Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Losing weight should't be expensive or complicated. The ideal process would reduce our stress while driving results. Dr. Z weaves together his perspective on physical and mental health and the powerful way that fasting can connect these two spheres of our lives. Let's move toward total wellness and a holistic vision of health and healing. Learn more at SimpleFasting.com
Are you someone
who's interested in losing weight?
Maybe looking into fasting as something
you might want to try?
Maybe dip your toe in the water, try
a little bit and see if it can help you.
Or are you someone who is already
practicing some type of fasting?
Maybe a 168 regimen
that you are working on and
exploring that space
of just opening up a little bit
more space for the body
to use the energy within it
and help that energy to flow out
such a simple and beautiful practice.
So if you're anywhere
in that sort of space,
and then you were to see an image
that looked like this.
How would you feel about it?
Here we got two folks.
It's framed insulin resistance.
Doctor, stop 168.
Fasting now is the title.
It grabs you right.
And big red stop sign letters stop.
Highlighted in yellow.
We need to do it. We do.
It's like implying, like everybody.
It's like a metaphorical. We need to.
And and like,
we got some medical stuff going on here.
A CT scan looks like some arteries
are clogging up and can't.
Don't you just feel the danger in?
It is very concerning.
It makes you want to click right it.
It got me.
So I'm one of the 540,000 people
who are who clicked on this.
Now I put a link to this show.
This is Thomas de Lauer and doctor.
Chef,
I got to tell you, when I saw this,
I was thinking, I am not going to like it.
And.
Thinking about
half a million people watching a thing
that is telling people not to do something
that is very meaningful
to me, a 168 practice, a core
practice that I've used for over
a decade to help bring health to people.
And I thought, well,
I have to watch it.
And to my pleasant surprise,
I actually really liked this video.
So I encourage anybody.
Go ahead.
I will share my thoughts
on this with you.
Dive deep and then go ahead and watch it
and then come back.
Share further thoughts in the comments
and we'll have an ongoing
discussion with it.
But I did really like it.
The great irony to me about this talk is
here are two people that actually really,
you know, are into fasting.
They have a great fasting
discussion on physiology
and bringing intensity into it
that I think is actually really great.
And I don't honestly know.
I be curious,
invite either of these gentlemen
to come on the show here with me,
and we have a deep dive, I think.
I don't even know that they really either
of them believe that that we should stop.
Okay.
But they do give us some alternatives.
So I thought about playing clips of it,
but I'm just going to share
some thoughts with you
about what they have to say.
Leading right off
the bat 168 isn't fasting.
That's how they the
the doctor leads with the show.
And I would
I would kindly disagree with that.
It is the introductory level in my view,
to fasting.
It is a place to start.
And he says what fasting is, is a 36
hour fast.
And I would just bring up that in general.
This is one of the things that I really do
not like in medicine or a medical space
in general, is we have these huge
sweeping generalizations,
and we have gigantic one size
fits all policies
that are supposed to fit
every single person in every situation.
And, you know, just the blanket
statement, stop 168
and do this like
every person is just going to do that.
And that is is just simply not practical.
So he says 36 hours is fasting.
And basically anything less than that is
not. And
what I would
say 36 hour fasting is an incredible thing
and I love it.
Yeah.
Oh, Maria is here. Hello. Good morning.
Yeah, I actually I'm going
to show you later in the show.
I took a screenshot of comments on this
video, and we're going to talk through it
because the comments are gold
on that video.
And the comments
are better than many parts of it.
Some parts of the video legitimately
fantastic, but the comments are the best.
So yeah, we are going to dive in.
I started my life
and experience in fasting,
especially in my clinical practice
with 36 hour fasting.
That is where it started for me
and it is an incredible and powerful tool.
But it is just one slice
of the spectrum of fasting because
of course, there are much longer
fasting than 36 hours.
And of course
there is much shorter than 36 hours.
And, you know, I've described
fasting like shifting gears,
like here's first gear 168, 18, six.
Oh, man. It's like we're shifting
through the gears.
Alternate daily fasting practices,
gearing up into much stronger practices.
So that's kind of one way
that you can think about it.
I've told the
story a number of times on the channel
about when I first saw fasting,
helping someone with type two diabetes,
just having the realization, oh,
someone on insulin, getting a colonoscopy.
We got to dial the insulin back.
You can see it within hours.
You know, that's what's incredible.
Just hours of fasting space
tacked on to normal eating
and already were reducing medications,
an incredibly powerful space.
So the comments that they start out
with at 168 isn't fasting.
That it has no impact on insulin
resistance is just it's false.
Okay. That's a false in my view.
And there is research to back that up
and we can dive into that.
But I do agree with their perspective
36 hours.
It's not even a linear process.
It is geometrically more powerful.
And so I totally agree
with them on that point.
But that doesn't make the place
to start meaningless.
So when I started implementing
this practice,
I like I was telling the story.
