Chatting with Jimmy Moore; Bestselling Author, Podcaster, and Inspiring Speaker

Today I am chatting with Jimmy Moore. Jimmy is an internationally bestselling author, podcaster, and inspiring speaker who is a highly sought-after lecturer around the world. He catapulted onto the health scene in 2004 after a phenomenal 180-pound weight loss enabled him to come off prescription drugs for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and respiratory problems. He is the energetic personality behind the uber-popular blog  Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb and the host of the longest-running and top-ranked health podcast, The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show, as well as Keto Talk with Jimmy Moore & Dr. Will Cole, The KetoHacking MD Podcast, and The Nutritional Pearls Podcast. He has interviewed well over 1,400 of the world’s top health experts and has dedicated his life to helping people get the best information possible about nutrition and lifestyle so they can make the right decisions for their health. He has authored or coauthored a series of books, including  Keto Clarity, The Keto Cure, The Ketogenic Cookbook, The Complete Guide to Fasting, and Cholesterol Clarity.

 

Key points addressed were  

• Jimmy’s extensive personal history with fasting and his personal narratives about the myths, struggles, and immense benefits from a fasting lifestyle
• We also discussed some of the important scientific and medical measurements involved in Intermittent fasting that were also covered in his book he co-authored with Dr Jason Fung titled “The Complete Guide to Fasting”

 

This series features conversations I conducted with individuals who have dedicated their research, businesses, lifestyle, and health to various forms of Fasting and the science of Fasting. This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media. Patricia Kathleen Podcasts

 

TRANSCRIPTION

*Please note, this is an automated transcription please excuse any typos or errors

 

[00:00:00] In this episode, I speak with bestselling author podcasts, our inspiring speaker, an enigmatic influencer, Jimmy Moore. Key points addressed where Jimmy's extensive personal history with fasting and his personal narratives about the myths, struggles and immense benefits from a fasting lifestyle. We also discussed some of the important scientific and medical measurements involved in intermittent fasting that were also covered in his book that he coauthored with Dr. Jason Fung titled The Complete Guide to Fasting. Stay tuned for my fascinating talk with Jimmy Moore.

 

[00:00:42] My name is Patricia Kathleen, and this series features interviews and conversations I conduct with experts from medicine and science to health and humanitarian arenas in an effort to explore the world of fasting from a variety of angles. This dialog is meant to develop a more complete story about the information, research, personal stories and culture in and around the science and lifestyle of fasting. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as founders and entrepreneurs. Vegan life and roundtable topics. They can be found on our Web site. Patricia Kathleen ARCOM, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Bean and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation.

 

[00:01:34] Hi, everyone, and welcome back. I am your host, Patricia. And today I am so excited to be sitting down with Jimmy Moore. Jimmy is a bestselling author, podcasters and an inspiring speaker. You can find out more on his Web site. L. L. V L.C dot com. It stands for Live in leveed. A low carb dot com. Again, it is l l v l.c dot com. Welcome, Jimmy.

 

[00:01:55] Hey. Hey. What's going on?

 

[00:01:57] Hi. I am excited to climb through things. I was just telling you off the air, I've listened to a bunch of your podcasts and gotten into some of your online lectures and things on YouTube and I can't wait to really climb through it. Our audience has really reached out to us and asked us to speak with people who have an in depth and really intimate knowledge of fasting. And I can't wait to ask you all of our questions today.

 

[00:02:16] Yeah, I've done quite a bit of different kinds of fasting when I was writing this book with Dr. Jason Fung. I actually had never done a really long fast. So I did some of those which we talked about in the book. So, yeah, happy to talk about this subject. That's a little taboo in some circles and it's really cool in other circles.

 

[00:02:33] Yeah, I think it's it's gaining popularity, to say the least, for everyone listening. A quick roadmap for today's podcast. For those of you that are new to our series, I will start by reading a quick bio on Jimmy, and then I will drop in to asking him about his own personal history. If he's got kind of a succinct elevator pitch story, he can let us know about himself and how he came into the fasting world. And then I'll drop straight into asking him to clarify some definitions and terms that we all think we know about, but we don't. And then we'll just kind of pepper our questions through. All of you have written in. I want to make sure we answer the rapid fire questions. Jimmy Gymea said that he's more than happy to just go off the cuff and answer everything that you guys have asked us. I'll make sure to get the bulk of those asked. And yeah, it'll be a fascinating half an hour. Forty five minutes for me, to say the least. Really quickly, before I start peppering Jimmy with all of our questions, a bio on him. Jimmy Moore is an internationally bestselling author. Podcasts are an inspiring speaker who is a highly sought after lecturer around the world. He could typic could you excuse me? He catapulted onto the health scene in 2004 after a phenomenal one hundred and eighty pound weight loss enabled him to come off prescription drugs for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and respiratory problems. He is the energetic personality behind the uber popular blog Live in Leveed, a low carb and the host of the longest running and top ranked health podcast live in lovely to low carb show, as well as Akito talk with Jimmy Moore and Dr. Wilko, he Iquito Hacking M.D. podcast and the Nutritional Pernell's podcast. So he's a podcast veteran. He has interviewed well over it with well over fourteen hundred of the world's top health experts and has dedicated his life to helping people to get the best information possible about nutrition and lifestyle so that they can make the right decisions for their health. He has authored or coauthored a series of books including Ketel Clarity, The Kitto Cure, The Ketogenic Cookbook and The Complete Guide to Fasting and Cholesterol Clarity. So we'll climb into some of those books, hopefully, while we're talking today, Jimmy, and things of that nature. But I want you to if you would just start off. We had a little bit of a teaser in that bio. But if you could talk to people a little bit about what brought you to investigating the fasting lifestyle and some of your own personal narrative with that.

