Transcript of Episode 511: Dr. Mindy Pelz: Fix Your Metabolism with the Right Type of Fast

Hi, guys. It's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

I have Dr. Mindy Peltz on the podcast, you guys. She's a friend of mine, and so this happens all the time, right? When I have people who I like very much. And we start doing this podcast. All the good stuff happens before we start filming. So I'm like, Stop it. Stop talking. Yeah, stop talking. Let's start. Yeah. Okay, so Dr. Mindy Peltz, she's known as the Fasting Guru. We were just saying before we started filming that you were on such a trajectory when I met you, and now you've become a mainstream name. And she's written a ton of books, Fast Like A Girl. Her newest book is called Age Like A Girl. You wrote a couple other books prior.

Eat Like A Girl was in between. It's a trilogy now.

Exactly. It's like, eat like a girl. I mean, you guys are getting the point. So we're going to go. We're going to get right into everything. But I was actually just saying to Mindy just now, and we stopped so we can start recording, how how she skyrocketed. And she was telling me that Steve Bartlett. So can you just go from there? So yeah.

So Fast Like A Girl came out in December 2022. And I knew what I put in that book was going to work for people because I'd already done it in my clinic. I had seen it in my online world. But when the book went out, people started getting results. And so they started sharing it, and then all the podcasters started bringing me on. The podcast interview that went viral, it had 10 million views within a month or two, was Stephen Bartlet's Diary of the CEO.

Yeah. It does a great job.

He's a great interviewer. And what ended up happening is it was like a weird configuration of it. At the time, I was 52, and he was 31. And it was like this 52-year-old woman educating a 31-year-old man on women's hormones and fasting. And there was something about our rapport that just set the the whole thing into motion. And everybody loved it, both men and women. We got questions from men, comments saying, Thank you. You taught me a little more about why my wife operates the certain way and why she acts a certain way. But the thing that we were talking about was it's a very famous quote in a very negative way that some of your listeners might know. He asked me about fasting for men, and I quoted a study that was a misquote. I said, When a man fasts for 24 hours, he improves his testosterone by 1,300%. Okay, the actual study was growth hormone. Whenever you improve growth hormone, you improve all the other hormones. Jason Fung, all the fasting experts that came before me, we used to say, We know all these other hormones are going to be increased with fasting because you increase growth hormone.

So there's a lot of nuance there. But the interesting part of the story is I got bullied. And literally, bots, people, health influencers that had big bro culture podcasts bullied me, made fun of me, did TikToks with like, look at her thinking that 1,300% increase in testosterone. They tagged Huberman in it. They tagged Thomas Delauer, if you know him. And literally, everybody laughed. It was like a public embarrassment. It was horrible. And I wanted to go onto my YouTube channel and say, here was the original study. This is what we found. This is what it looked like. But everybody on my PR team said, don't say anything. You've got to let this moment run its course, because the minute you speak, everybody, it's just going to inflame everybody. So I never could speak on it. Yeah. And so after that, that moment, not only because of the 10 million views, but because of the bullying, I started getting recognized everywhere. Everything went crazy on my socials. Book sales went through the roof. Invitations for other podcasts. It was the defining moment of my career, and it was both good and bad.

Oh, my gosh. So even though you misquoted, you said, it didn't matter because that just proves that any press is good press, right? That's right.

Very true.

You You can say whatever the hell you want, like real, fake, misquoted, and it doesn't matter. It will skyrocket you.

That's right.

That's really scary, actually. Yeah.

And what's really interesting is I really wanted to go back and really explain it to everybody. And I have since, once it calmed down, I went back to... The thing to know about a Steven Bartland interview, he had me in the chair for three and a half hours.

Yeah.

At some point You're going to say something that's sloppy and- So you're probably like, you need a protein bar or something or a cup of coffee. When I got done, I told him, I'm like, You never put a menopausal woman in a chair for three and a half hours and ask her to focus. And he and I joked about it. But you're going to say something at some point.

What was the real inform...

What was the- So 24 hours of fasting will increase growth hormone in both men and women, mostly they went on to study it even deeper in men by 1,300 %. That's huge. So the question is, what does growth hormone do and when does it diminish? So growth hormone diminishes at 30. So you don't get as much growth hormone, both men and women. So when you go into a fasted state of 24 hours, you increase this hormone that is the precursor to making every hormone. Now, this is really interesting because in a man's body, the main sex hormone they have to focus on is testosterone. Testosterone gets made in the testies and it goes up to the brain and converts to estrogen. They don't make estrogen in their bodies, and there's not much progesterone. So when we were originally looking at the early studies on fasting, we were like, okay, well, if growth hormone goes up by 1,300% in a man, testosterone must follow. So it was a nonlinear way of looking at sex hormones. Now, new studies have come out, and they've done specifically on men and fasting and testosterone, and they're conflicting. Some of them say testosterone goes up, some of them say testosterone goes down.

But the study, if I had just said growth hormone, we would have been fine. But in the hour, 2 hour and 30 minutes in- You said the wrong word. I said the wrong hormone, and that fueled- The whole thing.

The whole thing. Well, this is social media, right? Yeah. But I'm actually more on the fact that anybody can go on there. They can say anything. Very true. And the more polarizing you are, the more... Actually, sometimes the more wrong you are, that's what gets the attention because of the back and forth. That's right. But then that person will get the opportunities to go on other podcast because people just care at the end of the day about the number, right? If you're tracking, right? If you're getting Shared if you're getting likes, that's just putting you more and more on the algorithm, which then people take advantage of. So then that goes into my next question, misinformation, because that was an honest mistake, which I'm sure a lot of people make honest mistakes, but there are a lot of people out there who are not making mistakes by accident.

That's right.

So with all this misinformation, how do people... Because I have a million questions on fasting. Last time you were on the show or I was on yours, whatever, I'm not I exercise a lot, right? Yeah.

I remember. I feel like I'm having deja vu of three, four, five, seven years ago, something like that.

I think it was like six years ago. By the way, I'm still in the same place, but that's a whole other story altogether.

This is what I love about you.

That's great. The first thing is I want to ask because when I knew you were coming on, I was telling people, and people were like, Ask her this, ask her that, right? Excellent. I love this. So the first is, what's the biggest mistake people actually make when fasting? Because, again, with social media, there's so many myths about it. So what is the biggest mistake people make with fasting?

So when we first started teaching fasting on socials, there were so many questions about what you can do in your fasting window. So people were like, Can I have coffee? Can I drink juice? A lot of people to answer, I would say this is the biggest one, and it shocks me, that people think fasting means no food, but that they can drink something. We even got questions like, Can I have a Diet Coke? Can I chew gum? And so the biggest myth is that fasting is literally a state of not letting your blood sugar rise. That's what you're trying not to do. So if you drink a cup of coffee and your blood sugar stays stable, you are still in a fasted state. But if you drink a green juice with all kinds of vegetables in it, So your blood sugar may rise, and you've now pulled yourself out of a fasted state.

So then you could drink coffee. You can drink coffee. Because coffee is not... Because the thing is, people say you can have coffee with fat in it. Yeah. But you can't have milk.

So again, here's the biggest thing about that fasting window.

Cream versus milk. Yeah.

You've got to put a CGM on, a continuous glucose monitor on, and test it for yourself because everybody's different. But I'll give you the general guidelines because coffee with cream works for some people and sometimes not for others. So it really depends. So let's go through coffee because coffee is a really important one for fosters. Black coffee can stimulate something called autophagy, which is your cells ability to detox itself. It's phenomenal. A black coffee from Starbucks is full of chemicals. You don't want to be drinking a cup of chemicals. I'm not throwing Starbucks. I mean, it's all get organic, clean coffee, drink it in your fasting window nine and a half times out of 10. I'm going to tell you that that'll keep you in a fasted state. Just don't make it the chemical stuff.

That's interesting. So not all black coffee is created equal. That's right. Really? So if you go and get a Starbucks black coffee, the chemicals in it can actually interrupt the fast?

It can interrupt the healing process. The healing process. That's happening in the fast. So the quality coffee matters. Let's start there. Now, put a fat in it. If you put a fat in your coffee, what it will do is it'll kill your hunger. So now what fat are you going to put in that coffee? The best fat to put in there, and we're not talking about taste right now, the best fat is MCT oil. A teaspoon of MCT oil, what it will do is go up to the brain and it'll turn off the hunger hormone, and it'll help your body make more ketones, which is part of why we fast is to burn fat to make ketones.