I met this Hindu woman
who did a 36 hour fast every Tuesday.
That was her spiritual practice.
And so I was like, well,
that's very interesting.
I started having people with type
two diabetes do that
and who were on insulin,
or else you got to clear out
all the insulin to be able to do
that, basically.
And I get people in a groove with that.
And the first year I was doing that,
we got about 20 people off of insulin.
It was just an incredible process.
Okay, that the interesting thing to me
is that the more
the acute, the need, the potential,
like you tell someone with type
two diabetes,
maybe you could get off insulin by doing
this is actually a huge motivator
to do it.
And so as the the intensity,
the desire that someone has to do it,
you know, the less people you know,
the bigger the barrier
to jump straight to a 36 hour fast.
They make the point in this video,
you know, why would someone do
168 when they can do 36 hours?
And it's easy.
And I would say, well, I don't know
what your patient population is like.
I'll just tell you from my position
as a primary care doctor
at a university practice,
I got 2600 patients at the peak of.
It was crazy.
And then also I had a weight management
clinic and people coming through,
coming through,
you know, a general population of people,
the number of people who want to jump
straight into fast for 36 hours
without having any experience of
it is low.
It's just low,
you know, and I wish it wasn't.
But I'll tell you my own
personal experience trying to do it.
The first time I found it intimidating,
I couldn't do it.
I found it hard.
I went through a progression.
I did 16, eight, I learned. Oh, mad.
I did
that for quite a period of time, months
before I tried to fast for 36 hours,
and then it took
like four times of trying it before
I was able to comfortably do it.
And so if you are working
with a population of people, I'm
speaking to doctor chef and everybody's
like, oh, fasting, oh, just do it.
It's easy. Jump in like that's cool.
Like and maybe that has been your
experience and it's totally, totally.
I won't argue with it.
I would to say it is in my experience
working with people.
And if you can take a population
of all comers who are not athletes
and totally jacked people coming to
just try to body build and optimize.
But I'm saying people who have been
struggling for decades to lose weight
and and people with diabetes
who are trying to manage medications
and complex sort of things,
I haven't found it practical to
I found it much more practical,
I will say, to start at something
simple, 16, eight or even less, and help
people to ease into it and to create
a very calm and thoughtful environment
where people can progress with it.
Because I totally agree
with where you end up in the show, that
it is just so powerful
to open up a bigger fasting space.
It is.
But I would say,
even if what you are saying is true,
that 168 is meaningless as far as insulin
resistance, which of course it isn't.
But even if it was, if the only benefit
was that it was a training step
to help someone build up the ability
to do what you're saying,
then it than it wouldn't,
it couldn't possibly be meaningless.
You know what
I mean? It couldn't possibly be
I he says
next
that even there's the hint in there.
Maybe 168 is okay when they start
to talk about it, but it's just slow.
Okay.
This is just slow.
And they say,
why would you embark on a process
that might take 18 months
in order to accomplish something
when you could do it 6 in 6 weeks
instead with a very intense program?
Well, there's a couple reasons in
what I would say is
if you have the ability, like I said, to,
to just put people on a fast track,
I'm not going to deny that it isn't better
if you can overhaul someone's life
in six weeks without burning them out
and accomplishments
that they want, and you can find a way
to make it sustainable for them.
I, I love it, and if
you could do that in an in all comers
coming to, you know, a
medical practice,
you know, I would say you have much more,
incredible skill than I do.
And I would love to learn how you do it.
I tried to do that for quite a long time,
and then I came to just say,
that's
how we came. The fasting space. This.
Which is just saying, hey,
let's just take all that pressure off,
because trying to accomplish that in
six weeks for many people is overwhelming.
And I always, you know,
when I am personally consulting
with someone, you know, read the room, see
where people's experience and motivation
is and if you can find that space.
Absolutely.
But I don't want people
to look at headlines like this
and think, oh, it can't be 18 months.
Because to me, 18 months is beautiful.
Like it's easy to make fun of 18 months.
But listen, 18 months is going to happen
at some point
anyway, no matter what we do.
And what if we could get in a calm and
sustainable process that gets us there?
Like that would be better
than the alternative of what happens
to most people in our society,
which is that they don't end up
going anywhere, you know?
So there is real benefit in 18 months,
and they're very thoughtful
discussion in there.
I did listen to it. Okay.
It's like, well, you're leaving someone,
you know, in a sick state for 16 months.
Like you got to get someone there
right away and save all that time.
I was like, listen,
for the right person.
And this is the the real nugget
that I want to take out of that.
If people go and listen to it,
if you really have a mindset
and you are totally dialed in
and you want to change your life
now and you are, you know,
dial in like, like the guy is saying,
but listen to the rest of the interview
about how they do it,
because it's very intense.
Here's where they go next.
Fasting isn't just sitting around.
They say use fasting
to support your exercise.
And I do love that.
I do love that,
but it's not a one size fits all process.
