16 - Do Low-Carb Diets And Intermittent Fasting Lead To Binge Eating?

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do you want to learn how to get healthy perform at your best and create body composition changes that lasts in this

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podcast we're going to talk about all things Fitness Nutrition health and mindset you're going to learn how to create real results and most importantly

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how to maintain those results in the long run I'm your investors I'm Christine and Dally and you're listening

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to talking nutrition

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what's up guys welcome back to talking nutrition today is episode 16 where we're going to talk about bench eating

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foot restriction and really fasting and we're actually going to open up a little bit more Now with uh some personal

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experiences about yeah trying you know a very restrictive protocols or doing some

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time restrict feeding but we'll get into that in a sec so as always if you don't yet make sure to

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follow us make sure to leave a review or a rating it helps us a whole ton today I want to start with

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um a little story of myself which I recently brought up where I would eat a whole jar of peanut butter with a pack

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of rice crackers which ended up being about 3 000 plus calories I looked it up actually and um

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without recapping the whole thing like I would work late get up early go to crossfits do just about two hours of

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training there so like quite a bit of training you know I would have coffee you know waited for

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work and then kind of like that was my day you know and repeat so what would happen was it sure had

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some breakfast and then I had like a protein shake after you know training by the time it was like 4 P.M I had no

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food in my system you know or very little at least

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even though I was doing a lot of training so of course the Cravings get started to kick in you know and then I would go to the store binge

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on like 3 000 calories of a whole jar of peanut butter and go about my evening

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that was more than my maintenance calories in like one sitting you know so even though I actually wanted to so I

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was trying to like be healthy then you know train and all that stuff I was taking care of myself or I thought so at least

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even though I was doing a lot of training I was not losing weight because just from that one sitting I would

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already get to my maintenance and then everything else during the day was like extra you know

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and that's exactly what happens when people go into protocols like intermittent

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fasting where there's very little education on like how much you're supposed to eat or what you should eat

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you know or things like low carb where you just focus on leaving carbs out right or leaving you know any processed

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foods out or whatever it might be a lot of times that just backfires and I

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had a similar experience with intermittent fasting where I would not eat you know for x amount of

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time I would actually do CrossFit fasted which is terrible

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um feel like crap and then as soon as I could eat it was like just just huge like pile of food you know

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and it really starts to create like a weird relationship with food and just food amounts of food choices and

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I think we have to like remove ourselves from that a little bit and focus Less on like leaving stuff out right and focus

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Less on I cannot eat after whatever time but focus more on doing

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more of the good stuff right but we'll get to that so um I think you want to share

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something about your your gut health Journey from a couple years ago right yeah I

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and I what you said there where you had this weird relationship with food but

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didn't even realize it so that was me

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in the beginning of my CrossFit career um so I was doing things like the Zone I

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did eventually get into macro tracking but what I was doing that type of when I

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was eating like that um what I would do is I would

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eat perfect you know throughout the whole week and like super clean

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and then I would have one day I think I've talked about this before potentially on here but I have one day

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where I would it would be my cheat day and I all week would I would basically

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make a list of what I wanted on my cheat day or my cheat meal and I would just go

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crazy and I wasn't like trying to diet or anything at this time like I was purely focused on performance but I

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didn't realize what was happening with my relationship with food until like I started to get a

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little bit more knowledgeable um also that doing that I would literally feel like crap for like two

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three days after because I was just in taking like all these super highly processed foods like I would literally

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just jump I was going from like I would go to like Taco Bell like I would jump

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right uh fast food restaurants and then I would even like go pick up like donuts and chips and I would just

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do this all day long and it was until I just was like this is

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crazy like you know I I realized it I don't I don't even remember what made me realize it but then I started to like

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sprinkle right the fun Foods throughout my week versus having this like one bass

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of big day and that's really when that changed things for me but when I was in

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it I didn't realize how messed up that really was right

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um until I was out of it so uh now since then

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I I mean when I was in that like I don't look back and say you know I had this really poor relationship with food

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because I had body bad body image or you know I was trying to like fulfill something it was just that's what I

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thought you did right I thought there was like massive cheat days and and whatever

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um so after that like I had I would say a very very solid relationship with food

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for from that time which was like you know I think that was like 2014.

