SHAWN STEVENSON: There are so many unsustainable and even dangerous ways to lose weight. Today I'm going to share with you the most science backed way to swiftly and safely lose 20 pounds or whatever your weight loss goal is, and to keep the weight off for good. If I needed to lose 20 pounds myself, this is exactly what I do. This is the fastest method. We're going to follow the acronym fastest, starting off with the F and the F is for focus on protein. Adequate protein is powerful for weight loss. Thanks to its impact on satiety, the thermic effect of food and improving overall metabolic health. For example, researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center recruited overweight test subjects to study the impact that a higher protein breakfast has on the brain versus an average protein breakfast. The scientists used fMRIs to analyze participants' brains and discovered that adding in more protein, specifically for their first meal of the day, decreases the signals in the brain that stimulate appetite and lead to overeating.

The truth is that regulating hunger and cravings is critical to any sustainable weight loss plan. Another study in the same vein was conducted by researchers at St. Louis University and published in the International Journal of Obesity. And it sought to discover what happens with weight loss when you eat a high carbohydrate breakfast, which was a bagel in this particular study, versus a naturally high protein and fat breakfast being eggs. When the calorie count of the meals was exactly the same, same amount of calories in the bagel, as the calories in the eggs. Now, the researchers did have the test subjects to reduce their overall daily caloric intake by 1000 calories in this study, but they had different people to utilize different macronutrient ratios for their first meal of the day.

Just that breakfast, again, the calories were the same in their breakfast, but one group was eating a high carbohydrate breakfast while the other was eating a high protein and fat breakfast. Here's what happened. At the end of the eight week study, the participants in the high protein breakfast group showed a 61 percent greater reduction in body mass index, a 65 percent greater weight loss, a 34 percent greater reduction in waist circumference, and a 16 percent greater reduction in body fat percentage. Not only did they lose more weight, they lost more actual fat mass. This type of study should be making front page news and then revolving every day until we actually get it. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Test subjects are on the same reduction of calories in their respective diets. But simply changing the macronutrient ratio of their breakfast made a significant impact on the amount of weight that they lost. Now why does protein have such a profound effect, not just on satiety, but on our overall metabolic health helping to lead to results like what was seen in this study.  Well, one of the most overlooked reasons is that protein is used to make our key metabolic hormones. Our hormones that are making this process of fat loss happen are made from proteins. The reality that so many people, including the most esteemed people in the nutrition space. I went to college and studied nutrition. I took a college level nutritional science class and I was not taught and given this revelation. That proteins in my diet are used to make my hormones, that connective tissue was not there. If we're deficient in the very thing that makes these powerful metabolic drivers, our bodies are simply not going to be able to do all the things that it has the potential to do. Yes, our bodies can adapt and make adjustments, but what if we provide our bodies with the raw materials to actually do these incredible jobs?

So again, protein is used to make our hormones. Protein is also used to make our muscle tissue, which is one of the most important drivers of our overall metabolic rate. Protein and amino acids are invaluable for every aspect of human health. We tend to put these in these very superficial boxes, right? We got our proteins, our carbohydrates and our fats. These are the primary macronutrients that we're taught about in society. But food is so much more than these very pithy boxes. There's an intimate relationship here with our food, the external environment and our bodies. We're literally making our bodies and everything that the body does from the foods that we're choosing to eat. And protein is that important. And protein has been left out of the conversation in a major way when the fat versus carbs saga has been going on for years and years. And all this infighting and proteins has been sitting back, waiting, kind of put his hand up every now and then.

Hey, it's good. But everybody, no, no, no, no, no carbs, let carbs talk. Protein's just, you know, I wait patiently, protein's trying to put his hand up. Oh, can I say a little something? No, no, no. Fats. It's your turn. But proteins have been there all the while, waiting patiently, and today finally is emerging and its importance, and its significance in this process of metabolic health is being appreciated. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And then there's the thermic effect of food and it's generally agreed upon that when we eat food, we're bringing in new calories this metric of energy into our bodies. But what's overlooked is that you actually burn calories as your body is processing and pulling in new calories and nutrients from the food that you're eating.

Digesting food costs energy. It costs your body calories to chew, to swallow to produce stomach acid and digestive enzymes to churn the food and move it through your digestive tract. To mobilize the cells in your small intestine to kick into gear and to snatch up nutrients from the food. To move the nutrients to the required places throughout your body and to ship out all of the metabolic waste. There are so many energy intensive things going on that calories are required for in the digestion process itself. These are all semi obvious things that require caloric energy to be used, but the type of food you're eating itself will determine the net gain in calories that you end up with more than just about anything.

It's generally accepted that protein requires the most energy to digest, with 20 to up to 30 percent of the calories consumed from eating protein going into digesting that protein. While approximately five to upwards of 10 percent of the calories in carbohydrates go into digesting it. And for fats, it's about zero to upwards of about three to maybe 5 percent of the calories in fat go into digesting it. Again, it's vital to understand that it costs calories. to process and absorb calories. This is called the thermic effect of food. As a quick example, let's say you eat 100 grams of pure unadulterated protein, pure protein. Your body will require about 20 to 30 of those calories to digest that protein.

