Podcast transcribed using AI transcription services - errors may occur. Please contact Mikki for clarification

00:13
Hey everyone, it's MikKi here. You are listening to another Mini Mikkipedia on a Monday. And I thought today I would give you a primer on protein-sparing modified fast, given that we are in registration mode for Monday's matter. And I get a lot of questions around protein-sparing modified fast, what even is PSMF, and what are the advantages.

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of doing a fasting mimicking approach, which is what PSMF is, compared to just straight fasting, all of which are great questions that I want to address today. So first and foremost, protein-spearing modified fast is often seen as the most efficient approach to shed fat rapidly while conserving muscle mass. So importantly,

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When it comes to fasting, we are talking about extended periods of time where there are no calories going in, or very few calories. And when this is the case, your body has to then pull on its reserves in order to fuel activity. And in the first couple of days, there is a significant bump in the amino acids, which are the byproduct of

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protein and are used by the body for all of the physiological processes that protein provides. More amino acids are used as energy. And then of course that levels out but there is still some significant amino acid used for energy over the course of a prolonged fast. Now when I'm talking about prolonged I am talking about several days. And

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In the initial phases of a fast, you know, the first one to two days, your body will actually utilize about 400 calories from those amino acids, basically the breakdown of your musculoskeletal tissue. And that does level out, as I've said, and it does equate to potentially amounts around about 60 calories a day coming from those amino acids used as fuel as your body

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is able to then transfer into using fat as a fuel source. But over the course of prolonged fasting, you do end up losing significant muscle mass in order to fuel the fast. Now, most of us do not fast for prolonged periods of time. And in fact, we might do a 16.8 or an 18.6 or a 24. And within that fasting period,

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we may draw upon our muscle mass and we may over time lose significant muscle mass in order to fuel this day to day fasting. And one of the reasons for it is it isn't just what you are burning up as energy, but it is related to what you are taking in. And it is very difficult to meet your protein requirements in the short term.

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eating window that some of these programs allow you to eat. So that is certainly something to consider. Further is that whilst there are some very popular plans out there which are focused more on quote unquote keto that allow you for about like you know have 100 grams of chicken at lunch and 100 grams of chicken at dinner that kind of thing that is still

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the amino acids you need to signify muscle protein synthesis. And at the heart of this, that is what is important. Regardless of your weight loss approach, as much as possible, you want to preserve your bone and muscle mass. Because these are the things that give you the opportunity to stay as strong, as fit, as healthy as you head into your older years.

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I will say that people who have significant weight to lose can certainly get away with less protein than those people who just maybe have 5 or 10 kilos to lose. That is for sure because when there is excess body fat to lose that is what your body will draw on once significant glucose or carbohydrate is stripped from the diet. However, there are many people in the population who...

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may only want to lose about 5 or 10 kilos and they turn to fasting as the quick and easy way to do it. And whilst they might lose weight, they may also run the risk of losing that muscle and bone mass which is so essential to our long term health. The protein-spearing modified fast though, PSMF, helps negate that. In fact, it can offset some of those losses.

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without the massive influx in calories. And more than that, whilst extended fasting might in the long term lead to increased hunger, increased craving, inability to sleep properly, and mood swings or unpredictable energy, protein-sparing modified fast can help regulate blood sugar and offset a lot of those symptoms that I just mentioned, which are often related to dysregulated blood sugar control.

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So a protein-spearing modified fast, it cuts down energy intake from both carbohydrate and dietary fat. Clinically speaking, there have been a number of studies that have reported in science literature to show that the PSMF method is used to help people with a lot of excess body fat, who may be categorized as morbidly obese, lose that body fat either as the end goal itself

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or to enable them to get weight loss surgery like bariatric surgery. And the PSMF is used consecutively day in, day out, weeks on end to lose the weight that is required. In addition to the protein that the patient might get, they also get a broad-spectrum multivitamin to ensure they've got their micronutrient needs also considered.

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Life is not a scientific trial or a hospital ward study. And how I use protein-spearing modified fast is the way that it is intended as an aggressive calorie drop, but on non-consecutive days of the week and in relation to the weight loss that you might be desiring. Now I say that in that the Mondays Matter Plan sets up different tiers of the program to account for the weight loss desired.

