I had a great time talking to fellow Optimiser Debra Cleveland about her journey through the Data-Driven Fasting Challenges and Masterclasses . During our live Q&As, Debra was always full of enthusiasm, inspiration, and positive energy as she learned to nourish her body instead of depriving it. This stuck out to me, and I wanted to chat with her to hear more about her ride through health and to see if she had any learnings and insights to share. We discussed: Why is taking care of your body ...
Feb 03, 2022•28 min
It’s been fascinating watching Sidi’s journey progress since initially taking part in our Data-Driven Fasting Challenge and then hopping into the Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass . Sidi has shed an incredible 20kg (44 lbs) in just five months. She has also lost 15% body fat and reduced her waist to height ratio from 0.61 to a very healthy 0.49! After getting the ball rolling with Data-Driven Fasting , Sidi powered on to dial in her macronutrients and micronutrients with her local cuisine in ...
Jan 27, 2022•47 min
Chris Kelly is the founder of Nourish Balance Thrive . Building on his experience as a programmer for hedge funds and large internet companies, he has done amazing things in the health space. After experiencing his own health transformation, he launched Nourish Balance Thrive to help high-calibre athletes optimise their health and performance. After regularly running expensive tests on his clients for years, he figured he could do things his way to save time and money. So he eventually developed...
Jan 20, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Chris has a fascinating background. After studying economics, business and psychology at Stanford and Harvard , he worked as a trader Ray Dalio at Bridgewater Capital , the world’s biggest hedge fund (now with $150b under management), to a private investor, author, father, athlete and biohacker. Like me, Chris believes in the numbers! After a couple of rounds of Data-Driven Fasting , he’s been trying to get his Silicon Valley biohacker buddies to try it to optimise their health. As a data-driven...
Jan 14, 2022•43 min
Paul Burgess has been a great mate, supporter, and mentor throughout my journey to quantitatively define optimal nutrition. When he first invited me on his podcast , I put him off. I felt I still had more work to do before promoting what we were doing at Optimising Nutrition (and also felt a strong sense of imposter syndrome). I’ve now had the privilege of being a guest on his podcast three times. So it was an honour to finally return the favour and have him on the Optimising Nutrition Podcast ....
Jan 07, 2022•44 min
It was an honour to chat with Mark Schatzker about his new book, The End of Craving: Recovering the Lost Wisdom of Eating Well . I’ve been a MASSIVE fan of his work since reading The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor . Many diet authors blame the obesity epidemic on a single smoking gun (e.g. carbs, fat, tasty food etc.). However, Mark wades through the complicated situation in a fascinating narrative that gives a sense of wonder and mystery to the complex interplay b...
Dec 31, 2021•49 min
This chat with Matty Lansdown was part interview, part therapy session as I’ve been working on focusing on getting the essential things done in a world designed to distract and monetise your attention. I hope this episode of the Optimising Nutrition Podcast will inspire you to kick start the habits you want to build to empower you to move towards your goals in 2022. Matty Lansdown is a fellow Aussie and host of the popular How Not to Get Sick and Die Podcast , where he dispenses simple, no-nonse...
Dec 26, 2021•47 min
What really underpins our beliefs about nutrition and the food we eat? The truth might shock and surprise you! Our nutritional guidelines and beliefs about food reflect a mixture of cultural, ritual, and religious beliefs and biases, overlayed by financial gains and food propaganda disbursed by manufacturers. But the influence of the Seventh Day Adventist Church ( SDA ) in establishing our current nutritional guidelines cannot be understated. My family was part of the SDA church until I was abou...
Dec 16, 2021•1 hr 8 min
University of Sydney Professors Stephen Simpson and David Raubenheimer ’s work in protein leverage is perhaps the most important body of research around, empowering us to understand our appetite and what leads us to eat more (or less) than we need to. Professor Stephen Simpson is the executive director of Obesity Australia and the academic director of the Charles Perkins Centre . PubMed shows that he has published a whopping 361 journal articles ! Professors David Raubenheimer, originally from S...
Dec 09, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Craig Emmerich is the author of the book “ Keto: The Complete Guide ” and the PMSF Cookbook and hubby to Maria Emmerich . Mariah and Craig have been at the forefront of the keto movement since way before it was trendy. Craig is a fellow engineer who seeks to understand how things work to understand how to help people more effectively with their books and MANY cookbooks, website and Facebook groups. I have been chatting with Craig for years about nutrition for the past six years since the early d...
