The Mel Robbins PodcastHow to Lose Weight, Boost Energy, & Live Longer with Intermittent Fasting | Mel Robbins Podcast
EVERY SPOKEN WORD
110 min read · 21,855 words- 0:00 – 5:09
Intro
- MRMel Robbins
(ticking sound) I started to see this topic everywhere, in podcasts, in articles, in books and I decided, "You know what, Mel? Let's just dig into this." This is part one, and Dr. Mindy is going to start off with the significant, irrefutable research and documented benefits of fasting as a health protocol. Do I eat this? Do I eat that? Do I exercise? What kind of exercise? Is it peptides? Is it this thing? Is it that thing? Am I counting calories? Just tell me what the hell to do. (upbeat music) Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. So a couple months ago, I was out with some friends, and we were talking about a bunch of stuff, and then the topic of intermittent fasting came up. And they kept going on and on and on about how it was making them feel better, and so I kept, like, putting one nacho in my mouth after another as I was listening to them talk about how they've lost weight and they just feel more alert. And so I was curious. I'll admit, I was curious, and I asked my friends, "All right. So what is this thing that you're doing and how exactly do you do it?" And my friend turned to me, and I gotta tell you, my friend is not a medical doctor, not a nutritionist. This is how they said it. "Basically, Mel, when I wake up, I don't eat my first meal until about 11:00 AM." I'm like, "That's it?" They said, "Yeah." I said, "Really? That's it? You don't eat breakfast? You start eating at 11:00 AM? That's it?" And they said, "Yes," and I said, "Well look, if it can make my pants feel a little looser and my brain a little sharper, I'm in." I started to see this topic everywhere, in podcasts, in articles, in books, and I decided, "You know what, Mel? Let's just dig into this," because you've got questions about it. Like for example, how exactly is intermittent fasting different from dieting? Is it healthy? Is it true what the headlines say, that it can melt body fat, that it can increase your focus, that it can decrease anxiety and depression, and does it really help you live longer? Well, according to one of the world's leading researchers and experts on this topic, Dr. Mindy Pelz, best-selling author, she says the answer's yeah, it can help you do all that and it's even more exciting than that. Check this out. The New England Medical Journal, they reviewed 85 studies on fasting as a health protocol and the research is so compelling about this as a health protocol that the New England Medical Journal recommends this as a frontline intervention for treating depression, cardiovascular disease, obesity, issues like dementia, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, there is so much mind-blowing and amazing and empowering information about this free protocol that you can use that I've decided that we gotta break this conversation with Dr. Mindy into two parts, into a master class about fasting and the science around it and a step-by-step guide about fasting protocols and how you can use them so that they unleash your body's natural ability to heal itself and become healthier. Yes, you heard me right. Today, this is what you and I are gonna cover. This is part one, and Dr. Mindy is gonna start off with the significant, irrefutable research and documented benefits of fasting as a health protocol. She is gonna teach you about the two different energy systems in your body and how fasting helps you tap into both of them. She's gonna walk you through the six different kinds of fasting protocols and their specific research-backed benefits. You're gonna understand why nothing that you have tried in the past has helped you to get control of your health. You're gonna realize you're not the problem, and you're gonna be empowered because you're gonna know more about how your body functions and you're gonna be so motivated and equipped to try this zero cost fasting protocol for better health in your life. We will cover, in part two, specific fasting protocols for women. So if you have tried intermittent fasting and you didn't see anything happen, right? Or it happened o- or you tried it and it worked for a little bit but then nothing happened, it's probably because you followed the wrong protocol. You were doing it the way that the dudes need to do it and that is not gonna work for you if you identify as a woman. All right. Please help me welcome Dr. Mindy Pelz who has transformed the lives of millions of people with her free videos and best-selling books and all of her research to adopt a healthy fasting protocol and today, she's told all those clients that are Olympic athletes, Academy Award-winning actors, and Silicon Valley CEOs to step aside because she has got an appointment with someone way more important, and that's you and me, baby. All right. Dr. Mindy, welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Oh. Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
- MRMel Robbins
I can't wait to dig into this, and let's just start with the basics. In the simplest terms, what is fasting?
- 5:09 – 8:31
According to the research, what does fasting do?
- MRMel Robbins
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Fasting is a healing state you put your body in that you can only get there by avoiding food for a certain period of time.
- MRMel Robbins
Oh.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
When your blood sugar goes down, what ends up happening is you trigger all these healing responses, so it's in the absence of food the body heals. So fasting is this miraculous internal system in your body that will burn fat, will supercharge your brain, will kill hunger, will improve your sleep, will take away chronic pain, and will slow down aging. It's the most miraculous tool that your body's ever been built with. It's incredible.
- MRMel Robbins
Huh. I don't think I've ever heard anybody describe it like that.... that when you go without food for a certain period of time, it impacts blood sugar, which then triggers all of these incredible well-documented and researched health benefits. You are clearly absolutely so passionate about this. Why are you so excited about fasting?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Oh my gosh, that's such a good question. Um, on a big level, we need a health tool that everybody can do and everybody can afford. And I'll share a story with you. During the pandemic, I was brought on to talk to, uh, a group of high school teachers. The principal had been following my YouTube channel, and she asked if I would come on and talk about the immune system and things they could, these, her teachers could do to improve their immune system. And when I went on, I talked about food and supplements, and at the end of the whole Zoom call, one of the brave teachers raised his hand and he said, "I- I hear what you're saying. I just, I can't, if I'm looking at a jar of peanut butter in the grocery store, and I'm supposed to buy the one with the right oils, it's $8 more than the one with-"
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... "the bad oils, and that's $8 I do not have." And then another brave teacher raised her hand and said, "I get up at 4:30 in the morning, and I go to work. At 3:00 in the afternoon, I am exhausted, so the best place for me to go is through the McDonald's drive-through."
