Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:29):
Let’s talk intermittent fasting, whether you’ve considered seven day water fast because they become popular recently. A doing more intermittent fasting with a longer fast and shorter eating window on a day five and two. All the different options out there. We want to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. So welcome Michelle. Let’s dive into what is intermittent fasting in general.

Michelle (00:52):
So the biggest thing with intermittent fasting is it’s really just about the timing of when you eat. It’s not really necessarily changing your eating behavior as far as your diet goes, but actually the eating behavior of when you’re going to eat versus when you’re not going to eat. And a lot of times people like to couple multiple diets on top of it, but when it comes to intermittent fasting, the simplest form of it is just restricting when your eating windows are.

Cori (01:22):
And you can do a lot of different eating windows as I mentioned already. It could be that you skip breakfast and have that shorter eating window each day and a longer extended time without eating. So like 16, eight, it can be full days, it can be many extended days. But I love that you brought up that intermittent fasting isn’t a diet. We really do talk about it like it’s a diet, but it is a meal timing that can be implemented with so many different ways of eating, whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, paleo, even carnivore, and on top of that it can be used with a variety of different macros. Now we’re going to dive into some of the benefits. The downside is who it works best for. I do want to start though with the fact that all of this really depends and you have to experiment with what works for you because ultimately whether you hit your macros or not is going to make the biggest impact. Correct. So we can’t use this to restrict our eating too much or we’re going to end up binging later. We can’t sort of out fast our macros. There has to be that underlying macro focus to make the meal timing really work for us. Can you go over a little bit about that, the fundamentals of it?

Michelle (02:28):
Yeah, so when it comes down to it, this really is just a tool and it’s a tool that can help some people be able to have some calorie restriction. If they happen to really struggle during certain times during the day where they overconsume calories, having a more shut off time can allow them to be like, okay, I know that these are my times that I typically overdo things. I’m going to stop eating here and that will keep me from over consuming calories. And then there’s that benefit of, or I should say, but you have to couple it with healthy eating. This does not mean that you have an excuse to binge during that time period that you’re allowed to eat, nor does it mean that we are consuming less during that window. You still need to consume the same amount of calories and the same amount of macro just possibly in a shorter window

Cori (03:22):
And diving into some of the research and what it shows. I do just want to preface this with the fact that a lot of these different things can be accomplished in a lot of different ways. Just like you don’t have to eat one specific food to get micronutrients. There are a lot of foods that have those micros. Intermittent fasting can help you accomplish these benefits. And if it’s right for you, which we’ll sort of dive into as well, what might make it right for you, what might make it wrong for you? The upsides downsides again mentioned that. I just want to say as much as the research can be positive, we can think these things can be beneficial. There are other ways to do it if this doesn’t feel right for you. So experimentation is also always key. Diving into the research, what have been some of the benefits shown of intermittent fasting?

Michelle (04:02):
So some of the biggest benefits have been improved metabolic syndrome, so that’s like multiple facets. So that’s lowering blood pressure, lowering triglyceride levels, being able to reduce some of that waste circumference. It’s shown that we can really target some of that fat on our abdominal. We’re also looking at, of course decreasing the risk of obesity. But some things that are a little bit more unique to intermittent fasting itself compared to other items is that it does show an increase in cellular autophagy, so you actually have more cellular turnover, which is a good thing especially for women as we age. Sometimes that kind of slows down and it’s not going to be a night and day difference, but if you are promoting cellular turnover, you can actually improve your skin. And sometimes those wrinkles, some more of those superficial aspects that sometimes we do kind of stress about as we age. So there’s definitely some positives. And another big thing is it does show a decrease in inflammation that can actually lower risk and slow down both the aging process but progression of diseases as well.

Cori (05:11):
And if someone were looking to implement intermittent fasting, what are some different options for them to use fasting to their benefits?

Michelle (05:19):
So it’s really going to come down to of course the windows, like you mentioned earlier, what is going to work for them and their lifestyle? If you are an active individual having a very restricted window that you do daily, like let’s say the 16 eight where you’re fasting for 16 hours, you’re eating for eight hours out of the day, which is really not, if you look at a normal eating pattern, that’s really not that extreme, right? You’re really just extending that period just so slightly. Most of us, we stop eating 12 hours, we are awake, we’re eating for 12 hours. So you’re just making those slight adjustments. And if you’re someone that trains in the morning, you’re doing training for something very specific, like if you were a marathon runner, an endurance athlete training for an Ironman, doing something like that where you’re fasting during those period, that’s probably not the best option for you.