Do you remember when butter in your coffee was a big deal? Do you believe in that then? Do you think it works?

I'd rather people put MCT oil in it.

Because it's better.

The only reason it worked is because it killed hunger.

Because so much fat.

Yeah, because of so much fat.

Was there any scientific proof behind the butter in the coffee besides the fat satiating your appetite?

It It stabilized your blood sugar, so it didn't spike your blood sugar. So you're still in a fasted state, and it killed hunger. So the question is now, what butter are you going to get?

Then it comes back to the whole thing, right? It has to be a proper butter. Would you drink that? Is that something you would drink?

Every once in a while, I'll go to Erwan and get a buttered coffee because I know I'm not going to eat all day. Actually, today is a day I'm not going to eat all day until tonight, and I almost went and got a buttered coffee beforehand just because they'll whip it up and make it really nice, and they'll put MCT oil in it.

And it'll satiate you.

It'll satiate me, and I can go the whole day.

Because I know that you talk about six types of fasting. Yeah. But I remember, you were water fasted for a long time. Oh, yeah. We still- Do you only do water fasting now?

It depends on the length. So if I go into a three-day water fast, which we do twice a year with our community, We lead hundreds of thousands of people through this experience. Completely free, so fun to watch. And I will tell people, water only, water only. You can have coffee if you want, but the purpose of a three-day water fast is to completely clean your system out.

Wow. So nothing. Nothing. Okay, because what are the six types of fasting that you talk about?

So the first one is intermittent fasting. Most people know that. That's like somewhere between 12 and 15 hours without food.

Right. That's a common one. Very common. It's more like a food restricting window. That's right.

The second one is autophagy fasting, where you're stimulating your cells' ability to clean itself and detox itself, that's at 17 hours. So people who want more of a detox effect, they need to go 17 hours. So third one is a gut reset, and it's at 24 hours. The research shows that your body makes intestinal stem cells. So you make cells that go in and repair the gut. That one's really powerful. I use that in my clinic all the time, and I got people off all kinds of supplements just by getting them to 24 hour fast. They can repair their gut.

Really? Yeah.

It's probably my favorite fast when people are like, I'm bloated, I have diarrhea, constipation, I have leaky gut, all the gut dysbiosis. You can cure that by one 24-hour fast every week. Just get used to doing that on a weekly basis, and your body will heal itself.

Really? So cool. So all you need is nothing, basically. Nothing. Water. Right.

Just water.

Once a week. Once a week. For how long?

Until your symptoms improve. And then if you're doing better, you can start to do it once a order the every day, the 24-hour fast. It's really up to you what you want to do.

Okay, what are the other ones?

So then 36 hours is what I started doing that one for patients who just couldn't lose weight. And I found some research that was showing that sometimes you just got to go a little longer to tell the body, Hey, you stored some fat, you stored some glucose, you stored some things years ago around my belly, in my booty. So at 36 hours, if somebody's weight loss resistant, throw a 36 hour fast at it. It really unsticks weight. And now everything else you're doing, your training, your food, everything else works better. So that's my favorite one for weight loss. 48 hours of dopamine reset. So 48 hours without food and your The whole dopamine system in your brain resets itself, and you get actually new receptor sites for dopamine will actually start to form. And the reason behind that, that's really cool, is that the body is now like, Hey, it's been 48 hours without food. I need you to be motivated to go find food. So it resets the whole motivation system.

Wow. And so how did you research all of these things and get these benchmarks? Like, Oh, at 24 hours, it's the greatest one for weight loss, or at 48, it's the greatest one, or for your gut. How do you know all that? How did you back this up?

How did I find that? Yeah. So when I first discovered the term autophagy, I was doing so much detox in my clinic. And autophagy basically translates into self-eating. And I was like, wait a second, the body will detox if you take food out of the equation? Could I just have teach my patients how to detox through fasting, and then they don't have to spend all this money on supplements? I mean, I'm not anti-supplement, but I'm pro-patient. I want the patient to get well at the least expense at the best thing we have. Our own internal healing system is the best thing we have. I started understanding autophagy, and I started looking on PubMed, which is the site that all the peer-reviewed journals are. I went through a period, about 10 years ago, where I literally spent 20 hours a week on PubMed researching fasting. I did that for three years. I was obsessed. Every single study I could ever find. And then I would practice with my patients. I'd be like, Hey, we're going to try a 17 hour. We're going to try a 24. And then I watched it work. And then I practiced with my online community.

I'm like, Hey, everybody, we're going to do what we call Fast Training Week, where I was like, We're just going to play for five days. We're going to try this fast, and I want you all to report back. Then I hired a team of people to listen to everybody and tell me what they reported back. So you're talking like a good three years of massive research, and I boiled it down to these six fasts that work for people.

Based on all the information you You aggregated. That's how you found the fast at 24 hours works for this, the 48 hours works for that? Yes. Today's This episode is Powered by Amp. You know those days when you're just done? I mean, the meetings, the kids, the to-do list, and you still want to move your body, but the gym feels a million miles away? That's exactly why I love my Amp. Amp is a smart, AI-powered strength training device that sits right in your home. It's super sleek, literally looks like you got it at the Apple Store, and it also counts your reps, adjusts your weights for you, and you're always training under the perfect amount of tension. So whether you've got 15 minutes or 45, Amp adapts in real-time to make every workout simple, effective, and completely personal. And the app is super cool, too. It has hundreds of different workouts, strength, Pilates, mobility, recovery, and it's so easy to use. It's literally been a game changer for me. I don't have to plan my workouts or wonder what I'm going to do. I just turn on my Amp and it takes care of the rest.

And as a mom and business owner and a podcaster, that convenience means I stay consistent. And strength training, especially for women, is so key for my hormone balance, longevity, and of course, confidence. So you can see why I'm obsessed. Go to joinamp. Com/jen to learn more. That's joinamp. Com/jen, because strength should fit your life. What about the fat, like Prolon's fast-mimicking diet, which is five days, tons of research backing it, tons of science. You're eating Fasting. Does it work like a water fast? Yeah.

So it depends. So here's the big... We should probably even go back to the biggest myth.

Okay.

That fasting is not a diet. It's not a fad. It's a healing tool. So when you When you pick that length fast, when you're like, What length fast should I do? You need to ask yourself the next question, What am I trying to accomplish? When we look at the fast-mimicking diet, which is what Prolon is, Walter Longo, who was the one that discovered the three-day water fast would reboot the whole immune system, he was like, I don't think people will go off food for three days. So what's the most minimal amount of food I can give somebody to get a similar experience? And what he discovered was the fast-mimicking diet. And it was keep a person under 800 calories, keep their carbohydrate down. And he didn't... I haven't been able to figure out. I tried to reverse engineer Prolon for many years. Really?

Oh, yeah. There's a method to the madness because people love it. I know doctors who put their patients on it quarterly.

I'm not opposed to it.

But you're saying it works.

Yeah, it works. And I've been on a couple of times. I watched my ketones go up. The study he did on the fast mimicking diet is profound. He found if you put people on the fast mimicking diet five days a month for three months, that he started to see type 1 diabetics, he started to see their pancreas, actually, those cells that weren't working to produce insulin, they started regrowing. An injured pancreas started to heal itself on the fast-mimicking diet. Walter and his team get all the credit I get it for that. That is amazing. So I can see why doctors are like, Here you go. Here's a box. Just follow these instructions for a week.

Because I think with lots of people, you want to eliminate the stress or the work behind it. It's easier to say to someone here, Do this, then get them to figure it out on their own. Yeah, for sure. But what I was going to actually ask you then, so if fasting works by eating a little amount of food, Why would anybody take a water fast? Or do a water fast?

Yeah, so here's the thing. When people start fasting, they actually find eating a little bit of food more difficult than the water fast. Really? And there's two reasons for that. In a water fast, what What's going to happen is you're going to metabolically shift over your fat burning system a whole lot quicker. I've watched this on my own continuous glucose monitor and ketone reader. In a water fast, I can go into ketosis within 24 hours and boom. Once you're in ketosis, your body's burning fat, and those ketones go up into the brain. They make you really mentally sharp. They kill hunger, and that happens very quickly in a water fast.

