Speaking With Alyssa Sybertz; Freelance Health and Wellness Writer and Author

Today I am speaking with Alyssa Sybertz. Alyssa is a freelance health and wellness writer and author of The OMAD Diet: Intermittent Fasting with One Meal a Day to Burn Fat and Lose Weight. She is a frequent contributor to First for Women magazine and Woman's World magazine and is the food editor for Closer Weekly. She also writes for Allrecipes, The Healthy, and wellness brands like Peloton and Power for Life Fitness. Her passion for health and wellness extends beyond her day job, and when she's not writing she's teaching Zumba classes, cooking, snowboarding or hiking with her husband and her dog.

This series features conversations I conducted with individuals who have dedicated their research, businesses, lifestyle, and health to various forms of Fasting and the science of Fasting. This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media. Patricia Kathleen Podcasts

 

TRANSCRIPTION

*Please note this is an automated transcription, please excuse any typos and errors

[00:00:00] In this episode, I speak with journalist copyrighter and author Alyssa Sybertz Key Points addressed where Alyssa's book, coming out in December of 2020 titled The Mad Diet Intermittent fasting with one meal a day to Burn Fat and Lose Weight during our chat. We unpack the basics of mad fasting and how Alyssa conveys what she believes to be some of the core principles of the practice to her readers. Stay tuned for my informative talk with Alyssa Sybertz. 

 

[00:00:36] My name is Patricia Kathleen, and this series features interviews and conversations I conduct with experts from medicine and science to health and humanitarian arenas. In an effort to explore the world of fasting from a variety of angles, this dialog is meant to develop a more complete story about the information research. Personal stories and culture in and around the science and lifestyle of fasting. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as founders and entrepreneurs. Vegan life and roundtable topics. They can be found on our Web site. Patricia Kathleen dot COM, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod, Dean and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation. 

 

[00:01:29] Hi, everyone, and welcome back. 

 

[00:01:30] I am your host, Patricia. And today I'm delighted to be sitting down with Alissa Seibert. Alyssa is a journalist, a copywriter and an author. You can research more about her, her work and what we're talking about today on her Web site. Alyssa Sybertz dot come that is a L Y. S s a s y b e r t z dot com. Welcome, Alyssa. 

 

[00:01:52] Thank you so much for having me. 

 

[00:01:54] Absolutely. I'm excited to kind of crawl through everything that you're doing. You have a book that hasn't launched yet. So we have the scoop, which we were talking off the record I'm super excited about. I can't wait to climb through that with you. I'm for everyone listening. I'm going to give you a quick roadmap for today's podcast. You can follow the trajectory in which we are going to pull our inquiries from. But prior to that, I will also read a bio on Alyssa so that everyone has kind of a background of who she is as a writer and an author. The Roadmap for Today's Podcast. It will follow a brief history on a list as it pertains to the subject of fasting and her book that she's written on the subject. We'll also get into her academic background early occupational life, so we garner a sense of where Alyssa has kind of come at writing with. And then we'll look at Alyssa's personal history with fasting and as its kind of an entrenched and woven within that person, that she is academically an occupational wise. And then we'll turn straight to unpacking her book, which is called The Mad Diet, intermittent fasting with one meal a day to burn fat and Lose Weight. And you can preorder this on Amazon. We will be unpacking things. And I'm excited because I get to come at this a little blindfolded as I have not read it yet. I get to kind of just go at it as though we were sitting down on a bus stop together, which will be exciting. I haven't done that in a long time. For those of you who listen to my work, my podcasts and my documentaries. I love research. So this will be on the fly research. But prior to kind of climbing through Alissa's book, I want to quickly read the bio as promised. Melissa Seibert is a freelance health and wellness writer and author of The Omak Diet Diet Intermittent Fasting with one meal a Day to Burn Fat and Lose Weight. She is a frequent contributor to contributor to First for Women magazine and Women's World Magazine and is the food editor for Closer Weekly. She also writes for all recipes the healthy and wellness brands like Peloton and Power for Life Fitness. Her passion for health and wellness extends beyond her day job. And when she's not writing, she's teaching Zumba classes, cooking, snowboarding or hiking with her husband and her dog. So, Alyssa, I love that we have a lot of things in common. I love to snowboard. I love hiking. I have a dog and Zoubi haven't tried, but I absolutely would. Any day of the week. So before we get into all of your book and how those different activities play into probably who you are. I'm hoping you can draw us like a brief history of your academic background and occupational life, bringing you to writing your book, The Mad Diet. 

