Transcript of Episode 164: Should Kids Fast?
With Dr. Daniel Pompa, Meredith Dykstra and Simon Pompa
Meredith:
Hello, hello, everyone, and welcome to Cellular Healing TV. I’m your host, Meredith Dykstra, and this is episode number 164. We’ve got our resident cellular healing specialist, Dr. Dan Pompa, on the line, and today we have a very special guest welcoming us. He isn’t quite in your office yet, Dr. Pompa, but your son Simon is going to be joining us for Cellular Healing TV today. He’s had a really special experience recently with fasting, and you wanted to bring him on to share that. Do you want to talk a little bit about that before he joins us?
Dr. Pompa:
He had to go somewhere. He’ll be coming in, hopefully, shortly. This has been quite the display on Facebook. I starting doing on my Facebook Live a series on fasting, and it just so happened that Simon decided to do a fast. It was just the irony of it. Here’s how the story went: He was looking over – I was getting ready for a talk on skin, as you remember, down in Ogden.
He -inaudible- one of my clients. He looked over my shoulder, saw the picture, and said, “Whoa. Go back to that. What’s up with that girl?” I said, “Oh, that’s eczema.” He’s like, “Really?” Simon had these spots for the last almost a year on his head – one spot, big spot – and then also on his chest. I was explaining to him, “That’s a reason to change your diet. Eczema is autoimmune. When it starts younger, it’s harder to get rid of.” These were conversations that we’ve had over the last year.
As you know, I never force my kids. Our kids were raised on a certain diet. Then we let them go, and they’ve come back around. All my kids have come back around except Simon. Here’s the time. He saw that picture. He left the room. He came back and said, “What did she do? What does she look like now?” I’m like, “Yeah, she’s fine now. She doesn’t have any of that stuff.” “What did she do?” I said, “A few things, and fasting, and cellular detox, etcetera,” and then he left the room again, and came back in the room.
He said, “Okay, I want to fast.” He had just recently started doing some cellular detox again, and so he said, “I want to do a fast.” I said, “Okay. All right. You can do a fast.” I said, “We’re going to do one as a family in the spring.” He said, “No. I want to start right now. I want to start today.” I was like, “All right. Okay.” I didn’t know how serious he was, but didn’t eat that day, didn’t eat the next, didn’t eat the next. He went for 11 days without eating, just about 11. He thinks 11 ½. I don’t know. It’s somewhere in there.
Point being is he just started eating the other day. I wanted to bring him on Cellular Healing TV, and do this show, and have him share his experience. We had so many questions. Everybody was following him. I’ll tell you this: What happened was he literally drove a following of people that decided to fast. They all started fasting. He has all these people doing block fasts. I’m telling you, multiple days right now. I can’t even count, that’s how many. It was remarkable. Anyways, so that’s the story. Here he comes now, so let’s bring him in. There you go, my man.
Meredith:
Hey, Simon.
Simon:
How’s it going?
Meredith:
Great. Good to have you here.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I know you have a lot of questions, just like many people did. Just for the people watching, Simon didn’t do anything but water. He did no fats, no broth, nothing. It was just purely water. No supplements during the fast. That’s always a question. A water fast is just water. Broth fasting and other fasts, you can do some supplements, but water, I like -inaudible- water. Simon, the first – we were measuring his glucose and ketones throughout.
By day two, Simon had elevated ketones, 2.6. His glucose was in the forties already. Boom. Glucose down; ketones up. That’s what we want to see. However, he didn’t have energy yet, and there’s a reason for that. Although his ketones were going up, which typically would create energy, his body wasn’t fat-adapted yet. It wasn’t using the ketones yet. By end of day four, he started using those ketones, and then he felt amazing. At that point, he said, “I’m going beyond four. I’m going a week.” Then he went beyond a week. You have questions for him, I bet.
Meredith:
I do. Simon, for our viewers, how old are you? We want to know.
Simon:
Thirteen.
Meredith:
Thirteen, wow. What are some of the symptoms you kind of experienced? I know you went 10 ½ days on just water. What was it like day to day, if you can kind of walk us through some of the symptoms you experienced, the good things, the bad things? What did it feel like?
Simon:
Dizziness, kind of nauseous, light-headed, and kind of achy, and really hungry, and headache, and some welts.
Dr. Pompa:
That was days one, two, three, four. Yeah, he did. He had welts around his knees. Things were coming out.
