Ep. 95 - Listener Q&A | 43 hours fasted and I GAINED weight?! | Does coffee creamer break my fast? | Electrolytes, salt, and fuzzyheaded feeling | Do I have to cut out carbs? | Free Intermittent Fasting Plan for OMAD
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Fasting For Life Ep. 95
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] 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. Hey, Scott, how are you? You're doing fantastic, my friend. We are coming to you today with another episode of questions, so we I don't know. Uh, if we struck a nerve or if more people are listening or I'm not really sure what's going on, but there has been hundreds across Facebook and Instagram and email. And we are trying to get through all of them, so you picked a few today that are common kind of beginner type questions, but then we also have a couple more frameworks and long term, nuanced type questions. So I'm excited to break this down today, Tommy, if you're new to the podcast. Go back and listen to if you want to learn more about Tommy and I, go back and listen to the first few episodes with a little bit of grace as we were just figuring this thing out. Now we are 90 plus episodes in just broke seven hundred thousand downloads. So if you guys seem to like the messaging in the in the the the episodes and how they're short and actionable, and we're just going to continue to deliver content to you in a valuable way. So shout out to all you guys that are listening. If you new, go back and take a peek. And, yeah, keep submitting questions. We're going to keep trying to getting through them as we continue to build this thing out, Tommy. So yeah,
Tommy Welling: [00:02:02] Yeah, absolutely. You know, sometimes those questions are are like they could be a roadblock. You know, if I just had one more little answer, a little more peace of confidence, a little better understanding, I could get to the next step. And that's what this is all about.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:02:19] Yeah, that's a really good, you know, that's a really good jumping off point that I hadn't thought about is, you know, when I started the journey and now we've taken a few thousand people through our challenges and all of the listeners and interactions we've had, and we're still working on building out the programs. But like those little hiccups or speed bumps, even when I was doing intermittent fasting with the aikido and had gotten kind of stuck or plateaued, I went back to the old ways of all right, while that didn't work, now what? Yeah. So, you know, having you having Dr. Fung research going back and forth in the beginning, thinking back over two years now, it's just interesting that, yeah, if you get two and we'll talk about a few of these today, you know, like the basic stuff, like what breaks the fast and our view on it carbohydrates and how they've been demonized, the washy head feeling. Can I put coffee creamer in my in my window? Oh no, you're breaking a fast, right? Don't go to the men's intermittent fasting group, one of them on Facebook and put that in there because you will get eviscerated. It is a very mean, aggressive group, and I love it because I love being in there and I like to see the stories and the testimonials. And yeah, so I get value out of being in that group as well. And then we're going to talk about the scale and water and glycogen and all of those things that might pop up. Like you said, that could be these little hiccups where you just go, Yeah, well, I guess this isn't going to work for me either, and that's the last thing that we want.
Tommy Welling: [00:03:47] Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess it's not working. I guess I did something wrong, right? And so, yeah, no, no. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater here like we're going to we're going to break it apart. Yep. All right.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:03:59] Let's start with a question from Lori that was submitted on September 11. Excuse me, 11th, she said on Monday. I started the 16:8 fasting and I'm eating 100 calories or less a day. I eat lunch and dinner only. I lost seven pounds this week. I'm really loving the fasting and I felt better than I have in a long time. So great news. Mental fog is decreasing reduced calories, and I don't even feel hungry now, the first day was a bit scary, I will admit lol, I do have a question. I do enjoy whole wheat bread, brown rice and other whole grains and pastas. Do I have to leave these out of my diet? Also, I guess I found your podcast this week and love it, so thank you for the shout out, Laurie and Tommy. The loaded question Do I have to leave these out of my diet? The. Breads, the pastas, the rices and the whole grains. No. No, because. Oh, that's it, that's the answer.