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
"It's just an easier tool for me." And what I realized after that conversation is, we have to have a tool that works for everybody's health, that everybody can do, the busiest executive down to the person who's liver- living paycheck to paycheck. And when you look at it through that lens, fasting is the tool that can put your body into this healing state that will overturn metabolic syndrome. That's why I'm so passionate about it. We only have 12% of Americans that are metabolically fit. So what are we gonna do? W- how are we gonna help these people? And fasting is the, the quickest door in to this healing state.
- MRMel Robbins
Dr. Mindy, I'm so glad that you're here. What is the, you used a term, metabolic something, that fasting puts you in a something something? I didn't even follow that word. What, what, what were you talking about?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, so great question. The best way to look at fasting is, our body has two ways
- 8:31 – 13:52
Our bodies have two energy systems, but we only use one.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
to make energy. One is when our blood sugar goes up. I call that the sugar burner system. And one when the blood sugar goes down, it will switch over into the second energy system called your fat burning energy system. It's very much like a hybrid car. So it ha- we have two different ways that we can propel our body.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So the only way you get into this fat burning state is by avoiding food for a certain period of time. And this, and this is called metabolic l- switching. So our body is meant to switch into the fat burner state, and then switch out into the sugar burner state, and it should be switching in and out of these two states all day long. When we look at people who have poor metabolic health, they're not switching. They're not getting over into the fat burning state. They are, they are staying in the sugar burner state, so they're never getting the healing mechanisms that can happen over there.
- MRMel Robbins
I- I'm, uh, my mouth is sort of on the floor and my mind is spinning like a treadmill right now, because one of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you is because I'm fricking confused. I think everybody's, like, super confused. Do I eat this? Do I eat that? Do I exercise? Do I, what kind of exercise? Is it peptides? Is it this thing? Is it that thing? Am I counting calories?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yep.
- MRMel Robbins
Just tell me what the hell to do, and then-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yep.
- MRMel Robbins
... you know, with women in our 40s and 50s, it's also like, "What the hell is going on with my hormones?" And so-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Amen.
- MRMel Robbins
... you just simplified it-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
... into two systems-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... where your body is either creating energy that you get from the food that you're eating, or it's creating energy from the stored fat that you're burning.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
It, bingo. You got it. It's-
- MRMel Robbins
And you're gonna-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... it's literally that simple.
- MRMel Robbins
And you're gonna teach us today different ways that we can utilize this tool of fasting in order to switch between these stages that your body needs to either be, uh, gaining sugar energy, or whatever energy from food, or gaining energy by burning the stored fat in your body. And your body needs to be switching between these two modes in order to be healthy, in order to thrive. Oh my gosh, I think I am starting to get something that I totally did not get, Min- Dr. Mindy-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
(laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
... and we're only, like, two minutes into this.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes. It's, so, so here's how you can think about. I, this excites me, because this is what I'm trying to do, is teach people about their bodies. You, y- we have given all of our health power away.
- MRMel Robbins
Mm-hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
We give it away to medications, to supplements, to doctors, to the culture. We give it all away, but we forgot that in- innately inside of us is this incredible wisdom, and because we didn't get an own- owner's manual when we were born, we don't understand it, and we've made it very complicated. So o- one thing I just wanna m- make a note on is, this'll help you, what, what did the cave people do? If we go back to our primal days, they didn't have DoorDash. They didn't have a refrigerator. They didn't have a pantry. Food was not a given. So in the morning, when they came out of the cave, they had to go find food. And sometimes that food was really easy to find, and sometimes that food was not easy to find. So they ha- our innate human body had to have another fuel source that kicked in, in the absence of food, that made our minds sharper, our energy increase, made us focus more, made us happier, made our immune systems stronger, so that we could go find food to survive.And once, and then once we found food, we were meant to eat. It's called feast-famine cycling. But we have so much access to food now. I can sit on my couch, and I can pick up my phone, and I can have d- food delivered to my front door. It's so incredibly convenient that we've just tossed away this other energy system, and that's what I'm asking people to bring back.
