This Type Of Flexible Fasting Is Like A Yoga Class For Your Metabolism

In my telehealth functional medicine clinic, when I first meet my patients online, they are often struggling with varying issues of fatigue, blood sugar problems, hormone imbalances, metabolic issues, and inflammation. They wonder why they can't function in the afternoon without a sugar-filled latte or why they are still hungry after a meal. It can feel like their whole lives revolve around trying to avoid hunger, insatiable cravings, blood sugar crashes, and dips in energy.

If this sounds like you, these symptoms are a big sign that some of the signals in your body have gone haywire and are sending you the wrong messages. So, how do we take back control? How do we have agency and freedom over our health? In my experience, the answer is regaining metabolic flexibility1—our body's ability to adapt and use whatever fuel is available—through introducing our body to various types of fasting.

Think of flexible intermittent fasting as a yoga class for your metabolism. This ebbing and flowing between various fasting windows is akin to stretching and strengthening your body. In my new book Intuitive Fasting, I've developed a four-week flexible plan that will walk you through different fasting windows. This format is designed to stretch and strengthen your metabolism so you can feel good all day long and say goodbye to those nagging cravings. And just like a yoga class, you will gain resilience, intuition, and a rootedness in your body.

For the final week, you will be returning to the 12-hour fasting window from the first week. But this time, we'll be adding more "clean carb-up" days, which means increasing your nutritious carbohydrates like fruits, sweet potatoes, and rice. This cyclical approach, paired with a bigger eating window and shorter fasts, can help support thyroid hormones and progesterone for women.

Although periodic longer fasting windows have their benefits, I've designed this four-week plan to stretch your eating windows and help you become metabolically flexible, sustainably. If fasting variability is a yoga class for your metabolism, then "Rebalance Week" is the savasana. You know, that time at the end of your yoga class where you lie down, relax, and meditate on all the amazing work you just did?

This tailored approach allows you to use both the tools of fasting and a clean diet to help, like yoga, center yourself and reconnect with the way your body is supposed to feel. The gentle, flexible fasting windows are designed to elevate how you feel and ground you in your body so that you can find food and body peace.