Ep. 25 - Alternate Day Fasting ADF vs. One Meal a Day OMAD vs. Warrior Diet vs. 5:2 | Fasting Mistakes and Fat Loss Plateaus | Customizing Your Intermittent Fasting Plan

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

 

In this episode, Dr. Scott and Tommy discuss some common threads of habits and past experiences that could cause results to be short term when trying to lose weight. They discuss ADF or Alternate Day Fasting and how it can be used successfully and how to avoid the trap of having a free eating day. They compare methods like OMAD, Warrior, 5:2, and Alternate Day (ADF). They also discuss the trap in the mindset of trying to outwork the calorie in vs calorie out model. Enjoy! 

Fasting For Life Ep. 25 transcript powered by Sonix—easily convert your audio to text with Sonix.

Fasting For Life Ep. 25 was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the latest audio-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors. Sonix is the best audio automated transcription service in 2020. Our automated transcription algorithms works with many of the popular audio file formats.

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 Fasting for Life podcast. My name is Dr. Scott Watier. I'm here with my good friend and colleague, Tommy Welling. Good evening to you, sir. Hey, Scott, how's it going? Going fantastic, my friend. We are deep in the weeds of creating customized plans for the fasting for life experience. Well, as a you your deep in the weeds of creating customized plans.

I think you're in the weeds, too. We're having to deal with machetes out here in the jungle, I think.

Yeah. The jungle of of fasting contents. All right. So the event's registration has closed and the EarlyBird registration, excuse me, has closed. So the event starts the 12th. So this Friday, we're going to be dropping our first video training in our private Facebook group. So we're really excited about this. We are working on this for months. But really tonight we wanted to dive into some some threads of consistency that we're seeing in building those customized plans. And for anybody out there listening, going, oh, great, they're talking about the program or the challenge. I'm not a part of this. The plans that we're creating are going to be available to everyone. This is kind of like I want to say it's it's the beta because we've been testing and putting together customized plans. Hell, you did this for me and put together my customized plan that got me the results I've gotten and got me here. So we've been doing the customized plans forever, but now we're figuring out how to actually do it more efficiently and really give everyone the support that they need for the for the success that they're looking for. So we're going through.

We're taking everybody through this live experience, which is 28 days. But this is gonna be available to everybody coming in the near future. So tonight's episode is not going to be about that. But what it's gonna be about is some of the threads that we've seen in terms of consistent responses to the questions that we've been asking. So we ask questions about, you know, what your goals are, what's your experience, what's your results so far? You know, try to get a good idea of how we can make this plan work long term. And that's where we really kind of stand out in terms of the fasting for life method and why it works so well is that customization. So we want to go through those those consistent threads that we see and just kind of talk about. And because if if we have a sample size of 15 or 20 people, I'm not sure. I think we're almost up to 20 people in the challenge. You know, when all the people that we've helped up until this point. Yeah. They're pretty glaring that it's the same things that people are dealing with. Right.

Yeah, absolutely. So many common threads, histories with Yo-Yo dieting, histories with going up and down, histories with, you know, having a little bit of success here and there and then seeing it creep back up just just a few common threads that, you know, surprisingly kind of encompass most people that will end up taking an interest in this subject.

Yeah, one of one of the cool things about fasting is, is it's like it's intermittent fasting. Excuse me, I aph as it's very commonly recognized. Right. Like, a lot of people have heard about it, but not really sure what it is or how to do it. Right. So there's a lot of information out there. And. The results that we get with people, it's really based on that customization and making sure that the plan fits into your life. So one of the one of the ways that you can start fasting intermittent on that alternate day five two. I mean, warrior. Warrior, right. Strong fast. Water fast. Right. There's all these different things. One of the ones that's pretty common is called an A.D.A for an alternate day fast. And what we've noticed is that people that alternate day fast don't tend to see. And I'm not saying there isn't someone out there that has had tremendous results with it losing 30 out of the 60 pounds that they have to lose. But the alternate day fasting kind of sets you up for a couple of. Hiccups are a couple of speed bumps in terms of getting long term results in the fact that alternate day literally means you don't eat one day and then you eat the next.

Yeah, and most people will take that and basically eat whatever they want the next day. Not necessarily, but well, hopefully not necessarily indulgent the next day, but not necessarily controlling eating windows might not be controlling calories or carbohydrates or you know, it might just be kind of an open eating window. And that would be kind of your worst case scenario. Best case scenario would be a little bit more controlled. But most people are very strict. You know, one day doing a full 24 hours, however, the the meal timing works out. And then the very next day, just usually eating three meals, maybe plus snacks, kind of, you know, back to old habits, back to, you know, cultural norms, that kind of thing. And there's a it's very easy to undo what you did the previous day like that.

