You know, with guys, you can just say, I kind of feel like fasting today. It's great. You know, I kind of feel like fasting two days from now. But with women, it's a little bit different. There's just other pieces of the equation. So if you look at progesterone, you look at estrogen, you can actually determine the best time to fast to get the best outcome. So let's break it down. Hey, after this video, I want you to check out Thrive Market. They're an online membership-based grocery store. If you're doing fasting, if you're doing vegan, Paleo, keto, whatever, you can sort by diet type and find different foods and pantry staples within that category. So I use them almost exclusively for my pantry staples these days. It is awesome and it makes it super easy. Don't have to go to the grocery store. You just go online, click a few buttons, get what you want, and it's on your doorstep in a couple of days. It's that simple. They're a big sponsor, big supporter of this channel. I appreciate the heck out of them. And because they are such a good sponsor, they have provided a 25% discount off your first order plus a free gift. if you check them out via the link down below in the description. So a big thank you to Thrive and a big thank you to you for checking out Thrive and supporting this channel. There's a couple of phases that we have to look at during the month for women, okay? During the estrogen phase, like... a couple weeks prior to having your period, and when your estrogen levels are higher or shortly after your period, that is a great time to embark on your slightly longer fasts. You see, estrogen actually triggers a pretty satiating effect. When estrogen levels are a little bit higher, you're usually not as hungry, and that leads to a pretty positive benefit, right? Like if you're fasting, it's gonna make it so you can go through your fast a little bit easier. Estrogen can also be pretty anti-catabolic, meaning it's going to preserve muscle a little bit more. There's a reason why you typically feel pretty good during the estrogen phase. It actually really does make you feel better. So it's a great time to experiment with slightly longer fasts. It's also a good time to be able to experiment with a little bit more exercise during your fast because you have a little bit more of that buffer. So you can actually get a good amount of fat loss during the estrogen phase. You see, it's kind of funny. People tend to think that estrogen is associated with gaining weight. It's not quite that. In fact, in some ways, it's kind of the opposite. You see, during the luteal phase, with progesterone being at its height, you actually have a higher instance of gaining fat during that phase. So, the week right before your period when progesterone levels are getting higher, that's when the cravings come in. That's where the kind of the... You know, a hallmark of like, oh, I want a bunch of chocolate and all that. That's when that comes in. And that is very real. That is a very real thing. There's a study that was published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology that found that progesterone does have a metabolic effect. It can actually trigger more fat storage and it triggers hyperinsulinemia. So it's going to bring your insulin levels up a little bit more. This is not exactly... good for the metabolism, but it's a pretty natural thing that's occurring in this case. So that being said, I've talked about this in other videos, that's probably not the best time to be fasting. Also, when progesterone levels are elevated, you have an increase in catabolic responses in the body. So basically your body can break down more muscle. Now, you may or may not know this, but muscle is a huge driving factor of our metabolism. And one of the benefits of fasting, one of the benefits of lower carb is, yes, you are actually preserving muscle mass throughout that process. But if you have other powers like progesterone that is very powerful, that is signaling a stronger catabolic response, that could make it so that your fasting actually isn't getting you as much benefit. If your body is in fat storage mode, fasting is not going to have as much of an impact. You may think that... If your body's in fat storage mode, it's a great time to fast because you could attenuate the fat deposition, but it doesn't quite work like that. You see, fasting and fat loss associated with fasting is all about sort of having the tides turn towards the body wanting to use fat for fuel. It's not just as simple as not eating. If your body is resisting the urge to burn fat for fuel because progesterone is standing in the way, fasting is really just going to be an uncomfortable period of time that's not getting you a ton of result. So the best time for you to fast is going to be shortly after your period for that two-week period prior to ovulation. You can still fast during ovulation, but if you're trying to conceive, I would recommend that you turn it off a little bit then. So that period, that two-week estrogenic period, is going to be a very good time. You're going to feel satiated and it's when you can start experimenting with longer fasts. One of the things that I would also recommend is when you are going through your luteal phase and you're not fasting, that's a good time to be implementing more of a ketogenic or a lower carb protocol. Okay, hyperinsulinemia is going to occur, which means that your insulin levels are going to be higher. So, fasting may not be perfect in that particular case because of the whole like PPAR alpha and fat deposition thing, but when you look at the situation with hyperinsulinemia, one of the ways that you can combat that is by not consuming a bunch of carbohydrates. So, don't give in to the cravings of wanting to eat a bunch of sugar. That's a good time for you to go keto or paleo or lower carb. Okay, then when you are fasting during your estrogen phase, That is a time that you can probably get away with having a few more carbohydrates without having as much of a negative impact. There's going to be much lower levels of insulin, much less instance of insulin resistance at that point in time. So your body can probably have better glucose tolerance. So if you wanted to do slightly longer fast and be able to implement carbohydrates in, that would be the time to do it. And then as you get past that two week period, you want to kind of wean off the carbohydrates. go back into a lower carb fasting protocol until you hit that luteal phase that week right before your period where you would want to go ahead and kind of cut the carbs out altogether or just go pretty darn low on them. So hopefully this gives you a little bit of an insight as to the best time of the month to fast for you so you get the best results and don't feel miserable like you're just hitting a wall all the time. As always, keep it locked in. I'll see you tomorrow.