Now, how do you know if you’re in nutritional ketosis and your body is beginning to secrete ketones? Your ketones should be reading at 0.5 or above. If you’re not seeing this, time and repetition is important here. Sometimes the body simply needs more time to acclimate in this step and make that conversion from sugar burning to fat burning mode. If you still find you’re having trouble getting into ketosis, you might have a congested liver. STEP 3: INCREASE YOUR FASTING WINDOW TO over 17+ HOURS However, that doesn’t necessarily mean longer is better for everyone. For example, if you’re hoping to increase ketones, a 17 hour fast may be what you need, however if you’re trying to heal a musculoskeletal injury, you’ll want to work your way up to a 72 hour fast.

There is a lot more in the book. It teaches you the benefits of fasting in general, different types of fasting by duration and their individual benefits (Intermittent fasting: 12-16 hours, Gut reset: 24+ hours, Fat burner: 36+ hours), what foods to break the fast with and, of course, fasting for women and how to optimize different fasts with different hormonal stages they go through every month. Dinner-to-Dinner. Once you’re comfortable with intermittent fasting, dinner-to-dinner is a great type of fast to try 1-2 days a week. This means fasting from after dinner until the next day’s dinner. Drinking water and maybe coffee during this fast is okay. Dr. Fung, the author of The Obesity Code, calls this “OMAD”, or one meal a day. What’s important to remember here is that the longer you fast, the more the body will reach into your stored areas of fat to burn fuel and the more ketones your body will create. Fasting is a metabolic switch from burning glucose to burning fat (ketosis) that gives us a host of benefits such as cellular healing (autophagy), fat/weight loss, immune system repair, improved stomach microbiome, and more. Before we delve into how fasting and the female hormonal cycle intertwine, let’s first take a moment to understand the basics of this hormonal cycle. Each cycle begins on the first day of menstruation and ends on the first day of the next period. The average cycle lasts 28 days, though it’s entirely normal for it to be a little shorter or a bit longer.Guess what? All fasts aren’t created equal! According to Dr. Pelz, there are six unique fasting durations you can play with. Let’s break them down:

Fasting is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Dr. Mindy Pelz is one of the leading experts in this area of fasting for women, and she truly understands how fasting is different for both men and women. If you’re a woman and want to get the most out of fasting, then this is the book for you. – Drew Manning, creator of TV show Fit2Fat2Fit and New York Times bestselling author of Fit2Fat2Fit how to time fasting according to your menstrual cycle (although if you don't have a cycle, she has you covered) Fundamentally, there are three variations to women’s menstrual cycle. Here is how to fast around these variations: Regular menstrual cycle Calories in must be less than calories out. How many times have you heard about or tried a diet that focuses on this idea? It’s been a popular mantra for years –if we eat fewer calories than we burn working out, we’ll lose weight and be healthier. However, studies have recently shown it’s less about how much you eat, and more about when you eat. Fasting is such a powerful healing tool. In Fast Like a Girl, Dr. Mindy does an excellent job of helping women understand how they can use fasting to power up their hormones, as well as providing tips and strategies that are easy to follow and tailored specifically for women. – Josh Axe DC, DNM, CNS, founder of Ancient Nutrition and DrAxe.com, bestselling author of Keto Diet, The Collagen Diet and Ancient RemediesHere we learn that there is a two-week “pre-reset” leading up to the actual 30-day reset (that then sets the foundation for a lifetime of fasting cycles). Ovulation typically takes place between the 11th and 15th days of the cycle. Around day 13, estrogen levels peak, coinciding with the height of ovulation. This rise in estrogen often fosters a sense of optimism, as it aids in the production of mood-boosting neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. Coupled with an increase in testosterone, this period is when a woman often feels her happiest and most empowered. A 2018 study in the Journal of Nutrition, Health & Aging found obese individuals experienced metabolic improvements just by reducing the window in which they ate every day. Participants ate whatever they wanted, but only during an 8-hour period –and saw dramatic results. Another study published in 2020 in Cell Metabolism found that people who ate during a 10-hour period experienced greater metabolic effects than when the exact same things were eaten during a 14-hour period. So with just four extra hours of fasting and no change to their diet, people saw significant metabolic results. How is this possible? Well, let’s look at the science behind fasting.

When your goal is to burn fat, the best food to break your fast with might surprise you—it’s fat! Yes, you read that right. Good fats can help stabilize blood sugar and typically don’t disrupt the fasting state, allowing your body to continue burning body fat. In fact, consuming fat after fasting doesn’t technically break your fast; it allows you to extend your fasting period. Some good sources of fat include avocados, bone broth, any type of nut or nut butter, and olives. Final Summary and Review The next few chapters describe clients who have had great results from adjusting their fasting windows and approaches to their menstrual cycle, and a large part of the chapter explains the rises and falls of key hormones women experience during this time. The introduction by Pelz tells us about her own personal experience with fasting and how it helped her hormones (how does she know this? Because she miraculously felt better after changing her diet).

How long should you fast?

This book had a lot of great information, not just about fasting, but about how the body works. If you are serious about this book, I would recommend buying it. I read a library book and then ended up purchasing my own copy by the end because there are many recipes in it that I want to try and lots of detailed info. I will reference again in the future. There is also a “foods that support estrogen” list, and one for progesterone, which I don’t understand, because there isn’t any evidence to suggest that broccoli supports progesterone, but cauliflower supports estrogen. Once I got through part 1, which I would summarize as an advertisement for fasting, we move on to part 2.

Sugar (carbs converted into glucose for energy) raises our blood sugar that cells use as fuel. The problem is that our blood sugar is high 24/7 because of how often and what we eat which leads to insulin resistance -> obesity and diabetes. We were not designed to gorge on carbs all day long, every day. Carbs burn fast and are like paper in a fire.Whoa, wait a minute – 72 hours? That’s three whole days without food! Now, if that sounds a tad intimidating, take a deep breath. It’s OK to feel a bit overwhelmed. Just like you wouldn’t run a marathon without training, it’s unwise to dive headfirst into a 72-hour fast without some preparation. Starting slow and gradually building your fasting endurance over time is the key. This section goes on to blame most chronic diseases on metabolic syndrome, and her solution to “our current metabolic situation”, is fasting (a single cause for multiple complex issues = red flag). We’ve all heard that age-old dieting advice: “calories in must be less than calories out.” This mantra has been repeated for years, telling us if we eat fewer calories than we burn, we’ll shed pounds and become healthier. But recent studies suggest it’s less about the quantity you eat, and more about when you eat. Day Water Fasting. The longer 3-5 day water fast does amazing things for immune and other chronic conditions. I recommend these longer fasts once a month when attempting to trigger your body’s own healing process. I personally do one of these quarterly. However be aware that this type of fast is for advanced fasters. So if you’ve mastered the other types of fasts and are ready to try a longer fast, here’s how you can prepare for a 3 day water fast. There is a 30 reset plan and in appendix C, these 30 days are adjusted to help specific conditions ie infertility, thyroid, autoimmune conditions etc. Which I love, as every consideration has been lovingly mapped out easy.