10 Rules Of Intermittent Fasting
Hello Health Champions. Maybe you're one of those people who are still on
the fence about intermittent fasting, or maybe you just want to understand it a little bit better.
Either way my goal here today is to help you see how incredibly simple intermittent fasting
really is, and by the end of this video you will know for sure that you can do it too. The
first rule of intermittent fasting is to know that you're already doing it because fasting is simply
the time that you're not eating. So all of us are fasting between meals, right? The only question is
how long is that longest time period during a day. And a lot of people are afraid of missing a meal.
But here's the question How come you can go eight hours without food at night and yet you think that
something terrible is going to happen if you go more than two or three hours during the day
without a meal without topping off your blood sugar or your energy reserves, as they call it?
Well the reason you can go eight hours at night and you think you can only go a couple hours
during the day is that you've been told that. And you've turned it into a habit. That's the only
reason the second rule of intermittent fasting is that it's incredibly easy everyone has 24 hours
in a day and everyone spends some time sleeping so there's a time where they're not
eating. And if you wake up at six or seven then you probably have breakfast and then you probably eat
every few hours throughout the day so for a lot of people that means you're eating for
about 15 hours and there's about nine hours that you're not eating. Now that is already a
form of intermittent fasting that is already time restricted eating, but you can extend
that time period. You can increase the benefits very very simply. All you have to do to start
is you have breakfast a half hour later and if you have to get out of the house and you can't eat
later then you bring a smoothie. And then after 30 minutes you start consuming your smoothie
and what's going to happen a lot of time is that you forget about the smoothie and you
get several hours into it maybe all the way to lunch before you realized you didn't actually
have anything. And then you can start shrinking the feeding window from the other direction also
and you have your evening snack 30 minutes earlier so now you shorten it by one hour. And as your
body gets used to that it's gonna be so simple so easy to keep that going to push that window a
little bit shorter every day that you're not even gonna think about it. You're not gonna miss it
and if you give that some time give it a couple of weeks, give it a month, give it two months.
Doesn't really matter but if you keep it going and you just listen to your body then you will
change some habits and before you know it you will be down to maybe having two or three meals
in a six hour period. Or you can have a little bit longer depending on what your body is telling you.
We'll talk more about that so maybe two meals in a six hour period. Maybe two or three meals in an
eight-hour period. Now the thing with intermittent fasting is that just like a lot of other profound
things it appears too simple and part of human nature doesn't like it to be simple because then
how could we have missed it all along if it was that simple. But the fact is. It is that simple.
The third rule of intermittent fasting is to know that it is only hunger. Now this isn't going to
happen nearly as much as you think especially if you follow the schedule that we just talked about.
But hunger is only a physical sensation it doesn't mean that your body is in danger. It doesn't mean
that you're going to die or that something is wrong. And furthermore we have to put it into a
context that if you have hunger but you know why then you don't have to worry it's. Sort of like a
workout, you're in the gym and you're running that last rep, and the muscles are swelling,
and they're burning, and they're hurting, and you never felt better, you're so happy, you're
so proud because you pushed yourself you got that great burn, that unbearable pain. But it's in that
context it makes sense. If you're sitting at your computer and your muscles start burning like that
you should be worried. Like you should go get some help right away that means something but
in that context it's a good thing right. And I'm not saying that you're going to be super hungry,
but if it happens then don't worry about it because you know your body has it under control.
And there's also a difference between true hunger and that means you have the feeling that hey I
think I'll eat something soon but you don't have the need. You could go another hour or another
two hours until it becomes convenient which is very different from cravings and this is people
saying, "Oh my god. I feel terrible, I'm dying, I'm unfocused, I'm dizzy, I'm lightheaded, I have to
have something." That is completely different. That is not true hunger that is a physiological
imbalance. Rule number four is that intermittent fasting restores balance. When we have weight
gain, which is a rampant problem, it's an epidemic all over the world, weight gain is an imbalance
between in and out in the body. And we've been told now for a while that it's about calories in
calories out but it's not that simple. It's about why do we engage in that behavior. Why do we eat
more and more. And the answer has to do with hormones and insulin in particular. Whenever
we eat food insulin goes up because insulin takes blood sugar into the cell where we can use some of
it for the time being and we can store the rest for the future. Now when we eat frequently now
we're going to trigger insulin frequently and if we do that often insulin is not going to have time
to come down between meals. Which means we push it higher and higher and higher and excess insulin
over long periods of time results in insulin resistance. And when we have insulin resistance
we have an imbalance in storage and usage which leads to additional hunger and cravings.
