In this video I'll uncover seven things that you should never do in intermittent fasting
because it can stop you from getting great results.
Intermittent fasting is an incredible
health strategy when done correctly and the truth is a lot of people tell me their story
about intermittent fasting. What they're doing and I find little things throughout their
intermittent fasting strategy that is messing them up. In some cases are still getting results
but they could be getting better results if they made these very simple tweaks. So what
we're gonna talk about in this video is seven things you should never do an intermittent
fasting. The top seven things that I see people mess up through this whole process and I'm
also going to tell you how I do intermittent fasting week after week. So stick around to
the end of this video but before we get started I'm Doctor Zyrowski and welcome to the channel.
If you're new to the channel it's a pleasure to have you here. Be sure to hit the notification
belt and join the notification community. I'm gonna help you excel your health and your
life. Let's go ahead and jump into the first big thing I see people make a mistake with
and that's caloric confusion as I refer to it. Basically, what this means is that people
aren't doing the right calorie consumption. They don't have the proper calorie consumption.
Now this is something that's pretty interesting because if you're someone who was like me
you grew up eating three meals a day as a child. Into your young adulthood and then
you know you switch to maybe two meals a day or one meal a day. It's very mind twisting
and mind-bending to really figure out how much you should be eating. So if you grew
up like I did then you kind of develop a set point and you know like “Hey, I need to
not eat this much otherwise I'll start gaining weight
and I need to at least eat this much otherwise you know I'm not gonna feel very well”.
You develop this innate setpoint but when you go from three meals a day to two meals
a day. You know all of a sudden your portions look like they're a little bit bigger maybe
or maybe they look like they're too small. Then even if you go from two meals a day to
one meal a day it gets really twisted and it gets really hard to understand what's happening.
Then let's say maybe you throw exercise into the mix and then all the sudden you need more
calories. So you may be doing one meal a day and you're going and you're looking at your
plate going “oh my gosh that is way too much food I shouldn't possibly be eating this
much”. Remember with intermittent fasting the goal isn't to calorie restrict. The goal
is actually to maintain proper caloric intake and so you may look at that and go that's
way too much food or you may look at it and say it's not enough. So with all this mind-bending
going on one of the things I always recommend is; I recommend that you learn to count the
amount of calories you're consuming throughout the day. Even if you have done this at some
point in your past and you have a good understanding of it when you switch to two meals a day or
one meal a day you still should do another check. Make sure that you're falling into
the proper caloric intake. You don't want to be having too much because otherwise 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. That happens a lot you're fasting all the time
and then all of a sudden you start eating and you start overeating, so we want to make
sure that we're getting proper caloric intake. We also don't want to fall into the trap of
like I said you look at that big meal at one meal a day and you go I shouldn't possibly
be eating that much. Especially if I want to lose weight and then what happens from
there is you start crashing your metabolism because you're getting too few calories. If
you're someone who's maybe using intermittent fasting or one meal a day as a way to burn
fat but spare muscle because you're trying to put on some good lean muscle mass then
you're not going to be able to put that muscle on If you are not getting proper calories.
So always check your calories make sure that that's spot-on because this is a big problem
for a lot of people. If you get this right the results that you will get from intermittent
fasting whatever your goals may be will be much better. Let's talk about not drinking
enough water. Now I'm gonna tell you what this happens to me all the time because when
you're not eating. A lot of times you just forget to drink water. For me I'm in the clinic
I'm working with patients, I'm going from room to room and I'm busy and moving fast.
And all of a sudden, I look back three - four hours and I'm like I didn’t drink any water.
I typically notice when I start to not feel too good and get a little bit of a headache
whatever it is. So when doing intermittent fasting, especially one meal a day, a big
problem for me, especially with one meal a day you have to make sure that you're drinking
water throughout the day. When you eat you kind of have a natural tendency to want to
drink some water but when you're not eating it just doesn't happen as much so be careful
with this one. Make sure you're drinking up the proper amount of water and the other kind
of conversation that goes with this is that you want to make sure you're getting proper
electrolyte consumption as well. Sometimes when intermittent fasting what I'll do is
I'll sprinkle a little bit of salt in my water. I'll take a little crystal of the sea salt
and just put it in my mouth and suck on it but we want to make sure that with proper
hydration we're also getting proper electrolytes because it makes you feel so much better.
