0:00

Welcome to the Optimal Protein Podcast.

0:02

I'm Vanessa Spina. Hello,

0:06

my friends. Welcome back to the podcast.

0:08

I'm your host, Vanessa, and I am

0:10

so excited to be here with you

0:12

all today. Today we're doing a solo

0:14

cast episode. It's the first one that

0:16

I've gotten to record in a little

0:18

while, and we're going to be talking

0:20

all about protein-spurring modified fasts for fat

0:22

loss compared with fasting and also the

0:24

autophagy that you can get from fasting

0:26

versus the autophagy you can get from

0:28

exercise. So I'm super excited to dive

0:30

into these topics with you all on

0:32

the episode, and I'm super happy to

0:34

be back here with you all

0:36

recording and back to doing

0:38

a solo cast. So before we jump into

0:40

the episode, I want to take a quick

0:42

moment to bring you a word from today's

0:44

sponsor. Friends, I have

0:46

to share with you an incredible

0:49

anti-aging secret that I have now

0:51

become obsessed with. Now you've probably

0:53

heard that aging is actually caused

0:56

by free radical damage. Now this

0:58

damage is a byproduct of creating

1:00

cellular energy inside our cells at

1:03

the mitochondrial level. So by providing

1:05

our mitochondria with antioxidants, we

1:07

can actually prevent a lot

1:09

of that damage from happening

1:11

in the first place. There

1:13

are only four antioxidants that

1:15

can actually get inside the

1:17

inner membrane of the mitochondria,

1:19

and that includes glutathione, chlorella,

1:22

and something called superoxide

1:24

dismutase, as well as

1:26

melatonin. Now after the age of 30,

1:29

the levels that our bodies make for

1:31

us fall off a cliff, and this

1:33

is why aging accelerates and health issues

1:35

start to pop up. Now

1:38

algae itself has all of

1:40

these mitochondrial antioxidants that are

1:42

mitochondria specifically neat, and again

1:44

that's glutathione, chlorella, and superoxide

1:46

dismutase. They help to protect

1:48

our mitochondria from all that

1:50

oxidative stress that is created

1:52

when we make cellular energy

1:54

in the form of ATP.

1:58

I've been able to replace taking a daily multivitamin

2:00

because algae has over 40

2:02

vitamins and minerals including zinc,

2:04

iron, magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin

2:06

K2, all the B

2:09

vitamins, all the essential amino

2:11

acids, omega-3, fiber, chlorophyll

2:14

as well as all of

2:16

these mitochondrial antioxidants. It just

2:18

blows my mind how incredibly

2:20

powerful they are and they

2:22

also contain something called psychocyanin

2:24

which is a molecule that

2:26

can kill cancer cells in

2:29

petri dishes. It's absolutely amazing. Now

2:31

the one that I have personally

2:33

been taking is by energy bits

2:35

because I'm just blown away by

2:37

the research that Catherine Arndtson, the

2:39

founder has done as well as

2:41

the care and attention and quality

2:43

that they put into producing their

2:45

algae bits. So it stays raw

2:48

and that protects these critical antioxidants

2:50

so they can reach the mitochondria.

2:52

I also love their chlorella bits

2:54

which are providing a detox effect.

2:56

Chlorella can actually pull toxins out

2:58

of your tissues and fat

3:00

cells and help your body excrete them

3:02

which is absolutely amazing. I've

3:05

started taking energy bits spirulina every

3:07

single day in order to support

3:09

my body in providing these antioxidants

3:11

to my mitochondria. If you'd like

3:13

to try out energy bits you

3:16

can use the code KETOGIRL to

3:18

get 20% off

3:20

your order at energybits.com. I

3:23

will put the link and discount code in the show

3:25

notes for you all if you want to go ahead

3:27

and try it out. This is

3:29

my new beauty, anti-aging and

3:32

wellness secret and I am obsessed with it.

3:34

I have to share it with you all

3:36

because I am so excited about the changes

3:38

and the benefits that I'm going to be

3:41

seeing by supporting my mitochondria daily and providing

3:43

them with these incredible antioxidants. I'm

3:45

so excited to see what it's going to

3:47

do. Let me know if you try

3:49

them out as well and be sure to use the

3:51

code KETOGIRL to get 20% off

3:54

your order at energybits.com. Chlorella

4:00

provides both benefits to the mitochondria.

4:02

Check out episode 522. And

4:06

for the full deep dive on how to

4:08

use chlorella for detoxification to support fat loss,

4:10

check out episode 558 of

4:13

the Optimal Protein podcast. All

4:16

right, now without further ado, let's get

4:18

into today's episode. Well,

4:21

hello, my friends. It's so nice to be

4:23

back here with you all. I hope that

4:25

you've been enjoying the protein series that's been

4:27

coming out on Fridays. I absolutely

4:29

love both the first and second protein series

4:31

that we've gotten to do. We just have

4:34

so many incredible guests who've

4:36

been on this podcast talking about specifically

4:38

how to optimize your protein intake and

4:41

some super key episodes. So I hope

4:43

that you've been enjoying the second series

4:45

as much as the first one. You

4:47

can always go back and listen to

4:50

the first protein series as well if

4:52

you've been loving the second protein series. But

4:55

usually these Friday episodes are solo

4:57

cast episodes where we break down different studies

5:00

or we focus in on a topic, or

5:02

sometimes I recap the highlights from recent

5:05

episodes. So today's gonna be a little

5:07

bit of a mix because we're gonna

5:09

be talking about some key concepts that

5:11

have been brought up on the most

5:13

recent episodes of the

5:15

Optimal Protein podcast. So in

5:18

particular, protein-sparing modified fasting versus

5:20

fasting for fat loss and also

5:22

autophagy and comparing the

5:24

autophagy from fasting and exercise. So these

5:26

are concepts that we've been talking about

5:29

recently with some guests. And

5:31

I have some other episodes coming up

5:33

with some more researchers on

5:35

this topic that I am super excited to

5:37

share, but I wanted to just chat with

5:39

you all about them because I think they're

5:41

really key concepts that have really

5:43

changed my thinking and my approach

5:46

to how I approach both fasting

5:48

and also how I maximize autophagy.