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that was when I was doing the big binging and stuff um

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up until a couple of years ago like 2021 maybe 2020.

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um very very solid relationship with food no issues there at all

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and I have not shared this with anybody so all other than Eric and a couple like

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I think a couple other people but um I think it's important for me to share

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because it it wraps up it wraps into what we're talking about today

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um so a lot of people followed my gut health Journey um I had I have a lot of gut health

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issues from just like my past um surgeries over training all that

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stuff so I hired a specialist to help me and

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she was great like I'm I'm not talking down on her

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um in terms of this but what I went through like these protocols

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really started to impact my relationship with food so I went through it was a

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three-week detox and it was a very noticeable difference in what I look

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like like everyone was commenting on it um but I was a byproduct of the detox I

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wasn't doing it for improvements in my body composition I was doing it to start

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the process of my gut health Journey and this detox was for three weeks and

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the first two days you uh fasted so all I got on those two days was four shakes

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so I think it was like like 500 calories for the day okay uh

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and then after that the the remaining of the week you'd have a morning Shake

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you'd have a lunch afternoon shake and dinner but it was very restrictive right

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in the sense of like you can only eat x y z um you know there was there was a list

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of foods but zero process like nothing and this is you know when you're going

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through gut health protocols this is the type of stuff that you have to do right

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you you need to do the protocols are going to be restrictive and they're only

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meant to be temporary right but this was the one time in my life

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that I'm like oh my gosh like when I finished I had to be very careful with myself to

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not start to binge on certain foods like I really felt the desire very strongly

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to binge and I'm a person with a good relationship with food so I could not

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even imagine someone going through that um that

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didn't have a good relationship with food or was already dealing with you know stuff ahead of doing this

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and one thing I was doing and I bet you any money so many people can relate to

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this people who do the you know that restrict low carb or go low carb uh intermittent

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fasting you know carnivore when in real reality they don't like actually want to

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do these things right so this is like I was on Instagram

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I mean on the internet in general and just searching all of these recipes and

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desserts and stuff that I was gonna make following my protocols and like I was so

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food focused I'm like this is really bad like this is really bad

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um and so it really gave me a look into because I had never like overly

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restricted myself doing um diets because I was always

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Performance Based but it really gave me a look into how people feel

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when they are doing stuff like this right and it's and it's not sometimes

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it's not because you have a poor relationship with food it's just the way

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that you're choosing to do it you know lose fat right it's it's the diet you're

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choosing that leading to that poor relationship with food or making things unsustainable

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right because I think a lot of people they they get down on themselves too and

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they think oh I I just don't have the discipline I can't do this and blah blah

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blah blah but really it's not that it's that what you're doing is just super

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unsustainable for you um and and a very very hard to adhere to

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right so I just I think that I wanted to share that um because I think it's relatable to

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people uh but also just because it it

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showed me you know what restricting and it's crazy because like

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I wasn't restricting from a body image standpoint so it would be like tenfold

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for people in that situation so yeah it I mean I'm out of it now but

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it took a little bit for me to to essentially recover from feeling like

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that thing is too like people don't even do that on purpose right they don't know

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right it's not even your fault if you go online and you find or you literally you

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Google how do I lose weight or something you know like how do I do this I do find

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whatever it might be low carb Etc that's the stuff you find low carb

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intermittent fasting yeah keto all that and I'm not even like saying that all those tools are bad

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and let's be honest hey a lot of times we have to take people into deficit we're going lower carb because we have

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to cut calories from somewhere you know and if fats are already low then we might be on like a lower ish carve