So you're left with a net gain of 70 calories of the protein. Now, proteins may require 10 to uppers of 20 times more caloric energy to digest than fats because our enzymes must unravel the tightly wound string of amino acids from which proteins are built. Yet food labels do not account for this expenditure. This is just a few of the reasons why the fastest method starts with this F, which is focus on protein. Now, the question should be how much protein? How much protein should I be targeting if I want to support a sustainable weight loss? Well, the number one tip is that we're going to have to target the amount of grams of protein that is right for us. There isn't a cookie cutter format for this is going to depend on you. And I'm going to give you a couple of metrics to find out what that amount ideally will be. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: The US RDA recommended daily allowance for protein is created to target your recommended daily allowance, an amount that helps you to not have a deficiency. It's not necessarily the amount to help you to build and sustain your muscle and to have true metabolic health. So keep that in mind. The US RDA currently points four grams of protein for each pound of body weight that you have. So for a person who weighs 170 pounds, this translates to about 68 grams of protein per day.

According to some experts, this could be enough for basic functioning, help you survive. But many experts assert that this is nowhere near what's optimal for performance, for real health, for building and sustaining your muscle. Your protein needs are going to be unique to you and your unique lifestyle factors. It's a part of your overall metabolic fingerprint that we have to take into consideration. Your age, your gender, ethnicity even plays a role in the amount of protein that is ideal. Your current level of activity, this is one that should be a glaringly obvious one. For example, people that are doing more physical work and that are more physically active that are training on a consistent basis, you're going to have a higher need of protein.

This is well known. Whatever diet framework somebody is coming from, whether it's a vegan framework, all the way up to carnivore framework. And by the way, the vast majority of humans that have ever graced this planet have been omnivores. So there's somewhere on the spectrum. But it's well noted that our bodies are going to require more protein if we are training more for more physically active because we all know embedded in all these different frameworks that protein is incredibly important because our tissues are made from these proteins.

Now with that said, the International Society of Sports Nutrition's daily protein recommendation is 0. 9 grams of protein per pound of body weight for regular exercises. So, for a 170 pound person, that's 153 grams of protein each day. That's more than twice the baseline RDA to help you to prevent deficiency and to survive. Just to be clear, neither is right or wrong. It's just about what's right for you and your particular goals. But I'm here to tell you as part of the fastest program, we definitely want to lean towards the recommendations from the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: We want to target somewhere around 0. 9 to 1. 1 grams of protein per pound of ideal body weight or per pound of body weight. Again, it just depends on what camp you're in, but you definitely want to be a little bit higher because of all the benefits that we covered. This does not mean we're eating a super high protein diet per se, but most people are simply not getting in enough protein to generate all these metabolic benefits.

In particular, tip number two is to get in a hefty amount of that protein for your first meal of the day. It sets the metabolic template for the day. It's the catalyst as noted in the University of Kansas Medical Center study that we covered. Now, how much protein was in that study for that first meal of the day? Well, in the “average protein diet”, it was under 20 grams of protein and this kept people more reactive to food and cravings when studying their brains versus the higher protein breakfast, including over 40 grams of protein at breakfast and an activated significantly higher levels of satiety. 

Tip number three, all protein is not created equal. Get most of your protein needs through clean sources through real food sources. All right. If we're going and looking at the chemistry of the amino acids of what's coming in a kfc fried chicken breast or chicken thigh versus the chicken thigh or chicken breast that you cook yourself. Without all of the ungodly chemicals and additives and preservatives and rancid oils and all these other things that come along with that KFC chicken. You're going to be able to avoid a lot of potential metabolic damage and what are referred to as obesogens. Obesogens are noted as obesity creating or contributing agents that alter our metabolism and shift it in a way that is more supportive of weight gain. Alright, so there's a whole category of obesogens.

We've done multiple shows talking about obesogens, but we can avoid those when we're eating cleaner, real whole food sources of proteins. And the same thing holds true if you're utilizing a vegan diet which is the tendency to bring in a lot of ultra processed plant based compounds as well. So ultra processed soy and wheat products to try to garner the amount of protein that we're looking for and not considering all of the toxic chemicals that are utilized in that process of turning tofu into a tofu wiener. All right, tofu hot dog or tofu chicken nuggets. All right, so we want to go for real food sources and although there are not many plant foods that are considered "complete proteins". 

SHAWN STEVENSON: This is one of those places where if you have some intelligence and strategy. Combining food together as well noted beans and rice for example to create that plethora of proteins that the body needs that we consider essential but keep in mind the carbohydrate fraction is so much higher than in those foods and this is what causes a lot of people to struggle.

This is one of the reasons why today a lot of plant based folks are shifting to a plant first approach and allowing room for a couple of animal foods so maybe this even might be one meal a day in the form of some eggs or a dairy based high protein food like yogurt or a meal of fish, and just being able to get a cleaner dense source of real food protein. So but again, you've got to do what's right for you, what's right for your body. I'm a big advocate of not getting trapped in diet dogma and leaning towards what our ancestors have been eating for thousands of years and giving ourselves permission to have the foods that keep us healthy, that make us feel good. And that guiding light simply being eating real food.

Now, if you're still having a hard time getting in your ideal amount of protein, yes, you can bring in a protein supplement. But the word is supplement for a reason. This should supplement an already healthy diet, an already protein rich diet. And if you're going to utilize a protein supplement, please use one that is backed by the most science. Now, there are a ton of protein supplements on the market today from animal based versions to plant based versions. But the most science, decades of peer reviewed evidence, is denoting the benefits from whey protein. Whey is not new. It's not just some industry by product. The person who's considered to be the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, was utilizing whey in his practice. So it's been around for thousands of years. But what about the data today? 