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Those people who want to lose 5 or less kilograms can jump on tier 1 where there is only one protein-spearing modified fast day a week. And I'll describe what that looks like in a minute. Those people who have 5 to 10 kilograms may do their two days a week of protein-spearing modified fast, a PSMF day, Monday and Wednesday. And those people with more than 10 kilograms to lose...

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may decide that they want to jump onto tier 3, which is 5 protein-spearing modified fast days per fortnight. Now how the structure of these days isn't that different depending on who you are. And what we are aiming for is, first, we want a slightly restricted eating window because often when you drop your calories as aggressively as what you get in a fasting-mimicking approach,

08:17
it's actually easier from a hunger perspective to eat your calories within a shorter window. So that is my first recommendation. However, if your life doesn't allow for that, that is no big deal. Second is that most of the calories come from protein. In the way that I approach PSMF, we have very little carbohydrate, that is both starchy and non-starchy. So there may be a cup of spinach leaves or half a carrot or something like that, but predominantly very

08:46
We are stripped of vegetables and there is very little dietary fat. And this includes fat that might be in protein sources. So steak, chicken with the skin on, pork belly, things like that. We make sure we are only eating lean protein sources. And also it is about the way that we cook the food. So we have very little cooking oil or spray added. So we want to keep the...

09:14
the fat and the carbohydrate minimum. So we're able to just use that protein energy to help regulate mood and hunger and not get very many additional calories coming from carbohydrate or fat. Now, in terms of gram amounts, what does this look like? Your protein-spearing modified fast day might equate to about 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight per day of protein.

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Now this can go a little bit higher, particularly if you are a bigger person. For example, the difference between a 5 foot 3 woman weighing 60 kilos and a 6 foot 4 man weighing 120 kilos. So the more you have to lose, the higher you can push the protein.

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that some people just have an appetite for protein that is very difficult to satisfy on the minimum of protein requirements alone. And there is no harm in pushing that protein level up. And you might actually be more so at 2.2 to 2.6 grams per kilogram body weight. As long as that is coming from lean protein, that is no big deal to me. Because that type of protein takes energy to digest, helps keep you fuller for longer, and could prevent you from

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making choices that don't align with your health goals because you're super starving or or you are super hangry or something like that. So protein intake anywhere from about 1.6 grams per kg body weight up to maybe 2.3 to 2.4 grams per kg body weight. We certainly want a minimum of 120 grams of protein across the course of a day in around three meals. So if you do the math on that

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That'll be about 40 grams of protein in any one meal. Now, carbohydrate, ideally that'll be below 30 grams in that day in total. Same goes for fat. We want that to be around about 20 to 25 grams of fat or less. Now, that is an aggressive fat drop in fat calories, but it's not every day. And this is why, this is what makes an aggressive calorie drop the way that you get in Monday's Matter.

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successful is it's not just on the days that you aggressively drop calories that make the difference it's on the other days of the week where you're eating in a manner that could be described as your forever approach and those of you who have worked with me in the past or who see me on social media know that I'm very big at creating habits that can be adopted and implemented as the way that you might eat from here till the day you die basically.

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So whilst we utilize protein-sparing modified fast as a tool for accelerated fat loss, it is done in a plan that also provides education and good guidelines, strategies, meals, and a full meal plan to allow you to create a diet that is sustainable and works in the long term. Now, lean protein are foods like chicken breast that has no skin,

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pork that has no sort of outer layer of fat. It is lean mince, the leanest that you can afford, ideally. There's something like venison. It is rump steak or eye fillet steak, that kind of thing. So these are the ideal foods to incorporate in your protein-spearing modified food approach. And of course, protein powder certainly comes into it as well. Now, people get a little bit

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ANSI about the use of something like protein powder because it is quote unquote very processed. Yes it is processed but honestly it is processed to help you digest and absorb your protein. And this is the one source of plant protein that is very easy to digest and is almost equivalent to its sort of dairy counterpart and you don't get that very often. So a PSMF day might look like

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protein shake that has some additional egg whites added to it, because egg whites are a perfect food for proteins bearing modified vast, because it does not contain any fat and is high in protein. Or you may have some leftover or lean chicken, shredded chicken breast or air fried chicken or ham on the side to bump that protein meal up. And you can also incorporate some psyllium husk within that protein shake.

