Philip Pape: 0:01

Let's talk about intermittent fasting. You've probably tried restricting your eating window because someone told you it would burn fat, boost your metabolism, clean up your cells through autophagy. But instead of getting these amazing benefits, you're maybe gaining weight during your feeding window. You're feeling tired and cranky. You're wondering if there's something wrong with you, or is there a different way I can do this? Today, we're uncovering 10 myths about intermittent fasting that keep getting repeated by influencers and even some respected experts. You'll learn why many of these claims completely misrepresent the research, and I'll show you what actually drives results, because it's not about when you eat. It's about what you do consistently Now, whether you're fasting right now or thinking about starting. You'll discover why many of these so-called benefits might be holding you back from better results and how to decide if IF actually makes sense for your lifestyle.

Philip Pape: 0:58

Welcome to Wits and Weights, the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique. I'm your host, philip Pape, and today we are examining the truth about intermittent fasting claims that just won't go away Now. I rarely talk about IF on the show, but I have personal experience with it and it is still a hot topic. And let me be clear. This is not about bashing intermittent fasting. Some people genuinely thrive on it and they can, and I'll tell you about my own experience in a bit. But most people don't need it for results and you shouldn't feel pressured to follow arbitrary eating windows if they don't work for you. Now, before we dive in, if you want to take control of your nutrition without restrictive rules around meal timing, download my free Nutrition 101 for Body Composition Guide, where you'll learn how to master macros, calories, workout nutrition and develop a sustainable approach that still, of course, gets you results. Click the link in the show notes or go to witsandweightscom slash free to get your copy of the Body composition nutrition guide.

Philip Pape: 2:06

So, before we get into the myths, let me just quickly share my own experience with intermittent fasting, which was all the rage about 10 years ago, overlapping with CrossFit and paleo and the lean gains protocol, following this very strict, rigid approach, and the idea was a 16 to 8 fasting pattern. So I would have dinner around 5 or 6 pm and then not eat again till let's see let me do the math around 11, something like 10, 11 am. So basically, eight-hour fasting window, 16-hour eight-hour feeding window, 16-hour fasting window. So you would basically not have breakfast and then you would have a late lunch or an early dinner to make it work, and I followed this because I thought it would optimize fat burning. I didn't even worry too much about the longevity stuff, I was just trying to lose weight. I would train fasted and I did this for years and I thought, okay, I'm able to do the things I'm trying to do, so it's working right. But I still wasn't able to control my body composition or my weight. My body effectively got used to it and so I would end up eating more than I intended to in the feeding window. My performance in the gym was inconsistent because I was training fasted, even though I was also using at the time, bcaas branched-chain amino acids and later on EAAs CAAs branched chain amino acids and later on EAAs. My recovery wasn't great. I wasn't seeing better results than in another way of eating, which I only discovered later, once I stopped intermittent fasting.

Philip Pape: 3:34

And really my I guess, number one advice from this whole podcast, before we get into myths, is experimenting with if you're going to do fasting, track what you're doing and track the results and how you feel, and then do it without the fasting and see what changes. That's really the best way to tell what's going to happen. Now you may say, well, I don't really want to do that, because I think intermittent fasting is better for longevity or for burning fat or whatever. That is what we're going to address today. All right, we're going to talk about when it could be helpful, but then all the reasons it's not, so that you don't feel pressured to do it. And I think that's very liberating. It's very liberating because I still hear people who have struggled with, you know, having excess body fat, trying to lose weight, and they're like it's finally working because I started fasting. Well, we're going to get into why that is and the lens on that is you're telling the truth. Obviously, I'm not gaslighting. You are getting some change. You are losing weight, but is it because of the reasons you think? And are you putting something else at risk and preventing results from something else? So we're going to get to that. Let's just jump right in. Enough set up here Myth number one that fasting makes you burn more fat.

