Shownotes
Wellness girl chat with us as we chat about the science behind fasting as women! We pull from the research regarding why women handle fasting differently than men and why fasting may not do what you think it is doing. Listen in to this episode, especially if you want to learn how fasting impacts your body composition, fatigue, energy levels, muscle building, hormonal balance, and much more!
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49:: Female-Specific Fueling, Training & Performance:: https://wellness-big-sis-the-pod.captivate.fm/episode/49-female-specific-fueling-training-performance-with-dr-katie-hirsch-fasting-creatine-the-menstrual-cycle-more
50:: break it down for the baddies:: Dr. Katie Hirsch::
51:: Mel Sulaver talks nutrition in our 20s and 30s
52:: Break it down for the baddies:: Mel Sulaver
Cortisol Series::
Part I:: (get to know cortisol)
Part II:: (tips & tricks to balance your cortisol)
Part III:: (from chaos to calm)
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00:00- 00:17 Intro
00:18- 01:57 Introduction to Fasting for Women
01:58- 06:34 The Science Behind Fasting and Hormonal Balance
06:35- 09:48 Metabolic Differences Between Men and Women
09:49- 11:08 Fasting and Cortisol Levels
11:09- 12:21 Recent Research and Intuitive Fasting (Part 1)
12:22- 13:13 Thorne Supplements
13:14- 15:42 Recent Research and Intuitive Fasting (Part 2)
15:43- 18:11 Practical Tips for Women Who Fast
18:12- 20:30 Conclusion and Personal Reflections
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcripts
Let's dive into the truth
and science about fasting and
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intermittent fasting for women.
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Welcome back to Wellness of the Pod.
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I'm your host, Dr.
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Kelsey Vic, a board certified orthopedic
doctor of physical therapy and a
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pelvic floor physical therapist.
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And I've been having this conversation
a lot lately with a lot of friends,
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men honestly, too, that are in our
age range where they're asking, why
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aren't you fasting for your workouts?
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I fast for my workouts.
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Why don't you, as a woman, there's
so much research behind fasting for
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your workouts in order to get the body
composition goals, the toning goals,
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the aesthetic goals that you want.
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Why aren't you doing that as a woman?
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And recent research has shown that women
handle fasting differently than men.
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And so I wanted to cover that
today and dive into the science.
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And why fasting might not necessarily
be the route that we as women wanna
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take based on our hormonal physiology
and just how our neurons and different
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signaling molecules within our system
respond to fasting and lower energy,
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availability, We've chatted about fasting
before as part of other episodes with
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exercise physiologists and dieticians,
so I will link those episodes below
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if you wanna dive in more with someone
who is actually doing the research
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on this and the research that I will
be pulling from for this episode.
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But we chatted with two
experts on the topic,
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Two very prominent figures in this space.
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Dr.
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Katie Hirsch, and then also Mel Silver.
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So I will link those episodes below in
addition to the breakdown for the baddies
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episodes where we dive in a little bit
deeper, a little bit of a book club
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episode where we chat about fasting
and all of the topics that we covered
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in those episodes with those experts.
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So a little background on fasting.
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Fasting has historically been recommended
across the board, and I've heard of
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it, recommended for anything from
like cell cleansing and detoxing
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each of your cells to helping with
body composition goals and aesthetic.
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And exercise.
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There was a big push in the bodybuilding
world for fasted cardio workouts and
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fast cardio workouts for men and women.
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Based on, a little bit older research
that has only been done on men.
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So today we will dive into fasting for
women specifically, and some of the
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differences in how our bodies handle
those lower energy reserves when we
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are in a fasted state compared to
how men handle the same exact state.
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So if your goals revolve around
body composition, toning, aesthetic,
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cycle regularity, fertility, hormonal
regulation, cortisol regulation,
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and cortisol balancing, then this is
definitely an episode that I think
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you'll be interested in because
fasting covers all of those different
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topics within our body and it really
affects each of those systems.
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In our bodies as women.
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So let's start with how fasting affects
our hormonal balance, our fertility and
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our cycle regularity or irregularity.
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In general, our body has a plethora
of feedback loops where our body is
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in this cycle until something cues it
to stop or produce more of something.
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And our hormonal regulation
and nutrition is no different.
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So we have what we call the hypothalamic
pituitary gonadal axis, which is basically
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a fancy term for the hormonal reproductive
feedback loop within our bodies.
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We have the hypothalamus, which
is the, top of the system when
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it comes to hormonal release.
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So the hypothalamus has.
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Signaling hormones that they release
in order to signal more hormones
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to be released from the pituitary
gland that signal more hormones to be
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released from the reproductive organs.
