Fasting for weight loss...is it all just hype? Here's the best answer from Beyond Diet.

Isabel: Hey guys Isabel here. And today I have some really awesome information for you.
And I want to introduce you to my trainer John Romaniello.
John Romaniello: Hi guys.
Isabel: So okay, why does Isabel have a trainer if I was a personal trainer for over twelve
years? Well, I mean, I do know a lot about exercise, Im an exercise specialist, but when
I want to refine my workouts, take myself to the next level, John is who I go to, and
currently we are working together, he writes my workouts and Im just learning so, so much
from John.
Now two things that are currently not in Beyond Diet are information about fasting, which
I get a lot of questions about, and information about cheat days. So, I feel like John is
a huge expert in this area, has really taught me a lot, and I want him to share that information
with you today.
So were going to break these videos up into three parts, because Ive got a lot to give
you, and John is going to give you a lot of information. So this is the first of those.
So John, thank you so much for taking the time to do this.
John Romaniello: Its my pleasure. Thank you guys for having me.
Isabel: Yeah, thank you for keeping me in shape. That really helps.
John Romaniello: Its my pleasure.
Isabel: Okay. So John when you first talked to me about fasting, you know, I saw that
word in my email inbox, like well Isabel, what do you think about fasting? Im like no
I dont want to be starving.
John Romaniello: Yeah.
Isabel: Okay. So explain to my readers what you explained to me about fasting and the
approach that you take.
John Romaniello: So, thats the main thing that everybody feels when they see the word
fasting is fasting just means not eating right, so now Im going to be starving. And, you know,
we always tell our clients, dont just starve yourself, thats not a healthy way to lose
weight and its not. Fasting is structured, and thats huge, and there is a lot of different
ways to do it. But I think that instead of just thinking about it as not eating, think
about it as waiting to eat, and that helps a lot.
So Im not going to say that you are never going to be hungry if you are fasting, but
the real great psychological and physiological benefit of any sort of fasting program is
that it teaches you, it helps you understand what hunger really is, what the difference
between head hunger, which we all experience several times a day, and body hunger, which
we probably only experience once or twice a day.
Isabel: Yeah. And thats where he was really getting me to actually listen. Because Im
such a believer of, you know, eating several meals a day. So now my life has changed significantly
with two children. And I cant really be ruled by food as much now as I was before. So, as
John is explaining this to me, Im like, you know what, for someone whose lifestyle does
not allow them to eat so often, this is where I was like okay, Im more open to this.
So in your new program the way you structure the days, its not just like okay, fasting,
starving day, theyre just different days.
John Romaniello: Yeah, theres different days. So one of the main things Ill say is that,
now that I fast regularly, I never eat when Im bored, and this is so huge. I was a heavy
kid growing up, so I got used to eating snacks and eating all the time. And so now, you know,
I understand when Im actually hungry versus when Im just like bored, and so that’s huge.
So I always want to mention that.
But yeah, there is a lot of different types of fasting here. So weve got, we can talk
about cheat days later, but we’ve got a full fasting day after the cheat day, but
most days it is not like you are not eating at all, you are just eating the same number
of calories you would normally eat if you were trying to lose weight, and you would
eat them in a shorter period of time. So instead of eating six meals, may be you are eating
three meals.
Isabel: Yeah.
John Romaniello: And for really busy people like you thats a lot easier, because it now,
you know, its so hard for you prepare a meal for you without doing something for your children.
So for moms out there imagine if you only had to worry about two or three big meals
for you and your kids, now you get to eat with your family.
It’s not like your kids are having breakfast lunch and dinner and then you are trying to
steal 20 or 30 minutes away to cook those separate meals for yourself. Thats one of
the complaints I got from my clients for years and years and years. You know, I have to eat
with my family. Im the cook, Im the mom.
Isabel: Yeah.
John Romaniello: You know, its huge.
