Ep. 107 - Listener Q&A | Isn't fasting just calorie restriction? | How much should I eat? | Help! I can't stop eating once I start! | How do I get my spouse on board? | I get cramps when I fast...what do I do? | Free OMAD Intermittent Fasting Plan

***JOIN THE FASTING RAMP-UP CHALLENGE THAT STARTS JANUARY 12, 2022!

WE SAW INCREDIBLE RESULTS FROM OUR NOVEMBER CHALLENGE, SO DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE TO JOIN US! LEARN MORE AND REGISTER BELOW. 

www.thefastingforlife.com/live

Dr. Scott and Tommy answer listener questions! Have a question you'd like us to answer? Click here to send it to us or leave us a voicemail we can play on the show!

Show Transcript: www.thefastingforlife.com/blog

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 makes a difference in helping bring you the best original content each week. We also really enjoy reading them!

Sign up for the Fasting For Life newsletter at www.thefastingforlife.com

Join the Community on Facebook!

Follow Fasting For Life:

www.facebook.com/thefastingforlife

www.instagram.com/thefastingforlife

Fasting For Life Ep. 107.mp3

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:00:01] Hello. I'm Dr. Scott Watier

Tommy Welling: [00:00:03] And I'm Tommy Welling, and you're listening to the Fasting for Life podcast.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:00:08] 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: [00:00:15] 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: [00:00:25] We started fasting for life because of how fasting has transformed our lives, and we hope to share the tools that we have learned

[00:00:30] Along the way.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:00:40] Hey, everyone, welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast. My name is Dr. Scott Watier and I'm here, as always, am a good friend and colleague, Tomi Welling. Good afternoon to you, sir.

Tommy Welling: [00:00:48] Hey, Scott, how are you doing?

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:00:50] Fantastic, my friend. Today we're going to do a listener Q&A. I'm not sure if it's the holidays or the most recent challenge or what is happening, but man, the contact us is the Info Act questions the messages on Facebook in the the Fasting for Life Community Group. There's just been a ton of questions, so we're going to pick out some of the ones that we feel or we have picked out some of the ones that we feel can be impactful and we've seen repeats on. So today is going to be a listener Q&A. And as you know, growing up, going through school, there was always, there is no no question is a bad question. So if you guys have questions, feel free to reach out to us info and be fasting for MLive.com. If you're new to the podcast, you can head to the website The Fasting for Life. We have a free fast start guide. It's a simple six step PDF to put one meal a day fasting into your day to day life. And it is the thing that we first originally created and is still going strong getting people results. So yeah. Tommy, what question you want to start with today, sir? I'm going to hang it over to you because I know we have our list and I typically will be the governor here. But where do you want to start?

Tommy Welling: [00:02:07] I think that I think we should start with breaking the fast. There can be there can be a lot of a lot of points of concern or points of of confusion that maybe we can lend a little clarity on about about breaking it fast.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:02:24] So frame out what? Because this came from a conversation between two people in our group, and I think it was good perspective, but frame out what the construct was and what the actual question was or the concern, I should say, with breaking a fast.

Tommy Welling: [00:02:40] Yeah, it's like going into the fast and then having some fear around around the actual breaking, like when, when will I, how will I do it? I have some concerns about my own eating behavior, my own eating patterns. And she said it can be hard to break the fast, sometimes often. I'm afraid if I start eating, I won't stop or I'll want to see a fasting time like like a new PR, a new personal record or a new best time or one that beats somebody else in the group or one of my friends. And and, you know, just just not knowing exactly what you're going to do. Kind of having that clarity of of what the purpose of the fast was. And and that confidence that during your actual eating window, you're going to do what's what's serving you and serving your goals and and having a plan going in and then executing on that plan.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:03:38] Yeah, so a couple of layers there, which is why I really like the question and the conversation, so breaking a fast for addressing the concern of of of always having to or wanting to climb Mount Everest every time meeting like you've hit the PR. All right, I did it. Now I want to. I did 24 hours. Now I want to do twenty six. I did twenty six. I wanted you to eight. I did 28. I want to do three. Yeah. You know, somebody in the group is doing a five day fast. Oh, well, I want to do a seven, right? So you're a little bit of competitiveness. And that reminds me of my loving wife Meghan, where she has that competitive edge where for me, I'm like, I don't care, you can win. It's fine. Like, I don't have that competitive like with certain things, but not not in everything right where he or she might be a little bit more competitive in everything. Maybe, maybe, maybe. It's just I don't know who said it wasn't me, but. With that, I feel that we may be setting the expectations of what we're expecting of our fasting lifestyle a little bit too high.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:04:47] So the idea with fasting is not to create this restrictive kind of competitive environment where it's like, Oh, I got to like, I got to break it next time. It's really being strategic with using different varying fasting windows or fast cycling to use time seventy two hours and less. Because we get the protective metabolism protection there, we get our protection of our resting metabolic rate. We're going to talk about that in a minute about from another question that came in from a listener. Mm hmm. But. It always goes back to me is there's conviction and clarity, so going back to what is my plan for the week? And is this plan moving me closer or farther away from my goal? So it sounds like to me, if you're always wanting to just push it the next time, really making sure that you have a plan that you can commit to ahead of time and removing that decision to have an open ended fast?

