I have read all of Dr Fung’s books and watched various seminars. There is something I am confused about and which I’m hoping someone can help me with.
He talks about his patients doing extended fasts in order to lose weight and get the benefits of fasting. Yet he also says he is fine with them drinking bone broth if hungry.
Wouldn’t this then stop being fasting and be a diet given that bone broth contains protein and therefore is “fast breaking”?
I struggle to break 72hrs on a fast but usually have a couple cups of broth and go another 24hrs. This last 24hrs I don’t consider it strictly “fasting” as I know the benefits cycle resets and there is no more autophagy. I do see that last 24hrs as good for weight loss however but without the benefits of autophagy (something I’m eager to utilise to avoid too much loose skin).
I know I sound very confused (because I am) - could anyone help me understand things a little better ?
Thanks in advance.
Dr Fung is treating the morbidly obese and t2 diabetics. You have to consider his priorities in this. He’d rather someone fast for the purpose of lowering their insulin and doesn’t care about the temporary cephalic insulin increase that may happen with eating a little. This cephalic increase may stop autophagy but can be part of fasting for weight loss and insulin reduction
He and his team support “training wheels” and don’t believe perfect should not be the enemy of the good. Listen to his coworkers podcast with Megan Ramos and dr Nadia padeguana…they consider cream in coffee or bone broth or a fat fast training wheels which are appropriate for some (beginners) but you move away from it with time
Thank you everyone. Clearly I read his books for my benefit and forget that his primary patients are concerned with major weight loss and autophagy is not the only purpose - really grateful for the comments.
My big concern was missing out on autophagy and risking excess loose skin but I think also I am over thinking things and therefore will just carry on getting whatever benefits I receive from extended fasts!
From personal experience I’ve only done a water fast 3 days and on another occasion I bought a bunch of Swanson bone broth sippy cups for convenience. On the fast with bone broth I just had it in case I was going to fail, rather than completely fail I would have one of those bone broths. Absolute Godsend I had one a day for like a week and got great results as well and my skin was glowing like crazy from all that collagen lol. Don’t think I answered your question but don’t overthink it either way will bring you success I’m sure of it
In my opinion the benefits don’t fully reset. There is not an on/off switch to autophagy, just like there is no on/off switch to ketosis. There are different levels of autophagy, which occur in different parts of the body, and the time to reach them vary person to person. It’s much quicker to get back into a state of autophagy after consuming <100 calories than it is after consuming 1000+
Stop worrying about the little things.
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Fasting is abstinence from most or all food. That’s it. There’s no other definition.
What you’re thinking of is a pure water fast. You don’t have to be doing a pure water fast for it to count as fasting. That’s something people choose to do for various reasons. If you want to have bone broth and fast, do it.