Ep. 132 - Intermittent Energy Restriction Ameliorates Adipose Tissue-associated Inflammation in Adults with Obesity | Benefits of Fasting When Compared to a Low Calorie Type Diet or Caloric Restriction | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan for OMAD
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In this episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss some of the additional benefits of fasting when compared to a low-calorie type diet or caloric restriction, intermittent energy restriction ameliorates adipose tissue-associated inflammation in adults with obesity.
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Reference Links:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28446382/
Fasting For Life Ep. 132 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 on 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.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Everyone to hop on real quick before we get into today's episode and let everyone know that the next seven.
[Tommy Welling]
Day.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Fasting Lifestyle Challenge Registration Link is live, you can go to the show notes, click the link for more details, or you can go to the Fasting for life dot com forward slash live. Wanted to speak directly to you. If you've been listening to the podcast, maybe you're new and just getting started, or maybe you've been fasting for a while and really trying to adopt that lifestyle on the scale just won't move beyond that two to four, three to £5 each week.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Or maybe you feel like you've hit that dreaded weight loss plateau. Or maybe the hunger or am. As my wife likes to say, the hangry ness has snuck up and bite you on the backside and you just can't seem to get away from those cravings or the consistency of your fasting schedule. Or just isn't allowing you to get back on track if you've fallen by the wayside.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
This seven day lifestyle challenge is exactly for you. It's coming up in the near future. Please don't miss out on this opportunity. We are super excited to be leveling up this experience and leaving that diet baggage behind, giving you the confidence and the habits to build that long term weight loss and fasting lifestyle success. Go to the show notes, you can click the link or the fasting for life dot com forward slash live.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
We will hope to see you on the inside. And now to today's episode.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name's Dr. Scott Water, and I'm here as always with my good friend and colleague, Tommy. Well, good afternoon to you, sir.
[Tommy Welling]
Hey, Scott, how are you?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Doing? Fantastic, my friend. Excited to continue the conversation today. I want to do a shout out first and foremost, if you are a longtime listener, just grateful that you're continuing to adapt this fasting lifestyle and be on this fasting journey with us. If you are new to the fasting journey and new to us or you just stumbled upon this podcast or a friend or family member or somebody shared it with you, we want to welcome you in to the Fasting for Life family as well.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
If you want to hear more about Tommy and his story, where we started, how we ended up here, and why we continue to bring you an episode every single week, go ahead and go back and listen to Episode zero and episode one. It's about 30 minutes and it'll give you some insights into why we do what we do. So, Tommy.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
With that being said, today's conversation is I think, going to be eye opening in that there has been a bunch of research over the last handful of years in regards to time restricted feeding or, you know, fasting, intermittent fasting type studies, and whether or not intermittent fasting is a beneficial way to lose weight if it's sustainable. And all of those different questions in between.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And most of us start on our weight loss journey or come to fasting to lose weight. Right. That's usually the starting point.
[Tommy Welling]
Sure. Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
The study we're going to go over today and I think the big takeaway for us, even just going through it we're like, wow, OK, this is a study that finally put some of the pieces together or at least lends credence to some of the additional benefits of fasting when compared to, you know, a low calorie type diet or caloric restriction.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So yeah, the study came out in 20, 18 and then this study was just released a few days ago and it's the intermittent energy restriction, ameliorates, adipose tissue associated inflammation in adults with obesity. And it was a randomized controlled trial. So quite a mouthful in the fact that they're going to be looking at intermittent energy restricting or IVR versus continuous energy restriction restriction, which is your typical low calorie diet.
[Tommy Welling]
OK, yeah, sure. And then, and then what that does to actual inflammation in the body that's associated with the fat cells with our adipose tissue that we have in adults who are already obese. And so the, the, the cool thing here is I remember years back hearing about intermittent fasting going, well, if I'm already tracking everything, if I know my calories, I know my macronutrients, I know I'm in a calorie deficit it shouldn't matter what time that those those calories in those macronutrients come in, right?