Well, a randomized double blind study published in the journal of nutrition found that overweight test subjects who were instructed to consume whey protein daily for 23 weeks, lost more body fat, had a greater loss in waist circumference and had a greater reduction of circulating ghrelin levels. This is one of our body's major hunger hormones compared to test subjects taking daily soy protein or an isogenic carbohydrate drink. What's really interesting about this study is that test subjects were not instructed to make any other dietary or lifestyle changes. These results were by adding in more protein through utilizing high quality whey protein.

The whey protein that I've been utilizing for years, by the way, is from the incredible team at Onnit. Onnit has taken it upon themselves to put many of their supplements through randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trials. They are really focused on human performance and optimization, and grass-fed whey protein is a staple at my house. So, definitely check them out if you're looking for a great whey protein. or they also have a plant protein that is bar none as well, utilizing the very best ingredients. And you get 10 percent off by the way, if you go to onnit.com/model, that's O N N I T. com/model. You're going to get 10 percent off.

So again, this is the fastest method. The F is for focusing on protein. And now we're going to move into the A in the fastest method. And A is to avoid refined sugar. Avoid refined sugar. Avoid it like the plague. Avoid it like cooties. Do you remember the cooties? Oh, you got the cooties. Stay away from me. Avoid it like the plague. Avoid it like cooties. Get away from it. A fantastic review published in the journals Nature and BDJ Open detailed how excessive dietary sugars, particularly refined fructose and sucrose, can cause systemic inflammation, trigger gut barrier dysfunction, and endotoxemia and induce dysbiosis of the gut. The analysis also noted that sugar triggers dopamine release in the brain's pleasure centers and activates the endogenous opioid system, potentially leading to addictive behaviors such as binging, craving, and withdrawal. Refined sugars are by far the biggest driver of our body's primary energy storage slash fat storage hormone insulin.

And as metabolic scientist Dr. Ben Bickman shared with me, when insulin is active in your system, your body will not burn fat. Period. Full stop. Refined sugar is the fastest route to excessive insulin activity, insulin resistance, and the creation of excess body fat. And the fastest way to deliver high amounts of sugar into your system that is common in our culture today is through drinking sugar sweetened beverages like soda, fruit juices, and other drinkable high sugar concoctions. Again, our fastest method of delivering high amounts of sugar straight to our cells is through the consumption of liquid sugar, which is highlighted in a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry. The researchers asserted that the consumption of highly concentrated liquid fructose leads to the development of hypothalamic leptin resistance and the development of excess visceral belly fat.

And the fact is that you can't outrun or out train any diet that's bringing in copious amounts of sugar and calories in liquid form. Let's take an example of a typical store bought lemonade. For a 16 ounce bottle, you're going to get about 240 calories. And hypothetically, you can guzzle down that 16 ounce bottle in about 20 seconds. Now, I'm saying this because I've done this. It's so quick and easy to get this into your system. It doesn't have any dietary compounds that help to slow down that invasion of sugar into your body. Now, if you take the basic calories in calories out mindset to counteract what you just consumed in 20 seconds.

You're going to have to jog for about 30 minutes to burn off, "burn off" that 240 calories. That was so easy that you can get into your body in seconds. Keeping in mind, the average human is jogging about four to six miles per hour. But 20 seconds to get it in, 30 minutes to get it out if you're looking through that mindset. But this doesn't even consider the impact of the simple sugars coming into your body in liquid form, like a freaking slingshot. Alright, for whatever reason, YouTube popped up some slingshot videos of people on the slingshot ride. I don't know if you've seen this before, and people basically getting launched into the air.

A lot of people be passing out, which is kind of lowkey funny, but also terrifying. You know, they pass out as they're getting slung into the air. And then they wake up in terror because they realize like they take a little mini quick nap when you pass out, you're like you're asleep. And you wake up and you are flying up in the air like you're terrified even more and they pass out again. So it's like these videos are basically human goats. I was a little passing out fainting goats. But anyway, so that's how that sugar is getting into your body like a slingshot in liquid form so specifically in the fastest method, avoid refined sugar like the plague, like cooties. Specifically, liquid sugar. Cut it out. Stop. All right, if we're gonna do this just cut it out. All right.

I'm not a person that's very like you can't do this kid, but if we're gonna get these results, this is the thing that disrupts our metabolic health the fastest is consuming this liquid sugar. If we're talking about from the nutrition perspective. All right, it's consuming liquid sugar. Cut it out. All right. Just say no. Avoid sodas, avoid these sugary pasteurized juices. Now, I'm a fan in the right context of a fresh pressed juice, but the amount of sugar that can come with a tall glass of orange juice or even fancy juices that you, you know, get it, get made at a fancy store or that you buy from a fancy company that is like pineapple and mango and you know, a little banana spritz.

I don't know how you get spritz of banana, but those kinds of things, that's a lot of sugar coming in liquid form. And yes, it has some minerals coming along with it, but it's just not worth it. All right. So if you want some fruit and that sweetness, eat the fruit, eat the fruit for this process. And then once we get to a place where we knock that 20 pounds off and you want to occasionally have a tryst with the soda. But our society has really been bullied and beat up by these carbonated sugary beverages. And the idea that drinking straight sugar is okay. It's crazy how these companies start. Coca Cola had coke in it. They're not out here like, you know, this is gonna be great for everybody. It's great for human health.