Simon:
BO.
Dr. Pompa:
Yup. He got really bad body odor, horrible breath. All of this was –
Simon:
Urine smelled –
Dr. Pompa:
The first three days were absolutely the worst. Yeah, his urine smelled. His tongue started turning white around day three, I would say. It didn’t happen right away, which some people it happens day one, just a one-day fast. When did you start feeling normal – well, better?
Simon:
Day four, not day three. Day four is when it started getting better.
Dr. Pompa:
He said online to Facebook Live. “Don’t anyone ever tell you you start feeling good on day three.” It was really, I would say, halfway through day four that he started feeling good. Then you started feeling so good that you wanted to fast on.
Simon:
Yeah.
Meredith:
You were just going to originally start with four days? Had you intended to go as long as you did?
Simon:
No. No, not really. I just kind of went for it.
Dr. Pompa:
You decided to go longer. You were definitely thinking maybe breaking it at four. I remember that conversation. You didn’t know, though. He didn’t know. As it got easier, he definitely got inspired. I didn’t start his fast. It was up to him when to break the fast. However, our deal was, “You’re going to make sure you break it right.” We’ll talk a little bit more about that because people ruin fasts by breaking fasts incorrectly. It’s even dangerous. It’s very important to break the fast right.
Now Simon has broken the fast, and that was a few days ago. Now he and I both are in kind of a partial diet. I’m doing it just to do it with him, taking in between 500 and 1,000 calories a day. Simon was doing that more in the afternoon. Now today he decided to try a morning window of eating and stop eating a little bit sooner in the day.
Simon:
Early in the day.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.
Meredith:
I’ve done that, too. Instead of eating just in the evening, just eating in the morning. I did that yesterday. I just had a bunch of the algae bits that we love. It’s good to have that variation, as well, with our timing. Now Simon, were you going to school this entire time you were fasting?
Simon:
Yes.
Meredith:
Wow. Now, what was that like at school without eating? How were your friends reacting?
Dr. Pompa:
He does school here.
Meredith:
Oh, okay. All right. Then I guess it’s a little bit different.
Dr. Pompa:
We homeschool him, but we have a teacher. God forbid it was me homeschooling him. I could teach health. There you go. I could do that, and I do that.
Simon:
My brain was working good, just a little hungry.
Dr. Pompa:
His brother – we actually, unfortunately – maybe fortunately – spent day four with Simon. He came down to the seminar that I was teaching. She’s freezing up. Hey, go run and tell Isaac to make sure he’s off his computer. I’m going to make sure my other son’s computer’s off because you keep freezing up. That probably means I’m freezing up. I told Simon to go make sure that his computer is off.
Anyway, Simon came down. I spent day four with Simon, and then the next day I had to leave and teach a seminar – or actually be at a seminar in New York. I didn’t get to spend days five, six, seven, eight, nine. My wife and I were both gone. My son, Daniel, was here, so we were getting reports. Daniel was like, “Look. He’s like a different kid, Dad. He’s completely different, attitude, you name it.” He had constant ongoing energy, so much so that he just wanted to do too much. I was saying, “Look, Simon. Chill. Take it easy.” People tend to, once they feel good – remember Dr. [Dempsey] when he was saying that? He felt so dang good he was up wanting to paint the house at 4 a.m. He was up every day at 4 a.m.
When Simon was breaking through before he was fat-adapted, before his brain was using ketones, he wasn’t sleeping good. Then when his brain started using the ketones around day four, then that’s when he was then sleeping good. Anyways, yeah, you probably have other questions. I don’t want to keep talking.
Meredith:
Yeah. Simon, were there any foods that you missed when you were on the fast? Was there anything you were thinking like, “Oh, gosh. I really miss eating that food, in particular?”
Simon:
Yeah, cheese.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, cheese. That was one of the first things he wanted, and I was like, “No, not day one. Not day one.” I’ll tell you a little bit about that, too, but go ahead.
Simon:
Beef jerky, cheese, just that kind of stuff.
Dr. Pompa:
Here’s a remarkable fact: Simon, no doubt – he’d be the first to say this – was my food-addicted child, more specifically carb-addicted child. Honestly, since he’s broken the fast – how many days has it been?
Simon:
Thirteen.
