Intermittent Fasting Methods: Finding Your Sustainable Timeline

Metabolic health doesn't have to be complicated. We dive deep into the fascinating relationship between GLP-1 medications and intermittent fasting, revealing how these two approaches can work synergistically to optimize weight management, blood glucose regulation, and overall wellness.

Contrary to popular belief, the most effective fasting schedule might not be the one trending on social media. We break down the science behind various fasting protocols – from the commonly practiced 16/8 method to the circadian-aligned 12/12 approach – explaining how each affects your body's natural GLP-1 production. You'll discover why women may need different fasting schedules than men, how protein timing can make or break your fasting success, and why that weekend splurge might be undoing all your weekday discipline.

The key takeaway? Sustainability trumps intensity. Whether you're combining intermittent fasting with GLP-1 medications or using fasting to naturally boost your body's incretin response, the best approach is one you can maintain for decades, not just weeks. We explore how to personalize your fasting window based on your age, hormones, and lifestyle, giving you practical strategies to enhance metabolic flexibility without creating an unhealthy relationship with food. Ready to discover your optimal fasting strategy for long-term metabolic health? This episode provides the roadmap you've been searching for.

Transcript

Introduction to GLP-1s and Intermittent Fasting

Speaker 1 0:25

so let's talk about GLP-1s and GLP-1s and intermittent fasting. So what is intermittent fasting? What is kind of the research of it and what does it do for the body? So first, it's helps with metabolic management, particularly with weight loss and glucose regulation. It's recent research has explored the approach and sense of combining it with potential impacts with medication. We're trying to naturally boost it. So GLP-1, we've said numerous times it is an incretin hormone and enhances insulin secretion, glucagon, and helps lowering your appetite suppression. But how does it do this? In reviews it shows that you know, depending upon the size of your meals, the amount of fasting, your when are you eating um post-adrenal, um food eating, the factors of what you're eating like is it a macro or is it just like not quality foods? Are you eating more for your gut microbiome? Intermittent fasting combined with GLP one will benefit you by helping with your weight loss. Now how does it do that? It is used in showing to release more of the growth hormone. It helps impact your muscle mass so that your keeps it more lean. Um, it's improving your glycemic index in your body. Excuse me, uh, that is thinking of it like um. It controls your blood glucose, reduces your body weight and helps with overall performance. Blood glucose reduces your body weight and helps with overall performance. Um. How to do this for each person it's personalized, right? So not everybody is a 12 hour, a 16 and eight Um, and I'll go into each one of these but it depends upon the person. You know you may need medication plus supervision, you may just need a conversation. Some people will do very well on um intermittent fasting. My household as a whole we always do 12 hours Um. Maybe one day of the week we will go a little bit more, like 14 or 16. Um, and once a month we will do it like a a 24 hour or we'll just have water. But for the most part, most of the time, we are 12 hours and 14 hours, and then my husband will. Sometimes we'll do 16s Um. I don't do as many of the 16s because hormonally for females it's not as beneficial. So in turn, let's talk about what types of intermittent fasting there are. So it's helping with your metabolic reset, kind of the dysregulation. So there's the very common one people will do is 16 and eight. That means in a 24 hour period you have 16 hours that you eat and eight hours. I mean 16 hours that you do not eat and eight hours that you will eat. So you're fasting for 16 and you're eating for eight. So let's say from 12 to 8 pm or like 11 to 6, you're eating and then the rest of that other time you're intermittent fasting. Benefits of this, and all of them will. I will tell you, most of them have similar benefits with just a couple of little changes. Most of them have similar benefits with just a couple of little changes. So in this one it benefits your GLP-1 secretion post-meal, so that's post-padronal meal, better appetite control and better like feeling full. Improves insulin sensitivity and encourages fat burning. So your body doesn't have as much food there, so it will fat burn more. With hormone regulations there Sometimes it can actually hold it in. Or if you have a cortisol stress issues, it could hold in if you have too much of it.

Speaker 1 4:16

But you don't want to do a 16, eight every day. I'm recommended maybe, like for women, twice a week and for men I think they can do up to about four. So four days they can do 16, three days they can do 14 and under 14 or 12 or 10s, um, and then once a month a 24 hour. Some people will do once a week, 24 hours. I do not do that, but there has been some research and benefits of that. Um.

Speaker 1 4:43

Then there's the next method is 14 and 10. So we're using a 24 hour clock and 14 hours. You're not eating 10 hours or eating. So think of this. More beginner friendly Um, I actually think a 12 hour one is more doable for most people, a 12 to 10 hour one. But 14 hours is beginner friendly, pretty manageable. So there's a 10 hour window that you can eat. So think, like 10 am, you can eat and you stop eating by eight. I recommend, like a 9 am to like a seven window if you're going to go that route.

The 14/10 and 12/12 Approach

Speaker 1 5:16

I'm anywhere between my range is 12 to 14 hours. With my fasting I always do 12. Sometimes we'll reach between 14 and 16, depending upon my mood and feeling, to 12,. Sometimes we'll reach between 14 and 16, depending upon my mood and feeling. But in those times I really have to make sure that I have a protein rich um beginning meal and if I don't, I'm going to crash, no matter what. If I don't have that, you will also know how does this 14 method work. Of course, again, it will help increase your, your um GLP one you're. You're less restricted, so, um, you may be able to maintain this a little bit longer. So some people are able to maintain 14 hours.

