Ep. 196 - What is the ideal fasting schedule for you? | How many meals should you eat & what times are best? | Effects of different meal frequencies on health outcomes | Breakfast: eat or skip? | Benefits of a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) for fasting

Uncategorized Sep 26, 2023

 

 

Get your FREE BOX OF LMNT hydration support for the perfect electrolyte balance for your fasting lifestyle with your first purchase here!

 

FREE RESOURCE - DOWNLOAD THE NEW  BLUEPRINT TO FASTING FOR FAT LOSS!

  1. Learn how to RAMP UP into longer fasting windows!
  2. Gain insights into the non-weight loss benefits of fasting!
  3. Personalize your own fasting schedule and consistent FAT LOSS results!
  4. 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 explore the question of the ideal fasting schedule and meal frequency. They advocate for personalization, highlighting that there's no one-size-fits-all answer. Beginners can start by skipping breakfast or reducing meal frequency to create a caloric deficit. For those at a plateau or seeking optimization, they suggest shifting meals earlier in the day for improved blood sugar control and overall health. The key takeaway is the importance of understanding your body and goals when determining your fasting and meal schedule.

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!

SLEEP GUIDE DIRECT DOWNLOAD

 

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

 

Fasting For Life Ep. 196 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.

Everyone,
welcome to the Fasting for Life podcast.

My name is Dr.

Scott Water and I'm here as always,
a good friend and colleague, Tom Welling.

Good afternoon to you, sir.

Hey, Scott,
how are you? Fantastic, my friend.

We are going to jump right into today's
episode.

We're going to be talking
about a nutrition's blog article

that caught our attention as we have
this conversation and get this question

so often inside of our Fasting for Life
Community

group, inside of our coaching group,
inside of our challenges.

And it all stems around

what's the ideal fasting schedule
and how many times a day

should I eat and how many meals
should I really be eating? Hmm.

It's a really cool article, right?

Showed up in our inbox like you. What?

This is fantastic.
We partner with nutrition.

Let's go through this
and unpack it in the fasting for life way.

Yeah, but before we do that,
I want to give a shout out

to our most recent five star review
and then also welcoming

all of the new listeners.

If you want to hear more about Tommy and I
and how fasting has transformed

our lives, head back to episode
one where you'll hear our journey

and how it transformed
and helped us so much.

And now we've started this podcast
where we come every single week

talking about all things fasting, breaking
the first two rules of fasting

your fasting lifestyle.

And Tommy, let's do the shout out and
then we'll head into today's conversation.

Yeah, So cake and tea says,
Oh, that's so great.

How many meals you should eat, right?

Yeah, I know. It's perfect.

She says just wow, some history.

I'm 59.

Started at 190 to gain that weight after
retiring from the military 11 years ago.

Thank you for your service.

And like you,
I've tried everything with no success

and I've spent lots and lots of money
doing it and actually says

I had no blood markers
from insulin resistance.

However, after wearing a CGM
for a couple of months,

I definitely have insulin resistance
and yeah, I had some eye opening results

from that as well.

We'll talk
a little bit more about that later,

but thanks again for all of the great
information and advice.

You guys are the best note, you are the
best throwing it right back at you.

Appreciate the kind words.

Thank you for the five star review
and congrats on the success

and starting to uncover some of the pieces
to your own puzzle right there.

Kate. Empty cake and tea.

I love it so, so much.

You just mentioned nutrients or a CGM

and that's actually the company
that we've partnered with because we focus

so much on individualized,
customized, personalized results.

The nutrition is a combination of cutting
edge technology and human expertise.

It's incredible.

It shows your body

how it responds to different food,
exercise, stress and sleep in real time.

And then you get to compare
what you're doing on a day to day basis

with their app.

You get all the visuals and then you get
their expert dietician guidance as well.

So the CGM is a biosensor,
you place it on the back of your arm.

It's completely painless, takes
just a couple of seconds.

