Get the Benefits of Fasting Without Actually Fasting – In a Way That Supports Your Thyroid and Actually Works for Hashimoto’s with Renée Fitton

Renee, I am so excited to have you on Thyroid Mystery Solved Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism Revealed Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure to be here and, and representing Elra. Sounds like for the second time here. Yes, yes. We did talk about this a little bit in an episode over four years ago, so there’s so much new stuff and I’m so excited.

Um, now when we talk about fasting, we hear a lot. About fasting and the benefits of fasting for things like weight loss and health and just overall longevity. But what many people don’t realize is that fasting for, you know, your typical 12 to 16 hours, which is how many people do it right in like an intermittent fasting type of way, it doesn’t truly accomplish those benefits fully.

Can you talk to us about that and why that’s the case? Absolutely. So when we talk about fasting and its benefits, there are a couple of things that we’re referencing and it often, and I mean it really does matter on how long you are fasting, at which point you get which benefits. And so the term fasting.

It’s a very big umbrella term because it considers all types of fasts, all lengths of fasts, and really they’re not all the same. So when we look at short term fasting, what we define short-term fasting is anything that’s actually under two days. People are always surprised to hear that because of, as you mentioned, the the commonality of the 16 hour fasts or even the 18 hour fast.

There are now some people doing these 24 hour, 36 hour fasts, but really we, we make the cutoff two days. And the main reason is that at that point there’s a new lever that gets pulled in the world of fasting that gives you even more benefit than what you would get for these shorter fasts. I wanna give some credit where credit is due to the shorter fasts in that.

In about that, after about the 12 hour mark, we start to use up all of the sugar that we have in our body and we switch to using our own fat stores for energy. And that can be beneficial for people who are struggling with metabolic health, and it can be helpful for people who are trying to lose weight.

Of course, it also just shrinks your eating window down, so some people just end up eating less calories as well. So in, in that way, these shorter fasts can be helpful. But at that over two day mark, a new, incredible, powerful feature turns on, and that is our body’s ability. To self clean cells, that is something that we call autophagy.

It is like essentially a spring cleaning at the deepest cellular level, which as you can imagine, seeing as our body and all of our organs and ab, everything that we are made up of is made up of cells, is really, really impactful. So it really is this full rejuvenation at the deepest level. Yeah. Now with that, and especially for people with Hashimoto’s and thyroid issues, while fasting of course, is very beneficial for a lot of people with autoimmunity, it’s too harsh.

I mean, for, and even taking thyroid issues aside, I mean, just for the average person. To not eat for two days. I mean, it’s not easy, but I think for someone with Hashimoto’s and thyroid issues, it’s even harder just because blood sugar is less stable because there’s more inflammation, because there’s erratic cravings and things like that.

So what do we do that Yes, absolutely. So this is really where. This incredible innovation in fasting comes into play where we have found a way to get the benefits of these, these long water only fasts, but give food and nutrition and nutrients that make it not only of course. Easier to do, but make it significantly safer and less of a stress on the body while still getting the benefits of what we consider the positive stress of, of a fast or the hermetic stress.

And so it is this ability to get the benefits of both worlds. So that concept of getting the benefits of water only fasting with food is known as fasting, mimicking, mimicking a fast. So you are. In a sense, you are getting the deep cellular benefits of a fast, but you are not fasting by the dictionary definition of fasting.

Mm-hmm. Now, with fasting mimicking how much food are you actually eating and what is the, the ratio of that, right. Because I’m gonna say, oh, I’ll just eat breakfast. Is that fasting mimicking? Or maybe I’ll just skip all my meals and eat dinner and like I’ll have a donut. Um, you know, so like what makes it fasting?

Mimicking specifically? Yeah, so this is really where fasting mimicking stands apart from a lot of other fasting protocols. It’s not about when you eat or, uh, necessarily, uh, you know, eating a, a small enough calories per se. It is about the very specific nutrients in the right amounts in the right combinations that don’t.

Trigger alarm bells at the cellular level. Those alarm bells are what we call nutrient sensing pathways. They are always scoping out to see if we have enough nutrition in our body that would support and stimulate growth. And so those nutrient sensing pathways are always active and they’re typically looking for two major things in high enough amounts.

And that is especially. Sugar, which most people are pretty pretty tip they, they understand, but people are often surprised to hear that. The other big trigger here is protein. So what we see in fasting mimicking diets is that we really do limit those two things. Um, they’re not zero, but we just keep them as low as possible so that we can.

