#1 Intermittent Fasting Mistake Women Make That Causes Weight Gain! | Dr. Mindy Pelz

Summary

The video discusses the common mistake of women repeatedly following the same fasting routine, which can lead to weight gain rather than loss. The speaker emphasizes the importance of variation in fasting, as our primal bodies were designed for inconsistency in food intake. Highlighting the role of hormones like progesterone, the video suggests that not adjusting for hormonal changes can disrupt weight loss efforts. The speaker advocates for diverse fasting lengths and patterns to overcome plateaus and maintain a healthy, effective fasting lifestyle.

Takeaways

• 🚫 The number one intermittent fasting mistake women make is consistently repeating the same fasting pattern, which can lead to weight gain.
• 📈 Intermittent fasting is a powerful health tool that empowers individuals to control their eating habits and metabolic switching, leading to noticeable body changes.
• 📚 The speaker recommends six different length fasts for women based on a decade of research and testing within the YouTube community.
• 🔄 The importance of varying fasting patterns is emphasized, as it aligns with the Thrifty Gene hypothesis, which suggests that our genes are adapted to varying lengths of fasting.
• 🥗 The 'Omnishambles' trend, characterized by one large meal after long periods of fasting, often leads to initial weight loss followed by a plateau.
• 🧬 The Thrifty Gene hypothesis posits that humans have evolved with a gene that allows for efficient use of energy during periods of food scarcity, and not fasting can be detrimental to health.
• 📈 The speaker's research indicates that the key to successful fasting for women is variation, which helps avoid plateaus and continues to promote weight loss.
• 🤰 Hormonal differences, particularly progesterone, play a significant role in how women's bodies respond to fasting, with progesterone preferring lower cortisol and higher glucose levels.
• 🧘 Variation in fasting is compared to workout routines, where doing the same exercise daily leads to diminishing returns, whereas changing it up enhances results.
• 📖 The speaker offers a free guide for beginners to master fasting and encourages experimentation with different fasting patterns to find what works best for each individual.
• 🎉 Success stories of weight loss through varied fasting patterns are shared, highlighting the positive impact on both premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

Q & A

What is the main mistake women make with intermittent fasting that can lead to weight gain?

The main mistake women make with intermittent fasting is not varying the length of their fasts. Repeating the same fasting pattern over and over can lead to plateaus and eventually weight gain.

Why is it important for women to vary their fasting lengths?

Varying fasting lengths is important for women because it aligns with the body's natural hormonal cycles and the Thrifty Gene hypothesis, which suggests that our genes are adapted to cope with varying food availability, similar to the conditions in our primal days.

What is the Thrifty Gene hypothesis?

The Thrifty Gene hypothesis posits that humans who had genes allowing them to survive long periods without food were the ones who thrived during times of food scarcity in our primal past. It suggests that modern humans, who carry this gene, may be negatively affected by constant food availability and could benefit from periods of fasting.

How does progesterone affect women's fasting and weight loss?

Progesterone is an outlier hormone when it comes to fasting and weight loss. It prefers low cortisol and high glucose levels, which fasting can disrupt by temporarily raising cortisol and lowering glucose. This can lead to a stressed state and weight retention, especially in cycling women.

What happens when women fast the same way all the time?

When women fast the same way all the time, they may hit a weight loss plateau, similar to how doing the same workout every day can lead to stagnant fitness results. The body adapts to the consistent fasting pattern, reducing its effectiveness over time.

What advice does the speaker give to women who are not losing weight with fasting?

The speaker advises women who are not losing weight with fasting to introduce variation into their fasting routine. Instead of doing the same fasting length every day, they should alternate the lengths of their fasts to keep the body from adapting to a single pattern.

How does the speaker address the concept of 'OM' or 'one meal' a day fasting?

The speaker refers to 'OM' or 'one meal' a day fasting as a trend that led to initial weight loss but then a plateau for many people. This approach involves long periods of fasting followed by a single meal, which initially works but eventually stops being effective due to lack of variation.

What is the role of cortisol in women's fasting and weight management?

Cortisol is a stress hormone that can be temporarily raised by fasting, similar to the effect of exercise. High cortisol levels, when combined with low progesterone, can lead to a stressed state and signal the brain to hold onto weight, which is counterproductive to weight loss efforts.

What does the speaker suggest for postmenopausal women who are experiencing stress and anxiety due to fasting?