Tommy Welling: [00:05:47] Yeah, yeah. That open ended fast, that can be a slippery slope. But what you just said there about kind of like having that, that plan for for what you're going to be doing with that fast like if you think about it, you can't you can't just endlessly hit new, new, longer, fast. I mean, I guess technically like you could for a long time, but but would you really want to? Is it serving you and your psychology and your physiology and your goals the best? Or or could it be potentially setting yourself up for four losses like four four miss starts and for failure or failed timer hits that that add up over time? Or you say, OK, I really want to hit a new PR this time and my my longest fast before was was a thirty six hour fast. So I really want to do something beyond that. And then so if you if you keep pushing it and you're but you're not hitting the end goal that you set out for yourself, that's that's a mark against you, right? And those things we remember, those things they start to wire together. And then so if we're consistently not hitting the goal that we actually set out for, then we get into a bad pattern and that's going to lead to negative results, not not getting farther towards our goals.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:07:05] Yeah. The one other layered thing here, too, is where it was the concern about I'm not if I start eating, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to stop. So that's a different conversation, and it can feed into that feeling of always wanting to push. So what we really encourage most people to do is to stick to the plan, right? So use the varying windows based on your life and your schedule. So if you have a date night, you have a dinner, you have a, you know, say your son's away at college or your daughter's coming home or you have a holiday gathering, really just putting the boundaries around what it is that you value with the fasting lifestyle. So allowing it to give you the confidence to be able to know that you can do this repeatedly over time with sustainability and moving away from that, you know, the dieting framework, right where we're adapting this into this, because when you get to a maintenance point and you know you're you're not in fat loss phase, right, you're in a maintenance phase. Being able to know that you have confidence around your your, your meals or you're eating windows is a key component of that. And the only way maintenance is ever going to work out and stick is if you get the repetitions and the practice of building those habits and those routines.

Tommy Welling: [00:08:28] Yeah, good point. And when she says there, I'm afraid if I start eating, I won't stop. That reminds me of of my own former habits with like a revolving pantry door. Because if it feels like a slippery slope, whenever you go to break your fast, then there might be some things that you need to put some other control points on. Like for me, that meant not buying certain snacks at the grocery store, just like not keeping them in the house. Or if if I'm sitting down for a meal, like sitting down for a meal rather than an eating window, like so if you if you find yourself going down a slippery slope every time you break your fast, consider it a meal rather than an eating window, even like one meal a day, one meal a day. Ok. Emphasis on meal there, rather than even like we've heard it like a 30 minute eating window or a 60 minute eating window, or maybe even like a 90 or a two hour eating window, but treating it like a meal rather than a window because a window can bring about, you know, a lot of a lot of behaviors that that don't serve us. Those are like old construct old behaviors that went along with gaining weight, not with gaining control, right?