[Tommy Welling]
Like like missing the piece to insulin how that works in the body for fat storage and for all these other hormonal regulated processes within the body. But just just ignoring that that one fact, not understanding that there is a very big difference between bringing in my calories all throughout the day and all of the numerous insulin spikes that come along with it versus restricting the time over which that happens, whether that's 4 hours or 8 hours, whatever it might be, it's very different versus just a nonstop up kind of grazing session where those calories could be coming in at any point, right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. So it was for me throughout the years, it was always all right. What's my deficit calculate my deficit, hit that deficit daily, exercise more and the scale should move. And a lot of people will say, well, you must not be in a deficit if it's not working. Insulin resistance is that, you know, that that piece of the iceberg that's beneath the water, it's still yeah, like you just said, the hormonal connections and the coolest thing in this study, one of the first takeaways was when you're comparing the energy, intermittent energy restriction.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So that was three fasting days a week. And then the other days they had food ad the them. So just eat right and then yeah, the continuous energy restriction, which is you're a low calorie diet, they were given their caloric restriction and then at the end of 12 weeks, both groups had a reduction in insulin resistance and insulin resistance is the gatekeeper to whether or not you burn energy or store energy as fat.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So the light switch, you got to flip it on to get it do fat burning mode and that's what we're going to talk about some of the metabolic benefits of what this study is is lending the outcomes to. So there was improvement in insulin resistance or an increase in insulin sensitivity in both groups, but the fasting group blew the, the calorie restriction group out of the water.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, this was crazy because the best way to measure this or one of the best ways is, is looking at what's called humor air and the difference between those two groups, the intermittent restriction group was a -3.7 versus only a -1.6 on that continuous energy restriction. So you had about a 2.3 times greater effect within the intermittent fasting group on that reduction in insulin resistance.
[Tommy Welling]
And that that's huge because that's what we need to start finding the balance points to start bringing everything back into balance and to actually open up those like lower the gatekeeper to the actual fat burning versus the fat storage process and make more efficient use of those calories and start tapping into those long term fat stores so we can get the scale moving in the right direction and get more balanced going.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
What are the cool things about the beginning was at baseline, there were no differences between the groups in glucose homeostasis, insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular repeat risk, lipid markers, cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL plasma atypical inflammatory markers, et cetera. So it was really a cool comparison where we had much of the needle movers matched right? Yeah. OK, what is the true benefit in terms of insulin resistance?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And to your point, at 2.3 return, I mean, I will put give me any any index fund that gives me 2.3 times return versus the standard one. And I want yeah, OK. Right. I want to go let's put my money into that retirement plan. Right. So I love that that that was like, OK, great. We know you and I know all of you, all listeners who have put fasting into your life and have seen changes in your blood panel or your diet or your pre-diabetes numbers or your energy levels or all this other stuff.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And we're going to transition into the metabolic side here. You guys know that this works like you've seen it, you feel it, you feel it because you can get a result with the low calorie method or the caloric restriction method of fasting to us. And the way we apply it in varying those fasting windows, just like this study did, right?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
With intake on one day in intake, not three days a week of having 75 to 100% reduction.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
You really are going to be able to stack the success in your favor because you're not just going to be getting more of an insulin resistance outcome like improving that, which is huge when it comes to the dining rollercoaster. The regain train that I lost, you know, I was really excited for, for 12 weeks and, and I lost £20.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
But then life got back in the way and now I'm back. Yeah. £22 and right then you garner up all this motivation to get started again and then you do it and then you can't sustain it. While the fasting side of this really what they were implying here is that there are other much more important, say important but deeper levels of than just weight loss when it comes to the metabolic health of the individual.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. And that's what I really loved about this study is that there were a lot other benefits outside of the 2.3, which is already incredible. Yeah. Improvement in insulin.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah. When you take a look at at all these different inflammatory markers that they were looking at and you know, sometimes inflammation can kind of get glossed over because it doesn't always mean something like if more details aren't given, but but inflammatory cytokines, these different chemicals that are circulating within the body, I mean, these are markers for all of the like red flag processes, all of the, the negative processes and the vicious loops and vicious cycles that we can see ourselves into.
[Tommy Welling]
And this includes things like tumor necrosis factor and all of these like just nasty chemical processes that that happen when things are going wrong within the body. And so to see differences between these two groups, this is huge because when calories matched, when weight loss matched, and with those other those other markers that you mentioned when these are these are kept equal, but just restriction of the actual intake within within these these pockets of time like this.
[Tommy Welling]
And then seeing that all of these different markers had come down substantially, this is where we get those differences where, you know, people are reporting to us that they're just feeling just incredibly different, like energies up, pain's down, pain medications are coming down like like stuff that is blowing my mind I didn't even really think was was going to be possible.
