption,
increase consumption.
And in two different individuals
based on their insulin resistance,
they'll have different outcomes.
So there's a metabolic rate
or resting metabolic rate
is the
amount of energy your body burns at rest.
That's in BMR and there's tons
of calculators and equations out there.
So if we look at some of the equations,
I mean, you've got your indirect
calorimetry, you've got Tinsley, 2019
FM beam, fat free mass versus body mass.
You've got Owen,
you've got Cunningham, Harris, Benedict,
Reverse Harris, Benedict Mifflin.
Sounds like the office, right?
Is it that under Bundy?
Yeah, right.
I've never watched it, but what do I know
that the DiLorenzo equation.
Now, all of these have certain systems
that they use to spit out
a basal metabolic number.
Right?
And then from there, if we're looking at.
Okay, well, what do I.
What does that mean?
Well, then you have to look at your total
daily energy expenditure.
This is the amount of total energy
you burn in a day.
Your BMR is the main component of that.
Up to 70%.
So day to day activities
that aren't categorized
as exercise, fidgeting to housework,
sitting up to lying down.
Right, then you've got your non
exercise activity thermogenesis
as well.
And then you've got the idea
that exercise is only
a very small percentage
of our total daily energy expenditure.
But most people want to track
calories and macros and work out more.
Working out, Yes, absolutely.
Build lean muscle, become an energy
powerhouse, change that body composition,
increase your cardiovascular health,
decrease
your cardiovascular
risk of stroke and heart attack, etc..
Sure, your insulin sensitivity as well
across hundred
muscle cells around the body.
Absolutely.
So when we're looking at the calorie
counting approach,
the one size fits all 2000 calories
a day, obviously
£130 person versus a £200 person,
Totally different.
Right.
So it's just not really going
to move the needle much for most people.
The second is
they may not be realistic or sustainable.
So if someone if we are a lot
doing 1200 calories a day, right.
But if you're only burning 15 or 1600,
then 1200 might be good.
But if you're burning 2500 1200
a day
is probably pretty unsustainable. Mm.
And what we end up
seeing is fatigue, hunger, cravings,
lethargy and then you end up
not being able to stick to the program.
And this is the same
with fasting as well, for sure.
You get plateaus the same way
and for the same reasons, right?
The second is this idea
of these activity trackers, right?
Me the activity trackers.
Let me say one thing about basal
metabolic rate too, because if you've been
tracking and you've had some frustration
or some slowdowns or some plateaus,
if you've ever been tempted
to use the BMR, a number that comes up
like almost overshooting
your sedentary ness or like undershooting
your activity level because you feel like
like you've been tracking it
at 1800 calories, it's not working
or at 1400 calories.
It's not working like it.
Maybe if I can just take
another little sliver off of there.
So how do I kind of game game
the little calculator to do it?
Then this conversation is
is definitely for you for sure,
because I'm having a little bit of
perspective about that can go a long way,
you know, for your next weight
loss fat loss attempt here.
So when we get into the wearables, it's
kind of the same deal where where
a lot of times we'll pick up a wearable
so that we'll get some sort
of confirmation about what
we're doing or what we're trying to do is,
does this seem accurate based on what I'm
calculating and what I'm actually doing?
And so it it can be a good way
to kind of push yourself to get better
at more consistently taking, you know,
activity steps or like maybe it's
hitting the gym or going on a walk
or whatever it might be.
There's
there's all kinds of cool gamification
that come along
with a lot of the wearables,
but understanding, though,
that their actual output number
of what you're doing
can be 50% off in in either direction.
So if it's reporting 2000,
you might be doing a thousand
or you might be doing 3000,
and they're all disliked.
This very unpredictable
range of of variability,
even even the very expensive ones.
Now, to be fair,
some of those that were really inaccurate
are no longer in business, right?
So we have
this new wave of our rings and woops.
And all this kind of stuff.
And I was just talking to my wife
the other day.
Now, remember, we're coming
from this perspective that if you're not
getting results on the scales, not moving
or if you have been fasting
and it stops moving,
then typically what we want to do
is just increase our fast
and decrease our consumption.