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:09:43] Right. And the intentionality behind that meal to make sure that you are putting things in that you enjoy and in making sure that you're eating to satiation, make sure you have good sources of protein, nutrient dense foods, et cetera, is really part of that equation as well. It's not a simple one one size fits all answer for a lot of people, but it's something that you need to get those repetitions and to build that long term so. Great conversation. Great question there. I want to move into a straightforward question, which is why do I sometimes get cramps in my feet and hands? And is this related to intermittent fasting? So my first question would be did you get cramps prior to fasting if you've been fasting? For years, there's just something new. And if it is something new, a couple of considerations, if you've extended your fasting windows, maybe the weather has changed and you're indoors with heat more and you're getting a little bit more dehydrated, maybe. Really, the answer to this one typically comes down to hydration and electrolytes. So if this is you and this person, this question came in from Joanne, one of our listeners, and it would be a lot of people, you know, when they see cramps, you can get on the web and you can go down. Dr. Google and magnesium comes up a lot as the answer.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:10:59] Mm-hmm. Magnesium sometimes can make cramping worse. So what I would really start first is hydration and my mom's story. She called me one day, Hey, honey, I'm getting this, you know, I don't understand, and I had a banana and I did this and I tried magnesium and it didn't work. It made it worse. And I was like, Right, it's hydration. So increase your water intake. If you're already doing a substantial seventy five to 90 ounces of water a day, right? Half your body weight in water. Add one teaspoon of Himalayan or Redmon sea salt or good healthy. A good source of a good sea salt, right? It doesn't matter which one. Add a teaspoon in the morning into 16 to 30 ounces of water and then a teaspoon. This is the key one late afternoon. Early evening. And do that for a couple of days and see if it improves, and then the second thing you can do to add in before bed would be like an absence a warm Epsom salt bath, which can help. Again, salt. And then if you're having more of like a sleeping issue with cramps, then I would try something like a magnesium based product like calm or a magnesium supplement, but start with hydration first, because that's typically the driving factor. Before we get into the supplementation stuff,

Tommy Welling: [00:12:11] Yeah, I think that's that's great perspective. I know for me personally, I used to have a lot more cramps, mostly like in my hands, like in my thumbs and in my feet, just just kind of sporadically before implementing a fasting lifestyle. It's like like I was able to find more of probably the electrolyte and hydration balance was easier as the weight came off and then as I got consistent with my fasting as well.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:12:36] Yeah, when I was one thing, interestingly enough, when I was, this also applies to headaches to the hydration thing. Yeah. When I was in full time clinical practice and the seasons would change and we would go from hot, humid Houston to cool palm trees are dying, sprinklers are freezing and power is being lost for days on end. The great ice and snowpocalypse we had last year, right? The heat turns on and heat is dry, and you're typically used to a certain amount of water in the air down here in Houston. So if you're inside and the heat turns on, people would come and be like, Oh, doc, my headaches kicked up and be like, Yeah, you're dehydrated. Like, No, I drink water. I'm like, OK, you're wearing sweaters. You're wearing jackets. The air is drier. You're inside, it's dry heat. I was literally just increase your water, add a little bit of salt and boom headaches go away. So similar similar mechanism there. But it just reminded me of that more sitting here talking about it. So go ahead. Tell me.

Tommy Welling: [00:13:32] Oh yeah, no, I was. I'm looking at the the next question here, and I think this is going to be a good one because there's a few different layers in here. And I know a lot of us come to fasting with some concerns. Like like is is is fasting actually different from like a low calorie diet or from something else that I've tried in the past? So we got a question here, and it's it's how is intermittent fasting different than a reduced calorie diet? And do we need to consume x number of calories to keep our metabolism going and like? And maybe my my spouse is is concerned about those calories too, because this is this is like new ground and my my spouse, you know, doesn't want me to do anything that's that's bad for me, right?