I always say you got to walk
before you can run,
especially if you are not in good shape
to start with.
You look at these guys in his interviews.
These guys in fantastic
shape are like bodybuilders, you know,
and so they're working out all the time.
I presume their clientele is, you know,
more people trying to be like that.
Okay.
If you are taking blood pressure
meds and diabetes meds and you are not
in great shape, the idea of hitting
an intense gym and workout routine
while dialing in on a big fasting space,
you know that could be unsafe.
You know people are not going to feel well
with that.
So here's where I say, like I
put on my title, missing a little nuance.
I say, in these sort of spaces,
it's quite enough
to open up some fasting space
and just grab a coffee.
You don't have to be a bodybuilder
and go go crazy with it.
You can ease into it,
but I like where they end up.
I want everybody to be strong.
I love the discussion that they have
that so many dieting frameworks,
of leaving us in a space
where we're losing muscle mass.
And I don't want that for people.
I want people building muscle,
totally changing body composition.
I love the discussion of that,
that we want to be losing visceral fat
while building muscle.
Absolutely.
They feel that the,
the pinnacle practice to do that,
do the 36 to 48 hours fasting in a week
and then eat normally, you know,
because look, these people normally, okay,
you know,
three meals a day, these people are trying
to build a lot of muscle.
And, you know,
like I said, they're bodybuilders.
It might very well be the optimal thing.
So you're kind of bulking
and supporting a muscle during the week
and then kind of having that cutting phase
and hitting,
you know, for the right person.
I think that can be
a beautiful sort of practice
for another person who isn't trying
to look like Thomas de Lauer.
Right, who is just trying to find
some simple practices
to help bring some blood sugar down
and help slowly
and sustainably lose weight over time.
That's the person that 168 is four
and there is great meaning in it.
Great meaning.
So I just hope that we can widen out
that discussion and seeing these guys
in this video talking about
a very pinnacle health practice,
which can be something to work toward.
And if it's something that peaks
your interest listening to it, do it.
But just don't feel discouraged
because we're going
to get into the comments
as people in the comments
just discouraged
and confused by this title.
Why don't we jump in?
I even show you some of these comments.
All right, here you go.
So under the video of these people saying,
you know, 168 is meaningless,
don't do it suddenly in playing
might even be dangerous.
I love this first
the first comment on the video, I love it.
I need to fast from YouTube.
Oh, I just laughed when I read that.
I have a video on my channel.
A digital fasting I, I totally agree.
And that's, you know,
one of the reasons, you know, I took a
I love doing this live, you know,
but then I had to take a break
because it's like I have this kind of love
hate thing, like YouTube as, like,
I love that we can connect and share ideas
and learn things,
but it's like, I don't know about you,
but I'm always trying
to, like, just not even look at the
sidebar because
I don't want to,
you know, get trapped by the algorithm.
It knows what I want to watch,
and then my, my day will start going away.
So, yeah, fast from YouTube.
And don't you see, you know what
their meaning with it too is like.
This is just confusing me, you know, it's
like it is.
Here.
Someone says I cleaned up what I eat
and do 168 fasted
fasting starting a month ago.
Lost 13 pounds so far and feel better.
Not meaningless.
Okay, like has a profound impact.
You know what a place to start you say.
What a place to start.
This person says 36 hours fasting
once a week in 16 ate.
The rest of the time is helping them
see. That's beautiful.
I love that 36 hours
like he's saying in his video.
But then keeping that process going
a bit with some 168 isn't that great.
Like can really help someone. Absolutely.
Next person says I've been exercising
for 30 minutes
every morning while following a 16 hour
intermittent fast.
Lost 40 pounds in around three months.
Now we don't know anything about,
you know,
where did they start
and what does it look like?
But like that certainly isn't meaningless.
And I've seen lots of people
who've experienced things like that
here.
This person says 168
is better than nothing and will benefit
most people
because most people do nothing.
So even starting with 168
can be hugely beneficial, isn't it?
This person gets a thousand likes on that.
I completely agree.
168 is a place to start.
Is it the most powerful practice?
No, it's the most gentle practice.
But it is better than nothing.
In the midst of a consumption culture
where people says you can't take
even a break for even a couple hours
in the morning and have a coffee
and just let the system settle
a little bit.
It's just incredible value in that.
So don't be confused.
Like this.
Next comment or listen to this.
I'm just going to eat whole foods,
exercise, sleep well,
and hope for the best.
I am genuinely developing
behavioral issues because of information
I'm looking at online.
There are credible people everywhere
giving different opinions
and it is so confusing.
Time to stop overthinking
with their happy face.
Isn't it the case?
This is what I am trying to say.
And this is actually the whole issue
of why
I just decided to talk about this video.
Because each of these people
are credible people.
They're healthy people who like fasting
and and they're putting out a video
that is confusing people,
and it is implying that something
that is a foundational process,
it's going to harm you.