Now, if you've got enough weight to lose, like myself, you know, 50 pounds still got a little bit more to go. We'll talk about that in different episode. And with alternate day, you'll get you know, you'll get some results. But really, it's that it's just it's the consistent timing of the break in between food that does it. So on a 24 hour fast the following day, if if you have those old indulgences or those old habits, then you're going to potentially over eat or eat more because it's like, oh, yeah, today's my eating day. Right. Just like when people work out to be fit or to lose weight. But then the research shows that you have a two to five hundred calorie increase in the meal post working out. It's like, OK, to an appetite. You worked up an appetite. So the calories in, calories out model we'll talk about in a minute. But so if you're doing more of a consistent, intermittent fast day to day, which is, you know, the 60 day window, or we recommend even getting more restrictive where you do a one meal a day. If you've got a considerable amount of weight to lose or disease to reverse, you don't have that luxury. Yeah. You don't have that, like, almost ability to just enjoy that entire day off and kind of undo what you just did. We do one meal a day. It's really hard to consume an entire day's worth of stuff. Day after day to undo what you just did through that 24 hours.

Right. You almost have to be you almost have to be deliberately trying to undo, you know, a whole day's worth of fasting in one meal. You know, you can do it, you know, on a holiday or a celebration or something like that. It it might happen where you would be kind of net neutral. But in most cases, especially with a little bit of deliberation, a little bit of planning for what you're going to eat during that one meal, you can easily maintain a really good calorie deficit, a really long period of time where your insulin levels got very, very low during those, you know, nearly 24 hours before you you brought anything in, any calories in and got your insulin levels back up again.

So if you're going to do alternate day, the recommendation would be be really mindful of what you're taking in. And I'm not a proponent of tracking and weighing every little thing that goes in your body. But it is easy to blow through 3000 calories in a full day of eating if you haven't eaten the day before. I've done it with against your guidance, timing, but down. So if you guys don't know the story of how I got into fasting, Tommy was a key component of that because not everybody is going to be joining us this far along on the journey. We're going on six months of starting the podcast. So I always try to remember that now, too, is like, man, we just keep talking about stuff and, you know, going over research and new things and programs and, you know, things we see as people that struggling with and try to provide solutions and answers and value. And I forget that a lot of you might not know. But yeah, I guess. Yeah, exactly. Like, go back, listen to the original episodes, hopefully. I think we're a lot better now than we were then. We just we just decided to step up and spread and spread the important news that, like, there's a lot of people out there that were in the same place that we were in. So with alternate day, just like don't do what I did, which was just feel like you get out of jail free card, like make sure you're consistent, you know, use an app like track. The basis of what you're consuming and, you know, in the beginning, you'll probably lose some of the weight, but when you plateau, that's when you really need to pay attention to be a little bit more strict on the ultimate day.

Yeah, because. You know, your body has different set points. Those set points are based on where your insulin, where your your basal insulin needs are, how how sensitive or resistant are you? So there's, you know, wherever you're starting from, that's always going to be the easiest point. That's always gonna be the point where you can you can make progress the fastest. So it's always going to slow a bit from there. And that's why, you know, we get really strategic, you know, coming towards the end, you know, reaching that that maintenance spot, the the end, you know, right before the finish line.

And it's usually those last few pounds to have had really good success for some people at that, too. And I think a lot of this just goes back to the mindset. And this is something else that we heard in the feedback from the quizzes that we're putting out to build those customized plans. Is that the mindset of the whole calories in, calories out? Like, it's hard to break that, like the ten thousand steps a day. We did a whole episode on that. I don't remember which one it was, but you know, where there's really not a lot of science to back up. The benefit from a health perspective like this isn't just about losing weight. We're talking about fasting, like fasting for life. Concept and idea was like, well, just how to regain control and get your health back. Right. The weight loss is like almost like a side benefit, but it's like, you know, the cause and the effect all in one. So that old mindset of calories in, calories out is just really hard to break for some people. And I know for me, I just need to like put eventually just put down the app, like the tracking app and just stay put.

It sounds just walk away from it. Walk away. Right. That old bird. You tell the story. I read about the elliptical. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm just going to hop on the elliptical. Just another 20, 30 minutes, maybe another hour, hour and a half. Especially if, you know, I had that pizza the previous night or something like that, like, oh, I'll just go, I'll just go burn it off. And then I just kind of watch the numbers tick up on the treadmill. You know what? I didn't see him tick down on the scale necessarily. So it's it's not it's not equally yoked. You know, you can't you can't just undo one with the other, especially when you have insulin resistance like that and you're eating all throughout the day. Just the math just doesn't work out. The physiology doesn't work out even if the math does.