Tommy Welling: [00:04:59] That's it, that's the whole answer. Ok. No, because, you know, part of this process is finding those balance points. How do we get the results and get the long term sustainable balance, something that we can we can stick to and will continue to encourage our healthy way of life? Well, past, you know, if you have 20 or 50 pounds to lose like, OK, but what about after that point? And so we know very low carbohydrate diets don't work in the long term very well because they're not very sustainable and and. Going for a while without them can mean like a major rebound later on, so how do we find better balance while we're getting results and then set ourselves up for long term sustainability? Well, we can cut down on those things. In the short term, they're likely going to help accelerate your fasting results. They're also going to make it easier to transition into and out of a fast because the more processed carbohydrates that we have, the tougher it is to jump into a longer fast or the more we're going to feel it, you know, and it's going to make it more uncomfortable. So so cutting down on them can be a good thing. Finding some substitutions, some good like menu recipe substitutions can be a really good thing to.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:06:20] Yeah, and there's so many different layers and nuanced levels here where, you know, sometimes we get feedback like, no, you're wrong, we're addicted to processed refined carbs and the food industry and all that. And it's like, Yeah, you're right. That's part of it, too. But then there's the research studies that showed the two year mark for diabetics that they actually have that regain because of that, because of the restriction of an omission of an entire macronutrient. Right, right. There's three macronutrients. There's fat, protein and carb. Now, for me personally, so people say, Well, how can that be? And I'm like, Well, we're all different, right? Like, Yeah, my wife and I are the complete yin and yang when it comes to this and we've had genetic testing done, nutritional testing done, where her body responds better on a pretty much even split of the three macronutrients in when she's training, like for a half marathon or her CrossFit competitions. Her body actually requires and processes carbohydrates better than it does fat. Her body prefers that as a fuel supply. So she is she will in certain periods, she'll be eating. Now we're talking like rolled oats and sweet potatoes and natural sources of carbohydrates, right? Not the refined processed stuff, right? The good stuff. You know, if we're talking about like wheat and, you know, the wheat germ that we have here in the states and the modifications of our corn supply, we can.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:07:40] I mean, that's a whole nother conversation, right? So the more natural the source, the starchy vegetables, the better the carbohydrate, the better. Because it has that natural fiber component, the body knows what to do with it, et cetera. But back to my wife, for example, she has zero visceral fat, so she has zero risk of heart disease like zero visceral fat. I'm here. On the other side, I started my weight loss journey and, you know, had had the centrally located weight and the visceral fat. But I was my all. My bloodwork was eight air quotes normal. I my body prefers fat if I eat more than about 20 percent of my composition in a day and I don't track like I used to anymore of carbohydrates, then I get more cravings and more fatigue and all of those different types of things. So, yeah. Lori, if you are a carbolic and it's it's a problem, then I would say, yeah, it's probably time to remove them slowly and and work on finding a balance, Tommy, which I thought was your perfect word there of what you can be doing long term to sustain the weight loss and then get the health benefit.
Tommy Welling: [00:08:46] Yeah, absolutely. And if you have certain things like most quote-unquote trigger foods for most people for like addictive behavior and for like for extreme cravings feeling like there's some sort of gremlin that's coming out and I don't have control over, you know, my food choices. Those tend to be processed and carbohydrate rich because they're so craveable and we get such a strong, almost drug like addiction dopamine effect within our brain. So if you're finding you have some of those things happening to you, then then that's another good reason to just eliminate some of those trigger foods work on the relationship. The long term relationship with those things find some ways to make healthy substitutions at home and and but that can be, you know, part of the fasting journey, part of the process for you as well.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:09:40] Yeah, I love I love that conversation, so many different levels. And we've talked about that in different ways and different viewpoints, but what you're doing, Laurie, is great. Stick to it. Keep them in moderation. If you find that you're craving them more, then it's probably time to slowly replace them or start to increase your fasting windows to help your hunger hormones and satiety hormones kind of balance. But you're doing great. Keep up the great work. Love the question I want to transition into. To fasting kind of what's allowed and what's the definition, what breaks a fast my least favorite question regarding the fasting lifestyle? Full transparency because you can argue to the ends of the Earth and just simple simply stating anything outside of water. Technically, we'll break a fast by true by definition. Now, are there things out there that you can ingest? Dr. Fung says 50 50 calories or less, or you'll hear flavored teas break and all that. So really again, you have to find what works for you. So if you are a coffee drinker and you put four tablespoons of sugar in three tablespoons of creamer, that's probably more of a warm, sugary milk than it is a coffee.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:11:06] So it might be time to think through, well, what's what's? What's the end game here, right? Yeah. So the two questions we had about was one from SimCity one two three four. This came through on Facebook and it was Can I drink? Coffee Creamer in my coffee. And the answer is yes. If if it doesn't lead you to spiral because you've already mentally made the decision in your brain that I'm breaking my fast for the day now, I prefer to fast, completely clean. I prefer to fast. Just if I give myself any wiggle room, then I feel like I want to, you know, give an inch, take a mile. Right? That old analogy. So technically, yes, you're breaking your fast, but can you still lose weight? Yeah. Dave Asprey has an entire fasting program that allows you to have unlimited bulletproof coffees during your fasting. And I'm like, Great, you still have ketones in your body, but you're not fasting. You just ingested eight hundred calories that can you still lose weight doing that? Yeah, sure. But is it truly fasting? No, it's not.