Really?

With Prolon, it took a day or two. For that to happen because you're eating food that's high in carbohydrates. It's pretty high in carbohydrates.

They reformulated. Oh, good. I have one here. I'm going to give it to you. Try it. I was curious to get your opinion on it.

Yeah. Well, I told the CEO, I was like, you need I'm going to get it all organic.

It is all organic.

This call that I had with him was five years ago.

This is great. Tell me what else.

Yeah, I was like, You need to get it all organic. You need to get the plastic out of it. Why are you putting the olives in a plastic container. Now you're adding plastics to it.

They changed that, too. I'll show it to you. Oh, my God. They revamped the whole thing, the soups. You have to see this thing. Oh, amazing. So that's why I keep checking what else.

And then the organic, the plastics, and the sweetness. They had a little cookie in it. Do they still have a cookie in it?

I don't know. I think I got to check it out.

Because if I have a sugar addiction and you give me a little bit of sweetness, the next couple of days are going to be really hard. Yes. So So I was... And then the other thing I asked is, I'm like, why would you eat this all day long? Why wouldn't you have people eat this in one window of time? Tell them to eat it in an eight-hour eating window, not eat all day long. They'll get ketones quicker They'll be less hungry.

This is fascinating.

Yeah, that was the conversation and I had.

That is great. So basically, those are valid points, though. Yeah. You know? Like, very valid points. Yeah. I still find, this is what I find hard, and I know I'm going to... You probably heard this a million times. For me, fasting while you're very active is excruciatingly difficult. So I actually just did the pro-lum for the first It was the first time, and I understand the benefits, but I found that I couldn't exercise as severely, or I shouldn't say severe, as intensely as I normally could because you don't have the energy. So what do you tell people for people who are active? You're active. How do people who are very into fitness and activity, can you prescribe the best type of fasting protocol for those people who are very active? Because I've yet to see it.

It's such a good question, and it's one of the things that turns super fit people away from fasting. So again, let's go back to our tools. These six different length fasts are like, think of them like supplements, or think of them like a workout. Some days you're lifting weights, some days you're doing endurance, some days you're doing balance exercise. So when do you need to pull these tools out? Well, the first thing is anybody doing a 12-hour fast, even the most fit person could do that.

See, that to me, the intermittent Fasting, to me, isn't really even... I don't think of that as a fast. I think of that as just an eating schedule, right? You can do it on that. I'm talking when you're getting into two, three, even a 24-hour fast seems doable.

So I would throw a 24 hour fast for a fit person on a recovery day when they're not working out. Because now you're cleaning up the whole system. And then the next day, don't make it a heavy day. You'll get up, have breakfast, have your protein, carbs, whatever combo works for you. But a 24 hour would be a recovery day. Whereas 12 and 13 hours every single day are pretty easy for most people to do. Think of it as it's a rest. When else are you giving your digestion a rest? If you're eating all day long so you can work out, there needs to be periods where the gut is not bringing in food and trying to assimilate all of that.

Who should not be fasting?

I think that there's a couple of people. I I think people with eating disorders need to actually involve a psychologist or something because it can trigger that. Pregnancy, absolutely not. I met a guy one time that's like, Oh, I put all my... I'm like, Fuck, no.

Yeah, I would imagine that would be terrible. Who would ever do a fast when they're pregnant? You're feeding two people.

No, it's crazy. Believe me, I've had people try. Nursing, you don't want to go over 17 hours because at 17 hours, you're dumping toxins, and those toxins are going to go into your baby. But I still would say, that's not your tool. Eat. You need to eat so you get enough nourishment. People with thyroid problems, they can fast, but what they need to make sure is every day they're getting 1,200 calories into their diet every single day. You need at least 1,200 calories every day to keep the thyroid working right.

So people who have thyroid issues, obviously pregnant people or people who are nursing, people who have eating... To me, there's a few different myths that people who do have eating love this because it's a way for them to restrict calories, right?

Very true.

Which is why it's very scary. Yes, agree. And people use this as a way to figure out ways to cut calories, right? Yes. I'm also concerned that sometimes I'm noticing people who are doing these intermittent fasts because they actually end up getting an eating disorder on them because it's- Like orthorexia.

Yeah.

Because it's like they... Because sometimes the things It's like you become much more cognizant of not eating or when you can eat and when you could eat versus just eating when you're hungry or eating your breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The disordered eating is a big one. I have watched people with massive disordered eating really do well with fasting, but you have to back them in. I worked with a very famous actress who had a very public eating disorder, and she came to me wanting to balance her hormones. And I was like, Oh, God, how are we going to do this? So for the first 90 days, I put a continuous glucose monitor on her, and I said, I just want you to track your food. And I taught her about foods that spike blood sugar. I taught her about combination of foods together. So I taught her a better eating routine and how to stabilize her blood sugar. We did that for 90 days. Then I started to teach her how to push her breakfast back an hour, and we slowly really started to work on that. But we had to stabilize her relationship to food. We did that for about a year, and then she went back into filming the next series of her show. And it was like she got the benefit of fasting without the obsession of control because she could use fasting to make ketones when she was on set and she was focused.

But then when there was a lunch break or a dinner break, she knew the combination of food to put together so that her blood sugar her wouldn't spike so that she wouldn't gain weight. So it was a different type of control.

Right. It's just switching out one type of control for another. That's right. So that's why food in itself, though, it's really scary because alcohol, if you quit, you don't have to ever eat it again. Food, it's like you have to eat eventually, right? You have to eat. You have to eat. Because you brought up something, obviously, in the new book, Age Like A Girl. And also this is what you talk about a lot. And the menopause, perimenopause, Fasting, dieting. The other big myth is that, and I've actually thought I've noticed this myself, that women don't do as well on fasting as men because of the hormones. Would you say to that? Especially in cause, I would imagine, with their hormones everywhere.

Fast Like a Girl was the solution to that in the sense that what I taught the world was there were times during your menstrual cycle you don't fast.

Right.

And those are during ovulation, day 10 of your cycle day 15.

You do not.

You can fast a little bit, like 13, 14 hours, but not more than that. You want to keep it at a low intermittent fast. But the week before your period, you don't fast at all because you need glucose to make progesterone. And progesterone is the hormone that comes in the week before your period. I'm sure you see this in the fitness world. A lot of people lose their cycle. A lot of women lose their cycle when there's not enough calories, when there's not enough glucose, that whole system shuts down. So I say no fasting the week before your period. For the menopausal woman, this one's really interesting because estrogen's decline means you become more insulin resistant. That's messed up. Like, estrogen helped your body use glucose for energy, and now she's gone and your cells, or she's going away, your cells don't know how to keep itself metabolically healthy. So this is why so many women gain weight. Your go-to at that point is fasting. Like with Age Like A Girl, I have doubled down on fasting for menopausal women. It is absolutely the tool, and let me tell you why. When you go, and we can break it out according to somebody's lifestyle, but when you go into a longer fasted state, what happens is your body makes a ketone.

The only way it can make a ketone is by burning fat. So It has to burn fat in order to make the ketone. The ketone goes up into your brain, it turns off hunger, but it also sharpens your mental clarity. It also, by the way, increases a neurotransmitter called GABA that calms you. I can be 48 years old, have major brain fog, have be gaining weight just looking at food. And now all of a sudden, I'm teaching that 48-year-old to go into a 15, 17-hour fast, and they're going to lose weight and increase their mental clarity because they've put this tool into place that's going to give them both weight loss and mental clarity. I'll give you another interesting conversation I had, and I talk about it in the book, Lisa Mosconi. She's the number one female brain researcher right now. I brought her on my podcast and said, Tell me what menopausal women should be eating when they go into menopause because Because the brain isn't as good as using glucose. And she was like, Well, they need to learn how to make ketones. I'm like, Yes, exactly. Interesting. We're not bringing the ketone into the brain picture for menopausal women.

So you got to start fasting when you're in menopause to get that brain energy back online. And the byproduct of that is you burn fat to get the ketone.

See, the thing is, though, do you know who's Stacey Sims is? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you have her here? Of course. I Yes. I asked her all about this, and she disagrees. She says, You should not be fasting. Women should not be fasting.

This is so good.

I brought you up, actually.

I'm curious what she said.

So you got to watch the episode. Yeah, I know.

So let me tell you what... Because I brought Stacey on my podcast.

