Intermittent Fasting, Self Experimentation

If you are familiar with the Paleo lifestyle, or weight lifting, or dieting... you may have heard about intermittent fasting (IF).  Perhaps you've heard about leangains and bullet-proof butter coffee IF, or that women shouldn't IF...or maybe they should.  For Christmas, Ryan received the book "Man 2.0, Engineering the Alpha," which encourages 16/8 IF.  Fast for 16 hours, with an eating window of 8 hours.  Since Ryan is trying it, I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I'm not discussing all the benefits of fasting, or the hormonal changes that happen in your body, you can read about that

Bye Bye Breakfast

here: Leangains top ten fasting myths
here: The IF Life 101
here: Precision Nutrition-IF experiments
also here: Mark's Daily Apple
here: Roman Fitness IF 101
and here for the ladies: Roman's wife Neghar Fonooni

Instead, this post is about my 1 wk experiment using 16/8 IF.  For 7 days, I simply skipped breakfast which I typically eat between 7 and 8:30 after working out.  Lunch came between 11 and 1pm and supper between 4-7pm.  It's hard to keep a eating schedule, when my work schedule changes almost every day, and I have to eat when I can.  My days looked something like this:

Morning Coffee at 6:30 with a little cream and 2-3 tsp MCT oil

Post workout: Water with 1.5g Glutamine

Lunch 11-1: Big salad with 1 can tuna or chicken + 1-2 Hard boiled eggs + Dressing + macadamia nuts

Snack 2-4pm: Protein shake made with 1/2 avocado (no fruit) or 1-2 1000 Hills Beef Sticks + Veggies + Hummus

Supper 4-7pm: 6oz Meat + Veggies + Fat, one night I had a Chipotle salad with guacamole.

Snack at 8:30-9pm: 1oz dark chocolate with a spoonful of almond butter OR, lowish carb Almond flour muffin with butter.

Some days were harder than others, and there were a few days where I felt really good, like my brain was on some sort of high.  After 7 days of skipping breakfast though, I was hungry, Carb Hungry!  By Friday I wanted to eat, to seriously eat.  To binge on pie and muffins, and fruit, and sweet potatoes.  So guess what I did on Saturday?  While I didn't binge, I definitely let myself eat those foods.

Coffee at 7am

Breakfast at 9am: 2 Deviled Eggs+ Banana

Lunch at 12:30: Big Salad + Chicken Breast + Dressing + 1 small sweet potato

Snack: Made Chunky Monkey muffins, licked the batter of the spatula, I think I also ate some PB protein balls and a beef stick.

Supper at 6pm: Giant piece of pork roast + 1/2-1 cup Winter squash + Roasted B-sprouts

Desert at 8pm: Small piece of GF pumpkin pie + 1/2 muffin

Sunday
Brunch at 10am: 2-3 egg spinach frittata from the Lowry with some greasy hash-browns.

Mid-afternoon Snack: I don't remember... but probably a chunky monkey muffin or protein balls.

Supper at 6pm: Bowl of leftover Hot and Sour Chicken Soup

Desert: Small slice of GF pumpkin pie, maybe some chocolate.

I think the reason for these carb cravings is that even though I increased my lunch and supper protein/fat portions, my snacks remained about the same size.  So I was in a good 4-600 kcal deficit every day.  As someone who works out 5x week, that's a pretty big hit.  I also discovered that a protein shake didn't really cut it in the afternoon, I needed solid food to truly feel satisfied.

Here's the weird thing, during my week of IF, I actually gained 2#.  And then after my weekend of eating what and when I wanted, I lost it.  After a week of eating semi normal again I was back up 2#, and at the end of the week, down 2#.  Who knows... I'm not obsessive about weighing myself, I just wanted to see if it changed during this time.  Granted, I've been lifting heavy for the past 2-3 months and have already added 10# to my squats and normal.
dead-lift and increased my pull up by 1.  Like any good weight lifter, I'm hoping it's muscle.  I also felt a little constipated during that week.  (TMI?)  My guess is that without my usual 1-2 cups of veggies in the morning, my fiber/food intake went down enough to slow GI movement.  After my "eat everything in sight Saturday," things were back to

So what did I learn?
1. That if I don't eat I'm not going to DIE!  I can recognize hunger for what it is, and keep going.
2. Not making/eating breakfast means I have more time for other things in the morning, like cleaning or doing laundry, or making lunch.
3. I like to eat breakfast, and I think for the most part, I feel better when I eat it.
4. I had fewer chocolate cravings or chocolate thoughts.  I think it's because my body needed real food.
5. I'm ready to try a 24hr fast.  It's really not that crazy when you think of the number of Jr and Sr. high students who do the 30 hr famine.  Probably a good thing to do Monday after the Super Bowl.