5:51

So we're gonna get into these topics. Now,

5:54

before we do, I just wanna

5:56

say hi. It's been a little

5:58

while since I've been here just... recording with

6:00

you all and so many of you know how

6:02

much I love these episodes so much because I

6:04

feel like you and I are just

6:06

getting to catch up and hang out. So I

6:09

want to tell you all a little bit about

6:11

what I've been up to since the last time

6:13

I recorded a solo cast episode and then we'll

6:15

get into the topics and all time stamp that

6:17

for you all for anyone who wants to just

6:19

skip right into the meat of the episode you

6:22

can do that and just skip ahead

6:24

and skip the update. So I

6:27

had a baby in December and

6:29

I can't believe it's been four

6:31

months but I gave birth to

6:33

our second son Damien and it

6:35

was absolutely amazing. We were

6:38

in the hospital over Christmas which was

6:40

really an incredible time to

6:42

be there. I was kind of

6:45

not thinking it was gonna be great to

6:47

be stuck in the hospital at Christmas but

6:49

we love this birthing center where

6:51

we go it's really just a birthing

6:53

hospital for mothers and babies and so

6:56

it's not a regular hospital and

6:58

the Christmas aspect of it was kind

7:00

of cozy because you know there were

7:02

Christmas trees all over and it was

7:04

just magical time to be there and

7:06

although we would have loved to be

7:08

home for Christmas we actually ended up

7:11

staying in the birthing

7:13

center over Christmas as well the

7:15

birthing hospital because Damien needed to

7:17

stay in the ICU for a

7:19

little bit of time after he

7:21

was born due to some complications

7:23

but he ended up being totally

7:25

fine and he is doing amazing

7:27

now but because we were there

7:29

over Christmas and my parents

7:31

were visiting to help us take care

7:34

of Luca they actually brought Christmas dinner

7:36

to the hospital which was so amazing

7:38

so we had our Christmas dinner in

7:40

our hospital room on this like little

7:42

poker table with four chairs but it

7:45

was so special you know

7:47

the fact that we were stuck

7:49

there and it was you know

7:51

not the ideal situation obviously because

7:53

Damien was in the

7:55

ICU and we were really struggling

7:58

with a lot of aspects of that and also

8:00

just, you know, not getting to be

8:02

home as we hope that we would

8:04

be and as we were expecting to

8:06

be for Christmas and New Year's. But

8:08

we just had Christmas in the hospital

8:11

and then once we were all able

8:13

to go home together as a family,

8:15

we then celebrated Christmas on a

8:17

Saturday, which was actually the day before New

8:19

Year's Eve and then we had New Year's

8:21

Eve. So we really wanted to create a

8:23

special Christmas for Luca. Now that he's two

8:26

and a half, he's really got into

8:28

understanding what Christmas is a little bit more

8:31

and also making it extra special too because

8:33

it was Damien's first Christmas at home with

8:35

us and Damien's been doing

8:38

amazing. You would never know that he

8:40

had to spend some time in the

8:42

ICU, although I do have a new

8:45

appreciation for the incredible doctors and nurses

8:47

who work in newborn ICU units because

8:49

the ones that we had just gave

8:51

us the absolute best care and we

8:54

feel so, so, so thankful to all

8:56

the doctors and nurses there that really

8:58

helped us and get

9:01

Damien ready to fully be able

9:03

to go home. It's a super

9:05

scary experience being in the

9:07

ICU and I'm just so thankful that

9:09

Damien ended up being totally fine and

9:11

recovering fully because, you know, being in

9:13

there I saw so many parents who

9:15

had their babies in the ICU and

9:17

my heart goes out to anyone who's

9:19

experienced that because it is a

9:22

very, very challenging thing to

9:24

experience as parents. You

9:26

know, you think that your birth is going to

9:28

go a certain way, you don't know how it

9:30

is, but you hope for the best and then,

9:32

you know, you just want to hold your baby

9:34

in your arms and enjoy that, you know, homecoming

9:36

that is so special and sometimes that

9:38

doesn't happen in the most straightforward way and

9:41

you end up having to spend more time

9:43

in the hospital and for some people it

9:45

can be months. So my

9:47

heart truly goes out to anyone

9:49

who's had to experience that. It

9:51

is very, very harrowing on

9:54

your heart, on your emotions, on your body,

9:56

on everything and I'm just so

9:58

thankful for the incredible care like I did. said

10:00

and that Damien is doing so well.

10:02

So he's four months old now, he's

10:04

doing amazing and he's

10:06

just such a smiley happy

10:08

guy. We've been calling

10:10

him smiley because he just has

10:12

the most amazing facial expressions and

10:14

he just has his eyes just

10:17

light up whenever you engage with

10:19

him and he's just the cutest,

10:21

sweetest baby and we are so

10:23

incredibly thankful to have two healthy

10:25

boys and Luca's

10:27

been really enjoying his brother as well

10:29

and really being so loving and

10:32

caring with him. There's obviously moments you

10:34

know where he maybe has some

10:37

challenging feelings around having to share

10:40

his home with someone else

10:42

but overall he's just been

10:44

amazing and it's so special

10:46

to see him become a little brother.

10:48

So in terms of

10:51

my postpartum recovery it's been going really

10:53

well overall. My

10:56

hormones have started to regulate

10:58

and normalize and I've

11:00

started to feel more myself again especially

11:03

since month three which Dr.