They're not, that's not their goal. All right. It's fun for the mouth and make you feel a certain type of way, but it's not good for your metabolic health. So during this fastest method, let's really do our best to stop drinking our calories, except high quality, low calorie protein or smoothies. But again, low sugar when we're doing it, we want to keep our eyes on not putting too much sugar into our bodies at one time. So instead of doing the banana, sometimes I used to make smoothie back in the whole banana, whole banana. Honey, got the berries, got the, you know, protein had some sugar in it sometimes, right? Maybe do avocado instead of the banana. Maybe a little bit of stevia or something like that. A lot of protein powders, including grass fed whey, has a little bit of sweetness to it.

Like the vanilla grass fed whey from Onnit that I mentioned earlier. But just being able to reduce that amount of sugar, still find that creaminess. Maybe you put a little bit of, maybe some berries in there as well. Maybe a little bit of honey. Honey is different from other types of sweeteners because it doesn't have that same glycemic impact. But when you're just stacking all these sweetie things on top of each other, it just gets out of hand really quickly. And also limit things like pastries and cookies and ice cream and all these delicious things that we have access to 24/7 in our society today and have those as a very occasional thing.

Again, we're not here to just say cut everything out except sodas, and drinking our calories drinking straight sugar as we're working to get our metabolism healed and to lose the excess weight that we want to lose just cut that stuff out. It's just not worth it. But again, you do what you want. All right. You do what you want if it's one of those things just like well, I gotta. So be it you're not gonna have as much wiggle room you're gonna have to stack a lot of other things in your favor to try to work around that soda. There's a reason that duh is on the end of it. All right, so to close things out with A in the fastest method to avoid refined sugar like the cooties. The emphasis here is to get your carbohydrates from real food, real food sources. We're not villainizing carbohydrates in real food. All right, so get your carbs from real food. All right, so these are the first two in the fastest method.

The F and the A. And for the S, on our mission to lose 20 pounds, or whatever your weight loss goal is, and keep it off, the S is for sleeping smarter. Fat loss and sleep are intimately deeply connected. For instance, our sleep quality has a direct impact on our basal metabolic rate and how many calories we burn. Fat loss is sleep dependent. A study cited in scientific reports found that poor sleep quality and shortened sleep duration can significantly decrease our basal metabolic rate and how much fat we're burning. This study took 70 middle aged test subjects and placed them on the same diet and found that when the participants were sleep deprived, they had a lower amount of calorie burn.

They had a lower basal metabolic rate and lower basal fat oxidation. Plus a randomized crossover study conducted by scientists at the University of Chicago found that when test subjects were placed on the same diet. In the same controlled conditions, the amount of sleep that they got dramatically affected their fat loss. In one condition, they allowed the test subjects to get eight and a half hours of sleep for two weeks. In another condition, they restricted the test subjects to getting only five and a half hours of sleep nightly for two weeks after compiling the data. Shockingly, the participants were found to have lost 55 percent more body fat when they were able to get eight and a half hours on average of nightly sleep. Not only that, the study and this was published in the annals of internal medicine revealed Something shocking that has to do with muscle again a key driver of our metabolic rate is how much calories were burning during activity and at rest. When the participants were sleep deprived their bodies began burning off their muscle You for fuel at a faster rate.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Their participants were found to lose their fat free body mass, including their muscle increasing by 60 percent when they were sleep deprived. This was accompanied by what the researchers termed neuro endocrine adaptation that shifted their body away from burning fat for fuel. Again. These are just some of the studies that have been done on this and most people still do not know how much sleep impacts their metabolism. We could be up trying to do all this stuff measuring and monitoring and dieting and training our behind off. Not knowing that one of the most important things for us to do is to do nothing, is to sleep, is to lay our behind down and get the sleep that our body needs.

It is literally a huge threat to our survival. Our endocrine system goes bonkers when we're not getting enough sleep. Thus all of these adaptations take place that reduce our metabolic rate and alter our body in a way where we start burning off our more valuable muscle tissue and start holding on to more fat. This is priceless information to know. We've obviously talked a lot about the impact of sleep and strategies for improving your sleep over the years here on the model health show, even in year one, year 12, baby. Year one, I was just sounding the alarm. I was sounding it. All right. And that led to writing the first sleep wellness related book to become an international bestseller, sleep smarter. All right. 

And I cannot tell you, I cannot tell you how many people come up to me on the street, how many people send me messages, how many superstars in the health and fitness world and in other domains as well, you know people who are number one musicians, you know country artists like Brett Eldridge, my friend Brett Eldridge who's been on the model health show, who find sleep smarter and it changes their life. And I'm so grateful for that. It's translated in 20, I want to say 26. It might be more different languages, foreign translations, all separate foreign publishing deals because the book is good. It works. It provides the science and also the accessibility. It makes sleep sexy. It makes it something that is interesting and fun to talk about. 

And there's 21 clinically proven methods to improve your sleep quality without having to turn your world upside down. And of course, we'll put a couple of episodes for you to check out on sleep wellness and improving your sleep quality for you here. Whether you're watching on YouTube or you're listening to the audio podcast, just check the show notes. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And just a couple of quick hitters. Number one, optimize your sleep environment. All right. The environment that you're sleeping in can have a huge impact on your sleep quality. Based on several studies, again, we've gone through multiple times here on the show, a cooler environment is ideal. A dark environment is ideal because our skin has photoreceptors that pick up light.