(06:10):
But if you’re someone that has days that you train and days that you have more rest, you could potentially do a more five to two option where you have five days that are more regular, two days that you’re kind of implementing more of this fasting state. So it really is going to depend on you and what your activity level is, what you’re kind of doing and even where you are kind of in the life cycle as well. And to go into that a little bit more, it’s not going to be something that we’re going to recommend for pregnant women, lactating women, and I’m going to focus on the women specifically because men don’t have, quite frankly, men just don’t have as much going on as we do. But for women we are seeing that for perimenopause and menopausal women, they actually respond very well to intermittent fasting.

(06:57):
And it used to be that this was more of an unknown because all the research was actually done in men. So we were trying to force women into this eating pattern and what we have found is women who are having more pre meno and are having regular hormone fluctuations, they can have fasting if they’re taking it to an extreme. So we’re going past that 16 hour fasting period, we can actually affect our hormone or hormone production and our hormone levels. So that is something to kind of consider too is we do want to make sure that we are keeping our hormone levels regulated because that’s something we want. It’s not a good thing if all of a sudden our hormone production is being shut off and that is going to be something that will be affected if we are doing extreme levels. Now, if you’re doing something more like a regular eating window, you can and your exercise isn’t an extreme where you’re doing lots of endurance activity, lots of cardio, you can still probably implement intermittent fasting in a more easier ratio to follow.

Cori (08:07):
I love that you brought up earlier that intermittent fasting is a tool. I also like that you brought up that at different stages of our life we might find it’s more beneficial or less beneficial because it’s even with goals. If you’re training for a marathon and the timing of your workouts don’t work for it, it might not be as good. However, if you’re in that fat loss phase, maybe it’s better, but maybe if you’re transitioning to muscle gaining based on when you’re working out, it’s not as beneficial. And I say this as someone who I found intermittent fasting and loved it to start, I thought it was a great experience having that eating window, learning my actual hunger cues versus being very conditioned to eat at certain times and get hungry around those. So for me it was a way to learn to listen to my body and once I did it a little bit stricter at the start, I then was like, okay, this is when it works for me, this is when it doesn’t.

(08:49):
As my schedule changed, I even found that there were days I wasn’t doing it or periods in my life where I wasn’t doing it as much. It’s learning how this can impact you when it might be beneficial to experiment with having the experiment but not forcing it as well. And there are the different meal timings you might find that you are a person that is really good about hitting your macros during the week and on the weekends you let things go a little bit more. So maybe you do find that you even do a five and two where two of those days are the weekend days and during the week you do two lower calorie days where you have that extended fast and lower calories so that everything balances out and you can sort of balance out the higher calorie weekends a little bit or maybe you have that eating window because you do train in the afternoon and you can fast in the morning and that makes meal prep easier.

(09:34):
So there’s lots of different reasons to use these strategies to make something sustainable for us. We just want to make sure that the underlying nutrition is there and we’re following our macros. We’re really still tracking that calorie deficit. A lot of the times we ignore the fact that intermittent fasting does recommend really understanding the calories you’re consuming and we just think of it as the meal timing, but we also don’t want to force something that doesn’t work. If you’re trying to train in the morning and trying to fast the afternoon, that’s not going to be beneficial. No matter how much you say there are these benefits of it and research have shown great potential for it, it’s not going to work for you, it’s not going to be sustainable, you’re not going to be using it in the correct ways with your schedule. So you want to think about your schedule and what’s realistic for you and then recognize if you’re doing something that is detrimental, like if fasting till the afternoon is making you hungrier and you’re binging because of that, that’s not a good thing despite the benefits. Now going into who it really works for, who it doesn’t work for as well. I know there’s even some nuance based on health concerns that people have. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Michelle (10:30):
Yeah, so some people that this is not really recommended for is going to be anyone that is going to have any metabolic conditions. So diabetes where we do want to make sure that we’re eating more regularly or if you’re on medications that do of course require you to have food while you’re taking those medications, that’s going to obviously be more important than your eating window. So those are going to be some for instances why we wouldn’t recommend if. Now something that I think people sometimes kind of force into this eating habit, and you kind of touched on this a little bit is this is a tool, this is a meal timing tool. However, if you are looking at it as this is a fad diet that I’m going to do this until I hit X weight or I’m going to do this for this long before this vacation, this is not going to work for you.