11:06

Sarah Godfried was telling me during our

11:08

recent interview that that's sort of the

11:10

time that you do start to see

11:12

those hormones start to normalize in terms

11:14

of their levels postpartum and

11:17

I've been learning so much about hormones

11:19

on these recent episodes with Dr.

11:21

Sarah Godfried with Karen Martell with

11:24

Esther Bloom. I feel so empowered

11:26

about you know dealing with these

11:29

hormonal shifts that will be coming

11:31

in my life inevitably for every

11:34

woman and I've been learning so much.

11:36

I really am so thankful to all

11:38

these guests who've been teaching me so

11:40

much about hormones. I've decided to get

11:42

my hormone levels tested now just to

11:44

see where I'm at. It's not something

11:46

that I was planning on doing but

11:48

after having these conversations I definitely want

11:50

to do it and just see how

11:52

I'm doing overall because I've been feeling

11:54

pretty good but I want to

11:56

test because Dr. Sarah Godfried said

11:58

it's also great. to test

12:01

when you are feeling good. So you

12:03

have that as a comparison, you know,

12:05

basis of comparison. But I also just

12:07

want to make sure that everything is

12:09

sort of normalizing and so

12:12

far that's been going pretty well. I think

12:14

I've recovered a little bit more quickly than

12:17

I did with Luca, which is great. But

12:20

I do think that I may have had some separation

12:23

in my abdominal muscles and I

12:26

think that that is something I've been learning about

12:28

it. There's more and more risk of it the

12:31

more pregnancies you have and

12:33

I definitely think that my abdominals

12:36

are taking a little bit longer to recover at this

12:38

time. But I am working on it and I am

12:40

hoping to regain

12:42

my abdominal muscle strength that

12:45

I had before being

12:47

pregnant. But we'll see

12:49

how that goes. And as

12:51

far as my exercise and eating,

12:54

I've been really containing my

12:56

optimized high protein diet. I

12:58

have been managing to get

13:01

in anywhere from two to four weightlifting

13:03

sessions a week and that's been feeling

13:06

really great. I definitely took a

13:08

bunch of time off in postpartum

13:10

because I had a c-section again.

13:12

So for six weeks, I couldn't do

13:15

any heavy lifting, which feels like the

13:17

longest six weeks ever.

13:19

But I finally have been able to start

13:22

getting back into my routine after six

13:24

weeks starting to lift weights again. And

13:27

it feels really good. I know

13:29

I lost a little bit of strength, but

13:31

I think that I've been getting it back. I

13:34

definitely probably lost a little bit of muscle. But

13:36

I also want to get a body scan done

13:38

and see where I'm at overall with that now

13:40

that I've had these two pregnancies under

13:43

my belt, so to say. And

13:45

I want to see how my body

13:47

composition is doing, if there's anything I

13:50

can tweak or optimize. But I've been

13:52

feeling great doing an optimized protein diet

13:54

and I've been doing a little bit

13:57

more intermittent fasting or time restricted eating.

14:00

And it's just been something

14:02

that's been helping me to also, I think,

14:04

feel a little bit more myself

14:06

because one thing that's

14:09

obviously difficult postpartum, you know, there's

14:11

sleep deprivation and

14:13

there's a lot of nutrient

14:16

depletion that happens. So I've really

14:18

been trying to optimize my

14:20

nutrient intake and making

14:23

sure I'm having the most nutrient dense meals

14:25

that I can. But I noticed

14:27

that my brain is not the

14:29

same as it used to be before

14:32

I had babies. So a lot of my neurons

14:35

have been reallocated to being

14:37

a mom. And I'm

14:39

not as sharp as I used to

14:41

be. Definitely been noticing it when I'm

14:43

on the podcast. Sometimes the

14:45

word that I want to say doesn't come

14:48

and instead I get the second best word.

14:50

And that's really challenging for me

14:52

as someone who is sort of a speech

14:54

artist. I'm not a recording artist, but I

14:56

am someone who's a podcast artist or that's

14:58

kind of how I like to think of

15:00

myself. And, you

15:03

know, speech is my main tool for

15:05

what I do for my occupation. And

15:07

it's been challenging for me to just

15:09

feel like I'm not as quick

15:11

as I used to be. But I

15:13

noticed that if I get into ketosis

15:15

every day, that it really helps with

15:18

my mental clarity, with my

15:20

cognition, with my ability to ask the

15:22

questions that I want to ask in

15:24

the moment with guests. And it's

15:27

kind of cool, like this tool of

15:29

being able to have

15:32

an eating window and a fasting

15:34

window has been really, really interesting.

15:36

So speaking of all of that,

15:38

let's shift into fasting,

15:40

protein spraying, modified fasting, autophagy, and

15:42

all of this, because we have

15:45

been talking about this on

15:47

some recent episodes. I want to start

15:49

first with the autophagy from

15:51

exercise versus fasting. So something that

15:53

absolutely blew my mind was

15:56

a recent interview where I was

15:58

talking to Dr. Tommy Wood. And

16:01

he talked about how you

16:04

can get as much autophagy from

16:07

a three-day fast with

16:10

a 30-minute exercise

16:13

session. And I

16:16

have heard this concept before, that

16:18

exercise gives you an incredible amount

16:20

of autophagy, but I

16:22

never heard it quantified exactly in

16:25

that way before. So when I

16:27

interviewed Meno Henselman, he

16:29

talked about this concept as well as

16:31

I asked him if he did fasting

16:34

for autophagy, like seasonal fast or regular

16:36

fast. And he said, no,

16:38

he gets enough from exercise. And I

16:40

heard other people, I think Mike Mutzel

16:43

talk about autophagy from exercise.

16:45

And I just still

16:47

thought that the gold standard was

16:49

doing extended fast. I was doing

16:51

seasonal fast three, four times a

16:53

year to get that deep autophagy.