Why will I continue to IF 1-3x week?  Because it reduces your risk of Alzheimer's/dementia and gives your body a chance to repair tissues (muscle) via increased growth hormone production, and increases cellular apoptosis (cell death) reducing your risk of cancer.  Sorry, there is no drug on the market that can do all that.  Also because I have a small lazy bone in my body; so it's nice not cleaning up breakfast dishes.

IF is not for everyone.  You can disagree with me, but I do not believe people with an active eating disorder should do it.  Pregnant women should probably not start experimenting with IF unless it was already part of their daily practice.  Just listen to your body moms-to-be.  If you are prone to anxiety and panic attacks, I wouldn't recommend it, especially if you have very unstable blood sugars.  People with DMT1 need to have a very good understanding of their blood sugars and insulin needs and always have supplies on hand to correct a low.  People with DMT2, who are not on insulin or medication which causes hypoglycemia (metformin doesn't count) would probably see good results with IF since it increases insulin sensitivity.

Just because you are IFing, does not give you license to eat a bunch of junk.  You still have to eat mostly real foods.  Who should IF?  Well.... If you are healthy, try it.  If you have weight to lose, try it.  If you travel frequently and hate crappy airplane food, try it.  If you hate breakfast and are not hungry till lunch, you're probably already IFing.  If you are a man, you should definitely try it!  If you are a woman who tries IF, and after a month or more notice more acne, irregular menstrual cycles, insomnia, anxiety, depression...STOP, and go eat breakfast.

Swap Out Your Sugar.

I recently did a short segment on a local news station.  Check it out!

http://www.twelve.tv/news/newsitem.aspx?newsid=1431&newsitemid=23492

Swap cereal and juice for eggs and fruit and you'll save yourself over 11tsp of sugar.

Instead of a sandwich with chips and soda opt for chili with a side salad and sparkling water.  BAM! you just decreased your sugar intake by 15+ tsp.

How you might ask?  Take the total carbohydrate of any food and divide by 4.  This will tell you how many tsp of sugar you just fed your body.

Health-Bent's Primal Cravings

A coworker recommended the blog health-bent.com to me last year, and now I've been recommending it to many of my clients who are gluten and dairy free.  It's great for clients with families who need quick easy meals or "treats" for special occasions.  Even though I'm becoming more and more convinced that cookbooks are becoming obsolete, the Keatley's first cookbook 'Primal Cravings' looked too good to pass up.  I now have my mother-in-law to thank for this past months delicious meals:

Chili Dog Chili- The recipe in the cookbook is a little different than the website version, but it really does taste like a chili dog minus the bun. We topped ours with diced pickles a squirt of mustard and some homemade kimchi. The best part was that it was ready to eat in less than 30 minutes.  To be honest, I actually despise hotdogs; it's an acquired food aversion from working at camp. However, we bought grass fed beef dogs from Whole Foods, and when mixed into the chili, they were quite tasty.  This dish is perfect for Super Bowl Sunday, which is when we are making it again. While it's great even without any beans, I did add 1/2 a can to the leftovers just to stretch it for two more meals during the following week.

Hot and Sour Chicken Soup- I originally made this for myself and froze some of the leftovers.  I didn't feel that the broth had enough flavor, so I added about 2 tsp of miso to each bowl and that really brought the dish together.  Ryan recently came down with the flu while in DC for work.  The night he came home I thawed out the leftovers and he added lots of sirracha to his bowl in hopes of clearing out his sinuses.  For the most part, I'm not a huge chicken and rice soup person, but the Asian flavors in this version are right up my alley.  Ever since it turned cold, all I want to do is eat stir-fry and curry. I couldn't find the shiratake mushroom noodles recommended in the book and had to settle for kelp noodles; neither of which I have used before. The Keatleys are right, the kelp noodles aren't anything to get excited about.  But for someone with a grain allergy, or diabetes they would be a nice alternative.  In the future I may forgo the noodles and use a little white rice instead, or just add extra carrots and perhaps some daikon radish.  Never could leave a recipe alone.  We ate the remaining leftovers last night (I added extra chicken to stretch it...see a pattern here) and topped it with kimchi, super duper delicious.

Thai Chili Chicken Meatballs- No paleo cookbook would be complete without a meatball recipe.  We ate ours with stir-fryed veggies.  The sauce was quite sweet, so we added extra sirracha...what else right?  I let Ryan make the meatballs, which he doesn't make on a regular basis, so ours were more of a Tai Chili Chicken meat-blobs.  I think these would be great for pot-luck or party.  A person could serve the sauce on the side and let guests decide how much they want.