Speaker 1 5:52

I am more about sustainability and long, long-term. So what can you do when you're 20? And what can you also do at 80? 12-hour fasting, 14-hour fasting, is actually more sustainable than 16 and 24 hours. So I look at it like what can you do in your age bracket? So 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, you know your ears. That can be sustainable for you in longevity, for your metabolic health, because each time your body's going to change and each 10 years or so it will change. So what is beneficial for you? Mostly, 14 hours or 12 hours are the easiest and sustainable, but it depends upon how it is for you. And again, yes, it 'll help with metabolic digestion and health Beginners. Usually this is the best one. Women last on this a little bit better because of the hormones and its transitions. It's like the window for this is a little bit easier for people. They're able to sustain this Now with 12,.

Speaker 1 6:52

12 is the circadian one. I spoke briefly about this about. You can think of it like in the light hours you're eating and in the night hours you're not. So like 8 am you start eating, 8 pm you stop eating. This one aligns with, usually, the natural circadian cycle. You just have to be more mindful about what you're eating, because just because you have a 12 hour window and you just keep eating, that's not, you know, meal restricting. If you're eating in excess, then you're still going to eat as many calories as you want. So sometimes the 12, 12 is um still helpful, but in that 12 hour period you know still what are you putting into your body, what food are you putting into your body? And it does help with a gentle metabolic boost. It doesn't do as much of a boost until you're at 14 to 16 hours Um, usually about that 14 hours. You'll get a really good fat burning around that time. But I will say for myself 12 hours and sustain with more protein and try to boost to 14. If I can.

5:2 Method and Weekend Challenges

Speaker 1 7:55

Um, there's some that do a five to. This is um the normal days. Five days they restrict their calories and two of those days, um, they so normal eating Monday through Friday and then calorie restriction Saturday and Sunday. So what that means is they have on their normal days they restrict their calories five or 600. I'm not a fan of this one at all. I feel that, um, you know, if you can sustain it weekly, that would be the best thing, because then what happens is people think that weekends are like I can eat whatever I want and actually those weekend calories can equate to so many not just calories the amount of food that they eat because they're going out or drinking and such. Then it just like you've just packed on those pounds for the next week. So I'm not as much of a fan of it, but I know that people do like it. It is a little bit more flexible. People are like oh, I can, it can be sustainable.

OMAD and Alternate Day Fasting

Speaker 1 8:54

You can have a meal that you should have, a cheat meal, you should have meals that are enjoyable, but it's still understanding and having a good relationship with food and how it is for your body and how it will sustain you and, you know, think of it as fuel and enjoying but still managing so that you can have the best metabolic health for you. So you know this is a behavioral, this is modification and um understanding what that is, but not um, obsessive, um, omad, or one meal a day. There are some individuals that like to do that. Um, it's eating one large meal for the day in a one to two hour window. Examples of this is like you may just eat a lunch and that's it. You might have water and coffee and teas and the rest of the time you're not eating. Uh, this is very sustainable for some individuals Um and maximizes JLP. One pretty significantly drastically lowers your insulin and there's a lot of um cellular repair when you only eat one meal a day um due to the extended fasting. Good and bad to this is um. It's not for everybody. It's not sustainable for long-term Um. It's not a deal for people that are trying to get muscle maintenance and proper um protein intake and not for older individuals or too young. So this is kind of like that in between, where you're um trying to kind of sustain but you're, this is for somebody that's already been experienced and they're very well often when they're metabolic um reset um and they have a little bit more flexibility, and when they're doing that one meal it is like like packed nutrient pack and it's just not like you know, a burger and fries, okay. So that doesn't. You know that won't do it. Your body needs a little bit more nutrients and supplements.

Speaker 1 10:47

Individuals do alternate fasting. This is a little bit more extreme. This has to do with when you're alternating between fasting low calorie and high calorie. So you may eat normal one day regular meals and Tuesday you might eat normal. Monday you're going to eat one meal. Tuesday you might eat normal. Monday you're going to eat one meal. Wednesday you're going to fast. So you're just alternating each day.

Speaker 1 11:14

Now for an individual that's not used to fasting or changing their meal intakes, I wouldn't recommend this at all. But you know, I'm just giving you ideas of what is available for individuals. This significantly helps with GLP-1. Think about your body is just it has to break down what it has. So if it doesn't have as much nutrients that it's getting in it, then it obviously is going to be breaking down the things in its body. But you still have to have good metabolic flexibility, which means that it's able to use what's in its body to break down. So, yes, the benefit of of fasting is to help with lower inflammation, help with um cellular repair, help with your lowering the amount of fat storage and breaking down the excess.

Personalization and Sustainability Focus

Speaker 1 12:03

But you know it can be challenging if you know you don't take it one day at a time. So that's why I usually say let's start off slower, doing like a 10 or 12 hour, then do restrictions on what foods you want to eat and, you know, picking the quality things. Then you can kind of up the ante if you need to, in the sense of trying to do a little bit more of a reset but think a bit more on sustainability, sustainability, sustainability, sustainability. And if you want more metabolic reset, yes, you can do a one, one meal a day at some point when you feel like you're you're at a good understanding of where your body is and designing that to what you need to be. It needs to be personal, so it's not one size fits all, but if you have any additional questions on that, I would be glad to help answer that and I will give you more optimal diet recommendations and things of that nature. Any other questions? I'll see you in the next lesson.