In the pursuit of health and wellness, the conversation around intermittent fasting continues to captivate minds and drive experimentation. Recently, I had the chance to delve into a conversation with an expert, exploring the nuances and recommendations regarding fasting periods for clients. Here’s a recap of the insightful discussion.

At the onset, it’s crucial to note that the approach to fasting isn't one-size-fits-all. In the initial 30 days of the program, the focus isn’t on mandatory fasting but rather on establishing baseline habits. Intermittent fasting schedules are introduced as a potential baseline meal timing strategy, ranging from 14 to 16 hour fasts on a daily basis.

However, the conversation veers toward the depth of fasting benefits. While shorter fasting windows aid in daily rhythm management, they might not deeply tap into the profound physiological effects of longer fasts, like autophagy and complete physiological rest.

The recommended fasting periods gradually intensify over time within the program, evolving from a dinner-to-dinner fast or a 24-hour fast to potentially even breakfast-to-breakfast fasting once a week. Some participants might extend this practice to twice a week on non-consecutive days.

Interestingly, participants find these fasting routines relatively easy to adopt as they don’t necessitate adding new elements to their diet but simply involve drinking water, coffee, or non-caloric beverages until their one meal for the day.

Beyond the calorie deficit created by fasting, these periods positively impact insulin sensitivity, raise growth hormone levels to a certain extent, and transform individuals' relationship with hunger signals, strengthening their willpower in moderation.

However, a critical observation emerges from prolonged intermittent fasting. As one individual shares personal experiences, the extended 16:8 fasting regimen began posing challenges. It became arduous to meet protein intake requirements within the limited eating window, hindering muscle recovery and synthesis.

Upon adjusting the eating pattern back to a more traditional meal schedule, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner supplemented by a pre-workout snack, noticeable improvements surfaced. Energy levels soared, workouts became more invigorating, and an unexpected rise in body temperature or thermogenesis became evident.

This exploration underscores a crucial aspect: the significance of aligning fasting routines with individual lifestyle and goals. While intermittent fasting offers a spectrum of benefits, the key lies in finding the sweet spot that complements one's nutritional needs, workout regimen, and overall well-being.

Ultimately, the narrative highlights the dynamic nature of fasting, emphasizing its potential to be an adaptable tool rather than a rigid regimen. As individuals continue to explore and experiment, the journey toward optimal health and wellness unveils the importance of customization and periodic recalibration in the pursuit of long-term success.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Intermittent fasting offers a spectrum of benefits but requires customization to align with individual nutritional needs and lifestyle goals.
• Gradually intensifying fasting periods, from shorter daily windows to occasional 24-hour fasts, can positively impact insulin sensitivity, hunger signals, and overall willpower.
• Personal experiences highlight the importance of balancing fasting regimens with protein intake and workout routines for optimal muscle recovery and sustained energy levels.

Watch Now

Transcription

Dr. Latt Mansor:

I was going to ask in terms of fasting, how often do you recommend your clients to, to go through fasting periods? 

Dr. Anthony Balduzzi:

Okay. So here's exactly how we program it in the first 30 days of the program, when we're getting people up on baseline, we don't require them to do any fasting.

Although we do present them the idea that, Hey, you could have as your baseline meal timing. A intermittent fasting schedule, whether that is, have an earlier dinner and you're going to a, 14, 16 hour fast, or if you just shift that first meal back. So some people choose to intermittent fast on a daily basis of framework.

But my personal belief is that like a 14 to 16 hour fast is not tapping profoundly into these deep autophagy and like emptying out. Physiologies that we get from longer fast. It's more just like a daily rhythm management tool, but it's helpful in good, and I am a proponent of people not eating too late because of the impacts on sleep, and so that is a little variable as they get into like months too, we start to introduce a dinner to dinner fast or a 24 hour fast.

It also could be breakfast to breakfast once per week. And some people may go up to doing it twice per week on non consecutive days. And I think there's a lot of benefits to this habit and practice. One is a lot of people find that it's actually fairly easy to do because it's something that you don't have to add new things in.