Yeah, I saw.

Because I was like, If we disagree, let's talk about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What happened?

She's looking at it through the lens of an endurance athlete female. That is her person. It's also probably a lot of people listening to this. So through an endurance athlete's perception, if you're going to go do a heavy workout, you don't want to do it in a fasted state. I would agree with that. This is why I'm saying these longer fasts can go into a place of recovery days or an easier workout day. So we aligned on that.

Like a 24 hour day? Yeah.

Or even 17 hours.

The intermittent fast. Yeah. Okay.

So if you're going to wake up in the morning and go, you're lifting some really heavy weights, you need some protein before that. So you have two options. Maybe You don't eat dinner as late so that you can still fit the 13, 14, 15 hour eating window in there. And then the next morning, you eat protein before you go work out. Now you can do both things.

See, to me, that's not really the complication. It's more about the... Again, it's with the activity and the hormones and the metabolism. Okay.

So the second thing that Stacey says, at least on my podcast, she said that when you first wake up, if you have food, you start the hormonal cycle. That's her big thing. Food is going to help you hit the... Tell the hippocampus, I'm sorry, the hypothalamus, it's time to start making hormones today. Yeah. So okay, I can go with that. So if we go with that theory, what I asked her, did you ask her what she eats before she works out?

Protein.

So not every day. So on my podcast, she told me she does a protein coffee.

Oh, yes, that's exactly what she said. You are right. She puts protein powder in the coffee. I remember that, and then I saw her making it one time. Yeah.

She does a protein coffee, collagen powder, creatine, all of that butter cream. She has It's like a mega dosed coffee before she works out that's packed with protein.

Yes, I remember that.

Okay, this gets really nuanced, but it's really important. It's like dying to share this. So this is the perfect place to do this.

Okay, try it. Go.

Okay, When we go into a fasted state, we do it for a variety of reasons. If you just want to go into ketosis and get ketones, Stacy's protein-rich coffee will work for you. You can have protein, you can stay in ketosis, you're getting ketones, you're burning fat, and you're locked and loaded for your intense workout, plus you've stimulated the hypothalamus to tell it to start to make hormones like cortisol and growth hormone and insulin and all the different... And even estrogen and testosterone. Testosterone is mostly made in the morning.

Okay.

So her coffee works if you're trying to use the tool of ketosis and stay in that.

Okay.

That's beautiful. If you're trying to stimulate autophagy, which is the body detoxing itself now, or you're trying to make stem cells, that protein coffee is not going to work. So we started this off talking about coffee with MCT oil. That's for the faster who's trying to stimulate this healing detox effect, and it works incredible. For the faster who wants to work out really hard, try Stacey's mega-dosed coffee. Phenomenal. And then when you're done working out, you got a mega load on protein. She and I both agree with that. Now, this new book, I'm doubling down on longer fasts for mental clarity. Very different. Stacey's looking at fitness. I'm looking at the 48-year-old woman who's maybe not fit, but she can't even remember anything anymore, and she's having trouble focusing. She needs to get into a deeper, fasted state. That protein coffee is not going to work for her. She needs more ketones. She needs more autophagy. She needs to be able to get her brain back online.

Okay, so that makes sense to me. It sounds to me there's all sorts of different benefits and advantages to fasting. Certain ones, right? Certain ones don't work for certain people's lifestyle. You got it. That's what it is. What I've gleaned from all this so far is that for my lifestyle, because I am very active and I have to be active. I think a lot of people, maybe or not or maybe, who at this stage of life, like 40s, 50s, they're also exercising to build lean muscle, right? Because that's what they have to do. And for mental clarity, for their brain more than their body at this point. So you have to pick a fasting protocol that won't interfere with that. Bingo. Bingo. Let me share my daily routine game changer with you. It's the Momentous 3. I've been using their protein, their creatine, and omega-3 combo for months now, and the results are undeniable. These nutrients are key for long-term health and performance, but hard to get enough of through diet alone. The CriaPure creatine boosts both physical and your mental performance. The grass-fed way tastes great with no weird aftertaste, and their omega-3 is a must for recovery.

Since adding these, my energy, my recovery, and my overall well-being has really improved. So if you want better performance, this is the way to go. Visit live momentus. Com and use my code, Jenn, for 35% off your first subscription. That's live momentus. Com code, Jenn, for 35% off your first subscription. Trust me, you'll be happy you did. So then the other people, like you, you're a good example. So someone like you who's 55, you said, you're a fasting guru. You have all these... You know everything about a fast, fast, fast. How often are you fasting? Are you active? What is your protocol?

So I would say most days I will throw a 15-hour fast in. It's just It's natural for me. I'll have coffee in the morning. I put collagen in, and I'll tell you why- In the coffee? Yeah, I've been doing it lately. And again, it depends what you're trying to do. So I've been doing collagen and creatine in my coffee lately because I'm not looking for detox right now. I'm not looking for autophagy. And I'll tell you why. I just started surfing. So I moved to Santa Cruz. A friend took me out surfing. I fell in love with it. I suck at it. I'm getting a lot better. I can actually catch the wave and stand on it. Good for you.

I love that.

But what I noticed was I would come home from surfing, I was famished. And I also noticed that if I didn't put creatine in collagen in my coffee, I couldn't paddle as well. My strength paddling, which is a big part of surfing, especially when you first learn. So I quickly changed my fasting protocol. And I was like, I'm going to finish dinner at 6: 00 at night. I'm going to protein pack my dinner. Nothing else is going in my mouth. I'm going to get up in the morning. I surf at 7: 30 in the morning. I'm going to do a Stacey, let's just call it Stacey Sims coffee before I go and surf. And then when I come home, I'm going to power up on protein again. Strangely, the beginning of learning the sport, I started carb craving for the first time. All I wanted was carbs. So I would have a huge breakfast at 10: 00 in the morning, something I've never done. When I wasn't surfing and I wasn't trying this new activity, I would have the coffee I told you, black coffee with MCT oil in my first meal would be at two.

But I started surfing, so now I had to adjust my window. I had to make sure I powered up on protein. If I don't power up on protein the night before, then I don't feel like I have as much oomph in the water the next day. If I don't put collagen and creatine in my coffee in the morning, don't have as much oomph. So I re-arranged my fasting behaviors to meet this new sport that I was learning.

Right. So I think this is really important because I think that people beat themselves up. I was. When I first met you, I'm like, I can't do this because of my fitness. But it's because I literally did not have the... I was so hungry, I would get nauseous because especially cardiovascular workouts, I found. If you're a runner, if you're somebody who It was like, endurance stuff, it's so hard to work.

On the endurance ones, for sure.

On the endurance ones. That's what I'm saying. The weight training, resistance training, much better to do it with.

But so then let's use... Again, I want people to see they're all tools. Yeah, exactly. And Stacey and I just laughed. When I brought her on my podcast, I'm like, Do you know why you're here? She's like, Yes. I'm like, Are you tired of everybody tagging each other? So it was really, you can go hear our conversation on my podcast. But today, I'm here, I'm traveling home, I'm not surfing today. And so I'll fast. We're having a team gathering tonight. And so I'll eat at 6: 00, and I stopped eating last night at 6: 00. So Today is a travel day. I'm here with you. I had my coffee this morning without collagen in it, and I'm all fast all day today.

So then how often do you do the longer fast? Like the three-day, four-day, five-day fast?

So for me, and what I recommend for people is once to twice a year. Do a three-day water fast. We do them as a community every January and September. I don't recommend you work out during that time. You're drinking water only. Use it like a spiritual tool, like a cleanse. So just because you're not a fast or because it's not your regular thing, you can still throw that in as a detox. It's the cheapest detox around that's the most effective.

That's the thing, right? It's not like you're telling people to buy some fancy thing. It's just like, just don't eat for three days. Just don't eat.

Our bodies are miraculous, especially the female body. We have decided that we give more power to the supplement, more power to the doctor, more power to the podcast or health influencer than to our own that we carry around.

What's your take on supplements? Do you take any?

I cycle them. So I don't think we should be taking the same supplement a day in and day out. So this is another really important concept because what people do is Let's say I take a probiotic. I'm taking a probiotic. Hopefully you know why. I used to sit with patients all the time, and they would bring bags of supplements.

A hundred %.