Philip Pape: 4:46

Now you can change the wording of this and say fasting makes you lose more weight, more fat. I'm just going to lump it all together, but the fat part, specifically is the claim that fasting puts you into a fat burning mode, making weight loss easier and more efficient. Now, yes, your body does shift to using more fat for fuel when you're not eating, but this misses the point because fat loss itself depends on being in a calorie deficit over time. If you're eating the same number of calories, studies show and physics show no difference in fat loss between intermittent fasting and regular meal patterns period. Any short-term increase in fat burning during the fasting window guess what? It gets canceled out by what happens in your feeding window. So that's myth number one it offers absolutely no benefit. I know this because my very approach with clients, which is focused on a sustainable way of losing fat efficiently and successfully, doesn't include intermittent fasting, and very few of my clients ever need it or want to do it, except for practical purposes and I'll address that a little bit later when I talk about who it might be right for. But it has zero benefit in burning more fat Zero.

Philip Pape: 6:01

Myth number two that fasting boosts your metabolism. Now, there's a kernel of truth here in that short-term fasting can temporarily increase metabolic rate through stress hormones, but long-term shows that extended fasting lowers your metabolism as your body conserves energy, and this is basic evolution. Your body doesn't know when the next meal is coming, so it adapts by becoming more efficient with its energy use. This is the same principle of unpredictability, right. The same reason. I tell people to eat consistently day to day, to sleep consistently day to day, to train consistently, do things in a consistent way, and your body then doesn't try to conserve energy because it doesn't know when this thing is coming next. It doesn't know when you're to conserve energy because it doesn't know when this thing is coming next. It doesn't know when you're getting to sleep, it doesn't know when you're getting food. Now, on the other hand, you might say well, what if I'm intermittent fasting very consistently? In that case, I think it's fine. And again, it doesn't boost your metabolism, it doesn't drop it either. My point is it just doesn't offer any benefit over any other feeding window, right. And the same thing happens when we are on a very low-calorie diet, right. In other words, your body conserves, you have metabolic adaptation, your metabolism drops, and that's why we focus on a more moderate approach to our calorie deficits and we use refeeds and diet breaks when appropriate to make it sustainable so that you can stick with it. So fasting definitely does not boost your metabolism.

Philip Pape: 7:27

We're going to move on to myth number three, which is that fasting improves insulin sensitivity Very important one here. This is now we get into the health claims. Here's the thing about insulin sensitivity it is primarily driven by body composition, activity level and overall diet quality. Body composition, as in more muscle, less fat. Right, we talk about muscle being a sink for glucose. The more muscle you have, the more you train, the more insulin sensitive you are. Your activity level just moving, controlling that blood sugar being active, and then your diet quality itself. Now, while short breaks between meals can help with insulin function in terms of you're reducing the number of spikes of blood sugar which, by the way, are not a big deal if you're active, in fact, we want them when we're lifting weights Studies that compare fasting to regular meal patterns no difference when calories and weight loss are matched in terms of insulin sensitivity. So what does improve insulin sensitivity? I alluded to it is building muscle through resistance training, staying active throughout the day, eating enough protein and maintaining a healthy body fat level. All right.

Philip Pape: 8:38

Myth number four that fasting is better for hormonal health. Oh, this one really irks me because I hear it especially in the over 40 and the peri-post-menopause crowd. Some podcasts, even podcasts that I respect, talk about fasting as being some panacea for women and for hormonal health, and the claim is that the fasting itself optimizes hormones like insulin, growth hormone and cortisol stress hormone, for better fat burning and better retention of muscle. And again, while fasting temporarily affects these hormones, the changes aren't necessarily even beneficial, because fasting can increase your stress hormones. They can disrupt your reproductive hormones, particularly in women. I've had female clients come to me after their cycles became irregular from aggressive fasting. So you really got to watch out. You're not doing more harm than good. The research shows that hormonal health is derived from consistent nutrition, adequate energy, not being underfed. A very key point we have harp on here is not always being dieting, but actually eating enough food, good sleep and stress management rather than manipulating meal timing. So again, with every one of these myths, I want you to be clear that the myth is actually a myth and there actually could be evidence showing the opposite in some cases. But again, I'm not going to go to the extreme on that side either.