There's so many funny videos out there.

Are people applying it
like closing the door.

Oh, and it's done. You don't even feel it.

And I've been using it
for a few months now

and it's been so incredible for me to hone
in and really target the visceral fat

and the last few pounds
that I'm trying to lose.

And it allows you to get that real time
data like I mentioned.

So each device lasts for 14 days.

You've got the app,
you just hold your phone, it scans it in.

And really the whole idea here
is just like the shout out

that we just gave from that
five star review.

She's like combining what we do right
and the things we teach you on the podcast

and then seeing the real time
data for yourself,

not having to worry about the conversation
with your doc or looking at specific

labs or metrics, you're able to see

consistent weight loss, stable energy
throughout the day, better sleep.

What foods are good for you?

What foods aren't?

Just like we're

going to talk about in today's episode
how many meals you should eat?

What is your Post-Meal
blood sugar look like

when you eat the same meal at lunch versus
the same meal as dinner?

Guess what?

I'm foreshadowing as a conversation point
that we're going to have

in just a few minutes here,

But since we partnered with them,
you can head to the show notes.

Nutritionist
that I o forward slash fasting for life.

You got a $30 coupon, $30 code and
then one free month of dietician support.

So, Tommy, let's talk real life
application, just like cake and tea.

How many meals
should we be eating in a day?

It's a great question.

I think back in the day

I was always like a breakfast,
lunch and dinner and usually with

probably two snack times in there,
but depends on how the evening went

because that one could be like
the slippery slope, you know,

And I don't even know if I want to really,
like, quantify

the potential for evening snacking
because I grew up in kind of split

between two households,
depending on the time of the year.

And but both sides of my family
had very interesting

or poor insulin rich eating habits,
especially in the evening time.

And so that kind of led to
to some of those habits early on.

And so when I came into fasting,
it was more along the lines of

I was tracking pretty much everything most
of the time, but even with very specific

caloric and macronutrient recommendations
from personal trainers and dieticians

and and things like that, it was always
a minimum of four times a day.

And at one point it was six times a day
where I was measuring everything out.

Great macronutrients, a lot of healthy
whole foods, nothing processed,

kind of doing everything right,
but still seeing like I was feeling worse.

The scale was still ticking up

despite working out like a mad man
and doing everything right

and not having those evening time snacks
and anything else like that.

So I could not have answered this question
at all.

At this point, I would say something
very different from that,

because that didn't work for so long,
that's for sure.

And back in the day when we started it,
we're like, All right, what worked for us?

Well, that was a super powerful weight
loss tool for me. Yes.

And then we did the
the episode where you put me on the couch

and we walked out my first
you know, my first 48 and a half pounds

and 50 days, I'd like to say 50 and 50
and then that is not a normal expectation.

I was being a guinea pig.
I was pushing the envelope.

I was doing 24, 48, 72 hour fast.

I did one five day faster
in that time period as well.

And then I got down to this crazy number
and I was looking at myself in the mirror

and I'm like, Oh, this is weird.

I don't know what to do.
So I went back to, Oh man.

But then the old habit started ticking up

and I was like,
Oh, I can just do one meal a day forever.

And we created this fast Our guide,
which is how to put one meal a day,

fasting into your day to day life,
which we've since leveled up

into the blueprint
for fasting for fat loss.

These are free resources.
You can grab them.

The show notes are on our website,

but we realized was and just what
this research and a couple of the links

that were that were cited here
in this article is that one study show

that conducted over two months
among adults of normal weight

found that those who ate just one meal
a day between five and 9 p.m.

exhibited higher morning fasting
plasma glucose levels.

And they also had more significant
sustained glucose elevations

and a delayed insulin response on an oral
glucose

tolerance test compared
to those who ate three meals a day.

So we talk about this, it's like is
one meal a day dinner the best strategy

for a lot of people, it can work,
but is it a long term strategy?

