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Writer's pictureJennalea

EAT like a girl.

Why you should NOT do intermittent fasting as an active woman.


I just want to touch on the VERY BASICS here - if you have questions go ahead and contact me - I want this to be a message every active woman receives, learns from and grows from.

 

So why would I recommend women always start with a preworkout if having an AM sess, and in addition to this, if not working out in the AM - not do intermittent fasting (IF) and instead start their day with an epic brekkie?? Let's take a look -


  • First of all, we know that the major reason why people seem to be losing weight when they begin to IF is because the smaller eating window helps them achieve a calorie deficit. Yup - the laws of thermodynamics. We must be in an energy deficit to lose fat. But this can be achieved when you choose to eat brekkie and better yet - eat your dinner much earlier. We call this TRE (time restricted eating). This is ideally eating with your circadian rhythm. That is- rising with the sun, and winding down with the sun-setting. So dinner would be around 5-630pm. Trying to not eat later than 7pm, unless that is of course, you did an evening workout - must refuel 45 mins within (any) training session.  



  • Eating before you train! Yes, this is a game changer and yet so many women are incredibly apprehensive to it. The basics: your cortisol (people are often referring to this hormone as your "stress hormone"), peaks about 30 mins after you wake. Now, if we go and do any type of exercise without eating - it is going to further exacerbate your stress response, and this not ideal. This is not the same for men. (and most of the studies on IF are on MEN). For women, because of that cortisol peak after waking up, women tend to be more Sympathetically driven - so they're walking around tired BUT wired. But if you eat something small, you will get a positive signal to your Hypothalamus "there is some nutrition on board". It is so important to fuel for your hormones to avoid being in a low energy-state.   Sympathetic state is where you're driving more levels of cortisol - you may know this as your flight, fight or freeze state.  


  • I hear you ask - what about obesity, PCOS, metabolic dysfunction - then we may consider fasted states as a strategic intervention, but this should be with the guidance of a professional to ensure you're getting the right energy in at the right time to support the improvement of your current condition.

 

  • Okay ready for this one.... It gets WORSE as you GET OLDER.... when we hit perimenopause typically in our 40's, we have MORE fluctuation of our hormones (cortisol, progesterone, oestrogen, LH and testosterone to name a few which impact your cortisol baseline and weight/energy etc). The baseline for our cortisol has increased now. When you do fasted training, it INCREASES that cortisol drive and Sympathetic drive. Not having any fuel before a workout puts you at a lower intensity, in a time where you need polarised training to get results. You cannot hit the intensity your body needs, for change.  


  • We know in active women, IF is detrimental. We as women, have MORE oxidative fibres. This means we are already more metabolically flexible than men. This means you have more muscle fibres that have more aerobic capacity. This means you can go long and slow for long periods of time and use more free fatty-acids. You NEED glucose to access those fatty-acids. When we look at a woman who exercises, she goes through blood glucose first then gets in to free fatty-acid use. She does not have much muscle glycogen. This is where people trip up on the benefits - because MEN have more of this and remember, these studies are predominantly on.... MEN!  


  • So now that you know all this, you will hopefully understand that without fuel - as a woman, you cannot hit intensities high enough to then invoke the postworkout responses of Growth hormone and testosterone which then drop cortisol. And thus, without the fuel and being in the stress state, only will hold MORE cortisol and increase cortisol levels.

 

We also know in women, at the site of her Hypothalamus in her brain (think of this as a control centre) - she has two areas of kisspeptine (whereas a man only has one). These areas are important to know for this: one controls appetite and LH (needed for ovulation and thus fertility) and the other controls oestrogen and thyroid (metabolism, energy, bowels, fertility and more)..... so if you begin to have these constant "stresses" about going on with your day without fuel - you downregulate these peptides. Studies show that after only 4 days of IF for active women, there is already dysregulation of thyroid and change in LH pulse, which is really important to maintain Endocrine function.

 

okay I tried to avoid jargon but keep it understandable and empowering - did it work?

why are you training in a fasted state?

why are you choosing to intermittent fast?

is it time we work TOGETHER on your energy, weight (loss/gain/maintain) goals, endocrine and metabolic function? menstrual cycles with movement, perimenopause changes and menopause weight changes, energy and symptoms?

Let's do it - cos, YOLO! This is not your practice life... let's team up xx

 

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