So you've heard about Intermittent Fasting and you've read all the different testimonials,
but now you're wondering is it worth it, does it actually work. Well let's
have a balanced and fair conversation so that you can find your answers.
Hey Wellness Warriors, I'm Dr. Nick Zyrowski and I started my holistic health practice in order to
help people just like you take control of your health naturally. This is because true health
only comes naturally. Be sure to subscribe to the channel, hit that notification bell,
give it a thumbs up and share with me your thoughts in the comment section below.
As a doctor I think it is so important to make sure that we always have a fair
and balanced conversation about any different health strategies out there,
because, some health strategies that are perceived to be good,
may not be good for some people. And when we look at the internet, in many cases we get a one
sided story. We get a lot of people cheerleading different health strategies without giving you
the true and full picture. And so, as always, I like to talk about the pros and the cons.
So let's start with the pros of Intermittent Fasting. One of the first things I love about
Intermittent Fasting is how simplistic it is. You know when we think about improving our health,
there's a lot of things we can do. One of them may be following a healthy diet, the other one may be
going to the gym. Now, think of it this way, if you're somebody who has never followed a healthy
diet and you've always eaten pretty poorly, going and jumping into a brand new eating strategy and
a whole new menu, a whole new list of foods, it's a pretty daunting task for many people.
How about going to the gym. If you're somebody who has never exercised a day in
your life and you're like hey, you know what, I heard Dr. Zyrowski say that going to the
gym and working out is a must, I'm going to start doing it. That can be very,
very scary for somebody who's never walked into a gym before.
Now Intermittent Fasting is very simple, right. You don't have to
worry about all that different nonsense, you literally can just start skipping breakfast,
do a 16 hour fast, and jump right in with both feet. The next thing that I love
about the Intermittent Fasting, one of the huge pros is that it's inexpensive.
Okay, let's just talk about the topic of weight loss and general health improvement again. When
we talk about maybe weight loss, somebody may invest in some prepackaged meals in order to help
them eat the proper portions and also eat healthy, very expensive. Maybe somebody's going to go get
a gym membership and a personal trainer, very expensive. Maybe you're going to do, you know
a big, expensive detox you saw online. And I'm not saying that any of those things
are not good or maybe you shouldn't be doing any of those things. But what I am saying is that
Intermittent Fasting is free. And what I love to see people use is free health strategies, because
when you implement these ones that are easy to do, these ones that are simple and are free.
I mean it makes having a healthy lifestyle possible and sustainable for so many people.
Now one of the next big pros about Intermittent Fasting,
and one of the great things that I truly love about it, is that it fits seamlessly
into almost any health improvement plan. It doesn't matter what your current weight is,
it doesn't matter what your physical capabilities are, it doesn't matter how stressed you are, it
doesn't matter how busy of a lifestyle you live. Intermittent Fasting is very easy to implement.
I mean I hear all the time, I can't improve my health because of – some reason, and Intermittent
Fasting hardly relates to any of those reasons. Almost anybody can throw it in and do it easily.
And the good part is, it's very sustainable to do day in day after without any interruptions.
The next thing that I truly love about Intermittent Fasting,
probably because I'm a bit of a foodie,
is that you're able to eat big, satiating meals. This is a huge pro of Intermittent
Fasting that most people overlook. Now if you're somebody who's trying to lose weight,
you know a lot of times you're coming from this place of well I need to eat six small meals a day,
and that is so unsustainable. First of all, who has time to prepare six different meals, and then
who has time to sit down six different times and eat those six meals. And then the biggest problem
is, for someone like me, is that you would be just left on the edge every time. Like you're never
full with any of those meals, and you're always left hanging, wanting a little bit more food.
Now, the last pro that I want to talk about before we get to the cons is probably the most important
that we're going to talk about. The only reason we're here having this conversation, and that's
because Intermittent Fasting at this point is well researched in order to help you in so
many different ways, heal your body. It activates autophagy in the body which cleans up dead, broken
down cells, possibly even cancerous cells in the body. It's also going to help lower inflammation,
stabilize your metabolism, lower your blood sugar, decrease inflammation, help improve brain health,
help improve gut health, cardiovascular health, help heal your body in general.