16:56

And it turns out that you

16:58

can get as much from

17:00

a 30-minute exercise session as a

17:03

three-day fast. Like that just absolutely

17:05

blew my mind to hear it

17:07

put into that kind of specificity.

17:10

And I really wanted to dig

17:12

more into this concept. So I

17:14

found another researcher that Dr. Tommy

17:16

Wood mentioned, and I have

17:19

booked her to come on the podcast.

17:21

And we're going to be talking about this at

17:23

length, because I really want to get

17:26

more specifics and data on this concept.

17:28

Because I think most people

17:31

probably don't know that, just like I didn't

17:33

know that. Maybe there are listeners who knew

17:35

this. But for me, this was a new

17:37

concept to know that three days of fasting

17:40

is the same as a

17:42

30-minute exercise session of where you're

17:44

in somewhere of 60 to

17:46

70% of your view to max. So relatively

17:49

intensive, but not like over the top or

17:51

crazy, like a brisk walk, you

17:53

can get that much. And I love walking. And

17:55

I love doing resistance training as well. And

17:58

so knowing that I'm getting that

18:00

autophagy every week from

18:02

those sessions has really made me

18:04

rethink the need for doing extended

18:06

fasting. So is it something

18:08

that I still might practice? Possibly.

18:11

But it's always been something that I've tried to

18:14

do, but also I don't

18:16

want to compromise muscle growth, muscle gain

18:18

because I know that Dr. Don Lehman

18:21

always talks about the higher

18:23

rate of muscle protein breakdown and

18:26

having decreased hormone levels, etc. After

18:29

the age of 40. So I definitely

18:31

think that it's really

18:33

exciting to know that you get so

18:35

much autophagy just from doing exercise.

18:38

And like I said, it's something that I want to

18:41

know more about. I want to understand in

18:43

greater depth how that works because I know

18:45

that there's daily protein turnover

18:47

happening in the body and

18:50

that when we do exercise,

18:52

we are obviously building

18:54

muscle, but we're repairing and

18:56

restoring a lot of the

18:59

protein and I guess accelerating some

19:01

of that protein recycling that's happening

19:04

with damaged or mis-soldered proteins.

19:06

So it's really, really exciting to know.

19:09

So this is a concept that really

19:11

blew my mind. So Meno Henselman's also

19:13

talked about it. And if

19:15

you missed the episode with Dr.

19:17

Tommy Wood, he specifically has a lot

19:19

of data and research that supports

19:22

this. He also said that

19:24

in terms of fasting, we

19:27

don't really have as much data as

19:29

we think we do. And

19:31

he brought up some really interesting concepts

19:33

about fasted exercise versus non-fasted.

19:36

So a couple of

19:38

key things I really took away from

19:40

Dr. Tommy Wood. One is that there's

19:42

a connection between muscle and

19:44

brain health and cognition. But

19:46

what they've seen in the research is that it's

19:48

not associated so much with

19:51

more muscle mass. It's

19:53

not just having more muscle mass that can

19:55

help improve your brain and your cognition. It's

19:58

having active muscle. So

20:00

it's training that muscle, it's using

20:03

that muscle that is associated with

20:05

having better brain health and cognition.

20:08

So that's a really key concept is I thought

20:10

it was just, you know, the more

20:12

muscle you have, the leaner you are in general,

20:14

the more, the better your brain health

20:17

is, but it's actually how active you

20:19

are in terms of using that muscle

20:21

mass. It's not just having more muscle

20:24

and I think that's a really key concept. Hi

20:27

friends, happy new year. It is officially

20:29

2024 and

20:31

what an amazing time to make

20:34

a fresh start and recommit to

20:36

our health and fitness and wellness

20:38

goals. Now, did you know that

20:40

fat burning can actually be measured

20:42

through our breath? Now

20:44

this is something that I found

20:46

absolutely fascinating. When our bodies start

20:49

really ramping up fat burning, we

20:51

actually breathe out some of those

20:53

carbons that come from our stored

20:55

body fat and this is something

20:57

called acetone. So it's known as a

20:59

breath ketone and when we

21:01

get into really high rates of fat burning when

21:03

we're doing carb restriction or intermittent

21:06

fasting or even prolonged fasting, our bodies

21:08

really ramp up the amount of body

21:10

fat that we burn and

21:13

as our bodies start to convert some of

21:15

that body fat into ketones,

21:18

those ketones go out into our bloodstream

21:20

and 10 to 20 percent of those

21:23

ketones are actually degraded and go

21:25

out through our lungs so we can actually measure

21:27

the amount of fat burning that our

21:29

bodies are doing. Now, I've interviewed so

21:31

many scientists and experts on this topic

21:33

and I've had some of them directly

21:35

tell me that one of the best

21:37

ways to measure fat burning if your

21:39

goal is fat loss is

21:42

to actually measure your breast ketones and

21:44

that's why I have found the Tone

21:46

device to be an incredible tool to

21:49

help me get to my fitness

21:51

goals and also just provide some

21:53

fun biohacking and biofeedback because I

21:55

absolutely love getting data. So

21:57

when we measure our breath on the tone

22:00

device, it tells us what

22:02

state of fat burning we're in, if we're

22:04

in the light fat burning or the fat

22:07

burning zone and it provides a bit of

22:09

context as well through the levels of ketones

22:11

that our bodies are emitting. So you've probably

22:13

heard of measuring your ketones with

22:16

urine test strips or blood test strips.

22:18

Now those methods I find to be

22:20

a little bit less

22:22

practical than just being able to measure the

22:24

breath. So with the breath you invest in

22:26

one device, one tone device and then you

22:28

don't have to buy expensive wasteful test

22:31

strips, you don't have to prick your finger

22:33

to measure your blood, you don't have

22:35

to measure through urine, it's just very simple

22:37

and easy and you can test an unlimited

22:39

amount of time. Now the other thing with

22:42

blood testing is that you don't always

22:44

get a full picture of what's going on.

