Fasting + Feasting 101: How To Turn On Your Body’s Natural Fat-Burning Furnace

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Fasting is one of the most important factors when it comes to health!

Here's why...

For the vast majority of human history, food came in cycles.

Imagine that you're a person on the savannah a few thousand years ago, and it's summer.

Food is plentiful!

Your tribe can find a vast variety of different vegetables, fruits, herbs, nuts, and seeds.

And so, that's what you eat. Nobody goes hungry!

You eat as much as you want, in fact, and nobody becomes overweight.

But come fall, something happens!

All the fruit that's left on the trees begins to over-ripen.

And what happens when fruit becomes over-ripe?

It becomes sweeter!

Your family's food supply is starting to spoil as the winter approaches.

But that's okay, because evolution has something up her sleeve.

As the fruit becomes sweeter, it becomes lower in vitamin C and much higher in fructose.

Over thousands of generations and millions of years, your ancestors' bodies recognized this seasonal pattern.

A set of instructions was ingrained in our very DNA that said, "lots of sugar = winter is coming = store fat for emergencies".

And because winter brings food shortages, your body knows it must prepare to survive.

The same happens when we eat processed food, because they're high in salt: "lots of salt = state of dehydration = drought is coming = store fat for emergencies".

Everything you eat communicates a message to your body…

The key to exceptional health is learning to speak the language of your body.

These are the triggers of Dehydration and Fat Storage in order of importance:

Sugar Sounds The Alarm:?“Winter Is Coming - Store Fat Now!"

Simple Carbs Get Converted To Sugar:?“Too Much Processed Snacks, White Rice, Bread - Store Fat!"

Dehydration Reinforces a State Of Emergency:?“Water is Running Out - Store More Fat!”

High Salt Foods Mimic Dehydration:?“Too Much Salt In The Blood - Store Fat!”

Not Enough Vitamin C:?“Fruit Is Spoiling - Store Fat!”

High Stress Lifestyle:?“Hard Times Are Here - Store More Fat!”

Too much sugar, salt, and stress flip a biological switch that forces you to hold onto emergency energy stores.

(Highly recommend the book,?Nature Wants Us To Be Fat!)

When this switch is flipped, you begin storing fat very quickly!

Survival Of The Fattest

During the vast majority of our evolution, it was not necessarily the fittest who survived, but those who stored enough fat to make it through the toughest times!

Tough times like winter, droughts, food shortages, floods and fires were extremely common, just as they are today.

But there was no such thing as a supply chain!

Today, the same signals exist to make us store fat…?But Winter Never Comes!

You see, when you live a sedentary modern lifestyle, you're constantly sending a signal to your body that hard times are here, when they are clearly not.

The miracle of a steady food supply has caused massive lifestyle challenges for billions of people.

Lifestyle-related health challenges like obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes have been deemed?"diseases of affluence".

The richer we get, the sicker we become.

The solution?

Mimic the conditions that our human evolution prepared us for!

In other words, live a natural lifestyle.

Imagine the daily routine of our ancestors and it could have looked something like this:

??Wake up with the sun.

??Forage for food.

??Eat as many whole plants as you want: fruits, berries, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, legumes, herbs, spices, etc.

??Go hunting, ONLY if there's not enough plants!

??Stop eating when you're full.

??Play, dance, garden, connect.

??Wait until tomorrow to eat again! **

Side Note About Meat:?It used to take a lot of energy just to find meat.

Very lean meat played a small part in our regular diet.

The exercise required to catch meat would counteract the negative cardiovascular effects of eating meat.

** This is the big point here: Fasting was such an integral part of our daily lives, and in the modern world, most people NEVER allow their bodies to truly Rest and Digest.

The benefits of fasting are unlimited, from anti-aging to disease prevention of all kinds...

Benefits Of Fasting

??Regulates blood sugar.

??Insulin sensitivity improves and levels of insulin drop dramatically.

??Reduces inflammation.

??Improves blood pressure and heart health.

??Improves cognitive function and prevents neurodegenerative disorders.

??Boosts metabolism and promotes weight loss.

??Increases growth hormone.

??Increases life expectancy.

??May aid in cancer prevention.

??Initiates cellular repair process called autophagy. (Cleans up dead and damaged cells)

??Gene expression changes.

??Makes stored body fat more accessible.

??And many more benefits…

Most importantly, fasting allows your body to clear excess glucose from your bloodstream.

Chronic high blood-sugar is a direct cause of metabolic disease.

It even increases your risk of death…

And as you age, your resting blood-sugar goes up naturally.

This is worth paying attention to!

How To Practice Fasting Properly

Now that you understand the evolutionary origin of fasting, let's get into the how-to.

The big question is, “How can intermittent fasting add to my quality of life?”

How can I reap the biggest benefits so I can have more energy and mental clarity?

There are 2 main types of fasting:

1.?Daily Intermittent Fasting:?The time between dinner and breakfast.

2.?Seasonal Fasting:?Longer fasting periods during the cold or dry months.