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So the hypothalamic pituitary gonadal
axis is just a fancy name for hormones
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the signaling involved to release
the reproductive hormones that help
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with our fertility and our cycles.
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I think of it as like an intense game
of telephone, or I picture a chocolate
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fountain or a champagne fountain
where there's just a cascading effect
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where signaling molecules signal
other molecules that signal different
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hormones that help to regulate our
cycles or irregulate our cycles.
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So we have nutrient sensitive neurons
in our hypothalamus called kisspeptin
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neurons, and women have more of
these kisspeptin neurons, and they
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are also more sensitive than men.
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So when we are in a fasted state.
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Our bodies, our KIS neurons, sense that
we are in this lower energy availability
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state, and they will cue the response
on a larger scale and quicker than
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might be queued in a male system.
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So these kisspeptin neurons respond
to nutrient availability, and they
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are the gatekeeper for how our
hormonal response and our cycles
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and our fertility is regulated.
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They control a lot of other things too,
but speaking specifically in regards
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to hormonal balance and hormonal
imbalance, right now these kisspeptin
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neurons are like the gatekeeper.
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So they control the release of
gonadotropin releasing hormone, which
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goads, again, reproductive organs,
gonadotropin releasing hormone.
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This is a hormone released
from the hypothalamus.
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That again, is that telephone game
that signals another release from the
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pituitary gland, luteinizing hormone,
and follicle stimulating hormone.
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So this gonadotropin releasing hormone
is released from the hypothalamus and
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helps to signal the hormonal release
from the pituitary gland of luteinizing
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hormone and follicle stimulating hormone.
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And if you've listened to our cycle
episodes, you know that there's
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a sort of rollercoaster ride that
happens between these two hormones
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during our menstrual cycle.
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So fasting causes a decline in these
kisspeptin neurons, which affects
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gonadotropin releasing hormone release,
and then affects the regularity
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of our cycle because luteinizing
hormone and follicle stimulating
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hormone will be affected as well.
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So this cascading effect, this
telephone game, all starts
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with our bodies sensing a fasted
state, which cues those kisspeptin
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neurons, which cues less release of
gonadotropin releasing hormone in that
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hypothalamus at top of the pathway,
which then affects luteinizing hormone
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and follicle stimulating hormone
release from that pituitary gland.
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Again, that middle guy for that hormonal
cascade, which in turn affects our cycles.
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So let's switch to
metabolism a little bit.
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And this is where women actually thrive
because we are metabolically superior,
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or metabolically more efficient
or more flexible in how we utilize
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certain fuel sources within our body.
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We are able to switch between
different fuel sources and take
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from different fuel sources more
efficiently than a man system is.
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So historically, I guess what we
utilize for our fuel sources has
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typically followed this pathway.
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We first utilize blood glucose,
then we utilize stored glycogen
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within our liver and our muscles,
which is the stored form of glucose.
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So glycogen, glucose, you can
think of them as the same thing.
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Glycogen to just takes a little bit to
get to the point where we can use it
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as energy, as glucose, and it is the
stored form of glucose in the liver.
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And the muscles.
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So we first tap into the blood
glucose levels, 'cause that's
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usually the most available and
the most readily available for us.
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Then we tap into liver and
muscle glycogen stores, and then
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we tap into free fatty acids.
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That's historically what we've believed
as how a body taps into different fuel
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sources for energy, whether that's for
exercise or just like day-to-day tasks.
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However, it's been shown that women
specifically have this flexibility within
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their metabolic system where we tap
into that blood glucose first, but then
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we actually transition to those free
fatty acids a lot quicker than a manez.
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They have to go through that process
where we can go straight from blood
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glucose, utilizing blood glucose
as our fuel to free fatty acids.
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This is because we have a lot
more oxidative fibers within
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our skeletal muscle tissues.
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And so that is one of the theories
that has been brought up to why
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we tap into those free fatty
acids quicker than Amand does.
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So one of the goals with fasting could
be, Hey, let's decrease our glucose
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stores initially so that we tap into
those free fatty acid quicker, or, that's
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historically been one of the theories.
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And for a man that might actually make
sense because if we can limit the amount
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of glucose that they have to utilize at
the beginning of that pathway, they might
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tap into those free fatty acid storage
is early on in their workout, where for
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women, we don't actually have to do that.
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We kind of skip that step.
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We skip the benefit of fasting
because, we utilize that glucose
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within the bloodstream first before
we tap into those free fatty acids.
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And a lot of people think, oh, let's tap
into those free fatty acids as fuel as
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soon as we can so that we're burning fat.
