Change Your Brain Every Day - Fasting: How You Can Fast the Right Way, with Dave Asprey
Episode Date: December 29, 2020Recent medical research has shown intermittent fasting to be a highly effective technique to promote overall health. However, fasting can be tricky, and if it’s not done correctly, you may feel like... you’re starving yourself and not getting any benefits. In this episode of the podcast, Tana Amen is joined by “the father of bio-hacking” Dave Asprey for a discussion on how to fast the right way, touching on some of the practical tips from Dave’s new book “Fast This Way”. For more info on Dave Asprey's new book "Fast This Way", visit https://www.amazon.com/Fast-This-Way-Inflammation-High-Performing/dp/0062882864
Transcript
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Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen.
And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior
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To learn more, go to brainmd.com. I'm still here with our friend Dave Asprey. We are talking about his new book, Fast This Way. And one thing I can always count on Dave to do is know what is current
in science. So I'm really excited to hear what's going on. What has he learned and how, I know,
Dave, you said in the last episode, this is not just a book about science. So I want to know what you've put in this book to make it
practical and easy for people. Um, what are the surprising things about fasting that you're going
to teach us? Well, I'm going to teach you three different things you can actually do during a fast
that involve putting calories in the body that allow you to stay in a fasted state
so that you do not experience hunger or a drop in energy. Because it's really easy to be like,
oh, I don't have kids. There's not a pandemic. And I have all the money in the world. So I just
sit here and I wake up every morning and I drink my green tea and I meditate for two hours. Then
my trainer comes over and like, I'd like that life. I don't know. I'm kind of busy. That doesn't
work for me. And when I weighed 300 pounds, it really didn't work for me because I would get hypoglycemic
bitchy, right? And like you're yelling at everyone and you're tired and you can't pay attention.
Say that term again. Hypoglycemic bitchy. That's what I am. Now you just labeled it.
And it's almost, it's unkind to tell someone, oh, you're fat. You just need to exercise more
and eat less. And I did that for years and it's torture and it does not work, which is why I did
the whole Bulletproof diet. And people have lost a million pounds on the Bulletproof diet now
without suffering. And with fasting, you tell someone who's overweight, oh, just don't eat for
a while. And they're like, I think I can do it, but I'm spending all of my time thinking about muffins. In fact, I found a study, Tana, that I published in the book
that shows that 15% or more of the average person's thoughts during the day are about
what's for their next meal. And this is a form of anxiety, right? And if you think about this,
fear gets the most attention. It's like 10 times more, but hunger, famine has killed every species. It's wired into even bacteria get
stressed when they're hungry, like we get stressed. So if that's five times more energy than it really
deserves, no wonder it's hard to fast, right? Your brain's thinking about scary stuff and it's
thinking about food all the time. And you have this much left to think about what you want to do and who you are and how to parent and all the things that we all do.
So I thought, all right, what if instead of forcing our way through fasting, we actually
hacked our way through fasting so that when you want to feel the feelings, feel the hunger and
really push through it, you're doing it in a spiritual context when you've set aside time
and energy to do that. But when you want the metabolic benefits, when you
want to lose weight, you want your brain to work and want the focus of fasting, you can do that
without the pain. And there were three hacks that emerge. But to do all this, even before I published
my first blog posts on fasting 10 years ago and on intermittent fasting and using
bulletproof coffee and all that, I realized that I was afraid of being hungry because we're told
if you don't eat six meals a day, you'll go into starvation mode, which is death, right? And it is
a lie, but we still believe it. And your cells certainly want to eat all the time. They're wired
to do that because they're just dumb little cells. They don't have your brain backing them. So it's like, what did I do? I said, there's that. Oh, and I'm afraid of being alone.
And I hadn't really picked that up until I started doing some personal growth work.
So I hired a shaman to drop me in a cave in the desert for four days with no food and no people.
So I could face my fear of being hungry and I could face my fear of humans. And there was nothing
I could do about it.
And I'm like, if I lose my, you know what, well, then no one's going to see me and I
can yell inside the cave and it'll echo.
But like, I'm just going to have to deal with this because that's what I want to do.
And I tell that story throughout the arc of the book.
So it's a very readable book and it's pretty personal.
I'm like, this is what actually happened.
And this is the dumb fears that ran through my head.
Here's when my amygdala gets activated.
You know, here's, you know, when I got this burst of energy I didn't expect.
And knowing those fasting hacks, though, means you don't have to go through the suffering.
It is unnecessary.
It's mean.
And the people say you can only have water during a fast.
They're doing that because that's what the mice did in studies because mice don't have espresso machines.
They never looked. They never looked for what works best.
They just like, well, we'll give them water and see what happens.
But there's no reason to be, I call them like hair shirt fasters.
You know what a hair shirt is?
No.
So there's these weird sects of monks and they make shirts out of human hair because they're super itchy and scratchy.
And then they like whip themselves on their back because they're such bad people. They self-flagellate and wear hair shirts so they can
suffer more. You don't have to approach fasting that way. And it's not okay to do that. It's
unnecessary. And like, why, why suffer, get the results without suffering and have enough energy
to be you. I just, I fundamentally believe that. And I, that's what's in the book.