(11:22):
And I say that and I would say that with any diet that you’re trying to incorporate, any eating behavior you’re trying to do, if you’re looking at an end date, this isn’t going to be sustainable because you’re already having your exit plan. But the issue is this is teaching you how to incorporate it continuously. If you’re only going to do it for a short amount of time and you get off of it, you haven’t learned to be able to maintain the progress that you have gotten with another tool or another method. So oftentimes if you’re doing this for a short period of time, just like any diet, anything out there, you will oftentimes rebound and usually overshoot where you were at before you even started and it’s really just because you’re like, oh, I’m done, I’ve done it, I’ve completed myself. Everything’s free game now.

(12:12):
And that’s the behavior that we see with anyone that’s going to incorporate any diet. So you need to look at this as you are going to do this forever. This is going to be something that you employ for the rest of your life. Now other people that I would highly discourage from ever doing this would be anyone that has a history of an eating disorder or even has some of those eating disorder behaviors. And I’m going to even specifically call out orthorexia here because so oftentimes it’s one of those conditions that people get praised for being healthy. They do things in the name of health, but if you are constantly thinking about your food, you’re stressed about your food, this is causing more stress in your life because all you can think about is when you are fasting is the food that you’re going to eat and it’s going to cause that obsessive behavior that’s not a good relationship with food.

(13:08):
For some people, like you mentioned, it allowed you to notice those hunger cues. It allowed you to be able to see those things and be able to improve your relationship with food. For others this could be detrimental and this is really the important thing. There’s tons of research out there on lots of different options that you can kind of do and not everyone fits in that box and intermittent fasting is definitely one of them. There’s lots of different ways that you can utilize this tool because there’s different eating patterns, but that doesn’t mean that you have to force yourself into that box if it’s not right for you.

Cori (13:43):
And when you mention using something long-term, it’s about designing systems that all work together based on our goals. It’s not that you will be doing intermittent fasting in one form for the rest of your life. It’s having the attitude though of what is this experiment? Why am I doing it? What’s the purpose? How does it work with everything else? Too often we just say, oh, this is a good thing and I’m going to try it without thinking about how it really impacts our lifestyle. And ultimately we were potentially designing something that is a short-term fix that doesn’t really teach us what we need to ultimately make lasting habit changes. So if you’re using this and you’re like, Hey, I don’t know if it’ll be long-term, that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be something where you’re like, I’m doing this for the rest of my life needs your goals, everything will change.

(14:23):
But you do have to go in being like, this is why I’m strategically using it. I’m using because it works with my schedule. I don’t like meal prepping for breakfast or hey, I like the five and two because the lower calorie days work with my days off and I’m not as hungry and they allow me more food flexibility on other days. The one thing we don’t want to do though is jump to that seven day water fast, which I’ve seen these really push. And the only reason I’m bringing this up is because so often the three day, the seven day fast are turned to not even just for health benefits or someone wanting to experiment with how they feel and wanting that challenge, but because they want to drop weight quicker on the scale. And I want to caution against this because a lot of times, well not a lot of times that is fake weight and what I mean by that is it’s true weight changes on the scale, but it’s glycogen depletion is water weight being lost?

(15:08):
It’s potentially even muscle being lost as much as it is fat and the second you rehydrate the second you refill those diodes stores afterwards, you’re going to gain some. So it’s not a quick fix as much as that scale might change very quickly. And if you’re not implementing and learning the good habits, which you could do with intermittent fasting windows of five and two, you are not ultimately making a change that’s going to sustain anything you even built up potentially during that time. So please don’t use this as a quick fix. Please use this as a strategy to learn more about your body and how you feel. Now I did want to touch on some of the side effects of it because anytime we make a dietary change whether or not it’s a change to macros to calories to meal timing, there is a response.

(15:46):
I can tell you personally when I first started intermittent fasting because I was very rigid on meal timings before I got a little hangry at times I felt a little off at times, but ultimately when I started to do that and get off of having these set meal times, I was so conditioned to them. Now there’s a lot more flexibility when I can eat and I don’t feel like I’m die if I don’t ride away. Can make the travel day a lot easier. But talk a little bit about the side effects that people might experience and when you really have to pay attention to ’em and say this is not just my body adapting to something new but something that means this really isn’t right for me.

