Intermittent Fasting Mistakes That Make You GAIN WEIGHT

"Hello, Health Champions! Today, we're going to  talk about some common mistakes that people make  

with intermittent fasting that could actually  make you gain weight instead of losing it. So,  

let's make sure that you don't make any of  these. One common mistake that people make  

is that they overeat after the fast, and that  is because they feel deprived in some form,  

and then after the fast, they overcompensate and  they overeat. Usually, this comes down to some  

very common factors, and if they don't really  change what they're eating, they're just eating  

the same types of food but they're restricting  the window, and a lot of those foods are going  

to be low quality and processed foods. Now,  the body isn't getting the proper nutrition,  

so it's going to be screaming for food during  the fast, and then you overcompensate after,  

and then there are three things that go hand in  hand. So we're going to cover those together.  

One is that you eat too high of a carb diet; you  keep eating high carb even when you're fasting.  

One is that you change too quickly from what you  were doing, and the third is that you go directly  

from a low-fat, high-carb diet—a standard  diet—straight into intermittent fasting. So,  

we need to understand how those three factors  affect blood sugar and energy production. So,  

when you eat a high carbohydrate diet, your blood  sugar will rise very quickly, and then the body  

releases insulin to bring it down because the  body doesn't like high blood sugar. Really high  

and really low blood sugar is very dangerous,  so it's going to produce a lot of insulin that  

brings the blood sugar down, and then when it's  low, now you get cravings and you eat again,  

and so forth. So you keep getting this blood  sugar roller coaster, and this is very much  

related to processed foods, to high sugar foods,  and to high carb foods. And what happens then  

is that you train your body to depend on these  blood sugars spikes, because when they're low,  

you feel bad. So now, you eat more, but then as  soon as the blood sugar is high, your body has to  

use up that energy and bring that blood sugar  down, so you get stuck in this dependency on  

high carbohydrate foods and cravings. And then  if you go straight into intermittent fasting,  

your body doesn't know where to get the energy,  and then you have high energy when the blood sugar  

is high, you have low energy and low mood when  it's low, and that's not sustainable. Whereas,  

if you instead eat a low-carb diet with your  intermittent fasting plans, now as you also eat  

real food with protein and fat, nuts and seeds,  meat, vegetables, now your blood sugar swings are  

going to be almost non-existent. You have a very,  very stable energy production, and now it's very  

easy to go eight hours, 16 hours without food,  and you're not going to lose energy, and you've  

trained your body into using fat for energy, and  that's what your body uses when you fast. So it's  

not necessary for everyone to go low carb when you  do intermittent fasting. Some people pull it off  

even though they eat relatively high carb, but for  a lot of people, they're not going to manage it;  

they're not going to succeed eating high carb  because it's going to be too difficult for them,  

and for most people, it's going to be much, much  easier to do intermittent fasting and continue  

and have long-term success if you keep your blood  sugar much more level with low-carb foods. Another  

problem can be Bulletproof Coffee, and don't get  me wrong, I am a fan of Bulletproof Coffee, but  

we can't let it get out of hand, and we have to  understand that it's a tool; it's not a benefit,  

meaning that if you compare Bulletproof Coffee  to fasting completely, then it's not better;  

it doesn't do anything additionally that fasting  alone couldn't do. And the most common question I  

get is, does it break a fast? And does it raise  insulin? And does it break a fast? Absolutely,  

it breaks a fast because a fast is when  you're not eating anything, but the benefit,  

the good thing about it is that it raises insulin  just a tiny, tiny bit; it raises it so little,  

so it's almost like you didn't eat. And I am a fan  of Bulletproof Coffee if it helps you go longer.  