And sometimes the opposite
needs to happen.
And that's why we focus on doing this
ADF training where we want you to track
and hone in for 10 to 14 days
and see what the scale does
and then go back
to doing what you were doing
previously
with a little bit more attention.
If you lose £30,
you can't still eat the same amount
of food and expect the scale to move
because you you don't require as much
energy as a £30 lighter individual.
Right? Your BMR changes.
The problem is
the equations are off dramatically,
so anywhere from ten up to 50%.
Right.
So when we're looking at these,
you might think, okay, well, that's
just a few hundred calories a day, right?
So 150 to 400.
Okay.
Well, over the course of 400 calories
per day, over the course of a week is near
a pound of fat over the course of a month
per week.
Yeah, because it's not like,
oh, you just increase for a day
and then boom, you're fat the next day.
No, it takes a few weeks. Right.
For that, that fat cell
to to grow and to, to accumulate.
So really a couple of weeks
of overconsumption,
you know, £15 over the course
of six months, 500 calories a day
more per day per week
with theoretically be £1 of fat per week.
So the scale fluctuations
are going to continually move.
And we're looking at our trackers
going, wait a minute,
you can be up to 50% off, huh?
Yeah.
So it's not just simply calories
in, calories out.
And which equation should I use?
What app does my equation does my app use?
Right.
So WOOP, for instance, I was just having
this conversation with my wife.
She is absolutely crushing it.
Sorry, baby. She's back.
I mean, she looks fantastic.
She has like two or three more pounds on
the scale that she wants to get down to,
which was her lowest weight
before and body
fat percentage before she got pregnant
with our third one.
Wow. She's months ahead of where she was
after the second.
Right. Cool.
And I'm over here
just like, man, you're crushing it, right?
And she's like, Well, I want to do better.
I'm like, Oh, okay, great.
You've always wanted better.
What does that mean?
She's like, Well, you know,
this is what I'm tracking.
And because she's breastfeeding,
so she's making sure she's getting enough
water and and calories and all that.
And she's like, Yeah,
So I'm burning on an average of 1900
a day and I'm consuming 1900.
And I go exactly like, Oh, well, that's
why the scale wouldn't be moving.
Now she has zero insulin
resistance, zero zero visceral fat.
All her numbers are incredible.
Her gene testing shows
that her body can process
carbohydrates, loves
them, is fueled by them.
She rides horses, she runs,
she does CrossFit
like super
athletic, super healthy, super fat.
So she has zero and some resistance.
So yeah, if your
if the equation is telling you this
and this is the result you're getting
and this is what you've been consuming,
it's probably pretty accurate.
Sure. Yeah.
Because real life is matching
the experience.
But for us mere mortals, myself included,
after years and years of failing,
that wasn't making sense.
So Whoop uses the BMR right
and your heart rate variability
or your heart rate and then adds
the uptick in your heart rate
based on your strain
for the day to that BMR estimate.
So these this yeah,
this new wave tends to be more accurate.
But again, it's the interpretation of
how do I where do I even start.
Yeah, you know what I, what I kind of fear
for for someone listening is that,
you know, you might, you might look at it
and make decisions on that day
or on the next day
based on what it told you today.
You know, like,
oh, I burn, you know, 2500.
Okay, I guess it's time to
to eat that much, you know, like it's
not giving you super accurate
real time data to that level of confidence
to make those decisions
unless you've actually been observing it
to take a look and like simplify
the food choices maybe for a few days,
track those, see what you're bringing in,
and then see what the scale does.
Compare that to your wearable.
So I like to do, you know, kind
of the opposite to gain or the inverse
to gain the the confidence in in the data
that it's actually given me.
And then I can make some more confident
decisions based on that data.
Some are you going, why the hell
are you even talking about this stuff?
Well, a lot of people we encounter
come to fasting
and they are still tracking everything.
The harder
it is to get it off, like the more your,
you know, you look for outside
data and tools and things like that.
