Dives into his personal fasting regimen used for cutting before bodybuilding competitions. The importance of reaching a fat-oxidizing state and maintaining proper nutrient levels through supplementation. Debunks the calorie myth, emphasizing the significance of macronutrient balance. Insights on how to preserve muscle mass while fasting, the role of hormones like testosterone, and the necessity of supporting the body's biochemical needs. Whether for fat loss or performance enhancement, this episode offers practical advice for anyone interested in fasting and fitness.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:04 - About fasting

01:18 - Fat as its primary fuel source to create ATP

02:18 - Chemical process

03:20 - The blood sugar regulation

04:14 - Calories

05:14 - What's going on in the body

07:56 - The ultimate stage

08:33 - One of the reasons people get hungry

09:54 - When I'm fasting

12:00 - The thing I love the most about

13:54 - If you focus on the chemistry

15:00 - How important macro function is

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:03] They were talking about fasting. So a lot of the ways that I've been doing my cutting is through fasting. So, like, right now I've got what is it, the 28th? We've got like 11 days, 12 days until the actual show. The plan is, I'll eat about four times, per week. So I'll eat, tomorrow night, Thursday night, Saturday night. And then I'm going to eat the next Tuesday, and then that's it before the show. That's the plan. The the way that you fast is important. The idea that you just don't eat is that is a form of fasting. It's what most people do. They just don't eat, and they just suck it up and go and. Okay. That's fine. The way I'm doing it. And half of you are like, that's not really fasting. Fine. The way that I'm doing it is, I first get into a cathartic state. So my body is where fat oxidizing says my body is burning. Fat is major fuel source creation of ATP.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:10] Again, calories aren't real, so you have to go to the macro function. You have to look at actual macros. So once you're in a fat oxidizing state where your body is using fat as its primary fuel source to create ATP, your body is going to be able to eat the fat that's on on it or in your body. As a fuel source now. Again, the body is a chemical machine and so we have to maintain total function of the body. Your body is again a chemical machine. There's a theme to this. I hope you pick up on it. and so we will display that. So the methyl be. So I take a ton of supplementation for this. Methylated B vitamins, omega three fatty acids. We're taking, you know. All of our or my lycee, my colleagues, for taking, time care for the lever. We're taking a ton of stuff. I'll post it on the. I'll post it, as it is, and then I'll add to as we go. So we're going back and adding the research and the, the reason I take all the supplements I take is because as I do research, I read about stuff. I'm like, well, I'm not taking that. That seems really important for this chemical process. And so I start taking.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:20] So, it gets more and more important when you're eating less and less because the nutrients are bringing in. You still have to have the chemicals. So to make your body really, really, really burn or oxidize and get rid of utilize however you wanna say the fat that's on the body, you need to you need to support all of the other stuff. So the hormones need to be held where they're supposed to be synthesized around. And testosterone really needs to be looked at more of a supplement, less as a drug. It's so close to what your body is used to seeing, that your body naturally takes it and converts it into natural estrogen all the time. So it's basically the exact same chemical. So we get into problems when we take in pharmaceuticals that don't we. Right. Don't know how to work with it. 100 cities that I work with. It's awesome. So. Get your testosterone. We're supposed to be because that's the healing hormone, right? Won't your metabolism won't work without it. And then I support I support everything else that's going on in the body. So if we're going to be working out hard, we make sure that we understand that the blood sugar regulation is critical for not losing muscle tissue.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:25] The reason that when people lose, like when they do, is impact, when they they will go via when they do all this type stuff. The reason that you lose so much muscle mass is because your blood sugar has to be maintained. Your blood cannot run on anything but sugar, and so your body will make sugar through gluconeogenesis the way it does, does. It tears apart your muscle tissues to get the amino acids out of the proteins, to then go to the liver and make new sugars. So if you understand that process, depending on your size or shape, your activity levels, you can support that with collagen and things like that. And then you don't lose the muscle mass, you just lose the fat. And so people are like, how how do you lose so much fat and maintain chemistry? Again, we go back to macro function. We go back to what does the body actually do it. This is why it's so important that we get away from the calories model because calories are made up. Nonsense.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:17] If you're like oh 8% of calories, okay, was that fat? Was that protein? Was that carbohydrates? If you're eating this is one of the reasons the Olympics has such issues is that, yeah, you cut your calories in half. But again, calories are pointless. So if you cut your calories, not that you're still eating sugars or carbohydrates, what ends up happening is that you maintain that glucose fat state. And so your body's like, oh, we're running out of sugar. We need to say no sugar. If I say so, it tears right your muscle tissues at a higher rate trying to maintain sugar levels for the blood. So that's why you're seeing 40 to 50% of the weight loss throws impact being lean muscle tissue. That's the big that's the big thing. Remember your lean muscle tissue is your metabolic function. So you go do whatever you can to maintain the lean muscle mass. That's going to be your, your protein, your, your, your, your college and things like that. Now again, if you're going to be doing this, you need to work with somebody who understands that blood labs are a reflection of what's going on in the body. It's not necessarily good or bad. So, for instance, if you're in a chaotic state, if you're in a fat oxidizing state, if you're in ketosis.