And I'd be like, okay, pull them all out and tell me why you're taking them. Nobody could tell me. Literally, people will pull out a supplement. They'd be like, well, my friend said she got good results with this one. They pull another one out. They're like, this one came through Instagram. I thought it looked really good. So we would do away with all supplements. So you take a supplement to make a difference in your body. So if you're taking a probiotic, you are trying to introduce a new strain of bacteria into your gut to make a more diverse microbiome. But if you take that probiotic every single day of the year, at some point, your body becomes deaf to it. It's like, I don't know. Okay, you introduce it in the beginning and you're like, This is great. I've noticed that the bloating has gone down. My bowel movements are back. But after about 90 days, your body has now adapted and you're wasting your money. So my golden rule for me and my patients is every 90 days we switch those supplements. And sometimes you completely get off supplements and use lifestyle, and then you can get back on them.

That's a very good point. So I'm a big believer in cycling, too, because to me, it's a little common sense. Like, your body acclimates to everything you do. That's right. Your weight training, cardio, everything. If you do something for too long, muscle No memory. Not muscle, but it's basically like your body adapts. Yeah. And so that's why you have to constantly change it. Like, even with vitamin D, right? Everyone's like, you must take vitamin D every single day. But once also, if you're not getting your test done, if You might be now way over your vitamin D capacity and not even know. That's right. And not even know.

This just happened to me with vitamin D. Right. Me, too. I was really low in vitamin D, and I started taking it. And then when my blood work came back, I was like, whoa. Way over it. Way high. So then I went off of it, and then I was like, okay, let me see if I can use the sun. Let me see if I... And then I retested, and I'm like, no, it's too low now. Okay, I got to go back on.

Well, this is the problem, right? People are not... They take it one test, and then they get supplemented, and And that's their thing for a year, two, three, five? That's right. Five years. So when you say cycle, so you're saying you prefer, your whole methodology is 90 days, three months on. How much off? A week, two weeks off?

It depends. But if you're in just prevention, I would say anywhere from two to four weeks.

Two to four weeks. Yeah. And then you can either- You go back on. And you can recalibrate. I would think you should get another blood test.

It depends what you're testing for. But if you went on a supplement, you noticed a difference, and then you stopped noticing a difference. Get off of it for a couple of weeks and see if you're fine. Maybe you're fine. Maybe you don't need to go back on it. But let's say all of a sudden you're like, Oh, shoot. I noticed that I'm constipated because my probiotic was helping me. Go back on it and see if you need it. We got to get off of it. It's like fasting. This is why I like fasting. Get off of food for a moment. Let your body heal itself. Then go back on to food. You're going to see what foods work, what foods don't work. We need breaks, even like exercise. We need breaks from things.

Everything. I mean, even like, this is for friends. A lot of my friends actually laugh at me because I eat the same things over and over and over again. I think a lot of people who are in the fitness space do that, right? Yeah, you find your things. And it's actually a problem because I think I was going to say to you, I think that, and I've seen you talk about this and write about this, that we should be eating for our microbes and not for our cravings. I understand that. I want you to talk about that. But what about for us, other people who are eating out of habitual? It's habitual for me now to every morning have my eggs. Every afternoon, I have this thing. I'm so structured. I think what's happened, and maybe you can agree or tell me if this is actually just in my head, your body can start becoming allergic to these things because you're eating them too often.

So much, yes. Very true. The way we look at food selection should be through the microbiome. So So the microbe, when you're eating, you're not fueling, per se, your human cells. You're actually fueling your microbes. So when you eat those eggs, what happens is the microbes go in and break it down into different nutrients. So choline is a great nutrient that's great for the brain from eggs. It is your microbes that break that food down and make them readily accessible for your human cells. So The microbes are like the broker. They're like the one that you bring it in and then they decide what it needs to, what it should change into so it can fuel your body. So these microbes are also fueling your cravings. They're the ones that are telling you more chocolate, more carbs, more sugar. So if you eat the same food over and over and over again, we have trillions of bacteria in our gut. They all need different foods. They want diversity of foods. If you're eating the same thing over and over again, you're starving out some of those microbes. They're like, I don't get any food. And then you're strengthening other ones.

And it's what we call a monoculture, where all of a sudden dominant microbes are running your system. And those microbes may keep fueling cravings. Those microbes actually fuel your brain. They tell your liver to make ketones. The name of the game is diversity. You want to open up your eating eating style and eat as many different types of food as possible. So you're getting a very diverse set of microbes in your gut.

What would be some signs that we're not eating enough variety?

Well, digestive changes would Or like, bloating. Bloating, constipation, diarrhea. Constipation is probably the biggest one that I see. But you can even go into depression, anxiety. Really? Yeah. Those microbes make serotonin. And so maybe you're... Let's use your diet as an example. Maybe your diet is working for weight loss, energy, fitness. But if you're doing the same foods, you're not giving the microbes that make serotonin. So all of a sudden, depression could kick in or anxiety could kick in.

That's a great point because we get so myopic in what we're used to, right? We do the same thing, especially in this space. I think we're We're in a culture of high performers, high performance, go, go, go, go, fruits and vegetables.

I'm not talking- That's true, I guess. Yeah, it's not complicated. I'm not saying start eating like going into bread because I know for some people that can be a slippery slope. What I'm saying is stop eating the same stuff over and over again because this monoculture is going to have over the long haul is going to have a really gnarly impact on both your physical and mental health.

What's your take on all the weight loss drugs now? Like all the Ozempix and Mounjaros. Every day it's working on two strands. Glp-1, the Ozempix was on one strand. Now the other ones are working on two different receptors and three receptors. What is your whole take?

Okay, so thank you for asking this. The first, I would say, is What part of your body makes the GLP-1 hormone? Do you know?

The gut? Yes. Okay.

So the microbes. The microbes, this is a perfect example. It's a great segue question. I was going to say it was a great segue. That was perfect. Is the microbes make GLP-1 hormone. So if all of a sudden you are deficient in GLP-1 hormone, then we go back to, can we feed the microbes that make GLP-1 hormone? And there are some things that we know, like Yerba Matta. Yerba Matta tea actually feeds the microbes that make GLP-1 hormone and can actually start to kill hunger. We see it in the fasting world all the time. Yerba Matta tea is amazing. It is a nutrient that feeds the microbes that make that hormone. So powerful. That's incredible.

Does anyone know that? Yeah, it came out.

When the GLP-1 came out, you know who brought it to everybody's attention? Who? The glucose goddess.

Do you Have you ever heard? Yeah, of course I do. She was supposed to be on here. I don't know what happened, actually. She talked about the... So I have some outside, that Yerba Mate. So that would actually help? Yeah.

So that starts to feed those microbes. And then what happens is those microbes start making GLP-1 hormone. So the other thing that feeds those microbes? Fiber. So are you having enough fibery foods like leafy green vegetables? You know what kills those microbes? Fat, bad fat. Canola oil, cotton seed oil, corn oil, all the toxic fat. So now let's put Ozempic in perspective. How did the world get obese? It's toxic food with toxic oils. So now all of a sudden, it's not calorie in and calorie out game anymore. Obesity is coming from the ultra-processed foods that are killing the microbes. The fat is killing the microbes that are making GLP-1 So how convenient the big pharma came up with a pharmaceutical that is going to bring that hormone back. I'm not saying we don't do it. I'm just saying that it's not root cause.

Do you know what's funny that you said that? I was thinking something interesting when you were talking. Don't you find it interesting? I was thinking the reverse, that now, I don't know about you, you live around. I live in LA, and I got to be honest with you, I don't see any fat people here anymore. It's actually creepy. Yeah.

Because that's really true.

It's like everybody is on a GLP-1 of some form, to the point where that just tells me, though, is it maybe... Maybe it is calorie in, calorie out, because it's basically stopping people from eating. The people are not hungry. Everyone's emaciated. You know what they're doing? What? A fasting lifestyle. Well, yes. They're fasting. That's what they're doing.

So I've sat with so many friends who went on it, people that went on it. I'm like, Tell me what you're doing. And they're I'm not hungry. I'm like, Yeah, that's what happens when I start fasting. When you start learning and doing daily fast, you're not hungry anymore. They're like, My brain is clear. Oh, yeah, that's what happens when I start fasting. So to me, yes, it saves lives. And there's so many interesting things that we're learning about GLP-1 hormone. And if you can afford it, fine. It's expensive. It's very expensive.