And I just
I think it is really counterproductive.
Like I said, even though I think the video
is pretty good.
This person says
I've been fasting 18 hours a day
for four years.
It's rolled back my age, 7 to 10 years.
They feel like healed my back
after experiencing 25 years of pain,
feeling like they're 25 now.
How incredible is that?
And I've seen that.
I've had patients
that I started on a 168 and 186.
It just means to me eating two meals a
day, 168 and 186 to me are the same thing.
It's just subtle variations of something.
And it's not like everybody
sitting around with a stopwatch,
like cutting things off
at exactly 18 hours.
Well, I guess I guess
there are people like that on the apps.
You know, to me, that's way too intense.
You know, it's like,
are we eating twice in a day?
Are we having a breakfast and a lunch
or a lunch in a dinner?
Like, it just it just doesn't matter here.
The person doing it for four years
and they're having a great experience.
I've had people a 12 years in, you know,
or it's the only thing they did.
And it's slowly and steadily helped
and not necessarily a straight line.
Like I've said, sometimes people flow
through a little plateau and then,
you know, a fasting process of plateau
over time tends to resolve down.
I just think it's beautiful here.
Look at this commenter I've been in.
I effort for years, wrote a book about it.
I'm going.
I've tried all fasting
except for over three days.
And here's my opinion 16 A is a good
stepping stone for someone getting into it
and getting control of insulin resistance
after years of unhealthy eating.
Love it.
Totally agree.
It's a good entry point to longer fasting.
Absolutely.
From my perspective, with proper nutrition
you can lose weight doing 168,
but if that's your goal,
it will take you longer to achieve
then okay, everything
else, look, it's a dial.
Dial it in 1806.
Alternate oh mad.
An alternate daily fasting,
then extended fasting.
Right. This whole thing is a spectrum.
So like all these comments are gold
and it just goes on and on about people
saying like, look,
this is such a beautiful,
beneficial practice and so many people
putting in the benefits there.
And so I just
really, really loved reading the comments,
but I do love the video,
so things I take away from it.
Here's a space where
on any type of dietary or health process,
you know,
people can end up in a plateau space.
This weight loss is rarely a linear,
process for sure,
no matter what you do and even something
like this, even what he says,
you know, there's a couple points,
okay, doing this 36 hours, once a week.
He even says for a season,
you know, for a season,
this is
something that I really like
as a concept that we can.
Fasting
does not have to be this rigid thing.
And it gets put out there on internets
to millions of people, like it's
this rigid thing, or it can only be this
or it was this, but now it's this,
and I, I've looked through
so many influencers.
Everybody copying videos is something
similar.
168 is dead now.
There's a ton like that.
And it's like,
no, no, I'm sorry that it's not.
And I guess it works for people because,
you know,
a lot of people watch these things, but,
you know.
I love that one
commenter say, can we just stop
overthinking all these things?
This is the big thing
I want to communicate from this.
The big take home.
Absolutely.
I agree with you commenter.
We can stop overthinking it.
Things do not have to be that complicated.
It's actually quite simple.
Grab a mug.
You can grab a simple fasting mug.
Free mugs for viewers.
Send me an email DRZ at simple
fasting.com.
You can go simple fasting.com
and get in touch with me there.
Hang out with us, grab a coffee
and in that space, no energy flowing in.
But look, the body doesn't stop, okay?
Heart is beating.
We're breathing, and the hamster
wheels are just running away up there.
Right?
Brain doesn't stop always burning energy.
And we open up that space.
And the energy can start to flow out.
And you really don't have to know
anything else other than that.
And then we sit in that space, right?
Just open up the space.
Fasting space, even a little bit of it.
Right.
Couple extra hours.
Right now
we're connecting in both body and mind.
To me, this,
you know, it's the same thing.
People like to split it out.
It's easy to talk about that way.
But,
we are a mind body
and we create some space in the bodies,
helping to create space in the mind.
You can work it the other way.
Like the commenter was saying,
do some fasting from all of this.
Hopefully, in a way,
this sort of space that we have,
even though it is a digital experience,
you know, the vibe of it that I'm trying
to create for everybody is not,
you know, like a standard YouTube video.
You know,
that's why we do it live.
That's why we don't edit out some space,
you know, because
space,
presence of nothing for a period of time.
There's something that's easy
to overlook, right?
It's like how how can you not?
But fasting,
showing us the pattern, fasting,
showing us that nothingness
for a period of time,
that the body can actually use it
and bring health to the body.
And the same thing happens in the mind,
say the digital fasting.
Open up some space from all the attention,
hacking algorithms
and clickbait titles
and things that are just trying,
you know, to confuse us
as much as anything so that we can
find ourselves, you know what I mean?
You've got to have some space
to, like, really
center our own thinking, like,
who is this person here?
And what do I believe and want?
I. Somewhere I want to bring in
and do more
thinking on this inside the box
how constraints make us better.
Read this.