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:22] I don't know how to say this. If you're using fat as your primary fuel source, your labs should look different than somebody who's using glucose as their main functional source. So, for instance, your Alta acids can be higher. It's obvious these things should all be obvious to people who understand how blood work works, which is not going to be most your most your doctors. They're gonna see high and low THC and they're freak out. You can be like, oh, that's liver damage. No, that's a lie. That's a smart take transferase. It's how your body uses this. The chemicals your body uses to make new sugar. So LTC should be higher. Your LDL and VLDL should be a lot higher because guess what LDL VLDL is a fuel source. It's not the bad thing that makes you give you heart attacks LDL build your will, never give you a heart attack, ever. They have to oxidize that. They actually become different, that become changed. Do I explain this is that, you know, if you take steel, build a house on it, build a building out of that, you know, super duper strong if you let it oxidize. So iron oxide, if you let it rust, it becomes crippling. Who's crushing with your hands? So if you let your LDL cholesterol oxidize, that's become wildly different structure. It becomes gooey, sticky, and kind of clumps together. That's the issue.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:36] And so we have to then on the other side of that make sure we're handling lipid oxidation function. Vitamin E is a great one for that I use a particle belt. And I'll again, I'll put all this so they can pile and put all on the, on the member section of the pillar as well as web site. But that's kind of how you do it. Now, a lot of you guys are going to look at what I'm taking me like. That's too much. I can't do that. I don't doubt you because I've turned this up to 11. I keep telling people I'm like, they're like, what's it like? I'm like, have you ever done certified hard work? Yeah, that was hard. I'm like, it's like this. But like, you turn that up like 75 hards of 5 or 6. This is in the lab. It's always funny cause people are like, what do you do? So you have hard bosses. Like, that's how I live my life, like, I don't, I don't drink, I work out, you know, usually once I'm now I'm like twice a day. I don't do the one inside, one outside thing. That's the only really real big difference. This has been substantially different. This is it's essentially harder. So if you liked 75 hard, the bodybuilding thing might be for you. Like, legit. This is a sport. People have been so amazing. It's been really hard. And I like that though. Like, you know, I like doing hard things.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:47] So if you're one of those guys who like, I like doing hard things, I like I like a challenge. I like pushing myself. This is 100%. This is this is the ultimate stage, you know, getting down to the point, like I'm fasting like I am. It's very difficult. In it. It's fine. But, little things like, you know, if you're in a flat oxidizing, say, you're not going to be hungry that often. If you can keep, you know, hydrated, keep your nutrient levels high, you'll be good. Like, a lot of times, like, aren't you getting exhausted? Not really. As long as I'm hydrated, I'm good. And then, like I said, the collagen. I take that, you know, my body uses for blood sugar keeps all that. I feel fine. Like I'm never. One of the reasons people get hungry is because of blood sugar drops. We have blood sugar drops. Your body starts freaking out, and you're like, we need some of your blood sugar doesn't drop because you're you put yourself in a position where your body is making your own sugar. You're fine. You're fine all day long. I want to eat because I love to eat. But that's one of those mental things. You're like. No. I've decided I'm not going to. And so I'm not going to. That's that's my favorite part of it. Like,.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:59] I'll be sitting there like, well, from a macro standpoint, I can have some of this, but I decided I wasn't going to eat today. That's the thing. And that's where the mental piece comes in, because you'd be like, well, can't you just see a little bit every day? You can't. And that's I'm not arguing that piece. You know, if you look at the week, you're like, I had 150g of fat for this week. You know, and so my body, you know, whether you eat them all on one day or you eat them, you know, every day spread out, it's still going to be roughly the same, chemically wise. But. I just, I like this because like, when I, when the maintenance I'm going to is going to be I'm not going to eat Mondays and Wednesdays. So I'll run a 22 to fast. I once a day, every day, except for Mondays and Wednesdays. Like that's going to be. That's my plan for making sure I get back from Well, that's not true. I mean, I'm going to do another cup when I get back from Europe. Better let me go back to man. So. So that's kind of how it goes. I'm a big supporter, a big, big believer of supporting the body chemically for everything it needs.