Michelle (16:17):
Yeah, so very common side effects. Of course you already mentioned the one being irritable. So when we’re hungry, if we’re constantly thinking about food, we can be a little hangry and snap at people sometimes. And then of course there’s headaches, there’s nausea, there’s fatigue. So those are kind of the most common ones and typically your body’s going to adjust. Everyone is a little bit different because we adjust a little bit differently whenever we’re going to change that metabolic state. So it could be a little bit longer, it could be shorter, but if you are still experiencing these things after, if you’re going into it two weeks a month and you’re still having these issues, it may just not be a right tool for you to implement. And some big things that are really going to be issues if you are doing a workout and all of a sudden you are dizzy, you are seeing black spots, your vision is blurred, that is a major sign you need to eat and you need to get some specifically you need some carbs right away because it’s most likely that you have had a major drop. So this is something that we really want to pay attention to, especially if you are working out, again, it’s one thing to implement this, but it’s a whole other layer. If we’re adding workouts and depending on how long those workouts are, how hard you’re pushing yourself in those workouts, that’s going to also cause an adjustment to that meal timing or if you’re willing to move your workouts around. So that’s something to consider as you are if you’re looking into this as well.

Cori (17:47):
And even fasted training itself, I know that’s a very popular thing to ask about, but it can really depend. It can depend on your goals. If you’re focused on building muscle, you might want that fuel beforehand, but of course if you’re training first thing in the morning and it’s just not possible for you to eat, it really doesn’t feel comfortable for you to eat, you can work around that. So if facet training feels right for you when you’re doing it to do it, but you do want to know when you’re forcing fasted training to try and get the fat burning benefits and then your workouts are subpar and you’re not able to push as hard because then the supposed benefits you’re getting aren’t really going to benefit you because you’re not able to push it at a hundred percent intensity. So it’s always sort of weighing the cost and reward and seeing how you respond and the other ways you time everything because again, if you do like training fast in the morning and that just feels better, focus on that pre-bed meal to make sure that you’re prepared for your workout session so you can have that quality session.

(18:36):
If you don’t like training fast at all and you don’t feel like you can push as hard or maybe you experiment to see what works, take that meal beforehand. There’s no one way to get a lot of the benefits that we do see with these different systems. It’s about all the systems that you implement really working together. Which brings me to something I want you to go over is the three myths that you actually find floating around about intermittent fasting.

Michelle (18:59):
Yeah, so I mean there’s obviously a lot, but one is it’s going to put you into starvation mode, which is going to cause muscle loss and lower metabolism. And we talk about metabolism quite a bit. I talk to my clients all the time, we need you eating more because we’re going to have metabolic adaptation. Now remember, intermittent fasting is just a meal tiny tool. It is not a we’re going to limit your calories, you’re still supposed to eat the same amount of calories just in a shorter window. So that right there is why it’s not going to potentially affect that metabolism or cause that muscle loss because you should still be eating healthy high quality foods when you are allowed to eat. What intermittent fasting does do is during that exercise, like you said, if you’re going to do in a fasted state or what we’re kind of mimicking is actually we’re getting the body into a little bit more of a ketosis state.

(19:57):
So kind of why people love the keto diet is because it burns fat a little bit faster. So we’re actually able to get there without actually following a strict diet like keto. So that is actually the big benefit is you’re going to burn through that fat because you’re not going to have the glucose so your body’s going to turn to the fat to burn energy, but we are still going to eat later. So you’re still going to have the adequate amount of carbs, the adequate amount of protein to make sure that we are protecting and ensuring that muscle mass that we’re not going to burn it because that of course is always an issue whenever we’re dieting is the body likes to turn to muscle for energy, but making sure that we are getting that adequate amount of calories, adequate amount of macro appropriate macros for your needs are going to keep that covered.

Cori (20:50):
And this is why even recognizing, hey, as much as you might want the fat burning benefits of training fasted, if you are looking to gain muscle, our systems have to change. If you are training for that endurance sport and carbs are the fuel that you need, being depleted might not be as beneficial. So it’s always remembering that tools are only as good as their implementation and they have to be utilized based on your goals and what you use to get to one goal will not necessarily be what you use. To get to the next off of that too, I think it’s really important to note that with intermittent fasting it’s not just restricting calories. Yes, you have that restricted window and it can help you restrict calories and with certain forms of it like five and two, there will be lower calorie days and higher calorie days, but it’s really just impacting your calorie distribution over the week. If you’re still trying to make sure you’re eating enough, you still have to eat enough to build that lean muscle. If you’re trying to create that calorie deficit, you still have to create that calorie deficit to lose fat. So it does come back to macros and calories need to be hit no matter the meal timing you use. Myth number two, hit me with it.

