Transcription
You have been lied to. That type of fast you've been doing every day, it might be the exact reason why your belly fat won't budge. Scientists tested 12, 16, 24, and 36-hour fasts side by side, and one of them melted fat so aggressively it shocked researchers. And here's a spoiler. It's not the one you're currently doing.
If you've hit a fat loss wall, if you feel stuck, frustrated, and confused, this lesson will help snap you out of it and show you exactly how to fast for real lasting fat loss. But if you skip around or click away early, you'll miss the one strategy that could change your body forever. Let's go.
You see, I used to believe that daily fasting was the answer. Same window, same routine every single day. And at first, fat melted off. Energy was great. Then something strange happened. Fat loss stalled. Energy levels dipped. Sleep got lighter. Workouts felt harder. And belly fat just stopped responding to the fast. And I knew this wasn't a discipline thing. This was biology pushing back. So I stopped listening to the internet fasting advice and went straight to the human research on fasting. What I found completely changed how I fast and how I coach fat loss today to my thousands of students.
Scientists tested these windows. Researchers didn't just study fasting. They actually compared these fasting windows. Super cool. So, here were the four windows that were studied.
A 12-hour fast. This is essentially baseline where you go, let's say you're done eating at 7:00 p.m. You go to bed, you break your fast in the morning, you have breakfast at 7:00 a.m. That's a 12-h hour fast. They showed it matches circadian rhythm. Great. Improves insulin signaling. Great. But there was minimal fat loss stimulated with this window. It was more of a maintenance, not transformation.
The second window they studied was a 16-hour fast. So 16-hour fast, 8 hour eating window. They saw this activated fat oxidation, which is fat burning. It improved insulin sensitivity and worked really well short-term. But here's the problem. doing it every day for a long period of time created a cortisol adaptation, which then means you hit a plateau, a metabolic plateau. So, it's a great entry point if you're a beginner, but it's not necessarily the best long-term strategy if done daily.
Then, they analyzed and studied a 24-hour fast. This is also called OMAD, one meal a day, where you go either dinner to dinner or lunch to lunch or breakfast to breakfast every single day. They saw significant drop in insulin, which is great. They saw a growth hormone spike at that 24-hour mark. As a matter of fact, there was about a 2,000% increase in growth hormone in men after 24 hours of a fast and a 1300% spike in that growth hormone after a 24-hour fast in women. This is really cool because growth hormone is an anti-aging, fat burning, muscle preserving hormone. So, there's a huge spike here. They saw increases in autophagy at the 24-hour mark. Autophagy is this cellular cleanup and repair process. The way I explain it, it's like Pac-Man going within your cells, eating junk, clearing out dysfunctional cells and mitochondria, making them burn fat better, produce energy better. So, you get an enhancement of autophagy at this 24-hour mark. That's cool. And it also showed there's more fat loss at the 24-hour mark. So, now we're talking business. But this 24-hour fast worked well when it was used strategically, not as an everyday method. Okay? When I go over your protocol later, you'll learn more about how to use it strategically.
Then, they analyzed a 36-hour fast. They saw at the 36-hour mark, deep ketosis. What does that mean? You've heard of the keto diet. Keto is not even a diet, by the way. It's a metabolic process. And ketones, when your body is producing ketones, why would it produce ketones? When does it produce ketones? Ketones are simply a byproduct of fat burning. When you start to burn fat for fuel, belly fat, visceral fat, those fatty acids are sent to your liver. This amazing soccer mom organ that does everything for the body like a soccer mom does for her family. That liver receives those fatty acids. Then the liver produces ketones, beta hydroxybutyrate, acetone, accetoacetate. You don't really have to know that, but these ketones fuel the brain. These ketones communicate with your mitochondria, those little battery packs within your cells, and it tells your mitochondria, reproduce, make more babies, produce more energy, burn more fat. So, ketones are an incredible anti-aging fat loss tool. And there's a surge in ketones, according to the research, at the 36-hour mark of a fast. The studies also have seen you're crushing fat cells because you're using ketones. Also great autophagy peaks that cellular cleanup process and metabolic flexibility which is the ultimate goal explodes. This is where the fat loss data on fasting becomes undeniable.