It's always our cells are trying to figure out what time it is, the circadian timing system. So having too much "light pollution", by the way, moonlight starlight, that's not the problem. The Lux is way lower than that. We evolve with that, but the quote light pollution from all of these, you know, artificial sources of light are disruptive to our circadian rhythm. So getting some blackout curtains might be ideal depending on where you live and also getting the more heavy stimulants out of your bedroom as well. So the laptops and the iPads and the TVs and the things that stimulate our nervous system, right? Because our bedroom is, there's always these neural associations going on and so if our brain knows when we go into our bedroom that hey I do work when I get into bed.

I'm tapping it, tapping on my Laptop, I'm watching movies on my iPad. I'm watching TV. Our bodies get trained to be stimulated and also if you're cutting your TV off is the last thing you do before you go to sleep, guess what? Your nervous system is fight or flight. There's a bunch of aspects of your nervous system that are just going and going. You might be exhausted. You might fall asleep, pass out while the TV's going. Happens all the time. But your nervous system was not calmed down. Your parasympathetic nervous system is not switched over and taken over and so you might be passed out but your production of Melatonin to help you to go through your sleep cycles your reduction of cortisol. That's going to be elevated melatonin is going to be suppressed. The same thing with just being on our devices before bed. So give yourself a little bit of grace, a little bit of grace period to be off your device before going to bed. Ideally at least 30 minutes. Get off of the screen and do something else. Go brush your teeth, put on some music, take a bath, have a cup of, matter of fact, by the way, by the way, there are a ton of sleep supplements and sedatives on the market today because sleep is one of the biggest struggles.

SHAWN STEVENSON: It's something that we just do. We have been designed and you don't usually see a tiger with insomnia. You know, or a bunny. Just like, I just, I just can't get to sleep. All right. Bunnies can full on hibernate. All right. But for us, it's the unique human condition where we have so much stimulation and we fall out of rhythm with life. And so we're looking to something external to try to fix it. And for thousands of years, humans have done things to support naturally to supplement and support the sleep process. So we don't have to go running to ideally don't jump right to hormone therapy to try to fix your sleep. And I mean, melatonin supplementation.

All right. There is a place for a little bit of melatonin supplementation, but generally that is not something that you want to jump right to. It is a hormone just because you can get it at the drugstore, doesn't mean that it's something you should just be taking all willy nilly. All right, so something much better, more time tested. Just look to things like chamomile tea. Look to things like magnesium supplementation. Look to things like Reishi, that's one of my favorite things to do in the evenings. Most nights is to have a cup of reishi. I do this at least a few nights each week. And a recent study on this was published in the journal BMC Microbiology, and it sought to uncover why Reishi medicinal mushroom appears to improve sleep quality, even for individuals with clinically diagnosed insomnia, but without all of the well documented side effects seen with conventional sleep medications.

The study was titled exploration of the anti insomnia mechanisms of Reishi. Look at how Reishi impacts changes at the genetic level to bring about improved sleep quality. After their analysis, the researchers stated, "Reishi mainly affects target genes in the pineal body, amygdala nucleus, prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, and other regions, which regulate rhythm related physiological processes". It's more supportive of a natural regulation of all these aspects of our brain and our nervous system. It's pretty remarkable. It really is. And when you hear studies like this, this is not something to be all willy nilly. That's two willy nillies in one show, not to be all willy nilly and just going out and to get any random Reishi.

Most of the Reishi products, there's a whole report on this. Don't contain any of the therapeutic parts of the Reishi or any Reishi at all. You gotta go for the best companies that have integrity. The Reishi tea that I drink that I've been utilizing for years is from Four Sigmatic. Go to foursigmatic.com/model. You're going to get 10 percent off. Yes. But you're also going to get access to a dual extracted organic reishi tea, or they've even got these incredible blends. So they got reishi hot cacao as well, right. So head over there, check them out. It's foursigmatic.com/model. That's F O U R S I G M A T I C. com/model. Check out their amazing Reishi and their other dual extracted medicinal mushroom products. Hot Cocos, elixirs, coffee, all that good stuff. That's foursigmatic.com/model. 

So again, remember that fat loss and weight loss is heavily sleep dependent. And that's why in the fastest method, the first S is for sleeping smarter. Now we're going to move on to the first T, which is time restricted eating. In my conversation with metabolic scientist Dr. Ben Bickman, he shared with me that weight loss and fat loss aren't just predicated on controlling insulin. He also stressed the importance of reducing inflammation in our bodies in order to lose fat. Inflammation garners and controls and alters the activity of our fat cells in really impactful ways that most people don't think about. So what can we do to address this, to reduce inflammation and support fat loss? Well, the study published in the journal Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism showed that a daily 12 hour intermittent fast was enough to significantly reduce levels of homocysteine and C reactive protein, which are both major markers of systemic inflammation and heart disease.

And to top it off, research published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine in 2007 found that intermittent fasting can substantially enhance the body's resistance to oxidative stress. This practice, when done right, can intelligently reduce inflammation, accelerate healing, and keep you healthy and fit for years to come. And so many things are improved with a healthy eating and fasting window. From improved insulin sensitivity improved leptin sensitivity and much more. Now, what are some of the more obvious ways that having an intentional eating window and fasting window? What are some of the more obvious ways that this can have an improvement on your weight loss? Well, a study that was published in the peer review journal cell metabolism, track the eating habits of a group of adult test subjects to see how often the average person actually eats and the impact that it has on their metabolism.

