Are Intermittent Fasting And Weight Loss The Same Thing?

While you can lose weight while intermittent fasting, it is so much more than just a synonym for weight loss!

In the words of Waist Away podcast guest Dr. Daniel Kalish, “Intermittent fasting and weight loss are totally separate subjects. Again, the reasons why; intermittent fasting is healthy, but has nothing to do with weight loss. They’re whole totally different subjects. And maybe that’s been confused by people out there, I didn’t realize it.

Intermittent fasting is one thing you do to get healthy and to be healthy and to keep your gut lining intact and to do all kinds of great things for your microbiome. And also stuff separate from that entirely is how people lose weight and why they lose weight.

So I lived in two different monasteries. One was in southern Thailand. And at that monastery, we had a 10 day silent retreat every month. So was 10 days of total silence. No talking, no reading, no writing, no eye contact. Just straight up meditation. If you’re on the lightweight program, maybe twelve hours a day, the heavy duty meditators like myself work 18 hours a day of meditation and then.

That monastery you had the morning break, the morning meal at sunrise, and then you could have if you were like kind of a wimp, you’d have a second little snack at 11:00 a.m.. There’s another monastery. I lived in northern Thailand, much stricter, and they were like, oh, no way. You know, you have a meal, one meal at 5:00 a.m. and that’s it.

And so it’s a discipline. But when everyone around you is doing it and there’s no food available anyways, you know, you don’t really get hungry, that kind of goes away. Like I said earlier, I think a large portion of why we eat and how we eat and who we eat with all revolves around using food as entertainment.

And when you take that off the off the option list and no one is eating, then you just do other things. To interact with other people. Play a game of cards or just talk about life, whatever it is that you do is there. Things don’t center around food.”

To enjoy the FULL episode, click right here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/157-dr-daniel-kalish-why-intermittent-fasting-has-nothing/id1318445077?i=1000459549876