Yeah. I actually tend to agree with you. If things
are supposed to be really good for our biology, if they're really good for our physiology and our
psychology and all of these other things, they, they shouldn't be that painful. It shouldn't be
that hard. Um, so when you're talking about fasting, I mean, we know fasting is good for you.
Daniel and I are huge fans of intermittent fasting because your brain cleans itself when you're fasting. The
autophagy for your brain is just, it's really, really good for your brain. But are you talking
about intermittent fasting? Are you talking about long-term fasting? What kind of fasting are you
talking about? I talk about both. And there's a really good argument for not always fasting the
same way every day. And there's an even better argument for not always fasting. And I read about something called the fasting trap, which is suspiciously similar to the keto
trap, which is suspiciously similar to the vegan trap. And here's how these traps work. They're
based on human behavior. And I was a raw vegan for a long time, and it broke me, and I had to
create a bulletproof diet to get better. So it doesn't seem to work for people's brains.
Sorry, you can get away with it when you're really young.
You'll just pay for it when you're old.
And the thing that's happening within our bodies
when we do any of these practices, okay?
Let's say you go vegan.
Well, for about four to six weeks,
you're gonna feel really, really good.
And that's because you're changing the type of fat
in your cell membranes for bad fats. And then your body freaks out and it gives you more energy as
your thyroid goes up. And then you feel great. And by the time six weeks happens, I've lost some
weight. I felt really good. I know the vegan diet works. And then you start feeling like crap,
but it can't be the vegan diet because it works and you're in the habit of it. So you're like,
maybe I should be more vegan. I guess I won't have that honey because it was touched by a bee.
And you become like militant. Meanwhile, your health is declining, right? And
eventually you're like, okay, I'm done. I'm just getting a burger. And then, you know, the lights
come back on and they're like, I'm going to go keto, right? And you become a keto bro. Same thing.
I feel so good on keto. If you have one more gram of carbs, you're a bad person. How dare you touch
the honey, right? And then you're convinced in six weeks, oh my God, keto is the, it's going to be
great. And then if you're a woman, you actually hit the wall before a man and the same wall that
you hit in fasting. You're like, oh wait, I felt really good. It can't be that, you know, I lost
some weight, but now I'm plateaued. It's because I'm having 15 grams of carbs. I'll have only 12.
Right. And you start becoming perfectious and you're stuck. And then your health starts to go
down and your hair starts to fall out and you can't sleep anymore, just like you did when you were a vegan. And
you're like, okay, that's it. I'll just eat some crap for a while. And then you feel better.
And then you say, oh, let me start fasting. And then you do the same thing. If intermittent
fasting is good, I'll go to one meal a day fasting. I'll just not even eat that. And then,
oh, I'll just fast like three days a week. And eventually you hit the fasting wall, which is
because some of it's good doesn't mean more of it's better.
And I've seen this twice now in my life with vegan and keto where people go all in.
And part of the problem here is especially for women, you don't need to fast every morning.
It probably won't work for you, but it might.
And for men, you probably don't need to fast every morning.
It might work for you.
In fact, it probably will work for you, but it might not.
And one of the biggest messages in the book is don't fast the same way every day.
Don't over fast.
And every now and then just have the pancakes for breakfast, but make sure they're gluten
free.
And if you do that, it's going to work really well.
And if you become militant, I'm telling you, step one for men and women is, oh, I don't
sleep very well.
I wonder what just happened.
Huh? It can't be this new fasting thing because it's so good for me. And then for men, they wake
up without a kickstand, right? And women before that, like, weird, my cycle's all messed up.
And then both men were like, oh, weird, my hair is getting thin. I wonder what's going on here.
And it's predictable. And it's like Goldilocks was right. Just right. Not too much,
not too little. That's the goal. And that's what's missing from a lot of the fasting literature.
Just because it's good for you doesn't mean you should stop eating.
I could not agree with you more. You literally described my life for 20 years.
Mine too.
One of those extremes. If something's good, more has to be better. And I'd hit that wall,
and it just never worked. So I couldn't agree with you more. So when you talk about fasting different ways, give us, before we end
this episode, what is a way someone can get started? Should they start with intermittent
fasting? Should they start with a three-day fast? What should they do? You should start with an
intermittent fast and you should start with one of the three fasting hacks that I want to go through
in the next episode, because those are going to make it a very gentle entry into fasting and you won't lose your ability
to function like a lot of people do, especially if they have some weight to lose. Um, so this is
how to gently go in. I love that. That is so perfect. Um, so I, um, can't wait to hear your
hacks. Cause I, I love when you said that mice don't have espresso machines.
So I have a feeling.
There might be some coffee involved.
My whole day is all I can say with that.
So please go to, for everybody listening, go to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com.
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And please take a screenshot, tag both Dave Dave and I and tell us what you've learned
um I'm I'm actually learning a lot I love this I love that you're validating my thoughts on
when I was a vegan my numbers were not good they started out good and they crashed um but I agree
with you I agree that when you do too much of anything and you don't balance it out you're
asking for so I'm looking forward to the next episode and hearing your hacks on fasting.
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