But one of the points that he was making
that's coming to my mind.
Is he was he was just talking, okay, human
brain, human minds,
so incredible, so amazing.
Okay.
We can know so many different things,
so many experiences,
but it also is still finite.
And we are,
you know, blowing out into this space
where just knowledge.
And content, this is just so much of it
and so much pressure to consume it
that it can be overwhelming.
Like this person is like,
think of it.
You know, it's like,
I'm not even going to do this.
It's just too much to think about.
If something as simple
as 168 can be so controversial.
Really it isn't, you know?
But people making it controversial
to manipulate people
get you to click on things.
This is why I want things to be
like a deep breath, you know?
Everything.
Like a deep breath. Take the pressure off.
Don't overthink things.
We did the session the other day.
Think smaller.
You know, I thought that was beautiful.
Don't push yourself into a space.
I really like that.
You know, 36 hours to push yourself there.
You could end up having a bad experience.
I've, I've, I've tried to do that
where it's like, oh, it just isn't really
jiving.
You know, to me, a fasting space,
what we want is a flow state.
You don't want to think about it,
you know?
And if you are thinking about it,
it should be pleasant
thoughts like, doesn't this feel good?
And isn't this great? And isn't it nice?
You know, I don't want anybody like,
oh God, I can't handle it another second.
You know, it's like,
we don't want any of that.
Have you ever had it where you're flowing
through a space like you were just busy?
Maybe you're just working on something
you like where you didn't even eat,
you know,
but you didn't even think about it.
You're just absorbed in something else.
And then you just like it just happened,
like, oh, it worked through lunch.
You're busy. All of a sudden it's 3:00.
It's like, but then you're not so hungry
anymore, right?
It's like,
but then you get hungry for dinner, right?
You said, you see how it is like
the body has incredible energy within it.
And most of what we experience as struggle
with hunger is actually just patterns.
And it's a lot of things
happening in the mind.
And so
if we're trying to
advance our fasting, you know, practice,
it's like
we want to get to states like that,
because if you can flow through it
and it's not a struggle,
then it could become, you know, a much
easier thing to do, even something more.
But that's not something you can force,
you know, that's just something that,
in my experience,
let me know your experience.
That's
just something that you have to open up
space for to,
to give an opportunity to it.
That sort of space in the body
is very healthy, you know,
and I do believe that the body wants
spaces like that.
And especially the reason that I believe
that is because you look at the repair
processes and DNA repair and things
that happen in a space like that, like,
you know, the system was designed
or evolved or however you say it,
you know, to have that space
and run these beautiful processes,
like you can just reason your way there
and then scientific studies.
You know, show
that insulin resistance is resetting.
What a powerful thing.
So I really like that.
I use the analogy
a lot like growing a garden. Right.
How do you grow a garden?
The first step is to create the space,
like, you know, clear out
all the things that you don't want
so that you can plant the seeds, you know?
And so 168 to me is like opening up
the space of the garden.
We're going to plant some seeds,
meaning we're investing the time,
we're investing the thinking
and the thoughtfulness.
So there's something like this, like the
comment an easygoing, flexible approach.
Right.
And then maybe when the time is right
and you feel it,
you can flow into something like
the gentleman are saying in this video,
you know,
and then like, if it just happens,
that's how that's how I tell
people have a curious mindset to it.
So I wonder what would happen.
You know, what if I just keep this space
going a little bit and how would it feel?
And you always have a plan B
and it can always stop
and you know, everything just open.
And that is how we kind of
can phase in and out of some of this.
I love the flexibility, right?
The flexibility is what makes it
sustainable.
Can be for
seasons of time, can be for smaller time.
And,
I love that session.
We did no rules.
You know, no rules on
this process is by definition
just openness and should be explored
from a perspective of openness.
So I was thinking where I was left
at the end of that video.
I was thinking about people in a plateau
space, specifically in 168 spaces,
almost doing 16 inc in a plateau
sort of space.
From my perspective,
there's two general approaches to that,
and I'm I'm thinking of many more
now that I say that.
But, specifically in the dietary space,
you say, well,
do you need to back off of that?
For a while, we have spent time
discussing a process of net
negative metabolic adaptation
that that the body can
adjust to intake over time.
The body is trying to conserve energy.
That is a real phenomenon
that that can be in that space
sometimes, especially in the short term.
Usually metabolism go up, especially
if you've been in
like standard dieting without,
fasting.
But it's complex.
And so it's like sometimes
taking a step back, recognizing
you start eating more times
so you can get more calories.
Like you can undo a process that is
something you have to be very thoughtful.
But then the other side of it
is like leaning into it.
And that's where they go in here.
You know, there's huge benefit
to leaning in to higher levels of fasting,
and that's just something
to be approached very thoughtfully.
I love the analogy.
Climbing up the mountain,
we look at a plateau
as like we're trying to lose weight
and we can't go any further.
I like to flip it the other way.