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that might be made with water or almond milk, whatever you have available. I like to incorporate ice to help with the thickness of it, but it is predominantly just protein. Now, if you look at the back of your almond milk container, you will see it is basically structured water. This is if you get the unsweetened almond milk. And I would say that unsweetened coconut milk serves the same purpose. Now, there isn't that much difference in calories between the unsweetened almond milk or water,

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It just really comes down to preference, but there is a difference between unsweetened almond milk and normal cow's milk. So be mindful of that if you're adopting this outside of the Mondays Matter Plan. And within the Mondays Matter Plan, I give very good guidelines as to how to make things like smoothies in a way that might be PSMF compliant. Now as I said, I like to put these PSMF days within a shortened eating window to help with appetite regulation.

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That is only the case if you're not active, which I hope actually everyone is, because ideally if you are doing a training session on that day, then you will incorporate more protein and a serve of carbohydrate that would otherwise not be in that PSMF day to help with your recovery. You've got nothing to gain from doing your PSMF day and training balls to the wall and thinking you're going to get great results. That is not going to happen.

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If anything, you are on a fast track to crashing and burning. We need to look after our exercise and recovery and refuel, particularly on the PSMF day. So if you do exercise in the morning on that day before you would otherwise have breakfast, then we don't worry about that eating window. It's more important for you to get an additional serve of protein and an additional serve of carbohydrate to help with that recovery period.

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I will also say that even though you might think that the PSMF day will be the day that you feel your weakest and just do not feel as motivated to exercise, in fact for a lot of people it is the day after because they've had this day of depletion. So monitor that and see how you feel and you may need to manipulate your training in order to fit into the PSMF days or manipulate your PSMF days to suit your training cycle.

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piece of advice with this is to not do consecutive PSMF days because that is just of an aggressive approach and that again will very quickly mean that you will probably crash and burn. So the core principles of the PSMF diet are you limit carbohydrate and fat calories to less than 25 to 30 grams each per day.

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Prioritize protein over every other nutrient, getting a minimum of 30 grams of protein at each meal, but you can go higher if you need. 40 grams is great, 50 grams for some is going to be essential. When exercise comes in, you add in an additional eating opportunity, which may provide you with an additional protein shake mid-afternoon. And particularly if it's high intensity exercise.

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you add in carbohydrate post exercise to help with that replenishment of your muscle glycogen stores because that could have implications for your workout the following day. The type of protein that you want to be eating is that lean protein. Now egg whites can be as rare as hen's teeth at the minute, but you do see them pop up in hopefully your local supermarket countrywide. So

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And I've seen this, we always do posts about this in our alumni plan. People put up a post saying that they've seen egg whites in Hobsonville, Westgate, Rickerton, Queenstown, Invercargill. So they are there and they do make the best addition to your protein sparing, modified fast diet. Now, if you cannot get hold of egg whites, there is egg white protein powder, and you just add water on a one to one ratio.

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provide you with the protein that you would otherwise get from egg whites. So there are definitely workarounds with that. Now I do lean heavily on some occasion with foods like the Tegel Mealmaker chicken or chopped ham off the bone from hellers. And yes, these meats are more processed than what you would find in a rump steak, for example. However, we are talking about protein-sparing modified fast days in the context of a diet.

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that would otherwise have an abundance of vegetables and carbohydrate appropriate to the activity level of the individual on the days that are not protein-sparing modified fast days. You always need to step back and look at the big picture with whatever you are doing. Our diet is never made or broken with one meal or one day. And the ability to have at least one day a week where there is an aggressive calorie drop

19:21
means that you don't have to be so vigilant on the other days of the week where you add in additional food types. And there is plenty of variety in the Mondays Matter Plan that allows you to do that. However, if you are someone who just likes to keep it simple, this round I've also included a keep it simple plan. So you just have a couple of dinners, a couple of breakfasts, a couple of lunches, and you rotate it. Because there are some people, and I would probably fall into this camp too myself,

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who just eat the same day in day out. And as long as you get a diversity of nutrients within those meals, then that is fine as well. It is all about context. You definitely get the same benefits from protein-sparing modified fast as you would from a calorie-restricted diet that leads you to the same fat loss. Many of the benefits accrued from any kind of calorie restriction come from the fact that you have utilized your body fat as a fuel source.