 

[00:04:49] Well, it started not with fasting, but with changing the eating altogether. I used to be the junkiest of Junk Food Eater back in 2003. I weighed four or ten pounds. I was drinking six Kansa Coca-Cola a day. I was eating whole boxes of, like, little Debbie snack cakes. I was a junk food junkie and I was eating like there was no tomorrow. And what I started on to lose the hundred eighty pounds was the Atkins diet. Got a diet book for Christmas in 2003. And in 2004 was when I had to change my my diet. What was interesting about switching over to an Atkins diet from a sad diet is I found I wasn't as hungry during the day. Now, that was odd for me because I always used to eat and then like 30 minutes later, man, I'm hungry, eat again or just constantly eating all day. So I went from a heavy, heavy, constantly eater guy over to a few meals a day kind of guy. Like three meals a day with no snacks, no junk food, no nothing. Then that morphed into only two times a day. And of course, when you only eat that infrequently, what do you do? It your spontaneously intermittent fasting. I remember in the late 2000s, this was a few years after I did this for a while, somebody said you should try doing like an extended fast of like, I don't know, 24 to 36 hours. I'm going to do that. Like I enjoy the low carb. It's so easy to just eat this way. And I'm satiated and I feel good. My health markers are all great. Why would I do that? And so they're like, try it. I remember trying it. It horribly, like I dipped my toe in to trying to do it for 24 hours and I was drinking diet soda. Still at the time, that idea of you're trying to fast, by the way, and other things that were stoking hunger still. So it wasn't until I met Dr. Fung, who's my coauthor on The Complete Guide to Casting. When I met him at a conference. We shared the stage together in South Africa in 2015. And I heard him talking about fasting. And I was so fascinated by what he was sharing. I went up to him afterward and I'm like, dude, like, is there a book out there about extended fasting and trying to do this longer than just a, you know, a day or so? He's like, no, I said, I want to write one. And so that's how a complete guide to fasting came about. But I was like, I can't do this book and give it justice if I don't actually go through this. So I started experimenting with longer fasts. And even before that book came along, I did try a seven day fast that that again included bone broth and kombucha and different things that I thought I needed. If you have to add anything to water and salt to a fast, then it's not really going to help you. People think it will, but it really doesn't in the end. So I did several like seven day fast. I did three twenty one day fast, which is a really interesting thing. In fact, when we were coming out with the book and I went on a podcast speaking tour. I was full on in the midst of a 21 day fast and I'd go on a show, yeah, I'm on day twelve of my fast and they're like, Oh what? So it was kind of fun. Do that. And I was so energetic and I was so vibrant. I wasn't lacking in energy. It was just it was kind of fun and then a very loose sadness in my brain. So my curiosity was born out of a spontaneity because of my dietary choices made it easy. My continued curiosity is when I learned more of the benefits, things I called top vagy, things like resetting kind of some of the insulin sensitivity that you're looking for. Those were the things that got more exciting to make to me. Now, the major reason most people go on a on a fast is they think, oh, I'll lose weight. Well done. You don't eat food, you're going to lose weight. That's that's a no brainer. That should not ever be your primary reason for going on a fast, if anything, else. I think it's for the autophagy. It's for the brain health benefits. It's for kind of giving your pancreas a break for a little while. Those are all the reasons that I go on a fast today.

 

[00:09:09] Yeah, let's climate straight into that. You've dropped some terms and for everyone, his new to it are still kind of climbing into the fasting industry. I'd love to know how you'd personally define. I don't need it. You know, your health, that definition of it, just how you personally when you think of these words, what your brain is saying to you. So first, let's start off with fasting, because you have actually a very interesting take at this. I've listened to a lot of your other YouTube's and you talk about how come Bhutan and things that you've got flak for, you know, in other communities. What to you is fasting and what breaks a fast?

 

[00:09:43] So it's tricky because you have some people out there promoting bone broth while you fast promoting kombucha while you're fasting. God forbid, if you're one of those people that thinks you can have a big bullet proof coffee that has M.S. t oil and butter and all the rest, that is calories. And by definition, if you're fasting, you're having no calories. And so your drinking bulletproof coffee. Yes, it will keep your insulin low. But no, you most certainly are not fast things. I want to get that one out of the way first. To me, I'm a little more hard nosed about it than even I used to be. I think if you're gonna get the full benefits of fasting, you need to make it water and salt. And if you need to add other electrolytes, magnesium, potassium, that's fine. But water and salt are the primary things you need to be consuming.

 

[00:10:34] Sometimes there are people who need to take medications and we talk about this in our book that OK. That's one of that's you then have a little something, just very minuscule number of calories under 200 calories for sure. You go over two hundred. You're basically telling your body, OK, it's feasting time. All right. So you get four calories of that proof coffee. OK. The body's going OK. It's feasting to weight. Well, you're not. You're not feeding me. What. What's going on? And you're actually are more counterproductive when you're trying to fast with that limited amounts of calories. It's better to eat no calories at all than to eat a few hundred calories because your body will be in feasting mode when it should be in fasting mode. So my definition from nonclinical is just my definition is Warshel.

 

[00:11:27] Yeah, absolutely, and you talk a little bit about why and the bone broth, early on, it was doing that song. You felt like it was supplementing that sodium, MOEED Right.

 

[00:11:35] And you can get the sodium without the bone brought. The bone broth had about 15 grams of protein. And that protein, whether we like it or not, it actually can stoke a bit of an insulin response, which stokes hunger. I found I was getting really, really sick. And then sometimes I would drink so much of it that it came out the other end. It wasn't pleasant. So you kind of have to be mindful of that. Yeah, I know TMI. But we're talking about fasting. You've got to talk about the real stuff. Bring it.

 

[00:12:03] Absolutely. Bring it. And so, Autophagy, when you quickly hear that word, what is the first basic definition you think of?