So frequent meals actually changes our behavior from two reasons both because we're creating a
habit and an expectation, but also because we don't have access to the food since insulin is a
storage hormone we're shifting the balance towards storage and away from usage. So here's a graphic
on what that looks like the norm has become that we eat like we said every three hours or so.
And what this means then is that after the last meal we still have a period of time where insulin
is high because we're processing that food. Which means that there's really only six hours every day
that we allow insulin to drop so we're bringing up insulin six times a day and it stays high for 18
hours and there's only six hours that we're allowing it to drop. Now compare that with the
other model we talked about where you compress that feeding window down to about six hours.
Then there's still going to be three hours after that last meal but there's a huge difference
because we're only bringing up insulin twice a day and it only lasts for about a total of nine hours
which means now we have 15 hours we have two and a half times as long to allow that
insulin to drop so we're creating a balance. We're restoring balance between storage
and usage rule. Number five is that intermittent fasting is very very safe, but even so you'll
probably come across some advice warning you about the dangers. And one thing they often bring up
is they call it an eating disorder because on the surface it could look like bulimia to them. That
bulimia is when someone has an unhealthy emotional relationship to food they feel very very guilty
about food and they deprive themselves and then when they can't stand being deprived anymore now
they compensate with excess and they say that intermittent fasting will mimic this behavior
and drive this and nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, when you start intermittent
fasting then you create a healthier relationship to food you reduce cravings you reduce hunger.
We're also warned about dehydration they say that when you eat less that you forget to drink.
Well my experience with myself and hundreds of other people is the opposite. That when you reduce
the food then you're more likely to carry around a water bottle you're more likely
to have an extra cup of tea or coffee or some other drink. And then they say that you will
be hungry you're going to suffer from low energy you have mood swings and irritability
and you will also raise cortisol because it's very stressful for the body well it's not
entirely untrue but it is probably going to happen much less than you think if you do it gradually
and it's only because we're trying to change a pattern, change a habit and an expectation
in the body so for a few days two, three, four days maybe you might have some of this but then
you'll have much less this is only the body trying to get over a carb addiction where you have always
been providing blood sugar every few hours so the body expects it and when you stop
it gets a little insecure but it soon passes and then you're much much better off. So what we really
need to do is to compare the short-term discomfort to the long-term benefit so if someone's an
alcoholic they're going to feel terrible if they stop drinking but does that mean that the right
thing is to keep drinking? I don't think anyone would argue for that. So if your body is addicted
whether it's for alcohol or to frequent meals or processed foods or sugar or carbohydrates
then the long-term solution is to stop doing that and if you have a few days of discomfort then
it's going to be very worth it and like I said if you do it gradually then you probably won't
even notice. Rule number six is to understand that it's very natural so often like we said before
they'll call it an eating disorder anything that doesn't fit the norm that doesn't fit what we're
accustomed to is called a disorder. Well, then 100% of our ancestors had an eating disorder I guess
and as well as all of the animals of the planet because nobody gets food at regular intervals six
times a day. Now how much and how often animals eat is going to depend on what they're designed
for so if they're designed to eat mostly water and fiber if they eat grass and plants
then they're forced to graze all day. They have to eat eight ten twelve hours a day
because the nutrient concentration and the energy is so low in that food whereas other animals
who eat more concentrated more calorically dense food like fat and protein they typically eat
once a day. So if we eat a little bit of everything we'll end up somewhere in between. Rule number
seven it is very healthy it brings down insulin like we talked about it brings down glucose it
brings down blood pressure but then there are some other benefits as well because it
increases something called autophagy which is a form of self-eating when we're not stuffing things
into the body all the time then the resources become a little bit more appreciated. The body
senses that it has to take better care of them and as a result it increases the recycling capacity
the recycling mechanisms in the body so we're improving immunity. We're increasing growth hormone
which is muscle sparing and we're also increasing fat burning. And as a result of course you will
typically lose weight but it's not about restricting calories it's about reducing the
number of meals the time period that we're making insulin because insulin is the fat storing hormone.