- MRMel Robbins
And what I've found so compelling in your extensive research and in the work that you do, is that you're, uh, you're basically empowering us to bring back something that our body needs, which is the ability to switch between these states of consumption and a state of depre- deprivation, where you restrict the eating in a very intentional way.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
So that you trigger all of this amazing programming in your body to burn fat, to bring up energy, and we're going to get into the health benefits. We're going to get into the how. We're gonna get, get into the different types of, um, fasting that you can consider, and the different benefits, and the difference for men and women. But I would love to start with, how the hell did you even get into this?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
(laughs) Okay. Well, it's a great question. Um, you know, I, I became incredibly fascinated with food
- 13:52 – 18:10
What is autophagy and why should I care?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
at an, a very early age. This is actually a funny story, because the first research I saw was, um, based off of Dr. Ohsumi's work. So Dr. Ohsumi is a Japanese scientist who won the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology in 2016 for a term called autophagy, that we'll, we'll get into. So autophagy is that when the cells sense that blood sugar and nutrients have gone down, it triggers a healing response inside the cell that, that makes the cell stronger.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So this study came out, and, or he, he was, his study came out in like, you know, er, 2014, and he was, he was given the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology. And so I was studying that, and then I thought, and then the intermittent fasting craze started, and I thought, "Oh, okay, go without food for 13 hours. I could probably do that one day. Let me try it one day." And the first day I tried it, it was horrible. I was like, "Why am I doing this?" Like, I'm, I'm having, I'm suffering. Um, and so, but then I was committed, 'cause that's my personality. It's like, "Well, let me try it another day, and let me try it another day." And each day I tried it, what was happening is that I was not only noticing that my perimenabos- m- menopausal body was changing.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Like, you know, I was 43 at the time. That was 10 years ago. And like, you know, the belly fat was starting to accumulate. The brain fog was starting to kick in. The exhaustion at 3:00 was starting to, to happen. The cognition and focus issues were starting to appear. And all of that went away when I started, just within like, three to four days. I noticed at three o'clock in the afternoon, I'm like, on the third day of intermittent fasting, I was like, "Wait, why am I not, why am I not tired? Why am I not crashing?" And then I just kept going and going, and pretty soon I figured out, wow, this second fuel source is called a ketone, and we can get into this in a moment, and ketones are 50% of the fuel for your brain. So if you're not actually dipping into the fat-burning energy system making ketones, you're, you're depriving your brain of 50% of its fuel source. And I gave my 43-year-old body that fuel source back. And when I did, it was like my brain came back online, my energy came back online, and I kept my weight where I wanted it to be because it had to burn fat in order to make a ketone.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay. I think I just heard a collective gasp from every single woman in the 194 countries where this podcast is syndicated, and all of her sons and daughters go, "Wait, did Dr. Mindy just say she started using fasting when she was 43 to address brain frog..." Frog. See, I, I need to fast-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
(laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
...'cause I can't even say the damn word.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
It feels like a frog. (laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
Brain fog, to melt belly fat, to get her energy back, to basically combat the symptoms of perimenopause, which is a hormone change for women, all at zero cost by simply paying attention to the metabolic cycles in your body-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... that are designed to operate a certain way. Is that what you're saying, Dr. Mindy?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
It, it, 1,000%. This is why when you ask me why I'm so passionate, I'm like, "And it's free." It's free, and your body does it, and all you've got to do is train it to stay in this fasted state. That, that is like my, when, when people ask me why I'm on a mission, I'm like, "Because our bodies are brilliant." And when you look at the perimenopausal woman, she's suffering, and nobody's giving her answers. Let's start with a healing mechanism that already exists and teach her how to dip in and out and metabolically switch to help her hormonal challenges.
- 18:10 – 21:36
The surprising places most of the fasting research comes from.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
That's where the discussion needs to start.
- MRMel Robbins
Holy shit. Okay. I'm, I'm, I'm right there with you, because you know what's interesting about we women is we, you give us a problem, we're like a dog with a bone.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
And yet, the hormone issues that women face, all the way from when your cycle begins, to perimenopause, to pregnancy, to menopause. Like, none of, like, it's so freaking complicated that every single woman I know, I don't, I don't care if she has a Ph.D. public high school degree, or a Ph.D. in biology, we're all like, "What the fuck am I supposed to do?" But when I think also about fasting, I think about the fact that globally, it is a part of many cultures and religious practices, and ceremonies, and has been historically, since the beginning of time.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. It's, when I first st- I started with Dr. Ohsumi's research. So when I first understood the healing mechanisms of autophagy, I then went and I was down hours. I would spend, like, I spent a couple of years, like, 20, 30 (laughs) hours a week, just every possible study I could find. And do you know that most of the studies were coming from people who were e- who practiced Ramadan? Because with Ramadan, there's no food from sunup to sundown. And so, and they do it for 30 days. And so, a lot of the research stemmed from that spiritual practice. But then if you extend it, you know, to every single religion, and to your point, we've got i- ancient heal-, it's a part of every ancient healing tool. Hippocrates, the founder of, of modern medicine, he has many documented statements about, "Just take food out of the equation and the body will heal." So, yeah, it goes way back. This is not a new, innovative tool. This is something we've been using for years to heal ourself, but we lost our way because we live in a food-addicted culture, and, uh, you know, if I'm gonna be really opinionated here, there, it, there's no, who profits from fasting? Big Pharma doesn't.
- MRMel Robbins
(laughs)
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Big Food doesn't. Nobody profits from it. So why-
- MRMel Robbins
That's true.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... why would the media, why would the media bring it? Why, this is what I, actually I've had to deal with in putting Fasting to the World, is every little negative thing about fasting gets so much immediate- media attention. Because the only person that wins when they fast is the human that does it. N- they're not spending any money.
