Easy Guide To Intermittent Fasting | Jason FUng

 hi I'm Dr Jason Fung today I'm going to

go over a practical guide to fasting

everything you need to know to get

started and let's go

[Music]

first of all what is fasting fasting is

simply any period of time that you're

not eating and you have to understand

that this is normal

part of the day we're going to be eating

that's when we're going to take in

calories and we're going to store some

of those calories because we are taking

in more calories than we can use so your

body can store it as body fat or as

sugar

when you don't eat when you're fasting

that's the signal to take those calories

out of storage and to use it for energy

and our body has the ability to do that

there's nothing unusual about it that's

why you don't die in your sleep every

single night and this is just normal you

need to balance feeding and fasting part

of the day you're going to store

calories part of the day you're going to

burn calories if you don't keep them in

Balance if you're storing calories all

the time you might gain a lot of weight

and this is normal that's why we have

the word break fast or breakfast

so people who say oh I don't support

fasting fasting is bad for you well then

they must support the fact that you're

supposed to be eating all the time but

if you're eating all the time when is

your body supposed to burn those

calories you're not giving your body a

chance to do it that's all we're talking

about and it's been done for thousands

of years there are fasting Traditions

that have gone back thousands of years

we know it's safe we know it can be done

well safely and in many cases to great

benefit

the other important thing to understand

is that fasting is voluntary you're

always in charge of the process

starvation is not voluntary you don't

have food you don't know where it's

coming from

fasting is a voluntary abstinence of

food for whatever reason whether it's

part of the daily schedule whether First

Health religious spiritual or other

purposes is fine if you don't like

what's happening you can always stop and

you can eat so it is normal keep that in

mind

so how are you going to fast

fasting is just any period you're not

eating but you can still drink fluids

classically faster water only but

there's many variations that you can use

in fact you can take a lot of fluids

such as green teas herbal teas or coffee

without sweeteners or sugar or cream and

they have no calories so they're not

really going to break your fast because

they have no energy your body is still

going to need to use some of those

calories you can also use things that do

have a few calories which is not a true

fast something like bone broth for

example or a little bit of cream in your

coffee and that's generally okay because

the amount is so small that yes you'll

store a few calories for a few minutes

but then you'll go right back to burning

them so you don't have to worry about

that why should you fast there's

actually a number of very good reasons

why you should fast one is that and it

creates a structure to your eating day a

lot of us Don know how to eat anymore in

the 1960s 1970s it was very easy you ate

breakfast you ate lunch you ate dinner

and that's it you didn't eat in your car

you didn't eat at the movie theaters you

didn't eat anywhere else if you wanted a

snack your mom would say no you're going

to ruin your dinner if you wanted a

bedtime snack your mom would say no you

should have ate more at dinner there

were just periods of time that you eat

now people are confused they think they

can eat anytime they want and making it

as often as they want and it won't make

any difference the truth is that it does

if you eat more frequently it's a lot

easier to eat more if you're eating when

you're not hungry well there's a good

chance you're going to be eating foods

that you shouldn't be eating

second it builds dietary consistency if

you're eating the same one or two or

three meals day in day out giving

yourself that good period of fasting

well you're going to be consistent and

consistency is the key to getting

results

but even more important consistency

builds habits if you get into habits you

don't need willpower and that's so

important think about brushing your

teeth you don't have to will yourself to

brush your teeth it's such a habit that

you just naturally do it well if you

build that habit of having specified

meal times and specified fasting times

it's not going to be hard anymore

because

it's ingrained

number four it's a very easy way to

control your eating what you're doing is

you're counting the hours that you're

allowed to eat the number of meal times

that you have rather than calories

because counting calories is notoriously

inaccurate you don't know how many

calories are in that steak you ate or

that salad because it depends on the

dressing it depends on what they put in

the dressing and put depends on what

sauce they use on the on the meat or the

fish you have no idea so whenever they

look at studies people really have zero

idea how many calories are so how can

you count them to be successful it's

virtually impossible and number five

it's a very traditional way of eating

it's ingrained in our very language and

the simplest rule of weight loss

don't eat all the time give yourself a

break from eating so that you can burn

those calories which is simply food

energy body fat is just a store of that

food energy it's not there for looks