 

[00:04:29] Absolutely. So my first job was actually as an editorial assistant at first for women, where I still write. Prior to that, I was an English literature major in college and I applied for this job at first. And it kind of just turned out to be in the nutrition department. But then I kind of sat back, thought to myself. I've always been interested in fitness. I was an athlete growing up. I was on the crew team in college and nutrition and fitness kind of go hand-in-hand. I feel like so, yeah. I was pretty excited to dove into that role. So I started working at first and really learned on the job. And I think that two of the fastest ways to learn about something, become knowledgeable about that topic are one, to speak with the doctors and the researchers and the experts about the work that they're doing. And then to to be tasked with explaining that thing to other people in a way that is easy to understand. And so that's really the role that I was in writing for a women's service magazine. I was kind of that conduit from the research and the experts to the average woman who wants to learn about these things. And so I quickly kind of developed the vocabulary, too, to talk about them, found and figured out what these different things are doing in the body, that kind of stuff. And then from nutrition, I kind of branched out to write more about fitness and health and food and cooking and kind of that whole world. And then fast forward to twenty seventeen. I left first full time and became a freelancer and started looking for kind of larger, more challenging. Different different types of projects, that kind of stuff. And I saw that Ulysses Press was interested in publishing a book about the old man diet and was looking for something to someone to write it. And I thought to myself, I've developed this vocabulary. I've spent years reading these types of books, writing about them. I know the structures that work. I know kind of what what to look for. And so I pitched myself and kind of my vision for the book. And they liked it. And I got the opportunity to then go and write it. 

 

[00:07:20] Yeah, it sounds like a match made in heaven. I mean, given your extensive history and in health and wellness and particularly with the scope and lens of women. One of my biggest beefs with fasting in the health industry, I will say in general, and people who've listened to me know that this is kind of out there is I'm not really breaking news here, but we don't study women's health in specific or as separately from men's. We study overall health, largely garnered from historical studies done on white men and call that health. And we just kind of disassociate and this is this is something that I've actually kind of plagiarized from white male doctors. Like everyone acknowledges, we don't study hearts differently. And as much as a woman's heart versus a man's. We study a group of hearts and we say that's kind of the human heart. And so what I like about the idea of coming at it from women's health and wellness is that, you know, having this specific view of of one gender and then kind of coming at the world of fasting from your basis of health and wellness, being, like slided towards women is it's an interesting and it's a neach, you know, take. And I like the idea that you studied more of the underdog in the community that has been understudied and things of that nature. And I kind of want that to drop a straight into the oh man diet and into it. 

 

[00:08:37] So the title is the OLMA Diet, intermittent fasting with one meal a day to burn fat and Lose Weight. And I do want to get into why you titled that that. But before I do that, I want to read a quick excerpt that my team scrubbed from online. So it is legit. And you said that a part of this might be on the jacket as well. But I think we got this from Amazon and it says, The one meal a day approach to fasting is an efficient way to burn fat and lose weight. The eating only went, but eating only one meal a day when done improperly can deprive your body of nutrients and energy it needs to thrive. The Omak Diet will show you how to take this approach in the healthiest and most mindful way possible. This comprehensive guide book will show you exactly what you need to feel your body to stay healthy, full and burning fat. Then, once you have the technique down, you provides over 100 recipes to make your one meal planning. Breeze, each delicious recipe comes with a Step-By-Step instructions, as well as a complete nutritional information. 

 

[00:09:36] And. 