Pumpkin Chili-Again, no paleo cookbook would be complete without at least one or two chili recipes.  I made the website version several months ago, and it was good.  I used cubed butternut squash instead of pumpkin 1.because TJ sells it.  2. because sometimes I'm lazy and want pre-chopped veggies.  I'm not sure I loved the flavor combination, but it's nice to have variety and I do plan on making it the "real" way sometime in the future.

Chunky Monkey Muffins-This was my first time cooking with tapioca flour, and the muffins came out amazing!  The nice thing about tapioca flour is that it doesn't cost a mini-fortune, unlike coconut flour and some almond flours.  For people wanting a low carb option, this is not it.  For people with a sugar addiction, this is not for them.  For someone wanting a Gluten, Dairy, Grain Free uber tasty muffin that isn't crumbly and dry, and that could easily be made nut free, this is for you!  I was licking the spoon and spatula before they even made it into the oven.  Sooooo good.  Ryan is looking forward to the gingerbread muffins and the apple tart.

Cowboy Breakfast Skillet-We have not made this yet, but it contains eggs, avocados, sweet potatoes, and hot sauce...what's not to like?

With so many of the recipes on their website you might be wondering why buy the cookbook?  Ummmm..... I truly don't know.  I guess I just like to have a real cookbook.  Plus it has extra recipes not on the website such as chorizo stuffed pork chops which I have promised to make for Ryan's little brother Chad.  And the biscuit recipe will soon be paired with gravy instead of honey butter for a Saturday morning brunch.  Unfortunately I now feel the need to invest in a mandolin so I can make the butternut squash lasagna and plantain chips that go with the Chili Pie (aka-nachos).

Woman Code De-Coded

I recently finished reading Woman Code by Alisa Vitti.  I was SUPER excited to read this book after listening to her on several interviews with Sean Croxton and a few other places; even Dr. Oz had her on his show.  Unfortunately I was incredibly disappointed.  Like so many self help books, the first 50 pages were spent discussing her life changing story, with some real information thrown in, and lots of stats on just how bad fertility is in the U.S.

Later on when she fianly starts discussing her diet recommendations I was again disappointed that the crux of the nutrition chapter was a measly 3 pages.  3 PAGES!!!  Here and there she throws in a little more, but it's not all in one place or chapter.  At the back of the book she does add another couple pages of nutrition tips for specific concerns such as fatigue, mood swings, or blood sugar problems.  However, they are extremely vague and at times contradictory.  Alisa gives the recommendation to decrease animal protein in one area, while encouraging "healthy proteins" in another.  Yet she never ever discussed what constitutes a healthy protein.  As the reader am I supposed to just guess?

Fatigue: Increase Healthy Protein
Irritability: Reduce Animal Protein (what if I irritable from low blood sugar?, see next line)
Mood Swings and Sugar Lows: Increase Healthy Protein
Low Libido: Increase beans (why, so I can feel bloated and gassy and super sexy?)

Where is she getting her information for these recommendations?

She also encourages consuming soy in the form of tofu for certain issues such as.  Apparently she has never read anything by Dr. Kaayla Daniel to learn that soy is not a food humans should be eating.  And instead of spending so much time on her 4 day detox (which includes almost no protein, and would leave me with major blood sugar issues), I would have like to see an actual discussion on why women need protein and fats to help make and balance all their hormones.  To some extent, I wonder if Alisa was worried about alienating certain sects of society (vegetarians, vegans, fat phobics) by encouraging more animal protein and animal fats specifically.  She recommends using hemp protein in smoothies, but never discusses why she chooses to not recommend whey or egg-white protein.

Alisa briefly discusses eliminating dairy and gluten to test for sensitivities, however the elimination period is a measly 4 days.  For many people, especially those with a delayed immune response (IgG antibody mediated) this is simply not long enough to determine if they do or do not have a sensitivity.  Skin reactions, brain fog, and sinus congestion can take weeks to clear up.  Same with intestinal problems depending upon severity.  Dr. Davis, author of "Wheat Bellies" does an excellent job of describing how some people take several weeks to fully detox gluten out of their system.  When I recommend a gluten free or dairy free diet, the minimum time off these foods should be 4-6 weeks.  This allows enough time for the body to begin detoxing and healing, allowing the person to actually see/feel the difference.