Limit the activation or ex prevent the activation of those nutrient sensing pathways or those alarm bells. And then we fill it up with a lot of fiber, uh, a lot of micronutrients from plant-based foods. We also will see a lot of healthy fats in here. And tho that’s really what kind of comes together in about, I mean, we’re talking breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack.

Cap quantities. So the first day is usually about 1100 calories, and then days two through five, because they’re typically five day, uh, fasts or fasting mimicking programs. Um, the, the days two through five are usually closer to about 800 calories. So yes, it is still a reduced. Intake protocol, but it’s significantly more than what you will get with water only.

Uh, and making it significantly easier. And then also these programs are designed with the specific foods and nutrition that aren’t just calories, they’re actually filling. You know, they’re really give, giving you as much as you can, getting the most bang for your buck. So that’s so interesting that 1100 calories can mimic a fast.

I mean, ’cause you’re talking, hey, like you get the benefit from fasting if you’re fasting for five days with nothing. And here we are saying there’s a program where we can eat 1100 calories, you know, and then later it’s a little less, but still like significant amount, you know, it’s more than half right?

Um, of what people would normally eat in the day. You know, three quarters really for some people. And it can still mimic a fast and give you all of those benefits. That’s amazing. It is amazing and it is thankfully heavily science backed. So this is something that has been researched for now, uh, about 30 years.

There are 47 clinical trials and counting in this space. It all started really looking at. These nutrient sensing pathways. We looked, we were looking at, at flies and yeast, these very, very small organisms. And we kinda worked our way up all the way up to humans. And we found that these pathways are conserved, meaning that these nutrient sensing pathways are, are present in humans as well.

Um, anybody who is listening that is really into health, wellness, and longevity. Might be even familiar with some of the names of these nutrient sensing pathways like mTOR and IGF one, and these nutrient sensing pathways are really what we’re tapping into here and we’re, you know, have, have really made this possible is understanding those and understanding what triggers them and what doesn’t.

And that’s where the science lies. And that’s really where also working with companies that can design these protocols for you makes it even. Easier to achieve because it is very particular. It is very specific. It is very scientific. It is. So evidence-based that it can be very difficult to replicate. Mm, that makes sense.

Right? Because like you’re saying with these, uh, nutrient sensing pathways, right? It has to be these exact amounts. Like protein has to be just slow enough, but not zero. Right. And sugar needs to be a certain way. And I’m sure there’s all of these other nutrients that need to be at a specific point. And it sounds like unless it’s really kind of perfect in those ratios, it’s not gonna work.

Right? Yeah. Exactly. And that’s, that’s exactly true. And in fact, we, we see a lot of people, uh, who, who come through the program, they’re like, oh, I’ll just add, you know, a bone broth. It’s got zero calories and zero sugar. And inevitably we have to be like, well, there’s, it’s very likely, if not certain, that you probably broke your fast.

It doesn’t, you know, it’s, it’s some of these, these myths out there of what fasting really is. Is it just that your blood sugar stays low? No, it’s that it’s a low blood sugar plus that you’re activating ketosis plus that you’re not triggering those nutrient sensing pathways. So it’s, it’s quite complicated.

Right. And all of those things, when you do that, that’s what triggers the autophagy. Which is the cleansing. Mm-hmm. Um, so let’s talk about that a little bit because. You know, especially in our thyroid community, we know that the liver plays a big role, right? Cleansing is important. And at the same time, I think my community knows, because I talk about this all the time, we don’t want to over cleanse, right?

Especially with Hashimoto’s, we don’t wanna raise cortisol, we don’t wanna do things that are going to push the body to more than what it’s able to. So can you talk a little bit about what autophagy is and some of the benefits of that, and like what does it really mean for the cells to clean themselves?

Because it goes beyond liver. There’s more here. For sure it’s way beyond our liver because our body is made up entirely of cells. So you have to think that when we go through a process like autophagy that is at the cellular level, it’s not just happening in our liver cells or just in our blood cells.

It’s really happening throughout our full system. And this is also why we, we look at the research we see. Benefits in skin health. We see benefits in gut health. We see benefits in, uh, even behavioral health. We see, you know, it’s, it’s fully systematic because we’re working at that cellular level now. What, what is autophagy?

What, what is really happening here? So our cells are not just a big orb that’s empty. It’s got tons. It’s like a whole little world on the inside. Made up of a lot of functioning parts and every single piece in there has a very important role to play and ideally should be working at its peak capacity as we age.