If you're not getting proper electrolytes or proper hydration the holdfast is gonna
be a rocky road. I mean you're just not going to feel well especially with the electrolyte
problem. So make sure that you're doing that in order to get good results. Let me know
if you fall into this trap of not drinking enough water in the comments below. Next on
our list is going to be medication. I get a lot of questions around medication when
doing intermittent fasting and this is a problem for a lot of people because so many people
are on medication. In the past I had told people well if you have a problem like type
2 diabetes you shouldn't just be jumping in the intermittent fasting and a lot of people
were like well no intermittent fasting is great for type 2 diabetes. Well it is but
let's assume that the type 2 diabetic or the person with high blood pressure or the person
who has these different health concerns is on medication. That's what I would always
assume if you have these issues. So let's say the person is on medication and if you're
on medication you should work with your doctor before jumping into an intermittent fasting
routine. Let's just talk about the type 2 diabetic. The type 2 diabetic is on some sort
of medication in order to drive down their blood sugar. What will happen if they're doing
intermittent fasting, one meal a day and taking their medication. Well they will drop their
blood sugar to the point maybe they're passing out. To the point where it's dangerous. I
mean imagine somebody's driving down the road and they decide to embark on one meal a day
because they read something about it on the internet and how good it is for type 2 diabetics.
Then they're taking their medication and then they pass out like it could be very dangerous.
So we always have to look at all the people who are falling into these categories and
understand that if you're on medication you need to work with your doctor on it because
there could be some complications with it and it's just the safe thing to do. So with
medications talk to your doctor. The wrong fasting method I think this is important too
because a lot of people who do intermittent fasting are very much influenced by their
social circle. Whether it be their family, whether it be their friends whatever it is.
So as you're influenced by your social circle you tend to jump into whatever fasting method
they're doing. Maybe they're doing one meal a day. Maybe they're doing 16:8 intermittent
fasting. Whatever that is you tend to do what they're doing and unfortunately sometimes
that is not the right method for you and sometimes there's even peer pressure like “oh you
got to do one meal a day because that is the best way to do it”. That's how you get the
best results but it still may not be right for you. So make sure that when you're doing
intermittent fasting you're using the right method for you. Not just the right method
you know there's no such thing as it's 16:8, one meal a day. I mean they're both great
and make sure that you use the right one for you. Now for me I like to alternate back and
forth. Naturally the days that 16:8 works out well for me I do 16:8. Naturally the days
that I just fall into this one meal a day category where it's like I'm moving all day,
I'm busy, my mind's busy I do one meal a day. Simply because it fits my schedule better.
Now I like to do both and I like to sprinkle both in. So I let them naturally just happen
and some days it's kind of a sliding scale. It's like I was gonna eat lunch and do two
meals today at 16:8 but it's just gonna work out better for me if I do one meal a day.
Let me know in the comments of what strategy you're using and how you came about deciding
which one is right for you because I think that's very insightful. Now let's go ahead
and talk about the next thing here. Excessive stress I'm big on this one because as someone
who has been under excessive stress before and trying to do intermittent fasting; I kind
of understand all the different things that can go wrong. I also see different patients
who are under excessive stress who tried to utilize intermittent fasting and they just
keep crashing and struggling with it. Excessive stress what would be an example of that? Somebody
who's not sleeping well at night. Maybe you just had a new baby. Someone who is working
a very physical job, maybe you're doing construction all day. Someone who is going and having maybe
some financial stress. Maybe somebody who has some emotional stress with their relationship.
Somebody who is truly under a lot of stress and when you're under a lot of stress intermittent
fasting you can kind of go off the rails in so many directions with it. You can have problems
with chronic fatigue when doing intermittent fasting. You can have adrenal dysfunction.
You can have problems where you're just like binge eating. I mean you can have a lot of
things that come up and let's say, let's say you top that off with a health condition because
most people are suffering from one or more health conditions. So top all that off with
a health condition because that's considered physiological stress as well and then you
add in physiological stress through fasting. It's very difficult to move forward in a successful
way. Now understand this like I said many people are suffering from a health condition.
So what I find is that 16:8 typically works very well for most people regardless of the
situation but one meal a day is where you start putting too much stress on and that
excess of stress causes people to not actually get good results. In some cases I get a little
bit of bad results and like I said a lot of people just keep stacking the stress on and
you know doing excessive exercise, whatever it is. Just be careful and it's usually not
one stressor. It's a whole compilation of stressors that cause people to have issues.