 

[00:09:38] And then it's so that you can be absolutely sure you're getting the macronutrients, microinsurance and vitamins you need. You'll savor your daily meals. Delicious recipes like fiery maksym, burrito bowls, teriyaki salmon, basmati rice and proper rub, a roasted vegetable salads. 

 

[00:09:56] So eating one meal a day may be extreme, but it doesn't have to be miserable with these tasty and easy recipes that continue or conform to Quito paleo plant based gluten free lifestyles and more. And that last bit is actually, for me, one of the most important ones. I feel like the way you can climb into this later on. But the fasting community gets very, very divided into like people who eat specific diets outside of their fast. And I just don't I don't think it necessarily needs to. And I love the idea that you've got this book with recipes that can kind of conform to all those specific people when they are eating and eating those specific diets. And so it doesn't exclude anyone. But I want to get back to the title and I want to know how you came up with. I'm very big on titles that do what they say they're going to do. And I haven't read your book, but I'm hoping from the description, it sounds like it's doing exactly what it says. So the oh, diet, intermittent fasting with one meal a day to burn fat and lose weight. How did you come up with that title? 

 

[00:10:56] Yes. So we kind of worked work together on that. And myself and the publisher both decided that we just wanted it to be super. Not again, like you just mentioned, trying not to be divisive and really just provide a kind of high level. Introduction, really, four people into one meal a day, which is what the book is trying to be, is really a kind of a QuickStart guide, an overview for anybody who is interested in a one meal a day lifestyle, trying it or just learning more about it. And this will really provide the kind of the a jumping off point for for those people. 

 

[00:11:45] Nice. And you personally, I kind of want to climb into your personal fasting story before we climb into the core tenants that you wrote the book, because even if you weren't trying and you had a publisher weighing in, I find a lot of authors cut pull more than that. 

 

[00:11:59] Maybe even they suspect from their own personal experiences, particularly into these kind of informative manuals. What was your history with fasting? 

 

[00:12:11] I didn't have a lot of it to. To be honest, I have since obviously doing a lot of research and stuff like that, given given it a go and kind of experimented with different different strategies, especially as far as Mohmad goes, which I know we're going to get there later. But I have a whole chapter in the book about the things that you can have during your fast bet. And it's not that it's not that while within the twenty three hours where you're not eating your meal, it's not that you can't put anything at all into your mouth, because I know that from someone like me you like I, I love food like I really enjoy, enjoy eating. And so I was like what can, what would help me get through the fast. And not like you mentioned in the reader might not be miserable. And so a lot of my my personal kind of references and stuff like that really, really went into that chapter. I think that was the biggest one. And then I will occasionally do I'll occasionally do a like a fast for part of the day or the whole day and then just do the one meal. But yeah, I didn't have a lot of a lot of personal experience with it before writing the book, but. 

 

[00:13:37] Well, you don't need to I mean this is where so when people hear that they might cringe. 

 

[00:13:42] But I truly this is like the greatest choreographer's for ballet have in the past been like crippled Weitman, you know, like it's actually not necessary to conductors being able to play every instrument, like to be able to research and study something. One does not necessarily practice it. And in fact, it can bring a different take on it. You know, the object, the objectivity, the bird's eye view can change to a critically good standpoint. So I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. I'm wondering, I you dropped breadcrumbs. I'm going to pick that one up. I want to know how the book is structured, because I only have the tidbit that I just read. How does the introduction play out and the subsequent chapters that follow? What's the flow of the book? 

 

[00:14:27] So it's broken up into two main parts, which are kind of the science of the diet and then the recipes. And so the first part starts with an introduction where I go a little bit into the history of fasting, which I found pretty fascinating, particularly the fact that the kind of three meals a day model, breakfast, lunch and dinner was kind of born out of the Industrial Revolution and people starting to go to work from 9:00 to 5:00. And their schedules kind of dictated that they needed to be eating at those certain times as opposed to anything kind of health related or body body related, which I thought was pretty interesting. And then I kind of go into the science of what's going on in the body, at the cellular level, cellular level, at the hormonal level while you're fasting. And. Like the research that has been done on different aspects of health, so obviously weight loss, as the title suggests, but then also the benefits of fasting for folks with Type two diabetes. The benefits for heart health. For brain health. Yeah. For immune health. Different things like that. And I just kind of provide a overview of some of the some of that research that's been done, what it's been finding. 