Dr. Pompa:
No, no, no. I mean since you broke the fast. It was, let’s see, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday – so it’s been three days. He hasn’t had one craving -inaudible- it’s been even easier than I thought for him. He made this one smoothie that he unknowingly, mistakenly put too many blueberries in it. It was a thing of spinach, and some berries, and water. That was all we did, and it was day two, but it was berry. It was definitely really sweet, especially because his taste buds were not used to that. Besides that, he has had no cravings. It’s been no problem. Matter of fact, honestly, you haven’t even been that hungry.
Simon:
No.
Dr. Pompa:
This was a kid who had a lot of food in a day. He just ate through the day. Really, you haven’t had much hunger.
Simon:
No.
Dr. Pompa:
Going through it, he said he would have appetite, but he definitely lost his hunger. He knows the difference of that. Like any of us, we would see or smell food, we would go, “Oh, man!” You almost have a habit – you have appetite, like, “Boy, that looks good,” but hunger is just an absolutely different feeling.
Meredith:
Wow. What’s going on there, Dr. Pompa, physiologically with the cravings shutting off? Is that because our hormones are getting fixed at the cellular level, so those cravings, they’re decreased and kind of normalized after a fast?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. The body instinctively knows what to do. It’s shutting down certain mechanisms, hormone. Ghrelin is a hormone that tells you to eat, makes you hungry or not. Leptin is part of that process. That’s all really dictated from your microbiome in your gut. When that starts to change in a fast, it literally shuts off hunger. The hypothalamus gets the message, and you lose your hunger.
Your body goes in – I was reading some studies this morning. I’m preparing for a lecture I’m doing on fasting. I found three or four studies showing the myth. You don’t lose muscle during fast. It is a myth. Your body protects itself, whereas someone on a low-carb diet or low-carb – I’m sorry – low-calorie diet, they’ll tap into their muscle. When someone actually stops eating, you actually protect your muscle the most. Remarkable what the body does to cherish what it needs to survive, and that’s muscle.
It will burn its – not just its fat; it burns out all of the bad cells in the body. It’s called autophagy or “autophagy” if you want to spell it correctly. Autophagy happens where the body just gets rid of the bad cells. Simon had – like you can see, he’s saying it’s slightly red. Undo your shirt. That was a psoriasis mark there. That one on his head, it just has a little dryness. That’s it. It all went away.
Meredith:
Wow.
Dr. Pompa:
Anyway, so he had – -inaudible-. No, go somewhere else, buddy. We got the dog. Come on. Go somewhere else. Yeah, so just a little bit of red, but that spot, it was dried out. There was a couple of them, actually. They’re gone. Anyways, so it’s remarkable. Breaking the fast, I said, is really important. Really, just getting him – he ate no vegetables. He was a non-vegetable eater. He ate broccoli last night and liked it.
Meredith:
Wow!
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. He did. He said it was good. He’s like, “I could do that.” Spinach shake, okay? If it was green, this boy was not eating it. The nice thing about fasting is it changes our palate. That’s what I was explaining to him. “This is an opportunity to change your palate.” I said, “Okay, you can have some cheese by day three.” She froze again. You froze again. He had a little cheese. I noticed he started this cough thing that had went away during the fast. By later in the day, he had another piece of cheese, just a small piece of cheese, and he started coughing again.
I said, “I think you have a dairy intolerance.” He says, “You’re right. I cough after I eat the cheese,” so we’ve taken dairy out, which stinks for him because he loves cheese. So do I. Ironically enough, as you know this, Meredith, we often crave the things we’re most allergic to. What did he say when you asked him what you missed? He said he wanted cheese, the very thing that he seems to react to, oddly enough. Someone rang our doorbell. Go ahead.
Meredith:
With different autoimmune challenges, as well, dairy’s -inaudible- reactions and gut -inaudible- because of the inflammation that it can kind of create in the gut for many with autoimmune issues, right?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no doubt. I’m sure that the dairy was creating some chronic gut issues. Simon, surprisingly, he eats – 98% of his food is all organic unless he’s out and about. His brothers tease him, and they’ll say, “Simon’s the healthiest fat kid in the world.” Honestly, I’m going to say he has lasting energy. Simon gets sick less than them. He really is healthy in some regards, but then his gut in some of these things – but he had no digestive issues. He goes to the bathroom every day. When I say, “His gut,” he really didn’t express any symptoms.
