The best approach is to prepare for fasting with a few weeks of fat-adapting strategies like protein, movement and my metabolic supplements combo. Only then attempt a gentle overnight fast, and perhaps limit it to the follicular phase of your menstrual cycle (if you have a menstrual cycle), when your blood sugar should be more stable. Getting enoug

I’ll speak mainly about time-restricted eating, because it’s what I prescribe for some patients. It improves metabolic health through: • aligning circadian rhythm because your gut, microbiome and mitochondria expect you to fast overnight • giving your digestion a much-needed break, which can improve gut motility, SIBO and metabolic endotoxemia • in

The indication to go lower with carbs is if you have severe insulin resistance and especially if you have elevated triglycerides because high triglycerides are a sign your liver is making fat from carbohydrates (de novo lipogenesis; see page 89). According to New Zealand clinical nutritionist and researcher Dr Cliff Harvey, ‘the higher the triglyce

The medical term for a low-carb or keto diet is ‘therapeutic carbohydrate reduction’. It improves insulin sensitivity by: • lowering insulin • increasing fat adaptation and metabolic flexibility (in other words, increasing your ability to burn fat for energy) • enhancing mitochondrial health • boosting irisin (a myokine that promotes brown fat ther

In an essay called ‘Are you hungry?’, health coach Amy Eiges argues there should be different words for all the different kinds of hunger or what she calls ‘drives to eat’.

James Clear. He says that ‘to change your behaviour for good, you need to start believing new things about yourself. You need to build identity-based habits.’ Identity-based means saying to yourself, for example, ‘I’m the kind of person who doesn’t eat ultra-processed food’ or ‘I’m the kind of person who loves walking,’ and then proving it to yours

According to a study in the European Journal of Social Psychology, the process of creating change (building new brain pathways and establishing new automatic behaviours) takes between 18 and 254 days, with an average of 66 days. That’s more than two months (and perhaps as many as eight) until your new way of eating starts to feel normal. Please giv

‘If a strategy starts with reducing insulin, energy [balance] will take care of itself.’ insulin researcher Dr Benjamin Bikman

Schwartz’s book No Bad Parts, listed in the Resources section.