No matter who you are, no matter how healthy you are, things start to break down. It’s kind of like the engine of a car. No matter how well you take care of that car is not gonna last forever. Things are gonna break down, and you’re gonna have to go in and do repair, and ideally you’re gonna do it preventatively.

You’re gonna go in and do a quick checkup and try and figure out which things are maybe, you know, oh, I notice a tear in this belt, or whatever. I’m obviously not a car person, but you know, there’s, there’s things that, that we, we capture and we find those and we take them out, we get rid of them and we replace them.

That is autophagy. It’s the hunting down of things in our cells that are not working at their optimal capacity. We find those, we literally ingest them, eat them, use that for energy, get rid of that waste, and then leave room to make a new, better functioning cellular component. So that, as you can imagine when we look at this, this context of cells being in our whole body and really kind of running the show has a very, very big impact and has a big impact on many different systems.

Yeah, it’s fascinating. So one of the things you talked about is longevity specifically. So how does that help that? Can you tell us a little bit more? Because that’s something that everyone’s interested in, right? Totally. I mean, you could say no to that. Exactly. Exactly. And more, more importantly even is not just living long, but living healthy long.

Yes. And I think when we talk about longevity, it’s kind of like it’s gotten a bit of a buzzword. It’s something that a lot of people are talking about, but what is longevity? What does that really mean? And now people are really starting to turn to this concept of health span, which is living a long period of time for as healthfully as possible, and that’s what we see.

At many levels. Right. And with fasting mimicking, because we are able to tap into so many different avenues, what we see is that metrics of biological age, which right now, in all honesty, we don’t really have very good or gold standards measures of biological age, but the best ones take a lot of things into consideration.

Mm-hmm. They’re looking at, you know, not just inflammation, not just. Blood pressure. Not just your triglycerides, not just your weight, not just your telomeres, not, you know, like there’s so many things that they’re looking at as much as things as possible that have been associated with long and healthy lives and what we’ve been able to show in studies and specifically a study that was just published this past.

Year. Um, in nature, one of the leading journals showed that a fasting mimicking diet just done once a month for three months in a row was able to reverse biological age by two and a half years. This is really an impactful finding because to reverse your biological age in 15 days over the course of 90.

That significantly is really quite unheard of in the longevity research. And when we look at what that would look like over the course of 11 years, because the study also looked at the long-term impacts, just doing it three times a year for 11 years, or sorry, I take that back for 20 years. Um, it reversed biological age by 11 years.

So doing it three times a year for 20 years, reverse biological age by 11 years. Wow, that’s amazing. And only three times a year. You’re not doing it every month. It’s for five days. Once a month for three months. Does it have to be consecutive months? Um, so in, so kind of yes and no. So you want them to, to be consecutive in the first three, just to kind of get your body up to baseline, and then you’re just doing it every three to four months moving forward.

So you’re breaking it up with a good significant period of time in between. And this is really important too, because as you, you know, so aptly shared fasting is a stress on the body, and so we want to try and give it this stress. As, as kind of softly and gently as possible, which is what the fa fasting mimicking diet does.

And then we also wanna give our body enough time to grow and build and repair, like in the, in the analogy of, of our car. We don’t just take out the broken piece and not replace it. We need to go buy another one and put it in. And in this same analogy, we need to. Go build a new cellular component, which requires food and energy and nutrition.

And so it is a very important game of give and take. You can’t always be fasting. You need to give your body time to grow too. Yeah. Now what about autoimmunity? I, I know that there’s research in this autophagy cleansing, but in this whole body kind of cellular cleansing with autoimmunity to talk to us about that because this is really bang for our community.

For sure, for sure. And, and unfortunately we don’t yet. Have, uh, a published study on Hashimoto’s, though it is, um, in the works, there is, there is studies in other autoimmune conditions. Now, I wanna be super transparent and say that these are preclinical, meaning that they’re done in mice and they’re not done in humans in most of these studies.

What we do in humans are safety trials to, so that we can make sure that. These recommendations wouldn’t be unsafe in individuals who do this. Um, so the results that I’m going to share, uh, you know, you can’t assume that it’s gonna always be true in humans, but it is very, uh, exciting early data. Okay. So now that I’ve given my little, uh, flag, uh, let me share some really cool info.

Okay. So I’m gonna first start with type one diabetes, which is an autoimmune condition, um, where our beta cells no longer function. This is. Um, what creates insulin in our body and allows our body to h healthfully manage blood sugar. In this study, what they were able to show is that completely non-functional beta cells caused by autoimmunity we’re able to be fully regenerated to full function with fasting mimicking several cycles of fasting mimicking was able to regenerate that function.