The only symptoms he expressed was what we noticed outwardly. That was it – and the cough, and that was really it for Simon. The weight gain, which was obviously going to end -inaudible- at some point. We know our kids figure it out on their own, and Simon’s obviously figuring it out.
Meredith:
That’s awesome. How much weight did you lose, Simon, on the fast??
Simon:
Twenty pounds.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.
Meredith:
Forty!
Dr. Pompa:
No, 20. Twenty pounds. You froze.
Meredith:
Twenty pounds, okay. It cut out a little bit. I was like, “Holy cow!” Twenty pounds, wow. Have you put any on since then? How do you expect that to level out?
Dr. Pompa:
He probably put, just like most people, three or four pounds on since, but that’s normal. That’s glycogen storage, water that comes back. He’s completely stabilized. He might be actually starting to lose again.
Simon:
Yeah.
Dr. Pompa:
Yep, so we’ll see. Just like most people, his ketones went – what was the high? What did your ketones go up to?
Simon:
Six point five.
Dr. Pompa:
Six point five.
Meredith:
Wow! Impressive.
Dr. Pompa:
His glucose, I would say, fifties on average.
Simon:
My lowest was a 40.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, 40, but on average, I’m saying. Perfect target range, massive autophagy. Bad cells are dying. The body’s get rid of all those bad proteins and toxins. Throughout it, his tongue definitely turned more white, and then –
Simon:
A little yellow.
Dr. Pompa:
Let me see it now. We were doing a Facebook Live, and I said, “Show me your tongue.” He didn’t know what I meant, so he was like this. I’m like, “No, open your mouth.” He was like – it was hilarious.
Meredith:
Really stick it out there.
Dr. Pompa:
I know he wants to go play with his car that he broke, but that’s another story.
Meredith:
Can I just ask one more question of Simon before he -inaudible-.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Fire away.
Meredith:
-inaudible- fast. I know you broke it with the bone broth. You’ve eased back in. What have been your realizations since you did this fast? What did you learn from it? What are the take-aways, and how has it changed your life?
Simon:
It’s pretty easy to get healthy, I guess.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. He saw a change really fast. That’s what he said. It wasn’t as hard as he thought. What else did you learn?
Simon:
Let’s see here. That I don’t really want to do that again.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s what he said. He’s like, “Okay, I did it one time.” I said, “You’re going to fast with our family at least two – four days.” “Oh, okay, four days. That’s easy.” His perspective changed, that’s for sure.
Meredith:
So true. I love that you’re going to fast as a family. That’s so cool. What a great idea. What inspiration to everyone who’s watching, and Simon, how many people you inspired out there to fast because hey, if you can do it, anybody can do it, right?
Dr. Pompa:
That’s what it is. Dr. Mindy’s one of our doctors we coach. She saw him day four because she was –
Simon:
Day two, actually.
Dr. Pompa:
Was it? I thought it was – okay. Anyways, so she got – she was inspired. She was so inspired. He inspired everyone at the seminar and hundreds more on Facebook. She got a fasting group together. She got a whole – she showed them his videos on Facebook Live. Go to my Facebook. Dr. Daniel Pompa is how you get to my fan page Facebook, and you can see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Anyways, she got a whole group fasting. It was remarkable how many people he inspired with that thing: “If he can do it, I can do it.” Believe me, it’s not just 13. He was 13, addicted to carbs. If Simon can do it, you can do it. Now he’s in ketosis.
Simon:
Just 13.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, just 13. Yeah. He just turned 13, so yeah, technically 12. It is remarkable. I’m so proud of him because that was the first thing that ever – desire he had to do something. I kept telling him, “Hey, I’m not going to change you. You know what to do. You know what to do.” Listen, his brothers fasted. His sister water fasted twice for four days, Olivia, who’s been on the show. Mom fasted. I fasted. He went the longest. In defense, Mom went about the same. Put it this way, none of his brothers that tease him ever went even close to beating him.
When I was texting Olivia, I said, “Simon’s fasting.” Then she texted me back, “Water only?” I said, “Yeah. Water only.” “Really? What?” They just couldn’t believe it. I think he stunned everybody including his brothers and sister.
Simon:
Yup.
Dr. Pompa:
You did it, man. You did it. Simon’s really strong-minded. He really is. When he puts his mind to something, it’s game over. He’s transforming. He is. He’s transforming. All right. Do you have any more questions for him?