And so when we look at all the different natural health strategies that we can utilize,
and we look at what's going to give you the most bang for the buck so to speak,
Intermittent Fasting is at one of the top of the list things that we can easily implement as we
said, into almost any health improvement plan and it offers incredible results.
Now let's go ahead and talk about the cons of Intermittent Fasting,
the bad part which nobody wants to talk about. Well let me tell you,
the good news is, the good news is, is when you figure out some of the challenges that
are on the road ahead, it really gives you a blue print in order to spearhead them
and navigate around them so that you can follow through sustainably with Intermittent Fasting.
One of the big cons about it is that it's not always easy. And I know that throughout this video
I said oh it's easy, just do it, easy. Well, hear me out because I've done this for over ten years
and so it's important to understand that. Many of the health gurus on the internet, they
have done it for many, many years as well. And because I've worked with over 20,000 patients,
I can tell you that there's many challenges that pop up for the newbies doing Intermittent Fasting.
One of them may be that you go through hypoglycemic patterns while you're in your
fast and you get shaky, you get dizzy, you don't feel very well. That's a possibility. Other
possibilities is that mentally it just is very difficult for you. If you came off of eating three
meals a day or maybe you came off of eating six meals a day cause somebody told you that's what
you need to do to lose weight, mentally it can be a challenge. It can weigh on you. I get told all
the time, I kid you not, all the time by patients, that's super unhealthy to skip breakfast you know.
And I'm like okay, let's just let – let's let this one slide you know. But it's just the mentality of
just the world around you that can make this a bit of a challenge for you in many cases.
The other thing is that many people will try to sabotage, unknowingly sabotage your fast. I mean
I can tell you all the time, I have patients bring me breakfast, I have so many bring me a coffee,
and I'm like oh, I don't want to say no, but on the same hand, it's like I don't want to ruin my
fast, I'm trying not to be rude. It puts you in an awkward spot. Somebody brings something in to the
office place, and then the other thing that can happen is sometimes your fasting hours just aren't
going to be perfect like you want them to be. I can tell you it happens to me all the time. I have
this plan at the 17 hour mark to break my fast and get lunch, and then I get booked with patients.
And then it turns out the only time that I can eat throughout the entire day if I'm going to eat
is at the 14 hour mark which doesn't even allow me to get a 16 hour fast in. It won't always be easy,
but understand that there's ways to navigate around this, and don't get frustrated with it.
One of the next cons about Intermittent Fasting is that it's not a magic bullet.
I have people ask me questions all the time, like Dr. Zyrowski, I started Intermittent Fasting and
I don't know why, but I still have eye floaters, I started Intermittent Fasting and my hypothyroidism
won't go away. Or, should I Intermittent Fast in order to make the numbness and tingling go
away in my right hand? And all of these questions really show that people have the interpretation
that if they start Intermittent Fasting, it can fix anything. But the truth is, is that though it
will raise the bar, it's a very good thing. Just like following a healthy diet, it's a great thing.
But the problem is, is that it is not a treatment route for anything and everything, it's not a
fix all. If you're somebody who's having a very particular problem in a specific area,
you should follow a proper treatment protocol in order to fix that issue. Sure, Intermittent
Fasting could be part of it, eating a healthy diet should always be part of it. Exercise should
always be part of improving your health. But if we have a problem that's completely unrelated,
we have to realize that. I tell people all the time when they ask questions like this,
well it's a good thing to do, but I don't see how it has anything to do with this particular
problem that you're mentioning. We look across the internet, we see these incredible testimonials,
how somebody went from obese to six-pack abs, and not only are many of them unrealistic,
but the other thing about them is that there's just no guarantees that
just because you Intermittent Fast, that you will get a particular result.