Isabel: Well, And so when John was first posting this to me, Im like no, no, no, well, John
I want to keep my metabolism up, you know, thats kind of what Ive, you know, thought
forever, and if I go too long without eating I start freaking out, and Im like I need to
eat something, I should be eating.
John Romaniello: So the frequent feeding model, the six meals a day, it does work, people
have been having great results for many years, myself included, but it isnt necessary. The
metabolic slowdown is a myth. And reason why people believe this is something called TEF
or thermic effect of food. This is the energy that your body expends when you take in food,
the energy needed to breakdown, digest, and utilize those nutrients.
And so thats called the thermic effect of food. It does raise your metabolism. However,
it isnt effected by the frequency of feeding, instead its directly proportional to the total
caloric intake within that timeframe, which means that your metabolism isn’t going to
be any more raised eating six meals then three meals a or even eating 10 meals, versus one
meal.
So ultimately its not going to make a difference metabolically, whether you have 2,000 calories
in doses of 100 calories each, or whether theyre in one big dose of 2,000 calories;
thats the thing. So as long as you are getting the right nutrients and youre eating the right
amount of food and not eating too much or not eating too little, metabolism is going
to fine. And instead again, its not a metabolic difference, its a practical difference, its
a life style difference. So youve got to figure out which one works for you.
Isabel: Right, and this is where I always like to make sure that Im giving my readers
information that they can use. So this is how I want you to see this information is
figure out in your life what would work better, right. So I walked away from this conversation
that John and I originally had, and was like okay, which strategy works better for me,
because as I see it now both of them work, so for your life you feel better eating six
times you are happier that way…
John Romaniello: I do.
Isabel: Eating five times, right, and thats what you should do.
John Romaniello: Yeah.
Isabel: But if your life dictates eating two or three times, then no longer do we have
to feel like thats really, really bad. You can do that as well. So the same healthy food,
you know, the same portions, right. This is not like a free for all eating binge, but
its a relief to know that you can kind of implement it however is best for you. So John
just give us, you know, before we end this part 1, just give us like an example of like
one of modified fasting day.
John Romaniello: Sure. So one of the really popular ones is what called 16/8 fasting and
this is a majority of the program. We have several instances of 16/8 fasting, at least
three days, sometimes four. So all this means is that you’re going to fast for 16 hours
out of that day and you are going to condense all of your eating in to that eight hour window.
So, you know, normally, if we start eating at 6 or 7 AM, you know, and our last meal
of the day is at, you know, maybe 10 PM, I mean, that’s a lot of time, where you can
overeat, but if you condense it into six or eight hours its much harder to do that. And
so the way I practice 16/8 is my last meal, now keep in mind guys, Im in New York City,
I stay up very late.
My last meal of the day is at 10 or 11 at night, but my first meal of the day isnt until
2 PM, so it’s not like I just sleep all day. I actually get up at about 7:00 in the
morning, and I just dont eat until 2:00. And you might think that you would get really
hungry, but I never get hungry and instead, having that extra hour out of my day to do
more work, to do more writing, to work with an extra cliens instead of worrying about
breakfast, it makes my life so much easier.
But I also have more energy and Im not hungry, because then my 2:00 PM meal is right after
my workout. I have a big post workout shake and I have some chicken and some sweet potatoes,
and after that meal I’m so full, and so happy and then I get to like relax and read,
and then, you know, I go right back to work at like 3:30. And, you know, I just never
have these moments where Im starving and I never have these moments where I just like
had a small breakfast, and like oh, Im so hungry, I wish I could eat again.
Isabel: Yeah, and you know, when you gave me that example, Im like wait thats what my
husband does, thats what Stewart does.
And every time I say to him, you have to eat more often, he goes no this makes me feel
good, I feel better this way, not knowing any of this information thats just the approach
he uses and he just feels better doing that. So John, thank you so much.
John Romaniello: My pleasure.
Isabel: That was definitely very, very helpful and stay tuned for part two.