 

[00:12:10] I remember when it first came out, I was like the auto Fiji. And so I said, no, it's autophagy. Oh, OK. Looks like autophagy. For me, it's cleaning up kind of dead proteins. There's like people don't realize this, but there's like protein gets recycled again and again and again in your body. And so this is why you don't need to constantly be loading up on protein, because the body has a lot of proteins that are in the body just floating around. What autophagy does is it like Rodo rooters them out of there, just sucks them up like a vacuum. Now, you can get some of that just in the day to day doing some intermittent fasting. The guy that won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2016, the year that we came out with our book, just like the very same month the guy that won the Nobel Prize in medicine actually got it because of his work with fasting and autophagy. And he found that within about a 72 hour period, you've done a good, clean sweep of all those dead proteins that are just kind of floating around in your body and you don't want this excess junk in your body. So it's a good, easy way to get rid of it. You can do autophagy in other ways. Exercise gives you autophagy. Even a ketogenic diet can do it somewhat. But nothing is as effective as a good 72 hour fast to clean all that stuff up.

 

[00:13:29] Yeah. I like that definition. I haven't heard that before. And I had kind of a tweaked out, more complex definition, but I think I'll start using yours.

 

[00:13:37] The fasting in a diet definitely has become more popular. I'm a little bit not a fan of fasting mimicking because it's like why are you mimicking fasting when fasting is good enough? You don't have to mimic something that's not hard. It's almost like saying I want to do a ketogenic mimicking diet. So let me load people up with beta hydroxybutyrate salts. And they're in ketosis. And then let them eat whatever they want. It doesn't work the same way. So I like it. If you're going too fast, don't mimic the fast. Just fast.

 

[00:14:09] Yeah. And I want to get into pasta. I want to continue with the definitions just to get them out of the way. It helps clarify. I want to talk about how you define specific fast. So first define.

 

[00:14:19] Let's do 16. Eight.

 

[00:14:21] Yes, 16. Eight is probably the most popular intermittent fasting protocol. So it's 16 hours of not eating. You're eating within an eight hour window. So just imagine you have your first meal, eleven o'clock in the morning and then your second meal at seven o'clock at night. Then you don't eat again until 11:00 the next day. It's no big deal. That's a 16 eight. Very easy for a lot of people, especially when you're eating foods that aren't stoking hunger. It's why I think kind of a low carb ketogenic diet is a nice kind of ramp up. To go into a fast 16 eight should become very spontaneous and very easy for someone eating that way. OK. And what about mad? Oh, mad is an interesting one because some people I should I go mad every day. I'm like, I mean, if your body tells you don't eat for 24 hours. Fair enough. Oh, man. By the way, stands for one meal a day. So it's ostensibly it's about a twenty three and a half, 24 hour fast. And I've done a lot of that. I enjoy oh, mad a lot, especially days when I'm doing a lot of podcasts. I'm very busy and I don't have time to really stop and eat. It's just fun to just say, OK, I eat at eight o'clock yesterday I. And so I don't have to eat again till eight o'clock this morning. It's just it's just an easier kind of way. Now I don't think you need to. Oh, mad. Every single day. And with all these things that we're describing here, I think the more you mix up the fasting, the better. So if you're going to do, oh, mad one day tries sixteen eight, the next day after that do alternate day fasting, then go on to maybe twenty four fast and just kind of mix it up. Keep your body not knowing what's happening.

 

[00:15:59] OK. And then how excited we can get into longer terms. But I would just be listing off hours from days. Say you have. Oh man. And then you go into forty eight. Seventy two. Ninety six I've heard. And then you get into five, seven day. What are the most common types of fast are the ones that you in and and and and Jason explore in the book.

 

[00:16:18] Yes. So intermittent fasting is the most common. I think that's where most people are going to get the benefits from fasting. Is that intermittent fasting? So. Be 16 eight, it could be 18, six to be twenty four. Could be oh man. So those are all considered intermittent farts and I think the vast majority of people could probably get most of the benefits just by implementing one of those kinds of farce. We also in the book talk about alternate day fasting. So that means today you eat, tomorrow you don't eat. The day after that you eat, the next day you don't eat. So what it ends up being is about a thirty six ish hour fast. When you do it that way and when you're done with a very long, fast, like a seven day fast, for example, what we encourage people to do do encourage people to do to keep the benefits going is to do alternate day fasting when it's over. So and then there's people that are like fasting years and they go long term. And of course, consult with a physician or definitely someone like Dr. Fong who can help guide you. There's other people there's somebody on Instagram, the fasting doctor, Dr. Cecily. And she does a great job as well with fasting. There's fasting M.D. There's all kinds of people out there that can help you kind of do this the right way. But if you want to try a longer, fast, if you've never done longer than, say, 24 hours, don't go for a week unless you like pain. If you can make it 20 hours, then shoot for thirty six. See how you do. If you make it to thirty six and you're good. Keep going. But don't, don't make the unrealistic expectations. This is where a lot of people mess up. They say, oh man, I've heard Jimmy Moore talk about going on a seven day fast. I'm going to go and I've never done more than 16 hours of fast. Don't be the hero. This is like an incremental thing. You don't jump when you're in the gym. You don't jump right to the 500 pound deadlifts. No, you've got to work your way up. You got to work that muscle up. And so if you're not quite ready, if your strength isn't there, if you haven't prepared your mind and body for something like that, then you're not going to succeed. So work your way up, start eating Quito's, then ramp up to intermittent fasting, which will probably happen spontaneously. Then try. Oh, man. Then try 36 to 48 hours, then seventy two and then five to seven days. Let me let me say one more thing about longer. Fast. I think you get the law of diminishing returns after seven days. So you get great results. Up to seven days. But then once you go beyond that, OK, you're getting more benefits. But then you start to have fall off as well. You start to have the concerns about maybe having some muscle loss. You have concerns about other issues coming up. Of course, the hunger which then could make you try to bean. So if you're going to do a longer, fast and plus one more thing, when you do a shorter fast, like five to seven days, guess what? You can fast again next month. But if you do 14 days, 21 days, you can't fast again for maybe a couple of months. So it enables you to do more periods of fasting, which I think cumulatively leads to more benefits in the long term.