Meredith:
No. Simon, you’re an inspiration. I just want to thank you. You’ve inspired me, as well. I do not know another 13-year-old who has done an 11-day water fast. I think you are very unique and special. Thanks for inspiring so many people.
Simon:
All right. See you.
Dr. Pompa:
See you. Thanks, Simon. He was in there testing his – like most kids, he was afraid to prick his finger. How he’s pricking it all the time. I’m going broke in ketone strips. Trust me.
Meredith:
What a fast can do. Those ketone strips aren’t cheap, that’s for sure. Wow.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no doubt. Right now, I’m in a partial fast, doing – breaking his fast. You don’t want to just load up on all these calories. People make that mistake. I’m trying to raise my chair up here a little bit. People make that mistake, and you really can blow a fast. Between 500 and 1,000 calories, which we call a partial fast – a new study came out just recently talking about – I was just going to find it on my phone, but I know it enough to speak it. They were fasting five days. They did mice three days, which -inaudible- into a five-day fast into humans. The findings were remarkable.
What really defines, according to studies, a partial fast is 750 calories to 1,100, but anywhere between 500 and 1,000 to keep it simple, really, is – the magic lies. In the fast -inaudible- focusing on more raw and fats. This partial fast is remarkable. Now, in the study, they fasted the five days equivalent in the month, and then they went back to their regular diet. Call it a standard American diet if you will. Because of that, they put the weight back on that they lost in the five days, which I would assume they would. The remarkable part was the inflammation markers still stayed decreased. All of the markers that would show what – positive for anti-aging and all these positive effects stayed the same.
Then when they repeated it three months in a row, they kept getting healthier even though they would go back to their regular diet. Number one, it shows diet variation, just the switch in diet. Number two, it just shows you the powerful – how powerful fasting is. They call that a diet that mimics fasting because they were getting so much of the same results. Coming off a fast – one of the things I’ve learned with my clients is if you come off your fast, there’s a few ways to tell if you should end a fast. We had many people who were fasting a long time. I have to say this: If you have a serious health condition, get a coach. Get someone who’s experienced with fasting. Don’t do this alone.
We’ve had healthier people who want to be healthier doing longer fasts. They said, “How do you know when to break a fast?” There’s a few ways that would surprise, I think, some of our viewers. Number one, the color of your tongue. Your tongue can go white, yellow. I’ve seen black tongues. When the tongue starts to turn back to pink despite how you feel, it’s time to break your fast. It’s one of the first indicators.
Oftentimes people in a fast would get so weak, and that’s another thing, a weakness that goes beyond one day. One day, Simon – we’d played Monopoly one night, and he got all revved up, and it raised his cortisol, which then is – I said, “Your glucose is going to be up.” Sure enough, he tested his glucose. It was up. It was in the eighties. Ketones down. He didn’t feel good the next day. Then the following day, he felt fine. If fatigue or weakness goes beyond a day – severe, where it’s declining, it’s starting to go this way, time to break the fast.
If your weight loss stops – you typically are going to lose ½ pound to a pound. Simon was losing about a pound and a half a day. Then all of a sudden, it may slow, but it continue – then just stops, time to break a fast. Oftentimes people get – their hunger simply returns. It’s a very big difference of appetite and hunger; time to break a fast. Those are all signals. The body odor changes. The tongue turns clear again. A lot of those indicators that they body’s done detoxing, shut it down.
Here’s the interesting thing: If we put someone into a partial fast, that 500 to 1,000 calories a day, raw and fats, then we notice that it can actually – the tongue can start turning again, meaning that the body now felt like it had enough stores to actually start the detox again. It’s really remarkable how intelligent the body is. It really is remarkable when we rely on the body. Again, fasting in itself is just one modality that we use in a multi-therapeutic approach with cellular detox and all the things we teach. That’s how we see the results that we see. Anyways, that’s kind of been some of my learnings about this fasting.
Meredith:
We -inaudible- questions, too, about the different types of fasts. We’ve talked a lot about water fasting in this episode, but can you speak to bone broth fasting and maybe some of the differences, too, and some of the benefits of that, and maybe why Simon did a water fast and not a broth fast -inaudible-.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I was getting tired of sitting. I’ve been sitting all day. There are multiple fasts. We just talked about a partial fast. That’s one way where you’re just doing some raw – I say raw. You can lightly steam veggies. It’s actually easier to digest, truthfully, but vegetables –
Meredith:
I do a lot of that, as well, the partial fasting. It’s so convenient, too, with life and just -inaudible-.