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and you've improved your metabolic health. So your LDL and your cholesterol profile may improve. You improve your insulin sensitivity. You improve your carbohydrate tolerance. You are able to reduce blood pressure. You can enhance your immune system by reducing inflammation and you can reduce your visceral adiposity. And with that, you improve your entire metabolic health. Now, yes, you can achieve this just on calorie restriction alone.

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but a PSMF day allows you for that accelerated fat loss whilst also enjoying meals that could be your forever meals and then around those PSMF days. However, definitely check in with your medical professional if you are, for example, you have a heart arrhythmia or a history of eating disorders and this could just trigger another episode for you. Some...

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sort of metabolic disease such as cancer. Be really mindful of this because cancer can feed off amino acids the way it can of glucose and ketones. So always check in with your health professional, be it a cancer specialist nutritionist such as Katie Boyd or your, obviously your cancer docs. Be mindful for, which I hope you don't, have kidney failure or end stage kidney disease.

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To be fair, I don't think that if you are in that position that you will be looking at anything like proteins bearing modified fast at this point. And people who are pregnant, this is not the time to think about a calorie deficit approach. You need to think about nourishing your baby human, and then post-birth, post-breastfeeding, you can look at an approach that allows you to maintain your energy, preserve and regulate your blood sugar and shed body fat.

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And this any kind of diet approach can be followed for around eight to 12 weeks. And then you probably just need to take your foot off the accelerator and practice a little bit of maintenance where calories are just a little bit higher on all days of the week. And you just get comfortable with hanging out at the weight that you've established as your new normal. Now, this allows your body the opportunity to almost catch up with the weight that you've dropped too.

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because it's just a physiological thing that particularly stronger in some people than others, is that your body will defend its previous weight. And that means that hunger can be ramped up and leptin and ghrelin levels can be dysregulated. So leptin drops, which is the hormone that keeps us full and ghrelin rises, which is a hormone that tells us we're hungry. So we need this opportunity for these things to recalibrate at our new weight before we push on for another

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round of fat loss. So weight loss and fat loss is never linear. It is this constant sort of tweaking and evaluating goals to ensure that you are still meeting not only your body composition goals but your energy is good, your sleep is good, your hormones feel regulated and your mood is stable and your energy is predictable. These are the things that we want to achieve. And some people may need to take a maintenance week

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at six or eight weeks, some people may be able to go to 12 to 16 weeks, depending on the amount of body fat you have to lose. And if you only have five kilos or less to lose, then you definitely do not want to be doing any more than one protein-spearing modified fast day a week. So these are just some sort of tips if you are thinking that Monday's matter could be a good fit for you, because you need to up your protein, but yet you want to improve your body composition.

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then I highly agree, it could definitely be a good fit for you. And even though we have different tiers, depending on the fat loss that you want to achieve, even if you have a lot of excess kilograms of body fat to lose, if your life is super stressful, then you do not want to just start out at tier three. And it's certainly not, not only is it not compulsory, but it's not recommended. We always have to look at the overall stress picture for people. And...

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Even just getting started on this track at tier one, it's gonna be one of the best things that you do because you will get the opportunity to practice habits and behaviors and put into place the meals that can become your forever approach. So those are my recommendations. If you've got any questions on protein-sperring modified fast, which you might just wanna try out in your own normal diet, that is awesome. Or on Monday's Matter,

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hit me up on my socials. You can find me on Facebook at Mickey Willardin Nutrition, over on Instagram and Twitter at Mickey Willardin, or head to my website, Drop Me an Inquiry, MickeyWillardin.com. We are kicking off on Monday 29th of May, and if now is the right time for you to address your body composition, I'd love for you to join us. Have a great week, guys. Talk soon.