Yeah. You're not getting enough time in between the insulin spike. An interesting thing, too, is that, you know, with technology, you get more data. Right. But a lot of the technology has been shown. The ones that track the calories burned during a workout could be anywhere from like, I don't remember, but we did it. We pulled out a couple of research articles on this and delve into that in previous episodes and almost like a broken record. But it was like way off like 30 to like 70 percent or something just crazy where it was an over estimation of what the body actually did. So if we one of the principles that we live on is keep it simple, like simplicity. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Because then that makes it easy to stick to, you know, which is more difficult with your restrictive amid of type diet plans. Like on even like using that word complex. Yeah. Right. Right. The calorie and calorie our model is, is more complex than those things are taking our accounting for.

So let's just simplify the equation. Right. Mike, I'm not a big math person. As you know, before this episode, we're talking about some math and I literally had to write it out. I'm not a big math guy. Militias simplify it. Where I'm staying consistent over time, you'll see the results. So alternate day, really. Just be careful with the, you know, the ability on that second day to kind of go overboard. If you've kind of plateaued, shoot is a question. We can get a dive in a little bit more and help you guys guide you through that. But really, just bringing that old mindset is probably the biggest thing.

Yeah. And the ultimate day. I mean, we're hearing more and more about it. It seems to be a really, really popular approach because. I think, you know, it's it's simple and it doesn't always restrict. So you have that one day and especially if you're if you're taking it without any restrictions, that you're it's just an open eating window. Then that sounds nice. But, you know, you can kind of rubber band yo yo back and forth between a really, really good 24 hour period and then, you know, just completely undoing 24 hour period. And you know it over time, you're just kind of hovering around the midline, not making any any progress one way or another. Right.

So those are the few things you want to talk about in regards to kind of like the consistency that we're seeing. And to be honest, you know, ADF Ultimate Day, it's something that we've been seeing more recently. So I'm sure if we dive in and, you know, like like I love to do is go get it nitty gritty in the research and what are the outcomes of the studies. But honestly, again, just let's just keep it simple. Doing one meal a day over long periods of time more consistent, and it decreases the chance of, you know, being able to erase the benefit of the previous time period. Right. We've got to keep that timing. The timing is the key. So if you could do an ADF, just some food for thought, because that's a really interesting way to put it. But for tonight's episode, Tommy, what do you think's a good action step for people to be able to kind of move on from this or if you've got some final things you want?

Yeah, I think I think an action step. So if you if you're doing ADF alternate day fasting right now and it's really working within your schedule, but you haven't been seeing the results that you've wanted to do, then I encourage you go on your eating day and really hone in. Because what we see is the most common misconception when people are starting to fast is that they they kind of need to make up for those lost calories because they're still worried about that man slowing their metabolism down. So so they're almost wanting to undo that previous fasted day so that they they don't have to worry about their metabolism. Well, that's not going to be a concern. So on the day that you're eating, if if you like how ADF goes into your schedule, then control that eating day. So shrink the eating window. You could do one meal a day on that on that day, or you could do maybe a two or three hour eating window. So if you haven't been seeing the results, then then shrink it down, tighten it up, and then you'll probably see some momentum. Let's go from there.

I love that you just remove the tracking portion of this. So thank you for, as always, lining the plate and simplifying it is if you're not seeing the results, then shrink the window. Right.

Absolutely. Extend the time. That's just so simple. Yeah, that's that's always that's always the key. So no matter if you're doing a.D.A or not, that that's a great action step for you.

Love it. Love it. All right. Appreciate y'all for listening. If you have not yet, go to our Web site w w w v fasting for life dot com. Click on the button that says download the fast start guide. And then that will get you our six steps to putting fasting into your day to day to day. That comes with a free mini masterclass. So it's 20 minutes of deep dive video trainings where you get a log in. You can go and use that with the fast our guide to get going today. One of the things we've been saying a lot recently is the quicker you get a win, the easier it gets. So if you've been thinking about it, you've been on the fence. Go to the Web site, download the Fast Start guide, give us a shout out if you have any questions. And Tommy. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Scott. See you.

So you've heard today's episode and you may be wondering, where do I start? Head on over to be 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 in your day to day life.

While you're there, download your free Fast Start guide and 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.

Automatically convert your audio files to text with Sonix. Sonix is the best online, automated transcription service.

Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your mp3 files to text.

Get the most out of your audio content with Sonix. Quickly and accurately convert your audio to text with Sonix. Automated transcription is getting more accurate with each passing day. Do you have a podcast? Here's how to automatically transcribe your podcasts with Sonix. More computing power makes audio-to-text faster and more efficient. Sonix converts audio to text in minutes, not hours. Sonix takes transcription to a whole new level. Here are five reasons you should transcribe your podcast with Sonix.

Sonix uses cutting-edge artificial intelligence to convert your mp3 files to text.

Sonix is the best online audio transcription software in 2020—it's fast, easy, and affordable.

If you are looking for a great way to convert your audio to text, try Sonix today.

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!