Dr. Pompa:
It is. Yeah, you -inaudible-. You have energy all day. You can go on. Just throwing a couple tablespoons of either olive oil, coconut oil in – and avocado. It’s 200 calories for an avocado, approximately, 150, 200 depending on the size. Just one of there, a couple tablespoons of oil, that’s enough to sustain you right there. Then have some broccoli. You have a perfect nutrition-dense meal. Like you said, the ENERGYbits, amazing. That’s a way to fast right there.
Then the bone stock, loaded with type II collagen. That’s one of the things we use to break the fast with, too. Just the bone stock and all that marrow, and – oh, man! I was consuming it, as well. The type II collagen, the minerals that you get, there’s so much in those bones that are just amazing to fast on and break a fast.
Whey water, we’ve talked about. Whey water is unique bacteria. For thousands of years, back in the days of Hippocrates, they did whey water fasting. Those are different fasts right there, but water is unique. Water relies 100% on the innate intelligence. It gives the body nothing. I think you oftentimes get the best healing just from a water fast. If someone’s going to break into fasting, one of the other ones may be easier. I think the first three days, those other fasts are easier. I think after three days, maybe four, water fasting is easier.
Meredith:
I agree. Water fasting is definitely the most challenging for me. I’ve only done one water fast. It went about five days or so. The broth and the other types of fasts – I’ve done whey water, too – are much easier because I think for me, for the water, a lot of it is just mental. You’re just having water, so that deprivation mindset can come into play where it’s just like, “Wow. This is all I get? Water?”
I wanted to ask you, too, though, when I’ve done some water fasting in the past, I’ve kind of treated myself to the sparkling mineral water. Now, is that okay instead of just drinking the flat, still water on a fast? Would those bubbles have any impact on the gut?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Herbert Shelton, who is one of the early fathers of the modern-day fasting, he would say, “Don’t ever do that. It’s irritating.” The Europeans say, “It dehydrates you.” I don’t know if that’s true. It’s water. Come on. Your body has the ability to separate the CO2. There’s an argument to stick to the most basic thing, and that’s the cleanest water possible, whether it’s distilled – some people are big distilled water fasting people -inaudible-. I think you’re going to benefit. The bottom line is where you get the benefit from isn’t the water you drink as much it is just going without food and letting your innate intelligence do what it does best. It is remarkable when we look at the healing, the hormone optimization.
Here’s another thing: When we look at studies now – and of course so many – we’ve interviewed Seyfried and other scientists and how they’re using ketosis and fasting for cancer. If it works for cancer, think about what it can do for anything. We know that the bad cells are starving down, but here’s what people don’t realize: You get this massive rise in stem cells because here’s what happens: Notice that your white blood cells, they start dropping. Your body’s getting rid of bad ones, autophagy. Here’s the cool part: It increases your stem cells to reproduce the good cells and white blood cells. You end up with all these new, incredibly healthy white blood cells.
It’s happening beyond white blood cells. You have all these new created cells because of the rise in stem cells. Come on. What better way to get a new body than periodic fasting? I’m always asked this question on Facebook: “How many fasts can I do?” Look, we have clients who fast once a month, even just a four-day fast once a month, maybe four-day fasts every other month. They’re trying to redo these cells. You have to be attentive to be perfect nutrition in between the fasts, building back up those nutrition stores, but yeah. It’s different for everybody.
Here’s the other question I get, Meredith: “Look how thin you are. You fast.” I have clients 80, 90 pounds with different autoimmune, and they fast. You know how much weight they lose? Either zero, at the most five pounds. Just five pounds of glycogen and water. They lose no flesh. The body’s that smart. Guess what happens when they start to eat again. They gain good fat. They actually gain weight. Fasting can be used to actually gain muscle, to gain actually good weight.
Meredith:
We hear that all the time. I actually lose very little weight when I’m fasting, as well. It’s very, very true. I can definitely personally attest to that.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. You just came off a fast, didn’t you?
Meredith:
I’ve been kind of experimenting a little bit this week. I did a water fast on Monday, and then yesterday and today I’ve just been doing a lot of ENERGYbits, which are the little algae bits we talk a lot about. I believe that was episode 130. We interviewed Catharine Arnston of ENERGYbits, and we talked all about algae and the benefits of that. These little algae bits can be wonderful for balancing blood sugar and keeping you going through a fast. I’ve been taking those yesterday and today. I might have a meal tomorrow -inaudible- socially, with life. We have these things that come up, too. That’s always kind of a question and something that can be a challenge, as well.
