so i love to eat and i'm currently 49 years old and i've had two kids which means that
conventional wisdom would tell me that it's perfectly normal that i should be
gaining some weight as i continue to get older and also that circumstances would not be on my side
if i wanted to actually lose weight i'm also a doctor i'm a conventionally trained md and i was
taught to tell patients that if they wanted to lose weight they simply needed to eat less and
move more and that my friends did not work at all for my patients and it didn't work for me when
i decided that i did actually want to lose some weight so how did i lose weight in my 40s in fact
getting down to not only what i weighed before having kids but actually getting down to what i
weighed in my early 20s intermittent fasting you guys that's how i did it and i am going to tell
you exactly how it works not just from the medical perspective but also from a personal perspective
so let's talk about intermittent fasting now if you are feeling skeptical about this then stay
with me because trust me i was super skeptical too i was trained in a very conventional way
in medicine and basically always believed the calories in calories out model intermittent
fasting seemed way too extreme and too unpleasant and as i said i love food i thought there was no
way that this was going to work for me let alone for anyone else it just didn't seem like a good
idea but through a series of events that i might talk about in a future video my mindset shifted a
little and i decided to just dig in a bit more and learn more first before just dismissing it
outright so what is intermittent fasting i am going to start with just the basics essentially
intermittent fasting doesn't tell you what to eat it tells you when to eat it's super simple there
are a few different common patterns but the one that i started following two years ago and still
follow today is the 16 8. essentially all that happens is that you give yourself a feeding window
and a fasting window now your fasting window is 16 hours long and then your feeding window is 8 hours
long hence the 16 8 and that's pretty much it in a nutshell which is actually one of my favorite
things about this approach because it's just so simple other diets and weight loss approaches are
so complicated and you have to keep track of so many things throughout the day with intermittent
fasting the only thing you really need to keep track of is am i in my feeding window
or my fasting window now let's just talk about the mindset shift required to even give this a try
now most people think i am going to be starving if i go for 16 hours without food i can't do it
to which i want to ask you are you sure because here's the deal our bodies are actually designed
to handle fasting from an evolutionary perspective this is what we have always done food was
never so readily available as it is now and all this non-stop eating and constant access to food
and snacks and all of that there is nothing natural about that what is natural is having long
stretches of time between feeding and allowing our bodies to trigger the normal mechanisms
that are built in to allow us to access energy reserves that are literally there
for that purpose in fact you already fast right now every day without realizing it
when you're sleeping you are not eating right and this is actually the easiest way to really ease
into fasting it's just to extend your overnight fast either before or after sleep or both because
the magic happens once you get to that 12 hour mark of not having any food coming in because
that is actually when your insulin drops and your body starts to access the energy that's stored
in fat for energy that's right it's starting to burn fat which is what most of us want right and
we have this mechanism built in because back in prehistoric times when we were evolving there was
a genetic advantage to being able to access those energy sources so that we could go out and hunt or
gather or forage or whatever we had to do to get food we don't have to do that anymore obviously
it's just a short walk to the refrigerator now but your body still has the capacity to do this
if you allow it another issue is that our digestive systems were just not designed to have a
constant flow of food coming in our bodies are supposed to be functioning in a cycle fasting
gives our digestive tract a rest and allows our bodies to do everything else that it needs to do
so let me describe exactly how i structure my day around intermittent fasting so after eating
dinner with my family in the evening i am done eating for the day no snacking or anything else
after 8 pm then of course i'm sleeping through the night and then when i wake up in the morning
i have water with lemon and then my coffee which i have black no sugar no cream and then i get
busy and this is actually one of my biggest tips for people who want to try intermittent fasting is
to really use the mornings especially when you're just starting and it feels kind of weird not to
be having breakfast you want to keep yourself distracted and this is a really great opportunity
to be very productive so in the morning i am attending to getting my boys organized and off to
school and then after that that's when i exercise and i go for my run and i do my strength training
and then i'm working so i work from home inside my business and the mornings are when i get a ton of
stuff done then pretty quickly it's noon and my 16 hour fasting window is over so it's time for lunch
and now i know that i'm in my feeding window which means i get to enjoy my food without obsessing
over it so i have a healthy lunch and later i have my afternoon tea which is a ritual that i love
and then in the evening i have a healthy dinner with my family and sometimes to be honest a not
so healthy dinner and that is okay too the beautiful thing about this way of eating
is that it's totally flexible our bodies were designed to handle fasting and also
to handle occasional feasting that's the way it has always been so i enjoy birthday cake if it's
somebody's birthday i have a big thanksgiving dinner on thanksgiving and i have pizza with
my family when we are having a movie night as long as it fits within my feeding window it's
all good and actually even if it doesn't i make it work another thing that i love
about intermittent fasting is the flexibility so let's say that there is a brunch that i have been
invited to and maybe it's supposed to happen a little earlier in the morning than i usually eat
it's totally okay i can either start my fast a little earlier the night before or just skip it
that day and start up again as usual the next day so some of the main reasons that i love this way
of eating and why it works for me are number one it's super simple as i've said there is
nothing complicated to remember and in many ways it takes the emphasis off of food because i'm not
constantly trying to think of what's okay to eat and what's not okay and all of that
two it's free it costs absolutely nothing at all to adopt this way of eating number three it
doesn't take any additional time at all in fact it actually saves me time because my entire morning
now has nothing to do with food so i actually have extra time to tidy up the house to attend to my
kids needs and do my own things without having to worry about prepping food making food and eating
and cleaning dishes afterwards and all of that number four is it's flexible like i said i can
fit it into my lifestyle and my schedule with no fuss number five is it feels good so it took
a little getting used to when i first started but after about a week or two of following an
intermittent fasting pattern i started to feel really good i had more energy i felt healthier
and i really like being able to give my digestive tract a nice break and i also began to experience
the mental clarity that a lot of people experience during their fasting periods and maybe i'll do a
whole other video on the science behind why this happens because it's really fascinating all right
number six it's effective over the years i have tried many ways of dropping weight you
know after pregnancies or after a very sedentary period or whatever and everything that i've ever
done has maybe worked somewhat but it's been a real uphill battle and it takes a lot of effort
this method feels almost effortless it's kind of amazing to actually feel in control of my weight
and to know that i will always have this tool available to me and so i will always be in control
so if all of this sounds good and you would like to learn a little more about intermittent fasting
then i have put together a free guide with my top 10 intermittent fasting tips and you can
download that pdf for free just by clicking the link in the description box now i do want to say
that if you are considering giving intermittent fasting a try it's very important to talk to your
own health care provider first yes i'm a doctor but i'm not your doctor it's really important
to have your own health care team give you the green light first because they know you
and they know all those important details about your own unique medical situation now if you
liked this video then let me know and i will definitely make some more videos on this topic
you know to go deeper and answer your questions because i would be happy to do that if there's
an interest so be sure to let me know in the comments below this video alright that is a wrap
for today thank you so much for joining me and for watching this and i will see you again next time
you