[Tommy Welling]
I've been feeling like this for so long and now it's just different. Like these numbers start to put a fine point on on why we we see so many of those stories.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, and that's that when it comes to fat cells, one of the things that gets glossed over was that that is a metabolically active tissue that. Yeah, yeah. And for instance, we just took CRP, which is not in this study, but how that blocks your brain's ability to have insulin and leptin function properly in your hunger food satiety cycle.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So no one listening should probably be like, man, yeah, inflammation, that's a good thing. Now in terms of like a short term injury. Yeah, right. Then yes, you're going to promote inflammation, your body's going to send out cholesterol, it's going to heal that area. Of that tissue. Yes. Yeah, but chronic low level inflammation like nobody. I mean, no, like we know you.
[Tommy Welling]
Don't want it. Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. So yeah, when you look.
[Tommy Welling]
Away.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
The right, the fat component to this, you know, the studies show that you're in both groups again, that you're going to get a decrease in body fat. You're going to get a decrease in fat free mass. Right. And all of those key components of yes, you can get there two different ways when equating for all of the metrics than insulin resistance, you're going to get a better improvement of your insulin sensitivity and a reduction in your insulin resistance.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. The gatekeeper to fat. Fat. Yeah, and then, you know, the fat cells themselves. This is the interesting thing is because you can have someone that has more fat cells, but they're smaller in size yeah. Someone who has less fat cells, but they're larger in size. And the person that has the larger hypertrophic fat cell is going to be producing more of that inflammatory cascade or these inflammatory cytokines.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So the bit more than the insulin takeaway here was the fact that these inflammatory markers are and there was I mean, how many I don't even remember telling me they were. Well, I believe.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, I think so.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
But you could just read them out and it's like i i nf y i 01 b I'll 16 f I'll 33. Right. And it just keeps going. Mm. The cool thing is, is that what they were talking about is the beneficial effects are probably mediated through changes in the metabolic health of the individual. So Yeah, that cell function, is it an of, is it a hypertrophic fat cell that's, that's metabolically active or is it a fat cell that's smaller and not so metabolically active.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So individuality of your journey here can be sped up regardless of what camp you're in by implementing the time restricted eating or that, that the food in smaller windows or not on every day right where you're not. Yeah. Freezing consistent. Yeah. You know hit your calorie deficit. OK, well I'm going to wake up and I'm gonna have a protein bar and then I'm going to go work out.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I'm going to have a shake and then my breakfast and grab a snack, then have lunch. Yeah, dinner and then a snack. Wow. Well, you stimulating insulin every single time, right? So yeah, other benefits here of the metabolic stuff, the metabolic benefits, we're including glucose two ketone metabolic switching, which is something that we hear a lot about inside of our coaching group, inside of the challenges where it's like, should I be measuring ketones?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
What's my blood sugar like? Where should it be? Well, you want to be getting into ketosis and fat burning as often as you can.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, you absolutely do. And it could be kind of a tricky thing where you don't know exactly where you are necessarily but you know, with, with repetitions and getting into that, that, that transition state right there and staying there while we can tap into some of those long term fat stores. Like that's the sweet spot like that. That's where you want to be.
[Tommy Welling]
But at first when we start fasting, especially with high levels of insulin resistance with a lot of weight to lose, it can take some time before, you know, you start to get comfortable doing that.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Like change overnight, right? You do a longer fasting, you suffer like you push yourself 2430 hours. Yeah, yeah. You're going to see your numbers come down, but not necessarily the next morning if you go and test. Yeah, they're going to be elevated due to your circadian rhythm and you waking up for the day. So yeah, yeah, that, that give and take that push for.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yes. You absolutely want to be getting into ketosis more often for sure.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, I thought that. But it's so cool because you know, that's, that's like a muscle in and of itself, that glucose to ketone metabolic switching, you know, because if you've been living in like the caloric restriction or the insulin resistance or the I've been gaining weight slowly for years and years and years, you, you haven't been flexing those metabolic muscles for ketosis very often and so you're not as efficient as at producing the enzymes required to make that metabolic switch.
[Tommy Welling]
So with, with time and with reps and with consistency, it, it gets, it gets more and more and more efficient so it can take some time to kind of pushed past that. But this is the cool thing that even if we're starting here and we understand, OK, I need a calorie or a calorie deficit, but it's been spanned out across the day.
[Tommy Welling]
Now, if I can start compartmentalizing that deliberately, then I start to get better and better and better results. And then I can, you know, kind of keep pushing from there to the next level if I need more balance, more weight loss and you know, and further healing within the body.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, a couple of the I mean, I just love it because they just keep going like increase and ketogenic. So more ketones, more breakdown of fat bingo. Yes. Bongo. Yes, please. Yes.