A multiple sclerosis study’s. I know. It’s crazy. Oh my gosh. And there’s more, and there’s more. Um, there’s, there’s a multiple sclerosis study, um, also autoimmune, where we see degeneration of the myelin sheath, the, the wrapping around our nerves and our, our nervous system. And that gets degraded and degraded and degrade.

Via autoimmunity, and what we were also able to show with fasting mimicking cycles was that there was rebuilding and regrowth there. If we look at IBD or inflammatory bowel disease, that’s where autoimmunity, again starts breaking down the outer lining of the gut. Here we’ve been able to also show regeneration of that gut lining.

And what’s super cool about that study and what I, I think is really fun as we talk about this subject too, is. That we also compared it to water only fasting in that model. So it was regular nutrition versus water only, fasting versus fasting mimicking and the, and even better than water only fasting was fasting mimicking.

Because you’re adding nutrition, you’re adding fiber, you’re adding the nutrients to help the growth. It’s more than just the cleanup. It’s more than just the autophagy. It’s also the nutrition and the growth support as well. Mm-hmm. Now, how long did it take to see results of that gut lining, repairing? So because this is in mice, uh, the timeline is not gonna be equivalent to, to what we see in humans.

And so we don’t necessarily wanna use these as references for how long it would take in a human being, and we don’t even know if that level of repair and rejuvenation. Could happen in a human being, but, um, we, it would very likely be closer to, um, you know, six to 12 cycles. Even what we see, for example, in type two diabetes.

Granted this is now going into more metabolic health. Um, what we see here is that it takes six cycles in a row to really start achieving, uh, that full, uh, disease, remission and regression. And so as we continue to do more studies in humans, we’ll probably start finding that sweet spot of how many cycles it would take to really get some of those results.

And I can tell you that that is something that’s currently in the works. I know that the autoimmune protocol is something that, uh, companies like LRA Health, the medical division of fasting mimicking is, is implementing and, um, already currently create Cure as a nonprofit that leverages fasting mimicking is doing today.

That’s great. That’s great. Now, what about menopause and perimenopause? Um, especially from a weight perspective. You know, I think people with thyroid issues and Hashimoto’s struggle with weight even more so than others because our thyroid is not functioning as optimally because there’s more inflammation because.

There’s more of this immune confusion and then you add perimenopause and then menopause on top of that. It’s like boom. Yeah, right. It’s like this whole other thing. Right? And I talk about this a lot where, you know, for weight loss, especially with Hashimoto’s, it’s not the same weight loss has Hashimoto’s really, truly is different.

Like you can’t follow regular plans. But then hormones on top of that, um, is another thing. So can you talk to us about how this can be helpful and why? Yeah, absolutely. Well, the beauty of this protocol is that it’s really leveraging your body’s own intelligence. You are at, at the end of the day, really kind of getting out of the way and letting your body do the work.

We’re not trying to hack the system. We’re just letting it do what it does best, and so. Is very good at kind of hunting down what needs repair and what needs to be rejuvenated. And because of that, we see it quite highly personalized to the individual. We’ve been able to see that individuals who, for example, have high blood sugar, they, they drop their blood sugar, but those that are already healthy will stay healthy.

Same with blood pressure, same with inflammatory markers, all and, and so when we look specifically at perimenopause and menopause. There are some things that we can point to specifically for that phase of life that we may be able to see some special focus. Uh, importantly during this time, we see that estrogen and progesterone and, and our sex hormones are starting to decline, right?

What we need to recognize about that is that it’s not just impacting fertility or, you know, it’s, it’s really actually. Quite bigger than that. Our estrogen is important for our muscle health. It’s important, uh, for our immunity even. It’s important for so many other things that we don’t always give it full credit for.

Now what, what estrogen is really important for too is actually blood sugar management. So what we see in perimenopause and menopause is that there’s an increase prevalence of type two diabetes and metabolic health concerns. So. What we’ve been able to see with fasting mimicking is that despite those changes, still being able to push back.

Importantly because estrogen is declining, because estrogen’s important in muscle health, what we also see is that muscle tone decreases as well, or muscle mass. Decreases as well. This is also really problematic and when we, when we talk about weight loss specifically, this is one of the biggest root causes.

When we lose our muscle, we are also dropping our metabolic rate. I think a lot of people are familiar with metabolic rate. It’s your body’s ability to burn calories, and the higher your metabolic rate, the more it will just naturally burn calories. Our muscles are the most metabolically active, meaning it burns the most calories just on its own.

