I'm dying to talk to you about this. It's not so much about what you eat. It's about when you eat during the day. It's about cycling between periods of eating and plain-old not eating. Now some experts say that this helps consumers take in fewer calories, lowers your blood pressure, improves glucose levels and even slows down the aging process. There are a number of variations to how you can do this. It's called I F, intermittent fasting. On one option you can eat only between noon and 8 o'clock each day. Which means you're fasting for 16 hours a day.
Another option has you eating four days out of the week and fasting the other three days. That is what our next guest Sumaya Kazi did. And after losing 50 pounds y'all 50 pounds, she swears by it.
Now she's going to tell us how it works in a moment. She is here but first. Sumaya kasi admits she had some bad habits in her early 20s. Eating out too often, not exercising and soon the pounds were packing on. When the stress of a new job came along, including constant travel for work she became obese, carrying at least 50 extra pounds.
She says she tried traditional diets and even gym trips, but the weight kept adding up until about a year and a half ago, when she discovered intermittent fasting or I F. And she says she saw quick results. She documented her weight loss on social media just for her friends, but soon found she had nearly half a million views and thousands of requests from strangers for advice.
Now fifty pounds lighter, she's committed to her new lifestyle and sharing the tips she says work for her. And Sumaya is here with us today, but first let's remind everyone of Sumaya before her transformation.
I'm dying to talk about this segment. I read this article in The Wall Street Journal and it talked about all the benefits you can get from this potentially not just weight loss, but this is the journal reporting! After speaking to the experts, people slept better, they felt more energetic throughout the day, time sure produce cellular repair in your body, break down toxins as well as coloring agents and food repair, damaged DNA in the skin and the stomach lining and potentially reduced the risk of breast cancer!
So that's the journal citing the experts! Explain first how you started with this program. So I am someone that tried everything. I did everything from Jenny Craig; I went to the gym five, six days a week, did weight lifting. I did meal prep. I mean you name it, I've tried it and did it consistently. And it just never stayed with me and never stuck. So I ended up doing the yo-yo and then I had heard about intermittent fasting.
I remember googling it and was very intimidated by it because when you did the search two years ago, a year and a half ago, it's men with 6-pack of ABS. I'm like that's not me. And then I watched a BBC documentary about it and saw the science behind it, and the studies behind it, and became really fascinated.
So you don't eat Monday, Wednesday, Friday. That's my schedule currently. Yeah, so intermittent fasting is very flexible. And I know when people hear you don't fast or you fast three days a week, they get very... I'm out! Yeah what are you doing? You're crazy and so I don't actually push it on anybody. I just kind of do my thing, but what's been happening is, I've been sharing my story on social and people get more fascinated, so it's intriguing.
It's intriguing because the good news is, the other four days of the week you can eat what you want. Now they're not saying like, go to McDonald's for three meals a day, but they're saying you can eat what you want. You don't have to be dieting, but walk us through how it is to fast, because I can't even go five hours without it.
Like I get "hangry". Yeah right, my staff will vouch for that, and I can't imagine going even a full day.
That's normal and it's not meant to be easy. Especially when you get started. The first two weeks are tough. I was very hungry. I didn't realize that I would be able to get through the first two weeks. And I tell anybody that is interested in intermittent fasting, give it two, three weeks because that's the time it takes to build a new habit. And so the first week or two, really it was just more of a mental challenge.
And now I love it. I actually look forward to fasting as crazy as it sounds. I look forward to how it feels. When you eat, sometimes you feel lethargic. You feel full, you feel tired. Now imagine the opposite feeling, where you wake up and you feel energized and focused and you have mental clarity and you feel great! That's what it feels like to fast.
Does wine count as food? But you can't like on the down days you say you can have a little cheating.
So it's not cheating. I call it a crutch. Especially for people who are just getting started. So when I got started, and the BBC documentary talks about this as well. When you're doing 36-hour fast, which is what I do, having a 500 calorie crutch is available to you. And so it's to help you kind of get through the day. Sometimes you need it. Sometimes you don't. It could be a cup of broccoli, it could be some almonds. It's just to get you through that kind of hunger.
But if you go 500 calories on your fast day, it transitions into an eat day.
Yeah and then at that point, I tell my friends and their friends, eat well and count that as an eat day. Don't count it as a fast day. It's really, really important, that when you are doing your eat days, that you're eating well.
Also with us today is nutritionists Joy Bauer and cardiologist and weight loss expert Dr. Louisa Petrie. So thank you both so much for being here.
Joy, let me ask you. Is this safe?
First, I want to commend you because you've done an amazing job and you look super. And I know your insides are probably doing amazing things as well. It is ridiculously hard and you've converted this into a lifestyle... I think the majority of people would not be able to follow it, the way that you are. But there's another variation that we spoke about and they talked about it in the Wall Street Journal that's very interesting to me.
For 12 hours, 12 hours sounds more doable. It's a window of eating 12 hours, so if you start breakfast at 8 o'clock in the morning, then you finish dinner 8 o'clock in the evening, and what I like about this obviously, you could shift it depending upon your schedule. You could start at 9 a.m. and end at 9 p.m.
What I like is that most people excessively nibble in the evening. We have a big problem with that. So that takes it off the table and it makes you more mindful. And I think even if people just do this as a one-week experiment. A 12 hour eating window during each and every day. All right, it's a great learning experience.
Okay, here's my question for you Dr.Petrie. We've always been told, don't skip breakfast. Don't skip because your body believes it's going into starvation mode. Your metabolism slows down and you gain more weight if you starve yourself.
Well there is a saying that says you should have breakfast like a king and that's for a reason. Your body is trained to process the food more during the day. Your body makes those digesting enzymes and hormones. They're matched to be optimized in the morning. So it is important to do this, eating periods somehow to match part of the morning, if you do it seven o'clock or 10 o'clock.
But are you slowing down your metabolism?
Absolutely not. It's been shown in studies that it takes absolutely seventy two (72) hours for your metabolism to slow down. So it's a myth that has to be demystified.
That's not true. Actually, intermittent fasting speeds up your metabolism up to 10 percent. And reverses the aging process.
I mean like that so that's something Jenny Craig cannot promise. I have to tell you I'm really intrigued by it. I love the thought of it.
And you know with all like the calorie restrictive things going on that people swear by, I was really... and I said in the New Year I'm gonna try this. And so far I have not made it one single day. I've tried to do twelve and twelve... not one single day.
People think that intermittent fasting... everybody does intermittent fasting without realizing it. When you go to bed and you go sleep, you're fasting for those eight hours.
Yeah but you're asleep.
You're asleep... of my 36 hours, 16 of those hours I'm sleeping. So 36 hours it's not that bad.
That is not gonna happen. I'm gonna keep trying though. Thank you, this is amazing.
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