22:46

So if you are active

22:48

or do any amount of activity you

22:50

often will see low blood ketones but

22:53

you can see high breath ketones because

22:55

the breath is a percentage of how

22:57

much your body has produced from your

23:00

stored fat and how much it has

23:02

also put out into circulation. When you

23:04

measure with the blood you're only seeing

23:06

what's left over. So sometimes you show

23:08

low blood ketones and athletes

23:10

tend to show low blood ketones and

23:12

high breath acetones. So being someone active

23:14

myself I love using the tone device

23:17

to be able to get some biofeedback

23:19

on how much fat burning I am

23:21

doing. It is so much fun to

23:23

use and do different experiments with your

23:26

fasting windows, your eating windows, with your

23:28

activity, with cold exposure, with

23:30

anything that you're doing really to see what

23:32

makes your level of fat burning go up

23:35

and I just find it to be so

23:37

insightful. So for the past couple of years

23:39

I've been working on this brand new second

23:41

generation of the tone device and it has

23:43

officially launched. It is now fully shipping out

23:46

when you order and you can check it

23:48

out at ketogenicgirl.com and I will link that

23:50

in the show notes for you all. It's

23:52

a new year, why not invest in yourself,

23:55

invest in your health and wellness and fitness

23:57

and make 2024 the year hit

24:00

your fitness and wellness goals or if

24:02

you've already been there, take them to

24:04

the next level. You can check out

24:06

the tone device at ketogenicgirl.com and

24:09

I would love to hear how you like it. And

24:12

he also pointed out that a

24:14

lot of the research that's done on

24:17

mitochondrial biogenesis and exercise with humans

24:19

is quite limited and if you

24:22

do want to actually get this

24:24

mitochondrial biogenesis, it doesn't really come

24:27

from fasted workouts. It's

24:29

not the fasted workouts which

24:31

I previously thought from the research of

24:34

Dr. Mark Madsen and the interpretations that

24:36

I've heard of it over the years

24:38

is that doing fasted workouts sort of

24:40

pushes your body to have to adapt

24:42

and then create more mitochondria.

24:44

But he says it's actually

24:46

the exercise itself, the

24:49

activation of the muscle groups that

24:51

is creating that mitochondrial biogenesis and

24:53

that makes sense because when you

24:55

grow your muscles, you

24:57

are getting more mitochondria. So

25:00

it's not necessarily the fasted

25:02

exercise. So he talked about

25:04

how if you compare fasted

25:06

exercise with exercise where someone

25:08

was continuously having glucose, they

25:11

still were able to get mitochondrial biogenesis.

25:13

So it's not the

25:15

fasting aspect of it and they also compared

25:18

individuals who were exercising and working

25:20

out who had fasted

25:23

prior to the workout for various lengths

25:25

of time and so if they had

25:27

depleted more glycogen, it wasn't

25:29

really affecting the muscles because you

25:32

can deplete your liver glycogen during

25:34

fasting but that doesn't necessarily deplete

25:36

your muscle glycogen which is

25:38

really really fascinating as well. So it's

25:41

not about being fasted and

25:43

doing fasted exercise. It is

25:46

just about doing the exercise. It's

25:48

just about doing the resistance training

25:50

and activating the muscles. That's

25:53

what really generates the mitochondrial

25:55

biogenesis which is really great to

25:57

know because one of the things

26:00

I get the most questions about

26:02

from listeners like you is how

26:05

do I schedule my day? Do I

26:07

do my fasted workout so that I can

26:09

get that mitochondrial biogenesis or do

26:11

I do it because

26:13

I prefer to do it, it feels better or

26:16

I prefer to actually work out said

26:19

but I'm making myself work

26:21

out fasted because I want to get these

26:23

benefits. So it turns out

26:25

that it doesn't really matter. And I had

26:27

also talked about research previously

26:29

where if you had protein before a

26:31

meal that you still get very similar

26:34

benefits. So it turns out it doesn't

26:36

really matter if you eat or

26:38

if you don't eat or if you're having protein

26:41

or you're having carbs, it

26:43

doesn't really matter. What matters is that you

26:45

do the workout, that you do the exercise,

26:47

that's going to generate the mitochondrial biogenesis. So

26:50

it really comes down to however you

26:52

personally prefer to work out. Myself,

26:55

I like to do fasted workouts but there are

26:57

days that that doesn't work out for me and

27:00

I do fed workouts. And what matters really

27:03

is the workout it turns out. So it

27:05

doesn't matter. We don't have to

27:07

spend all this time trying to figure

27:09

out the best way to schedule the

27:11

day, the eating window, with our work

27:13

schedules, with our family schedules, with everything

27:15

else. As long as you do

27:17

the workout, whether it's in the morning, afternoon or night, that's

27:20

what matters is just getting that workout

27:22

in and you're going to get that

27:24

mitochondrial biogenesis and you're also going to

27:27

get all those wonderful benefits on brain

27:29

health and cognition. So I

27:31

thought this was really, really fascinating and

27:33

like I said, I have another guest

27:35

coming on to talk about this topic

27:37

at greater depth. And

27:40

I just think that this is such a

27:42

key concept that I really want to shout

27:44

from the rooftops because I wasn't aware of

27:46

it and I think that it just makes

27:49

life easier. We'd simplify things a

27:51

little bit to not have to

27:53

worry so much about getting in

27:55

this sort of optimal day where

27:57

you are either eating

28:01

breakfast so that you stimulate leptin or you're

28:03

not or you're doing fasting or you're not

28:05

and it's just a complication of it all.