 

[00:19:33] Yeah. I want to climb into that a little bit more with you, because you've had a lot of rhetoric in your myriad of you teams and things like that with your different podcasts. But you do talk about also stress has been one of the big things is particularly in your 21 day ones, where even happy stress it was travel twice, I think, for you. But it was that the Sabbath tour of these longer fast. Do you find that there's less chance of getting the sabotage, effective stress or something that will prevent you from fasting on these sort of seven days? Or was it just accidental for you?

 

[00:20:05] Seven days is easy now. I can pretty much do seven days in my sleep. It's so stupid, easy now. But that's only because I've done this awhile, because I've ridden the bicycle a little while now and popping wheelies and that five to seven days. Yeah, I do think it becomes a matter of mind over body at that point. You're kind of willing yourself to make it to 21 days. The example you're referring to is, yeah, I had a trip to Myrtle Beach and it was day 17 of twenty one. And it was I was with friends. It was an enjoyable time as everything, but it just overwhelmed my body and my body's like, you know, and I was just hungry, just like ravenously hungry. So just be mindful to plan your fast around your life. Sometimes people sometimes people are like, well, I'm gonna fast, I'm going on vacation is the perfect time. And I'm like, no, don't do that to yourself. Enjoy your vacation. Come back and you've got a period of time when things are pretty chill. Then fast, I will tell you, in the midst of this, Kogure, 19, has been very challenging for a lot of people to be fasting because the stress of it and all the racial tensions and then just the everything and everybody's everyday lives. I have cautioned people don't get gung ho about going on a fast just because you have the time availability. Your body is going through some traumatic stuff right now. And no, it's not anything that you can necessarily deal with because we're all dealing with it right now. Other than doing meditation and all the things to try to relax yourself when you feel your body's in a good place, then try fasting. Don't just jump into it and say, well, I'll do this to jump start my weight loss because I gained fifteen pounds and quarantinable. No, no, no. You will save as your effort before you even begin speaking about sabotage.

 

[00:21:56] We've had a lot of people write in that wanted to know for you personally. Do you have a list of like the top five saboteurs like you talked about diet soda and a lot of your history and the stress aspect? You have things that people should watch out for when planning, say, their first five to seven day fast, say someone's gotten comfortable, they've done a forty eight, but then in 72, they're climbing into your kingdom and they want to do their first seven day. What are life markers to look out for.

 

[00:22:26] You better drink the crap out of this stuff because water people don't think about what's happening metabolically when you're fasting and same thing happens when you're Quito. But at an accelerated rate when you're fasting. Your body is dumping glycogen like crazy, and it really kicks in hard on the third day. So you're testing your blood sugar and you're testing your ketones maybe on the day you start. It's like eighty five for your blood sugar and it's like maybe point seven on your blood ketones. But then day two, you start getting all those ravenous feelings. Your body's like, okay dude, it's time to eat. Oh that. Did you not remember to eat black. And so day to your body kind of rebels against you. By day three, something pretty magical happens. And it happens because your body's making this shift. It has dumped the glycogen stores. Your blood sugar has fallen sometimes into a level that freaks people out. I had somebody tell me just just say I'm on a I'm on the third day of my fast and my blood sugar is fifty three. I'm like, congratulations. You feel good, right? She's. Oh yeah. Fifty three. I'm like, you feel good, right. She's like, yeah. I said, that's all that matters. Fifty three in the context of a farce. It's not hypoglycemia if you feel good. So people freak out about absolute numbers because look what happened to her blood ketones. She went from one point one on day two to three point nine. On day three. And so what happened was her body dumped the glycogen. Her body started using her own body fat stores as energy. She replenished the water to replenish the electrolytes with the salt, electrolytes and water are your friend. If you get hungry, drink and have electrolytes. If you get thirsty, drink, drink, drink. Like, I think we just we get so used to forgetting to drink that we don't drink enough. I keep water by me all day long, even when I'm Quito, just because it's helpful. That is the key. If you want to be successful on a longer, faster or even like an intermittent fasting, never done it before. If you get hungry, drink like people. They just. Oh should should I drink. Drink like don't. Don't hold back. That is like the the what was it. Weight Watchers. That's the zero points that cost you anything to drink. Water. So drink, drink, drink, drink, drink. And you're gonna be glad because it makes you feel good. Sometimes people will also put the salt underneath their tongue and so go underneath the tongue and just let it sit there and it kind of loses a little bit. You take you feel like you're having some chicken noodle soup. And sometimes when you have a hunger or craving in the midst of a fast you, that will salt trick under the tongue. It's amazing how quick it disappears. And so I think people also psych themselves out. Oh, I should be eating. Oh, I heard a little I heard a little gurgle. That must be hunger. Gerbils or not hunger. GURGLES It's just your body is just adjusting. And especially once you kind of get today three by day three, it's party time. Like if you make it to day three of a fast go five to seven, don't just stop at three because that's where the magic is. Just begin.

 

[00:25:37] Yeah, absolutely. What about diet soda? You have a personal relationship with this. Doesn't sabotage a fast what is it done for you in your body to respond to.

 

[00:25:46] Right. So some of the ones that will almost all of them, except for the ones sweetened with stevia. What's the name brand? ZB, I think is the only one that's really good. But yeah, I don't have any artificial sweeteners. And we talked about this again in our book as well, because when you have artificial sweeteners, people say, well, it's zero calories, so it's zero. No, it's not zero. You need to look at artificial sweeteners as a negative. It's taking away from you because what's it doing? In one of my other books, The Kito Cure, Dr. Nalley and I actually talked about that. The sweeteners, while they may not raise your blood sugar, that you will raise in some people their insulin. So the last thing you want to have happen when you're fasting. Is to raise your insulin, because what happens when you raise insulin levels and you have no food in your body? The body just screams at you and says it's time to eat. And it's not time to eat, but metabolically, your body's like you just gave me some kind of substance that said, it's party time. It's time to eat. And you're not eating, homeboy. Give us food or we're going to scream at you some more. And so just know that had that visual of me screaming at you that that's what diet soda is doing to your metabolism in the midst of a farce. It's why you're going to get so much more satiated in your thirst and in your hunger when you have just water and salt.