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Today, we’re talking about Daily Intermittent Fasting, otherwise known as Time-Restricted Feeding (TRF)

Everybody goes through a period of fasting every day without even trying.

When you’re sleeping, you’re not eating.

What we’re talking about here, though, is intentionally extending that period of not eating into the morning and evening.

When you eat is even more important than what you eat!

Most people in the modern world eat 3 square meals a day, and snacks in between.

If you eat breakfast at 8am, and you finish dinner around 8pm, you have a 12h eating window.

But the major benefits of fasting kick in around the 18h mark!

There are 4 Stages of Fasting:

1.?Fed State: Up to 4-6 hours after eating.

2.?Early Fasting State: 4-18 hours after eating.

3.?*Fasting State:?18-48 hours after eating.

4.?Long-Term Fasting State: 48+ hours after your last meal.

*We want to do #3 as often as possible, preferably every day.

The 18-24h time period of your daily fast is where most of the benefits come from.

It's also incomprehensibly beneficial to do longer fasts every 2-3 months!

But we will cover that in a future Longevity Letter.

Look into David Sinclair to discover the amazing truth about anti-aging:?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9IxomBusuw

The most valuable thing you can do with fasting, or any other health principle, is to distill it into?one simple guideline...

Complexity is the enemy of consistency.

Don't get fancy with weird methods or juice cleanses...

Again, the major benefits of fasting kick in around the 18 hour mark.

Therefore, the logical guideline I set for myself and my clients is to eat within a 1-6 hour eating window each day:

One Simple Guideline:

"I eat 2 plant-powered meals within a 1-6 hour window, and avoid snacking between meals."

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My first meal is typically after 12pm, and my second meal before 6pm.

Try to make your eating window during the middle of the day.

If you eat too close to bed (2-3h), your sleep suffers.

If you eat too close to waking (1-2h), your energy suffers.

A shorter eating window is better.

Eating 2 meals midday means you can still enjoy a nice lunch and have dinner with your family.

It's actually incredibly easy, and so rewarding! After a couple days, you'll feel so good that you won't even think about food.

Important Things To Remember When Fasting:

??Drink lots of water.

??Add a little salt to your water for longer fasts (for electrolytes).

??Hunger is a good thing.

??Listen to your body; learn to trust your intuition.

Fast Asleep

During sleep, your body and brain clean house!

Have you heard of autophagy?

It’s a process that essentially cleans up and recycles damaged cells, and flushes toxins that build up during the day.

Usually, it happens naturally when you’re asleep.

Each night while you’re sleeping, your body and brain literally flush out these damaged cells and toxins.

And your healthy cells go into a sort of maintenance mode.

Without this cleanup process, your body and brain build up with dead cells and toxins at an alarming rate.

The problem is, if you eat too close to bedtime, you disrupt the timing of this daily cleaning.

Fasting enhances autophagy.

Eating disrupts it.

For the first 4-6 hours after you eat dinner, your body is in a Fed State.

Let’s say you have a late night snack at 10pm, then head right to bed…

Your digestive system becomes active.

Your body sends resources and blood flow to your gut, and this creates a lot of heat.

This subtle rise in body temperature keeps your body awake even if your mind is asleep.

But that’s not the worst of it…

Your body doesn’t go into a fasted state until 2am - 4am.

Finally, autophagy can begin.

Then, your alarm rings.

The day begins, and your body and brain have barely had a chance to rest and repair.

Every time you eat, you either enhance or diminish your health.

This is why “Rest and Digest” is so important!

Turn Up The Heat

There are a couple things you can do to get into a fasted state… Faster!

We know that fasting begins 4-6 hours after eating.

The specific timing depends on how quickly you digest your food, and clear your bloodstream of excess glucose.

How can we speed this up?

Fidgeting and Walking!

First off, a life-enhancing habit that I love is walking after each meal.

Movement burns energy, so use it to your advantage.

Some days, I’m too busy with coaching calls to walk after lunch.

But walking after dinner has become a daily ritual for my fiancé and me!

Fidgeting is a breakthrough idea that almost nobody knows about!

People who fidget and move around a lot (like me) burn between 800-2000 EXTRA calories than someone who is generally still and sedentary!

This gets on my fiancé's nerves!

I can’t seem to sit still… One time, I wore a jacket to the movie theater that’s made of smooth material.

Everytime I would adjust my position to get more comfortable, the friction of my jacket would make a *pshht* sound. (Sorry, babe!)

At the time, I didn’t realize that my tendency to never sit still was a healthy habit.

You can take advantage of this intentionally!

Let me explain…

In 2022, the University of Houston published a study that could change the way we view physical activity.

There’s a muscle in your leg called the Soleus that sits underneath your calves.

This muscle evolved to help our ancestors walk for 20 miles without becoming fatigued or sore.

It makes up just 1% of your muscle, but can burn glucose faster than any other muscle in your body!

We already talked about clearing blood-glucose by walking after dinner.

This is just a way that you can take advantage of the same benefits all day, every day.

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What the researchers discovered is this:

Doing simple soleus push ups while you’re sitting (seated calf raises) can counteract the harms of an otherwise sedentary lifestyle.