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:14:19] Yeah, the starvation mode, the maybe it doesn't seem like you're eating enough to survive, right? So there's three things here. One is the siko, the calorie in, calorie out versus the carb insulin model of obesity or the insulin model of obesity. And then you've got your the old construct right of like, should I be tracking my calories and macros here? Am I crashing my metabolism? And then the marriage merge, which is something that we talk about often where you you may not have the spouse, partner, friend or family member might be being like, Are you sure this is OK for you? Like, I'm a little worried that you might not be eating enough. So I want to start with the calorie in, calorie out question. And the two main models of of of weight gain or weight management or fat loss, or however you want to word it, the calorie in calorie out model. Comparing it to the carb insulin model of obesity is is not. They can't be separated. They are related. And when we're looking at the question of how is intermittent fasting different than just being on a caloric restriction, it all comes down to because fasting inherently is a caloric restriction. Right? But the difference is, if we could visually imagine a blank piece of white paper and you draw two lines like half a square, right? And on that bottom line across the bottom, you're going to put time and on that the line going vertically up the side of the paper, you're going to put insulin and just envision it.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:16:00] If you took a marker and you drew this wavy line. So every time you ate, the line would go up and then it would slowly start to come down. And then you'd have a snack and it would go up and then come down, start to come down and then you eat lunch and it would go up. So on and so forth. So you would have six to eight of those spikes, you know, a day and all of that time that is under that, that that line that you drew, right? All of that time across the bottom of that page color, imagine coloring it in right, like with a dark marker that is all time while your body is in a fed state and you're not tapping into the switch that controls fat burning, which is insulin, it's the hormone that control. Coles fat storage versus fat burning, if you envision that same scenario, except with a one meal a day or, let's say, a two hour eating window, or let's say you have a, you know, some appetizers, a meal and a glass of wine, you're at a dinner event for two hours, right? Yeah, you you have very tiny little spikes or blips throughout the day, right? Where insulin is low and it stays low, sometimes it'll actually go down and then you eat, it goes up and there's one spike then or one area underneath that curve that you would shade in that area under that curve is much less than the first example.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:17:22] So the time that your body is in a fed state is much less, and that is the main difference. We are not just using the calories and we could have the same amount of calories consumed across the entire day or just in that one to two hour window. I'm not saying to recommend to do that. We'll talk about that number in a second, which is the second question. But that's the difference is we are allowing our body to tap into those stored energy and calories, which taps into the third question, which is what about my husband's concern? Well, if you've got 20 pounds to lose, you have. Seventy thousand stored calories of energy on your body, so be like hubby, I'm good. Like, when I told my wife in the beginning, like, you're not going to eat today, no, I'm good. Look at me. I got 40 pounds of visceral fat around my midsection, right? I got plenty of stuff, right? Winter isn't coming. I'm good, so I want to land the plane on. The first one first taught me the difference of why fasting is different because it protects your resting metabolic rate. It increases your adrenaline, and it keeps that time under the curve where insulin is high low.

Tommy Welling: [00:18:28] Yeah, we we are really doing something different, like you said, even if you take in the same number of calories. But it's it's in that time restricted manner and you get the huge benefit of keeping the insulin levels low and getting less time underneath that curve. And and that's where the the reversal process Welling process takes place, right? Like, that's when I get to start undoing all of those times when I had those meals that had a few extra calories. Each time I did it and they were a little bit more processed carbohydrates, it was a little bit more. I saw the scale just ticking up slowly over time. Well, something was happening to do that like my body was overall. I was spending more time in fat storage mode. So if I want to undo that and basically act like I have a time machine that I can go back in time, then this is how we do it. We control the insulin now by making these choices,

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:19:24] And that is huge in terms of the reversal process. So especially that so if we're looking at the insulin model of obesity versus the calendar in calorie out model, that's like we're talking about the resistance portion, right? The 20 pounds that you just can't lose or the same 20 you've been losing. Now it used to be 20, now it's 30, now it's 40, et cetera. That was me. So, yeah, same here. So you are tapping into the reversal, which I just I love, is that you're getting your numbers to a point. We just had an example pop up in one of our groups where one was like, I did it. I've never been. I've never seen my numbers in the 70s before, and she was having pre-diabetic numbers and she got there by being consistent and sticking with allowing the hormones of insulin and the the hunger hormones, leptin and ghrelin. And all that stuff helped to balance out over time and remove that time under the curve where your body was in fat storage mode.