Michelle (21:48):
So intermittent fasting will make you feel weak, lightheaded and foggy brained, and we kind of talked about that is initially when you’re first starting you can kind of have some of those side effects where you do feel a little fatigued, maybe a little nauseated, but as your body becomes accustomed to it and as you adjust, there’s actually a lot of research and even the Society of Neuroscience has discovered that intermittent fasting actually improves our learning and memory and can actually lead to growth of neurons in our brain. So it’s actually something that they recommend as a preventative diet shouldn’t, I’m calling it a diet, but as a preventative meal timing tool to actually be able to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. So that’s not what the science is showing. A lot of people think that they’re going to have fogged brain, I want to say foggy brain, I was trying to say foggy brained and mental clarity at the same time. So they think that they are going to have a fog brained and not be able to think, but what Ashley is happening is oftentimes they’re going to have mental clarity and be able to think a little bit better

Cori (23:02):
Going back to those side effects even I think it’s really key to highlight that you never want to ignore your body’s response to something and the more dramatic the change, the more you have to expect a response. But it is good to realize that our body wants to do what it’s always done. It feels comfortable, it feels safe with those things. So anytime we make a change, there is going to be an adaptation period. So giving your body time to adjust is important, but if you find that you are very sensitive to any changes and you’ve been very rigid in your specific systems, whether it’s a specific MAC or breakdown for a long time, calories meal timing, make smaller adjustments to start. Maybe that just means even moving breakfast back an hour from where you usually have it, maybe it means moving dinner up an hour earlier, but make smaller adjustments if you know you’re sensitive and going to have a bigger response just so that you can sort of mitigate some of those side effects to see if it’s right for you and if it really fits you for meal timing. Now, myth number three.

Michelle (24:00):
So the last one is it just doesn’t really work and again, that’s just not what the research is actually showing. So we have recently they’ve had a systemic review of over 40 research studies. So they’ve looked at 40 different research studies on intermittent fasting and all of ’em did find that there was typically a weight loss of seven to 11 pounds and that’s in about 10 weeks. So it definitely is helping people achieve weight loss. Now the biggest issue with all diets is it sustainable and that’s really dependent on the person is how did they implement, and I know we mentioned this a lot just even in what we’ve discussed previously, but your mindset really matters. Your mindset matters on anything that you’re going to employ or going to use when it comes to your eating behavior or your diet. It’s really what you are putting into it is going to depend on what you’re going to get out of it. So as you mentioned, we don’t want anyone to jump in thinking this is going to be a short term solution. You can always pivot and you can always try a different fasting ratio or be like, oh no, this really wasn’t for me. But you need to enter it thinking this is going to be a long-term solution for you

Cori (25:14):
And recognizing that tools only really work if they’re focused on our needs and goals and actual lifestyle. We need something we can be consistent with. So you might find that intermittent fasting is not for you because you train first thing in the morning, you get up early, you don’t want to eat dinner any earlier, so you can’t adjust your eating window that way. Or maybe you find that you don’t feel good with it. You like breakfast, you like breaking down your meals because you struggle to fit in the calories. Otherwise there are lots of reasons this might not be right for you and there are lots of reasons it might be right for you. But even running the experiment if you are fascinated by some of the benefits can be important or key to do because you might even find that, hey, I fast now on days that I do have something come up but I don’t fast on other days or days I train.

(25:55):
You’ll find different variations of it that might not be the traditional ways of using it that really help you stay more consistent. So think of meal timing as this option to get better results from hitting your macros and hitting your calories. If you don’t hit your macros, if you don’t hit your calories, you’re not going to see the changes that you want no matter how amazing the other potential benefits of something could be, especially long-term, right? They might provide some short-term benefits because we’re making changes and you start adding in more vegetables, you cut your calories a little bit, you’re going to see initial progress, but if you don’t learn how to truly make habit changes, implement the foods you love, find your lifestyle balance, you’re not going to sustain those habits and it’s why something can work, but we ultimately fall back. So just recognize the opportunity in this and realize that there are benefits, there are benefits to all the systems we can implement, but they have to fit us and work all together. So closing thoughts, if someone’s like, Hey, I’m really interested in trying intermittent fasting. I want to see if it can benefit me, if it feels good for my schedule, how would they go about starting to do that, Michelle?