The speaker suggests that postmenopausal women who experience stress and anxiety due to fasting should consider varying their fasting patterns to reduce these negative effects. The speaker notes that anxiety can trigger the brain's fear response, leading to increased cortisol and a stressed state.

How does the speaker relate the concept of variation in fasting to exercise routines?

The speaker compares the concept of variation in fasting to the principle of changing up exercise routines to avoid plateaus. Just as doing the same workout every day can lead to stagnant results, the same applies to fasting – varying the fasting lengths can help to continue seeing weight loss progress.

What is the speaker's stance on the idea that all humans have the Thrifty Gene?

The speaker supports the idea that all humans have the Thrifty Gene, which is a gene that allowed our ancestors to survive times of food scarcity. The speaker suggests that this gene is still present in modern humans and that it may be beneficial to engage in fasting practices that reflect this ancestral adaptation.

Outlines

00:00

🚫 The #1 Fasting Mistake Women Make

The video script discusses the prevalent mistake of women engaging in intermittent fasting without variation, leading to weight gain. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding this mistake due to its significant impact on health. The speaker, who has written books and created videos on fasting, highlights the empowerment that comes with mastering this health tool. The script introduces the concept of 'Fast like a girl', where six different length fasts are recommended for women based on a decade of research. The speaker notes that the key issue observed in women is the lack of variation in their fasting patterns, which contradicts the natural Thrifty Gene hypothesis that suggests our genes are designed for varied fasting periods. The speaker warns against the negative effects of consistent one-meal-a-day fasting, which can disrupt hormonal balance and lead to weight plateaus or gain.

05:00

📉 Progesterone's Role in Fasting and Its Impact on Women

The second paragraph delves into the role of progesterone in women's fasting experiences. It explains that progesterone dislikes fasting as it prefers low cortisol and high glucose levels, which fasting disrupts by temporarily raising cortisol and lowering glucose. The speaker addresses the challenges faced by cycling women and menopausal women, as the hormonal changes can lead to weight retention and increased stress. The speaker interrupts the video to offer a free guide for mastering fasting. The overarching message is the need for variation in fasting for women, as it aligns with both primal needs and hormonal requirements. The speaker encourages viewers to share their favorite fasting variations and emphasizes the joy in witnessing significant weight loss, especially in postmenopausal women. The video concludes with a call to action for those struggling with weight loss during fasting to explore the importance of variation in their fasting routine.

Keywords

💡Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is a dietary practice where one cycles between periods of eating and fasting. In the context of the video, it is presented as a powerful health tool that can be empowering when mastered. However, the video identifies a common mistake made by women that leads to weight gain rather than weight loss, emphasizing the importance of variation in fasting patterns.

💡Thrifty Gene Hypothesis

The Thrifty Gene Hypothesis suggests that humans have evolved to store fat efficiently due to periods in human history where food was scarce. According to the video, our genes are accustomed to varying lengths of fasting, and not adhering to this variation can disrupt our natural metabolic processes. The hypothesis is used to explain why consistent fasting patterns might not be as effective as varied ones for weight loss.

💡Progesterone

Progesterone is a hormone that plays a key role in the menstrual cycle and has various effects on the body, including the regulation of metabolism. In the video, it is highlighted as an outlier when it comes to fasting because it prefers a stable environment with low cortisol and high glucose levels, which fasting can disrupt. This disruption can lead to weight retention or gain in women who fast consistently without variation.

💡Cortisol

Cortisol is a stress hormone that the body produces in response to stressors, including fasting. In the context of the video, cortisol is mentioned as a hormone that progesterone prefers to be low. Fasting can temporarily raise cortisol levels, which, along with lowering glucose, can create an environment that progesterone does not favor, leading to potential weight gain or loss plateaus.

💡Weight Loss Plateau

A weight loss plateau refers to a period during which an individual stops losing weight despite continuing their weight loss efforts. In the video, it is suggested that women who follow the same fasting routine consistently may hit a weight loss plateau because their bodies adapt to the constant fasting schedule, reducing the effectiveness of the diet.

💡Fasting Variation

Fasting variation refers to changing the length and timing of fasting periods to avoid the body's adaptation to a singular fasting routine. The video emphasizes that varying the fasting schedule is crucial for continued weight loss success, especially for women, as it aligns with the body's natural hormonal fluctuations and the Thrifty Gene Hypothesis.