 

[00:15:59] So the over thing. Let me ask really quickly before we go on with that, how in depth. It's always tricky for me. I this is why I could never write a book on fasting or diet in general, because I just don't know when to stop. But I'm wondering, like, do you get into the hour by hour? There are some fasters that get into like when a top vagy starts to kick in cellular repair and regeneration, things of that nature. Or do you do it much more layperson like are you just like this is normally when insulin switches into you know, this is like there's that moment of urgency when you go from burning sugar or, you know, to to burning fat, like all of those different autophagy is mixed in there. Do you weigh all of that out or do you use much more broad terms? How did you, like, decipher that? How did you curate that? 

 

[00:16:44] Yeah, I kind of I used a more a more broad approach that basically kind of went into how. The there was there was an interesting and interesting study that I looked at where there were kind of three different groups of people in the study and the first group was eating kind of a regular three meals a day. This next group was doing, I think, one meal a day. And then the third group was doing alternate day fasting. And so there fast was even longer. And they really were able to look at the three side by side and just see that the obviously the group with the longest fast kind of made that swap from burning sugar for energy to burning fat for energy. 

 

[00:17:32] And we're in that phase that much longer. And so which obviously is when your body kind of starts going into the stores is energy that are stored in fat cells and things and using those as opposed to just using the food that you're you're kind of taking in in a more immediate manner. And so, yeah, so I basically kind of described it as at some point, like during the fast. Your body runs out of that energy that's being taken in and kind of makes that swap. And. That's where that's kind of the point that you're that you're trying to reach. And if you have asked is twenty three hours as opposed to eight hours or something, when you're when you're asleep, then you're going to have that much longer and kind of host switch land. Yeah. As opposed to as opposed to pretty. 

 

[00:18:34] So you explain the science in the first few chapters and then you said you crawl into recipes and I'm curious with you looked at the science and then you you kind into recipes. How did you find. How did you create the recipes standpoint and this inclusive measure? It feels like that it would be a much more laborious endeavor in that you're looking at Kito, you're looking at plant based. You're looking at all of those different things with people who fast. How did you even begin that? Did you break it down into different times of day's meals or did you break it down to genre? You mentioned something about Mexican food. How did you come at that one? 

 

[00:19:10] Yes. So I kind of broke it out by chapter in two different types of meals. So the the types of meals that I feature are breakfasts, what I call breakfast style meals. So those are your, like, egg dishes. Your burrito's your. 

 

[00:19:33] And then some kind of loaded oatmeal dishes, some smoothie bowls like some of those those things that people like to eat in the morning, that even if they're not having their one meal in the morning, but they just love breakfast foods, they can still have those. And then I have a chapter on salads. I have a chapter on Bolls, which are kind of with the base of a grain or a noodle or something like that. And then built on top of that. I have a chapter that I called Protein Plus Two, which is kind of the format. I feel like when I was growing up, my all the suppers that my mom made were always like chicken and broccoli and potatoes or something like that, kind of a very round plate like that. So I have a chapter that's built around that in the chapter of chilies and soups, things you eat with a spoon out of a bowl and then a chapter of more kind of indulgent dishes. So like pasta bakes and things like that for when you want to indulge a little bit more. And all of B, all the chapters except for that last one are the recipes are built to serve just one person. But they're obviously very easy to double if you're eating with. Excuse me, if you're eating with someone or like triple dribble. If you're if you're eating with others. And then I know you've mentioned the different kind of diets and different eating eating plans. I just try to intersperse options for those like. So some are kind of naturally. Quito or palaeo or plant based? Yeah. And then for others, I wrote, like, for example, a lot of the salads. If you take out the cheese, then you're going to be like paleo or plant based depending on the other ingredients. 

