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Summary – Dr. Mindy Pelz shares an updated approach to fasting called "Flex Fasting," based on 15 years of experience and recent research. She challenges several outdated fasting rules, emphasising that flexibility and personalisation are more effective for long-term health and weight loss than rigid protocols.
Key Takeaways from Flex Fasting:
1/. Flex Your Eating Window:
Research suggests that being able to shift your 8-hour eating window daily, rather than sticking to a rigid one, yields better results (3:24, 6:33).
2/. Drink More Than Just Water:
Black coffee, tea, and mineral supplements (like BEAM or LMNT) do not break a fast and can actually enhance the benefits (8:26, 9:45).
3/. Shorter vs. Longer Fasts:
A/. Shorter (13–17 hours): Ideal for daily metabolic flexibility, blood sugar stability, and hormonal support (10:13, 12:37).
B/. Longer (24+ hours): Therapeutic tools for stem cell renewal, deep autophagy, and resetting metabolic plateaus; these should be used periodically, not daily (10:13, 13:41).
4/. Hunger is Data:
Do not blindly push through biological hunger; if you feel shaky or dizzy, your body may need nutrients, minerals, or a shift in your eating window (14:41, 16:59).
5/. Combine with Exercise:
Research shows that pairing flexible fasting with moderate aerobic exercise leads to significantly better fat loss compared to fasting alone (4:06, 18:02).
6/. Protect Your Hormones:
Recent studies indicate that 4–6 hour eating windows do not significantly disrupt sex hormones in pre- or postmenopausal women (21:26, 21:56).
Dr. Pelz concludes that the most sustainable strategy is to listen to your body, customise your fasting style, and focus on overall metabolic health rather than following strict, one-size-fits-all dogma (21:01, 24:41).
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I have heard that fasting beyond 12 hours for women can have the opposite effect. Men can fast more than 12 hours but women should not . Please advise
Wow, I am amazed that this is an actually a research study. I have been doing this due to the schedule I have when to workout or run and set the eating window within 8 hours. It works for me and I find it easy to adhere to the same routine to fast 16 hours.
if you're not eating for an entire day then you are actually fasting closer to 36 hours…. 24 would be closing your eating window at 6 pm and then opening your window at 6pm the next day
idk if I can trust or take rhis video seriously when I see the "age like a girl" book in the background
Can we have 50 calories during the fasting window and still consider this fasting?
Mindy, please look at the impact of fasting on dysregulated nervous systems. I cannot fast past 24 hours without triggering a fairly severe headache, nausea, vomiting and constipation that is very difficult to resolve. I suspect this is related to early childhood trauma that set up my nervous system to default to freeze in response to stress. I don’t feel I struggle with hunger when I fast, it’s my body freaking out. I understand that ketones help calm excitatory processes. My nervous system seems to respond to that with an emergency shutdown. I may be rare, but certainly not unique.
The reality is that longer fasts are better. You need to start gradually of course, but you don't get real fat burning until around 16 hours and you get the most benefits if you can fast longer like doing one meal a day eat at 23 hours for OMAD, or I do 20:4 most of the time. Also, a long fast like 36 hours or more is supposed to do wonders for autophagy. You get amazing benefits, if you do that once in a while. There are many doctors on YOUTUBE who explain this in detail. This one is only one.
Fasting is useful but it is just one tool for health. It is not only when to eat or not; it is also as important what you eat and how you eat. Also, exercise, mobility and strength training is very important and part of the equation. Mental balance and emotional development are key to the overall health of the human body…..
YeeessHi,
I love that you acknowledge that things change and that it’s okay to feel like you’re going back on something you once said. The reality is that science doesn’t stay the same, and we have to be willing to change with it. Honestly, I think that’s what life is all about. Learning, growing, and being willing to change our minds as we learn more.
A few things have changed for me throughout my fasting journey, and I’ve found that these changes have made intermittent fasting so much more sustainable for me.
First, I no longer count my fast based on how many hours I’m fasting. Instead, I focus on my eating window. I typically eat within a window of somewhere between one and six hours, and I don’t worry about calculating or tracking my fasting hours. That simple shift has taken away some of the mental pressure and allowed me to focus more on the bigger picture.
I’ve also stopped scheduling my life around my fasts and started scheduling my fasts around my life. If I’m meeting friends for brunch, I’ll open my eating window at 11. Maybe that means I have a longer eating window that day, followed by a shorter one the next day. And that’s okay! My life doesn’t have to revolve around fasting for fasting to be part of my life.
Another thing I’ve learned is that alternate day fasting doesn’t have to mean an all or nothing approach. It can be as simple as having a six hour eating window one day and a one or two hour eating window the next. It doesn’t always have to mean eating one day and not eating the next. There is room for flexibility, and I think we sometimes make things more complicated than they need to be.
I’ve also learned to give myself more grace. I don’t have to follow every fasting decision perfectly to call myself an intermittent faster, just like I don’t have to run a certain number of miles every week to call myself a runner. If life happens, plans change, or something unexpected comes up, I can adjust. And as we get older, raise families, navigate relationships, and care for aging parents, we know that life is going to happen.
Sometimes that might mean changing my eating window. Sometimes it might mean not fasting for a day. Gasp! And guess what? I’m still an intermittent faster.
I think that’s one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned. I don’t have to be rigid to be consistent, and I don’t have to be perfect to make something a lifestyle.
I’ve genuinely found intermittent fasting to be the only longevity “diet” that has felt sustainable for me, largely because I’ve stopped treating it like a diet in the traditional sense. I see it as a lifestyle. It’s something that fits into my life rather than something my life has to fit around.
It’s also something I hope to instill in my family. In fact, my family members have started adopting some of these habits themselves without necessarily calling themselves fasters. They’re simply finding what works for them and incorporating it into their lives.
And on a personal level, I fully believe this is a way of eating that aligns with how God designed us. I know there is always more to learn, and I’m open to continuing to evolve as science, experience, and life teach me new things.
For me, the goal isn’t to win at fasting. It’s to build a sustainable lifestyle that supports my health and longevity while still allowing me to live my life, enjoy my family, spend time with friends, and give myself grace along the way.
Because at the end of the day, I want fasting to serve my life, not have my life serve fasting.
I’m glad to lose breakfast. I was never hungry for it but ate it because everyone said I was supposed to. Feel much better without it. More alert and alive. The hardest time for me to fast is the evenings. Cravings are strong then.
Dr. Mindy, I want to know if drinking yerba mate will stop my fast, with or without a little bit of stevia. Thanks
Can you please suggest which minerals (clean ingredients) to take? Thanks much!
What's your response to those who say that if you don't give your body fuel before strength training, a woman's body holds onto visceral fat because it's in a stressful state, thinking it won't get what it needs?
The husband was at 18 hrs fasting and tested at 63 glucose. He felt fine but was getting hungry. Is that ok or should he have broken fast sooner?
Can I use stevia in my tea or coffee during fasting?
Purchased Fast like a Girl. I’m overwhelmed by creating a shopping list! Where is a 30 day reset shopping list??
Thankyou
Hey could you Upload Something concerning Lipedemia ❤
Brilliant video. 🫶🏾
Ok so having an olive oil shot does not break my fast?