Intermittent Fasting Transformation

Description

Discover the customized nutrition plan that will help you be lean, fit, more youthful, sexier, and full of energy—at every stage of life.

Designed specifically for women, this individualized six-week intermittent fasting program is the sustainable solution to help you feel and look your absolute best. Based on the scientifically proven 16:8 fasting model, what makes this program unique is that it is geared toward your hormonal needs at every stage in life–whether you are cycling or in perimenopause, menopause, or beyond. Intermittent Fasting Transformation will help you:
 

  •  lose weight steadily and burn fat without hunger, cravings, or plateaus–and keep it off
  •  balance your hormones for better metabolic health and wellness, while easing symptoms associated with perimenopause and menopause
  •  experience a huge boost in physical and mental energy all day long
  •  learn what foods best support weight loss, detoxification, and overall health
  •  lift brain fog and help you sleep better
  •  put aging in reverse . . . and so much more.

Cynthia Thurlow, a nurse practitioner and an internationally known women’s health expert whose viral TEDx Talk has received more than 10 million views, developed this breakthrough plan after entering perimenopause in her forties. Intermittent fasting didn’t just help her lose weight; she had more energy, fewer cravings, and lower blood glucose levels. Thurlow has now worked with thousands of women in her private practice to make her unique program of intermittent fasting work for them, too.

With meal plans and 50 recipes, along with advice for supercharging your fast, this plan will transform your life, slow down the aging process, and help you reclaim your health and well-being.“Cynthia Thurlow is a true pioneer in women’s health. Countless women in her practice have experienced dramatic physical changes and improved health markers from her unique intermittent fasting plan, and now women everywhere can benefit from her vast knowledge and lifechanging advice. Essential reading!” – Jason Fung, MD, author of The Obesity Code

“Intermittent fasting will change how you feel every single day. It will keep you young or even reverse the clock. Fasting is different for women. Read this book now to discover Cynthia Thurlow’s unique take on fasting.” – Dave Asprey, author of The Bulletproof Diet
 
“Women shouldn’t intermittent fast like men! Whether you are cycling, in perimenopause, or menopause, Cynthia’s IF45 plan will fit your needs to boost energy levels, improve sleep quality, prevent weight gain, and feel better than ever in your body.” – JJ Virgin, New York Times-bestselling author of The Virgin Diet
 
“Ever since Cynthia Thurlow’s TEDx Talk, ‘Intermittent Fasting: Transformational Technique,’ went viral in 2019, she has been considered a top thought leader in the field of IF and women’s health. Her new book, Intermittent Fasting Transformation, puts all of her best advice for women in one place. Spoiler alert: intermittent fasting is safe for women, and Cynthia explains it through the lens of her personal journey and also her expertise as a nurse practitioner.” – Gin Stephens, New York Times bestselling author of Fast. Feast. Repeat., Clean(ish), and Delay, Don’t Deny
 
“Fascinating and so accessible… Cynthia Thurlow has cracked the code on how hormones affect weight loss and why intermittent fasting is such a game changer for women.  It’s a must-read for women looking for a nutrition plan that fits easily into their lives and takes their health and total wellness to the next level.” – Robb Wolf, bestselling author of The Paleo Solution and Wired to Eat
 
“This book is the complete guide to women’s health. Cynthia outlines a brilliant 45-day program to harness the healing benefits of fasting. It’s important to understand that women should practice intermittent fasting differently than men, and Cynthia shares how women of all ages can use this tool properly. This book will change the lives of so many!” – Ben Azadi, bestselling author of Keto Flex and founder of Keto Kamp

“We have come to a point in time when well-designed programs to help optimize women is deeply needed in the face of an epidemic of confusion. We need Cynthia’s work now more than ever. Her dedication to helping transform lives and commitment to good science practices is exceptional. She does a wonderful job in providing a framework for women to gain control of their health and weight. As a fellowship trained physician in the area of nutrition/obesity medicine and geriatrics as well as founder of The Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine, I love Cynthia’s work and am excited for it to get into the hands of the reader.”  – Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, DO, founder of the Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine

“This groundbreaking, deeply researched book is the only diet plan truly tailored to women.  But the benefits go far beyond weight loss–with Cynthia’s plan women can unlock their metabolic health to help slowdown the effects of aging, protect themselves against disease, and feel energized, strong, and vibrant.” – Benjamin Bikman, PhD, scientist and author of Why We Get Sick
Cynthia Thurlow is a nurse practitioner, CEO and founder of the Everyday Wellness Project, and international speaker, with over 9.6 million views for her second TEDx talk (Intermittent Fasting: Transformational Technique). With over 20 years experience in health and wellness, Cynthia is a globally recognized expert in intermittent fasting and nutritional health, and has been featured on ABC, FOX5, KTLA, CW, Medium, Entrepreneur, and The Megyn Kelly Show.