So when we lose that, we, and you might not even notice that you’re losing muscle. It’s really hard to tell what you is just gradually happening as your metabolic rate is just gradually dropping and dropping and dropping, and it is no wonder that people go. So weird. I haven’t changed my diet, I haven’t changed my exercise, but I am just gaining weight and I don’t know why I haven’t changed a thing.

And a lot of that is because your metabolic rate is just slowly dropping as your muscle is dropping. Okay, so I’ve, I hope I’ve made my point clear that muscle is important in this time now. Unfortunately happens is that when people see the weight going up, they then do go on calorie restricted diets for every day.

They’re kind of just or or some sort of crash fat diet, and then it actually makes it worse. You lose even more muscle. Yes. What’s the beauty of fasting mimicking is that it is fat focused. We’ve been able to show this now in dozens of studies looking at the most. Validated sources of figuring out what your body composition is, and we show time and time and time again that muscle is protected.

So it is fat focused weight loss. So here you are setting yourself up for success long-term, especially in terms of weight management, but also your metabolic health and your metabolic rate and your strength, which is so important for health and longevity. So those are just two avenues that it can help.

But as you can imagine. That’s just the beginning. That’s just scratching the surface. Yeah. And when you say fat focus, just to make sure everyone understands it’s that it targets fat, it’s not gonna target your muscle or wa I mean, water, I guess maybe a little bit naturally, but the muscle is what unfortunately goes, especially with so many people doing GLP ones in a dose that is way higher than what they typically need.

And then they’re not eating. And there’s a lot of issues that could come from that if they’re not properly microdosing it. Exactly, and we’re certainly seeing that today. I, I like that you brought up the GLP ones because we, what we’ve seen currently with the mismanagement is weight loss coming from about 40% from our muscle.

That is huge. That’s like almost half of what you’re losing is stuff you don’t wanna. Yeah, so, so that’s also why we see that a lot of people, and unfortunately think it, the, the stat is like 80% of people don’t complete the first year of GLP ones. So people are starting and then they’re stopping and they’re, they’ve lost all this muscle and it’s no wonder that people are fully regaining the weight back in sometimes more.

Yeah, because of discontinuing. Right, exactly. Yeah. We talked a lot about this on a show a couple of months ago where for Hashimoto’s especially, it’s those smaller doses that are much more helpful and you know, really just dialing in the nutrition and unfortunately most people just don’t have that support if they’re seeing someone that’s more conventional just saying, here’s a prescription and like doesn’t give them anything else.

So yeah, absolutely. We have a lot of, we actually have programs that are being developed. At LRA for GLP one off ramping or GLP one support, uh, because we have dieticians that can help guide people through that, um, while leveraging tools that are more healthy and more well-rounded and more balanced. Of course more natural, uh, like fasting mimicking.

Yeah. So with fasting mimicing, because this is very new to a lot of people listening, walk us through exactly what happens. So it’s five days, and then do people go and buy the food and then cook it? Is it given to them? Like, give us all the details. I mean, I know the details, but just so you can give the details.

Of course you can speak to it more. Of course. Yeah. So it’s, it’s so simple. And it’s so, it’s made simple by, by two major companies that are doing this right now. A company called ProLon and a company called Elra Health that deliver the product directly to your door. Um, everything is in a box with five individual boxes.

Inside, inside each individual box, you’ll have the days. Food inside. All of the food is ready to eat. You may you, the only thing you need to do is heat up a couple of things, um, so that you have a warm soup, but, uh, now there’s even fully ready to go soup, so you don’t even have to heat it up if you didn’t want to.

Um, so it really makes it so, so simple cleanup, thinking about what to make. I mean, all of that out the window. No need to worry about any of that. And. It tastes great. So tho those two companies are really, really making it easy, uh, for people to, to do something that otherwise would be very difficult to, to try and replicate alone and try and cook it all.

Yeah. Can you give us what a typical day would look like? What would a breakfast be? What would lunch be? What would a snack be at a dinner? Yeah, so you start your day with a nut based bar. It’s gonna be packed with almonds, macadamias, pecans, a little bit of honey just to add a little sweetness. It’s super tasty.

People are always really impressed with that. That’s like how we’re starting things off. Off to a great start. Then you’re gonna transition into a snack, probably something like a seed and kale cracker. So it’s got a little bit of, kind of this cheesy flavor from, um, the, the seasonings and spices. It’s completely dairy free, plant-based, but it does, to me anyway, it has this kind of like nutritional yeast cheesy flavor.