Dec 02, 2021•59 min
There is plenty of debate about how we can feed a rapidly growing population in a way that is healthy for us and our fragile planet with limited resources. Diana Rogers and Robb Wolf recently weighed into the debate. Their book Scared Cow proposed that, rather than doubling down on an industrial, agricultural system that created the problems we are now facing, we should move towards a mix of old and new technologies to grow our food. Regenerative agriculture aims to create a food production syst...
Nov 25, 2021•58 min
Perhaps even more than weight loss, the transition women experience as they transition through middle age is one of the hottest topics in our Data-Driven Fasting Facebook Group . Not only do blood sugars, cravings and insulin sensitivity change across the month, but the changes that occur during menopause can make maintaining a healthy weight and vitality more challenging. Karen Martel, the host of the Other Side of Weight Loss Podcast , is a powerhouse of knowledge, experience, and passion for ...
Nov 18, 2021•1 hr 7 min
2xTED speaker and host of the popular Everyday Wellness Podcast Cynthia Thurlow had just finished writing the manuscript for her new book specifically on intermittent fasting for women when we recorded this chat. In a world where more often equals better, Cynthia delivered a ton of practical and pragmatic information to help women navigate this often challenging time while maintaining optimal health. Over the past few months, Cynthia has become a great friend and advocate for Data-Driven Fasting...
Nov 11, 2021•1 hr 4 min
Gin Stephens , author of Delay Don't Deny and Fast Feast Repeat , has been a powerhouse in the booming intermittent fasting movement! It’s also Gin’s support and promotion that has helped Data-Driven Fasting explode the way it has! I am very grateful to her! It all started when she had Lori Leeke on her Intermittent Fasting Stories Podcast . After Lori’s encouragement, I made an appearance on her podcast later on Melanie Avalon’s Biohacking Podcast . They also said some very kind things about Bi...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 14 min
I’ve been super impressed with Melanie Avalon ’s ability to synthesise complex topics and bring them to life for her listeners. All of her podcast episodes are a fascinating DEEP dive into the topic to elucidate the practical application. We had a ton of positive feedback from my interview on her podcast . Our Data-Driven Fasting Facebook Group exploded after she and Gin Stephens started raving about it all the time on their Intermittent Fasting Podcast . After binge-listening to her podcast wit...
Oct 28, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Clark is a nutritionist, biohacker, and now medical doctor (and future endocrinologist). After achieving great results in our Data-Driven Fasting Challenge , Clark has become a moderator in the Data-Driven Fasting Challenges , offering some fantastic insights, troubleshooting some of the more challenging scenarios and bringing some fantastic content to the live Q&A sessions. We’ve also had some lengthy, nerdy chats over the past few months, and I’ve enjoyed the conversation, friendship and i...
Oct 21, 2021•1 hr 38 min
We are all about optimising your nutrition, regardless of your food preferences. Our mantra is your diet doesn't need a name, just enough nutrients. And Karen Lerner-Mayrand takes it to heart! It was great to chat with Karen about how she dialled in her vegetarian diet to top the nutrient density leaderboard in our Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass not once but twice. After trying different diets for decades and fasting for weeks on end, under the guidance of the biggest names in fasting, eve...
Oct 14, 2021•1 hr 2 min
I’ve been super excited to see the change in direction recently at Diet Doctor . CEO Dr Andreas Eenfeldt , with some inspiration from Dr Ted Naiman , has led his team to help members tailor their nutritional guidance to consider satiety and protein leverage for fat loss (if that is their goal). It was fun to chat with Andreas about his recent learnings, research and his n=1 experience. We got to discuss a wide range of topics, including: Why did you decide to dive into a more protein-focused app...
Oct 07, 2021•52 min
After being a super fan for so long, it was fantastic to chat with Robb Wolf about how Nutritional Optimisation can save the world. Robb has been the most significant influence in my nutritional explorations over the past decade. I see my work as simply putting numbers and systems around his thinking and using multi-criteria analysis to identify optimal foods and meals for different people with different goals. Once optimal nutrition is quantified, we no longer have to rely on names, trends, fad...
Sep 30, 2021•1 hr 5 min
It was super inspiring to chat with Abby, who made some incredible progress over time with Data-Driven Fasting and our Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass . In this chat, we discuss: What’s your WHY? What other approaches had you tried in the past? How did your body fat change? How much weight did you end up losing between Data-Driven Fasting and the Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass ? How did you manage your attitude through the ups and downs? Talk us through your process of reflecting on t...