Now we need to discuss the biggest mistakes people make with these fasting schedules. And then I'm going to give you an entire schedule protocol to follow to maximize all these different schedules according to the research so you never hit a plateau or you overcome a plateau. You feel great and you get exceptional results.
First, the mistakes. See, most people don't fail at fasting because they fast too little. They actually fail because they fast too often. Just as important as the fast is the proper feast, the refeeding. And when you're chronically fasting, and I've been guilty of this, you're going to be [snorts] in a chronic low deficit, low calories. Short-term, great. Long-term, not good. Metabolism matches the energy coming in. That's the issue with caloric restriction. Over time, it doesn't work. Short-term it does. It's the same thing with chronic fasting. So, when people do chronic fasting, they don't have a refeed day. I call it a metabolic flex day, and I'll talk about that later. they don't have enough protein and there's not a metabolic cycling happening. So, when this happens, it tells your body you're in famine. You're in survival mode. Don't burn fat because there's not enough energy coming in. Hoard that fat. Store that fat. This is the problem I see with a lot of people who practice fasting.
And here's an example of a client of mine who had this same issue. So, I worked with a client on fasting. When I met them, I asked them, "What's your fasting schedule?" And they were fasting about 16 hours every day. Sometimes they would throw in a 24-hour fast. They were eating clean during their eating window, but they were barely eating enough calories and protein. They said, "My belly fat feels stuck. My strength, I try to work out. I don't have the energy. I I actually feel weaker, and my sleep is getting worse. I'm tracking my sleep numbers, and I see my heart rate variability drop, my deep sleep drop." So, what I told this person is, let's space out the fasting schedule. Let's have a day, a Sunday where you don't fast and you refeed. And within 10 days of doing this, all of those symptoms she was experiencing improved.
Here's why this happened to her. Here's why this happens to so many people practicing fasting. Fasting, this is the first key principle to understand. Fasting is a stress to the body. It doesn't mean the stress is bad. Just like exercise is a stress to the body unless you exercise too much. Unless you fast too much. When you fast, you activate something called AMPK. What does that mean? It's a longevity pathway that activates the autophagy cellular cleanup. This is really good, but it's catabolic in a good way. Repair mode. Unless you do too much, this could weaken the body, weaken the immune system. Fasting raises cortisol temporarily and not too high. But if you're in a chronic caloric deficit and then you're fasting and then you're already stressed from your day-to-day life, that's too much stress for your body to adapt to. So, a positive stress became a negative stress. This is called hormesis. You don't have to learn what hormesis is. Just know you have violated this principle of hormesis. So stress isn't bad. Stress is only bad if you do not adapt to the stress.
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Key principle number two. When you fast too much, you're not going to get enough protein. Protein restores lean muscle mass. Protein helps you feel full and satiated and the more lean muscle mass you have from high quality protein, the more fat you burn. The more insulin sensitive you are, muscle is a longevity organ. When you refeed with protein and even healthy carbs and a caloric surplus, it also supports your thyroid because that's the other issue I see with chronic fasting is thyroid starts to slow down.
Key principle number three is that overfasting backfires. Human studies show that there's a reduced metabolic rate with chronic fasting, just like chronic caloric restriction. Studies show it actually can make your glucose levels worse because your body starts to break down muscle, produce cortisol, which raises glucose, and then of course you lose lean muscle mass. See, fat loss requires contrast, not constant deprivation.
So, this brings me to your fat burning fasting formula. The winner in terms of the best schedule for pure fat loss is a 36-hour fast used strategically, not daily, not weekly, forever, but cycled in correctly. Nothing beats it. So, I'm going to give you three options here.