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:09:54] So when I'm fasting, I'm not bringing in any outside food, but I am taking a giant amount of supplements to to basically fulfill all of my metabolic, all of my biochemical needs. And that's one of the big things. So I had like I said, a lot of people ask me how it is that I fast so much and I don't lose any muscle tissue because the vast majority of bodybuilders who, this are made this point out when we do our podcast, you know, he was like, what do you weigh now? I was like 230. He was like, you're going to step on stage two or some maybe, maybe 208. And he's like, definitely energy tech. And I was like, why do you say that? He was like, you're gonna lose so much muscle mass as you go through your calorie restrictions that you're just going to lose all that way. I was like, why would I choose to lose so much muscle mass? I worked so hard to put it on. I don't see why, you know, starting myself in radically damaging my nutritional intake to tear apart the body just to make a weight that didn't make sense. So which is one of the reasons that we went I went from physique to bodybuilding because I was like. I'm not going to lose all the muscle tissue I've already put on. So, but that's the thing. So you've got to when you're when you're fasting, when you're fasting for religious purposes, this is a completely different conversation when you're fasting just because again, religion conversation. But when you're using it for fat loss not weight loss. Which is another big pet peeve of mine.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:20] Everybody wants to lose weight. You shouldn't you should want to keep your muscle mass because you want to keep your water weight. You should want to lose your fat. And so by losing fat, you have to you have to remove the fat from your body. So to get to fat actualizing state a state in which your body is utilizing fat for your energy source. And the best way to do that is to move into like feed your body. You know, mostly fat and protein, fat, all the carbs down. And then then you can start fasting. And it's worked great for me. It's worked great for patients. I've had it on. It is a mental game. And the the coolest thing is that once you kind of figure out, you know, the thing I love the most about, like a 16, 8 or 22 to fast is that if you constrict your fat intake to a smaller window, you can have more fat. And so now all of a sudden, you know, you can have the key lime pie, you can have the cookies, you can have the chocolates, you can have the, you know, the pecan pie, you can have the cheesecake, you can have all the fun stuff. And it just doesn't it just doesn't make you fat because your body has. Let's say if you're eating 100g of fat a day, right, uses 100g of fat a day and you eat 90, your body will pull ten off your body to make up the deficit. This is a real deficit.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:12:37] When you focus on that caloric deficit, fat deficit when you're in a fat exercising set. And that's what I've been doing. And it's been working really, really well. And this is what I, like I said, is what I walk my patients through. And it's really funny because, like, you're going to make diet plans like, no, I'm going to teach you how to eat. And we're going to, you know, I'm going to show you how you can make your food, the foods you love to eat. You can eat. It's some of the best since it's hard. Like, I love French fries. We can't make. We can't do French fries. Like, the potato stuff is really difficult. Mashed potatoes, easy cauliflower, mashed potatoes. Anyone who tells you they can tell the difference between cauliflower mashed potatoes and normal mashed potatoes, is either the has the greatest palate in the world and should be a small. Yeah. Or as wrong. And the reason for that is because you don't taste mashed potatoes. You taste garlic, salt and butter. If you put garlic, salt and butter and cauliflower and mash it up, it tastes and looks exactly the same. So, as far as, like French fries and hash browns or stuff like that, that's that's hard to do. I haven't figured that one out yet. If I do, I will tell everybody, because that's literally, I think, the last hanging case.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:45] There's lots of breads, there's lots of pastas. There's lots of things that you guys need. Use it again. If we focus on calories, you're gonna be screwed. If you focus on macros. If you focus on the chemistry, you'll start to understand why it is that diets like the keto diet or the fat oxidizing stay diet actually work. And so if you're going to be fasting, recognize there's a lot of chemistry that's going on and you need to support your body chemically. Otherwise we're going to have secondary and tertiary problems down the road. We're going to have all sorts of issues. We've got issues with, energy, with brain function, with adrenal function, hormone function. Your body requires a very specific amount of things. And we need to make sure that we give the body those things.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:14:27] They don't have to come from food. And it's a lot easier to regulate, to pull all the levers. You want to get the body to exactly what you want. When you when you say, I'm going to give you all of these chemicals, I'm going to give them to you in a very specific way. And so that's kind of how it is. I'll, I'll put up, like I said, all the supplements I'm taking once we get to, once you get the member section put up, should be tomorrow. Recipes and macros that are coming. So the other thing is, is that one of the reasons it's taking so long is because, we're not just putting the recipes down. We're putting macro function mosa because I keep telling you how important macro function is. I don't want to say like, here's here's a recipe. It's not like, here's the fats, the, you know, the carbs, the like, here's everything.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:15:08] If you eat the whole thing, if you eat, you know, if you section it out, here's how you do it. Because again, I want you guys to start, you know, recognizing and hopefully utilizing macros as your is your guide to how the body works. I want to make sure I get into it. So that should be up soon. Everybody's going to be able to, to log in. So just, you know, whenever we set it up. So, should be I know I've said this a lot, but it should be by the end of the week. You guys can just log in, set up itself as a member, and then go. I think it should be free for 90 days or whatever we're going to do. Might be free forever. And so. Yeah. But that'll be kind of how that sets up. So if you guys have any other questions about fasting, drop them in the comments or hit us up. Questions at John Thomas like, thanks for your time.

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Dr. Matt Chalmers

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