That's why it's funny. La people have a lot of money here. That's right. But I got to tell you something. It is It's absurd to me how you walk around in this city, nobody is fattened. No one's overweight. People that I've known 100 years that always had a little bit of more meat on their bones, skinny as could be. Mike, what is the I think that's actually dangerous. And what I actually have heard recently, tell me if you've heard this, if you've noticed this, that some people who've been on it now because it's been very popular for what? Like three years, maybe?

Two or three years? Yeah.

There's been a little bit of the pendulum has now swung slightly the other way because people say that if you're on it for too long, again, your body's acclimating. Yeah.

You bring up a really good point because now you're telling your microbes, Hey, I got enough GLP-1. You don't need to make them for me anymore.

That's my point. It's not working as well. It's not as effective anymore. At the beginning, what do they do? They dose you. So you keep on increasing your dose gradually. But then what happens? You eventually get to that place where it's like your body is now acclimated to it. People are getting hungry again. And so they're eating again. They haven't changed their lifestyle habits. Right.

They didn't get to the root cause of why they got overweight in the first place.

Exactly.

And people say, Oh, it's genetics. Or no, it's not. There was a destruction of these microbes. The first question to ask yourself is, you've been doing ultra-processed foods. Are you doing the wrong oils? Get off those oils. Increase your diversity of vegetables and fruits and feed those microbes. Go into the Yerba Mata. I even saw a study that showed the order in which you eat food can affect the microbes that make GLP-1.

Yes, I heard that, too. I heard that... Have you heard this? You eat protein first before you eat anything, then you eat your fruit, then you eat your vegetable? Yeah. Is that true? Protein first, fiber second, and then carbohydrates.

So if you're going to do pasta or bread, that should be the last thing you eat. Right. Even a sweet potato, which I love dearly. Me, too. You would eat it last. You want to eat the night. And I do this. I usually do... We do grass-fed steak almost every other night. I love that. Yeah. I'll do a steak, then I'll have my salad, and then I'll have my sweet potato with grass-fed butter on it. That's a pretty classic order. I would eat something. Yeah.

That sounds very similar to me. So have you noticed with your... Are your patients on a lot? I'm sure most of them or some of them are on. Yeah, for sure. Even if they're lying to you, if they're saying they're not, right?

Yeah. I mean, for sure. We've had a lot liars that we just have. I'm always like, Hey, no judgment. I'm not judging anybody. I just think the name of the health game is never to be addicted to a medication that you have to be on for the rest of your life. Like blood pressure medication. Yeah. Okay. Your doctor says be on it for the rest of your life. But do you know there's a lot of lifestyle tools you can use to not be on that medication?

Yeah, exactly. People want, though, the quick fix. It's like we were talking earlier. They don't want to think about how they can do it on themselves. Themselves. If you just hand them something and say, follow this, people, that's what they prefer. That's why why do you think online courses and coaches are at an all time high? Because people just want you to give them a module Even though most of this stuff is like they can do on their own, you can write on your piece of paper and save yourself thousands of dollars, people rather pay to get information that they already know because they think it's easy. Psychologically, it just takes the pressure off of them. Yeah. And I understand that.

And if that's your path and you're not having any side effects, I'm personally somebody who's a little nervous about a drug that hasn't been studied for decades upon decades. Let's talk about another weight loss trend that was so trendy for a long time, which was- Fin-fin? No, the laparoscopic surgery where they tie the stomach.

Oh, of course. You mean when the stomach- Was it lap... What was There's a few of them where they- Where they tied up the stomach so you couldn't eat. You couldn't eat because then your stomach was... They shrunk your stomach with surgery.

What was it called? I don't know why I can't remember it all of a sudden. Anyways, It was lap band. It was called a lap band surgery. I totally remember this.

It was very popular.

So for years.

And then, by the way, you know what happened? People started to gain their weight back. They ate through it.

Yeah. And they had all kinds of other health problems.

Oh, yeah. What other ones did they have?

So there was definitely the gut dysbiosis was an issue. So depression and all of that showed up. Diabetes. They all started getting weird forms of hemoglobin A1c, which is a marker for diabetes, started elevating. I think because the stomach didn't have enough time to break down the glucose molecules. So it was spiking their glucose and making them prediabetic. Oh, wow. Because you needed that time in the stomach to actually get all the juices in there to break all the food down. So there ended up being a consequence.

There's always a consequence. That's the thing. That's right. So that's interesting. I bet you. I mean, listen, I have a feeling that we're going to see even more of the pendulum. You're going to see people actually gain a lot of weight, like actually go to the other side, because you can only take this stuff for so long, right? And then you're going to hit a ceiling. Yeah.

Let's use another trend that people got really into, especially here in LA. All the Botox and fillers.

Oh, yes.

And then we realized, oh, God, over time, you're actually going to have a boomerang effect. Oh, it's so true. And all of a sudden now you can't even hold a tight skin because, I mean, who was it? Courtney Cox became the poster child.

She did? I didn't see this. Tell me.

She became the poster child of too much plastic surgery, and her face started drooping, and it was mostly around fillers. And so they put all the fillers in her, and then they put Botox in her, and then all of a sudden, And her face started doing weird things because the muscles had been frozen. And so the long term effect of that was that she wasn't able to do both of those at the same time. But now what does she do? This was like three years ago. She came out public and she's like, I wish I hadn't done so much. It was like the cost of beauty on the other side.

Of course. Meg Ryan, I thought that was, too.

I think there were a couple of- It wasn't.

Because these are all things... Everyone goes extreme, right? That's right. It's It's never just a little. It's always going to be a little. It's more is more, right? That's the problem. I want to take a quick break from this episode to thank our sponsor, Therisage. Their Tri-Light Panel has become my favorite biohacking thing for healing my body. It's a portable red light panel that I simply cannot live without. I literally bring it with me everywhere I go, and I personally use their red light therapy to help reduce inflammations in places in my body where, honestly, I have pain. You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle. Red light therapy is my go-to. Plus, it also has amazing anti-aging benefits, including reducing signs of fine lines and wrinkles on your face, which I also use it for. I personally use their Asage Tri-Light everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's It's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective. Head over to therasage. Com right now and use code B BOLD for 15% off. This code will work site-wide. Again, head over to therasage, T-H-H-E-R-A-S-A-G-E. Com, and use code B BOLD for 15% off any of their products.

Okay, I got other questions for you. Okay, women and fertility and fasting.

Oh, it's so good.

It is?

It's so good. Okay, here's the story. When I was first trying to decide this fasting cycle. So I had studied fasting, like I told you, 20 hours a week, diving into the research. I knew it worked, and I started sharing it on my YouTube channel. But the women on the YouTube were giving me comments like, My hair is falling out. I'm losing my cycle. I can't get pregnant. All these little weird things. So I took what I knew in fasting, and I literally whiteboarded it in my office. I put down everything I knew about estrogen, everything I knew about progesterone and testosterone. I looked at it and I was like, Oh, wait. Estrogen actually wants us, our glucose to be low. Estrogen once, you got to be Insulin sensitive. So the first thing on fertility that anybody struggling with fertility needs to know is if your hemoglobin A1c is high, if it's 5. 5 or higher, you got to clean your metabolic system up because you won't make enough estrogen to be able to release an egg. So you need glucose to be low, insulin to be low to make estrogen. But the crazy thing is you need glucose to be high to make progesterone, which is why extreme athletes, extreme fosters, extreme dieters can't get pregnant because most of the time their blood sugar gets so low for too long, there's not enough glucose in the system to be able to make progesterone.

Okay, same woman, totally different, totally opposing theories. So what I did is I was like, what if we took a woman that was struggling to get pregnant? We put her into more fasting at the front half of her cycle, and then the back half of her cycle, we didn't have her fast at all. And we actually had her eat healthy carbs like fruits, vegetables, sweet potatoes, potatoes. Would that work? So I started with a member on my team who had a high BMI, so she was overweight. She had been trying to get pregnant for over a year, and her doctor told her it was because she was overweight, she was never going to get pregnant. So I said, front half of your cycle, I want you to fast and go keto. Back half of your cycle, I want you to eat carbs and not fast. Give me 90 days. Within 30 days, she got pregnant. Had been trying for a year. So then I was like, Okay, let's try this again. So I tried it with four other patients at that point Every single one of them got pregnant within 30 days. Same thing they'd been trying for a while.