Michelle (26:54):
So go into it with a plan. Actually sit down, lay out, look at your calendar, be like, this is when I’m working out, this is how I’m going to start that or implement that plan whether it is I am going to try working out fasted or I’m not ready for that, so I’m just going to shorten my window a little bit as you mentioned. So really sometimes just kind of easing into it and even having something that maybe just as simple as you’re going to fast from seven to 11:00 AM or maybe you’re going from 8:00 PM to 12:00 PM and that’s just going to be kind of where you start. That is typically going to be an easier route to go. Another big thing is make sure that you are drinking while you fast. If you are going to intermittent fast, you still need to make sure that you are drinking and staying hydrated throughout the day.

(27:45):
Now there are some things that you can still consume that’s not going to ruin that fast, and some of those items are going to be things like herbal teas, electrolytes, as long as they’re no sugar added to it, black coffee is a great option. Anything with BCAAs, those are all going to be zero calorie options that you can kind of help. And oftentimes even the electrolytes can actually decrease the side effects of the headaches that you may suffer from when you first start. And really, really when you are getting going, you still need to focus on whole foods. Your diet needs to be coming from Whole Foods first. I would even argue to say if you don’t have that foundation down yet, that’s where you start before you actually implement fasting is improving your diet a little bit. Make sure you’re hitting your calories and macros that you need before all of a sudden we try to jump in and make it a little bit harder by changing up your eating window.

(28:44):
And really final thing is just make sure you actually are working out to that. I know oftentimes we are like, okay, I’m going to fix this and I’m going to focus on my diet and that is all great. Don’t get me wrong, nutrition is a big part, but if you’re doing that and you’re not also adding in the workout where we are really going to see the biggest benefits of intermittent fasting, which is body recomposition because it allows you to burn a little bit more fat so you can kind of take advantage with that body recomp and focusing on that weightlifting, we want you to get the most out of it. So making sure you’re adding that workout is also going to be a huge part of it.

Cori (29:20):
And I just wanted to add in that as you go through this experiment, set a certain amount of time, 10 to 14 days that you’re going to commit no matter how you feel, watch for different signals and symptoms because you don’t want to push your body to a limit that you’re not comfortable with, that there are negative side effects really impacting your functioning. But just to give yourself the time to adjust and then over that time, track how you feel with it, track the changes, track your body’s response from how are you sleeping, how are your training sessions feel not just your weight change on the scale because in that you might notice that you feel better if you get a big meal right after your workout if you’ve trained fasted and you want to time more carbs there. Or I can tell you, especially if you are skipping breakfast and then you are training fasted, you might want to time a lot more calories and a bigger dinner even though we’ve potentially feared in the past eating a big late dinner.

(30:09):
And that can have negative effects, which you won’t gain fat just from eating later, but you might need that big meal to feel really energized to do your training, especially if you are having that fasting window and not breaking it until after the workout. So you have to let go potentially of some of the things you’ve always even feared in the past or thought in the past, but play around with how you’re using that window and really record things as you’re running this experiment to see what works for you to adjust and tweak because that meal timing within the meal timing can have an impact in how you’re breaking down those macros as well. Any last thoughts, Michelle?

Michelle (30:44):
I’m just going to add this. I know we’ve kind of talked about a lot of positives that intermittent fasting has and it does. And if it’s right for you, it can really be that kind of that magic sauce for you to get your results. But I am going to add for a lot of those positive things that we said, anyone can achieve that as long as they are having a diet and are achieving weight loss. So you can still get a lot of those benefits and not actually use this as a tool to help you get there. It is a tool that can help some and may get to the results faster, but if it’s not for you, it’s not like all of a sudden all the benefits we just listed are out of your reach. It just may mean that you need to get there using a different tool and implement something else for you to have the same results,

Cori (31:31):
Opportunity and all the different options. Well, thank you so much Michelle. I’d love to hear are you guys intermittent fasting? How do you feel with it? Are you going to be testing it out? And if so, what type of fast are you going to be doing?

(31:43):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work out and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone I.

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