Tommy Welling: [00:12:11] Right, right. And I think I think just understanding that there are different reference points for like what breaks a fast like. Everyone's everyone means something different, too, because if you're really saying, am I breaking my fast like, well, am I ingesting calories? Am I having a blood sugar response? Am I having an insulin response in the body? Or am I still able to continue not ingesting food like psychologically like you mentioned? Or or did I kind of book that as well? I already broke my fast, so if I had some coffee creamer, I may as well have breakfast. Like, that's not a good psychological track, right? That's not going to get you anywhere long term results wise. But at the same time, if if you have one or two cups of coffee in the morning with with a tablespoon of creamer in each one of them, you may have ingested 50 or 100 calories. But could you potentially keep going and do a 48 hour fast? Yeah, absolutely. And get ninety nine point four percent of the benefit. Yes.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:13:15] One hundred percent. Another follow up question on this is this came from Judy. This came through Facebook as well. Quick question Do electrolytes break my fast? I do 18 six, so an intermittent fasting window. Mm hmm. And clean fast. I received some. So there's the key terminology they're clean, fast. I receive some element recharge powders that you mix in your water. I feel great when I drink it, but I don't want to. Is it going to be so funny because we're just I'm going to contradict myself here intentionally. I feel great when I drink it, but I don't want it to ruin my ketosis. Autophagy. The packets are sugar free, but some do have flavors, so elements are great. They fit more of the keto lifestyle than they do the clean fasting lifestyle. So I use these periodically when I am doing longer, fast and I just need something to allow me to push through. Yeah, I had a consistent CGM glucose monitor on. I did some testing with devices that are sweetened with stevia. I did some testing with the elements. I saw no change with the elements, but I did see a change with a couple other of the water flavoring products that are out there on the market, the Mio at all that kind of group.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:14:33] Yeah, yeah. And I did notice a huge spike with the severe, which is sweetened with stevia, which some people will use the stevia and the monk fruits. And, you know, as as an OK thing during their fast. So for me, I realized that I was doing a big disservice if I was having a xavien. This was not when I was in my aggressive weight loss journey. This was more in my maintenance long term type portion, as was about a year into my fasting journey. I kept the weight off and feeling great. So. There are studies that show that natural flavors will break fast. Some say they don't, you can have sparkling water, some people say you can have it with or without flavors, but because you use the word and I'll stop talking here in a second. Clean, Judy, and that you don't want to break ketosis or autophagy if you have a monitor, I would do some testing. If you don't, I would say just use them during your fasting window, excuse me, during your eating window as kind of like. A way to break your fast or a way to reward yourself for sticking to a fast?
Tommy Welling: [00:15:39] Yeah, you know, and if you still want to get those electrolytes or other things like, for me personally, I'll do 10 or 20 drops of like a concentrate in some water with no chance of breaking that fast, no chance of of halting the ketosis process because there is no there's no actual like flavorings or artificial sweeteners or or anything else along those lines. And you know, you just mentioned the Ze'evi and Stevia thing just for a little bit of perspective like like that in particular has no carbs, no calories. And it's it's not artificial, right? Like Stevie as a natural thing, but one hundred to 300 times sweeter than sugar. And so automatically, the the brain and the rest of the body goes, OK, I'm not sure exactly what's happening here, but this might be some sort of food. This might be sugar. It kind of looks like sugar. And so that's why for a lot of us, we can have either a blood sugar and or an insulin effect. And that's an important part because if we if we're inducing those, then we can slow down the ketosis and the fat burning process. And we can also perpetuate some of those those cravings and and other things that go along with with actual sugar and carbohydrates.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:16:54] Yeah, I. That reminds me of a conversation that we just had in recently in our continuity group around around the the benefits of having a ketone monitor and the person that tested and they're like, Wait a minute, I don't understand. I'm not in ketosis anymore. I've been fasting. Well, you should be flip flopping in and out of ketosis, you know, pretty regularly, even on longer fasts. If you do exercise, it can kick you out, even your your natural circadian rhythm. If you had a bad night of sleep or you've had some additional stress in your adrenals are taking a little more brunt due to cortisol. You can have a blood sugar dump into the bloodstream that could potentially cause caused you to flip out of ketosis. So if you want to keep it simple, keep it clean. If you if you're new and you're trying to figure it out and still like playing around with it, then yeah, experiment with stuff. See how you feel. See how your body responds. And really, that's going to become the long term sustainability that we're looking for to help it, to get to everybody to that point. So, yeah, yeah, a couple more here, Tommy. So let me pull one up, and I had it up in front of me, and then it just went away. Here we go from Terry. I have a question. I've been following the IRF program since June. So if is most likely 16 or 18, six lost five and a half pounds the first eight days, we'll come back to that very common continue to fast and eat low carb and healthy foods. Just finished a forty three hour fast and gain one and a half pounds. Not sure what I'm doing wrong, drinking the recommended water and choosing my meals slash calories wisely during my eating window. Any suggestions would be most helpful and appreciate it.