Option one is the advanced option. You're already practicing fasting. This could be your best option. We'll call it option A here, which means you complete a 36-hour fast once per week. On the days you're not doing this 36-hour fast, you are going to be eating enough protein, which is 1 gram of protein per pound of your ideal body weight. If your goal weight is 140 lbs, on the days you're not doing the 36-hour fast, you should consume 140 g of protein daily. I would also recommend strength training on those high protein days.
Option B is the intermediate option. You would do a 24-hour fast once a week. On the other days, you're going to have a 12 to 14 hour eating window, and then you'll fast outside of that window.
Option C is the beginner option. You're going to do a 16-hour daily fast four times per week. So, 16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating window. And then you're going to incorporate one day per week where you refeed and you don't fast. I like that as a Sunday. You have breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Healthy carbohydrates, healthy protein.
Now, here are some red flags to to know if you're overdoing fasting. Number one, cold hands. Number two, poor sleep. Three, strength loss. Four, irritability. And number five, you're starting to actually gain belly fat. Those aren't willpower problems. They are biological alarms.
So, let's go through these five fasting avatars real quick.
Avatar number one, the beginner. You start with a 12 to 14 hour daily fast. Focus on food quality, protein, single ingredient foods.
Avatar number two, the plateaued intermittent fasting. You're going to stop your daily 16-hour fast. You're going to add a 24-hour to 36-hour fast once a week, and you're going to hit your protein requirements on the days you're not fasting for 24 or 36 hours.
Avatar number three, the high stress professional. I work with a lot of these. You want to avoid long fast, nothing over 18 hours. Do a 14 to 16 hour daily fast and have one day per week where you don't fast, you have high healthy carbs and protein. I already gave you the protein requirement. Healthy carbs in terms of your amount would be somewhere between 75 gram and 125 grams for that entire refeed day.
Avatar number four, the lean but stubborn belly fat individual. You're going to incorporate a strategic 36-hour fast once a week. Have a heavy protein refeed on the days you're not doing the 36-hour fast.
And lastly, avatar number five, the over 40 hormone resistance person. This is the person that has wonky hormones, a slow thyroid, a thyroid condition. You actually want to have fewer fasts, more recovery, and protein anchored meals. Aim to get 30 to 40 grams of animal-based protein at all of your meals. Your daily fast should not exceed 16 hours daily. And have one day per week where you do not fast. You're doing breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Now, there's one key component here, especially as you start to do fasting windows or schedules beyond 16 hours. We tend to deplete minerals during a fast. And I believe minerals make or break your fast, especially how you feel during that fast. So, here's a piece of the fasting conversation that nobody's talking about. Minerals.
If you've ever felt weak or dizzy or anxious or off during a fast, this is likely why when you fast, you're not just burning fat, you're also depleting minerals. And even if you eat high quality foods during your eating window, unfortunately, modern soil is depleted, food contains fewer trace minerals, and most people already start fasting being mineral deficient. So when fasting increases fluid loss, insulin drops, electrolytes shift and those deficiencies get exposed fast by you not feeling good during a fast. So personally what I use and what I tell my students to use during a fast are fulvic and humic minerals. Fulvic acid and humic acid. Fulvic and humic acids aren't supplements in the traditional sense. They're mineral delivery systems. They come from ancient plant matter and they contain ionic trace minerals, electrolytes, and organic acids that improves absorption. So, I take them during a fast. It does not break a fast. It actually supports your fast. The best time to take your minerals is in the morning after you wake up, during your fasting window, midday if you notice your energy levels dip, and right before sleep for better sleep during your fast. You're not feeding calories by taking the right minerals. You're feeding this electrical balance. So fasting makes you feel shaky, drained, or off. It's not a willpower problem as I just mentioned. It's a mineral problem. That's why I I personally use this during my fast. It's beam minerals. It's fulvic and humic minerals that support cellular energy, electrolyte balance, detox and fat burning, especially during fasting. They have their electrolyze, which is the fulvic. They have their micro boost, which is the fulvic and humic. I just take a shot of this throughout my fast, a shot of the electrolytes and the microb boost throughout the fast and it I feel incredible. This is what I tell my students to do as well. Bmin Minerals does not break your fast. It does support it though. So, if you want to get B Minerals and get 20% off your B minerals, click the first link in the description box below or simply scan the QR code on the screen. Use the coupon code keto camp ke at checkout and you can get 20% off your Beam Minerals.