The researchers discovered that not only does the average person not eat three square meals a day, most people tend to eat sporadically throughout the day, more of what could be considered snacking. The study found that the average time between the first bite of breakfast and the last bite of dinner or evening snack or drinks at the bar was about 14 hours and 45 minutes. That means the average person is eating something for the span of about 15 hours a day. You throw in some sleep and that's pretty much all the hours you got. Now that might not sound like a lot as far as that eating window, but to our genes and being an epichloric controller, this might be one of the biggest deals ever.

The scientists in the study decided to see what would happen if they simply shortened the window of eating for some of the test subjects. There were no other dietary restrictions given, no restrictions on calories, macronutrient ratios, or anything else. They simply had the test subjects to reduce their eating window to a period of 10 to 12 hours a day. After 16 weeks, the study participants lost an average of over seven pounds. The participants also reported that they were sleeping better and had a lot more energy throughout the day. An analysis of their diets uncovered that they naturally reduced their caloric intake by about 20%, even though there were no calorie restrictions placed on them.

They were losing weight, eating the foods that they wanted to eat, and experienced a lot more energy. Now this might sound too good to be true on the surface, but there are so many metabolic benefits going on behind the scenes when you give your body a structured break from constant consumption. This is what humans have done in one way or another for thousands of years. Intermittent fasting is not new. What is new is 24/7 access to hundreds or even thousands of different food items. Our brains and our biology are not healthfully equipped to live in an environment like this. This is an environment where we have to jump in and have some rules and standards for ourselves.

I'm not the biggest fan of placing rules on people or putting rules on myself. There's a rebellious nature about humans, like, just look at any, any little kid, always testing the boundaries. But rules and standards create an environment for us that actually creates more freedom to operate within those standards, within those rules. And without the rules and standards, you know, just on the food tip, if there was no ramification for eating a tombstone pizza at 2 AM or going to white castles, which I've done, I can't even tell you how many times at midnight to get the, to get the sliders. All right. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And the chicken rings, they had chicken rings. You put your finger in the ring. I don't, I don't know if you ever put the finger in the, I don't know if you've ever done it, but I've done it. Dip it in some sauce. All right. The chocolate, possibly a shake. I don't know if we can call it a shake, but the chocolate shake at White Castles is, to put it bluntly, it's seductive. All right. I've been there. 

If I didn't have rules and standards for myself, if there was no ramifications for doing that behavior, I would never would have stopped. I never would have stopped. The aroma, just the smells, they could charge you for the smells in a White Castle. All right? But the ramifications aren't pretty without these rules and standards. I can easily be out here in these streets putting unnatural things, any of us could. Into our bodies. All right. So these rules and standards, we got to jump in because the seduction is out here. It's out here. 24/7. All right. There's all, you can always find some ultra processed foods. All right. So we've got to jump in and create some rules and standards for ourselves. This is what we do when we jump in and decide to have a eating window, a clear eating and fasting window. A 12 hour fasting window is doable for pretty much anybody and I'm not trying to get into the deep intermittent fasting.

Just giving yourself a little bit of time to not be eating and let your body just metabolic processes, autophagy, all these other things that kick in. BDNF. I can go on and on all these other metabolic benefits that take place improvements in our insulin sensitivity and leptin sensitivity and the list goes on and on. 12 hours, you could do that. If you start eating at 8am, shut it down at 8 p. m. Not that hard. Okay, we can get a little bit. Yeah, if you want to finesse it a little bit, maybe shorten the window by an hour or two, but we don't got to get all into the weeds with, you know, a very strict and stringent. But just give ourselves a little bit of guidelines, a little bit of some healthy rules for ourselves and standards in a world that is designed to get you to eat a bunch of shitty food. 

They're just coming at you with Cartoon hands all the time, Homer simpson donut, burger. All right. Chicken rings just all the time. All the time. You got to have some standards for yourself and cater it to you and your unique lifestyle. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: That's the key with creating this fasting window for yourself. So, this is the fastest method. And that's the first T is time restricted eating employ this. This is going to help you to knock those 20 pounds off or whatever your weight loss goal is and to keep it off. This is something that is sustainable. It's doable for all of us. Moving on to the E in the fastest method. 

E is to exercise your major muscle groups at least 10 sets per week. Building muscle is the ultimate hack for burning calories. Muscle tissue burns more calories than other large banks of tissues like fat because it is metabolically more active. Here's why. Number one, the energy demands of muscle tissue. Muscle cells require more energy to maintain their structure and function than fat cells. Even at rest. Muscle tissue is engaged in processes like protein turnover, ion pumping, and maintaining muscle integrity. Number two, basal metabolic rate.

The basal metabolic rate represents the calories your body burns to maintain basic life functions. Muscle contributes significantly to your BMR, your basal metabolic rate, because it has a higher metabolic rate compared to fat. Each pound of muscle you have can burn more than twice the amount of calories per hour than an equal amount of fat. It's something that we can have some control over. Number three, activity and recovery. Muscles are engaged during physical activities and after exercise. They require additional energy for repair and recovery. This is known as the quote afterburn effect or excess pulse exercise, oxygen consumption, or EPOC, not to be mistaken with, I'm not going to say it.