You just literally just drink. water, coffee, non caloric beverages. Green tea is a great option until you're one meal that day. And it's nice because you do get the calorie deficit is created from that one habit. But also it's good for insulin sensitivity. It does raise growth hormone to a certain extent too.

And it's also good for changing people's relationship to their hunger signals where they can observe them and yeah, I'm hungry. But I'm also strengthening a sense, a little bit of willpower. We're not relying on willpower. We have a system for just good nutrition, but it does strengthen that.

So one, I would say like roughly once per week is how we program in these kinds of these fasting things. Not everyone does it, but the people that do, they find a good benefit. And it's actually interesting. What I found is with the constant weight loss calorie restriction, like when we just cut calories and we don't want to be drastic about it, the body tends to respond decently well to these intermittent calorie restrictions where you don't seem to have as much of the resistance

where leptin levels start to decrease and now you start to get hungrier and it feels harder to lose weight.

This intermittent calorie restriction seems to have a fairly unique benefit for. For helping people. And I don't know if there's actual data and research behind that. You'd probably know more than me, but what I've found just from observing is a lot of people Blake breakthrough weight loss plateaus fairly well with these intermittent 24 hour fasts.

Dr. Latt Mansor:

This is a really interesting point. I was about to share my own experience, right? So the problem I've had is that I have been doing intermittent fasting for way too long. So I've been doing 16, eight almost every day. So first problem I faced was. realizing I wasn't getting enough protein in to match my weight and to match my workout.

Having that eight hour, I wasn't eating enough protein because protein is very filling. So then I up my protein intake, but then I realized the other problem that comes after is that I usually just have two meals within that eight hours, having two meals. to shove 200 grams of protein in, that's a hundred grams each.

Then I looked at the studies, you can't even really use up that protein for muscle synthesis more than, 50, 60 grams at a time. And optimally it's like 25 to 30 grams, at least one review study that I w I read. So then I realized, even though I'm having enough, quote unquote, enough protein, I am not fully optimizing the assimilation of that protein into my recovery and my muscle building.

So now I can't, I'm back to just normal, breakfast, lunch. Maybe a pre workout meal and then dinner almost like a full meal to try and fix my metabolism. So have you, again, this is my personal experience. It's not from any study. It's something that I realized what I was doing that. Was not in line with my lifestyle and my goals, right?

Dr. Anthony Balduzzi:

What's your protein? What's your protein target, by the way? Just so I'm curious you go in like 1. 5 to 1. 5 to 2 grams per kg

Dr. Latt Mansor:

Like I don't think I'm doing 1. 2. I believe

Dr. Anthony Balduzzi:

Okay. Got it is that something that you have observed as well with people with your clients? Yeah,

I think it actually happens I observe it more in women than men the, this kind of the adaptation to the IF where it becomes problematic to get that amount of food in and the metabolism seems to become a little more resistant to it.

But I, again, I think the 24 hour fast is an interesting concept or even pushing it to 36, where you can get this pulse of this, like deeply catabolic and beneficial metabolism. Once in a while, but then you go back to normal. Yes. And I still think I love the breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner framework, it works really well because in that framework, you are having meals that are having roughly 30 to 40 grams of protein, more or less spread across dinner might have 60 breakfast might have 40 lunch might have 30 and as free workout snack of 15.

So it's you can nickel your way up pretty easily into that amount of protein. 

Dr. Latt Mansor:

Yeah. As, and as soon as I swapped that lifestyle over as well, there are certain things that I noticed my body was doing. One, I was having more energy. I definitely feel more energetic. I feel that I could push more at the gym.

And secondly, I feel objectively warmer. 

Dr. Anthony Balduzzi:

Yeah. There's more thermogenesis happening. Yeah. 

Dr. Latt Mansor:

Which I was like this has to be a placebo after a week. I'm like, no, I can't, I literally can't fall asleep. Without the fan on because I was just sweating out at night. And I was like, yeah, my body temperature significantly increased.

So we'll see. I'm still experimenting.

We sell nutrition & supplements for optimal metabolic & cognitive performance. Check us out!