Philip Pape: 10:04

Myth number five that fasting induces superior autophagy. So autophagy is the cleaning out of your cells. This claim is fascinating because it is based almost entirely on animal research and also on extreme fasting protocols that last at least 24 or more hours. So autophagy is your body's cellular cleanup process. It does increase when you're fasting, but it also happens during exercise, during sleep and during any form of calorie restriction. And we don't actually know if fasting enhances autophagy more than these other methods in humans. We just don't have evidence that supports that right. If, again, you want to support cellular health, guess what I'm going to say Focus on regular exercise, movement, training, quality sleep, good nutrition, rather than fasting. And, by the way, again, I'm not trying to bash on fasting. Fasting is just a tool. What I'm trying to show is that the claims people make about fasting being superior for these things are what are false giving you more options, which is great.

Philip Pape: 11:10

Myth number six that fasting is the key to longevity. And this one comes from studies where severe calorie restriction extended lifespan in various species. Have you heard about this? Right? You've heard about calorie restriction being somehow helpful for longevity, but the human evidence is much less clear, if existent at all, because any longevity benefits for humans likely come from improved health markers like reduced inflammation, better metabolic health things that you can achieve through lifestyle, through lots of other approaches that have nothing to do with fasting.

Philip Pape: 11:45

I've had people who come to me, actually not because they want to build muscle or lose fat, but because they're concerned with longevity. They're concerned with their high blood pressure or their high resting heart rate or their cholesterol, and they feel like they're compromising their health and they wonder should they be fasting, should they be doing so-called longevity protocols? And typically what's happening is they're either not eating enough they're not eating enough protein, fiber, nutrients, they're not moving enough, they're not training. There's all the lifestyle things they're just not doing. Yet Once we get those in place, we get to a balanced approach to their food, focused on whole foods, regular meals, very flexible approach, having nothing to do with, you know, restricting your feeding windows. Guess what happens? Health markers improve significantly. See it time and again and again it's a very liberating thought that you can do that and you don't need to fast.

Philip Pape: 12:33

Myth number seven is that you can eat whatever you want during the feeding window. Now, maybe not all of you buy into this myth and you understand that eating too much, whenever it is, can be a problem. I get it, but still I think it is a myth that's out there and it's probably the most damaging one, because it leads to overconsumption and poor food choices. Very much like a dreamer bulk right the idea that I'm going to just eat whatever I want, as much as I want to build muscle can lead to overconsumption and poor food choices, and I see it constantly.

Philip Pape: 13:07

People are fasting and initially they have some success because they lose some water weight, they cut their calories, they're not able to eat as much. Then what happens? Their body gets used to it. They start to overeat during their feeding window, and by overeat I simply mean they're consuming more calories than they intend or that they want for whatever their goal is, which usually is maintenance or fat loss, and so they're overeating. And this happened to me back in the day because I was fasting for years to the point where my body is like this is just how it is, so now you could eat more calories during that window, and then you almost feel like entitled to make up for the fasting period.

Philip Pape: 13:41

Or you feel like you're hungry, starving. Even if you get quote unquote used to fasting, you still may have higher hunger than you would have otherwise if you weren't doing it. And no matter what your fasting window is, you still have to consider total calories and food quality. It's still important. No matter what, the amount of calories in a day is still going to matter, and so I see people gaining weight on intermittent fasting. It happens all the time, right, even if they're perfectly adhering to the window, because they're cramming a day's worth of processed foods within eight hours. You know they think anything goes and their body adapts to it All right After the break. We're going to address one of the biggest intermittent fasting myths of all and I'm going to share a bonus myth related to your training performance and building muscle.

Jenny: 14:27

Hi, my name is Jenny and I just wanted to say a big thank you to Philip Pape of Wits and Weights for offering his free 50-minute nutritional assessment. During that time he gave me really good tools on how I can further my health and fitness goals. He asked really great questions and stayed true to his offer of no sales pitch. I have since applied these things and gotten really close to my health goals and my weight goals, and now I'm able to flip over and work on my strength and my muscle conditioning using a lot of the things he offers in his podcasts, and I just am very grateful for his positive inspiration and encouragement for all of our health. Thank you, philip.