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um protocol for a little bit but that's not because carbs are bad it's just because we need to lower calories

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but anyway it's not your fault that's what I'm trying to say it's almost like these Protocols are

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designed for you to fill which is also really not the case but there needs to be more education and that's where you

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know connect coaching again like that's where we can help you that's where coach can help you

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because we can actually walk you through hey this is how works this is what we can figure out like how we can get

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you to lose fed you to get healthy right but I feel like

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there's a wrong like there's something wrong there you know like from the very start because the principles are not

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being thought you know people think you know it's carbs people think it's

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sugar people think hey it must be fats you know and um it's just not the case

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right and I also wanted to go back to detoxes like

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the detox that you did was very different than the that you see online yes I wanted to bring

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this up because people see this online a lot too and I'm sure that when you look up weight loss you'll find a detox tea

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or detox isn't that something very different right there are detox

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supplements the protocols out there that are just money makers that just make you feel like

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what Christine did was work with a gut health professional

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who knew what they were doing yes right and you said it already like that's not

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a like a lifestyle change kind of thing that's okay we have to be very

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precisely very restrictive in that case because there is a specific

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condition that you want to take care of right and that goes beyond macros and

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calories and general like fat loss stuff yeah yeah you lost fat is a byproduct

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but those restrictive approaches there are there for a different purpose so I

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don't want people to think oh detox that's what I got to do because Christine lost a lot of weight right

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just kind of just in case you know because you see a lot of like well when I went through that and people saw

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the DraStic change exactly what I did I was like I'm not

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telling you like no way because they'll do it yeah and it'll just destroy

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someone because they'll the thing is it's is they'll do it they'll lose the weight they'll gain it back they'll try

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and do it again and it'll just be this cycle right because it's just it's not sustainable it's not meant to be

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no no it's not meant to be sustainable yeah it's a tool you know yeah

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um but that's why I really like that video and let's let's actually get into that

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because exactly that right low carb intermittent

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fasting those protocols they focus on a certain food a certain time

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with the purpose of weight loss but there was a new study

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that looked into that and the relationship between low carb intermittent fasting

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and under risk of binge eating um

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Lane I I likely yes I mean you either a lot of them already hate them but I know

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that I can tell he's like a

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how how do you explain him he'll he's just straight up but he also has

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compassion he cares a lot um so anyways watch the video it's a good

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video but I'm going to touch on a lot of stuff he he talks about so the video or

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the study recent 2022 study examining people that weren't dieting

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people doing low carb and then people doing low carb with

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intermittent fasting um but they excluded people that were

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just doing intermittent fasting um they also you know in terms of that

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they were examining the belief their beliefs around food their Cravings the inclination for them to binge eat or

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have Eating Disorders but they excluded people already diagnosed with eating

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disorders so which is really good like the setup is very solid yes

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um so a low carb diet was a eight percent women

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okay the low carb plus intermittent fasting was 98 women

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um and so and vast majority had normal BMI and normal a normal BMI in normal

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body weights what I meant to put there um so he goes into talking about how much

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just highlights and how much emphasis Society puts on women's bodies and how

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pressured we feel to look a certain way but I will add to this men are the same

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kind of like yes there wasn't there wasn't a lot of men necessarily in this study but and I think that's okay

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because a lot of studies are done on men we know that um but men deal with the same issues as

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women in terms of this so um in the local thing yeah

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sorry sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you no you're good I was thinking right there because

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there's a good chance too that dudes also don't necessarily want to be

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involved in a study like this to admit you know that they want to lose weight I

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think there's a thing there as well where dudes um there's plenty of guys struggling with

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that but they won't necessarily kind of like talk about it you know or share that

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with someone or look for help because I think that that's probably like part of it too but yeah you're definitely right

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like there's a lot of pressure on women and exactly how Lane said in that video like we have as a society we have to

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do better because it's yeah there's a lot of pressure in women's it's not a good thing big time sorry