So if you were getting tired, and you got listless  or nauseous, or whatever, or you just felt like  

you really had to have something, and then the  question was, am I going to eat or can I get  

another four, six, or eight hours of fasting until  dinner? Will it help me do OMAD, one meal a day,  

if I have some Bulletproof Coffee? Because then,  it's a good thing. It just gets a little blip on  

your insulin, and then you're back to fasting.  The problem is when it becomes a fad and a trend,  

and people don't understand where it fits  in to fasting. So now, we have thousands of  

people putting up recipes online about all these  great things, and people are having one, and two,  

and three Bulletproof coffees because they think  more is better; that if Bulletproof Coffee is okay  

or if it's good, then more must be better.  They put butter in there, they put MCT oil,  

and heavy cream, and I've even seen recipes with  egg and collagen, and none of those are horrible,  

but they're not really necessary either, so you  just do enough to get you by. And if you have two  

tablespoons of butter, for example, now that adds  a couple of hundred calories. A tablespoon of MCT  

oil is 120 calories. Two tablespoons of cream is  another 100 calories. One egg is 80 calories, and  

a scoop of collagen powder would be probably about  50 calories. So I think it's okay if Bulletproof  

Coffee has 200, 250 calories; that's great.  But if you have four, 500 calories and you have  

a couple of those a day, now that's a meal; that's  two meals, and you're not really fasting anymore,  

and the fat is there to carry you over, not to  have you eat so much fat that your body has no  

reason to burn it off, the body. So that's where  Bulletproof Coffee can be a problem when it gets  

out of hand, when it becomes a meal. Now, there  are two kinds of mistakes that could make you  

gain weight with intermittent fasting, and the  first two things we talked about are things like  

overeating and too much Bulletproof Coffee, that  could actually make you gain weight directly.  

But then, the other way is if you make it  so hard that you're going to quit. If you  

don't understand to turn this into a lifestyle  that is sustainable, now, if you quit fasting,  

intermittent fasting, now you gain the weight back  because you're not doing the right things anymore,  

and intermittent fasting is not supposed  to be hard. But we have this mentality  

that of no pain, no gain. We go to the gym, and  if it's not hurting, it can't be good, right? But  

then, that mentality sometimes carries over, and  now we think that it's the hunger that's going  

to give us the results, and we feel absolutely  terrible, and we say, 'Oh my God, I'm both hungry  

and I feel deprived, and then I must be doing  it right.' And we got to get past that kind of  

thinking. All right, it's not supposed to be hard;  if it's too difficult, if we feel miserable, then  

we're not going to turn it into a lifestyle, and  then we fail. Another thing that can make us feel  

really bad is dehydration, and the two parts to  that: one is that we're not drinking enough water,  

but the second part is that we're not taking  enough electrolytes because electrolytes are  

charged little particles, little molecules that  bind water, that hold the water, so the body  

uses electrolytes to regulate fluid balance in the  body. And if we're not taking any, then we can be  

losing water even though we're drinking a lot of  water. And the most important electrolyte to take  

is just salt, plain salt, called sodium chloride.  I do recommend typically that you get sea salt or  

pink Himalayan salt; those are my favorites.  But then, it's also a really good idea that  

if you supplement also with some potassium, some  magnesium, and some calcium, as well as some trace  

minerals, especially if you end up doing a little  bit more intermittent fasting on a regular basis,  

or maybe you go a little bit longer once in a  while, like more than 24 hours. And because this  

is such a common problem, I developed a product to  support fasting called euLyte, and I'll put a link  

down below if you want to check that out. Another  thing that can actually make you gain weight is  

poor sleep, and hand in hand with that is high  stress because anytime you wake up after poor  

sleep or insufficient sleep, now your cortisol is  going to be elevated, and the same thing with any  

type of stress, anytime that your body perceives  that you are in danger, then you're going to be  

activating the fight-flight response. And anytime  that your body perceives danger, it thinks, 'Well,  

I might have to run if there's a bear or a tiger  around the corner, then I might have to run.'  