Say we're climbing up a mountain.
We get to a certain level
that I call base camp,
and then we're getting ready
to make our next assault on the mountain,
trying to get to our pinnacle
health experience, the ultimate,
you know, goal that we have very positive
to look to the horizon,
have a long term vision
for where we want our health to be.
That's good.
But then bringing it into each day,
we have to have joy
on the journey,
right in order to get there.
That's why we have to find something
that is a flow
that is isn't a struggle,
that is actually making her life better.
Where we say, I'm feeling good doing this.
And,
to get in that base camp.
And then is that the time, like when
the time is ready, if you need to do it,
is the 168, the training program,
the process of building the base
and the foundation, training the body
to realize, oh, look at this.
Some food
free space opened up and it's okay.
And it's starting to feel good now.
And maybe it was hard to start,
but now it's okay.
Is it time to take a next step
and try something a little more right?
Doing a oh mad right.
Just eating one meal in a day,
even once a week.
Just trying.
It is the next step before,
in my view,
jumping to what these folks are saying.
Why push it harder than you have to?
But when you feel called to it,
when you feel called to it,
the human body, very capable
of fasting for a day,
does have marvelous health benefits.
If you take any medications,
if you have medical conditions, of course,
talk about it with your doctor,
your medical team.
If your medical team is not keen on
a fasting
based process, which some are not,
you can go to simple fasting.com.
I have an article
under the article section
Medical Provider Resource.
That is some takes on a very nice
fasting.
Research sometimes is helpful
if doctor has not been exposed to
research on this topic,
and I think I have one, like talking
to your medical provider about fasting
where I just give some thoughts.
I'll tell you, as a doctor it can be hard
to communicate with doctors.
Unfortunately,
in our medical system, doctors
not often looked after
people very over worked.
And the experience of it.
I'll just tell you, as a primary care
doctor trying to
handle an inhuman number of people
and the computer systems
and the things, you know,
I have much compassion for that.
So those are some resources
that might be helpful to you.
Okay, so my closing
thoughts on just the video to say
I loved the video, actually,
it's the takeaway for me
is just refreshing in my mind
again, to inspire people as much as I can,
you know, to
lean into the fasting process.
There is so much potential.
I spend a lot of time, you know,
saying, how much benefit can you squeeze
out of the shallow end of the pool?
And I especially want to, just emphasize
that because I feel like that
perspective is lacking in the insane
marketing culture that we are in today.
But but to me, there's real benefit
in the perspective
that they share of just saying,
you know, keep keep an open mind.
There is real potential to
to increase the intensity.
And one fasting day, to me,
I still consider simple fasting.
We're not fasting for weeks here.
And some extended, you know,
biblical level fasting,
which is specifically far beyond
what I think
most people should be doing,
especially without supervision,
monitoring labs and all these things,
which is just too much to me.
It's too stressful.
And I'm I'm very risk averse
personally, as a physician, I just
I hate risk, I hate side effects,
I hate complications to anything.
This is one of the main reasons
that I've,
you know, just taken
so much to fasting because,
you know, I was sitting there
in my medical practice,
if you can imagine 2600 people,
what my computer is like
of, of the refills and,
and is just hundreds and hundreds
of refills and medications,
it's just feels so out of control.
And I say, well,
how do we get upstream of this?
And so to find fasting and to realize
if you can gently help someone to do this,
like the potential
is there that maybe we can get by on less
blood pressure medicine,
maybe the diabetes medicine can be less,
and certainly for type two diabetes,
maybe a person doesn't take it to a level
where they can get off all their meds.
But what if they could just take less
than all of a sudden?
Did you see how the whole idea of it
is taking the pressure off?
It's taking pressure off of doctors and
health systems, is taking pressure off.
Cost is taking pressure off patients.
It's taking pressure off life.
And so this is the big thing that I want
to communicate to everybody about fasting.
If I have one thing that is, say,
what is different about, doctor Z,
fasting versus the thousand other people
that you can watch talk about it.
Everything that I want to do
is using this practice to take pressure
off of everything,
and especially your own life, you know,
so like, never approach it
from something that is adding
pressure and, you know, clickbait titles
and all these things that is adding
stress to me is the opposite of, really
what I think everybody should be doing.
You know, if if you are a fasting
influencer with millions of subscribers,
wouldn't it be great
if you just brought clarity
to people and helped people to calm down
and be thoughtful?
You know, instead of just trying
to make inflammatory headlines,
to get more views on your things,
to sell your supplement products
and leave people confused
and maybe even give up.
Like, to me,
that's very counterproductive.
You know, from a public health standpoint,
from like,
making society
better is obviously works for people.
But so I don't want
to do that in any way.
And,
we'll
just keep we'll keep rolling with that.
So if you like that sort of vibe,
and you would like to see
that sort of idea advanced,
I, you know, do the,
do the things, you know,
hit a subscribe,
hit a like, follow along,
spend some time, leave some comments
and share your perspectives.