So when Fast Like A Girl came out, I was like, wait a second. What is it going to happen if the whole world drives this story after story of women becoming and getting pregnant, doing exactly what I just told you? I even put an infertility protocol in Fast Like A Girl, where I'm like, this is what I did. And over and over again, women are getting pregnant. So if the woman is the challenge, if the man's the challenge, it's not going to help. But it's fasting, low carb, front half of your cycle, more carbs, healthy carbs, no fasting, back half. And now you're giving both hormones what they need.

Wow. That's amazing. It was really cool. Do people know about infertility, fertility, and fasting? Yeah, they know now. I just think there's so many myths around fasting, right? I think the women parts, the hormone part. Do you believe in HRT then?

I do. But again, we're back to the same conversation as Ozempic and everything else.

Yeah. Okay. No, that's true.

Hormone replacement. There are plenty of women who have made it through menopause and done incredibly well without hormone replacement therapy. There's also plenty of women who haven't weathered very well through menopause without not using hormone replacement. The challenge I have with hormone replacement therapy, and this is so huge, and I want people to understand this, is just because you put the hormone into your body doesn't mean your body knows what to do with it. It is an exogenous outside source. So you need to make sure the body is ready to receive this hormone. Okay, what's the number one thing you need to make sure that a body can receive a hormone? You got to be metabolically healthy. If you are not metabolically healthy, you put that hormone into your body and we don't know what it's going to do with it. Okay, second thing. On every cell lives receptor sites. Receptor sites are like gateways that allow hormones to get in there. There are toxins that block these receptor sites and make it so that glucose can't get into the cell, insulin can't get into the cell, hormones can't get into the cell. So what's your toxic load?

Bring your toxic load down.

That's a great point.

So there's so much lifestyle that we're leaving out of the hormone replacement therapy conversation.

So people would always say, they'll counter that by saying, Oh, no, because the hormones are bioidentical.

They're bioidentical. But if you use them bioidentical, a lot But a lot of the hormones that are being used right now that we're talking about that women are jumping on are not bioidentical.

They're not?

Oh, yeah. The hormone conversation has been, Everybody get on HRT. We have lost We have lost the nuance. We have lost that there are bioidentical hormones and there are synthetic hormones. For sure, you need to get on bioidentical hormones. How do you know you're on bioidentical hormones? Because you have to go to a compounding to get them. A very different pharmacy than your CVS or your Walgreens.

Right. But doesn't a doctor normally have to prescribe them anyway? Of course. But with a doctor prescribe... Who would prescribe a synthetic one? What doctor?

There's a thousand of them. There's millions of them out there right now.

That's the first thing. So bioidentical for sure. For sure. But are you saying if someone is on bioidentical, can your body still reject it based on the toxic load?

It's all about your cells' ability to receive.

So how would you know? What are some signs that maybe your body cannot receive? Great question. Yeah, receive them.

First thing, do you gain weight when you go on them?

That was my question to you. I bet you. I mean, I'm scared of these things, to be honest with you myself. Yeah, me too. Because I also know I've had every single menopause expert on the planet on this podcast. I've spoken to everybody, and they all say, Oh, no, no. They give me a million factoids on why I shouldn't be scared. But I still in my head, believe that it's cancer-causing, because whenever Whenever you're putting something in your body hormonally, I just think you never know. Yeah.

I get nervous. Your hunch is strong, and I think we should all still be asking that question. I'm scared. I've been asking the question of everybody's walking around going, We got the study wrong. Okay, can we just talk about that for a moment? Isn't the job of the researchers and the team of researchers to interpret the data correctly? How How the hell did the data get misinterpreted that dramatically?

For that many years?

For that many years.

It doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't compute. The math is not mathing in my head because I I don't understand. To me, if someone wants to be on HRT because, yes, if you're on, it can maybe get you more lean muscle mass, all those, maybe more, I don't know, more of the vanity reasons. That's one thing. But I would be scared based on for just doing something for vanity on the other end. I'd rather be 5 pounds heavier or 10 pounds heavier, but be healthier. Be alive. Be alive. Yes. Exactly. Yeah, I agree.

So we have to question this like, Oh, they got the study wrong. Okay, well, maybe we should all individually go read the study. Where is the study?

I'd like to see the study.

Exactly. So there's that. Then the other thing that we have to look at is lifestyle. When did we throw lifestyle out the window? I just had a major hormone expert on my podcast, and I was like, okay, so if I'm going to increase testosterone, which she was a big fan of, I'm like, tell me what else I should do in my lifestyle.

And her point, and it's a valid point, her point was, if I put somebody on testosterone, now that person is motivated to do their lifestyle. And I was like, okay, that's legit.

Why don't we do them both at the same time?

Right. And also, I was also told, so this is the problem. One person will say that, that they put their patient on testosterone. Other respected hormone doctors would say, actually, you can't just be putting your patient on one hormone. If you're putting them on one, you got to put them on the other three as well. Bingo. You can't just do one. Bingo. Yeah. Because then you'll be... You know what I mean? Yeah.

And the other thing, and this one is the craziest, is you know what's the worst for menopause? It doesn't matter what therapy you're on, is stress.

Stress.

You can't rub enough estrogen onto a woman to undo a stress life Lifestyle.

Listen, you're preaching to the converted. I am so confused by... I don't know if, again, this is like too much information overload, where now there's so much information out there. Menopause has become like the wild, wild I'm on this now on social media. Yes. Thank you. Everybody's an expert. There's a bazillion contrary opinions everywhere. So I just choose to do nothing because I'm scared. Yeah. That's how I...

So I always go to my lifestyle first. Right.

That's exactly what I do. I'm going to work out. I'll do weights because I know weights can't kill me. Everyone's on a bazillion peptides, right?

Oh, I like peptides. Peptides are fun. But they're also a question to ask.

I don't know what to go on. What are you taking? Are you taking?

Okay, well, let's go into the peptide conversation a moment.

Oh, the toxic overload. Yeah.

One thing I want to talk... No, one thing I just want to finish up on the HRT is that what women... I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt. You are not supposed to have the same estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone level at 50 as you did at 30. That's important. The natural state of the human body is for that level to go down. This is the whole premise of age Like a girl.

Yeah, this is a good point.

Because if it goes down, what Lisa Mosconi taught us is your brain rewires itself, and you actually the loss of estrogen signals the brain to change, and you actually build a stronger brain long term. And by stronger, I mean your brain becomes more mentally clear. It becomes more unilateral, meaning it can use the right side of the brain. You can totally focus in on the creative side of your brain, or you can move over and totally focus in on your logical side of your brain. It is a pruning process that's preparing you for leadership, which is what the evolutionary reason for menopause is that we're meant to be leaders. We need estrogen to go down in order to change our brain for the better so that we are stronger, more independent, more focused at 60, 70, and 80.

Really?

It's Lisa Mosconi's work, and I amplified it in Age Like A Girl.

That's a really good point. So what happens into your brain if you're a 50-year-old woman taking these hormones to be more like a 35-year-old?

You need to make sure you're not taking such a high dose. I'll use myself as an example. I do bioidenticals at the lowest dose possible, and I always square it with my lifestyle. If my brain isn't working right, I don't think, Oh, let me lather more estrogen on. I'm like, Okay, have I been drinking alcohol? Has my stress level has been high? Have I been eating right? Have I been fasting? Have I been giving enough ketones? Am I sleeping? I go down the list of things, and this is what I put in Age Like A Girl. My first thought is, what control do I have? Not what do I need to lather on myself more?

Right. That's a good point. Do you think that creatine has helped your brain faust? Oh, creatine is amazing. Because you said you put in your coffee and you do it before surfing.

So creatine, estrogen, Criotine stimulated creatine. So when you were cycling and creatine was high, when estrogen was high, your body naturally made creatine. When you are not... When estrogen goes down, you need to supplement with creatine. I'm a fan of that.

Are you taking five milligrams or 10?

I believe in the mega dose of, and it's gone from 12 grams. It used to be the mega dose. And then recently, a new study came out that said 20 grams.

I saw that, too.

So two weeks, let's just say two weeks of 20 grams to get that mega dose. Dose. And then you need to go down to five grams as a daily dose. And then after 90 days, get off of it for two weeks and start over again.

