We're at it again with Episode 437, Q&A #30!

Submit your own questions for the podcast at: https://robbwolf.com/contact/submit-a-question-for-the-podcast/

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Show Notes:

1. Fitbit Sleep Tracking [1:35]

Jay says:

G'Day Robb, love your work. I took a break from your podcast to learn computer programming and am now back because I'm stressed and my desk bound body is broken. Glad to be back and see you've figured out your keto problems when bonking during class. I've signed up to your keto master class so fingers crossed.

I have a somewhat basic question about sleep.

My Fitbit says I slept 7 hours with 1 hour awake. I don't remember waking and there are up to 30 a night of these tiny 'awake' periods. I do sometimes toss and turn to get into comfortable positions. My partner says I'm asleep within minutes of hitting the pillow. So I think I'm sleeping ok.

Should I think about this as 8 hours sleep or 7? I tend to wake up energised when my Fitbit says 6hrs 30 mins + 1 hour awake.... So thinking this is equivalent to standard 7-8 hours per night. When I push for Fitbit to say 8 hours then I'm very lethargic when I wake. But it's probably then like 9 hours which could be 'over sleeping' for me.

Anyway, love the work you two are doing. I miss the Q&As with Greg but love the new format.

Anyway, fangirling from Australia. My question can probably be answered by Google but I'm sure you'll be able to cut through the interjunks.

All the best - Jay

2. Palate Fatigue & Food Burnout [8:11]

Maria says:

Hi, Robb and Nikki, I was wondering if you can address palate fatigue. For some reason, I tend to be the kind of person that needs to have a lot of something and then don’t want it anymore and have to switch. Before, I was into avocados and sardines, all the time, and now it is eggs and bacon. It is almost as if my body is asking for these foods at certain times. Thank you!

3. Protein Toxicity and the Carnivore Diet [12:22]

Jesse says:

Hey Robb,

In WTE you briefly mention (p. 27) that humans cannot consume more than 35% of their calories from protein before suffering from protein toxicity. The carnivore diet has recently gotten some publicity and seems to have some anecdotal success for folks with stubborn autoimmunity issues. Do you think following a carnivorous diet carries a high risk of suffering from protein toxicity? And would we be able to look for evidence of protein toxicity in kidney function testing?

Best,

Jesse

4. Waking Up From Hunger While In Ketosis [17:55]

Justin says:

Dear Robb,

I'm a huge fan of the pod and your work.

For the past two months, I've been following a keto eating plan (I weigh all food and track macros - I'm usually hitting 40g net carbs, 90-100g protein, and somewhere between 235g-270g fat, for a total of roughly 3,000-3,500 calories per day). I'm a 30 y/o male, 5'9. I usually eat 3-4 meals/day with no snacks. I currently weigh 156lb and am about 16% body fat (I did a BodPod when I was a few pounds lighter and was at 14.5%). In terms of exercise, I usually go to the gym 3x/week and do some combination of squats, deadlifts, press, and bench press. As an example of where I'm currently at with strength, I do 4 sets of 5 repetitions (2 min rest periods) 205 pounds on squats.

My question is this: when I try to cut calories down by 300-500 (I'd like to get to 12% body fat), I wake up in the middle of the night hungry. I feel like I keep hearing on various podcasts and books that I read that in a state of keto, hunger should be significantly blunted and this shouldn't really be an issue. But I feel like if I don't go to sleep pretty full, I wake up in the middle of the night. I know sleep is critically important, so this seems like a problem. If I eat enough to sleep through the night, I can maintain the same weight but really struggle to lose weight. I've done self-experiments to make sure I'm not waking up due to stress, noise, etc., and have isolated that my sleep is almost completely correlated with my hunger levels. I wanted to ask for your guidance because I imagine other people might struggle with a similar issue - I know many people who do well with hunger during the day, but not so well at night. Some things I've wondered about is if I'm overtraining or if there's some sort of other physiological issue I need to attend to. Maybe I'm not understanding keto properly, but I feel like with my macro breakdown I should be able to comfortably go 12-16 hours without eating? Or, is the ability to go prolonged periods without food less about eating and more about individual differences?

Thanks for all of the amazing work that you do.

Justin

5. Fasting For Skinny Dudes [23:50]

Brett says:

Hi. Robb and Nicki...

Fasting for overweight or normal weight people has been well covered. Is there any benefit to underweight guys fasting in an effort to add mass? I’m 6’3” and 165lbs, 37 years old. I can eat whatever I want in whatever quantities I want and my weight never changes. I would like to be heavier. I’ve tried weight programs and I tone up ok but it’s rare to add more than 5lbs. The minute I stop the program I’m instantly back to 165. Everything else you always talk about like diet, sleep, stress is already dialed in

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Transcript:

Download a copy of the transcript here (PDF)