Show Notes
Free metabolic capacity assessment: https://medgeeks.co/get-started/metabolic-health/ Waitlist to work with me: https://medgeeks.co/consult/work-with-me/ A water-only fast can quietly burn through your own muscle. The fix is a hybrid between the fasting mimicking diet and a protein-sparing modified fast (PSMF). In this podcast I walk through the exact protocol plus the results from my own bloodwork. Most people think fasting is only about cutting calories and dropping weight, but the science says it's doing far more. When researchers tracked a 7-day fast and measured thousands of blood proteins every day, they found the body crosses a threshold around day 3, where more than a thousand proteins shift at once across the brain, joints, heart, and immune system. The catch is that a straight water fast makes you pay for those benefits with muscle, and dragging restriction out too long can down-regulate your metabolism. So the real question isn't whether to fast, it's how to fast without losing muscle. I'll break down what a multi-day fast actually does to your body, whether fasting really causes muscle loss, and the protein-sparing approach I've now cycled four times for muscle preservation. I'm Andrew Reid, founder of Medgeeks. I trained as a physician assistant, hold a graduate degree in nutrition, and have had over 100,000 patient encounters and trained more than 10,000 clinicians in metabolic science. Free metabolic capacity assessment: https://medgeeks.co/get-started/metabolic-health/
More from Medgeeks with Andrew Reid
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Built for More: https://health.medgeeks.co/ In this podcast, I cover where the RDA came from, why the nitrogen balance method it's based on undercounts, and what newer research says the real requirement looks like. We'll also get into why the body doesn't need protein at all, and why leucine in particular matters more than total grams. From there, we'll go through how the requirement changes with muscle building, calorie deficits, aging, GLP-1 medications, and illness. Then finish with protein quality, the difference between plant and animal sources, and a few label pitfalls like collagen and amino spiking that make people think they're eating more protein than they are
The lifestyle intensive: https://lifestyle.medgeeks.co/ Muscle does more than move you; it helps shape how you age. Explore the connection between exercise, mitochondria, and metabolic health, and learn how staying active helps preserve strength and function over time. "Use it or lose it" starts at the cellular level.
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Take the free Metabolic Capacity Assessment: https://medgeeks.co/get-started/metabolic-health/ Work with me: https://medgeeks.co/consult/work-with-me/ Food is more than calories and macros. It supplies the signals and raw materials your body needs to function, repair, and recover. Here are 10 practical nutrition principles for better metabolic health, body composition, and long-term resilience.