Is it a fat loss strategy?
Is it a maintenance strategy?

Is it a momentary maintenance strategy?

And really, that's where the nuance
of the conversation comes into play.

So for me, it was working for a time,
but now we say, as we've kind of

changed our perspective
a little bit, two of the biggest mistakes

we see with fasting
is keeping the same fasting

schedule day in and day out
and or not making better food choices.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

So this speaks to that
first problem, right?

And what this study shows is, okay, well,
how many meals should I be eating?

And really, I think there's three groups
that this speaks to either a beginner.

You've been doing it for a while

following a strategic schedule
and it you've stuck, right?

Or you're more at the maintenance end

where you're like, okay, what's
I've lost the weight now what do I do now?

What?

So, you know, you remember when
when I was mentioning early habits, right?

And what can happen in the evening time?

That's part of the potential slippery
slope for what can happen

with an amateur dinner.

Because for a lot of us, dinner
is the most, you know, kind of relaxed.

Looking forward to time of day.

If I need to push off
food for most of the day, I can do it.

I can kind of extend my fast,
make it to dinner.

Doing an overnight,
getting to the next day can be very much

more difficult for a lot of folks versus
just waiting until dinner and dinner.

You know,

oftentimes, hey, maybe it's a gathering
at the family table and things like that.

Maybe it's an important meal
or time with a spouse

or a loved one or something else
like that.

So what we found was 80 to 90% of
people will wait

and they'll choose a homemade dinner
if they only had to choose one meal.

And so the tricky part is
when does dinner become a window

and how do I close that window,

and does
it lead to more highly carbohydrate rich

insulin producing foods
coming in during that time?

Because the trouble is,
we know physiologically speaking

that we have the worst insulin resistance
at the end of the day.

So going into dinner, we are
we are primed to store more of that food

as our our body slows down,

we get ready to transition
into a sleep state, sleep and recovery.

We don't just burn calories
at the same rate.

So we're actually potentially
lifting the gates

for fat storage
and closing off the fat burning gates.

As we get towards the end of the day,
it starts to become much more apparent

why that can lead to plateaus
and frustration and things like that.

Right. You know,
we want simplicity here, too, right?

So when we're looking at this food timing,
time, restricted eating time,

should feeding all the different studies
that we've talked

about over

the hundreds of episodes at this point,

whether you're
working on your metabolic health or weight

loss or weight gain or better sleep
or for me, it was, you know,

not feeling tired and crappy all the time
and my labs ticking up

and my mood being off and,
you know, just not feeling great.

And you don't realize that
until you really start

to compartmentalize your food intake, i.e.

picking, you're focusing
on the number of meals that you eat

or how often you eat, especially
if you're trying to reverse blood sugar,

elevated blood sugar, pre-diabetes,
diabetes, metabolic syndrome, etc.

Then it's even more important

that it's not a one size fits
all, you know, meal frequency solution.

Right?

But we do know, like you just mentioned,
that eating earlier in the day

has research based and also anecdotally
inside of our groups in our conversations

and our challenges is that
people have found that if they just make

that one switch, they can see
a tangible difference pretty quickly.

So I grew up 4 to 6 smaller meals in a day
that was supposed to have

a favorable impact and there's really
limited research that shows that.

I just know that
when I was packing up all my meals

and taking them with me and making sure
I always had my snacks, you know,

eating more frequently
kept me in a Fed state,

which meant my blood sugar area under
the curve was higher.

And I always felt
like kind of sluggish, right?

I always felt kind of achy,
like I was always eating, right.

Yeah. And then it also angry. Yeah.

And then it also blocks
your hunger and satiety cues as well.

Because if you're always eating
or you always have a meal coming in, like,

are you truly hungry?
What's your hunger hormones?

What are they trying to tell you? Right.

So, you know, there's a study showing
and healthy males found lower meal

frequency, increased satiety,
and it also reduced

feelings of hunger compared to groups
that ate more frequently.