And sometimes the harder your try,
if you're that much more motivated,
you're like, you have a medication
you want to come off of or a disease
you're trying to reverse
or a family member
that's suffering or a doctor conversation,
or you have to care for a loved one
in your health matter.
Something more motivating.
You're going to be working that
much harder to try to get that weight off.
So some of these
these fitness trackers. Right.
So the heart rate and the energy
expenditure differs between individuals
due to the differences
in our resting heart rates, fitness levels
and our different levels
of reactivity distress.
So even though the two main types
of these wearable technologies,
they're not great in isolation,
they do work well together,
but they still don't show
based off a 2020 mental analysis
that you're going to be seeing an insane
amount of accuracy long term.
Yeah, especially when the scale has
either been going up
or when the scale has been going down.
Yeah, which is the two timelines
that really need it the most.
So it also says that the new crop
still did
a poor job of estimating energy
expenditure during sitting, walking,
running, cycling and resistance
training. Huh.
That was 2022.
Yeah. Crap.
I mean, I don't think it'll be that far
off like that many years in the future
when we have better real time data about
this is what we brought in
and the wearable is actually measuring
what we brought
in, How quickly were burning it,
and then telling us like an output rate
of fat, protein, carbohydrates,
and then that
that's actually giving us accurate
real time data, but we don't have it.
So, so what can be better
and actually get us more results
faster is kind of simplifying it
so that we zoom out on occasion.
This might be like a once a month, once
every 30 days or so.
Zoom out.
Go are my results meeting my expectations
with what I've been doing?
Keep a log of your fast
like are you being accurate and honest
with yourself
about the fasting that you're putting in
and try to simplify some plates
so that you can kind of calibrated
with those TDI calculations,
knowing approximately
what your plates could look like,
because that way
you're reducing the number of decisions
you need to make in the moment,
which can also
lead to a lot of frustration
and a lot of volatility on the scale, too.
I think that the exercise component
of this too is the activity component is
we have a lot of folks that exercise
that's like, I have to exercise.
It's part of my mental health strategy
and that's great.
I would encourage a lot of folks
that if you've hit a sort of plateau,
backing off
from the intensity of the exercise
and maybe adding in some fasted exercise
as well as walking
would be a good place to start
because we know we've talked about this
in the past, that the benefit of fasted
versus Fed exercise is the same
pretty much over the course
of a 24 hour period.
But fasting tends to to have an advantage
in the optimization
of the metabolic health
and that metabolic flexibility piece
where we're talking about
chronic disease
related to insulin and glucose,
the ability to flip flop
between those two.
So low levels of fasting insulin
are a sign of higher insulin sensitivity,
higher fat oxidation and low metabolic
disease risk.
So you want better metabolic flexibility?
Yes, the more weight
you have to lose, the more you need that.
The reason I brought that up, though,
is because you mentioned earlier
the energy bucket.
So when you're putting in and you're going
to, let's say TDI dot com or calculator
dot net or one of these sites, right?
Yeah.
And you put in your stuff,
you're going to over or under estimate
your activity level and that's
one of the things that this article
was mentioning is that you
have these energy activity buckets.
Right.
And that can be anywhere from ten,
some of them up to 13% off
based on the fact that you chose sedentary
versus light exercise
versus 4 to 5 days of high
activity versus, you know,
intense exercise 4 to 5 days a week.
Right.
There's all these different categories.
So again, just more complexity
added to the to the process.
Yeah. So it's not always good.
Like it's not always good to be like out
burning your caloric intake.
And it's it's also not always good
to just be trying to consume like
under consuming it.
So one more time
I'm trying to follow you here.
It's, it's it's not necessarily
better that oh hey like today I,
I burned a couple hundred extra calories
today.
That's fine.
Oh, I've said that to me other day.
And I was like, No, no, you didn't.
But if you add it up over time,
that's that's what
that's where we see the overall net
average under consumption over time.
That also leads to that
metabolic adaptation, which is part of the
the variance in the
in the metabolic rate calculator's 100%.