- MRMel Robbins
Well, it's true. Who is paying for the marketing campaign to say-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... "You don't need to eat that much. You don't need to buy this thing. You don't need to try this diet."?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
And one of the things that I found very convincing about your work is the amount of studies that you cite. And I know that in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2019, they reviewed more than 85 studies. And they had a definitive declaration about the power and the documented, research-backed benefit of introducing intermittent fasting. Can you please un-, explain that to everybody listening?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. Oh my God, that's the best study. I'm so happy you brought that one to the surface,
- 21:36 – 24:18
Science recommends intermittent fasting as a first line of treatment.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
because when it came out, the first thing I thought was, "Oh my gosh, the New England Journal of Medicine?" That is like, that is like the, the medical world's hero. And they went even as far as to say, "It should be the first line of treatment for these conditions." Let me tell you some of them. Um, diabetes and metabolic challenges. Neurological conditions, like, uh, dementia and Alzheimer's, uh, you know, the things that are destroying the, our, our neurons in our brain. Well, hello, this is happening, let's talk about Alzheimer's, it's happening to more women than men. They go on to, like, wound healing and, um, energy systems, and they even gave a protocol in that study. They gave, like, you can, "Here's the different ways you can intermittent fast." It's one of the greatest studies. It got a moment in time, and then it went away.
- MRMel Robbins
What's interesting about it is it actually said that intermittent fasting should be used as, quote, "The first line of treatment for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular dele- disease, neurodegenerative, brain conditions, cancer," and that, and the New England Journal of Medicine stated that intermittent fasting has anti-aging effects and nine cellular healing benefits. Can you explain how the fasting protocols are not a diet?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes. Yeah, thank you.
- MRMel Robbins
What's the difference?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, so I think, thank you for bringing this up, because if we look at it as a diet, then we are gonna see it as a trend, and then we're gonna see it as something we're either done right or done wrong. So, we have to take it out of the diet culture. In, in Fast Like a Girl, that's the first thing I do, is that first chapter, is like, "Here are all the diet myths we need to push away." So, here's why it's not a diet, is that you can take any food style you want, and I, and you can put it in what I call an eating window. So let's say that, you know, one of the, the, a really interesting study was, uh, eight, eight to 10 hours of eating, leaving the rest of the day for fasting, can actually overturn the meta-, poor metabolic health, so if you are eating at McDonald's or you're, um, you know, maybe you just don't wanna think about your food, that you can actually overturn the metabolic damage that that diet does if every day you eat that food within eight to 10 hours. So you're leaving longer for healing. So it's not a diet because you're not manipulating the type of food you're eating, you're just
- 24:18 – 28:42
This is why fasting is NOT a dieting trend.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
changing when you eat.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay, I wanna make sure that that landed.... for you listening. Okay? So what you're saying is that based on the research, the reason why a fasting protocol is not a diet, because a diet focuses on what you're eating, and it focuses on calories, and it focuses on a specific intake-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Exactly.
- MRMel Robbins
... of food and the type of food.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
A fasting protocol, many of them are neutral in terms of what type of food you're eating, because a fasting protocol focuses on the window of time when you eat and windows of time when you don't. Am I tracking correctly?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Y- you've got it, uh, 1,000%. And I, I want to share one really quick story-
- MRMel Robbins
Please.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... because I feel like this really was a perfect example of what I'm saying. Uh, last summer, I had a man come up to me that was over about 300 pounds, and, uh, I was at a s- uh, a retreat, and he said, "I, I need your help." And I said, "Tell me, tell me what's, you know, what's going on?" He's like, "I'm, I'm food addicted. I can't... I've tried every diet. I've tried to change my food. I can't do it. And I'm wondering if fasting can help me." And so I dove deeper, and the man was drinking about 12 sodas a day.
- MRMel Robbins
Oh my gosh.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Now, it would have made sense for me to say, "Hey, could you give up your soda?" But he just told me he was food addicted. And I also asked him, "Why do you need to be healthy?" And he said, "I need to stay alive for my wife and my kids."
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
It was, it was a beautiful moment. So I said, "Okay, Todd, here's what we're going to do. We're going to... The first month, you're going to eat all your normal food. Whatever you want to eat, we're just going to compress it." And we started with a 12-hour eating window, because he hadn't been fasting. First month, he was eating buffalo wings, he was drinking soda. The first month, just by compressing his food into one eating window for 12 hours, he lost close to 25, 30 pounds, somewhere in that range. He didn't change... He was still drinking 12 sodas.
- MRMel Robbins
Why does compressing food into a 12-hour window but not changing what you eat, why does this protocol trigger weight loss?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So we'll go back to our two energy systems.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Let's use him as an example. He was eating food that was raising his blood sugar-
- MRMel Robbins
Mm-hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... and then when it would come back down, he would eat again. So he would-
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... just go up and down and up and down in this one energy system. When I had him leave a longer period for fasting, what happened is he would go up and then he would come down, and then he would metabolically switch into a healing state where he would w- and, and we would see that his insulin and his glucose levels, they didn't accumulate because there was a pause. There was a moment where his body got to just relax and not feel another wave of sugar come. And in that relaxation, what ended up happening is the body could repair. So he left time to repair from the damage that the diet was doing. And, and, uh, and just to sum this story up, after a year, he has lost, uh, close to 120 pounds. I talked to him a wee- about a month ago. Um, his diet has completely changed. He's off sodas, he's eating healthy, and his... now he has one goal. He wants to feel proud to stand next to his family in their Christmas card photo. (laughs) That's his-
- MRMel Robbins
Wow.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... goal.