So I might need a little extra blood sugar,  and that's what the cortisol is for. Cortisol  

raises that blood sugar, and historically, that  was a great thing because we are in danger,  

we raise the blood sugar, and now the muscles  will absorb that blood sugar, and then we move,  

we run, we fight, and we use up that blood sugar.  That's the purpose, that's the balance that resets  

everything. But modern people, we don't get  that movement. We are feeling stressed, sitting  

in a car; we're feeling stressed, sitting at a  desk; there's no additional energy expenditure,  

and now that cortisol raises blood sugar, and  now, with that extra blood sugar and no movement,  

the body also raises insulin, and now we're  promoting metabolic imbalances with that extra  

stress and that extra cortisol. And of course,  when you don't move, and you handle that elevated  

glucose with insulin, now that glucose is going to  turn into fat, and whenever insulin is elevated,  

and we store it as fat, now we can't retrieve it,  and we get hungry. So now we end up eating more,  

we get more cravings, and that's what happens with  excess cortisol. And two really powerful ways to  

deal with this stress to help the body reset is  to do some breathing exercises and to do some  

meditation. And it doesn't take very long if you  get your body used to doing this, and you notice  

that you're feeling a little stressed, you could  take 30 seconds of breathing exercises and reset  

the body. Another problem is if we exercise wrong.  So one thing could be if we just exercise too  

much, period, but very commonly, we just exercise  at too high a level for too long, and that matters  

because we use the wrong type of fuel. And we  really want to understand that it's not about  

calories. Everywhere you look, there's such stupid  advice that if you eat a cookie with 100 calories,  

then you have to walk so many minutes, or you  have to run so many minutes; that is just not  

how it works at all, get that out of your head  forever. What you try to do is to burn fat,  

and you burn fat during aerobic exercise. Whenever  you switch to anaerobic exercise, now you're  

shifting from fat-burning to carbohydrates because  anytime that you get into anaerobic exercise,  

you're going to be shifting to a fuel source  called glycolysis. And here's how that works.  

So let's say that you're in pretty good shape,  and you have a resting heart rate of about 60,  

and let's say that at rest, you're using up that  much energy, and then as you start exercising,  

your body needs more energy. And this energy comes  primarily from burning fat and using oxygen. So  

the blood provides that oxygen, you're oxidizing  the fat, and you're making energy, and then as  

you make more, more, more energy, your heart  rate goes up so you can provide more oxygen. So  

once you get to about 120, you're close to maxing  out how much oxygen the blood can carry. So here,  

you have doubled your heart rate, but you've  also increased how much blood is pumped for  

every heartbeat because the heart stretches  a little bit. So now, you're pumping about  

three to four times as much blood, and here,  there's still enough oxygen to completely cover  

the need to make energy. So far, you are  in what we're calling aerobic, with air,  

that all the energy is covered by oxygen supplied  in real-time. But now, if you start going faster,  

now your heart rate is going to increase further,  and that's a sign that once you start huffing and  

puffing, now you're not taking in the blood  cannot deliver enough air, enough oxygen.  

So anything above here is going to be anaerobic,  and now you're not burning primarily fat anymore,  

now you're still burning the same amount of fat  at the bottom as the base, but anything extra,  

you're going to be using carbohydrate, and  you're switching to another energy pathway called  

glycolysis. And the way you can tell is that  you're huffing and puffing, your muscles start  

burning because this glycolysis, you're breaking  down glucose, and you turn that into lactic acid,  

that burn in the muscle, that's the lactic acid  from anaerobic metabolism. And now the problem  

is that fat burning with oxygen is very, very  efficient because you're going to be producing  