And,
let's have a conversation.
Fasting space this I love doing it live
because it's a conversation.
It's not some video. It's you and me.
And we share our thoughts
and we figure out
how do we move forward together,
you know, and with stuff
like this, the more when you dive in
and you say, oh, it is confusing.
Like,
how can we just keep it simple, you know,
move forward
in a healthy and positive way?
Happy to hear any further thoughts.
I don't have to run away.
I'm grabbing a coffee myself.
Gonna hang out.
And,
I'll be doing
some more thinking about this.
So if you're coming through on the replay,
if you're listening on the podcast,
come in, click the video link.
Come share
further reflections and thoughts.
And do you have topics
that you would like to see addressed?
Maybe it's a video that you watch
on some other channel.
Do you want me to do a review of it
like this?
What do I think?
I will give you my honest thoughts
for whatever they're worth.
Or I have a list of academic
type talks that I do want to do,
Marie suggested.
Probably over a month ago,
to do a talk on
mitochondrial function and fasting,
which I, I do want to do.
I will do it for you.
And I
have a list of other talks,
but if you're new,
check out the Science
Deep dives with doctor Z.
You can see the topics that we've done,
acid reflux
and a lot of talk of diabetes
and blood pressure.
Some interesting historical
look at the ways
that fasting has been used in the past.
Fascinating study I found from
Philadelphia General Hospital in 1964.
They're admitting patients for longer
fasting.
And, it's just it's just amazing.
You know, some of the results
that they were getting then.
And there are these blips, you know,
there's blips throughout history,
the two main North American data series
that I have, the one in the 60s,
and then there's one back in the 20s
in Toronto, where they had,
a series of patients
that they were treating for diabetes.
Back then, they didn't know that
there was type one and type two then.
So just anybody with diabetes got brought
in, and maybe I should do a talk on that.
I think it's so fascinating how they were,
you know, figuring all that out.
Hey, thank you for this.
Here's a great question to talk about.
What do you think about fasting cardio.
If you have a daily fasting practice,
do you think working out
during a fast is risky?
So here, here's something.
Let's just dive a dive really into it.
This is a thing that is very dependent
on the person in the situation.
You know,
if someone has medical conditions,
especially blood sugar or blood pressure
problems, and you're taking medications,
this piles on risk on top of it.
Of course, the worst case scenario
would be that someone could
could you pass out either from low blood
pressure or low blood sugar?
Fasting is a very powerful intervention
to drop blood sugar.
It really is.
And then medications are powerful
and you start layering these things okay.
You can you can drop
blood sugar and blood pressure,
at least for some people in the short
term.
Not necessarily
everyone in the short term.
But blood pressure can be much better
fasting.
And it's not everybody right away.
And then I did one of the academic talks
I did was about this book.
Have it here somewhere.
Can fasting
save your Life about some experience
from the True North
Health Center in California?
Doctor Goldhaber
supervising people with extended fasting.
The position
that he puts forward in that book
is that all blood
pressure will eventually resolve.
If you fast long enough.
I'd be very cynical because, you know,
you fast long enough,
the blood pressure will go down.
But, no. For real.
I think it's probably true.
He's building a lot of data on that.
So anyway, let's just start at,
you know, the the base.
Somebody doesn't have any diseases.
They don't have any medications.
You know, how do you approach it?
You know,
say someone wakes up in the morning,
I'll just tell you about my experience.
I've been in fleets,
you know, my whole life.
I get up in the morning
before I knew about fasting, and
I want to do sprint intervals on my bike.
You know, here would be my routine.
I get up, I eat a banana,
I drink an orange juice.
I try to get the carbs flowing.
You know, you can feel it.
You know, even walking
around at a time like that,
I remember even feeling a little
lightheaded, be like, oh, I need to.
I need to get some energy in.
And then you drink the orange juice,
you start to feel the carbs going,
and then I start doing
kind of the stretches and warm up,
give it 20 minutes to get the carbs going.
Then I hit the bike, you know, and,
You start to realize, okay,
without any fasting space,
you're not training the body how to
handle that.
You know,
you're totally dependent on that.
The body is always efficient.
And so if you are never
calling on the reserves,
okay, you don't build out all the pathways
to do it.
You start putting that load on.
That's
why I consider fasting a type of strength.
It's a metabolic strength.
How practiced is the body
it accessing the energy within it?
First times I when I was starting
a fasting practice, I started with a 168.
Say I'm going to get up
and have a coffee in the morning.
And then, you know,
my practice is to exercise in the morning.
Okay.
First few times that I'm doing it,
I, doing fasting, I say it's enough.
I just sit there, I don't exercise, right.
I'm like, oh, I wouldn't want to do it.
But as it starts to feel better,
I see, you know, I would like
to exercise in the morning doing this.
Okay.
First time I get on my bike,
try to do sprint intervals,
you know, on my bike
fasting, I'm like, whoa.