Tommy Welling: [00:20:15] So you know what the best. You know what? The best part of that was when she shared that with us was the fact that she wasn't at her lowest overall weight. Yes, but her blood sugar, insulin and yes, numbers were at a at a much better point than her last time. Yes, they were at a healthier point. Yeah. And the last time that she had been at a lower weight then than that, that that part blew my mind. That was.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:20:42] Yeah, it was incredible when she shared that I had just forgotten about that great point. That leads into the second question. The second part of this question do we need to consume an x amount of calories to keep our metabolism going? So fasting has that incredible. Ability to some of the researchers showed that it actually will boost your metabolism by 14 percent within the eight 72 to eighty four hour mark, right? So we don't recommend a lot of 72 hour fast back to back to back, right? We want this to be a lifestyle. So we're talking about 18 all the way up to 40, 48, sometimes 50s, depending on if you're trying to break through a plateau and then making sure that we're filling hour eating window with nutrient dense, healthy foods, giving our body the opportunity to balance over time, right? So, yeah, to keep it really simple, if you are worried about it, you can simply track the calories and shoot for about 40 to 60 percent mark of what your BMR is on a daily basis. And that will be more than enough to make sure that you are getting that protective mechanism by noradrenaline, going up and giving your resting metabolic rate the stimulation it needs to continue, and that varying of the windows allows your body also to balance so 40 to 60 percent. If you want to track to make yourself feel better about it and make sure that you're on track. And if you're ever feeling like tired or just the cravings have kicked up, increase your protein and your fat intake for a few days. Increase your window a little bit, and that should really help you kind of push through.

Tommy Welling: [00:22:14] Yeah, if you're feeling like that and you took a couple of days just to like, like you said, like open up your window and maybe just switch back to 16:8 or to 18 for a couple of days and then then jump back in like like no, no issue with with doing that at all. And I think that that the that 40 to 60 percent what you just described there, what I heard was was basically almost treating it like like you were at a two meal a day like long term, if you were doing two meals a day, like I just I just nixed breakfast. Like breakfast doesn't exist. Like if my kids asked me, What's what's breakfast? I tell them, breakfast is the opportunity for kids to eat, for growing kids to eat. Yeah. Like, I'm not growing. I don't need it. I don't need a third main eating opportunity for the day. So if you if you thought about it like you were going to break your your day up into two main meals, then then just eating that like you would at your maintenance point will help you kind of like develop the good habits that are going to sustain you long term, as well as kind of optimizing during your eating window.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:23:14] Yeah, it was really cool that we picked. I love that we picked this group of questions because there's so much overlap because we just talked about the fear of the, well, I never know when, if I'm going to break my fast or am I going to be able to stop once I open my eating window? Well, we've given you tips on that, too. But like, there's that part of beginning with the end in mind. What is the end look like when you lose the weight? What does that look like? People don't tend to think about that, or if they're so far from it, it's overwhelming. And then they don't start. So yes, I love that there's overlap in here for a lot of these, these questions that have come in and they're grouped together intentionally as well. The last part of this question, this three parter, the question about Am I making sure that I'm keeping my metabolism going and not entering air quote starvation mode? The last question was inspired. That question was inspired by the husband's concern or the spouse is concerned because it goes both ways.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:24:06] And this is a situation. It is a woman who asks the question, Am I eating? He doesn't think I'm eating enough well, and he's worried, and that's completely justifiable. So my my perspective on this would be, OK, have you been getting results if you've been getting results, focusing on your end goal and communicating that saying, I want to lose this 20 pounds because I want to be healthier for my grandkids. I want to be able to spend more time with you and feel better and sleep better. And if you're getting results, simply sharing that you have confidence that this is a long term sustainable plan for you should be enough to what we call kind of get that marriage merge to come in. And it's tough when that person is not doing what you're doing and they're not doing it. And maybe they are, but they're not doing it for the same reasons. Right. So just being encouraging that if you if you do it, we just talked about, then you are OK and just relaying that information. Yeah.