- MRMel Robbins
That's fricking awesome. How does following that for a month or two with your current eating habits change the kinds of food choices that people start to make?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. So there, there's, well, I'll say three major mechanisms that are going on. First, let's go back to our sugar burner system. When, let's say, I eat a hamburger, fries, and a soda, my blood sugar has spiked, and all of a sudden when
- 28:42 – 34:21
Got cravings? This is where they come from and how you can control them.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
it comes down, uh, it will actually go lower. It'll spike... As high as it spikes is as low as it'll go, and in that crash, I'm hungry again. The body gets another hunger si- s- uh, signal. And so you get hungry every couple hours because of the quality of the food that you're eating. So what ends up happening is if we can m- we can allow a longer period where the body's healing, then in that down moment, it switches into a healing state, and that craving stops.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So that's the first thing.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
And the second thing I want to say on that is when you're in the fat-burning state, when you switch over, you make a ketone. A ketone goes up into the brain, and it turns off the hunger hormone. So I knew that his eating was going to create more and more and more hunger. People who are food addicted are hungry a lot-
- MRMel Robbins
Yeah.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... even though they're eating a lot. So when I got him to switch over, we stabilized his blood sugar, we helped him make a ketone, the ketone went up into the brain, turned off hunger. So that was... That's number one. Number two is there's massive changes to the microbiome. So when you go into a fasted state, you start to change the diversity of the bacteria in your gut, and this is another mind-blowing moment. Our cravings are often because of these bacteria in our gut. Candida is a great example. It's a fungus that lives in the gut, and it makes you crave sugar and carbohydrates. And so when you learn to go into these fasted states, you change that whole diversity of your microbiome....and then with the change in the microbiome, the bad bacteria go away that are causing the food cravings. So those were the two, and then the last one I'll say is we repaired his cells so they weren't inflamed anymore.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
And so his cells were finally getting some sort of nutrition. I mean it's- it's- it's- there's a lot of nuance to it, but it- this is why it works. It's-
- MRMel Robbins
And I also love that it's zero cost.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
And it doesn't require you to change what you eat.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
We're talking about when you eat.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
And we're going to get into the how, but there's so much more research that I want to unpack with you-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Mm-hmm.
- MRMel Robbins
...and the benefits, and I want to ask you something quickly. I don't know that there's a quick answer, because when you say the fasting protocols also stimulate this keto thing going up to your brain and that's a good thing, everything seems to be labeled keto. And so-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
...I want to make sure I'm not- I'm not misunderstanding, because if I hear that keto's good, I'm going to go into the grocery store and be like, "Ooh, look at that candy bar, it says keto."
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, my gosh, yes.
- MRMel Robbins
"Uh, that must mean it's good for my brain." And so-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
(laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
...you're, like, what does keto-friendly food mean?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
I'm going to simplify it right here, and I really-
- MRMel Robbins
Please.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
...appreciate you highlighting this, because it- we've gotten- we've lost our way and the- the ketogenic diet is now commercialized. Here's a simple thing. Just eat nature's carbs. Don't- don't worry about low-carb, high-carb, let's focus on nature's carbs.
- MRMel Robbins
What are those?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
What did nature provide us? Vegetables and fruit, and things that are coming from the ground. Just because it's got less carbs doesn't mean it's good for you. So let's talk about the quality of carbs, and the more we can look at our carbohydrates and say, "Did the earth provide this? Did this grow from the earth? Or was this made in- in- in a lab in a warehouse somewhere?" So let's start there. That's- that's the first thing. And then-
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- 34:21 – 36:39
Fasting is not for pregnant and nursing women, or people with eating disorders.
- MRMel Robbins
shouldn't consider it or at least need to get a sign-off from a medical doctor before they do?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. Thank you for asking this question, because I really want to make sure that people are very safe with how they use this tool. So, um, the first thing, what might shock people is that for pre-diabetes, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, it's incredible for. And I'm going to put a little asterisk, but I highly encourage you to bring your doctor on this journey with you. This is not, if you have diabetes, this is not, fasting isn't a solo journey. You need to bring your doctor with you, and- and I can't tell you the number of doctors that have flooded my YouTube channel. I leave the- the science there so they can understand it, so that they can be in collaboration with their- with their patients. So, but, to answer the who is it not for, I think that's the most important thing to say. It is not for the woman who's pregnant. This is not your tool if you're pregnant. Your baby needs calories, it- this is not it.
- MRMel Robbins
Got it.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Um, if- if you're nursing, as I go through the different healing mechanisms that happen, you need to keep your fast very low, because fasting can start to create a detox reaction, and all the toxins that you're detoxing will go into your breast milk, will go into-
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
...which will go into your baby. So we want to keep fasts under 15 hours for nursing women. And then the third one that comes up a lot is people who have any kind of eating disorders or food- food challenges, um, that would be triggered by going into this fasted state.
- MRMel Robbins
Great. Thank you for that. (laughs) This is going to sound like a dumb question, but I, um, maybe we should talk about the types of fasting, because for example, I woke up and I have not had breakfast yet.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Nice.
- MRMel Robbins
But I am drinking coffee with milk in it.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
So does technically that mean I'm fasting? Is coffee allowed?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
Is it only water? Like how, what- what are you doing when you're fasting?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
It- it's so funny, Mel, because this is the most common question I've gotten.