 

[00:27:13] You talk a lot about like the day three, you know, even in some of your other things because of this kind of lifting and this ability to go forward.

 

[00:27:21] What are some of the misperceptions or misconceptions that you running to most from people come to you to talk to you about fasting? You've mentioned just recently and in five minutes ago this this fear based people have their very hyped up in their heads about longer, fast. Are there other misconceptions that attached to fasting with working out or any of these things that you find very common in people who come to you? Going past two or three day fast?

 

[00:27:42] Oh, the biggest one is, am I starving myself? Is this an eating disorder? And that's kind of the funniest one to me, because people have this notion that fasting is starving. Starving is where you have food available and you're not allowed to have it. That's being starved. In this case, you're in complete control. Fasting is all about you being the boss and you're choosing not to eat for a period of time to get all the benefits that we're talking about here today. And if at any point it becomes overwhelming, guess what? You in the fast and you go eat. It's no big deal. So I think people psych themselves out thinking they're doing something harmful. So I'm leeching my muscles over my muscle. My my bones are going to deteriorate. So they have all these kind of psychological visuals in their head of what they think is happening when just the opposite is happening. There's really good things happening. I wish in real time we could have some device on us, like a CGM or something that would show like insulin, lowering blood sugar, lowering inflammation, lowering because you would see this magical effect, especially by day three of all these things happening. You could really see autophagy happening. That would be. Oh, my gosh. Like put an autophagy machine on me and let's see it all get eaten away. It would be awesome. But yeah, I think a lot of the barriers to people doing these longer, fast, it's all mental. They they allow themselves to get talked out of it. And plus, you've got family members. You're doing what you're not eating. Oh, my gosh. You know, you need to go into an eating disorder clinic and it's just like, no, don't tell anybody you're fasting. Just keep smiling, wash your face a little bit if you're not feeling good. Keep drinking water to keep having the salt. And in the end, you're the one that's going to have the last laugh because you have better health.

 

[00:29:27] Yeah, I agree. And I agree with you about the machine hook up. I would love to see that stuff play out as well. And to that end, we've had a lot of people write in and you have experience with, you know, going back and fasting, going back, having levels read in and out of a whole bunch of different things. But for the at home faster. Are there specific tools from Quito's strips to, you know, any any type of thing that you would recommend people pick up to kind of measure where they're at with their fast?

 

[00:29:54] Let me tell you one thing you don't need to do. Step on a scale. Can we just all agree we're going to smash the crap out of our scales because they're not really doing us any good. Obviously, you're going to lose weight in the midst of a fast, obviously. But the thing is, it's not going to be that total amount that you lose during the fast. People go on a seven day fast and they lose like five pounds. Oh, my gosh. Just wondered if I needed to lose five pounds. And they eat two meals and they're back up three. And I'm just like, don't do that to yourself. It's not about how much weight you lose during the fast. It's the cumulative effects that happen that you lose five pounds in seven days, but you gain back three. But you but you lost two net and then the next time you fast you lose seven pounds and you came back for it. You lost three neck. It builds up over time. Don't look at the absolute amount of weight that you're losing during a fast. Oh my gosh, this is wonderful. I can fit into the wedding dress. I can go to my high school. You and I'm just like, no, you're missing the point of fasting, so not the scale. Can we all agree on that one? Let's all take a sledgehammer to it. I want to go out in my driveway and do like a slow motion and just watch it shatter. But I'm that starts as far as schools. You can do it at home. Sorry. I have fun when I'm on podcasts. You going to definitely test your blood sugar like it's so stupid. Easy to go down to Walgreens, CBS, Wal-Mart and get a glucometer if you can get your doctor to prescribe you this thing called a CGM, a continuous glucose monitor. You can put it in your arm and you can on a whim know what your blood sugar is any time over a two week period. So pretty cool tool. And what that's showing you is your body's need for glucose going down, down, down, people like that. Maybe the other day that wrote me and had the fifty three, I'm like, where would you need glucose? You're not eating anything at all. And she's like. Oh, I guess I don't. It just it dawned on her. Oh, wow. That's true. When I when I'm not eating food, my body doesn't need glucose. Why would it have glucose? So you're having lower levels. Now, it still needs a few bits of glucose for the glucose dependent functions in the body. But it does that with various processes in the body to create that glucose. One thing that I do highly recommend, too, is testing your ketones. So there's various things out there. You pee on a stick. Don't think that's very accurate. By the by day three of a fast, you're going to see Deep Dark Purple and it's never going to change anything else. So it's not really helping you that much. Plus, if you don't stay hydrated enough, it's going to turn purple. But it's a false purple. Or if you over hydrate, it's going to take away. So it's just it's not accurate. I don't like urine ketones, breath ketones. I found this device recently here I'm going to show you on camera called the bio scents. And what it does is it lets you blow into it. And on your smartphone, it gives you a readout. And it's a 10 to one ratio to to the blood ketone, which, if you're going to test blood, is kind of the gold standard if you want to test. There's all kinds of meters out there. Kito, Mojo, precision, extra Quito coach, X-rays, a bunch of them out there. But test where you are. And what this is measuring is your body's ability to be burning sacks for fuel. So people that are on a ketogenic diet you're familiar with this ketogenic is kind of a lower end of nutritional ketosis, whereas when you get into fasting, you're going on a much higher end of like like the lower end would be somewhere between point five to like two and a half, three. When you go on a fast, it's about two and a half to six potentially. When I've been deep, deep, deep in a fast of like day 12, I've seen a six point eight on the blood ketones, which means all that stored body fat is being released. And it's actually getting in the bloodstream and it's actually serving as fuel for the body. So people I oh my gosh, I haven't eaten in X amount of days. No, you're eating every single day, even when you're fasting because you're tapping into those store body fat. The reason the body fat is there is for such a time as this, when there is famine and there's no food availability, you're able to survive because you have body fat on your body.