[Tommy Welling]
I want that.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Enhanced mitochondrial biogenesis. So literally the growth of mitochondria to become more energy efficient, which then allows your skeletal muscle to absorb more glucose more rapidly. Which is insulin sensitivity. Yeah, just getting the burning process going. And then, you know, one of the other benefits is the cellular resistance the metabolic stress. Yeah. Which is, you know, we want to make sure that our body is getting enough nutrients, getting enough ample opportunity during our feeding window on better foods.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Right. Because you can people can say, well, if you fast, you could just eat whatever you want. And to a certain degree, there's a little bit of truth in that, but it's like, let's see how long that's sustainable for you. Yeah, let's just that's my question to any time I hear that is like, is that sustainable? When is that?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah, when is that going to stop or slow down? So the the improvements in all of them, those metabolic pathways, as well as the fact that inflammation is a direct risk factor for cardiometabolic disease. Yeah. So the heart diseases, the strokes, you know, one of the biggest lifestyle induced things that we deal with here in the US is the health of our cardiac system and decreasing that inflammation you know, we hear from people, yeah, my blood pressure is down, I'm off my cholesterol meds, you know, I'm not in pain anymore.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
I've been able to come off my painkiller medication. I don't have to take aspirin every day. I don't have headaches anymore. Like my gut is doing better. Like the laundry list of things that's related to that inflammation and more importantly, decreasing that chance of cardiometabolic disease or metabolic disease in itself is why, you know, you and I have just you know, we've turned this into the lifestyle and that's why it's become sustainable.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
And, you know, fasting is easy. Excuse me, fasting is simple. It's very simple. Like just stop eating. But it sure easy sometimes, especially if you're trying to wade through all of the information that's out there. And that's why we have the community formed and it's a group of like minded fasting for life. Life, right? Like the lifestyle. Yeah, fasting.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
So we want to especially for all the new folks out there that are new to the podcast please come in and check it out. You can click the link in the show notes and just come into a group that is going to be supportive of your fasting journey.
[Tommy Welling]
Yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, sometimes the tough part is merging the realities between what I'm used to doing or what I'm doing right now versus the things I just heard, like in this episode or, or anything else that we talk about. Like how do I get from point A to point B? How do I implement these things? So start small you know, take a bite sized chunk and, you know, just set set your first timer.
[Tommy Welling]
It doesn't have to be for anything crazy start. Maybe start with a six hour fast and an eight hour nutrition window if you're used to. Not if you're not used to fasting at all and then come into the group, you know, post some questions in there, keep the conversation going and then, you know, we can kind of strategize for how to get to the next level, how to keep pushing it and keep seeing better and better results.
[Tommy Welling]
So it's a really cool, supportive group. I really like it.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Yeah. So for instance, I'm you know, when we first started fasting, I've been a part of pretty much every major fasting group and app and program out.
[Tommy Welling]
There as we were. Yeah.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Navigating learning and figuring it out right. Yeah. I started creating some of the programs and coaching and all that kind of stuff. And some of those fasting groups, it's like it's worse than the Google machine. You're like, Wait a minute, what breaks so fast? It doesn't break fast? Should I do this? Should I do that? Does this help you?
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Was it calories or is it hormones or is it both? Your head starts to spin. So the cool thing is, is that this group is smaller it's it's it's moderated by us and our moderators. It's all around the fasting for life lifestyle. We do not discriminate. We love all fasting types, all lifestyle types, pescatarian, vegan, vegetarian, high protein, low carb, doesn't matter.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Fasting can apply to all. Yeah. Cool thing is click the link in the show notes request to access to the group. Then we're going to send you a 20 minute video series or a mini masterclass on how to put intermittent fasting in one meal a day. Fasting into your life. So yeah, if it's been a while since you've engaged with us or if you are new to the podcast, it applies to both groups.
[Dr. Scott Watier]
Click the link. Come join us continue the conversation, get the Free Mini Masterclass Bonus Video Series. Yeah. Tommy, as always, appreciate the conversation, sir, and we'll talk soon.
[Tommy Welling]
Cool thank you. Bye.
[Tommy Welling]
So you've heard today's episode and you may be wondering where do I start? Head on over to the Fasting for Life dot com 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]
Why are you 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.