Something happens as you pass through your thirties and then your forties, with hints that your body is changing. You’re gaining weight and fighting cravings. You’re no longer bouncing out of bed the way you used to. You notice symptoms like bloating, poor sleep, brain fog, and mood swings. You’re feeling old before your time, and just plain off. For the vast majority of us, these changes are agonizing, frustrating-and scary.

I get it. I really do, because of my own experience and my work with countless women like you. You’re right to feel this way, and you’re far from alone. But take heart. It is never too late to get healthier and regain your looks, health, mental clarity, and energy.

Heather is a good example. When she came to me at age fifty-four, having entered menopause four years prior, she was extremely frustrated. “Nothing ever worked for me,” she said, in a low, dejected voice. “I’ve eaten mini-meals, I’ve counted calories, I’ve exercised like a maniac, but the weight just won’t come off. I hate how this extra twenty pounds makes me feel so old and tired. Honestly, I’ve lost hope.”

Heather had even resorted to taking a drug called phentermine. It is similar to an amphetamine, or “upper.” It stimulates the central nervous system (nerves and brain), which accelerates your heart rate and blood pressure and curbs your appetite. It has a lot of scary side effects, ranging from mild to moderate: insomnia, headaches, dizziness, dangerously high blood pressure, chest pain, and shortness of breath.

This kind of struggle is simply not necessary. As Heather and I talked, I guided her through my philosophy about how best to lose weight and navigate menopause-and do it naturally, without the use of prescription drugs to lose weight. I explained to her that every part of my program is designed to ease her symptoms and get her back to feeling younger and more vibrant again.

Heather perked up and was ready to give the program her all. She adjusted her nutrition, and she slowly started intermittent fasting. Lo and behold, she lost ten pounds in the first eight weeks and kept going-without feeling deprived, hungry, or fatigued. Today, she has more energy and confidence than she ever thought possible at her age.

Like Heather, perhaps you have followed the usual pieces of advice: counting calories, eating small meals throughout the day, and having breakfast-all those lose-weight actions in which we’ve been schooled. Maybe you managed to drop a few pounds, but then you plateaued, yo-yo dieted, or couldn’t keep the weight off.

Or maybe you acquired other worrisome symptoms. You just don’t sleep as well, for example, and it takes longer to get going in the morning. Perhaps you have too many aches and pains. Or you can’t think as clearly as you once could, or can’t remember facts and events. It seems like your body is changing right before your eyes. These are terrible, exasperating predicaments, and it’s easy just to give up, even though you want to feel fantastic again.

It never ceases to amaze me how much bad advice, under the guise of “wisdom,” women are given about their health and weight loss, such as my personal fave: “Exercise more, eat less.” That absolutely did not work for me and had the opposite intended effect. I gained weight, couldn’t take it off, and generally felt unhealthy.

Important: Do not beat yourself up. You haven’t failed; conventional wisdom has failed you. That “wisdom” centers around the following dogma:

Bad Dogma #1: Calories in, calories out-this is what matters.

If you’re endlessly counting calories to drop pounds or manage your weight, you may be worrying about the wrong thing. It’s the quality of the protein, carbohydrates, and fat we eat-not counting calories-that is an important key to fat loss, weight control, and health. This involves getting enough of the nutrients you need, including vitamins, minerals, and fiber, from your food choices.

Poor-quality foods-namely processed carbohydrates like candy, chips, soda, and commercially baked goods-contribute to weight gain and other symptoms, but not because they have a lot of calories. It’s that they set into motion a series of reactions that make your body store fat. These foods break down rapidly into sugar. In response, your pancreas churns out higher levels of the hormone insulin. Insulin is like fertilizer for your fat cells. It tells your cells to grab calories and convert them into fat.

The other problem is that when we cut calories, the body fights back. Our metabolism slows down in order to keep food and energy around longer, and you begin to feel hungrier. This situation is a no-win for weight control, and it throws our hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin out of whack. (More about these hormones in upcoming chapters.)