Philip Pape: 15:13

Welcome back as we reveal the final three intermittent fasting myths that need to die, plus a bonus myth that will unlock even more progress with your body composition and physique. Myth number eight that fasting detoxes your body. Now I wasn't sure if I wanted to clue this in there, but I've actually seen more and more people make this claim and it's kind of related to the autophagy a little bit. It's this whole like cleaning you out thing. Your body's detoxification systems are already quite well-evolved and capable and robust your liver, your kidneys, your lymphatic system. They work continuously. Whether you're fasting or not, they're always working for you. They're amazing. Fasting does not enhance or accelerate this process at all. If you want to support natural detox, stay hydrated, eat plenty of fiber, get adequate protein, maintain a healthy lifestyle. Obviously don't smoke, don't drink to excess, because that'll put a strain on your detoxification system right, and those basic habits are going to do far more for you than any fasting protocol. And I don't know about you. I'd rather be lifting weights and eating what I want when I want, rather than having to fast and still get the result and still get the quote-unquote detox All right.

Philip Pape: 16:31

Myth number nine fasting is better for cognitive function. So some people swear by this. Oh, I fasted and I had this mental clarity. My brain was just firing on all cylinders. I didn't feel sluggish, lethargic, dah, dah, dah dah. You hear all of this and I've done that myself. Okay, I've used to fast once a week for a whole day, so I would go dinner to dinner, right, so a 24 hour period, and I would claim that I just felt so much clearer, so much mental clarity. The research actually shows mixed results and it shows a massive level of individual variation. So if you have what seems like a temporary boost in focus, it's probably because of your stress hormones, not an inherent benefit of fasting. A lot of people actually experience brain fog and or concentration when they're fasting, especially when they're having to then do demanding tasks, not just training fasted, but work. You work If you have a day job and you're now trying to work while you're hungry. And so, anecdotally, some people might have cognitive benefit, but most folks perform better cognitively with regular meals and stable blood sugar. Again back to the basics.

Philip Pape: 17:39

And then myth number 10, and again, this is maybe the biggest one I'm not going to say the most dangerous, but it's the one that just blanket statement on the internet that fasting can work for everyone, that it's a diet right. It's like here's keto, here's vegetarianism, here's carnivore, here's fasting, and it's going to work. You pick the one you want and it's going to work for everyone. And this myth insidiously ignores the massive individual differences that we all have. The whole reason I created this podcast is the reason I coach people to figure out their own bodies, their own metabolism, their own lifestyle, their own psychology.

Philip Pape: 18:13

It is so different from person to person that if you try to put yourself in a box it can be extremely problematic, especially for women. And again, men, women love you all. But unfortunately women get the brunt of the marketing on this stuff and the claims on this stuff. And women also have the bigger hormonal disruptions in late 30s into 40s and 50s. But fasting is also unsuitable for certain people. If you have a history of disordered eating, if you have very high physical demands, if you have chronic stress, it could make it worse. It just can Be careful. I'm okay if you want to experiment, but measure these things and see if one isn't superior to the other for you, for you.

Philip Pape: 18:55

I've seen far too many clients try to force fasting, and I mean before we work together. They tell me about their stories of fasting because they think that's the only resort they have left. Even maybe it'll be surprising to you is the impact of fasting on your training performance, and I am a proponent now that most people should not be training fasted and again, I use the word most, not every, because, just like all the other claims, or the very last one, that fasting's for everyone, fasted or fed, training may not be everyone. You may be in the very, very, very small percentage of people that, for whatever reason, perform better when you're fasted. It's extremely rare, though, and usually the reason they think they're performing better, faster than not, is because when they're fed, maybe they eat too much too close to their workout and they just don't like the digestive results or the feeling of it, or they feel sluggish, or they're eating the wrong things, or they're not eating carbs but they're only eating protein. There's a lot of reasons that you might think training fed doesn't work for you and we need to talk.