Now, before I get to your questions, I want you to just get this right here. Fasting isn't a punishment. It's a precision tool. When you use it right, fat melts. When you abuse it, the metabolism adapts. If this lesson has helped you finally understand why fasting has stopped working, share it with someone who's stuck. Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you're done with the noise and ready for truth. I'm on a mission to help one billion people reclaim their health naturally, powered by what I call vitamin G, gratitude, vitamin grit for this incredible life. I may not know you personally, but I do care about you. And if that resonates, welcome to the movement. Now, let's get to your questions.
Won't a 36-hour fast slow my metabolism? Great question. Only if you do it wrong. Only if you don't get enough quality protein on the days you're not doing this fast and you're not having a refeed day. If you do a weekly 36-hour fast and you don't get enough protein the rest of the week and you're in a calorie deficit, yeah, that will wreck your metabolism. But the way I taught it here today is to pair it with protein refeeds and refeed days.
Isn't 36 hours extreme for normal people? I know it might sound extreme. It's like I'm asking you to hold your breath for 10 minutes, but as you become more metabolically flexible and healthy, it's actually really, really easy to do. But don't start there. Start with 12, then 16, then 24. Think of fasting as a muscle. It's a muscle you build over time. And there's no such thing as a failed fast. If your goal is to complete a 36-hour fast, but you stop at the 27-hour mark, you didn't fail. There's no such thing as a failed fast. You got amazing benefits. You built that muscle. Then do it again.
Before I get to the next question, let me give you a free resource here. This is important because if your belly fat hasn't moved in months, even though you've been doing everything right, it is not your fault. You've been lied to. The real problem, visceral fat, insulin resistance, metabolic dysfunction, and no one's shown you how to fix it until now. This free 7-day guide flips your fat burning switch on with zero calorie counting, zero guesswork, and meals so simple it feels like cheating. This is your body's reset button. If you're sick of starting over, click the third link in the description box below or scan the QR code on the screen and take back control. This isn't just the diet. It's the last one you'll ever need.
Next question. What if I feel dizzy or weak during long fast? That's usually electrolytes, minerals, not starvation or anything else. So, you might want to replenish with high quality minerals. So, you might want to break the fast and then do it again with minerals at the beginning of your fast.
Can I do cardio or workouts during a 36-hour fast? If it's really like high intensity training, hard training, I I I wouldn't really recommend that during a 36-hour fast because I want your metabolism, your innate intelligence, this inner physician within your body to use its energy for healing and fat loss, not to throw around weights and swing a kettle bell. But if it's a 24-hour fast or less, I think that's totally fine. Stick [snorts] with light movement during your 36-hour fast. You'll get much many more benefits doing it that way.
There you have it. That's the protocol. Share this with somebody you know. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for listening. And hey, if you want to triple your fat loss by adding one tablespoon of a certain fat to your routine every day and this fat does not break a fast and it could actually support your fast, you want to check out a video I just published on three times the fat loss with this fat every single day. Here is a clip from that lesson. Then click the video on the screen coming up and I'll see you in that next video. Most people think that fasting is about removing all calories. Well, it's not. Fasting is about hormones, inflammation, and cellular signaling. And the right olive oil used at the right time during a fast sends a very specific biological message. Okay? Everything I'm about to share is going to blow your mind. And it's all backed up by human studies, human data.