Bad Dogma #2: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Wrong! We have been repeatedly told that eating breakfast is a healthy thing to do, based on a series of bad research and breakfast cereal marketing. We’ve heard that skipping breakfast is a very bad habit and could lead to diabetes, weight gain, and other health problems.

Here’s the deal: There’s just not much evidence for any of this. In fact, an analytical review of thirteen clinical trials, published between 1990 and 2018, concluded that “the addition of breakfast might not be a good strategy for weight loss, regardless of established breakfast habit. Caution is needed when recommending breakfast for weight loss in adults, as it could have the opposite effect.” The study also found that the breakfast skippers weighed less than the breakfast eaters.

Skipping breakfast is okay-and indeed, a good idea, with lots of benefits!

Bad Dogma #3: What we eat is more important than when we eat.

What you eat-healthy, wholesome, non-processed food-is absolutely vital. But it’s also when you eat that really makes a difference. The “when” involves syncing your meals with your circadian rhythm-the complex physiological system that regulates your sleep-wake cycle and all the hormonal and metabolic processes involved in it. Intermittent fasting aligns with your circadian rhythm and metabolism to improve many health markers, including insulin sensitivity, cardiac risk factors, brain health, overall disease risks, and, last but not least, overweight and obesity.

A case in point about weight loss: Over a ten-week period, people who were instructed to both delay breakfast for ninety minutes and eat dinner ninety minutes earlier (thus changing the time frame in which they ate) lost twice as much body fat as those who were allowed to eat on their normal schedules, despite being allowed to eat whatever they wanted during feeding hours.

Timing is everything! It’s the key to a healthy weight and protection from many diseases.

Bad Dogma #4: Eating small meals throughout the day promotes fat-burning and stabilizes blood-sugar levels.

How many times have you heard this one? Many people believe that eating multiple meals throughout the day bumps up metabolism, causing the body to burn more calories overall and keep hunger in check.

None of this is true. Some proof: Investigators at the University of Ottawa discovered that on a restricted-calorie diet, there was no weight-loss benefit to splitting calories among six meals rather than three.

Another study found that switching from three daily meals to six did not stimulate calorie-burning or fat loss. As for appetite control, there’s no evidence that eating six meals a day curbs hunger; however, eating larger, less frequent meals will reduce your overall hunger and make you feel full.

A few years ago, I worked with a fitness competitor named Karen. Like many competitors in this sport, she had been brainwashed to believe that the only way to lose weight and be healthy was to eat six small meals daily. But this wasn’t working for Karen. She was constantly preparing meals and became overly fixated on food-which often led to bingeing. I switched her over to my IF:45 plan, and she flourished. Karen told me: “Intermittent fasting changed my entire life and I’ve learned so much about food intake. My energy is through the roof, my skin is great, my sleep is awesome, and I’m not a prisoner to food anymore.”

These antiquated dogmas have contributed to escalating rates of obesity, poor metabolic health, and disease that have reduced the quality of life for an entire generation and their offspring. Now at epidemic proportions, these health crises are affecting women in staggering numbers. According to data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the prevalence of obesity in women twenty years and older increased from 25.5 percent to 40.7 percent over the past few decades. A 2019 journal article suggested that by 2030, more than 25 percent of the general population in the United States will be defined as severely obese, which will be the most common obesity category for women. And obesity, of course, is linked to many life-crushing illnesses: heart disease, type 2 diabetes, many forms of cancer, and depression, to name just a few.

It is time to acknowledge that we need to do better in terms of solving the related issues of overweight, obesity, and ill health. Intermittent fasting is a huge part of the solution-and a clear path to health and weight freedom.

US

Additional information

Dimensions	0.9000 × 6.0000 × 8.9800 in
Imprint	Avery
ISBN-13	09780593419311
ISBN-10	0593419316
Author	Cynthia Thurlow
Audience	General / adult
BISAC	HEA024000, HEA019000
Subjects	diet books for weight loss, diet book, paperback books, womens health, diet books, nutrition books, weight loss books, metabolism, weight loss books for women, health books, diet books for weight loss best seller, weight loss book, diet plan, fasting books, fasting for women, intermittent fasting for women, fasting book, intermittent fasting book, fitness, self help, longevity, health, nutrition, motivation, HEA019000, aging, Food, wellness, diet, weight loss, clean eating, mediterranean, hormones, fasting, HEA024000, intermittent fasting