When we address all of this you get tremendous health benefits and yes you will probably lose
some weight as well but that's more of a bonus. Rule number eight is that it's cheap now typically
when something comes around it gets your attention you want to give it a try it usually involves an
expense it's going to cost you something well how many things do you know of that you can try that's
going to cost you nothing right we're just talking about you doing less of something you're already
doing. You're already eating just don't do it as frequently that's all we're saying. The only other
thing I can think of is going for a walk that's pretty inexpensive too so try that as well. Rule
number nine is that intermittent fasting should be adapted to the individual everyone can do some
intermittent fasting except infants because they are growing so fast they're living off mother's
milk which is nature's way of dealing with that fast growth and that very particular food supply
so they're on their own schedule there's no reason to restrict their feeding but everyone
else can do some form of time restricted feeding. The question is how restricted? That
is gonna be different for everybody and that's what you have to figure out what's right for you
so if you're very very thin if you have a hard time putting on weight if you're malnourished
if you're growing very quickly like small children or if you're trying to grow for some reason or if
you're pregnant you're growing something inside you then you don't want to be very extreme
in your restriction but you can still get all the nutrients you need in two to three meals in
an eight hour period or maybe ten hour period if you're extra hungry but nobody needs meals every
few hours food every couple of hours throughout the day and of course children some of them are
still growing and some of them are very very picky eaters now I believe that we would not get nearly
as many picky eaters if we didn't give them sugar or processed foods or white food typically what
these kids will eat is sugar and white stuff but the body has this amazing desire to survive so if
you feed these kids real food at regular times and they skip a meal then they're going to be
extra hungry for the next time their bodies are not going to let them perish and you probably
wouldn't have hardly any picky eaters. And other unfortunate children who have been given plenty of
the sugar and the processed and the white stuff they can develop obesity and type 2 diabetes
before they even get into their teens. There are 8-year-olds who are type 2 diabetics because
they've been overeating the sugar and the wrong stuff. So you don't want to restrict their food
too much not like an adult but you can certainly restrict their time window down to six hours or so
because they have a metabolic problem that needs to be reversed and in two square meals they can
still get everything that they need and then there are those people who just have very very stubborn
weight. They may be obese or just moderately overweight but their bodies are very stubborn
they have very stubborn insulin resistance and it's been that way often for decades
now for them it may not be enough to do what most people do. They might have to go a step further
to something called OMAD which is one meal a day and that starts making a difference for a lot
of people but some people have to go to one meal every other day and that's not for everybody but
if everything that you try so far doesn't make a difference then you might have to go a little bit
further and while that might seem a little extreme it does tend to work for just about everybody
and as long as you eat real food nutritionally dense food you can still get all the nutrients
that you need in that one meal. Rule number 10 is to understand intermittent fasting is liberating
because an eating disorder is when the food controls you and whether you have a traditional
eating disorder or you're just eating six times a day and you can't live without that that's still
food controlling you when food controls your energy levels and your mood and your schedule
when you have to eat to feel good then food is a drug. With intermittent fasting what you'll find
is that you can eat when it's convenient. If it's not convenient you can go a few extra hours and
still feel perfectly fine in every way. You'll find that over time you will have much less hunger you
will have much less cravings they don't control you anymore. You'll find that it frees up a lot
of time when you don't spend so much time cooking and eating and what you also find is that there's
no going back and it doesn't mean that you can't but what I find is that for the hundreds of people
and even thousands if you count all the comments on the YouTube forums when people try this
and they find out how good they feel and that food doesn't control them, they can't even imagine
going back I've never heard of anybody going down to two meals a day and then going back
to six meals. If you enjoyed this video you're going to love that one. And if you truly want
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