Consider it a micro-exercise.

Simply bounce your leg repeatedly when you're sitting, and switch legs when you feel like it.

You will never get tired - that's how this muscle works!

This improves metabolism and blood-sugar utilization dramatically!

Keep in mind, this is not a substitute for walking and regular movement.

It’s merely a way to stay relatively active when you’re forced to sit for long periods, like working or traveling.

You were made to move!

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Break-Fast?Is?The Most Important Meal

Breakfast food is bullshit…

Cereal, toast, jam, sweetened PB, butter, milk, sugar, OJ, sweet yogurt, pancakes... Even bacon and eggs.

It's all junk!

This is definitely no way to start your day!

Typical breakfast foods are like pouring motor oil into your organic garden...

So my highest recommendation is to get as close as you can to eating mostly whole plants in their natural form.

(Vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains, nuts, seeds, herbs.)

Yes, vegetables for break-fast!

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An Important Distinction:?Breakfast has nothing to do with the time of day, or specific kinds of food; it’s merely your first meal of the day that “breaks your fast”.

This way, when you break your fast each day, you're simultaneously introducing a variety of fibrous plants to your gut microbes.

The gut microbiome is quite possibly the most important aspect of our health, and the beautiful thing is, we can cultivate it like a garden.

If you have any questions, I'm happy to think through them with you!

Here's a study that dives deeper: "Fasting alters the gut microbiome, reducing blood pressure and body weight in metabolic syndrome patients."?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22097-0?

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How To Deal With Hunger While Fasting

First off, I want you to realize that most people have literally NEVER felt real hunger.

We say things like, "I'm starving to death", but this kind of thinking is unbelievably counterproductive.

Imagine that you just left an all-you-can-eat buffet.

You see a food truck outside giving away free taco salad.

You're stuffed, but you go, "Ah what the hell, it's free."

Now imagine that you just finished kayaking and fishing all morning, and haven't eaten anything yet.

You see the same food truck giving away free taco salad at the dock, and you happily grab some.

Same food, but which of these meals do you think you'll enjoy more?

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Hunger is a gift!

I eat for pleasure every single day.

I enjoy every bite of my food, and truly eat as much as I want (within my window)!

Some might dismiss this and say I just have a high metabolism; lucky genetics.

But I've been practicing intermittent fasting for nearly 10 years.

My body has simply learned to switch between burning glucose, and burning stored body fat for energy.

And yours can too - quickly!

This is called metabolic flexibility - the ability to switch fuel sources like a hybrid car.

There is a direct correlation between your level of hunger, and the pleasure you get from the next meal.

The longer you wait before breaking your fast, the better the food tastes, AND the better you feel!

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Try a strategy called Mindful Hunger:

Simply becoming aware of the mild sensation of hunger, and allowing it to exist without reacting.

Your hunger is not a command; it’s a signal! You are the one in the driver's seat!

Here's a PDF from Johns Hopkins to learn more about Mindful Hunger and Mindful Eating:

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/bariatrics/_documents/hunger-cravings-mindful-eating.pdf?

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Are You Actually Hungry?

When a baby cries, it’s up to you as the parent to figure out what they need.

No offense, but your body is like a baby…

All it can do is cry for what it desperately wants. And the cries all sound the same.

It cries when it is hungry, when it is thirsty, when it wants attention, and when it becomes ill.

As the caretaker, it is your job to pay attention to the subtle differences between the different cries so you can figure out what the baby needs.

Just listen.

You wouldn’t ignore a baby’s cry, so why do you ignore your cherished body?

Ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?”

Odds are you’re probably thirsty, tired, bored or stressed.

Take care of these things first. Then if you determine that, yes, you are actually hungry, you know what to do!

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Hungry For Nutrients

When we eat high calorie snacks, we get a buzz from the fast-digesting fake ingredients coursing through our bloodstream.

But when you eat this empty-calorie junk, you're hungry again 20 minutes later.

That's because your body doesn't crave fullness or caloric energy; it craves nutrients.

Nutrients that come in the perfect ratios and amounts in, you guessed it, whole plants!

Fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, beans, legumes, herbs, spices... There are?Hundreds?of whole plants at our disposal.

Nature's culinary multi-vitamins!

It's surprising how not-hungry you feel when you're getting enough of the good stuff!

Today, our biggest threat is that we have too much food.

It’s not the kind of food that satisfies you though. No, we’re mostly overfed and undernourished.

We’re so hungry for nutrients that all we do is eat.

The beautiful thing is, this is all within our control.

All you have to do is send your body the right messages:

First, that there's no impending emergency, and you can do that with the right foods (and stress relief).

And second, that your body should burn that stored backup fuel, and you can do that with fasting.

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One Simple Guideline To Change Everything:

"I eat 2 plant-powered meals within a 1-6 hour window, and avoid snacking between meals"

There are no shortcuts, but there is a?Fast?way to become exceptionally healthy!

Stay Grounded,

Landon Kennedy

Lifestyle + Mindset Advisor

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