Hello and welcome to this episode of the ESG Fitness podcast. So one I've actually done quite a lot of

prep for. Not saying that I don't normally do that, but I mean actually, no, I don't, I don't always do

this level of prep. Anyway, the reason I've done this is because this is probably one of the

most common questions that I get. And that is, what do you think about fasting?

And I'm not sure it's something I've fully discussed on the podcast, at least not in the last

couple of years. And I've slightly changed my views on it based on more recent research,

which is what all good coaches

should do. So this is kind of like my updated views. Now, before we get into it, there is a

difference between fasting and time restricted feeding, even though they are often used interchangeably.

And actually, time restricted feeding is normally talking about animal

models, models, mice, or sometimes worms, etc. Whereas time-restricted eating is normally when you're

talking about humans. Anyway, the main difference that I want to distinguish between is fasting,

which is generally over about 12 hours. So think something like the 5-2 diet, or time-restricted eating, which is normally more like a six to eight-hour eating window. So the most popular one of those is like the 16-8 kind of principle where you fast for 16 hours and then

you eat within this eight-hour window. Now, the health claims around fasting to me still seem

quite overhyped with little evidence beyond the benefits of caloric restriction. Now I might change my mind about that

at some point if better evidence comes along. I'm very open to that. What I am quite impressed

with now is the potential benefits of time restricted eating. So if we just start with fat loss,

because that's often what people want to know,

like is fasting better for fat loss? Is there an added benefit to fasting as opposed to just

dropping calories? Now, I still think that the benefit of fasting for fat loss is primarily

down to the fact that when you shorten the period of time in which you eat,

you will generally, usually eat less. That's not for everyone. And obviously there are some

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