 

[00:21:41] And so there are a number of recipes that are just kind of naturally fit into into one of those molds. But then there are quite a few others where I've included in the recipe. Note at the top that if you exclude one or two ingredients, then it will fit into this mold as well. Because, yeah, I did really want to be inclusive of those different forms of eating. And I also in the first section of the book, I have a bunch of success stories of people who had done Nomad and found success with it. And some of them were saying that they kind of had started with a certain diet like Quito, for example, and maybe lost some weight and then hit a plateau. And I couldn't figure out how to keep going and then kind of move from that into fasting or. Yeah. Oh, man. And that was what helped them. So I wanted to make it kind of approachable no matter what. Background or eating style? You're coming at it from well and following that. 

 

[00:22:50] Did you have an idea? I mean, inclusively seems to be a thread here. 

 

[00:22:54] But did you have an idea as to or did your publisher assign you like a target audience as far as gender, age, health status, any of those things? It sounds like you're trying to be inclusive with everyone practicing different forms of eating. 

 

[00:23:10] But did you have an idea as to who you were largely writing the book for in regards to anything else that just defined your audience? Characteristic was. 

 

[00:23:21] Again, nothing super specific, I think inclusive really is is the right word. 

 

[00:23:28] I was did point out, obviously, that one meal a day is not for everybody. There are certain health conditions, like if you have low blood sugar, for example, then you kind of need to be eating at certain intervals throughout the day. But. As long as you are like. If you speak to your doctor or health care provider, say, like, I'm thinking about trying this. And then they give you the go ahead. No matter who you are. I wanted this to be a book that like that person can turn to and find information and recipes and kind of a a jumping off point. I and then because in addition to the recipes, there is a chapter in the first action that kind of breaks down the different elements of a meal from a macro nutrient kind of standpoint. So your your proteins and your facts and your carbohydrates and kind of the different elements that need to go into a meal. If you wanted to, like, start using your own recipes, things like that. And then but then also, if you don't want to get too creative right off the bat, then here all the other wonderful recipes that you can choose from. 

 

[00:24:51] I find it interesting that the world of fasting opens up more conversation about what you eat when you when you're not fasting, you know, is not it's it's a fascinating and education. Everyone I know who's gotten into fasting be through a more gentle like 18 six or like Hammat or something like that always comes back to like studying macro nutrients and things that they had no idea about before, you know, kind of reinvestigating re familiarizing themselves with their relationship with what they are eating, which I think is a beautiful kind of consequence of it. I'm wondering, do you kind of dropped the idea that you have a chapter that you loved most. You talked about what you can eat to while you are fasting that you personally really subscribe to. And I'm wondering if you looked at Walter, long hours, fast mimicking, you know, he talks about getting the calorie intake low enough that there is a lot of the benefits, the cellular benefits from fasting, but one isn't actually not eating or not consuming some kind of nutrients. And I won't I won't blast remise Dr. Long now study about any of that stuff. I think he's coming on this summer, so hopefully we'll get it straight from the horse's mouth. However, I kind of want to look at. 

 

[00:26:05] What areas and what foods you decided to include in that and what the research was that a company? 

 

[00:26:12] Yes. So I'm not super familiar with the fast mimicking specifically, but I kind of went into it with the idea that, like, what can you consume without pulling your body out of its fasted state? And so I thought of the fasted state as the state in which there's no more glucose, there's no more sugar coming in for your body to use as energy. You've used up your stores of glucose and so now your using fat and then anything that it's particularly carbohydrates that will pull your body out of that state. So that the chapter that we keep referencing it has, which I used a I think Akito diet Kito community term, which is fat bombs, which are these little treats made from fats that you kind of won't pull your body out of the state. And so one of one of my favorite ones, which I actually ever since developing the recipe for the book, I've kind of always had them in my in my fridge just for my freezer as an afternoon snack. They're made with coconut oil, coconut butter, raw kakao powder. And then just like a tiny bit of stevia. And you kind of mix that all together, poured into an ice cube tray or into a muffin tins and stick it in the freezer and it freezes. And this really kind of smooth, thick, luxurious texture and just tastes like dark chocolate. But because it is like primarily fat, it's really just like an instant hit of energy that won't pull you out of your fast. And so my feeling would be kind of to what you should be consuming, like during your fast. Ah, no one is like always have some sort of beverage on the side, especially because there's been like a lot of research done. And a lot of doctors say that most people, if they think they're hungry at any given point during the day, there's a good chance that they're probably thirsty and not hungry. And so they have like water or black coffee or tea or. I also include, like chicken broth and beef broth in that, because that can feel a little bit more like you're eating something, because if you get that kind of savory flavor. Yeah. So I think if you kind of have something, something to drink kind of on hand at all times, and then if you really feel like you need to need to chew something, you can like have a fat bomb or two and that will kind of carry you nice. 