38 ATP per unit of energy that you're using up per  unit of fat, but when you switch to glycolysis to  

carbohydrate, now you're only getting two ATP. So  to get this extra energy, you're going to be using  

up a lot of carbohydrate fairly quickly, and if  you're using up carbohydrate quickly, what is the  

body have to do? It has to look for more. So now,  you're making cortisol at a very high level. So  

anytime that you get into this zone, you're going  to automatically kick in the cortisol at a pretty  

high level. Now, even though you're making massive  amounts of cortisol, this can be beneficial if  

this anaerobic is very, very brief; that's called  high-intensity interval training. So if you do  

that all out, like a maximum effort for about  30 seconds, and you keep the total of intervals  

down to just a few minutes, now you're getting  tremendous benefits, and the drawback is not so  

much because even though you're in this anaerobic  zone, it's such a short time that the benefits far  

outweigh the drawbacks. However, if you go to a  spin class, or if you go huffing and puffing, or  

you do something for 30, 40 minutes, or an hour,  now you spend so much time in that anaerobic zone,  

you're making so much cortisol that you're also  going to drive up your insulin. And when you do a  

lot of this, you also will get increased cravings  to replenish all of that carbohydrate that you  

used up. So we have to understand that if we do  things the hard way, that if we struggle and make  

it complicated and difficult, then we all end up  quitting, whereas if we learn how to do it right,  

now you can set yourself up for long-term success  for a lifestyle change. Another problem can be  

hypoglycemia, and for the most part, it's not  the hypoglycemia itself that's kind of rare that  

it becomes a problem, but it is the fear; it's  an inappropriate fear sometimes. Like someone  

asked me, how do I do this? Every time I try to do  one meal a day, my blood glucose drops below 70,  

and I have to eat something because we've  heard, we've been warned, we've been scared  

of hypoglycemia like that's a terrible thing. But  when you're fasting, you're burning mostly fat,  

and when you're mostly in fat burning, especially  if you're low carb, now you make ketones, that's  

an alternate fuel. So your body doesn't need  as much blood glucose, and it's not a problem.  

When I do a longer fast, I sometimes get down into  the 50s. I know a lot of people get into the 40s,  

and as long as you feel good, it's not a problem.  But I want to tell you about a study that they  

did one time, where they took a group of young,  healthy men, and they fasted them for three, four,  

five days, and their blood glucose levels were  at in the 40s and 50s, and then they injected  

them with insulin to force the blood glucose  dramatically low, just to see what happened. And  

they got one guy got the glucose down to nine, and  most of them were between 15 and 20, and nothing  

happened. None of them displayed symptoms of  hypoglycemia; they still felt good because their  

bodies, their brains, were running on ketones.  So your body doesn't need as much glucose when  

you're fat-adapted, and when you're fasting. But  the people who really need to be careful about  

hypoglycemia are type 2 diabetics on insulin  and type 1 diabetics who are also, obviously,  

on insulin. If you're not on insulin, then all  you have to do is to pay attention to how you feel  

because if you're a type two diabetic, if you're  taking insulin, and you stop eating, now that  

insulin will be just like the study I mentioned,  it will force the blood sugar super, super low,  

and that can be dangerous if you're not used to  fasting. But if you're not on insulin, then you  

just have to pay attention to how you feel. Are  you feeling good? Are you clearheaded? You have  

energy, or are you dizzy? Are you lightheaded?  And if you start feeling off in any way,  

then the first thing that you do is you drink some  water, and you have some salt or some electrolytes  

with it, and if it doesn't pick up almost  immediately where you're feeling better, then  

you go eat something. And then, next time that you  try intermittent fasting again, you go a little  

bit slower at it, or you make sure that you're a  little better fat-adapted, and you follow all the  

other rules that we talked about. But the biggest  reason people fail to develop a lifestyle of  

intermittent fasting is probably that they don't  understand enough about it; if they have a lack  

of knowledge, if they don't understand how the  body works, then you just need to study a little  

bit more because more understanding of these  things will create a better expectation, a more  

realistic expectation. And the best way to gain  a better understanding is, of course, to watch  

a lot more of my videos, and if you enjoyed this  video, you're going to love that one. And if you  

truly want to master health by understanding how  the body really works, make sure you subscribe,  

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