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um great I'm good you're good so and the low carb group 40

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had significant levels of binge eating so remember these people didn't have

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necessarily disordered eating prior to going into this right so in the low carb

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group 40 percent had significant levels of binge eating the no diet group had 13

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percent so that's a pretty big these guys this

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much like this nuts yes I feel like we have to repeat that again yeah it's a

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low carb group 40 like 40 that significant levels of binge eating

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no diet group that was 13 that's a huge difference and then he goes into talking

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about the types of food they were binging on were things like bread and

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pasta and those exact Foods they

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identified as like bad or they wanted to avoid were the exact Foods they were

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binging on so it's um how did he put it

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these like really hard food rules like and having you know this uh mentality of

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like good or bad foods right those are literally the exact Foods these people

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are binging on right because of those you know hard food rules

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um then uh he said higher levels of food

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cravings for things like chocolate sub analysis of those doing low carb plus

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intermittent fasting saw even greater risk of binge eating than the low carb

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group so the low carb plus intermittent fasting was worse than just the low carb

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group and remember a low carb was at 40 percent and then the no diet was at 13 percent

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so I would I need to go into the actual studies I would be interested to see

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this percentage um so this is something straight from the

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study so it says Dieter showed higher levels of budgeting food cravings

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cognitive restraint toward carbohydrates when compared to non-dotters the association of low carb and intermittent

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fasting was really related to an increase in disordered eating especially binge eating and food craving

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specifically lack of control thoughts of preoccupation with food and guilt from

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cravings and or forgiving into them these results provide evidence that

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restrictive carbohydrate diets and intermittent fasting may increase cognitive restraint and consequently

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food cravings um and another thing that he pointed out

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was that you know often times when someone's going like low carb or they're doing

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like intermittent fasting or they're like keto or carnivore and they're in these groups and they're part of a

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community or they identify with these types of diets the guilt and the shame

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when they actually eat the carbs or they eat outside of the fasting window is

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tenfold like worst Temple because now it's part of their identity now they're

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letting like other people down right so that's another really big part of it

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and that plays into feeling like a failure again even though it's not even your fault right

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the one of the last things he said

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that really stuck out to me was you know you can choose to do these things so if

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you do low carb if you do an intermittent fasting understand that

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it's a form of like dietary restriction right like you're choosing to do it because maybe it feels easier for you or

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it's more sustainable for you verse I'm doing this because I fear carbs I think

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carbs are going to make me fat because you are quite literally setting yourself

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up for failure or like disorder eating right because

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no food in isolation so no carbs no fats

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you know Candy whatever you wanna whatever you're fearing none of those Foods in isolation are making you fat

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right it's the quantity it's the quantity how much you're having

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so again like trying to get away from the mentality and having these like

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really hard food rules um can help immensely I mean I I know it's

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way easier said than done obviously um but that's becoming that's what's

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causing you know a lot of these issues yeah and I swear like nine out of ten times

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when someone signs up for coaching they write out what they've done in the past

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it's like a combination of all of them right I tried keto and low carb and intermittent fasting

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but here they are coming to me for a fat loss call or to you in this case you know

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like those approaches can work definitely

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but they usually don't I feel like we've said this so many times on here yeah yeah

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but it's also the the one thing that so many people struggle with you know yeah

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totally so it's okay to bring it up again because that's exactly why people keep spinning

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their wheels because those restricted like if you're doing if you're doing keto or or carnivore and you're having

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binges on a bunch of carbohydrates you are not the diet is not working the

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diet is not working I have had many clients come to me doing I know I've

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talked about this keto carnivore that's all good and they're binging uh this is not working for you clearly

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right so people people like I don't know if they don't they can't like see that right but they just want to keep doing

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it again maybe it's because they're par it's part of their identity they want to say

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they're doing carnivore you know it works for a short period of time but if you're continuously having to go back to