 

[00:34:14] So this really quickly, the bioscience, which I haven't heard about, I think I've seen them actually on different things. How accurate do you feel? Because you are testing your blood regularly? How what's the correlation? I don't like the stakes either. I think that they and they go over time. Who knows how long they've been sitting on the shelf. But I'm wondering, with the bio sense, the correlation, is it close enough for you or no?

 

[00:34:38] Yeah. The reason I've been impressed with it and the reason I like it. Number one, I don't finger anymore because it's that good. But they put it through some FDA trials. They've done many kinds of studies using it. It's a ten to one ratio. So when you see a ten show up on this meter, that's just like a one point. Oh, on the blood meter. And so breath is measuring this ketone called a CDO or acetone. In the breath, the blood is measuring this ketone body called Beda Hydroxybutyrate. You don't need to remember this for a test, but I might test you later and we'll see. But BHB is Beda hydroxybutyrate is the gold standard. But if you can find a breath device, that will translate 10 to one. So at twenty five on here would be a 2.5. So if you're in the midst of a fast and you blow at twenty five, you kind of know OK I'm starting to ramp up my ketones. I like this one too because it's a more efficient way is a less painful way. The device itself is a little bit expensive. It's a medical grade device and so it's up there in price, but it's a one time expense and you don't have to keep buying strips and have blood and all that stuff. So I think it's a good tradeoff. But yes, I love that meter and it's kind of new to the market with what I do for a living. I have all kinds of companies riding me all the time, and most of them are garbage. I just thrown to the side. OK. That was nice. But this one, when I got it, I was like, whoa. OK. Now we're seeing a real deal. This is something that I think moving forward we're going to see more of these kinds of like easy devices that will make it easier to track your biomarkers.

 

[00:36:11] Absolutely. And then really quickly, we kind of glazed over the glucometer. Hey, how are you using that to gauge? Is it using it to gauge as to whether or not your body is releasing or what are you having people look at those levels for?

 

[00:36:26] So when you get into let's say you're doing a five day fast, so you put it on or you test your blood sugar on day one and it's ninety five. By day two, it's down to eighty seven. But by day three, it's down to seventy one. You see in real time where your blood sugar is coming down, it shows you that the fasting is doing something metabolically. So sometimes people are like, wow, that day too was so. So bad. Just blow. I don't know if this is worth it. Check your blood sugar, because at that point you'll see, OK, my glucose is going down. I am doing good things in my body. And then you test along with the ketones and you see it going up as the blood sugars going down. It's just kind of a snapshot of what's going on metabolically inside your body. And sometimes that gives people confidence that maybe they don't feel well because it's the first time they try to fast like this. But they're doing good stuff. And so for me, it's a motivational factor more than anything.

 

[00:37:28] Yeah, absolutely. And it's a different measurement than that horrible scale as well, as you mentioned earlier. And what do you look out some of the you said because you're such a personality and such a brand with fasting. I'm curious what you think about some of the personalities and brands with fasting out there. You have you know, you've really extreme ones. And I don't know if you follow any of them. There's this snake juice guy, Cole, who people feel it's just crazy, you know, and he's he's been blacklisted by a lot of different groups that feel like he's coming at in a different way. He's got the snake juice where he talks about the salts and things like that that I think are necessary. But what is your personal take on some of the fasting personalities out there right now?

 

[00:38:10] It calls an interesting one. I've never met him in person. I've definitely never had him on my podcast before. I did hear him on McKayla Peterson's podcast recently. He's pretty reasonable. I think he plays this persona on YouTube because he feels like he needs that to get attention. Like, I've never really had to do anything like that to get attention. I get lots of attention. I think if you're compelling with information, you don't have to go to that extreme of using horrible language like he does. So, but I guess he has a crowd that loves that. So so be it. Go, go for coal. I do think Dr. Fong is compelling. He's he's just so good at explaining things and breaking things down. It was such a joy. I've had many coauthors on books. This was the funnest book to write with a coauthor because he and I have a very similar writing style. So I think he does a good job. But I'll tell you, his cohort in crime, Megan Ramos, I love that little lady to death. She is amazing. She's a bubbly personality. And she probably, other than Dr. Fong, has more fasting experience with patients and herself doing fasts than probably anybody else in the whole world. And so I really like her. And like Dr. Cecily and I mentioned earlier the fasting doctor. And then there's a fasting M.D. There's a few people out. There's not nearly enough people talking about what I like to refer to affectionately as the other F word. I think we need more people. People have kind of slipped it into their work here and there. Oh, yeah, intermittent fasting. I'm like, OK. Intermittent. But talk about some of the benefits of the longer as well. I think if you mix it up and we have educators doing that, we need more people doing that.

 

[00:39:52] I agree and I agree with when Megan Ramos and Jason Fung, they're very digestible as well. You know, it's it's difficult to have this a beautiful bridge between the scientific and the applicability.

 

[00:40:04] And I feel like you had the book and the complete guide to Farseeing that you wrote with Jason Fung. And a lot of what Megan Ramos writes on as well is digestible and applicable, which is nice with having that scientific backing. We have a lot of people write and ask you personally what your the hardest aspect of fasting is for you to date.