 

[00:29:12] So I'm wondering is when you talk about, you know, kind of not coming out of the fasting state, it's largely keeping your body in ketosis, which is why you're doing these Kito fat bombs. Right? 

 

[00:29:22] It's it's burning the fat and that being like keeping the body in the ketosis state, just to be clear. And that's interesting. I'm wondering. And along with that, have there been. Were there other areas when you were in your health and nutrition studies that you pulled into from that like there have been companies they spoke with, you know, someone for the series that has fasting sticks and things like that that they've have you looked at other products or have you kind of stayed with just these Kitto recipe diet ones that keep you in a fasted state? There are also things that you can consume that will rather they keep you in a ketogenic state. And have you come across anything else or has it just been these kind of Quito based fat bomb like tinctures? 

 

[00:30:08] That's the kind of the big one that I would like. Something else that I mentioned in the book is using like fiber supplements that are like powders, like insulin powder that you stir into water. That isn't something that you chew, but it doesn't have any calories, doesn't have any car or doesn't have any sugar, rather, because fiber is a carbohydrate. 

 

[00:30:32] But you kind of drink that and it gives your stomach the feeling of being full. And so that can kind of help as well. And so that. Yeah, about something else that I have in there that I recommend to help help get you through the the fast as well, because fiber and protein, which I don't know if I mentioned yet, are kind of the two big things that I really focused on when developing the recipes to get those. High levels of fulness and kind of end like satisfaction at the end when developing, those were the two big ones that I tried to focus on. 

 

[00:31:14] Nice when you talked about in the beginning, like in the introduction of the book and you start describing, oh, mad. Do you talk about other lengths of fast as you're differentiating it from that? 

 

[00:31:24] And if so, what do you what you do to kind of talk about those? Or do you just specifically define mad and get into that? 

 

[00:31:34] I. 

 

[00:31:36] Do mostly focus on. Oh, man. Summit. Not all of the studies that I include at the beginning of the book are on. Oh man. Specifically, they're kind of on different types of fasting because, like, the the research that's being done is some of it is on. Oh, man. Some is on alternate day, as I mentioned, some is on more intermittent fasting like your 18 to six kind of thing. But something I found in the discussion portion of a lot of studies were. That they said that basic bike to kind of summarize that these were the results we saw with it, two to six, for example, if the fast were a little bit longer, we probably would have seen continued or like. Yeah, kind of extended extended the results a little further. So I tried to include different ones like that and kind of touch on those different things. But as the bike, the title suggests and stuff like that, this was really focused around kind of building a one meal a day and the fat burning and losing weight. 