So, you know, eating more than six meals

daily versus three meals a day
increases the risk.

The more meals you eat increases
the risk for chronic disease,

although correlation,
of course, doesn't equal causation.

So when we're answering this question

of how many meals
is it going to work for you,

I think talking about those three
different groups,

you know, if you're a beginner
skipping breakfast, if you're at a plateau

or if you're the chronic, I'm going to do
one meal a day, you know, kind of a mad

type person or no matter where you last
or Matt Warrior Dinner or Matt Warrior,

which is the most common thing
we hear or you know,

you're more you're closer
to that maintenance side of things.

Yeah.

You know, I think coming from the beginner
perspective, understanding that

if you skipped the meal
and you kept everything else

the same,

it's a probably a pretty good opportunity
to get a little bit of a caloric deficit

and give yourself a chance to have
a little bit lower blood sugar, let

insulin come down a little bit lower,
whether it's breakfast or lunch or dinner.

So I think that's kind of a good place
to start, you know,

as far as a beginner is
concerned, is kind of like

overcoming that initial hurdle
or fear or concern, which is like,

I don't know how I could go
more than three or four or 5 hours

without a meal because I feel terrible
once I get to that spot.

Well, like,
essentially we're feeling the swings

in our blood sugar, in our insulin
or feeling the volatility at that point.

So doing a little bit just has kind of
like dipping your your toes in the water,

I think might go a long way.

If you're more like
in the intermediate side of things,

then I think trying out a few lunches
and ending the day with some lunches

rather than just dinner
because dinner so habitual and just,

you know, kind of flexing that muscle
to cut off the eating and close

that window down earlier in the day
and feeling the physiological difference

of like waking up,
feeling a little bit differently,

like maybe you wake up tomorrow
a little bit more hungry.

Well, guess what? Like, that's okay.

You're not going to out eat the old you.

You're not going to eat all dinner
calories.

Having constantly muted hunger
cues is also not a good thing.

Yeah, which is kind of counterintuitive.

Yeah, it is.

It is. Right.

So I notice when I eat earlier in the day,
it also affects my sleep,

which also affects my glucose sensitivity
the next day and my blood sugar as well.

So, you know,
when we're eating less frequent,

maybe a larger
meal and then a smaller meal,

just taking into account hormones
like insulin,

when you eat larger meals or higher
in refined carbohydrates

or added sugars,
they stimulate that more insulin.

So when you're grazing throughout the day,
your body's always in that Fed state.

So you're always going to have a low level
of kind of insulin and blood sugar

and you never giving your body
the opportunity to drop into a fat burning

or those energy stores that you've got
stored around the midsection for winter.

Right. So there was a cool study
out on the Czech Republic, by the way.

I'm still raising my hand now.

I've still got some visceral fat
that I'm working on there, Right.

So my hands and feet
are both still raised.

So the research out of the Czech
Republic shows that adults with type two

who eat two large meals per day

have a better insulin sensitivity
and increased weight

loss than those who graze
and eat more frequently.

So I think it's even more important,
right, for folks

that are carrying the extra weight
to decrease the frequency like now.

Yeah.

And if you have been doing it consistently
and it's working, keep doing it.

But once it stops working, it's time
to vary that window and vary the window.

It's a great point because

because then it can be like, okay, well,
what do I what do I do about it?

One thing I like to do with varying
the window is also

take a look
at the last few plates that I've had.

Like, have those felt like
they've been pretty good?

Very intentional or have I let
some of the slippage kind of come back in?

You know, like, have I have
I gotten a little lax with my plates?

Because the is definitely going
to affect how I feel

and how easy it is
to set my next fasting timer

and actually stick to it,

which is really important to give myself
time to tap into those

those winter stores.

So if I'm going to make a decision
about like wearing a window,

I like to do it like in two hour
increments, you know, two, 3 hours maybe.