Tommy Welling: [00:25:03] For my own, for my own household. When I got started, my wife was concerned for sure. She was like, Well, that sounds extreme. It sounds like it might be dangerous. Are you sure? Like, No, she I don't even think she asked me if I was sure or whenever I first started, it was more like, Why would you do that? Yeah, right. It doesn't. That doesn't sound good. And and it was like, Well, OK, I've been trying all these other things for so long. Let's let's let's do this. I just want a little bit of support. Don't be too concerned. If I don't feel well, then I'll eat something. Ok, but I've been eating a lot of a lot of things for a long time, so let me do something a little bit different and see how this goes. And and so, so then just over the first few days of like, OK, well, let me just check in with you. Let me let me tell you how I'm feeling and how I was feeling last week. So I'm kind of. Contrasting now. In the beginning of this fasting thing, how I'm feeling versus versus whenever I was doing things the old way. And then it didn't take long to go like, Well, obviously you're making some choices that that your body seems to be responding to better. You feel better. And then that starts to give some some reassurance to your spouse. And it didn't take long before she said, OK, well, maybe I should do a little bit of this too and kind of start dipping your toes in the water and then you have a really cool process of like support, encouragement, feedback like built into your marriage or your home, your home life. It's a really cool thing to start to get that marriage merge.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:26:37] Yeah, it is. And I mean, man, you guys from when we first met, you look a little different. Yeah, right? Yeah, a key word is little. So yeah, and yeah, that's pot calling the kettle. I'm there. So, yeah. Last question as we wrap up, today's Q&A came in and I love this because this is a question we get often. And for you, more emotional folk out there that don't really like data or tracking or numbers, you're not. You may not like this portion, but there is some power in in potentially needing this tool at some point. So we had talked about this and then a follow up question would be, well, if I'm getting results, do I need to use this or like a mojo or a blood sugar ketone tracker? And the answer is no, you don't. You absolutely don't have to. So the question is one in the fasting process. Should I use the keto mojo? I'm not familiar with measuring ketones, blood sugar, et cetera. So, OK, if you have a desire to have more information and learn more than the keto mojo might be right for you, if you're getting results and you don't want to use it or think you don't really need it, and the answer is you're right, you don't. You can continue doing exactly what you're doing and not having to worry about it.

Tommy Welling: [00:27:51] Yeah, we've even seen some people who were on the right track and then got it just kind of out of curiosity and then started getting some question marks and like some uncertainty points because there's some unpredictability in what your blood sugar is doing, like minute to minute, what your ketones are doing, you know, each each 20 hour fast is not going to look the same on your keto mojo. It's going to depend on your level of insulin resistance. What you ate at your last meal, how hydrated are you? Have you exercise today? What time of day is it? You know, the list goes on for for the variables. So so understanding that if you are going to go down that path, which is it's a really cool one, but I don't feel like I was. I was ready for a while for like a level of like, you know, what's going on in, you know, within my body for four more data that I could kind of start reconciling and correlating over time with what I was doing. It did get you did get to a point where it was helpful, but I had to be very consistent with it in order to start correlating that for myself. So just being aware that there can be more uncertainty points and it can be helpful to avoid those and to kind of insulate yourself from them, especially if you're early on in the process.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:29:02] Two things they're right, like I love that is you have to stay consistent with it if you're just going to pick it up and just test willy nilly. It's going to create more confusion. So staying consistent testing every morning is going to give you a good baseline of what your body is doing overnight. You're fasting. Blood sugar should be in the morning. It'll give you an idea of where you're on on the blood sugar disease, scale of healthy prediabetes, diabetes, et cetera. Yeah. And then the time that really was powerful for me too. I mean, you had brought this up and I had forgotten about it was that between like 12 to two or one to three times, especially on the days that I was doing some longer fast, that really gave me some insight into what was happening and why I felt the way I did on certain days and better on others and and whatnot. So early afternoon or early afternoon? Yeah. So staying consistent with those two times for a few weeks, if you are testing or if you haven't really found any traction with it, is a good place to start.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:30:04] And then the second thing that I that I thought of when you were explaining that was if you are already doing blood sugar testing, then getting a mojo that has the ketones portion of it or the jerky portion of it could be a reasonable like, say, upgrade, but a reasonable level up because you're already used to doing the blood sugar testing. But now you're just going to get blood sugar plus ketones. Then there's an equation that spits out a really cool metric that gives you some insight into what your body is doing physiologically in terms of disease reversal and energy production. So again, if you're listening to this going womp, womp, womp, womp, womp. Right? Like the Muppets or the peanuts, right? Charlie Brown. Yeah, like, yeah, don't worry about it. You don't need to just keep doing what you're doing. But knowing that if you do get stuck or you do want some more data, you are more analytical for all the engineers out there. You can absolutely, you know, use this as a tool.

Tommy Welling: [00:31:02] Yeah, let me say one thing emphatically, which is that

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:31:06] Who's going to be good?

