Fast Like a Girl: A Woman's Guide to Using the Healing Power of Fasting to Burn Fat, Boost Energy,and Balance Hormones

by Mindy Pelz

In the past few decades, chronic conditions like Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, infertility, cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity, mood disorders, and even chronic pain have skyrocketed. What might be the most disheartening about this surge is that many of these diagnoses are happening to women. Yet women are still being given a one-size-fits-all solution that rarely takes into account their hormonal needs, leaving them feeling unheard, out of answers, and, most of all, still sick.

all foods are not created equal: Some foods build up your health and others deplete you. I had been eating the ones that depleted me. He immediately put me on a diet that looked very much like today’s wildly popular ketogenic diet. Within three weeks of adhering to his diet recommendations, I could feel something in my body shift dramatically. Not only was my energy coming back but my brain had more clarity, I started dropping weight effortlessly, and the depressive haze I had been walking around in for months disappeared overnight. I literally felt like someone had given me a miracle cure, yet all I did was change what I was eating.

When you look at the root causes of many chronic diseases, you see a common thread—that common thread is poor metabolic health.

our bodies heal in a fasted state

When you pair the right foods with fasting, miracles happen—especially for women.

when we don’t mirror our ancestors’ feast-famine cycling behaviors, our health suffers.

Our current approach of eating all day, without ever dipping into periods of fasting, has us going against our own genetic code.

intermittent fasting should be used as the first line of treatment for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative brain conditions, and cancer. It also stated that intermittent fasting has anti-aging effects

Any fast that’s longer than 17 hours will trigger autophagy and help you stay immune strong.

every time, the 48-hour dopamine fast seems to improve people’s mental health more than any other fast.

When do you want to lean in to a 48-hour fast? When you want to: Reboot dopamine levels; Lower anxiety levels.

It doesn’t take a lot of 48-hour fasts to reset this system; often one a year can do the trick.

many experts believe that three-day water fasts done one to two times a year will help you get rid of any cancer cells that may be building up in your body. We all have cancer cells within us. What stops those cancer cells from turning into tumors is a properly functioning immune system. Physical, emotional, and chemical stressors wear down our immune system, rendering it ineffective in detecting these cancer cells. Because of the efficacy of a three-day water fast on rebooting your immune system, many like to use this length of fast as a preventative tool.

one of the early signs that your cells are becoming metabolically inflexible as when you get “hangry,” especially if it has been only a few hours since you last ate. This is a telltale sign that your cells are not making that switch over to fat burning. Healthy mitochondria will easily adapt to declining glucose levels while waiting for the ketone surge. This metabolic switch will feel effortless, allowing you to go longer without food while it takes time for the liver to supply ketones. Unhealthy mitochondria, on the other hand, will struggle while waiting for that switch.

I encourage you to not fast the week before your period, as even minor healthy spikes of cortisol can tank your progesterone.

what is pivotal to understand is that in a one-month cycle there will be times that fasting will feel effortless and times when fasting will be difficult.

Estrogen loves when you fast. The longer the fast, the better. In the beginning of your cycle when estrogen is building, any of the six fasting lengths will magnify her glory. Here’s why. Estrogen thrives when insulin is low.

Because your body is programmed to always work to stay in balance, when you fast in the same way every day your body will begin to get comfortable. This can mean you stop getting results, just like with any diet or exercise program, when your body can hit plateaus. So variation is important.

When your hormone levels are low—when your cycle first starts and post ovulation—your fasts can be longer.

Estrogen thrives when you keep glucose and insulin low. If estrogen were doing the ordering, it would request a salad over a sandwich. Bread spikes your blood sugar, which is not to estrogen’s liking. Once your period starts and your body ramps up your estrogen levels, leaning in to a low-carbohydrate diet through your ovulation can give estrogen a chance to shine.

Fat is your friend, not your enemy.

Diversity of food choices is one of the most overlooked nutritional ideas. As discussed above, different foods feed different gut bacteria. Limiting your food choices can restrict the growth of helpful microbes.

There are two main styles of eating that work best for your hormones. One eating style will help regulate your blood sugar, allowing estrogen to flourish, while the other purposefully raises your glucose levels to support the needs of progesterone.

Hormone feasting foods are higher in carbohydrates. This purposely provides you with more nutritional support to produce progesterone.

The easiest way to approach these two styles of eating is that when hormones are peaking at ovulation and a week before your period, you want to feed them, so you move into hormone feasting foods. When your hormones are at their lowest levels, during the first 10 days of your cycle and the 5 days post ovulation, you want to go into ketobiotic to keep insulin low.

Unlike men, we have all sorts of hormones to think of, so timing our fasts to our menstrual cycle is critical. But the results are amazing: When timed properly, you will balance your hormones, supercharge your energy, turn into an incredible fat burner, and stave off disease.

science has shown us that a daily fasting regime of 14 to 16 hours will undo the metabolic damage poor diet can create in your body.