Sep 23, 2021•36 min
It was such a pleasure to speak with Lisa about her journey through Data-Driven Fasting and the Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass . In the past, Lisa said she made abysmally slow progress with Weight Watchers and got rejected from the super-expensive Spark People program for being too broken! Then, after her husband suggested she was taking way too many supplements, she found us. Once she learned to solve the puzzle of her nutrition and give her body the nutrients it needed to thrive, everyth...
Sep 16, 2021•21 min
Lori is one of the primary reasons that I created DDF. One of the first articles I wrote on Optimising Nutrition five years ago detailed how to use your glucose as a fuel gauge to optimise your fasting routine. Lori found this a couple of years ago and put it into practice. Over the past few years, Lori kept contacting me to tell me how well it had worked for her. I had had it in my mind to go back and develop the concept more. Lori’s story and encouragement motivated me to develop DDF into a co...
Sep 15, 2021•1 hr 1 min
It has been such a pleasure to work with Saskia over the past two and a half years to create the NutriBooster suite of recipes, books (and now meal plans)! We now have 460 NutriBooster recipes catalogued in Nutrient Optimiser spread across 29 recipe books and meal plans, tailored for a wide range of contexts, goals and preferences. Our end goal is to empower people to think in terms of getting the nutrients they require without excess energy. We want to equip people with the knowledge they need ...
Sep 09, 2021•29 min
After struggling with her weight for decades, Jane topped the weight loss leaderboard in our January 30-Day Data-Driven Fasting Challenge with 17 lbs weight loss at a phenomenal rate of 2.5% per week! She then followed up with the Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass and dialled in her macronutrients and micronutrients. She dropped a fantastic 22.6 lb (15.3 kg) or 20% of her initial body weight between January and July! I was excited to chat with her about her journey and share her tips for long...
Sep 02, 2021•37 min
Brian Sanders is like my nutrient density brother from another mother. We spoke recently about a range of our favourite topics for his podcast, and he was telling me all about his trip to Tanzania to visit the Masia and Hadza people. I thought it would be fun to get him on to hear more of his travel stories to understand more about our nutritional heritage. We got to discuss: Why are you so fascinated by nutrient density that you would travel across the world to see how these people live and eat...
Aug 26, 2021•56 min
It was such a blast to chat with Kelli and Dan Buckley about their recent journey with Data-Driven Fasting combined and the Nutritional Optimisation Masterclass . After seeing her dad battle diabetes and eventually die of complications, Kelli had had a VERY strong WHY. She just needed the HOW. Although she had lost some weight with fasting in the past (and her hubby Dan was sceptical about trying yet another diet), she threw herself into the Data-Driven Fasting Challenge followed by the Nutritio...
Aug 19, 2021•35 min
Bett Lucas is a busy mom (of six), wife, and businessperson. She works full time in the energy industry and has won numerous awards for her leadership and charitable projects. Bett believes you can manage a career and home life and wants to inspire those juggling both—or hoping to. “Women should be proud of who they are at home and in the workplace.” A key balancing element is regaining and maintaining health. She challenges women to take back their health, reminding them that spending the time ...
Aug 06, 2021•42 min
It was so much fun to talk to Dr Brian Mowll (The Diabetes Coach) about the topics in his The ProFast Diet Book, including: What are the biggest misconceptions around protein and diabetes management? Do people need to be concerned about ‘too much protein’? What are the most important foods to prioritise? Who should use the moderate, accelerated vs aggressive weight loss approaches? How do you know how long to fast? How long is too long? When is rapid weight loss ideal (rather than slow and stead...
Jul 29, 2021•1 hr 10 min
Mike Julian has been a great friend and taught me a LOT over the past six years or so! Shortly after I kicked it off the Optimising Nutrition Facebook Group, Mike was making so many insightful contributions I asked him to become an admin. Back in the day, we had a very unique group of people who would share their research and insights - Tommy Wood, Robb Wolf, Raymund Edwards, Luis Villasenor and a cast of people who were eager to learn more about nutrition and metabolism. It made for a unique le...
Jul 22, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 8
It was nice chatting with Bronson Dant about where to start on your exercise journey. Lots of people find they have newfound energy to exercise as they start to lose weight after they dial in WHAT they eat and WHEN they eat. We get lots of questions in the Masterclass and DDF about starting where to start on their fitness journey so I thought it would be great to get you on to give people some tips on where to start their journey. Links Optimising Nutrition Data-Driven Fasting Nutrient Optimiser...
Jul 15, 2021•58 min•Season 1Ep. 7