 

[00:40:22] Oh, it's still day to day to us. Because like, you wake up when you wake up one day, one of your kido. That's just on that, if you're going to fast the first day, it's just a mess. No big deal. Oh, man. Day two, the body's kind of gone. Hello, Jimmy. It's time to eat, dude. Hello. And it's like you get those subtle. It's just kind of like Jar's use. OK. It's over. OK. OK. And that's when on day two, it's so hard. That's probably my challenge. I'll tell you what I want to try. When I do, day two's from now on. I've been thinking a lot about this. Not wanting to add in things other than salt water. But I wonder I'm just thinking out loud here on your show today. I wonder if adding in on day to some exoticness key tumbles along with the water and the salt might mitigate some of that day to succubus? Of course, those of you that don't know what exhaustion is ketones are to these are drinkable beta hydroxybutyrate, ketones, all kinds of companies making them out there now. So I don't want to give any company a plug, but look them up. Exoticness ketones e case. So I wonder if on day two you sipped on e ks all day. Now, of course, at that point in the past, your body's also starting to make that switch over from dumping the glycogen stores and then running primarily on ketones by day three endogenous ketones. So I wonder if a stopgap measure between day one and three on day two is to take those E.K.. So I definitely want to experiment with that, because if you can lessen the severity of day two, you're gonna get more buy in factor for people to do longer. Fast.

 

[00:42:10] Yeah. I want to know that too. I'm desperate to find out. Now that you've said that I find day two to be a beast at night. I can't sleep on day two. I like if I've got an all nighter to pull, I should be fasting.

 

[00:42:24] Can we talk about sleep in the midst of a longer farce? Because I think this is a big topic that people have. Oh, my gosh. My sleep was wrecked when I went on a farce. The reason people say that is they don't sleep as long. Course, I wear a little tracking device. I will give them a plug or a range. They don't pay me anything, but I get to see the different phases of the sleep. Can I tell you when I'm fasting? And it's like day two, three of a fast. That is kind of the worst period for it. It does impact your sleep. But it's not in a negative way. What it does and I've talked to several sleep experts about this, when you get into a really deep state of ketosis.

 

[00:43:05] Your body does not need to do as much repair when you're sleeping. And so it stands to reason that if you're used to getting about seven and a half to eight hours of sleep and then you're fasting or you're going in a really deep state of ketosis on the ketogenic diet, that you might go from seven and a half to eight hours of sleep to about six and a half to seven hours of sleep.

 

[00:43:27] And yet the quality of the sleep, the rim cycle, the deep sleep cycle, all of that recovery is far better on the shorter term sleep than it is on the longer sleep when you're not in that good metabolic state. So shorter sleep as far as time in bed does not mean you had crappy or sleep. You had more efficient sleep. So I do know some people do have trouble because they start having the hunger and the hunger keeps them awake. OK. Those are real issues. But most people don't just see shorter period of time in bed, meaning that you had worse sleep. It might have been more efficient.

 

[00:44:03] Absolutely. And we've had a lot of people on this show talk about dreaming, you know, increasing. Oh, oh, that's over.

 

[00:44:09] And what I want to talk about next year, I'm the dreams and then the intensity and severity and all of that speaking to a greater sleep cycle itself.

 

[00:44:18] But I want to climb into you so I have people who listen to the show, know that I came to fasting for the mental benefits. And AM has academics of all have long since talked about tapping into this, you know, the clarity that happens with longer, fast and different kinds of fasting and utilizing fasting for mental acuity.

 

[00:44:39] And other people talk about lifting a fog that they've had and things of that nature. I want to know your personal experience with some of the mental benefits when you get into 48 hours all the way up to a week of fasting.

 

[00:44:49] Oh, my gosh. Like the mental health benefits. If I never lost a pound of I never got any other benefits whatsoever. There is no trip and drug quite like going over 48 hours of fasting. I promise you guys. Like if you've never pushed yourself to see if you could do this again, like we talked about earlier, work your way up to that. But if you get into that magical day three in today for beyond. This is never sharper. I mean, I'm a pretty quick witted kind of guy as it is, just naturally. That's just the way I am. But when I'm in a fast, it's like I'm on some kind of drug and stuff, you know, and I don't want to, like, oversell it. But the point is, you're clearing your brain of all of the things that we're inhibiting it from being completely clear. Think about this. 70 percent of your brain is fat. And so it stands out. Yes. I just call all called you all of fat Ed. So you're welcome. So am I. I'm a fat head as well. But we're fat heads, and that means we're ketone hits. So when you're ramping up your body's ability to tap into your body fat, which then translates into higher ketone levels, lower glucose.

 

[00:45:55] Guess what happens? Those ketones chew right into the brain and your body, your brain actually prefers to be fueled by ketones. This is why people get the energy boost. This is why people get very clear mind mood control. Like, can you imagine all the people that are so anxious right now with all the stuff happening in the world, how this is a calming effect? I. I read a story right after all this went down where mental health drugs are up. I like 36 percent. People are taking them more than ever before. No, no. Fast for a few days. Quito for a little while. And you won't need mental health drugs because you're going to start to be chill. Doesn't mean you're never anxious. Doesn't mean you're never depressed. But it means you're able to handle it better because your brain's being fueled properly. And I would say if you want to have a reason to do this more than any other. Is the mental health.

 

[00:46:52] Absolutely. I think people really play down, especially in our society, in the United States of America. What mental health really brings. And really a clear and not just mental health, meaning you're not taking Klonopin, but mental health, meaning, you know, that you wake up everyday feeling alive and your mind and your thoughts and those types of things. Able to function and how that affects the rest of our quality of life, life, happiness. And I wonder how we've had a lot of people reach in and say that they wanted me to ask someone who had had a lot of rhetoric with doctors. There are a lot of people that are timid about explaining to their health practitioners on any level that they're fasting for fear of judgment and not having all of the answers. Can you speak to either resources that you have that you plug into with people who are new to fasting or a way to get an M.D.? Or would you even tell people to tell their doctors that they're playing around fasting? Where do you stand with all of that?