Let's talk about what can I have. Ok this is another big thing that is one of those
things I see so many people focus on. Well if I'm doing intermittent fasting what can
I have. I'm gonna put a little creamer in my coffee. Maybe a little bit more creamer
in my coffee because it tastes better that way. I put some xylitol in and some stevia
cuz I like it like that. You know so many people just go and they keep adding in all
these little things. Oh stevia candies,xylitol candies, xylitol gum. You know so a lot of
people ask what can I have? What can I have? What I really get people to focus on is just
doing a good pure fast. What do I consider a good pure fast. Just drinking water and
that's what I do. You know because I have fallen into that trap. Let me know in the
comment section below if you've fallen into that trap but you if you fall into that trap
it's like well you know i’ll have some apple cider vinegar and I'm gonna put all this stuff
in it. You know I like having plain apple cider vinegar with water when fasting but
I stay away from putting all the little things in it in most cases just because I like to
try to do the purest fast as possible. So be sure to make sure that you're focusing
on doing a good pure fast and not trying to add in all the little things because they
may be messing up your fast. Now of course let's talk about this a little bit further
because there's always situations. For instance one person asked me he said “Well I'm doing
intermittent fasting. I'm doing one meal a day and I work out first thing in the morning
and I don't have my one meal a day at night and then I'm trying to build muscle”. So
he's asking can I have pre-workout and can I take essential amino acids and I was like
in that case I would. Personally I would actually do that. Now do essential amino acids break
your fast? Absolutely. Will the pre-workout break your fast? It can. There's some that
won't, some that will and so it's really just a judgment call on your part. Now in his situation
and if I were in that situation; if I'm trying to put on muscle I would want to give my body
the proper building blocks to build that muscle and not just fast all day long. It's gonna
be difficult to work out like that and build a lot of muscles. So I would do that personally
and I wouldn't really care that much about breaking my fast with the essential amino
acids. Now it's all about judgment call. Make those judgment calls for you. If having that
coffee with a little bit of creamer and it allows you to actually do the fast and not
fail at it because you just find like you know you can't enjoy yourself at all and you
don't like it then you know just do the coffee with the creamer in it. Something is better
than nothing make those judgment calls. Make it sustainable for you but still always try
to do a good pure fast. Let's go ahead and talk about taking supplements. A lot of people
ask me this question. Should I take my supplements while doing intermittent fasting? The answer
is yes and no, ok. Now the no is in general you just shouldn't take it. Like if you're
just have the ability to take your daily vitamins throughout the entire day don't focus on taking
them when doing intermittent fasting. In many cases it'll even make you not feel too hot.
You can take some of these different minerals that will sit in your stomach like a rock.
They make you feel like you want to puke. In general do not take supplementation when
doing intermittent fasting and I don't typically like to take anything that's going to alter
physiology when intermittent fasting either. You have to think of it this way too. If you're
taking supplements you're starting your digestion and then you're kind of like messing with
fasting a little bit. Now in general like I said don't do supplements. Now there's always
some different caveats to this rule and the truth is I work with a lot of people with
health conditions. Okay a lot of times I'm working with people with gut conditions taking
some of these different gut formulas that are helping to decrease inflammation and improve
gut health are best taken on an empty stomach. So we still do that sometimes people who are
under excessive stress we still do adaptogens like rhodiola, ginseng some of these different
adaptogenic herbs. Now we also even do B vitamins sometimes because people are under excessive
amounts of stress or they're suffering from a health condition. If you have some sort
of health condition there may be a good reason that you want to if you're working through
something and it's still highly highly beneficial. Now for someone who is just you know your
general average person. Let's say you're good and healthy don't try to take your supplementation
on an empty stomach first thing in the morning in a fasted state. It's not the best thing
to do. So be sure to put in the comment section if or when you take your supplements. I'd
love to know and then also give this video a thumbs up. Share with me in the comments
section below some of the mistakes you've made with intermittent fasting and how you've
overcome them. Also be sure to check out this video that's going to teach you some of the
latest science on intermittent fasting when it comes to disease and longevity, it's awesome.
For these people who have really bad cholesterol scores and triglyceride scores and inflammation
in the heart. Utilizing fasting is very powerful for going in basically reversing that and
bringing it down to a good homeostatic balance.