Tommy Welling: [00:31:08] You don't need sky high ketones in order to be in fat burning mode. Ok. So if you are going to start measuring this stuff, you don't need to just yearn for the next level of of ketones to feel like you're in a solid state of ketosis and to feel like what you're doing is working. So Keto Mojo has a lot of cool info, graphs and explainer videos and tutorials and things like that. And so, you know, just just starting to tap into the process of just the very beginning entry level nutritional ketosis, especially if you have a high level of insulin resistance or you have a lot of weight to lose, you're on the right track and that's how it's going to start. And usually those ketone numbers will start to slowly rise over time as the weight comes off and the insulin resistance comes down

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:32:01] As you're more easily entering ketosis. It will. Yeah, those numbers will get we'll get higher for sure. Yeah. I don't think I ever saw anything over two four. I mean, it might have been a year. I don't remember. It's been a while since I've used it consistently, but one last kind of. Nugget, fasting, nugget, fasting for life, a little bonus drop here I wanted to share was going back to the original. As we wrap up today's episode, Tommy, about the closing your eating window or being concerned about it, I really want to give the the optimizer, as we say, the five four three two one rule. And as a tool to be able to do something actionable if that spoke to you or if that's something you struggle with. So the five four three two one rule is from Mel Robbins, and if you don't know who she is, she's got some incredible videos out there. One of the most, yeah, just powerhouse entrepreneurs for life. I mean, she's just incredible. So she does a five four three two one rule where it's you're breaking that pattern interrupt. So if you are about to do something where you're like, Oh, here we go, this is my old pattern, right? Simply going, here I am again. Five four three two one. Give yourself a virtual hug and say it's OK.

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:33:14] You've identified the issue. You've pattern interrupt. Set the timer for 10 minutes. Walk away from whatever it was. If it's related to food, get out of the kitchen, get out of the pantry, set the timer for 10 minutes and then ask yourself, Do I still want to do X behavior? Yeah. And the majority of the time? You're going to go, no, I don't. And it's going to remove that pattern or that that pattern interrupt or that that that that cue that causes the habit to kind of pop up, right? We always try to change the action at the end. But we need to do is start with the pattern interrupt or the cue in the beginning. So take a minute. Five four three two one Set a timer for 10 minutes. Walk away from that environment, right? Give yourself a minute to think and then ask yourself the question Is this moving me closer or farther away from my goal? And if you decide that you're OK with it and it's moving you farther away from your goal, that's OK in the beginning. Just be easier on yourself and don't be so hard on yourself because changing lifestyle habits and adapting a fasting for fasting lifestyle is simple, but sometimes it's not easy. And it's OK.

Tommy Welling: [00:34:28] Yeah, sometimes you're just one little thing away, like your one fast away, your one little trick away from breaking these patterns that aren't serving you so that you can take it to the next level. It's it's crazy how those little things add up over time. So, you know, I'm going to encourage everyone to to take a step back, reflect back, you know, what are you doing well lately and take stock of that? Give yourself a pat on the back and do more of those things and just find one or two things where you go. Yeah, you know what? That hasn't been serving me so well. I would like to tweak that or change it in some way. Just one or two focus on lots of good things that you're doing and just take one or two of the things that you could tweak and go, Yeah, how can I do this a little bit better? Put a plan in for next time and then just think about doing that a few times, and it's going to come to you a lot more easily in the moment. Next time it comes up,

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:35:22] You're actually going to take the thinking out of it, which is extremely important when it comes to emotional connections to food and our habits. So with that, tell me I want to encourage everybody. If you're new to the Fasting for Life podcast, thank you for joining us. You can, however, the website find out more about who we are and what we do. You can download the Fast Start Guide. It's a free fast start PDF where you can put one meal a day fasting into your day to day life. We've got the insulin assessment up there, and we've got the challenge coming up on January 12. We're planning out the end of this year. Tommy, as we wrap up, got some big things coming in 2022 and just so thankful for each and every one of you that's been listening. So as we typically say, Tommy, thank you so much for the conversation and we'll talk soon.

Tommy Welling: [00:36:06] 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 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. Why are you there? Download your free

Dr. Scott Watier: [00:36:23] 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.