I remember eighteen months ago trying to arrange a time to meet with Sue, who was debilitated by her Multiple Sclerosis.
Sue was desperate to learn how to reverse her condition by maximising nutrient density and wanted to meet with Moni and me to get some cooking tips.
We arranged a time to meet, but sadly, on the day, her symptoms were too much, and she wasn’t able to drive.
However, since then, Sue has been able to participate in our Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass.
Sue had lost significant weight using intermittent fasting and continued to progress with the masterclass. Even better, though, since dialling in her nutrient density, her MS symptoms are no more.
I had the pleasure of meeting Sue in person at the Low Carb Down Under conference on the Gold Coast. We still chat almost daily on Facebook. She is one of the sharpest 70-year-olds you will meet.
Enter Data-Driven Fasting
Sue was the ideal beta tester for our Data-Driven Fasting system.
While Nutritional Optimisation helps people reign in their appetite, Data-Driven Fasting empowers you to understand whether you need to eat based on your internal fuel gauge.
Counting calories is fraught with many challenges. It is virtually impossible to achieve long-term weight loss by trying to balance the calories in vs calories out equation.
To solve this problem, Data-Driven Fasting, using your blood sugar as a fuel gauge, gives immediate feedback to help you understand if you need to eat or if you could wait a little bit longer.
Sue’s numbers
After baselining, Sue started with an initial premeal trigger value of 5.1 mmol/L after her previous weight loss. However, she was eager to press on towards optimal and progressed into Phase 2 – Hunger Training.
Sue has found quantifying her journey crucial to ensure her continued success. She was diligent in tracking her glucose on waking and before each meal as well as her weight, body fat and waist.
Chase the moving blood sugar target
While the colours in the Tracking Spreadsheet help make sense of your progress (green = good, red = not so good), the charts below bring Sue’s Data-Driven Fasting experience to life.
As she chased a lower blood sugar target, her weight and body fat followed. Over 50 days, she lost a further 4.7 kg (or 9% of her body weight) at a rate of 1.15% per week weight loss with 2.6% per week fat loss!
With some attention to good nutrition using our Nutrient-Dense Recipes and some resistance training inspired by Ted Naiman, Sue was even able to gain lean mass!
Premeal trigger vs weight and body fat
Sue’s premeal glucose trigger is strongly correlated with her weight and body fat! Rather than obsessing over her day-to-day weight fluctuations, all she had to do was wait until her blood glucose was below her trigger before she ate and everything else looked after itself!
Nice work Sue! We’re super proud of what you have achieved with Data-Driven Fasting!
Sue continues to give back in our Data-Driven Fasting Facebook Group, guiding other people to follow in her footsteps.
Data-Driven Fasting Challenge
Building on the initial success of more than 300 beta testers like sue, we kicked off the Data-Driven Fasting 30-Day Challenge on 25 July with 357 people signing up! They have quickly turned into an enthusiastic community as they start to chase a lower premeal trigger.
If you want to join our next Data-Driven Fasting 30-Day Challenge, which starts 5 September 2020, you can join here.
Data-Driven Fasting Program
For the people who enjoy taking this at their own pace, we have just launched the Data-Driven Fasting Program, which will allow you to work through all five phases at your own pace. While your blood sugars before meals give a powerful insight into when you need to eat or can wait a bit longer, the other phases of the system allow you to use your waking blood sugar or even you scale weight if you prefer.
What’s YOUR Personal Trigger?
The Data-Driven Fasting system guides you to wait until you need to refuel to ensure that you are burning through the excess glucose in your blood so your body can access your unwanted body fat.
While most people focus on eating to manage their blood sugar after meals, it appears that eating to achieve stable blood sugars doesn’t actually help you lose weight or body fat. However, as you chase a lower premeal trigger value, your weight, body fat and waking glucose follow.
If you’re curious to see what Your Current Trigger is, you can download the baselining spreadsheet here for free and get started today.
Or, to learn all about Data-Driven Fasting and what makes it different from the other approaches you may have tried, you can download our 131-page Free Data-Driven Fasting Manual here (complete with answers to 82 Frequently Asked Questions).