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this diet because you ended up binging or you gained all the weight back it's not

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working it's not working I think too

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and this is literally just me thinking out loud but I think that it's also an easier thing to say I mean part like

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social media is definitely putting a huge role here with the carnivore this really pissed me off last week

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side note I saw this video this dude is literally like yo you gotta try this you know when

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you start to talk about it the molecules and this and that and he he's eating raw testicle with like a piece of butter in between yeah I

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saw that I'm like he's like he's like favorite snack I'm like this is

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not your favorite snack holy

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you can see you can see it in his face I know please

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oh man like anyway that means

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when he said this is my favorite snack I literally threw my hands up I was like

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oh I was like no I was like bloody dude and then he he

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gets into like yeah this this will give you all the signaling molecules or I I don't know whatever whatever you said

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yeah they try and sound all smart right but anyway sorry back to my point I feel

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like I have like side rounds like that all the time where like stock what is that Rose in the back

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where you start talking about like idiots on Instagram and Tick Tock no but okay like that let us play a role in

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into it you know like you see like keto stuff a lot of carnivore but the thing is too like it's easier to

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say hey I'm not gonna eat bread and pasta whatever you know because like I'm just gonna cut

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out that group because I know it's like you barely think about it you know okay that's carbs I'm not gonna eat that yeah easy right

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instead of put in time effort patience change your habits you know like working

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on your overall diet but that's a problem too because like you said you have to keep going back to

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the diet sure it can work for weight loss but how are you going to keep it off you don't because you rebound and

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then you have to go back there again so right anyway it's uh

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it's just about the way I think I think one thing that doesn't work that drives me a little bit crazy too is when people

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say that tracking macros is like obsessive and stuff like that when and

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then here they are cutting out whole food groups like both like both can

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cause issues but I can't stand when they just like focus on one thing and I think we've

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talked about this before we're like majority of my clients are tracking macros and not dieting like it it

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doesn't automatically mean you're dieting yeah right so okay I had to add that in

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again no I think that's that's a really good one and this really goes back to the same thing it's a lack of Education

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yeah because sure I've had a lot of people who said like hey tracking didn't work for me whatever

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but usually they were like not eating any protein you know like there's no context there no education they didn't

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know what to do they followed the app and since we're sharing personal stuff anyway I remember tracking for the first

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time with MyFitnessPal and you know these little mints are called like spinth you know what I want I think so I

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would track every single one of them and they're like yeah I didn't know yeah and

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it's like the thing like one is like one gram yeah I didn't know they were like

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these sugar free things and I I had to like track every single one of them I had like a a log of them you know

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um so also there like I also have personal experience with doing tracking wrong you know

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so sure like at the end of the day it can all be used to either teach you and get you to a

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good spot or hurt you but um let's let's try to like use stuff to

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learn from and not necessarily say I'm gonna do this because carbs are bad

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or this is bad or whatever is bad or I have to leave this out or I cannot eat

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from this time until then I would say like focus on the things that you can do right I know you do this

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as well like we don't focus on restriction we add more good stuff we add protein we add fruits right we add

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veggies you know um there's a time and place for leaving some stuff out you know

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let's be honest the calorie deficit we literally have to take calories away yeah but it doesn't have to be low carb it

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doesn't have to be intermittent fasting I think there's better ways to go about it same agreed

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the proof is in the pudding sorry

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how would you write you know there's stuff that lasts long term and there's stuff that's going to get you some very

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short maybe pretty good weight loss results but I mean if you rebound and you gain

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it all back it doesn't really matter I don't think so thank you guys for listening as always

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it is up follow us on Instagram give us a five star rating on Spotify or apple and then we will see you next week

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a five-star rating or share this episode on your Instagram stories however at any point you feel like you need more help

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you can always reach out to Christine or myself directly create any of the links in our show notes because we're here to

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help thanks again and I'll talk to you in the next episode

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thank you