 

[00:47:46] I'm going to be controversial. Cool. Don't tell your doctor. Just like don't tell your doctor. You're on the ketogenic diet. You're going to get a lecture because, see, here's the thing. Why would you tell your doctor about your fasting attempt or your ketogenic attempt? Why, when they've never been trained in nutrition and the metabolic effects of what happens when you eat or in this case not eat for a period of time, guys? They don't know they've been taught pharmacology and physiology. You break your arm, they know how to put it back together. You have some symptom. They have a pill for it. That's it. Like we have to stop for fine physicians, as if they're the be all end all. I think the physician, the traditional mainstream physician model is dying. I think they're going to be gone and obsolete within the next decade. And we're going to see more functional medicine doctors, natural pass people that look at the core issues of what's going on. And it's those people that are very interested that you're interested in ketosis and in fasting. So my short answer is don't tell. Just do it. And if you're type two diabetic, watch your rate once he drop. Watch your knee for now. The caveat there, if you are on some kind of medication, do tell your doctor that you're doing some things and you would like for him to monitor your insulin intake, your drug intake and that kind of thing. So he can adjust it. You might blow his mind and he might ask you, what are you doing? You're coming off of all your medications. And at that point, you could say, well, I read this book, I listened to this podcast, I listened to this lecture series. And it convinced me I needed to give this a go. Are you pleased with the results? Stop? No, of course they're gonna say yes. And he might say, I don't know. Want to know what you're doing, but keep doing whatever it is. And at that point, you're in.

 

[00:49:35] Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I think that, you know, people are on statins. I mean, there's all sorts of it's limitless. You know, when you get into fasting. But I think that there has been a lot of people writing in who are of the same feather and that that that there's just been a lot of resistance talking to natural practitioners. And I think you're right. I think everyone has finally discovered that, you know, they're about disease and death and not about health and living.

 

[00:49:57] So something about mainstream medicine that we need to give them a little bit of a break. I give them a hard time because that's my job as influencer in this space. But I think they are trapped because there is this thing called standard of care. Patients don't understand standard of care. The standard of care requires a doctor that if you have certain numbers on a panel, like a cholesterol panel, for example, that hits some mark, they are required to push the drug or whatever the given protocol is on the patient. Now, the patient doesn't know any better. Oh, the doctor says I should take this step. And so they go fill it. They start taking it. They get all the joint pain and all the everything. And then the docs. Oh, you must be getting older. That's what happens when you get older. You get joint pain every minus the drug. They prescribe them for the cholesterol lowering. And so let's give the doctors a little bit of a benefit of the doubt that they're kind of stuck in a system that forces their hand to do things. And standard of care is a thing. Now, what you can do as a patient is play the game with them. OK, let them do their prescribing, because that's the standard of care. Just because you get a little sheet of paper that's got a little prescription on it doesn't mean you've got to go down to Walgreens and fill it. So I'm not telling you to do that. I'm just saying you at the end of the day, ask the patient you were the boss in that relationship. He's merely a consultant. He or she is merely a consultant in your health. At the end of the day, you're the CEO of you. Then you decide what's best for you.

 

[00:51:29] Yes, a thousand percent. And I think taking that kind of control and that clarity and and taking them for being I you know, I was like, what's what's the burden that you've had to bear since the 1950s as a doctor to carry around this godlike status is ridiculous. You know, and anyone who wants to rise to that challenge has issues anyway. So I think that clarifying that they're human beings studying a specific part. Our lifecycle or, you know, disease issues within that really clarifies things, as you're saying. Well, Jimmy, we're almost out of time and I'm bummed out because I couldn't listen to you forever. But I want to get to the final piece of what I want, because you're this prolific personality and you've said so much over the past few years. I'm wondering, do you have, like an elevator pitch? Do you have, like, a top three, a top five or just a top singular piece of advice that you give to people about fasting or how it's affected your life?

 

[00:52:19] Oh, my gosh. Like it. There's so many directions and we've hit on a bunch of them in today's show. I think just do it. I think what what causes people to hesitate is just a bunch of head stuff. Just do it like people like. I don't know where to start. I'm like, start. That's where you start. Start like. I 8:00 this morning, I had a ribeye steak this morning around eight o'clock. I'm still not hungry and it's almost eight hours later. It's you just start. You just do it. You don't even think about it. And so feed yourself. Well, when you are eating, feed yourself really good, high quality, real whole foods. You can be keto or definitely help, but you don't have to be Kitto. You can be paleo, whole 30, whatever your choice carnivore and do what you want. Vegetarian might be a little bit tricky, begin might be a little bit tricky because you do need some of that nutrition from the meat and the animal based foods. But you can start by kind of when you are eating, eating or when you are eating, eating really high quality food. That's a good basis. Then it's over. And let your body just go listen to your body, allow yourself to calm everything down and just methodically go through the process. I think, again, psyching yourself out is not going to help you because the stress of all that. Guess what's going to make you hungry because your body can't stay calm. So give this a go and do methodically. Let's check this out. You've never done more than 16 hours. You make a goal at 24. You made it 90 and a half. Guess what? You just made your longest fast ever. You tried to walk in and you make it. Twenty two. Guess what? You just made your longest fast ever. I think we're we're in this all or nothing mentality when it comes to things like fasting and oh, I fail to make, like I sometimes do seven day challenges on my Instagram, on Jimmy rants and people. Oh, I only made it three days. I'm like, what was your longest fast before that. Sixteen hours. I'm like, you just went three days. Congrats. You went more than three times as long as you ever have. So it's like putting things in perspective, keeping them in perspective and realizing this is a journey, not a race. And in the long run, if you get into the habit of doing this and it becomes a habit that makes you healthier, in the end, you win. Yeah, I agree too.

 

[00:54:46] Right. Well, thank you so much for meeting with me today, Jimi. I really appreciate I know you're wildly busy and I'm so happy that you came on. I know our audience is really going to appreciate it. And I love your candor and everything that you're saying.

 

[00:54:57] Thank you. This was a lot of fun.

 

[00:54:58] Absolutely. For everyone listening, we've been talking with Jimmy Moore. He's the best selling author, podcasts, inspiring speaker. You can find out more on his website. L l v L.C dot com. That's live in lavada low carb dot com. L l v l.c dot com. Thank you so much for tuning in and spending this hour with us. I appreciate all of you.

 

[00:55:17] And this is me reminding you to stay safe, stay kind to each other responsibly and clean when you do eat and always bet on yourself. Slainte.