- MRMel Robbins
Really?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. "What about my coffee?"Like, everybody's in-
- MRMel Robbins
Yes.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... until we get to the
- 36:39 – 37:15
What about my coffee?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
coffee topic, and then they're like, "Wait a second. I was in, and now I need to know about my coffee." Okay. So, let's, let me explain this. Um, y- w- in order to get into the fasted state, you need your blood sugar to start to decline so your body registers that there's no nutrients, there's no blood sugar increase for anywhere from an 8 to 12-hour period.
- MRMel Robbins
Oh.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So at eight hours, what happens is the body starts to metabolically switch over into the fat-burning state.
- 37:15 – 48:19
Describing the 6 different types of fasting.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
For some people, that switch will happen quickly, and 10 hours are in, they're into the fasted state. For others, it usually takes about 12 hours. So, if your cup of coffee doesn't spike your blood sugar, you're good, you're golden. It's what you put in your coffee that is going to affect that. So...
- MRMel Robbins
(laughs)
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Right? So, creamer-
- MRMel Robbins
You mean the stuff that makes it taste like candy?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. Exactly. You got it.
- MRMel Robbins
(laughs)
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Creamer, creamer is, is not gonna be great. Sugar's not gonna be great. Um, you know, y- that, we're not talking you get to walk in and drink a Frappuccino and you're still in a fasted state 'cause it has coffee in it. It has to not elevate your blood sugar. Typically, a full-fat cream won't, because fat stabilizes your blood sugar. So, your example, if it's coffee with full-fat cream, you're probably pretty good.
- MRMel Robbins
Hm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
And you're staying in that fasted state.
- MRMel Robbins
Got it. Okay. I've only heard of intermittent fasting. See, I thought all fasting was intermittent fasting.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Right.
- MRMel Robbins
I didn't realize until I looked at your research that there are six different types of fasting because there are six different lengths of time that you can fast for a health benefit.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yep.
- MRMel Robbins
And so, could you walk us all through the different lengths that you can fast and what each one of them produces in terms of a healing or a health benefit?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So, the first one is intermittent fasting. It starts about 12 hours without food, and the window is about 12 to 15 hours without food. You're gonna see your glucose levels come down. You're gonna see inflammation come down, and you're gonna start to see growth hormone kick in, which helps you burn fat and slow the aging process. The next window is 17 hours. This is where autophagy kicks in. Autophagy is your body's r- own internal repair system. So, your cells are gonna get rid of things inside the cell that don't work anymore. They're gonna repair cellular parts, and they're gonna actually kill cells that might be going rogue, like a cancer cell. So, the 17-hour mark starts this autophagy process. 24 hours is the gut reset. This is where intestinal stem cells inside your gut start to be produced, repairing any leaky gut situation, repairing and getting rid of bad bacteria, changing the whole environment of your gut. So, it's great for anybody who has been on antibiotics multiple times, has had a lot of, been eating poor food for a long time, is constipated, um, and needs to repair that gut. Go 24 hours, and will see a dramatic shift. 36 hours is the fat-burning reset. That's long enough for your body to go find the food it stored years ago in fat. So f- all fat is, is your body stored excess somewhere, and it did that to save your life. It didn't wanna store it around your organs, so it stored it around your belly. At 36 hours, you are sending a signal to your body to go burn that and to get rid of it, of that storage. Uh, 48 hours, you reset your whole dopamine system. I call it the dopamine reset. This is where, all of a sudden, you get new dopamine receptor sites that are gonna make you i- increase happiness. Those, those receptor sites will be there long after the 48 hours. And then 72 hours is the immune reset. This is where we can get rid of stagnant parts of our immune system, specifically our white blood cells. We can get rid of them, and new white blood cells will kick in and serve us in a bigger and better way.
- MRMel Robbins
And if, we're gonna start with the first type of fasting, and that window of time is 12 to 16 hours, and let's just say that anyone listening to this is so passionate about this topic and so excited to try it. Could you just say, okay, you're done listening to this podcast. You decide that you're gonna introduce fasting and that it's safe for you to do so. Do you count the 12 to 16-hour window in intermittent fasting?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
The moment you go to bed, do you count it when you stop eating at night? Is the period of time when you're sleeping considered the fast? Like, can you just, like, put me at the starting line for how you even do this?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes. It's, it's the, it's the moment that the last piece of food goes in your mouth.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
And this includes drinks too, so your wine at night. I mean, it's, it's like the mouth is done.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Your water. That starts the clock.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Okay.
- MRMel Robbins
And is the easiest way to start by starting the clock at night?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
So, you're going to bed at nine o'clock. Nine o'clock is the beginning of this 12 to 16-hour window.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
And the time that you're sleeping counts in the fasting. Now, with the 12-hour window, this is intermittent fasting, what is the health benefit-
- 48:19 – 56:17
When your body makes a ketone, it also makes the calming GABA hormone.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
of the production of this ketone, the opposite happens. The hunger turns off. You get more focused. You get calmer, and now your body's ready to repair for you.
- MRMel Robbins
Now, is this a protocol that you just introduce into your life, and this is just how you roll through life? So this is not-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... like you try it today, and then you, you do it another day-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
No.