So when we're in this tracking approach,
we want to free everyone
from the tracking prison. Okay?
We want to release you
from the shackles of the tracking prison
and the fasting lifestyle
has done that for us.
So just the diet brain, right?
The diet roller coaster,
the diet culture, brain is in the
back of your head, overthinking in second
guessing everything.
Has my weight actually plateaued
or is it just water?
I decrease my calorie targets
two weeks ago.
Is it really time to reduce them again?
Yeah.
My weight is actually higher.
This week
I'm in, I get a cut, my targets even more.
I feel like I may be losing weight
too fast.
I need to increase my targets
to avoid losing muscle.
Or am I working out or walking enough
or hydrating enough
or getting my trace minerals in?
I'm going to start a new training program
this week.
I know my numbers have changed.
I've lost £30 now.
What do I do? It's stuck.
So we're going to get in our heads
and go, I'm doing everything wrong.
What is happening?
So this is why we do this training.
This is why we encourage zoom
in, get some data, zoom out,
take a deep breath
and simplify the process.
You set it.
Tell me if you want some easier,
Take some thinking out of it.
Head to the shownotes and click
the blueprint to fasting for fat loss.
Yeah, well, literally
give you what a plate should look like
and what a four week series of of fast
could look like.
Just take the thinking out of it.
But then you have to commit
to hitting the 80% mark the 80% rule.
Right.
So 24 out of 30 days
hit your fasting timer,
break your window intentionally,
stay hydrated.
Get your walking in. Right?
Yeah.
You have to give it more to your point
than just a day or two.
Yeah, you got to give it a few weeks
to set and forget, right? No.
As just kidding.
What is that program was?
Interest anniversary chicken. Yeah.
Rotisserie chicken thing, man.
It's crazy
how that program stays with you.
Yeah, it did.
I never looked like that.
So I. We buy rotisserie chickens
and not try to make it right.
So simplify the process.
Simplify the process, simplify the process
and follow the process and know
that you're not broken.
That some of the tools
you've used in the past,
you didn't have the understanding,
and I don't claim to either.
Even after all this research
for this episode
and reading all these things
and having the failed experiences
multiple times over and over again,
yeah,
being able to actually do this on my own
by this method of calorie
counting, calorie calculators,
BMR measurements, TDs
and all that kind of stuff.
Yeah, they work really well,
like inside the goalpost, you know,
like for the,
for the middle part of the population or
you know, the people in the, in the best
health, you know, at the, at the optimal
weight ranges and things like that.
But again when we need it
the most, it's the least predictive
of the things that we're actually
trying to get a handle on here.
So if we if we take what we
what we talked about today, zoom out
a little bit, simplify.
But then then also like do the same thing
a little bit to your plate
like I mentioned earlier,
so that while you're logging those fast
hitting that 80% rule on your fast
this month, have a couple of go to plates
that you
that you kind of cycle in and out of
and watch what the scale does as well
because it's going to tell you a lot
when you know
you're doing all these other things right.
The scale will give you some
some better feedback, better data.
Then when things are kind of volatile
and decisions are more variable.
Yeah, we had a shout out
from one of the women in our program
who was like,
We got off one of our coaching calls
during this ADF week where we said,
okay, zoom in and track for 10 to 12 days.
Some of you
you're going to need to do it for
seven days, some you're going to need
to do it for a couple of weeks, right?
It's going to open up that thought process
that you were just talking about,
about the decisions
you're making and the why behind it.
And she said like she's in
awe of like the call.
Right.
And just the wealth of knowledge
and all the experience and all the stuff.
And she's like, I just I'm
the type of person that needs to know why
I'm doing something. Sure.
So she says,
I've been get I've been fasting
since January and have gotten so good
at not eating for longer periods of time
and not eating much when I did eat.
Yeah, yeah. Fasting is very powerful.
It can get the weight off quick,
but if you're down
she is to that last handful of pounds.
Then what's your exit strategy?
What's your reverse plan?
Right.
You're a much smaller individual now.