The last half of the book (50 pages) discusses self exploration with some other lifestyle & sex recommendations as well.  This is quite different from many other self-help books.  I had a bit of a hard time following all of it, but that's probably just my type A personality coming through.  Or I was still irritated at how little time was spent on providing good sound nutrition advice.

Areas I did find interesting and informative were:
Pg 64-discusses how different hormones interact with one another and other organ systems.  Makes one realize how no system is separate.  The body works as a whole and everything is cyclical.
Pg 114-overview of the menstrual cycle.  I was a little confused with how she starts the discussion mid follicular phase (day 7-13) instead of starting with day 1 of the menstrual phase.
Pg 116-list of foods to eat for each phase of the menstrual cycle.  This is intriguing, but I tend to eat eggs a lot, not just during my leuteal phase.  I also really really like avocados, and don't plan on limiting them to only one week per month.  It's a little concerning that Alisa does not give any references on why she created this list in this order.  Some of the foods make sense to me, but others I'm baffled by.
Pg 159-Alisa briefly describes carb cycling (eating different amounts of carbohydrate) during different phases of the menstrual cycle.  Women can also couple this with alternating between doing more cardio and yoga during their follicular and ovulation phases, compared to more HIIT during the leuteal phase.  Jade Teta from Metabolic Effect has several good articles on this practice. Molly G. from Girls Gone Strong also discusses carb cycling.  It's something I've considered playing around with, but haven't quite found my groove with.
Pg 181-there are several scenarios that often happen to people that get them off track.  The office Christmas party or a night on the town with the girls.  I liked that Alisa provided advice on how to handle and recover from a night/day of overindulging or poor blood sugar control.  HOWEVER.... her recommendation to bring sweet potatoes or a quinoa salad to your family function seems backwards to me.  Most women eat too many carbs, and are insulin resistant, and most parties focus on eating lots of carbs.  Why recommend bringing more?  Why not encourage women to make deviled eggs or mini meatballs for protein instead?

Overall her message is good and empowers women to take charge of their health.  She writes, "feed and move your body in ways that work with it's natural rhythms."  I just wish she would have spent more time on the diet/nutrition portion rather than spending so much of her book talking about herself.  If you already have a strong nutrition background and know what works for you, don't bother with this book.  If you want to learn more about hormones, particularly how hormones shift during the menstrual cycle then yes, this could be for you.  It's not that I want to be negative, I was just very disappointed in the book as a whole.

I was impressed with the fact that on her website (floliving.com), if you e-mail her/the company they actually answer you back!

Even more recently I also read through Dr. Kalish's book "Your Guide to Healthy Hormones."  While he too does a good job of giving an overview on how hormones affect different aspects of our lives (mostly female lives) he gives almost no information on how to fix hormone imbalances.  That's probably because he wants you to call him up for a consult so he can help you determine your metabolic type.  Towards the end he does encourage people to try going gluten free, and his food recommendations are spot on.  He just doesn't discuss how much of anything to eat.
Again, if you want information on hormones, give this a read.  It's easy to understand and very short (100 pages, but ginormous margins).

Down With Artificial Junk

I've written about artificial sweeteners in the past, not necessarily for or against, just giving people basic information.  However, in my personal life, and what I recommend for my clients, is to avoid them all except for the occasional stevia and xylitol.  But this is an e-mail I recently received and my response.

Dear Brenna,

As the creator of “Eating Simple” and a nutrition professional, you know that numerous government agencies as well as the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association and the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics have all reviewed low- and no-calorie sweeteners and found them to be safe and effective. On Tuesday, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) released a complete risk assessment of aspartame and once again reaffirmed its safety for the general population, including pregnant women.  EFSA also concluded that, based on the evidence, aspartame does not cause cancer, harm the brain or nervous system or affect behavior or cognitive function of children or adults.

 

You can learn more about this opinion, which supports decades of scientific research as well as positions of regulatory agencies around the globe, including the FDA, at the EFSA website, the International Food Information Council (IFIC), the Calorie Control Council, Food Navigator as well as  Let’s Clear It Up. If you would like to talk with any experts, please let us know.

 

My Response:

Aspartame is a chemical, plain and simple. It is not a food. Our bodies are not deficient in it or other non-calorie sweeteners. I will NEVER EVER recommend that people consume it. My clients lose weight eating real foods, not fake foods created in a manufacturing facility.

If all these other professional organizations actually cared about people's health, and knew what good nutrition was, instead of being sheep and following the almighty dollar their patients might actually get healthy too.

 

So there you have it.  I do not support fake foods, artificial foods, or food additives.  In the words of Sean Croxton from underground wellness, 'Just Eat Real Foods.' 

 

JERF on.