So I'm not changing everything,
making these big swings all at once

because the trouble with big swings
is that I want to avoid some of those

those long term like diet
mentality on off things that just kind of

come habitually where it's like,
oh, I tried this new big change thing

and I didn't see an immediate result
or the perfect outcome for it.

So I guess I'm just going to turn that off

and then go back to
whatever I was doing before.

Whereas if I,

if I make it as a little smaller shift,
then it doesn't have to feel so on off

and I can make better
kind of like course corrections and tweaks

using those that feedback
rather than just like completely undo it

and unwind and revert back
to whatever wasn't working.

The last time that I was kind of
like on track, you know what I mean?

Yeah, that kind of reminds me of the
I just had a conversation recently

with someone not in our fasting
for like Sphere just yet,

but just told me, yeah, I'm
starting to do 2023 ones.

And I'm like, okay, great.

Is like, Yeah, totally overdid it
the first night.

Okay. Yup.
Been there, done that in there. Yeah.

And then the second night.

Yeah.

I just think I'm just breaking my fast and
I just want to eat everything in sight,

right? Sure.

So this also goes into
and there's research that backs this up

to by skipping breakfast
and only eating later in the day that you

will have the propensity to overindulge
or continue to graze or overeat

because your body hasn't
had the normal signals throughout the day.

So that's where fasting comes into play
and can be really powerful, that it can

help balance out those food cravings
and it'll make the changes a lot easier.

And that's what simplified it for me.

This one,
I had to remove so many variables.

I was like, Oh, okay,
well I don't typically eat

breakfast, but I guess I can have a steak
and eggs for breakfast.

Let me see how this feels for a few days.

Oh wow.

I don't want to snack at night anymore.

Yeah, interesting.

Right? High up my side intake.

I'm prioritizing protein,
you know, in this.

So every Wednesday night
and we're recording this on a Wednesday.

Every Wednesday night is breakfast
night in my house.

Well, I typically will fast.

I'll do a lunch on Wednesday
and then I'll fast through Wednesday night

because I'm not a big breakfast
food person,

you know,
And we're doing the whole episode on

just eating breakfast and what it does
diabetes and blood sugar, etc.

We've done a couple of them in the past.

Some new research has come out,

but for me it's like I would rather
just skip the potential to have,

even though they're gluten free,
you know, homemade collagen.

Added pancakes, right?

With sugar free sirup like.

So they're still good.

I still don't feel great
when I eat those types of things.

So that's what the family has.

So I'll typically make a steak
or I'll just have some eggs and maybe some

some sausages or some some dark meat,
turkey, bacon or something.

I typically just simplify it for me
and I don't eat that meal.

I'll eat earlier on a Wednesday,
and it's been a lot better for that

for me, for a maintenance perspective
on maintaining the weight loss

because I'm able to move those levers
and I just know how I feel

where my like you, my trouble
spot was in the evening after dinner.

Yeah.

Where it was the time for the popcorn
or the chips or the snacking.

So yeah, that's the model
I grew up in media and then, you know,

the tricky thing is

if you are just shifting breakfast
or you're just going from breakfast lunch,

and then you do feel that propensity
to just like graze throughout the day

or bring in more stuff
because it it's not like a set window

that you're sticking to or something else
like that.

You're just kind of pushing off
your initial nutrition,

you know, first thing in the day,
which which is a very,

you know, kind of easy
or maybe even like good way

to get into fasting, you know, like,
like a good first step for a lot of folks.

Like you mentioned the beginning
just giving breakfast.

But the trouble is, if that is
uncontrolled grazing later on in the day,

it can it would be much better
to bring in those calories

and have that insulin effect, which
is going to be smaller earlier in the day.

And then I also have more time
to actually do physical activity

and things like that rather than it being
pushed towards the end of the day.

So that was one of the traps
that I personally fell into as well,

which was tracking calories,
tracking macros

and thinking that a calorie is a calorie
is a calorie, just a simple thermodynamics

kind of thing.