Then you’ll transition into a soup. Uh, there are tons of different. Soup flavors. Uh, but they’re all, of course gonna be plant-based here. So you’ll see things like, um, red bell, pepper, bisque, uh, lentil, uh, curry, uh, you’ll see mushroom minoni. You’ll see, you know, the, the list goes on and on, but tons of different soups, uh, to try to try for lunch.

And then you’ll also have those for dinner. You’ll probably have another snack in between lunch and dinner. Something like some olives that are, oh crap.

Oh, okay. Uh, our power just.

I lost you. I don’t Oh, you’re muted. That’s why. Okay. Sorry. We have a really bad storm and our power just went out. Um, but the generator kicked in, so we’re okay. Um, oh my gosh. What, where, where in the world are you? New Jersey? Oh my gosh. So, and it’s like, it’s just like a rainstorm and we lose p like where I live, it’s like a little bit more, I mean, it’s not the country at all.

Like we’re very close to New York City, but it’s like country enough where um, like there’s just lots of trees, power that we have. Everyone has a generator here ’cause power goes out all the time. Okay. So lemme see. We are good because it’s still recording, so I think everything is good. We will edit this part out.

Just keep it in there for some kicks and giggles. Yeah. It’s like, oh no. And I’m like, everything’s like, click, click, click, click. Okay, cool. So let’s, uh, let’s see. We were talking about the soups. Um, I think you were saying like, you get a soup for lunch and for dinner. And then it cut off where you set olives for snack.

So why don’t we just start with the snack? Perfect. So your afternoon snack is brought, gonna be something like olives. Olives in this kit for anybody who’s an olive hater. These are, these are far and beyond any olive you’ve ever tried. They’re flown in from Italy with Italian herbs and seasonings. I hated olives, and I tried these and I was like, what?

This is not an olive. This is incredible. And so just, just a little aside, then, uh, you know, you’ll have your dinner soup and you’ll transition then to, uh, an evening, evening dessert. So, believe it or not, yes, there is a little chocolate crisp at the end of the day. It’s crunchy, it’s delicious. And it’s just that nice little sweet treat to kind of close out the day.

And so you can see you have a full day of meals, uh, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks and treats, and. Not to mention. On top of that, we also include teas and, uh, some supplements just to kind of fill in the gaps in between. So you really, all you need to make sure is that you have water somewhere nearby a bowl for your soup and a water bottle to, to mix, um, your teas.

So it’s so simple now. The first day you get a little bit more, then it’s a little bit less food. I’m assuming similar, just maybe slightly smaller portions or a little bit less fat from a calorie perspective. Exactly. So you will still, on every single day, you’ll still have, uh, two snacks, um, two bre, like you’ll have all of those things.

Um, the, the main difference between the day one and then the days after is that on the first day you actually get two of that nut bar in the morning. Um, you also get all of the snacks, so you get olives and you get crackers. Um, so what we typically see on the later days is some days you might, instead of getting olives and crackers, you’ll just get two olives or something like that.

Or you’ll get, you know, some on one day. I know we do like a olive and a cracker, but we don’t do the evening dessert. That one always pains everybody. Yeah. Yay three with no choco crisp, but, but there’s, there’s, you’re always still getting, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. So do you feel hungry? On it.

Yeah. I would say in all honesty, most people will feel like some moderate hunger now. It’s not super, it’s not super painful. Or, or, you know, I find most people will say that as long as they’re distracted or staying busy, they don’t notice it. Mm-hmm. Um. But I would never promise that it’s gonna be a, a total breeze and you’ll be absolutely satiated for the whole time because it is still calorie restricted.

Um, but there are a lot of tools within it that are designed to try and limit that hunger, um, which includes starting on day two. And we do reduce those calories. Even more, uh, we add in something called the L drink. The L drink is a glycerol based beverage. You add it, the more you weigh, the more you add, and it just gives you a little bit extra energy to help you with fullness, to help you with, um, hydration and also to just give you a little bit of energy and it also protects your muscle.

So all of those things kind of tie in with that little addition. Uh, once we do start decreasing those calories, so. Um, you know, I would guess my answer is yes and no. Got it. Got it. Now, what about energy? I mean, it sounds like the drink helps with energy because again, with our community people with indirective thyroids, people with Hashimoto’s, fatigue is one of the biggest things that people struggle with.