28:07

It just takes that off the table and

28:10

it just says work

28:12

out. If you like to work out fasted

28:14

and it feels good to you, do

28:16

that. If you like to work out fed and that feels

28:18

good to you, do that. Just

28:21

do the workout. So I

28:23

thought this is really great. Now let's

28:25

talk a little bit about protein spraying

28:27

modified fasting versus fasting for fat loss.

28:30

So many many moons ago I used

28:32

to think that fasting was

28:34

one of the most effective ways to

28:36

lose body fat. This is a long

28:38

long time ago, like a long time

28:41

ago. I have since

28:43

learned that full fasting like

28:45

water fasting is actually not an effective way to

28:47

lose body fat for a lot of different reasons.

28:49

Now I know this is a tool that some

28:52

people find really useful so I don't want to

28:54

bash it if it's something that you like and

28:56

you like applying in your life and you

28:59

also like the autophagy benefits. If it works

29:01

for you, go for it. Do it. But

29:04

I just want to share that I

29:06

have since learned the science behind this

29:08

and one of the

29:11

things that is really fascinating to me

29:13

is this concept that eating

29:17

protein, just protein, like

29:19

pure protein is actually more

29:22

effective for fat loss than eating nothing.

29:24

I think that is also something

29:26

that a lot of people don't realize if

29:29

they're comparing the two. I asked

29:31

Meno Henselman about this recently on the

29:33

podcast. If you missed that episode of

29:35

the protein series, it came out last

29:37

week. We were talking about the differences

29:40

between the two and he

29:42

said the only edge that water

29:44

fasting is supposed to have over

29:47

protein spraying modified fasting is that

29:49

you get more fat loss but

29:51

that's actually incorrect. He talked about

29:53

how not only does

29:56

eating protein protect your lean body mass because

29:58

your body has to get a certain amount of fat a certain

30:00

amount of protein every single day. And

30:02

not just to maintain your muscles, but to

30:04

maintain your brain, to maintain your heart, to

30:07

maintain your different organs, to maintain all the

30:09

enzymes and hormones that your body needs every

30:11

day. It will take

30:13

that from your muscle tissue if it

30:15

needs to. And so

30:18

by having protein,

30:20

just lean protein, on a

30:23

protein-sharing modified fasting day, if someone's doing

30:25

that once or twice or maybe three

30:27

times a week during a fat loss

30:29

period that's dedicated to fat loss temporarily,

30:32

they are going to actually achieve more

30:34

fat loss because not only

30:36

are they protecting their muscle on the

30:39

one hand, but eating that protein is

30:41

only gonna do one thing. It's going

30:43

to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. And

30:46

therefore you're going to burn more

30:48

calories from the thermic effect generated

30:50

from muscle protein synthesis. So building

30:53

muscle and stimulating muscle

30:56

protein synthesis is caloric intensive. It

30:58

is one of the reasons why

31:00

protein has this higher thermic effect

31:02

or that you burn more calories

31:05

from eating protein than any

31:07

other macronutrient. And

31:09

so it's actually the process

31:11

of initiating that building of

31:13

new muscle tissue that does

31:16

it. So it really

31:18

makes sense when you think about it. Although

31:20

at first glance, you're like, well, there's no

31:22

way that eating food could

31:25

be more effective for fat loss than

31:27

not eating anything. But when

31:30

you think about what a magical macronutrient

31:32

protein is, it completely makes sense because

31:35

not only does eating the protein protect

31:37

your body from having to take protein

31:40

or amino acids from anywhere else

31:42

on your body to maintain your

31:45

essential organs, it also

31:47

is going to add to your metabolic rate.

31:49

And it's one of the reasons why having

31:51

an optimized protein diet is

31:53

so helpful in maintaining

31:55

a high metabolism before

31:57

and after fat loss periods. And when you...

32:00

have a dedicated fat loss period.

32:02

A protein spurring modified fasting day

32:04

or approach where you do that a

32:06

couple of times a week can be

32:08

so protective of muscle and also

32:10

so effective for lowering your

32:13

body fat mass. So I

32:15

love this concept. It's another one

32:17

of those things where I think I

32:20

had personally had different beliefs in the

32:22

past and through looking

32:24

at the research to understanding these

32:27

concepts of protein and muscle and

32:30

really talking to people who are

32:32

extremely well-versed on all the scientific

32:34

research out there who are actually

32:37

researchers themselves in these areas

32:40

like Dr. Tommy Wood, like Minow

32:42

Henselman's. And so they

32:44

really can share from their

32:47

perspective what they think the research is

32:49

really showing us. Now we don't know

32:51

anything for sure. That's something that I

32:54

always like to remind myself and everyone else

32:56

listening is science is something

32:58

that we are continuously learning.

33:00

We make best guesses. Researchers

33:03

make up theories and hypotheses

33:05

and then go out and

33:08

try to prove them with various

33:10

studies and research methods. But at

33:12

the end of the day, we

33:14

are trying to find the best

33:16

guess. There's really no 100% way

33:19

of knowing anything for sure. And

33:21

so that's why sometimes you'll hear different

33:23

guests have different opinions on

33:25

some of these subjects based on

33:27

their research, based on research that

33:29

they've looked at. And a lot

33:31

of times new research is always

33:33

coming out. And so like, for

33:35

example, some of the research on

33:37

intermittent fasting, anatology and mitochondrial biogenesis

33:40

on humans is actually being done right

33:42

now. And one of those

33:44

researchers is going to be coming on the podcast

33:47

to talk about this research as soon as it

33:49

is published. So nothing excites

33:51

me more than getting freshly published

33:53

research that we can talk about.