Tupac. Where the body burns extra calories to restore muscle to its resting state. Number four, amidst a bunch of other reasons, the hormonal influence of building muscle. Muscle and fat are both endocrine organs that produce, store and interact with a variety of hormones. Muscle tissue is the primary site for glucose disposal. And increasing your body's muscle to fat ratio improves insulin sensitivity. Both of these factors influence how your body stores and utilizes energy, favoring calorie burn over fat storage. We want to focus on building muscle, aka hypertrophy. Now, what's the smartest way to do this without making things too complex?

SHAWN STEVENSON: A meta analysis published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research affirming that " muscle hypertrophy can be attained through a wide range of resistance training programs". Essentially, there are many paths to the goal of building muscle from bodyweight exercises all the way to powerlifting. But this study sought to uncover what is the most efficient way to build muscle. And the data concluded that number one, a hypertrophy oriented program should employ a repetition range of six to 12 reps per set with rest intervals of about 90 seconds between sets to compound movements are ideal. All right.

So this is an exercise that recruit multiple muscle groups at one time, the pressing muscles. So chest press, push ups, incline press, dips for the back muscles, rows, lap pulls, pull ups, for the legs, squats, lunges, RDLs, Bulgarian split squats. All right, recruiting a lot of muscles at one time. Again, compound movements were ideal. Multiple sets and the pace of the lifting can make a notable difference with concentric repetitions being performed at a fast to moderate speed, which is one to three seconds and the eccentric repetitions being performed at slightly lower speeds, two to four seconds. So that means if I'm doing a chest press, as I'm pushing the weight away, I go fast.

As I'm lowering the weight back to me, go a little bit slower. Plus the most effective hypertrophy results were from adequate weekly volume, 10 sets per week per target muscle group. All right. That's that minimum effective dose. In this study again, to really be efficient and maximizing the hypertrophy that we can get while being efficient, not doing the most. Now it's 10 to 20, this is going to depend on how trained you are, but we want to get an adequate volume and that minimum we want to target is at least 10 sets per week. All right. And by the way, lifting one to two reps before failure. All right. Okay. So we don't want to put our muscles through all that fatigue by going to failure all the time.

Occasionally you could do that, but have one, maybe two reps left in the tank before your form starts to break down. All right. So this is the special sauce when it comes to building muscle. We don't want to make it too complex. 10 sets per week per target muscle group. We can spread that out however we want. This is part of the fastest program. We've got to get in that adequate input, the adequate cellular signal to build and maintain our muscle. Now moving on, that was the E in the fastest method. Exercise your major muscle groups at least 10 sets per week. 

Moving on to the next S, which is to send yourself safety signals. If you're frustrated and struggling to lose weight, this might be the most important part of this education. If you feel that you're doing so much right, you're really dialing it in on your nutrition, you got your sleep in order, you're exercising, this might be the thing that you need to focus on most. Excessive stress literally alters the way that your metabolism works. In fact, a study published in the journal Obesity sought to find if there's statistical population evidence showing that stress leads to higher rates of obesity. The lead author of the study stated, "we found levels of cortisol to be positively and significantly correlated to larger waist circumference and higher body mass index. These results provide consistent evidence that chronic stress is associated with higher levels of obesity". The truth is, if your body feels that it's constantly under stress and unsafe, it can dramatically reduce your rate of calorie burn. That is an absolute fact, and more people need to know this.

Because stress has zero calories, it's so significantly ignored in our society, the impact that it has on our metabolic health. And so to remedy this, you have to send safety signals to your brain, your nervous system and your body overall. Now I'm telling you, this can be a game changer. I've seen it countless times. I've been in this field for over 20 years. Once people address the stress that their body is experiencing, and now again, this is unique. Stress isn't something that we can just run from and hide from, but it's how we're processing and associating with stress because we live in a stressful world today.

But so often the people that feel that their issue is not stress related are the ones who it's heavily stress related. Now how we give your body these safety signals is going to be unique to you. Yes, we can use terms like stress management or stress reduction, but what we're really looking for are. What are those things that make you feel safe? What are those things that let your body and your brain know that everything is okay? That you feel safe in this world. Everything is okay. What are those things for you? Again, it's going to be unique to you. There are a myriad of things that can get your sympathetic nervous system to calm down and shift over to its parasympathetic nervous system, rest and digest mode. Sympathetic fight or flight, parasympathetic rest and digest. 

It can be time and nature. It can be a practice of meditation or breath work. It can be listening to your favorite music, even listening to the name sympathetic nervous system. We've got to be more sympathetic to ourselves. You've got to be more sympathetic to yourself and attentive to your internal terrain and care for yourself with more intention. Para, meaning beyond, alongside, the parasympathetic nervous system is going to be dictated by how we're associating and caring for ourselves. Oftentimes it's the basics of human survival that can flip the I'm okay switch.

Deep nourishment, making sure that we're meeting our nutritional needs and not experiencing deficiencies. Rest and recovery. Low impact nourishing movement. Connection to others. Let's address each of these really quickly with a couple of insights. Deep nourishment. Simple nutrient deficiencies can mess you up. Magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is responsible for well over 650 biochemical processes in the human body. Many of them related to what our nervous system is doing. If you're deficient in magnesium, which most people are today, your body is going to be in a detriment. In a metaphoric hole that you're trying to climb out of when we're talking about reducing stress and having more safety signals.