And so if they’re already tired and you are doing something. And again, this isn’t true restriction. I mean it’s restriction, but it’s in this very healthy way. Um, but if someone’s already tired, is it something that will make them more tired? I mean, I know people also say, Hey, when I cleanse or do that, I actually feel better energy.

But typically that comes a little bit later. Talk to us about that. For sure. So what’s really cool about this protocol is that we see energy start to increase as early as day two or three. Um, and that will not only increase during the protocol, but you’ll see it maintained. And though the maintenance and the during protocol are for two slightly different reasons.

Uh, when you’re on your fast, what’s really interesting is that your body will release. Because you’re in this fasted state, it starts to release some hormones and some, some biomarkers that are different than what it does when it’s not in a fasted state. Um, and some of those are really helpful for alertness.

So we will see even that sleep. Um, due to a compound known as orexin, a um, will, even if it’s shorter in length, you’ll wake up feeling very rejuvenated and refreshed. And that’s due to this release of these compounds that we see when we’re in this fasted state. And I think bonus for thyroid people ’cause wait for 10 hours and are still tired.

Exactly, exactly. This is, this is really, so, such a magical part of this program is is that activation just during those five days. We also see during those five days that there is an increased production of ketones. Ketones are kind of like high octane fuel for our brain. They can pass into our blood brain barrier and our.

Our brain can use that as energy, and our brain actually really likes to use ketones for energy. So some people also will feel more focused and more alert because of that. So that’s what’s happening during, right, but after, because your cells are cleaned and refreshed and rejuvenated, we also see improvement in sleep afterwards.

Now, this is not something that has been clinically validated. We don’t have any sleep studies yet, but we have. Millions of users and many of which have used things like aura rings and other sleep trackers and can attest to the fact that they have seen these benefits. Yeah, I’ve seen that in my practice as well, because I use this a good amount and people definitely mention that, which is great.

Yeah, exactly. So. When we think about, you know, cleaning ourselves and doing all of this, it sounds like this can accomplish it in five days. Um, and it doesn’t sound like there’s really anything else that can do something similar in such a short period of time. That is absolutely true with the exception of maybe water only fasting for that same period of time.

Right. But then you run, of course, the downsides of choosing that. Uh, the only other thing that has really been able to show autophagy at least, uh, at that, that level is very, very, very strenuous, high intensity training. Hmm. Um, and with that, it is not. Sustained for as long as we see with fasting and fasting mimicking.

And so really at the end of the day, if you want to trigger and optimize this incredible process known as autophagy, which by the way won the Nobel Prize in 2016 because its discovery was so impactful, if you want to turn that on, the real, the really, the only way to maximize that is through fasting or fasting mimicking.

And again, if you’re, if you’re choosing between the two and recognizing that the benefits are equivalent, I think there’s only one choice. Right? Exactly. And for Hashimoto’s, especially our water fast is just really not something we recommend. Exactly. It just puts way too much stress on the body. What about exercise as you’re doing this for five days, and like you said, your energy might increase even within like the second or third day.

Can you exercise or is it something where it’s better to just kind of take it easy? To kind of enhance this cellular cleansing effect. I definitely recommend to take it easy, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t do any movement or activities. So I still recommend maybe like a light yoga class, a stretching session.

Walking all of this movement is actually really beneficial because remember, your body is going through a deep cleanup and as it releases the waste that it is. It is cleaning out. You need to flush that out. And so the two things that help with that flushing process is water and movement. And so having those two things though granted with exercise, it will be limited, will be very, very helpful.

So again, it’s another one of those yes and nos. And what about other things that can enhance detoxification like sauna or. Charcoal, would those things help or is it something where you wanna kind of let it do its thing and not add anything or mess with anything? Yeah, that’s a great question. And when it comes to saunas and cold plunges in any of the high temperature or low temperature, um, methodologies, we don’t recommend including them because they are incredible for detoxification, cleanup, and, uh, just support in general.

But. They’re also a stress on the body, right? Uh, the reason why they’re beneficial is because of the hermetic stress, and that’s the same thing that we’re saying with fasting, is that it’s beneficial on the body, but because of some of this positive stress, that’s it, it’s enacting. So when we add on multiple of them, then it.

Maybe just too much for our body. So we do recommend to limit those. Um, also not to mention with sauna, it’s going to dehydrate you. So, uh, when we fast, believe it or not. Water intake oftentimes goes down because we’re eating less and then we just naturally drink less. Yeah, yeah. Um, so that also can just become a, a problem longer term.