 

[00:32:49] I mean, that seems to put in your title as those are the goals for everyone listening. I forgot I, I always define acronyms. I hate people who drop them and just pretend that we all know Oh man is one. It stands for one meal a day. Sixteen eight is six three. Eighteen six is when you say fast for eighteen hours and you have an eating window if you will, a time period in which you eat for six hours a day. Right. These are all various forms of fast and then you get into the longer and those numbers are usually just titled out 48 72. Those in amounts of time you stayed in the fasting state. I'm curious. So I want to kind of climb into the weight loss part of it, because that's a big feeder into the fasting kingdom. You know, I've interviewed some people for the series so far that actually get into one of the reasons I actually started fasting years ago was because I was talking to someone who said that it's it brought her a great deal of mental clarity. And then my mother of four, and I'm just constantly looking for that like brain fog to lift. That doesn't include more cups of coffee. And so I was like, I'll try anything. And so I came at it from a very weird sample. And I actually found someone who talks about like a lot of the mental clarity research in the brain and what happens during a fasted state. But I know that ninety nine point nine percent of people come at it for the cessation of disease and weight loss. And sometimes those go up. They usually go hand in hand. And and so I kind of want to climb into how you address the weight loss portion of the book. Do you kind of have every chapter speak to it, or is there one area that specifically talks about like this is where your weight loss traditionally comes off? Would you use those case studies that you talked about? How do you speak to the weight loss portion? 

 

[00:34:37] Yeah, it's it's kind of an over arching kind of idea throughout the book. I mentioned a number, a number of studies off the bat. And then, as I mentioned earlier, that I kind of explain the shift into ptosis or burning fat as opposed to sugar. And that is kind of. One of the primary ways that weight loss occurs. Also, I go into a little bit from the hormonal aspect in that particularly with insulin, for example, that a lot of people these days are kind of increasingly becoming insulin resistant or their production of insulin kind of isn't regular enough. And so when they are consuming sugar, it's not being utilized right away. And then it ends up being stored and then that's how weight gain occurs. And so I talk a little about how fasting can really kind of give insulin a break and help it kind of help its production kind of get re reregulated. And then the other hormone that's affected most is HGH, human growth hormone, which also plays a big role in metabolism and whose production drops significantly with age. So especially in women, which we were we're talking about earlier, that is can play a big role in why women, as they get older, struggle to lose weight. And why some of the kind of weight loss solutions that may have worked for them in their 20s don't work anymore in their 40s and 50s. Right. Yeah. And yeah. So that's another thing that HGH production has been found to kind of go up with fasting as well. And that kind of helps you build more lean muscle, which helps keep your metabolism higher and kind of contribute to weight loss that way. 

 

[00:36:54] Absolutely. I've spoken with a lot of athletes that flip a lot of common myths, and I don't think they're Kofman because someone has told somebody else. I think, like there has been a lot of natural intuitiveness that people have developed just erroneously together on their own separately. And a lot of them is like working out and fasted state. That being an issue, like every professional athlete, I spent my youth involved in a plethora of sports and a lot of them competitively, like gymnastics and dance and swimming and even surfing now and things that I do now. You know, they require longevity. I used to do half marathons and things like that. And the idea was eat before you work out. Your body's going to need that fuel. And it's cool to talk to advocates of fasting and scientists and doctors who would talk about the benefits of actually exercising intense exercising in a fasted state and how it's, you know, the benefits from the body receives from exercising in a faster state and then eating directly afterwards. Do you ever do you discuss any of that in the book inadvertently or do any of your case studies discuss it? 

 

[00:37:58] Yeah, interestingly, one of my case studies is a kind of semi professional athlete. 

 

[00:38:04] He plays basketball in plays fictional basketball in Europe and told me about how he was really struggling to kind of build muscle and burn fat, especially in college, and then kind of found, oh, mad. And it was really kind of the thing that flipped for him and really helped him get in shape. But yeah, I do. I talk about exercise. A little bit. And I know that there has been research on kind of should you and there's a lot of information out there, I'm like, should you eat before you exercise? Should you eat after you exercise? And one of the things that I like about all mad is that I know not a lot of people say this, but that it can actually make your life a lot easier because, yeah, you only have to carve out time to eat one meal. And it's really you can have that one meal whenever is best for you. 