But I would push it
towards the end of the day,

and we have a different
physiological response.

We have a different response on the scale

and in our bloodwork
and how we feel in our circadian rhythm

and all of those things
that we've that we've mentioned,

which is which is huge
and adds up over time.

Yeah. To more highlights.

Here is another study
that was in in adults with type

two diabetes found benefits

from eating the largest meal earlier
and a smaller meal for dinner.

Right.

And then there was another research
article that showed high energy breakfast

as well had a really big improvement
in later in the day blood sugar numbers.

And there was one
out of the Journal of Nutrients in 2019.

So the influence of meal frequency

and timing on health in humans
and the role of fasting.

So they came out
and said that a regular meal pattern,

including breakfast consumption.

So this is for everybody out there
doing dinner

ads, right, either close to maintenance,
thinking about maintenance or been stuck

at a plateau or really kind of losing
and gaining the same 3 to 5, 5 to £10.

Or maybe you are reversing some blood
sugar issues

that consuming a higher proportion
of energy earlier in the day

and a reduced meal frequency
and regular fasting periods,

you don't say
may provide physiological benefits

such as reduced inflammation
and improved circadian rhythm

and increased autophagy and stress
resistance in health with the gut.

So, by the way, I wanted to highlight that
because that was me

and I was still able to get results,

incredible results with fasting
and the majority of my fasting up

until more recently, probably in the last

Right, my son, six months now. Yeah,
probably about a year now.

I was doing my meals
either later in the afternoon or evenings.

And just now, recently have
I started to see the visceral fat response

and my sleep improved
because I've got a WOOP

and I track all this stuff by adding
these meals earlier in the day.

So I really love that this quote was here
because I'm like, Man, that was me.

Like, I thought it was my gut.
I thought it was my adrenals.

I thought it was all of this stuff in it.

Yeah, it was stress, but it also was
my insulin resistance number.

Well, yeah,

you know that
that stress response is different

during the different times of day as well,
you know,

And then especially if you find yourself
having a lot of caffeine or,

you know, like you're,

you're, you're heavy on the coffee side
and then you're manipulated

into the meal timing or breakfast
or no breakfast early in the day.

That can be

a whole bunch of different variables
that are kind of coming at you and having

a different physiological response.

So it took time for you
to kind of put those pieces together

and then try out some new things
and then see how you responded.

You know, track some things. Woo.

CGM Looking at,
you know, ketones and blood sugar levels

throughout the day, it's it's a process
like it sounds so it's so simple,

but it's not always easy, right?

Like there's, there's these different
layers, especially over time. Yeah.

And that's why we've moved away from the,
you know, Nomad's a great starting point.

It works so well if you're busy and kids
and work and families and Sure.

And traveling
and all of this stuff, right.

You know that's some good habits too.

Yeah, 100%.

It'll get the momentum going quickly.

But then that's why we created
the blueprint of fasting for fat loss,

which you can get in the show notes
as well. It's a free PDF.

It'll give you some other
fasting schedules that we find give you

the biggest bang for your buck in terms
of simplifying, as well as kind of

getting some of those repetitions
as we start to navigate this.

How many meals strategy?

What's the ideal fasting schedule?

What's my calorie intake,
What are my macros right?

So when we're looking at these types
of things,

that's why we've created those resources,
because it's giving you a starting point.

And then really what we found
is the personalization

or the customization,
the walking out of this stuff,

which is why I love this conversation
of how many meals, right.

Well, what have you tried?
What have you been doing?

Where do you want to go? What do you want
your end goal to look like?

Do you want to do six eight every day?

Do you want to do a 24 hour fast
once a week?

I love doing a 24 hour fast on Sundays
because it makes my Monday,

which is my busiest packed day
from AM 2 p.m.

kids work everything right
coming off the weekend.

I like to have that extra body and after
that extra energy going in into Monday.