Dr. Pompa:
-inaudible-.
Meredith:
It’s life, and eating is social, so dealing and incorporating fasting within a happy, normal, social lifestyle can be a challenge. You have to be very strategic about it, and maybe, when you fast, really fast, too. When you’re doing the fasting with the water, it’s even more powerful, maybe, than just some partial fasting here and there around the meals, even though that has benefit, too. It’s going to be different for everyone, but that’s the beauty of diet variation, as well, and why that concept is so powerful, and why it works so well.
Dr. Pompa:
Again, the last two days, I’ve been partial fasting, so it’s what I was just explaining. Yesterday I had an avocado. I had my spinach shake in water. I added a few blueberries. That was it. Then what else did I have? I had a tablespoon of olive oil, and I had about a tablespoon of butter because I had a thing of broccoli. That’s all I had yesterday. What was that, probably 800, maybe 850 calorie-wise? Today I’m going to duplicate the same thing. Like I said, I have no appetite for food. It’s 1:20 my time, and I haven’t eaten anything yet. I’ll start eating a little bit, but I’m not going to go over that 1,000 calorie mark.
I’ll do this until Friday. Again, just threw in a little fast, helping Simon break his fast, but also I have another reason. You know this. They just did some dental work and dug out a cavitation down here. I had some inflammation I wanted to deal with, so it was easy just to do this. In the spring, as a family we will do at least a four-day water fast, probably five. My thing is people do three days. Why just three days? You start to benefit from the high ketones at day four. I want to ride that out. I want to feel good. Those high ketones, they change the brain. They turn off bad genes. They downregulate inflammation.
They literally turn off genes and upregulate genes that make us live longer. That’s another benefit of fasting, when you keep talking about these things because you get ridiculously high ketone levels. I, and you, and many of our viewers, I should say, we get ourselves so fat-adapted that the moment our ketones go up, we start using them. It took Simon three days to start using his ketones even though they were high. That’s why he didn’t have energy. Even though his ketones were up, he wasn’t using them yet. He had to adapt.
Meredith:
Right. Once you get in that fat-adapted state, it’s just so much easier to shift in and out of it. I wanted to go back, though. I did have a question when we were talking about the partial fasting. Do you think that it would be better for those who suffer from adrenal fatigue to maybe ease into that versus going into a stricter fast?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, absolutely. I start those people even intermittent fasting daily, going 12, 13, 14 hours just from the night before, doing that daily, working up, making sure their glucose isn’t rising. That’s a sign, people have adrenal fatigues. Their glucose will rise because of cortisol. We start intermittent fasting. Yeah, of course. A partial fast is a great way. You do intermittent fasting daily, then a partial fast for maybe three months in a row, and then move into a water fast. Listen, I’ve seen people with adrenal fatigue succeed with water fasting, too. Everyone’s a little different. I think, why not break in with another fast first? I think a partial fast would be the way.
Meredith:
Partial fasting is different from intermittent fasting in that partial fasting is only about 500 to 1,000 calories, whereas the intermittent fasting, you could eat up to 4,000 calories within your time window. It’s more focused on the compressed time window instead of the amount of calories you’re consuming.
Dr. Pompa:
Right, exactly. Intermittent fasting is eating within a four-, six-, maybe eight-hour window, whatever you choose. Eat what you want. That’s the point. Yes, correct. A partial fast is – I still like to eat in that small window.
Meredith:
You’re doing a double whammy there. Partial intermittent.
Dr. Pompa:
Exactly, but staying between 500 and 1,000 calories is the key with a partial fast. Then I think the key is eating those simple to eat foods. I keep the protein real low. I take the meats out, everything, whereas I’m eating just veggies, some fats. Avocado’s technically a fruit, but – some berries, there’s a fruit. Actually, I have Daniel working on this now.
Think about it this way: You have a fruit category. Pick one or two of those. Maybe it’s a serving of berries, three ounces, something like that, and an avocado or a half of an avocado. There’s a good fiber there. There’s all types of good fats there. The berries offer some [croanthocyanin] and all these amazing antioxidants. Then you have another category, your vegetable category. Pick two different vegetables to eat in a day. Yesterday I only at one. No, I ate two. I had spinach and then the broccoli. There’s two vegetable sources to add to that caloric intake.