💡Hormonal Balance

Hormonal balance refers to the optimal levels and interactions of hormones in the body, which is essential for overall health and well-being. In the video, hormonal balance is particularly linked to the effective practice of intermittent fasting for women, with a focus on the interplay between progesterone and cortisol during fasting periods.

💡Obesity Code

The Obesity Code is a book by Dr. Jason Fung that popularized the idea that weight loss is not about calorie restriction but rather about hormonal changes, particularly insulin levels. The video references this book to highlight the initial success of the one-meal-a-day approach but also points out the subsequent plateaus due to a lack of fasting variation.

💡Resetter Collaborative

The Resetter Collaborative is a community mentioned in the video where the speaker has applied and tested various fasting patterns. It serves as an example of how different fasting lengths were tested and observed in real-life scenarios, contributing to the speaker's insights on the importance of fasting variation.

💡Beginner's Guide to Fasting

The Beginner's Guide to Fasting is a free resource mentioned in the video designed to help newcomers understand and implement a fasting lifestyle. It represents an accessible starting point for those interested in exploring the benefits of intermittent fasting but unsure of how to begin.

💡Weight Loss

Weight loss is the reduction of body weight resulting from a calorie deficit, which can be achieved through diet and exercise. In the video, weight loss is the primary goal of fasting, and the speaker discusses how the proper implementation of intermittent fasting, with a focus on variation, can lead to successful weight loss outcomes.

Highlights

The number one intermittent fasting mistake that many women are making is causing them to gain weight.

Intermittent fasting is a powerful health tool when mastered correctly.

Women should consider six different length fasts based on research and personal experience.

The Thrifty Gene hypothesis suggests that our ancestors with genes allowing them to survive long periods without food were the ones that thrived.

The key to effective fasting for women is variation in fasting lengths and not sticking to the same fast repeatedly.

Fasting can initially lead to weight loss, but many people plateau because they do not vary their fasting routine.

The concept of 'Om' or one meal a day became popular, but it led to many people hitting a weight loss plateau.

Our genes are designed for variation in fasting lengths, not for the same fasting routine every day.

Progesterone is a hormone that women need to consider when fasting, as it prefers low cortisol and high glucose levels.

Fasting can temporarily raise cortisol and lower glucose, which progesterone does not favor, potentially leading to weight retention in cycling women.

For menopausal women, constant fasting can increase anxiety and stress, leading to a rise in cortisol and triggering a stress response.

The speaker offers a free guide for beginners to master the fasting lifestyle.

Varying fasting lengths can prevent hitting a plateau, similar to varying workouts at the gym.

The speaker's book 'Fast Like a Girl' provides various fasting options and encourages women to break their daily routine with food and fasting.

The primal body needed variation, and so do our hormones, especially considering the differences between progesterone and estrogen.

The speaker shares stories of postmenopausal women losing significant weight by adopting varied fasting practices.

This video aims to help viewers who are not losing weight with fasting by emphasizing the importance of variation in their fasting routine.

Transcripts

let's talk about the number one number

one intermittent fasting mistake that

too many women are making that is

actually causing them to gain weight we

don't want this fasting is a miracle and

it's a miracle for the female body but

you got to know this mistake please

stick with me here because this is too

important so let's Dive

[Music]