That safety signal is making sure we're getting adequate amounts of magnesium. Vitamin C is another important one. Protein is another critical. Nutrient that we need to be making sure we're getting in plenty of because it's letting our body know it's the most valuable Macronutrient found in nature because it's used to build so many aspects of our bodies. All right, keeping that in mind if we are not getting in enough protein and also running around, stressed out with our overall stress low being high. Relationship stress, work stress, exercise stress thrown on top of that, diet stress. Eating fake foods or not getting in the nutrients that we need, emotional stress, spiritual stress, not feeling like we're on our purpose or feel that we matter.

SHAWN STEVENSON: All of these things contribute to our overall stress load. And so one of those that we can address is making sure that we feel nourished. Our body feels like I have enough. I've got all these amino acids that I need. Things are good. Times are good. It's okay. It's okay. So deep nourishment, rest and recovery. We have to rest. 

We have to heal. Real rest and recovery helps us to metabolize stress. There's a big difference between relaxation and restoration. Big difference. Dead giveaway. Big difference between relaxation, restoration. You can relax and veg out for a while. Watch a movie. It's all good. That can even be, again, it can help a little bit with helping to reduce that overall stress load, but it is not the same as getting high quality sleep.

It's not the same as being off of our devices and being in nature. There's a difference between relaxation and restoration. We want to invest more intentionally in making sure that our body is getting restored and restoration. for your time and attention. Helping to set ourselves up for good sleep. Spending time in nature. Doing things that really help to restore the human body. Low impact, nourishing movement. I'll walk it out, I'll walk it out, I'll walk it out. This one's obvious. Make sure that we're getting those steps in. This is the thing that the human body, as far as movement is concerned, this is what we're designed to do.

Alright, so getting in, plenty of walking. Connection to others. Another thing that we need to feel safe is to know that we matter. To know that we have value. And this is tied to a deep evolutionary motivation to know that we won't be left behind by the group, to know that we are a part of this group, that we have value, that we won't be kicked out, left behind, that we're included. It's deep in our psyche. It might not be Captain Obvious right in the forefront for you, but it's there. And so we want to feel like we matter. Part of that is investing in our relationships, spending time with the people who appreciate and value us. But sometimes for some of us, especially today, that might not be enough.

Not a real, but it's not enough. It might not be enough because some of us cannot slow down enough to acknowledge that we're appreciated. We can't slow down enough to. understand how much the people that love us actually value and appreciate us. We're too busy telling ourselves a story. We got to do more, do more, do more, or they don't appreciate me. We have to slow down and see it. And you get all those metabolic benefits and feeding ourselves the safety signals. So again, leaning into love and affection and time around people that you love and trust. These are all helping to send those safety signals. And one more tip is that sending your body safety signals may be even more helpful in the evening.

Researchers at Stanford University recently discovered that your legions of precursor fat cells are more likely to turn into actual body fat if your body's level of stress hormones are elevated at night. Sending those safety signals in the evening might be a force multiplier. Okay, so rest duration, taking an Epsom salt bath, reading a book, putting on something relaxing, some relaxing music, spending time with the people that you love, turning the lights down. All right. And getting to bed at a decent time and getting high quality sleep. These are all factors that help to send our body these safety signals. And by the way, if this is the one that is speaking to you, definitely check out the interview that I did with renowned physician, Dr. Isabella Wentz. She has some fantastic work around this, the impact on our adrenals, our thyroid, all of this metabolic impact that comes from stress and the implementation of safety signals.

Now we're at our final part of the fastest method. We're at our final T. And this final T is for take eight to 10, 000 steps every day. According to research published by the American Heart Foundation, walking for an average of just 30 minutes a day can lower your risk of heart disease and stroke by 35 percent and lower the risk of type two diabetes by 40%. The researchers called it a "wonder drug". Walking is the key. Walking is a major key to healthy hormone function. It's a major role player in the healthy activity of insulin, leptin, cortisol, testosterone, and more. Take testosterone for example. Testosterone is critical in body fat distribution and utilization, bone density, muscle growth and strength, sexual function in both men and women, fertility, mental health, and so much more. 

A recent study published in the journal endocrinology analyzed the connection between testosterone levels and the amount of steps people were taking each day. The researchers tracked middle aged men for the study and stated, "percentage changes in serum testosterone levels were significantly correlated with the total number of steps taken per day". The most noteworthy increase in testosterone and protective effect. was seen at 8, 000 or more steps a day. Additionally, walking significantly improves insulin sensitivity. It increases lipolysis, the release of stored body fat for fuel, and it dramatically improves our overall metabolic health.

So get in those eight to 10, 000 steps per day. You can eyeball it. You can count your steps. All right. Make that an exercise or you can get a little pedometer or of course there's so many different inventions and contraptions today, you know, from watches and all manner of tracking devices, rings, the many ways to track your step count, but 8, 000 steps a day. You put this all together. The fastest method is effective, safe, sustainable, and it will get you into the best shape of your life. I appreciate you so much for tuning into this episode today. If you got a lot of value out of this, please, please share this out with your friends and family. Share this with someone that you want to do the fastest method ever.

With and if you love this episode, please share your voice over on social media take a screenshot of the episode tag me I'm @Shawnmodel pop over to the YouTube channel Leave a comment. Let me know. Let me hear your voice If you enjoyed this episode, I appreciate you so much for tuning in. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to themodelhealthshow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes. You can find transcriptions, videos for each episode. And if you've got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome. And I appreciate that so much and take care. I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.