Right. Because creatine is a supplement like everything else. That's right. That's a good point. Okay, so now tell me, because I cut you off, because I got excited about the toxic load? How do you know when you have a toxic load that you won't be able to even intake these things?

Yeah, well, let's use thyroid hormones. Women have been taking exogenous thyroid hormones for years and not feeling any better. So when we This was a whole premise of my practice is I would take these women who had really crazy thyroid symptoms and were on thyroid hormones, but they weren't getting better, and we would detox them, and all of a sudden they got better. If you're taking HRT and you're not seeing an improvement, you might have a high toxic load. And toxins become very, very important in the menopause process. I have a whole chapter on it in the book because we can't be lathering. This is why we have to look at our toxic We have to look at plastics and heavy metals and endocrine disruptors like pesticides and beauty products. All of this is changing this internal environment. And if we're lathering ourselves with more hormones, more hormones doesn't mean feeling better. Cells being able to receive those hormones and low inflammation, no toxins in the receptor sites. We want a cell that is not packed with glucose molecules because you've been eating so much sugar. You've got to get your cellular health nailed in order for those hormones to work, those exogenous hormones to work.

For example, if someone has a high... I got my blood test back and I had a high arsenic, very high arsenic. Where is it coming from?

Yeah. Water, probably. Water?

Soils.

Yeah. Arseneck comes from water. I know.

That's why I thought because of the fires that it was really bad.

Yeah. We had a lot of discussion. You probably got it from the fires, too.

Probably for sure, right?

I I know a lot of people in the biohacking space that started testing their blood after the fires here in LA to see. They were like, one woman in particular told me her bloodwork was so crazy that she moved out of LA.

A lot of people. I mean, the The last person here is to shut the lights because between COVID and the fires, nobody's here anymore. Really? Most of my friends are like, everyone's living in Florida or Austin. I mean, there's nobody here.

It's crazy. That's crazy. I know. I I was pushed out of LA because I was in the Palestine.

Well, you were in the Palestine. That makes sense. But it's crazy. Okay, I have one more question, then I can let you go because I know you have a heart out here. What was the question I was going to ask? I asked you about the toxic load. Peptides. Peptides, that was it. I wanted to ask for peptides. Okay.

Peptides are interesting. I do want to bring those up because what a peptide is, it's an amino acid sequence. So in your younger body, your body would eat food like meat. Amino acids come from meat, by the way, most of them. And you would get enough amino acids to make a sequence of amino acids that your body would put together, and then it would make a peptide. Peptide is this thing that initiates a biological process. Glp-1, trizepatide. Let's use trizepatide. Trizepatide is the peptide that helps you make GLP-1 hormone. But prior to that, it was a sequence of amino acids. As you get older and your diet becomes more monofocused, you're not getting this diverse diet or you're vegan, you're not eating enough animal meat, you're not getting enough amino acids. If you're not getting enough amino acids, then you're not making these peptides. If you're not making these peptides, then there are certain biological processes that aren't going to work in your body. So peptides, to me, are phenomenal. There's not a side effect to them. But all All you're doing is you're reinstating a natural process that the body can do if you eat the right food.

But I personally have used... My favorite one is a peptide right now called cerebolysin, and it helps your body make BD&F. And BDNF is- Protein, yeah. Yeah. So when I was writing this book, I was injecting cerebellicin, and the next thing I know, I was focused for eight hours writing the book. My focus was so on just through the roof.

Really? It sounds like an Adderall.

I have never been on Adderall, but it felt like- I did it for 25 years ago for a week, and I was so focused.

It was crazy. But you're telling me, as I I don't know how people can stay on that thing longer than a week, but that's besides the point. So you're telling me, what's it called? Cerebral lysin. I've never heard of that one.

Yeah, it's a fun peptide. But the thing is, is that- Do you have energy on it? Oh, yeah. But then I couldn't sleep that night because my brain was just like,. I was like, Stop talking to me.

Really?

So it had a downside.

How long were you on that one for?

Well, I continue to use it if I need it for a brain day, but I know my sleep is going to be compromised. So I just use it as needed. I love that. Another peptide that you might love in the fitness industry is BPC-157. I know about that.

Everybody loves that one. Everyone loves that one. So that's a joint one. It's for inflammation. People love that one.

Surgery, I've seen it help people. My husband had a hip replacement, and so we ended up doing that beforehand and after. And after. He recovered so well.

People love that one.

Yeah. Another one that's Really cool that I'm experimenting with is GHK, that one, dashcu, or skin.

I have heard of it. I haven't used it, but I'm curious about it. I've heard a lot about that. Yeah.

So they're fun. I don't think... I'm trying to bring You should reach out to him, too. I'm trying to bring the father of peptides onto my podcast. What's his name?

Dr..

Seeds.

Was he at that thing that I saw you? I'll ask you off this thing. What's his first name?

I think it's William, but he's like he wrote the peptide Bible.

Okay. I'm going to find it. I want to get that guy on.

Yeah. We're trying to get him on, too, right now. And he'll come on because he asked me what I wanted to talk about. And I was like, I want to talk about peptides and menopause. You should bring him on to I talk about peptides and fitness.

I do. For sure. I'm going to remind myself after. Okay, so is there anything else I can... Oh, I just want to ask a quick question that I saw before and I was curious, and I wanted my audience to know about apple cider vinegar and fasting. Oh, my God. Everybody loves apple cider. Tell me about that.

So apple cider vinegar stabilizes blood sugar.

Right. Can I just take it on my own without fasting? Yeah. Does it work?

Yeah. The research is like, some of the videos on my YouTube that have done the best are apple cider vinegar. And because it stabilizes blood sugar. So you just do a spoon in water before you eat a meal or put it on your salad dressing, or you have it in your fasting window, and it will stabilize your blood sugar so that you're not hungry and you don't end up with this huge insulin response. It's amazing.

Okay, so just one teaspoon a day before a meal.

Before a meal is the best. You can do it after a high carbohydrate meal. It'll bring that blood sugar down if you want it. I don't love the taste of it. That's terrible. So That's why I don't want it after a big meal. I can't imagine stomaking that. But before, sometimes I'll put it in water and drink it throughout the day to keep my blood sugar stable. But yeah, fosters use it all the time to get over that hunger, to make sure that they don't get to their blood sugar doesn't get too low. Some of the prediabetics that we have put into fasted states, their blood sugar is too high, and so it won't drop down. And so we have them use it then to try to get it a little bit lower. I've done a I have a ton of videos on it.

Okay, I'm going to look. People ask me about that. I'm like, I'll ask her. By the way, I got so excited for you. We didn't do our little shots, but we do these little magic. Have you tried this before? No.

Tell me what it is. I can't read it without my glasses.

I know. I was going to say I have my glasses here, but I know what it is already. But these are magic minds. It's like a performance health shot. I love it. And we do it all the time before we start the podcast because it's supposed to help the guests be super focused and alert. But two hours later, you should have had this on your Steve Bar, like a diary of your diaries. I needed it, yeah, exactly. But then it actually works for you, right? Because then it skyrocketed your whole business.

Yeah, right. That's right. So whatever I said- Whatever is perfect.

Okay, so let's do this. Cheers. Magic mind. I love this. You've never tried these? No. Okay, you're going to be like, I'm telling you, because every guest who's ever been on here has asked me afterwards if I can send them a bunch. I have to be careful. I have five more podcasts. These are delicious, literally.

Where do I get them?

Erwan.

Okay.

Everywhere. I'm like, Hold on. I want to tell you what's in it because it's really good stuff. Like, ashwagandha, there's turmeric. I should know by now, but my brain... See, if I would have taken this earlier, I would have known. But they're really delicious, actually. Do you like them? Yeah, it's tasty. Not bad, right? Yeah, super tasty. Because people always take this other one that I'm not crazy about. But these are delicious.

Amazing. I'm going to take the bottle with me. You should take it.

Do you want to give you more? Sure. You Can you send me some? Of course. I can send you a book. Oh, by the way, okay. By the way, her book is called, I should just say goodbye, Age Like A Girl. She is fantastic. And also, I love your personality. You're so cute. Thank you. Thank you. Get the book, and thank you for coming on. Yeah.

Thanks for having me. This was so fun. Of course.

I love it. I appreciate it. I appreciate you being here. Bye-bye.