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But this is not necessarily
like a one-to-one ratio.
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Yes, it does help that we can tap
into those free fatty acids, but
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it's a lot more complex than that.
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But that is one of the reasons fasting
has been promoted is because if we can.
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Decrease the circulating glucose
levels or stored glucose levels,
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then we might be able to tap into
those free fatty acids sooner.
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Whereas women, we have that flexibility to
go, okay, utilize all that blood glucose
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first that circulating quick energy first
before we tap into those free fatty acids.
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But we don't necessarily have
to go through the entire process
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that we've historically thought.
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That men go through, but maybe a
woman does not necessarily go through
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So let's chat fasting and
how it affects our cortisol.
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And cortisol is always presented as the
bad guy and we've done episodes on it,
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calling it the misunderstood mean girls.
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So I will link all of those episodes
below 'cause I do not want you
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to think cortisol is the bad guy.
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We need cortisol, but fasting
for prolonged periods of time
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can elevate our cortisol levels.
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Fasting for almost greater than 12 hours.
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It's been shown to elevate
our cortisol levels.
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And if you think.
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Your sleep window also counts as fasting.
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We're not expected to wake up
and eat a snack during sleep,
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so that counts as fasting.
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So greater than 12 hours is actually,
it sounds like a lot, but it's
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actually not that long of a time.
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So fasting for greater than 12
hours can increase some of our
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cortisol levels within our body.
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So higher cortisol for a prolonged
period of time can lead to muscle
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loss, fatigue, and thyroid dysfunction.
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So all of those things we definitely do
not want, especially if our goals are
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energy levels, fertility, regularity,
hormonal balance, muscle building, body
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composition changes, all of the things.
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But again, it's not that cortisol's
bad, it's just that high levels
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for a prolonged period of time
is not necessarily what we want.
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We wanna maintain that cortisol balance
and that cortisol rollercoaster that
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we have throughout the day with those
natural elevations that happen in
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the morning, and then the natural
declines that happen later in the day.
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So this is all relatively recent research
in the grand scheme of things where we are
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just now starting to study the female in
comparison to the male, where we actually
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separate our study groups, male and female
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there's so many things that are different
about our bodies, how we store fat, how
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our muscle fibers are structured when we.
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Tap into different fuel
sources within our bodies.
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So we've started biasing out
different groups to know how does a
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woman's body actually handle this?
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So more research is definitely needed.
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More research on humans
is definitely needed.
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We've done a lot of animal studies,
but more is definitely needed on
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humans and I think future research is.
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Going to need to be dedicated towards
people with special conditions.
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'cause there is a study that has been
published on PCOS, I believe it was 2023
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or 2024, so again, relatively recent where
women with PCOS have found benefits with
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fasting when it comes to muscle building,
and then also decreasing visceral fat
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and subcutaneous fat within their system.
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So I think there needs to be
condition specific research under
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the umbrella of female research.
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So this is just something that my mind
has been gravitating towards recently
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and this is something that we have
just chatted about recently with a lot
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of family and friends, and I wanted
to cover this from this research and
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science back perspective so that you
guys are aware of the newer research
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on fasting for females specifically.
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But with all of that being said, I had
a great conversation with a friend of
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mine who is reading more on fasting and
she was talking about the intuitiveness
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of fasting and the need to be intuitive
with your own body despite the research.
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And I really loved this because yes,
there is research on female physiology
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and how our bodies tap into different
fuel sources, how we raise certain
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hormones within our system, how our body.
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It taps into different resources that
we might not wanna tap into for fuel,
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like muscle tissue earlier than a man.
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So there's all of these reasons
why someone might choose to fast
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or not fast, But fasting can
mean a lot of different things.
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It can mean complete fast.
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It can mean liquids only.
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It can mean intermittent fasting
or time restricted eating.
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It can mean eating less, but more
frequently throughout the day.
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There's so many descriptions
of fasting and they're not all.
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The same across research.
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Is it time restricted fasting,
where we're fasting for 12 hours?
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Is it littler meals throughout the day?
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Is it liquid only?
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Is it a complete 24 hour
fast or a multi-day fast?
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So there's lots of different ways
to fast, and I'm not saying that.
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No female can benefit from fasting.
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So I think there needs to be some
intuitiveness about listening to your
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own body when it comes to fasting.
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So if you found that your body
actually does benefit from fasting,
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or it feels better with fasting
for some reason or another.
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I'm not doubting you on that.
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I'm not saying that is wrong at
all, or that you are wrong for
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listening to your body in that way.