Tommy Welling: [00:18:37] Hmm. Ok. So there's there can be some volatility in the scale here. You know, going 40 plus hours, I can imagine, especially if that's if that's the first time you're kind of breaking into that, that kind of range, expecting some positive reinforcement on the scale, right, expecting the scale to move down. But you know, if if we think about how much water weighs, let's let's start there. So we're at half a pound per cup of water per eight ounces of water, and we have we have a, you know, some standard recommendations out there, half an ounce to an ounce of water per pound of body weight. So if you're one hundred and fifty pounds, you might be recommended to drink seventy five up to one hundred and fifty ounces of water. So, you know, a couple of pounds accumulates very quickly within that water. And so we can have some pretty big swings within our hydration level. So if we're expecting a downtick in the scale and all of a sudden we get an uptick, it can be a little surprising. But what I want to make sure of is that we don't think we're we're doing the wrong thing just because the scale gave us one bad data point. So it's likely to kind of even out and correct itself, probably by the very next day if you were to relay.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:19:56] Yeah, there's there's a couple of holes in and this this is one of the things about answering questions that come in is that there's a few missing pieces of information. So like if you think of those old movie reels, right, like you think of the old two movie rails and like the film literally like spinning and you would just stop the film and snip one of those scenes, one of those images. That's what you have right now with the scale. Yeah. And if you yeah, no contact, if you are glycogen depleted, right, and you have lost that initial glycogen dump where your liver clears out and your smooth muscle doesn't have the reserves it used to, because insulin will store that stuff in those two places. First, right, then the fluctuation, you'll see the fluctuations more. Even with just eating like the low carb thing, like insulin spikes from a fatty piece of meat like a steak can be just as much as certain carbohydrates. Yeah, because of the way the body processes the food. So when we're looking at this situation, if you weighed it like immediately after you finished a forty three hour fast and you broke your fast and you ate a meal, you went to bed and you woke up, I would actually expect the scale to go up a pound and a half from the day prior. You have all of the water retention, the short term glycogen stores, possibly and the the food itself, never mind.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:21:23] Like you said, Tommy. The weight of the water. Yeah, sitting in your digestive tract. So to know if you're making progress and sometimes you hit these little plateaus, but staying consistent is key, you'd want to do the weight loss average from week to week, not just this one data point. Um, and you should see that there is a downward trend that would give you that, OK, yeah, I weighed right after the scale kicked back up and I always use this example of someone that is in the intermittent fasting world and he does these weigh ins and he did this test. Once he tells the story where he woke up, he weighed used, had his morning constitutional Wade drank some water and coffee. Wade went for a run, came back, relayed weight after the shower and then ate a meal, broke his fast and then weighed again. Right? And there was like a 12 excuse me, four kilos is like over eight pounds, right? So, yeah, eight pound fluctuation just in that four hour window in the morning from eight a.m. to noon. So looking at the average over the course of the week, knowing that you didn't do anything wrong, you just broke your fast and you're probably still sitting with all that stuff there, right?