33:56

And the more research we have in

33:58

any area, the better. we can

34:00

form solid opinions and really

34:03

try to best understand

34:05

these concepts. But

34:07

at the end of the day, we don't know anything for

34:10

sure. We still don't even know for sure how the earth

34:12

came about. We have

34:14

theories and hypotheses based on science and

34:16

science helps us come closer and closer

34:19

to the actual fact or reality or

34:21

truth behind things that it is really

34:24

never fully settled. It's something that we

34:26

are just trying to understand to the

34:28

best of our ability with various

34:31

studies and high quality research

34:34

reviews, meta analysis that, you know,

34:36

go over all of the past

34:38

findings, help us to get closer

34:40

and closer to that, but also

34:42

we need randomized controlled studies and

34:44

trials done on humans. So speaking

34:46

of that, I want to let you all

34:48

know that I am working on

34:51

a couple of launches. So one of

34:53

them is for a collagen

34:55

that has an incredible amount of

34:58

clinical research behind it. And

35:00

I am so excited because I have started

35:02

taking it. I wasn't really someone who was

35:04

taking collagen on a regular basis, but

35:07

until I found this specific

35:09

collagen that has double blind

35:11

placebo controlled randomized control

35:14

trials showing that this particular

35:16

collagen at a particular dose

35:19

had a beneficial effect on skin

35:21

health in terms of boosting collagen

35:23

production in the face and also

35:25

improving the appearance of skin in

35:27

other areas and cellulite. So I'm

35:29

super excited to share this research

35:31

with you all. And it's made

35:33

me so excited to launch my

35:35

own collagen tone collagen, because I

35:38

really, really want everyone to be able

35:41

to have access to this collagen as

35:43

well, because it has this randomized

35:45

controlled study behind it. So I will

35:47

link all that in the show

35:49

notes for you all. But if you would

35:51

like to be on the list to find

35:54

out when the collagen is out, when it

35:56

is available to order, you can actually just

35:58

go to tone protein.com. and you

36:00

can sign up to the email list there for

36:02

the collagen. So I am

36:05

super excited to be launching that. And

36:07

of course we will do a launch

36:09

discount for that. And we are

36:11

also working on the unflavored version

36:14

of tone protein for the protein

36:16

powder. I absolutely love tone

36:18

protein. I take it every single day. I

36:20

love, love, love seeing your reviews and

36:23

how much so many

36:25

of you absolutely love having it every

36:27

single day. It's something that you look

36:29

forward to in your day. You think

36:31

it's the best tasting protein. I feel

36:33

the same way, but I know that

36:35

not everybody feels that way. And I've

36:37

really been wanting to have an unflavored

36:39

version of tone protein available so that

36:41

anyone can take it, get the incredible

36:43

benefits from a super high quality whey

36:45

protein isolate and the super

36:48

clean whey protein isolate, but be able

36:50

to sweeten it or flavor it however

36:52

you like. So we're working on the

36:54

unflavored version and that's going to be

36:56

next to launch, but I wanted to let

36:58

you all know that the collagen is also

37:01

coming. And I'm so, so,

37:03

so excited about this collagen. I've

37:05

been using it with my red light therapy mask

37:07

and I am really getting so many compliments

37:09

on my skin lately. And I

37:11

can tell it's making a big difference. So I'm

37:14

on my skin health journey

37:16

right now and I'm

37:18

really excited about all the benefits

37:20

that I've been learning about with

37:22

the Science Act, incredible

37:25

benefits of red light therapy. And

37:27

also that being able to

37:29

stimulate collagen, combining that with a

37:32

clinically researched backed

37:34

evidence based collagen

37:36

powder and also just having tone

37:38

protein every day. And I'm really

37:41

noticing that overall being able to

37:43

stay lean, be lean and

37:45

have amazing hair, skin and nails has just

37:48

become so much easier. Now, one last thing

37:50

I wanted to share. I posted something which

37:52

was a little bit vulnerable for me this

37:55

week, which is I had my hair extensions taken

37:57

out and I have been wearing them for over.

38:00

15 years, I started having

38:02

them put in my early 20s because when

38:04

I went vegetarian and for a

38:06

period of time also raw vegan,

38:09

my hair really suffered. So I was

38:11

used to having really long full hair.

38:14

I have very fine hair, I have

38:16

to say that, but it was always

38:18

long and relatively full. But

38:20

once I went plant-based, which I believed

38:22

to be the healthiest diet at the

38:25

time, I was not

38:27

getting enough protein in every day. I know

38:30

that now and I wasn't supplementing properly the

38:32

way that I could have been or should

38:34

have been. And my hair really, really suffered.

38:36

So I turned to getting hair extensions and

38:38

I thought that that was just going to

38:40

be the way that my life had to

38:42

be. I had to wear hair extensions and

38:46

I thought that that was going to be the way that

38:48

I had to do things forever. And it

38:51

was recently, the last couple

38:53

times that I had my hair extensions removed, I

38:55

noticed that my hair was getting quite

38:57

long and quite nice and my hairdresser was

39:00

like, your hair is really doing great. And

39:02

I know that it's from eating a high

39:04

protein diet and also starting to supplement toned

39:06

protein and just making sure that I'm getting

39:09

a protein shake in every single day. I'm

39:11

optimizing my protein intake, doing this higher protein

39:13

intake the last five years that it's been

39:15

making a huge difference. And I always want

39:18

to tell my hairdresser because I want her

39:20

to tell other people like just eat more

39:22

protein. It's really going to help your hair. Take

39:24

collagen. It's really going to help your hair and

39:27

skin and nails and everything. So

39:30

I decided this time when

39:32

I had them taken out that I was

39:34

just going to try going without them completely.

39:37

And I need to get a little bit

39:39

of a hair trim. It's definitely been an

39:41

adjustment because my hair is much, much, much

39:43

finer, but it's so long and it actually

39:46

looks nice. And I actually feel

39:48

prettier without the hair extensions because it's

39:50

just my hair and it just is

39:52

so nice to run my fingers through

39:54

it and not feel anything but my

39:56

own hair and feel my scalp again.