You know it's very important to look at these natural health strategies and look at, of course,
like I mentioned what they do help with and what they don't help with. We can see the research for
that. But it's also important to realize is that we just have to implement these natural health
strategies. And you know what, if we get the result we're looking for, then that's great.
And if we don't, it doesn't mean that this isn't something beneficial. The other thing is too,
is that we may lose weight over a period of time, maybe for some people over a long period of time,
and other people it's over a short. So we have to realize
results may vary, and there is no guaranteed results with Intermittent Fasting,
however it is still a powerful strategy that can help you improve your health.
The next problem with Intermittent Fasting is one that kills me to see, because it's so unnecessary.
And you're taking something that's so good and turning it really upside down in your life. It
tends to happen to people who are a little bit more competitive and people who tend to
fall into extremism. And that is too much of a good thing, must be a better thing. And when we
look at Intermittent Fasting, that happens to a lot of people. They go and they see 16 and 8,
and they go oh that's good. And then they say well I can maybe fast for 18 hours, now let me get to
you know, 24 hours. And then they're down to just a 20 minute eating window, trying to cram
all their food in one day in just a very short period of time. And what happens is they tend to
start cutting calories too much, and they just get on this really bad cycle
that is borderline eating disorder. In fact, I've actually worked with people
who have developed eating disorders from going Keto and vegetarian, and Intermittent Fasting,
and one meal a day, and all these different things compiled together,
always thinking that more is better. So make sure we don't fall into that category cause we don't
need to take something healthy and turn it upside down and have it very destructive in our life.
This next problem with Intermittent Fasting is one that I recommend that you take very
seriously. And that is creating nutritional imbalances because you're eating within
shortened feeding windows. Now with Intermittent Fasting, it's incredibly important to make sure
that you're getting very micronutrient rich food. It typically is in the younger generation which I
see them use Intermittent Fasting as a crutch to help them lose weight and kind of you know,
get some of the benefits that it has to offer all while eating a very poor quality diet.
When you're Intermittent Fasting, it's so much more important to make sure that you're getting
lots of leafy greens, to make sure that you're getting proper macronutrients, your protein,
your fats, your carbohydrates. Making sure that all these things remain very balanced because
it's so easy to fall into deficiencies in minerals and vitamins when Intermittent Fasting. Make sure
that you're getting proper macronutrients and also micronutrient rich superfoods.
Another con and huge challenge of Intermittent Fasting is trying to implement while on
medications. This is a huge problem, especially in the United States because it's one of the most
medicated places on the planet. If we look at the average person over the age of 55 years old,
they're on two or more medications. So, if you're somebody who's on medication and you want to use
the strategy cause you heard, basically, it can improve your baseline health in so many ways,
the proper chain of action would be to go to your healthcare provider that put you on the medication
and work with them on it. Tell them what you're trying to accomplish,
what you're trying to do, maybe they can move them
to different times. But you have to work with the provider that put you on the medications
cause they are going to have the proper answer for you in that round. So, this is a challenge,
but the good news is, is it can be overcome with proper conversation, and also proper strategy.
I hope you enjoyed this fair and balanced conversation about Intermittent Fasting.
Let me know what your thoughts are in the comment section below. Also, if you haven't done so yet,
you're totally missing out. But be sure to join my brand new community and become a Wellness Warrior.
The way you join is simply by texting this number right here and I'll add you in. In this community
I help you stay motivated to constantly improve your health. Because I’m a bit of a foodie
I share with you some of my favorite low carb recipes, I share with you my exercise regiment,
I share with you my favorite nutrients for reversing particular health conditions.
I look forward to helping you improve your health, and I'll see you on the other side.
Now in order to master Intermittent Fasting, you're going to want to watch this playlist
right here. Let's say you're trying to do Intermittent Fasting to lose weight,
and then you're not losing weight because you're eating too much, because that happens a lot.
You're fasting all the time and then all of a sudden you start eating, you start overeating.