Tommy Welling: [00:22:41] And remembering that that even just that whole like morning weigh in judging your success on the previous day with that one snippet that one no context snapshot and letting you know that being what we remember throughout the day. Just remember, like some of that is from the old eat less, move more diet mentality, tracking every single calorie because there's very little margin for error there. So you had to kind of like hold on to everything that you could measure. So just remembering that you're on the right track, even if the scale didn't give you the feedback on one day, let let that fall by the wayside. Have a short memory with that. Set your timer. Keep going. Keep hitting the gas. Stick to what you're doing because it is working and it's likely to work itself out by the next day or two.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:23:33] Yeah, 100 percent. 100 percent. One more here, Tommy, so this also came in through Facebook. This is from Lee on August 19th. I really like this question. And this is one of the things that we talk a lot about, and it's one of the things that we foreshadowed in the beginning of this episode was one of those little stumbling blocks that out of the gate. You wish you would have known that nothing's wrong. Yeah, right. Just like the scale going up a pound and a half. Ah, no. Ok. So I really appreciate this question. I just found your podcast three days ago. I'm looking for resources about lightheadedness or a wishy head. I started fasting one month ago at 59 and switched to 16 eight three weeks in. I've been feeling amazing energy, mental clarity, et cetera. But overnight, two days ago, I'm now feeling a wishy head type feeling, can you point me to useful information on how I can figure out how to remedy this much appreciated and give a shout out liking our podcast so far? So thank you for listening. Tommy, there's so many layers here. Oh, my first word that pops into my head is transition transition.
Tommy Welling: [00:24:43] Yeah, transitioning into ketosis. Like, it reminds me of all of those info graphs that I've seen on the keto flu, and some of them are hilarious. Like, they're very dramatic sometimes. But, you know, and we kind of almost get spoiled by by doing one meal a day and kind of with intentional eating how quickly we can get ourselves into ketosis. I've almost forgotten that it can be a really long, arduous process for for a lot of folks, especially if you're doing more like a 16 to eight or you're not doing time restricted feeding at all, but you're just controlling the macronutrient profile like you're doing strictly ketogenic quote-unquote foods, and that can be a longer transitional period. And so it makes sense doing a 16:8 that all of a sudden you're kind of knocking on the door, you're finally transitioning into that ketosis and you're starting to get more of that diuretic effect. And that can lead to some noticeable changes in blood pressure that can lead to that kind of wussy feeling. And there are other symptoms that kind of go along with that, too.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:25:54] Yeah, the fact that you're at 59 and then going to 16 eight, you're probably if you would have just jumped into twenty two or twenty four hour fast, you probably would have have this happen within the first week. And that's typically what we see in our challenges. But we also tell people that to expect that. And when that happens, the insulin drops to a certain point. You're about to transition, ketones start being created and your glycogen and your sugar supplies are decreasing right and your your body goes insulin goes down the hormones that control the excretion of water, go go down to release it. So now you've got the electrolyte. So what I would do is before you go to bed, I would take some either trace minerals or some sea salt, probably with dinner, or maybe just right after after your meal. And that should help counteract the feeling in the morning, but also know that the best thing to do here might just be to push it a little bit in bright. Finally, get through that that that kind of timing. So maybe go to 18 hours instead of 16, right? And then at that time frame that 17 or 18 hour mark typically is where the magic happens for a lot of people. And the salt or electrolytes can help you get through that knowing that nothing's wrong. It's just that your body is adapting.
Tommy Welling: [00:27:20] Yeah. And if if if one meal a day, if going to like twenty three twenty four hours sounds like a lot. Go check out the fast start guide. Go download it and and get started. I'll help you, you know, put it into into place like this week you could. You could go ahead and kind of break through that. And you know, if you've already done that, you're kind of pushing past to the next level, but you're at a sticking point. You know, drop us a note on on Facebook, send us an email info app the fasting for life so we can help you get to that next level because that's what this is about for long term success.
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:27:52] And that's honestly in full transparency, Tommy. You know, we always want to end with with an action step. And in this case, you know, a lot of these conversations were about clean, fast, dirty, fast, what she had removal of macronutrients, carbohydrates, you know, watching the scale. This is all the stuff that we hear that are those little speed bumps or roadblocks for your brain goes red alert, red alert, red alert, red alert. So I love the fact that this one lines up perfectly with the first resource that you mentioned that we created, which is the fast start guide. And why was it not a 59 or a 16 eight window or an even in 18 six window? Well, it wasn't that because we have done that and it didn't work. And we were like, OK, what is it that can get people engaged and get the winds quicker to know, Wow, this is cool and this will work. And it doesn't take three weeks of a 12 week program for me to see the scale finally move that I feel good. So I love when the conversation aligns with going back to the very beginning for us, which was what can we create that people can use now? Well, the fast start guide is that it gets you to that twenty two to twenty four hour mark quickly and that is where the magic happens. So Tommy, I love the way today round it out. Love the conversation, as always. Thank you, sir, for your time and insights and we will talk soon.
Tommy Welling: [00:29:08] Thank you. Bye. So you've heard today's episode, and you may be wondering, where do I start? Head on over to be 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
Dr. Scott Watier: [00:29:23] 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.