Women’s Metabolic Fasting Coaching
“Fasting helps with every aspect of metabolic health, from weight loss and high blood pressure to insulin resistance, inflammation, and lowering cholesterol. We also have scientific evidence that fasting repairs our gut microbiome, improves neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Alzheimers, reboots a struggling immune system, and can power up happiness neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and GABA. Whilst the scientific evidence is clear that fasting heals, there still exists one huge blind spot: A one-size-fits-all approach to fasting, especially for women”
What is metabolic fasting and how can it help women? The term metabolic fasting covers a variety of different fasting options, including intermittent fasting. This type of fasting can help women in particular as it has the potential to improve insulin sensitivity, enhance fat burning and help to balance hormones. Typical intermittent fasting patterns can involve a shorter ‘fasting window’ or a longer ‘fasting window’ within each 24 hour period. Examples of shorter fasting patterns in any 24 hour period might include e.g. 12 hours of fasting, with a 12 hour eating window, 13 hours of fasting, with an 11 hour eating window, or 15 hours of fasting, with a 9 hour eating window. It is best to start with shorter fasts then build up as your body and mind become accustomed to it. In time it is then possible to stretch out the fasting window to 17 or 18 hours each day.
A key point to be aware of however is that women’s bodies respond differently to fasting than men’s bodies do. This is due to the fact that women’s cycles lead to fluctuations in the sex hormones oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone throughout the month. In contrast, men don’t have this fluctuation in their sex hormone levels throughout the month as their level of testosterone remains constant. For this reason, Dr. Mindy Pelz has developed her ‘Fast Like a Girl’ approach to metabolic fasting for women, adapting fasting advice to map to a woman’s cycle, if she has one. This approach guides women to fast longer at certain times of the monthly cycle and to cut back on fasting at other times of the month, linking this to support the needs of the dominant sex hormone at each stage of the month. Dr Mindy’s approach also covers the cyclical variations in nutritional needs with the goal of enhancing a woman’s hormones at each stage of her cycle for health and weight loss purposes, tailoring this to her individual goals.
Linked to the specific goals, individual cycle and other health and lifestyle factors, fasting can be stretched up to 24 hours, 36 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, or sometimes even longer. Longer fasts can give greater scope not only for switching to fat burning and weight loss, but also for other benefits including improved brain clarity and mental health, gut-reset, anti-aging and the potential for stem-cell regeneration after 72 hours.
Many specific health conditions have been proven to have been ameliorated or even healed completely through adopting metabolic fasting into lifestyle. The benefits of fasting can also be particularly helpful when reaching menopausal age, to assist in alleviating symptoms such as brain fog, anxiety, mood swings, sleep issues, hot flushes and weight gain.
If you think that a fasting lifestyle might assist you and you’d like to find out more, please feel free to click on ‘Get in touch’ on the ‘Contact’ page and we can schedule a call. Sessions can be in person or via zoom. As a certified Fast Like a Girl metabolic fasting coach I’d be delighted to explore your individual needs, and talk through how I could best support you in your quest to become the healthiest, most vibrant version of you!