You've lost two thirds of your weight.
You're 20.
You go back down old habits.
Oh, man, it can come back quick. Yeah.
The same thing that you were doing.
And this is why I love that quote
from the article earlier is skills
you learn to stick with
to get the results that you had gotten
are likely to be incompatible
with the successful long term maintenance.
Wow. So you learn the skills,
you use the skills,
but then you have to apply the skills
to the new situation.
And with fasting, that's going to be
increasing your fasting windows,
increasing your consumption,
developing that healthy relationship
with your food.
Yeah, right.
Or foods that may have
there was a there was a list of foods
that were like completely off limits
for some folks.
And I'm like, those are quality foods.
Yeah. Good.
You can eat grapes.
You can eat a banana,
like, it's okay, yogurt.
Those things aren't bad for you,
but they get listed as bad.
Sure, that's part of that diet culture
and this failed attempts
that we bring with us into this
new fasting application.
Ooh, fasting. That sounds fun.
I can not eat.
And then you get really good at it.
Yeah, but still got some baggage, right?
Like I still got
I still got loads of those bags behind me
full of those exact off foods that,
that were just, you know,
part of a previous layer that didn't work.
So like there's yeah, there's,
there's some layers here.
In theory it should be easy to step back
and look at this stuff and be like,
like objectively and make appropriate,
dispassionate adjustments over time.
Sure, some people can, right?
My wife's one of them
and some people find it nearly impossible.
And that was me. And that was you. Right.
So it may need a little extra effort,
it may need some tweaking.
This is where, you know, people
I spent my goodness, man
on that last folks before I figured out
my insulin resistance issue.
I mean, it was
it was a $10,000 six month program. Wow.
And we never addressed
the hormonal component.
Fasting wasn't really a part of it. Sure.
And then fasting, you know,
thanks to you standing
in your kitchen on Father's Day in 2019,
you told me to stop eating.
I was like, I don't know what that means.
Here's a book by Dr. Jason Fung.
Okay, great. Here we are
almost four years later.
Yeah, Yeah. Sometimes, you know, you just.
You just don't see why.
It's not working, you know? Yep. Yep.
Can't see it.
Got to zoom in. Kind of zoom out.
So that's.
Yeah,
that's part of the conversation for today.
So I absolutely love it. Now go ahead.
The deck is stacked against you
and you just didn't know it.
And it doesn't mean you can't get results
because some people can.
Well, we want to encourage you
that the fasting lifestyle
is going to simplify this process for you.
So if you're currently tracking
or currently fasting
and you're going,
I will never do that again,
I want to encourage you to do it for 7
to 10 days
and be real with what you objectively
track and see You value what you measure.
You measure what you value.
If you've got a mortgage payment coming up
and you didn't check
to see if your direct deposit came
in, you might be in trouble.
You check your brain, count
all the time, right?
Like you value what you measure,
you measure what you value.
And I just love the fact
that we are not broken.
You are not broken.
If you're listening,
maybe you've hit a plateau, maybe
life's come up and nipped in the bud.
Maybe you don't know how to create
a fasting schedule.
Maybe you don't really know
what you should be putting on your plate.
The only way to figure that stuff out
is go back and listen all the episodes.
First of all, it's all in there.
There's a lot in there.
Everything you could possibly need about
fasting is in is in it.
It's there.
We've talked about it
at some point, right?
But then you got to go and try it
and figure it out for yourself.
So if we can help you in any way
in your journey, please let us know.
Info at the fasting for life dot com.
Head to the show notes.
Click the link for the blueprint
to fasting for fat
loss 20 page PDF
and incredible information in there.
Fasting schedules, you know
macro breakdowns if that's what you want.
Even though after we just talked about
how that process doesn't work for so many.
But yes, we do have some.
We're going to meet you where you're at.
We're going to meet you in the middle,
give you the tools you need.
And ultimately, Tommy, we just want you
to have the utmost success
and get the results
that you truly deserve.
So as always, here, appreciate
the conversation and we'll talk to you.
Thank you. 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.
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.