- MRMel Robbins
... where you want some, like, sharper thinking. This is actually-... a cycling that you're going to be doing.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, yeah. I call it a fasting lifestyle. Build yourself a fasting lifestyle.
- MRMel Robbins
Well, if you really think about it, between the fact that we go through a cycle of being awake during the day and asleep at night, and you go through a cycle of circadian rhythms, you're talking about doing this kind of cycling that your body is designed to do, like other cycles, in order to unlock health benefits.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
That's right.
- MRMel Robbins
Like, if I kind of think about it that way-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... so much of your body is designed to turn on and turn off-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yep.
- MRMel Robbins
... and be in balance.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yep.
- MRMel Robbins
And this helps you get back to it. So, the next type of fasting is one that you do for a 17-hour window.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
So, what is that type of fasting, and what are the benefits?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So, so as you move into that 17 hours without food, again, let's give all the credit to the body. Your body's so smart that it goes, "Huh, okay, food's not coming, nutrients aren't coming, so I better make sure that the inside of our cells are working properly." So, it's a state called autophagy. And what the cells will do when they sense that there's no influx of nutrients or glucose, which is sugar, they start to turn within and eat the bad parts of the cell, things that are not working. They will start to consume that. Autophagy basically means self-eating. So, it's like an internal cellular detox. So, this is another place where the anti-aging pl- piece comes in, is that you've now asked your body to make itself better when you hit that 17-hour mark. And so, it will repair mitochondria and all the internal body parts of the cell, so that it can be stronger for your survival. That's what it's doing. It, it is pr- We are programmed to stay alive. And so, at 17 hours, the cells start to become better versions of themselves. And if there's a cell that is not good, like cancer cells, it will actually kill that cell at 17 hours. And it will get rid of that cell, because it's a weak member of the survival team. The greatest study ever done on women was done on women recovering from breast cancer, and when they s- when they fasted as little as 13 hours every single day, they saw that they had a 64% less reoccurrence of breast cancer. Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
Say that again.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
When women who had breast cancer went, after they had traditional treatment, started to build a fasting lifestyle of 13 hours, so this isn't even full autophagy we're talking about, they had a 64% less reoccurrence of that cancer coming back.
- MRMel Robbins
That's incredible. What you're almost describing as a healing response when you use this protocol is that there is a natural, almost like chemo inside you effect-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... where your body, in that resting period of being able to recover from a cycle of eating, this protocol of not introducing new nutrients allows the body to weed out all the crap that's there.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes, yes. That's it.
- MRMel Robbins
Um, just for my timekeepers, this autophagy state, a fasting protocol of 17 hours, that would be as if you were going to bed at 9:00 PM, that's the last time you ate, and you didn't start eating again until 1:00 PM.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Exactly.
- MRMel Robbins
And is this something that people, that, that if you're going to do this autophagy fasting, is this for only periods of time? Is this something that people do as their fasting protocol forever? Or is this something that you start with intermittent, and then you bump it up to get this little effect? Or is this for, or people that have disease? Like, who's doing autophagy?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. It's, it's really personal preference, and here's the beautiful thing, is once, this is why it's not a diet, fasting gets easier the more you do it. So, what I have experienced is that people will love the way they feel at 15 hours and wanna go longer. So, 17 hours is y- you know, if you can go longer, go longer. Now, I will tell you from the community of millions of people that we've been taking through these fasts, that most people use autophagy fasting, like, after a vacation where they've overdone it, their food, um, you know, if they want a detox without supplements. Um, so people do lean into it for healing their body in a deeper way, like a cellular cleansing when there has been an overabundance of poor lifestyle choices.
- MRMel Robbins
I read in your work that autophagy fasting can also increase your sex drive.
- 56:17 – 1:00:20
How do intestinal stem cells make a difference to your health?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
There's no fuel source for them.
- MRMel Robbins
Hmm. That's pretty cool.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
It's amazing.
- MRMel Robbins
All right. Let's talk about the third, uh, type of fasting, which is a 24-hour window, and this one you call gut reset fast. Can you talk to us about that?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
At 24 hours, this was a study out of MIT, we see that the cells inside your gut start to repair themselves. We call those stem cells. They are intestinal stem cells. And so what happens, again, let's go back to why the body does this, is you've now gone 24 hours without food. So it needs to repair the digestive system, get rid of the bad bacteria that don't serve you, and increase the good bacteria and change that environment for your survival. So intestinal stem cells get made at 24 hours. And I don't know if you know, stem cells are thousands of dollars right now. You can get them injected into you, or you can get them free by learning how to fast.
- MRMel Robbins
And the next one is fat burner fast, 36-hour fast. Is that even safe not to eat food for 36 hours?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah, absolutely. The, uh, the, the research that I show on that one was, and this, is that at 36 hours without food followed by 12 hours of eating, done over a 30-day period, they saw that there was a significant change in belly fat specifically.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay. Let's break this down-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
...'cause everybody just was like, "Hold on. Belly fat? Wait."