In

so fasting you know hopefully you all

know I love it I I've wrote lots of

books I've done tons of videos on it um

but what I love about it is it's it's

it's one of those Health tools that when

you learn to master it it is so

empowering you only you can help

yourself when you fast you're the one

that has to stop eating so when you

start to learn to metabolically switch

and go in these periods of time where

you are not eating and and you see the

result in your body only you get credit

for that which is amazing so now in fast

like a girl I mapped out six different

length fasts that I highly recommend

women uh lean into so I put those six

different length fast in there because

that's what research after a decade of

diving into the research for hours those

were the six that I saw but it was more

than that I also took those six and I

applied them here to our YouTube

Community to my resetter collaborative

on Facebook and we tested them out and I

started to see patterns in people

especially women and here is what I

started to see that women were not doing

enough of and why I wanted those six

different length fast and Fast like a

girl women were not varying their fast

enough so when Jason Fun by the way who

gets a tremendous amount of credit in

his book The obesity code when he

brought that to the world and the world

just started to see whoa weight loss

isn't calorie and calor out anymore and

we need to start fasting there was this

trend of what I call Om matters that got

formed this is one meal a day people

where they would leave these long

periods of fasting and then they would

just eat one meal usually it was dinner

and they lost so much weight in the

beginning

and then they plateaued and here on my

YouTube channel I was teaching all the

different emerging science on these

different length fast and one of the

things I found in my research was this

concept called Thrift the Thrifty Gene

hypothesis and the Thrifty Gene

hypothesis says that if we go back to

those Primal days to our caveman and

woman days we didn't have consistent

access to food so we had to rely on

going into our genetics and going into

longer periods without food and the

people that actually had the gene that

allowed them to go long periods without

food were the ones that survived that

time and if they didn't have that Gene

they died and their Thrifty Gene

hypothesis is that they believe that the

majority of humans right now have this

Gene and if we are not leaving these

long periods of time without food we're

doing the opposite thing that happened

in the caveman days that we are killing

ourselves by eating too much but in if

you dive into the research on the

Thrifty Gene hypothesis which by the way

there are two studies I will leave them

Linked In the notes for the science

hounds here but if you dive into that

hypothesis what you will see is that it

was variation of the length of fths that

our genes were set up to do so when we

tie all that together and we come back

to this idea of like what's the number

one uh fasting mistake that women are

making it's the same fast over and over

and over again it's what happened to the

people that did the Obesity code it's

what happened to the women who lost

their cycle it's what happened to the

women that started gaining weight with

fasting you were not meant to be fasting

the same way all the time now I realize

that that is that's not a belief that

everybody buys into but based off the

science that I see based off the

millions of people that my platform has

helped create this fasting lifestyle and

based off of my own personal experience

along with the experience of my patients

that variation diet fasting variation is

the key that so many women are missing

now why would it be women more women

than men so this dives into to a lot of

principles that I've taught in fast like

a girl there is one hormone that's an

outliner outlier when it comes to food

and fasting and that is progesterone

progesterone does not want you to fast

so the other piece of this equation is

that when women are are fasting all the

time they're not minding progesterone

and progesterone wants cortisol to be

low and glucose to be high fasting will

gently temporarily raise cortisol just

like uh exercise will and it brings

glucose down those are both the

equations that progesterone doesn't like

so if you're a cycling woman all of a

sudden the brain gets this idea like

wait we don't have a lot of progesterone

there's a lot of cortisol we're in a

stressed State hold on to weight there's

no need to lose weight right now so for

the cycling woman that's what's going on

for the menopausal woman what's

happening is the anxiety goes up and

then that perpetuates the fear part of

the brain and all of a sudden the

amydala is triggered cortisol is going

up and all of a sudden that you've got a

a menopausal woman under a incredibly

stressed State okay I got to interrupt

this video because I have a free guide

for you so you can Master fasting it's

called a beginner's guide to a fasting

lifestyle and all you've got to do is

click here and you can jump right in and

what typically happens is she'll double

down on all her diet routines and

fast a little longer only raising

cortisol M more so the general theme of

this video is women variation variation

variation you need fasting variation you

may not be somebody who's going to go

into a 72-hour fast but maybe you're

doing 13 hours every single day I'm

going to ask you to do 13 someday 17 the

next day no fasting another day vary it

in fast like a girl I I walk you through

several

variations of what I like I gave you

weekly variations I gave you monthly

variations I got another book coming out

that we're going to go down all the the

Avenue of food I give you variations in

there so when we come back to this idea

of what did our Primal body need it

needed variation when we come back to

what do our hormones need women

progesterone needs something massively

different than estrogen so we've got to

get out of that that everyday routine

with food and fasting and we've got to

to to to break it up and the last thing

I want to say on this and this is really

an interesting lens in which to look at

this through think about your gym we

know this for the gym like if we go and

work out would you go and do the same

workout every single day if you if you

are doing it you probably hit a plateau

with your results it's the same thing

with fasting you do the same thing every

single day works in the beginning stops

working so let's vary it so let me know

your favorite variation in the comments

I love reading your comments so let me

know and then because this is a weight

loss video what I want to know is how

much weight have you lost learning to

fast like a girl I want to know because

it's so fun when we see the massive

amounts of weight and especially in my

postmenopausal friends wow like when I

see a 70-year-old drop 30 pounds in a

couple of months I that's my dopamine

for the week so really excited for you

all and as always I hope that helps okay

are you fasting and you're still not

losing weight check out this video

because you might be missing a key part

of your fasting experience that's going

to unlock weight loss so if you think

about it all the humans that emerged out

of that time have the gene that allows

us to go without food and that Gene they

believe is in all of us today