Then I would say there’s a third category, fats. Pick a tablespoon of coconut oil, or olive oil, or another healthy fat. That way, you’re – it’s easy to hit that. Daniel’s kind of building that out to where people can – here’s an example of 500 calories, 800 calories based on these three categories of foods that I kind of want you to choose from, keeping things really natural and simple.
Meredith:
Fiber, veggies, fat; I love that. Just piggybacking on the smoothies, as well, I did this a few weeks ago. I just did four days just liquids. It’s really helped me because I’ve had a lot of gut challenges in the past, and I’m still kind of working through healing my gut in different ways. Just having the liquid nutrition that’s super nutrient-dense is really helpful because it’s so easy to digest. You’re still getting calories, and you’re feeling great. I had incredible energy, but my body wasn’t going through all of that effort it takes to break down solid food. My energy was incredible.
I just did four days of smoothies, and good fats, and different liquids, like fatty liquids for breakfast and things. It feels great, and it’s so easy, but you’re still getting the calories and the nutrient-dense nutrition. I added different powders, and shake mixes, and things like that to make sure the nutritional bases are covered. I think that can be kind of a good modified way of fasting, as well, if you’re – you still want to maintain energy, and you have things to do, but you’re okay with just doing liquids, then doing that for a number of consecutive days could be effective, as well.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s perfect. For a partial fast, I think it’s the perfect thing. As soon as we’re done here, I’m going to do my spinach – I might add some Romaine lettuce in there. Who knows? Maybe even a half of an avocado and water. Boom. I’ll throw a little berries in there. There’s my meal. Super low in calories to fit a form here that we’re trying to do. High in fats, and fiber, and nutrients, that’s the point. The blender makes it –
You’re the queen of smoothies. Forget about it. You know what I mean? This is going to be about four days. I’m also doing true cellular detox. I’m doing a brain phase. I need to take my ALA and my Cyto. I saunaed today, and I did a coffee enema today. When I do these -inaudible-.
Meredith:
Oh, boom!
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. My Facebook Live today, this will be pre-recorded, so go back a few weeks – I don’t know how long it’ll take this show – and you’ll see it. We did it on the coffee enema and how to do it with -inaudible-. We had 70 people on live watching it. It was fantastic. I showed that, and then I did my sauna, and then that –
Meredith:
You didn’t actually do the coffee enema on the Facebook Live, did you?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I did. Oh, no! We did not enter the orifice. No, that did not happen. Daniel was ready to go. He’s like, “I’m going to go get a towel.” I’m like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” I said, “We’re just going to pretend.” We actually did them. We both did it. We just didn’t do it there. We showed everything else. In the video, too, I showed how we correlate that in with true cellular detox. It was a really good video. Go to Facebook Live. You can go back. Believe me, all the videos are there, so watch it. It’s good.
Meredith:
Awesome. That’s a great way to just – we got to keep those detox pathways open. As we fast and do true cellular detox, and do all these other things to support our health, those downstream pathways are so important to keep open, as well. The coffee enema is a great tool to keep things moving out, as –
Dr. Pompa:
It indirectly affects the cell. True detox has to happen itself, but when that liver back up, we got to get that moving. We have to get that stuff out of there. Powerful tool.
Meredith:
Awesome. I’ll definitely check out that video. Thank Simon again for joining us. What a powerful story! That guy is an inspiration. I am very inspired, as well, and it’s always just fun to talk about fasting and all the new things that you’re learning about it constantly, Dr. Pompa, as well. More and more research is validating all of these strategies. If you’re out there, and you’re thinking about fasting, it’s a no-brainer. Just give it a try, especially the partial fast, the intermittent fast, just kind of taking baby steps, and doing it slowly is a great way to ease into it.
Dr. Pompa:
I’ll keep learning. Hey, I don’t just sit in that sauna. I sat there and read studies all morning.
Meredith:
That’s a good thing to do in the sauna.
Dr. Pompa:
Absolutely. Hopefully I see you on Facebook. Go to my Facebook, Dr. Daniel Pompa. That’s my fan page. All right.
Meredith:
Awesome. Thanks, Dr. Pompa. Check it out, guys, online, and we’ll see you next time. Have a great weekend. Bye-bye.
Dr. Pompa:
Bye-bye.