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
(laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
"Wha- wha- what's she talking about?" Okay, so the protocol was, and this was a study-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... that you're citing.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
That the protocol was for 30 days straight-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
... you would do a cycling where you didn't eat for 36 hours, and then you would eat for 12 hours, and then you'd go into another 36-hour window of fasting protocol, then another 12, and you did that 30 times in a row?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yes.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay, and then belly fat melted away, and hold on, I gotta ask a question. How do you manage not being a complete bitch? 'Cause I get really angry when I'm hungry.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
That's why you don't start with a 36-hour fast. You start with a 12-hour fast, and you train yourself.
- MRMel Robbins
Oh. Gotcha. Okay.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Just like if you wanted to run a marathon, you don't just throw your tennis shoes on, your running shoes on, and just go 12 miles.
- MRMel Robbins
True. True.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So you have to train. You start with the lower fast. And I, just so I don't lose people, I want to point out that what we've seen in my community is that sometimes all it takes to unstick your weight is one 36-hour fast. It has this metabolic, like, switch it makes on burning fat, 'cause you're training your body to go find what it stored years ago. "Go find the glucose you stored years ago. Go find the toxins that are in there. Go find that. I have another fuel source that you have prepared me for this day. I'm asking you to burn that fuel source now."
- MRMel Robbins
Got it. Okay. But we start, is what I'm hearing, by training ourself with the intermittent fasting protocol-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... which is what I laid out by saying stopping eating at 9:00, start eating back between 9:00 and 12:00 PM. And of course, you can shift that window by stopping eating at 7:00 PM-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Oh, yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
... and then you move it up. So-
- 1:00:20 – 1:09:22
Feeling anxious? Give this type of intermittent fasting a try.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
brain-
- MRMel Robbins
Mm-hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... but it opened up more dopamine receptor sites. So there was more availability for dopamine to get into our cells for us to be able to experience the benefits of dopamine.
- MRMel Robbins
And that study also showed that it lowered anxiety levels.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah. 'Cause you're, 'cause now you've got dopamine.
- MRMel Robbins
Yep.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
You've got ketones, which are making GABA.
- MRMel Robbins
Ah.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So dopamine is the m-, is motivation. GABA is, is calming.And so, at 48 hours, you have now created new receptor sites for dopamine, so you have more availability to pull dopamine in, and you're calm. So you're calm and motivated. Why-why would the body do this? Because if I'm a pr- in my cave person days, I-I have to become more focused, more calm, more motivated to go find food when I'm 48 hours in to no food. So it's a primal switch that our body s-clicks in, in the absence of food at 48 hours. Now, I will tell you what we've clinically seen is that, when people reintroduce food, not only do they enjoy food more, which is o-obvious. Like, you haven't been eating for 48 hours, of course you're gonna enjoy it more. But that they notice happiness levels are higher-
- MRMel Robbins
Hm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... for weeks following one 48-hour fast, and we have seen that. We have a community of millions of people that we have asked to share their stories, and we just collect the data, and that is a pretty consistent one that we see.
- MRMel Robbins
I would imagine though, for, uh, anybody on any kind of medication, like a, uh, antidepressant or an anxiety medication or something for ADHD or anything else, you would wanna talk to your doctor about the protocol-
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Absolutely.
- MRMel Robbins
... of how this works while you're on prescription medication. But again, uh, you just go back to starting with the training of the tool of intermittent, which is 12 to 16.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Exactly.
- MRMel Robbins
The final one that you reported on is this immune reset fast, which is for more than 72 hours.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Yeah.
- MRMel Robbins
That sounds pretty damn extreme.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
You know what's really funny is that everybody says that until they try it.
- MRMel Robbins
Okay.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
And then they try it and their life changes. So-
- MRMel Robbins
Okay, so tell me, what's gonna happen in my life if I start the intermittent fasting protocol as my lifestyle of eating cycling, and then I go and do a 72-hour immune reset fast?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So that, the immune reset was based off of a scientist out of USC-
- MRMel Robbins
Mm-hmm.
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
... who discovered that, at 72 hours, the whole immune system reboots itself, and he studied people going through chemotherapy. And he found that one of the problems with chemotherapy is that it completely wipes out the whole immune system, and then there's no, the immune system's very low afterwards. But if he put people in a 72-hour fast before they go into chemo, while they're in chemo, after chemo, around the chemo, that there was a reenergizing of wa, of white blood cells. So they didn't have that depletion afterwards. We're back at the stem cells. At 72 hours, your body makes stem cells. Stem cells are cells that can go anywhere in your body and repair. What Valter Longo saw was that they repaired white blood cells. But what we're now, people are witnessing is that it also repairs, you know, chronic injuries, it repairs neurons in the brain that have been degenerating. It-it repairs whatever you need it to repair because the body's that smart. Once it gets stem cells, it finds what you need repair on, not what I need repair on.
- MRMel Robbins
Wow. Can you bottom line this? What are the four ways that a fasting protocol helps you heal naturally?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
So, y-you click on an intelligence inside your body that you can only get in the absence of food, and that intelligence will start to bring inflammation down. It will start to get rid of the bad parts that are slowing the healing response. It will increase the power of the batteries of your cell called your mitochondria. So it starts to repair you in a way that we have seen nothing repair a person before.
- MRMel Robbins
Unbelievable. What is the fasting protocol that is gonna help me lose belly fat?
- MPDr. Mindy Pelz
Well, it will be- (laughs)
- MRMel Robbins
Bring it on, woman. Come on now. Don't hold back, Dr. Mindy.
Episode duration: 1:09:22
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