You know, I mean, it's like you're
putting a load on the body.
And I just felt like, whoa,
I am not ready for this.
So, you know, I get on the bike
and I just kind of turn the pedals over
a little bit, you know, and it's like.
But then I start a routine of doing that,
and I tell you about six weeks,
then it really kicked in.
By six weeks.
I just get up,
I drink some water and go hit the bike,
and I can exercise
way harder in a fasting state.
And now it is my total preference.
Okay, this is my experience.
I'm telling you, if I've got any kind of
activity to do, I want to do it.
Fasting, whether that's running or biking,
even walking, hiking.
I love doing a
doing it fasting.
Over the summer I did this epic 6000ft
climb up this mountain fasting.
It's like ten mile hike.
I got a video on the channel.
Go back and, you know,
watch that from my North Carolina hike.
So kind of to answer your question,
could be risky in certain things.
It's a pinnacle health practice,
fasting exercise,
a pinnacle health practice, I say.
And if we make fasting, exercise,
just walking, I do say walking.
The world's healthiest activity
I really believe in human body
is built to walk.
It's a walking machine.
But sit before you can walk
in a fasting space, right?
Make sure things okay
and walk slowly and walk
a little bit
before you walk faster and further.
And if you have any medications,
medical conditions.
Okay. Talk with your medical team
about it.
Absolutely.
The risk especially is with blood
pressure and blood sugar.
Murray says.
I don't have tape to diabetes,
but I'm wearing a CGM for two weeks
just to see how my meals
and exercise affects my glucose levels.
A fantastic thing to do.
I love that,
I love doing that with people.
It amazes me how quickly
my blood sugar goes back to normal.
That's so awesome!
I really believe in CGM,
you know, I'm a minimalist.
I don't you don't have to have them.
I don't,
you know, like gadgets and things on me.
But for something like this, two weeks
just to get a window into the body
and see what is going
on, it's really amazing.
And so, like, it can give you such,
Such perspective
where, like, you know,
if you sat after dinner, like you said
and just left the blood sugar high versus
you take a walk and see it.
And it's the type of data
that can give you such powerful feedback.
Because they say, well,
I don't have type two diabetes,
but you could have some insulin resistance
happening
and a practice of bringing the blood
sugar down to normal,
help the body to process that energy
and get the blood sugar down to normal
is the type of thing that is helping,
you know, with weight loss,
preventing insulin resistance from working
or worsening or trying to say.
And so a tool, even from time
to time, to help
you see what is happening in the body.
One of the most powerful ways to
to get that feedback.
I mean, there's really no other way
to really do it
in such a personal and profound way.
And so, I really do love it.
And now you can get a c g.
Without even a prescription.
Something like the Stella.
And there's these other ones where, you
know, it's like 80 bucks for two of them.
And then you've, you know, you can do it
for two weeks and then you can do it
for two weeks, you know, here
or there doesn't have to be every day.
But that's the way to do it.
I love that you're doing that.
You can make it like
a little
bit of a game, you know, it's like,
oh, how do I keep it in the green zone?
And like, sometimes I take a walk
and I just love it, man.
I just love your dialing in
on so many good things.
This is this is absolutely the truth,
even for the same amount of carbs,
by putting the protein
or the fat first, right,
you can slow down
the implementation of it.
It's like it's like lowering the glycemic
index by putting it in this context.
So I think that has a real benefit.
And this is another thing.
If you have your own monitor, you don't
have to just take somebody word for it.
You know, you can actually see
the physiology in your own body.
You a be tested.
You eat the same meal one day
and then the next day and one day
you put the carbs first, and one day
you put the protein or fat first,
and you just see how much of a difference
is this making in the spike and
in how much you know?
It may be
with the same number of carbs
you may end up.
This would be the thing.
The next level would be if we could
monitor the insulin in real time.
You know, trying to think
if there's been a study like this and I'm
trying to think through the physiology,
it may be that we need less total insulin
when we space it out,
because then the intensity on the pancreas
is less.
It lets the body process it more easily.
And then that of course is a great way
to reduce
insulin resistance. So.
Very good thoughts,
very good thinking.
I really have loved
this whole reflection.
I did love that video
and I loved just kind of critiquing it
a little bit on the title.
Happy to hear from the folks about it.
You know, I'm gonna I,
I recorded a podcast the other day.
I'm going to be on my first podcast
that I've been on.
And so of course I'm ready.
Some, some people can, can rip apart
every little word that, that I say.
So I want to be nice to these people.
I do love the video. Go watch it.
But, be a little,
little thoughtful in our thinking too. So
I will
look forward to be back,
being back with you tomorrow.
Bring questions and thoughts
and observations, bring a good word
to share and throw it in
and we will have another
collective experience together,
taking steps forward in our thinking
and steps forward in health.
Wish you a beautiful day
and we chat again tomorrow.
Be well everybody.