And if we lose electrolytes, then that can be a problem. So it just, it just kind of compounds things. So I would say take it easy. Uh, we don’t recommend charcoal or really any other supplements than what’s included. Um, just out of. Honestly fear in most cases that they may, for whatever reason impact their nutrient sensing systems.

So when people are, people will always ask, well, I take this supplement and this supplement and I do this and this and this, and unless it’s doctor required, then we generally suggest that you exclude them for the five days. Now, any of your prescription medications and things like that, um, of course if you have any of those work with your physician to adjust, but you would generally keep those.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that makes sense. So what happens after the five days you finish the day, most people are feeling amazing. So then do you just go back to eating what you were doing? Is there a way to sort of ease back into it? Is there a protocol for that? For sure. So there is a day six suggested transition diet, and you’ll note that I say day six because it’s only one day.

It’s not like you have to gradually return for the next week or the next five days. It really is just for that first day back. It’s just honestly gentler on your body and more comfortable for you if you gradually return to, um, animal-based. Food. So we generally recommend that day six remain plant-based, if you are an omnivore or eating, um, animal-based proteins that you would take that gradually.

And otherwise it’s kind of just the basics. Keep it low sugar, keep it, um, you know, uh, exclude alcohol ke reduce saturated fats, you know, just. Keep it kind of clean and don’t bring in a ton of processed foods into your, into your diet on that first day. Now I say all of that and I honestly probably barely need to tell anybody come day six because peoples.

Finish and they feel clean, they feel ready to take on other healthy nutrition strategies. It is, um, a, they find a better relationship with food, less sugar cravings, all these wonderful things kind of coming out of it that most people are craving. Some people will even ask me if they can keep fasting, at which point we say no.

But most people are craving, you know, really good, clean, healthy food. So. Absolutely check out the Transition Day Guide. It’s available on uh ProLon life.com. But, uh, you don’t really need to get too fancy as long as you keep it clean. And then for the remaining 25 to 90 days between your next cycle, you can hypothetically eat whatever you want.

Now that’s, I say that because that’s what the studies did. Um, the studies do not require people to change their diet in between cycles. As a dietician, I, you know, of course, am going to suggest that there are many things that you can do to. Optimize your nutrition in between, but it’s not critical. Right.

Okay. Well that’s good. So, you know, I know everyone listening here is already doing a lot of good things and so. It’s likely that their results might be even better if they’re eating clean. You know, most people with Hashimoto’s are trying to be gluten-free and dairy-free. You know, they are being mindful of the different toxins and sugars and things like that.

So likely we’ll experience even more benefit, um, which is, which is great. Um, so we’re gonna put a link in the show notes to where people can order their kits and all of the information. Um, but Renee. You know, this is so fascinating just because I think there’s so many people that just don’t know this exists.

So thank you so much, first of all, for sharing this information and sharing the research and really explaining so well how that works. Um, do you have any last tips for people to, you know, really make sure that they are managing their autoimmunity and they’re doing everything they can in a way that’s also sustainable for their health?

For sure. I mean, of course I’m a big fan of fasting mimicking, but I think at the end of the day, just like as a dietician, um, if this doesn’t resonate with you, that is totally okay. Um, there are also one day kits if you wanna just kind of gradually enter into it. But I think what the most important thing to note is that.

Taking any step in the right direction is a step in the right direction. Um, and when we look at the world of longevity, there are many pillars that you could spend time on and focus on. And as long as you pick one, whether it be community or nutrition or exercise or what have you, and just make a commitment for four weeks, six weeks, that you’re just gonna focus on that one thing, what we inevitably see is that.

As you achieve your goals, you will gradually add more in new ones, but to trying to take on everything all at once is always kind of, I, I find a recipe for failure. So, um, if just taking, taking it one step at a time. Yeah, that’s great. No matter what. That’s the way to go. That’s great. Well, thank you so much for being here and for those who wanna connect with you, find out more about you, um, tell us where people can find you if they have questions.

Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, if you’re wanting to connect with me, you can connect with me on social media, on Instagram at fit in nutrition. That’s F-I-T-T-O-N Nutrition. Uh, I also have a website, fit nutrition.com. If you’re curious about. Fasting mimicking. I know there’s gonna be a link to purchase below. Uh, it’s gonna be a a ProLon life.com link.

Um, you will also be able to, if you’re interested in doing a program, you can also look check out l nutra health.com. That’s L dash nutra N-U-T-R-A health.com. There they add in physicians, dieticians, labs, all the extra bells and whistles, just to keep it extra safe. For anybody who’s looking to to proceed.