it's a source of calories food energy so

give your body a chance to use it up so

here's a very simple fasting protocol

just start with a 12 to 14 hour fasting

period that just means cutting out

bedtime snacks and make sure that you

cut out the snacks in between meals as

well if you finish dinner time for

example at 6 pm and you're to eat

breakfast at 8 AM that's a 14 hour

period of fasting that's a good way to

let your body get into that fasted State

and this was the way that people ate in

the 1970s and they stayed relatively

thin without obsessing about what they

were eating because they were looking at

the times that they were eating

then what you can do is gradually

lengthen that out if you want to if you

have more weight to lose then you can

gradually lengthen it out to 16 hours or

20 hours and you can also build it into

certain days of the week for example if

every Monday you know you're going to be

really busy at work maybe you're going

to work right through breakfast and only

have a 16 hour have a eight hour feeding

window and 16 hour fasting window at

that time

I'm going to give you a few tips to get

started first ride the hunger waves

expect that you will be hungry

when you start anything new your body

needs to adjust so if you start

increasing your fasting period you're

going to be hungry because your body is

expecting to eat and you're not eating

well that's normal but keep in mind that

the hunger does not persist

all the studies of hunger show that when

you don't eat your body will feed itself

through the body fat or the stored

calories and the hunger will go away and

we've all experienced this when you miss

breakfast for example yes you're hungry

at first but then eventually your hunger

goes away it doesn't keep building and

building let it go over you like a wave

just ignore it and that Tim me takes me

to my number one tip which is that you

need to stay busy and that's how you're

going to take your mind off of it so

there's lots of things that you can do

you can take a bubble bath you can

listen to music you can call your

parents you can do some dusting you can

organize your room you can do some

spring cleaning exercise is a great way

to take your mind off of things because

as you start exercising all the blood

goes to your muscles and you stop

thinking about it and especially things

exercises that are like games like

tennis you get so engrossed in it that

you forget that you you didn't eat and

your body is naturally going to reduce

that hunger so try playing a game of

pick a basketball or tennis or badminton

or ping pong or something during that

time that you would normally eat

there are certain things that are

important to not do social media is

probably a big one of them because

there's a lot of food

a lot of times when you go on TV also

there's a lot of advertisements and you

don't want to be reminded of food when

you're fasting it's just not a good idea

grocery shopping is also something is

very difficult to do because you're

going to tend to want to buy things and

then you're going to be reminded cooking

going to a mall where there's lots of

food courts for example and there's

smells of the food court those are

probably not a good thing also parties

are very difficult because oftentimes

there's food and so those are things

that are best not to do during fasting

and the good thing about fasting is

totally flexible you can arrange it to

do yourself

you have to expect a few things when

you're when you start fasting so that

you can take care of those problems for

example headaches and dizziness can

happen and taking a little bit of salt

is often very beneficial because the

people do get sometimes a little bit

dehydrated when they start fasting

constipation can happen as well as

diarrhea and you can use some laxatives

for example if you have constipation or

bulking agents such as psyllium husk you

may find changes in your blood glucose

you may find changes in your energy in

fact people tend to get more energy so

that sometimes they even get insomnia

and what you want to do is just make

sure that you're relaxing before bedtime

and finally the biggest three fasting

mistakes one is triggers so oftentimes

we get hungry because we're triggered

whether it's the smells of the food or

socializing or the situation it's the

environment that puts us in danger of

breaking the fast number two is doing it

alone everything is easier when you do

it with somebody so try to find somebody

that will support you somebody you can

talk to about it somebody who has

experience and number one avoid

overeating once you finish your fast

remember you're trying to feed your body

through the calories that you've already

stored whether it's glucose you're gonna

take that and feed yourself with your

blood glucose and therefore you might

improve your type 2 diabetes or you

might feed yourself through your body

fat and you're going to be able to lose

fat but if you then eat a lot when you

start eating again well you're going to

undo a lot of the good that you just did

so remember avoid overeating just try

and forget about the fast that you did

and eat that next meal as normally as

possible it's a mistake we've all made

so if it happens don't worry about it

just try to do better next time

hopefully you've enjoyed this video and

learned something that's a practical

guide to fasting in 10 minutes

everything you need to know thanks for

watching

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