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I think there are some people who do
benefit from fasting in whatever form
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that might be, and so if you are . One
of those people that might benefit
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from fasting or think that your body
or your sleep or your fatigue or
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energy levels benefits from fasting?
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There are a few things to keep in mind, I
guess to offset maybe the negative impacts
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that fasting has on a woman's body.
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We don't want those raised cortisol
levels for a prolonged period of time.
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We don't want cycle irregularity.
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We don't want muscle loss.
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We don't want so many
things that fasting and.
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Having lower energy availability might
lead us to, and so there's a few things.
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If your body does seem to enjoy
fasting in some sort of form, there
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are some things that are recommended
in order to help your body, combat
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some of those negative effects.
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So if you do benefit from fasting in some
way, make sure you are getting adequate
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protein intake during that feeding window.
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Protein specifically all macronutrients,
of course, but protein specifically
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is one where if you are not
getting it during your feeding
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window, your body is not able to.
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Build muscle.
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It's not able to help some of these
processes that go on within the body.
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Same thing with carbohydrates,
same thing with fat.
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So making sure you're getting
adequate macronutrients and
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micronutrients during that feeding
window is super duper important.
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Fasted exercise specifically
also messes with our appetite
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control center, let's call it.
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So if you can plan your
exercise when you are in a non.
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Fasted state, so when you're in
your feeding window, That is only
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going to help your body adapt to
that exercise stimulus better.
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If you don't respond well to eating
before exercise, even giving your body
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a little bit of a cue that you are not
in a low energy availability state, by
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feeding it with a little bit of glucose,
a little bit of protein, giving it some
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signal to say, Hey body, we are okay.
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We don't need to break down
necessities within our body
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in order to fuel this workout.
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So almost eating, even if it's like
a quarter of a banana or a little bit
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of protein before your workout to help
your body sense that it is okay, we
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can use those for fuel for a little bit
and then we can tap into some of the
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other fuel sources that isn't things
that we want, like muscle tissue.
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And then try keeping your fasted
window between 12 and 14 hours.
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Again, anything over 12 has been
shown to raise those cortisol levels.
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So if we can keep it between that
12 to 14 hours, that's a little
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bit safer of a fasting window.
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Try to eat within 30 minutes of waking
as well, and then stopping eating around
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that six to 7:00 PM timeframe too.
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Keeping that fasted window safe
rather than pushing it to those 20
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hour fasts or those 16 hour fasts.
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So I hope it was helpful to go over some
of the science regarding fasting for
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women compared to men, and then also
if your body does sense that fasting
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is good for it, understanding what you
can do to combat some of the negative
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effects that might come from fasting.
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So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.
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I hope you guys are having the most
wonderful start to your summer.
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I know I am.
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I've been enjoying this little bit of a.
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I guess slow down with the podcast
where I'm only releasing one a week.
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And it's so funny that if you guys
remembered a few episodes back, I said
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I was gonna drop to one episode a week
during the summer because I was just
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sensing that God had put it on my heart
to, not push so hard to release two
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episodes a week, even though I really
do enjoy it, and I really do feel
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like it's good for the podcast growth.
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For some reason, it was just on my heart
that, hey, maybe this time you do one
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a week during the summer and then pick
it back up to two a week in the fall.
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And I didn't know why that was on
my heart, but it's already been
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revealed to me why that was the
case and I just feel like it was.
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A wonderful, I guess example of
actually listening and hearing those
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little whispers and then following
through with them and obeying them.
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And so I've already been reaping some
of the blessings from going back to,
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one time a week and understanding why
I might've been receiving that whisper
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and the future of the summer for me.
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So I will maybe share a little bit more.
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Once everything's finalized, but literally
the week after I decided and released that
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00:18:02,739 --> 00:18:07,469
episode saying, Hey, I've been feeling
called to release only one episode a week.
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I'm not sure why, but I feel like
there's a bigger plan for this.
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Almost a week after I immediately knew
exactly what he was calling me to do.
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So I am very grateful.
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I just wanted to share that with you guys
as a little bit of a message of, hope and.
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Trust and patience and
listening to those whispers.
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So this episode took a turn, but
I hope you guys enjoyed the rest
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of this episode, the fasting part.
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I hope you learned a lot.
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If you've also been having this
conversation with girls in your
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life or even men in your life,
please share this episode.
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It.
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Super Duper helps the podcast to grow,
and I just appreciate it so very much.
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So thank you guys for listening.
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I hope you enjoyed this episode.
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I'll leave all of the links below to all
the episodes that I referenced in this
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podcast and I'll see you guys again on the
next episode of Wellness Books is the pod.