So my Monday
then I'm ready to eat by midday.

So I typically will do a monday lunch,
but I never would have known that right

three years ago when I started this,
especially coming from the weightlifting

powerlifting exercise world
where it was like eat less the more

how many six chicken breasts
a day overnight oats, hard boiled eggs,

like I'm going to have rice cakes
with peanut butter

for extra protein and fat before bed,
like all of that stuff.

So it's just been a really crazy journey
and shift of mindset.

Yeah, I think that's a great point
too, is to understand like where

the whole like how many meals and more is
better kind of comes from.

I have a theory that it's two pronged.

One being
from all of the diabetic recommendations

to keep a kind of even keeled blood
sugar response throughout the day

rather than having these dips.

And you know

that makes it easier to manage things
like like insulin and other blood

sugar affecting medications.

But then you also have the fact
that if you are in an anabolic state

or you're looking to grow muscle
or you're looking to put on, you know,

lean mass, then you do need to tip
the scales, the anabolic scales over,

you know,

human growth hormone

and testosterone levels and there's
a host of things that make sense.

But if you're somewhere
outside of those two camps and, you know,

you just have a little
or a lot of weight to lose, it's

not really that more meal
frequency is better now,

maybe more than one meal a day
or maybe more than zero meals a day.

Like my next longest fast
is definitely not the Holy Grail.

It's not the answer.

You know, another 48,
another 72 is definitely not the answer.

Like you alluded to on your,
you know, 48 and a half and 50, 50 and 50.

And so I think that knowing where
all of those kind of conversation points

kind of come from

allows us to give ourselves permission
to do something a little bit differently

so we can get different
and better results.

Yeah, if you're working at maintenance,

I mean that obviously is something
you need to figure out.

We don't want you to go back to the stuff

that got you in trouble
in the first place, Right?

Three meals a day plus snacks. So yeah.

What are your higher consumption days
going to look like?

Where are your bigger meals going to live?

How are you going to make sure
that you're getting, you know, quality

nutrition and and that your body comp
and your scale staying in a healthy range.

And that's why I love the starting
point of today's conversation as well.

How many meals a day?

Well, we're going to go

if we had to if you had to nail us down,
we're going to say two meals a day, right?

If you're a beginner, great place to start
if you've been fasting

and it's kind of stuck.

Great re anchoring
to getting some quality nutrition

in and telling your body,
hey it's okay to continue to lose.

Yeah, right.

Like a little reverse fast.

And then if you've been doing the one meal
a day dinner or the one meal a day

approach and it's time to vary it up,
this will also be a great place to start.

So two meals a day earlier,

a middle of the day, one bigger meal
and one smaller meal.

Prioritizing protein,
I think would be where I would land.

Tommy
and you are also controlling that dinner.

No man's land if you right.

So you can you can close that window
and you can avoid some of the things

that just happen in the void

that you feel like
you need to make up for the next day,

or you need a longer fast
so that you can kind of undo that.

Then you're well on the right track

and it's going to be easier
to make a little bit better food choices

and set your next fasting timer and do
all of the things that you need to do.

Plus, energy

levels
are probably going to be higher, too,

which means it's going to be easier,
easier to get out and move or

do some deliberate exercise or go walking
after a meal, all those kind of things

that really get the momentum
going. Love it. All right.

If you're looking for this article,
you can head to the show notes nutrients

that I offered size fasting for life
is in the show notes as well.

The blueprint the fasting for fat loss.

Go grab that link
if it's something you have gotten or need

to re anchor to for some fasting schedules
and greater ideas.

Tommy,
appreciate the conversation as always.

Appreciate you all for listening
and being on this fasting for life

journey with us. Talk soon.
Thank you, sir. Thank 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.

 

 

Close

Get started today!

The Fast Start Guide takes the guesswork out of using intermittent fasting. Your guide will be immediately delivered to your inbox, giving you the confidence to get started now!