Dr. Casey Means

So it's strain for the body.

And so I think giving the body times –

intentionally to allow insulin to come down and to allow glucose to come down, what that does is it generates metabolic flexibility.

It gives our body an opportunity to have space to use accessible glucose and then

convert into using stored fat.

And that ultimately is metabolic flexibility, the ability for the body, giving the body opportunities to use glucose, but then have times when there's not high glucose and insulin around to actually get into the fat stores.

And I think one of the reasons why

we have such a massive overweight and obesity, you know, rates in the country is because with the way the culture of eating right now, 11 eating events per day eating over the course of 15 hours per day, I would imagine the average American body is rarely, if ever,

tapping in to their fat stores for energy in a meaningful way because we always have glucose available to the body.

If you think about, again, the stats about ultra-processed food, about 70% of the items on the shelves in the grocery store are ultra-processed food, and those ultra-processed foods are built on refined added sugars and refined added grains.

So we very rarely give the body the opportunity to rest and move into fat burning.

And that's where compressing the eating window

can be valuable.

Obviously, people have talked about this before, but fasting can be a stressor for the body, especially if your body's not used to using fat for energy.

And so it's something to ease into and go slow.

But I think...

If you're slowing down enough to really hear what your body's signal are saying, you can kind of know whether I think your fasting is working for you or not.

I can tell if I've got too many other things going on, I haven't slept well, a lot of stress.

I can tell that fasting is kind of making me jittery and not feel good versus if I'm really if I have good capacity, I can feel that it's actually making me feel really incredible.

And so tune in with your body, obviously.