Philip Pape: 20:15

I want you to reach out to me, schedule a rapid nutrition assessment. Let's have a call and talk about your peri-workout nutrition. Peri meaning in and around. What are you eating before and after? When are you eating. What is the composition of macros? What is the food? Is it highly digestible? I will help you figure out if that's the problem, before you say I just need to train fasted and I'm going to start taking EAAs, which are pretty much a waste of money, since you could just eat protein, and because all these other myths are not true about fat burning and everything else autophagy you don't have to worry about those.

Philip Pape: 20:47

It really comes down to how do you get the most out of your workouts. Coming to the gym feeling ready to go energized, you don't feel like you have too much in your stomach. You go ahead and you slam the weights with control, with intensity and with focus, and you're able to get through a 60 or 90-minute training session with your energy intact, having gotten all the reps, and then you recover, and then you're not too sore the next day, and on and on. It all ties together and much of it comes down to not training fasted. And if you go from fasted training to fed training, you might find a step change in your lifting, in the weight, in the volume, in the intensity, in the energy, in the recovery, all of it, and so it's definitely worth trying out if you haven't done it or you've been training fasted for a long time.

Philip Pape: 21:33

And stop making the excuses. But well, I only have a half hour before I get to the gym. Well, guess what? Protein shakes and a banana, my favorite. Okay, half protein shakes and a banana, my favorite. Half an hour is plenty. Or you can guzzle on some highly branched cyclic dextrin just very simple, pure, easily digestible form of carbs, and get the energy in your body and see what it's like.

Philip Pape: 21:53

Stop making the excuses. There are some legitimate things like okay, I have to take thyroid medication and I'm trying to go to my home gym 10 minutes later. But again, even then can we work things out to make it work for you. Or, worst case, have a bigger carb, heavier dinner, not too late, but late enough that it's still in your system when you work out the next day. All right, so yeah, you might burn a little more fat during a fasted workout, but then you're going to burn less fat in the rest of the day and you're probably going to perform worse. Right, that goes back to myth number one. That means less muscle stimulation. Even the lower calorie burn it compromised results. All of it goes down okay, and training fasted will probably increase your muscle breakdown, and that's not what we're trying to do, because the research is clear that having amino acids available through eating protein helps preserve muscle during fat loss. So why are we trying to slow that down? So all of this illustrates the bigger point Don't let artificial rules get in the way of what actually drives results Proper fueling, progressive overload, consistency and all the basic lifestyle habits. All right.

Philip Pape: 22:55

So the key takeaway isn't that intermittent fasting is quote unquote bad. It's that you just do not need it for results. Most of my clients don't use it and those who do typically choose it because listen up it matches their natural hunger patterns or their schedule, purely practical reasons that are individualized to them. It is not for any supposed metabolic benefits whatsoever. Now what does matter? All right. Number one creating a sustainable calorie deficit. If you're trying to lose fat, you probably need to be in a moderate, sustainable calorie deficit through tracking and awareness, eating balanced meals, prioritizing protein and whole foods. Number two timing your meals to support your training performance. So where timing matters is getting it around your workouts, not whether you have fasting and feeding windows. The next one is getting adequate sleep, managing stress and then finally being consistent with the foundational basics before you start to add any complexity like intermittent fasting, which, at some point, if you want to try it out, great, but don't use that as step one.

Philip Pape: 23:58

What is the best approach? The best approach is the one that fits your lifestyle, the one that you can maintain long-term. If that includes some form of IF, then great, and if not, that's perfectly fine too. That is really my message today. All right, so if you want to learn exactly how to set up your nutrition for results without restrictive rules like fasting, download my free Nutrition 101 for Body Composition guide. You'll discover how to master your macros, optimize your workout nutrition and develop sustainable habits. That last, click the link in the show notes or go to witsandweightscom slash free to get your copy today. Until next time, keep using your wits lifting some weights and remember you don't need complicated rules around meal timing to get great results. Focus on the approach you can be consistent with while enjoying your diet. I'll talk to you next time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.