39:58

And it's been a long time. long

40:00

time coming. And if

40:02

I had only known this when I

40:04

was younger, I definitely never would have

40:06

gone plant-based. I would have started doing

40:09

resistance training and really stuck with it

40:11

for longer. And I would

40:13

have optimized my protein intake at that time. And

40:15

I probably would have been able to avoid using

40:17

hair extensions all these years. So I'm

40:20

not saying that I will never use any

40:22

kind of hair extensions again. I may put

40:24

like a few in just like

40:26

tapens or something to thicken

40:29

up the bottom part a little bit because

40:31

I do have super, super fine hair. But

40:33

going from having, you know, 100% of hair

40:35

extensions on

40:37

my head to having maybe 5% is

40:39

such a huge win for me when I never

40:41

believed anything like that would be possible for

40:44

me ever again. So I think

40:46

it's just something that I wanted to share for anyone who's

40:49

dealt with any kind of hair loss or

40:51

thinning hair. I know it's something

40:53

that can be super stressful for anyone. And

40:56

I know it's not always the case, but there are

40:58

things that can help. Like red light therapy can really

41:00

help with hair loss and

41:03

hair regrowth. That's something that the

41:05

Russian scientists first started to see

41:07

when they were experimenting with lasers

41:09

on rodents that their hair started

41:11

to regrow. And that's something

41:13

that can be really helpful. I'm not saying that's

41:15

something that necessarily helped with mine. For me,

41:17

I think it's definitely been the protein and

41:20

making sure that ate a really high protein diet. So

41:22

I'm super excited to see what's going to happen with

41:25

the collagen as I add that in. And

41:27

I think it's just going to continue to help with

41:29

my hair gains and

41:32

continue to support that and also the

41:34

health benefits I've been getting in my

41:36

skin health from doing red light therapy

41:39

and all of that. So just wanted to share

41:41

that for anyone listening who's struggled with their hair

41:43

from, you know, maybe going on a low protein

41:46

diet and just knowing that

41:48

you can really restore a lot of

41:50

it. If you eat a high protein

41:52

diet and eat a nutrient dense diet and

41:54

don't under eat calories as well is super,

41:56

super key. You want to make sure your

41:59

body's getting all the nutrients. and energy that

42:01

it needs in order to produce healthy hair.

42:03

And I think the thing

42:05

that excites me the most about all of this is

42:07

it really isn't about beauty.

42:09

Sure, there's an element of that,

42:11

but it's not vanity. It's the

42:13

fact that when your skin and

42:16

your hair and nails look great,

42:18

it's a reflection of your inner

42:20

health. And I really believe that.

42:22

And so being able

42:24

to see my skin looking better and

42:26

better, my hair getting stronger, my

42:29

nails getting stronger, it really shows me that

42:31

the things I'm doing internally are really working

42:33

in terms of my body composition and my

42:35

bones as well. So I'm super excited to

42:37

get a body scan done. When I do,

42:40

I will share the results and let you

42:42

know. I really think it's a good idea

42:44

to get a body scan done at

42:46

least once a year, if not twice, to

42:49

really be able to see where you're doing in

42:51

terms of your bone density, your muscle

42:53

mass, and make sure that you are

42:55

where you want to be in terms

42:57

of that. So if you want to

42:59

get one of those, you can Google

43:01

DEXA scan near me. That's D-E-X-A, DEXA

43:03

scan near me. And you can get

43:05

a body scan done and try that

43:07

out for yourself. All

43:10

right, my friends, thank you so much for being here

43:12

and for tuning into this episode. It was so much

43:14

fun to be here with you all and to discuss

43:16

these super important topics. I can't wait to

43:19

chat more with you all in our Facebook

43:21

group, which is the Alphalem Protein Podcast. If

43:24

you are interested in signing up for

43:26

the collagen list to get the exclusive

43:28

launch discount, you can do so at

43:30

toneprotein.com. You can sign up for the

43:32

email list and I will let you

43:34

know as soon as the brand new

43:36

collagen is out and available to order

43:38

and also provide a launch discount for

43:40

anyone who has signed up to

43:43

that. So that's at toneprotein.com. I

43:45

will also keep you updated when the new

43:47

unflavored version of tone protein is out for

43:49

anyone who is interested in that. And

43:52

you can always check out the tone device

43:54

and the red light therapy crystal mask that

43:56

I have and all the tone luxe red

43:59

light therapy panels. at ketogenicgirl.com. So I

44:01

am sending you all so much love.

44:03

Thank you so much for being here

44:06

and for listening. And until the next

44:08

episode, I'm wishing you a fat-fueled rest

44:10

of your day. Thanks for listening and bye

44:12

for now. A

44:16

few disclaimers. By listening to this podcast, you agree

44:18

not to use this podcast as medical advice as

44:20

I am not a qualified healthcare provider. The

44:23

information presented on this podcast is for

44:25

educational purposes only. Ketogenicgirl is

44:27

not qualified to provide medical advice, consult

44:29

your own physician or any medical issues

44:31

that you may be having. This

44:34

entire disclaimer also applies to any guests or

44:36

contributors to this podcast. Prior

44:38

to beginning a ketogenic diet, you should

44:40

undergo a full health screening with your

44:42

physician to confirm that a keto diet

44:44

is suitable for you and to rule

44:46

out any conditions or contraindications that may

44:48

pose risks or that are incompatible with

44:50

the ketogenic diet. A keto

44:52

diet may or may not be appropriate for you

44:55

if you have any kind of health condition, whether

44:57

known to you or unknown. So you must consult

44:59

your physician to find this out. Anyone

45:02

under the age of 18 should consult with

45:04

their physician and their parents or legal guardian.