 

[00:39:07] So I kind of feel that same way about exercise in that I kind of encourage people to experiment a little if they once when they first start this, like if they feel like they want to have their meal after they work out, they can do that if they want to have their meal before. And they feel like that will give them the energy to get through a workout. Or maybe they have like a fat bomb and then workout and then have their meal. I really think it it has a lot to do with personal preference. But I am also fascinated by the kind of research into where you put your eating kind of around your exercise. Yeah, I mentioned that I was on the crew team in college and those were obviously pretty, pretty strenuous workouts on a regular basis. And my senior year, one of the coaches approached me at one point and was like, I want to put you in this boat, but I think you need to lose a little weight first. Like, what time of day do you have your biggest meal? And I was like, oh, well, I usually like I'm starving after practice. Like, I go and have this big dinner at the end of the day. And they were like, maybe think about switching that up. And so I started having my biggest meal of the day as lunch, which was before practice. And then after practice, I would have kind of a lighter dinner and just that switch I lost like five pounds almost immediately. 

 

[00:40:43] So I feel like it is it's definitely really compelling science. I'm kind of how you how you structure your day in terms of eating and exercise. But I do think that in the end it comes down to like what makes you feel the best and what feels the most attainable. 

 

[00:41:05] Yeah. Well, we're changing. We're changing organisms. You know, like nothing. I shudder to think that anybody should apply even to themselves. The same theory was something that's working from one year to the next. You know, as as human beings, as women. We certainly have different decades that have completely wildly different hormones happening. The 20 year old body is no greater or worse than the 40 year old, but simply not the same and shouldn't be treated the same. To train obtain the same amount of optimal health. You know, once you accept that, you can kind of say that things should shift and vary as they go. I'm wondering as we kind of close in on the end of our chat here. I'm curious if this has ignited. Are you going to move forward and do more research and writing with the fasting universe? We wait until there's a call. Are you going to look into other aspects? Have you thought about writing about longer fasts or are you kind of happy with the work you did here? 

 

[00:42:03] Yeah, I don't know. I heard you ask that if someone on another podcast, and so I started thinking about it a little. 

 

[00:42:12] I obviously I really enjoy this kind of format of being able to kind of get this extended opportunity. That is a book to talk to people and really kind of provide them with, at the very least, something to think about at the kind of optimal level of some way that they could potentially improve their life. I think that is a really it's kind of a gift that I am feel lucky to have gotten with this book. I would love to do more. I would love to research different things. I'd love to see what the next trend is. I find these kind of trends in nutrition research to be super fascinating. One of the big ones, when I was still working full time as a magazine editor, I really got to witness, like the rise of all of this research into the microbiome and how, like, that is really kind of what is governing everything going on with the body. And it's really cool. I found it really cool to kind of be. One of the people witnessing that and then kind of translating it out into a way for the lay person to consume it. And so, yeah, I'm just I feel grateful to be in this position and we'd love to kind of continue it. 

 

[00:43:51] Nice. Yeah. I agree with you about the microbiome. I'm down. Well, there's probably not an area of health I'm not fascinated with, I must say. People like you are curious about everything, but I do think the microbiome and the conversation as of late, over the past five years has been eye opening. I've heard someone talking about the microbiome of an apple. Dr. Joel Kahn was talking about the microbiome of an apple. And I was just like, go on, tell me more. This is fascinating. And so, yeah, I get into that stuff as well. Well, I just want to say thank you so much for talking to us today, Elissa. I love the idea of your book. I just told you before we started recording. 

 

[00:44:30] I hope we can bring you back on after it launches in December and kind of climb through it as I've read it. And I receive it. And they build more questions. 

 

[00:44:39] Yeah. Yeah, I would love to. Thank you so much for the opportunity to come and chat about it. 

 

[00:44:44] You bet. And for everyone listening, thank you for giving us your time today. We've been talking to Alissa, cyber threats. You can find out more on Alyssa Seibert dot com. And the book we've been discussing is the Ohmar Diet, intermittent fasting with one meal a day to burn fat and lose weight. 

 

[00:45:01] It's on preorder right now on Amazon. You can jump on it comes out in December of twenty twenty. So everyone jump on and have a look. 

 

[00:45:10] Thank you for giving me your time today. And until we speak again next time. Remember to stay safe. Eat well when you do eat and always bet on yourself,