A Global Fasting Clinic Provides Data-Driven Results

A Global Fasting Clinic Provides Data-Driven Results

by | Oct 12, 2020 | Case Studies, Features, Professionals, Self Tracking

The Fasting Method

Developed by Megan Ramos and Dr. Jason Fung from years of clinical experience with intermittent fasting and time restricted eating, The Fasting Method (TFM) provides the education, guidance, and support necessary for successful weight loss and type 2 diabetes remission. With clients all over the world, The Fasting Method needed a comprehensive solution to monitor and support their customers.

Heads Up (HU), the industry-leading health tracking platform, worked closely with TFM to create a combined technology solution to meet their needs. The resulting single-sign-on interface gives clients and coaches secure access to TFM’s custom lifestyle dashboard with community and education resources as well as health metrics and lab results tracking. 

HU integrates seamlessly with TFM’s WordPress site to deliver a data-driven approach to guide users through structured intermittent fasting. 

TFM Dashboard 640x640 1

Fasting for Health

Megan Ramos and Dr. Jason Fung are the co-founders of The Fasting Method which provides solutions for weight loss, type 2 diabetes control, and metabolic syndrome. 

Ramos is a Canadian clinical researcher and expert on therapeutic fasting and low carbohydrate diets. Megan is one of the directors of the nonprofit organization Public Health Collaboration Canada (PHC Canada), an international group dedicated to promoting evidence-based nutritional information. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Insulin Resistance.

Dr. Fung, MD, is a Toronto-based nephrologist and a world leading expert in intermittent fasting and low-carb diets. He has written the bestselling health books: The Obesity Code, The Complete Guide to Fasting, The Diabetes Code, and The Longevity Solution. Dr. Fung currently practices in Toronto, Canada and also works with Team Diet Doctor. He is the scientific editor of the Journal of Insulin Resistance, and the managing director of PHC Canada.

About The Fasting Method

The Fasting Method focuses on client empowerment by providing education, support, and access to an engaged community of TFM members. Centered around creating sustainable life changes, participants enroll in TFM’s self-guided program for access to a suite of resources to support their health goals. TFM also provides custom coaching for customers seeking tailored solutions to their fasting goals.

TFM’s three-pillar system of education, community, and health tracking gives clients the tools they need to succeed with fasting and time-restricted eating to tackle health challenges and meet their goals. Clients with a range of experience have access to appropriate educational courses on eating strategies and support from a community who shares their goals. 

Business Challenge

With customers all over the world, TFM needed a product to remotely track client progress, compile health metrics, and measure the effectiveness of their protocols over time. 

TFM was seeking a comprehensive solution for data aggregation that could not only track fasting intervals but also measure other critical health parameters such as sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), weight, DEXA scans, and lab results. They needed a custom portal to integrate directly with their existing WordPress client portal for a seamless single-sign-on experience.

Promoting client engagement is essential for businesses in the dynamic health and wellness sector. The team at TFM was seeking an accessible solution for their customers to self-monitor and track the positive impacts of the program on their wellbeing. Giving clients a platform to see real data and numbers for themselves leads to better outcomes and long-term customer retention.

Technology Solution

The goal for Heads Up, the personal health platform for tracking and analyzing health data, was to develop a custom solution to meet TFM’s diverse needs. In creating single-sign-on access to the HU platform, clients can now effortlessly monitor their health metrics, in addition to connecting with essential education and community resources, from within the TFM website.

Heads Up Computer Login for Fasting

Custom Lifestyle Dashboard

Heads Up created the custom dashboard to be an organic component of the TFM member portal. Featuring a single sign-on experience, the HU integration is programmed with default tiles for tracking key fasting metrics and lab results, while the frontend interface gives clients a seamless user experience on their journey to health. 

Custom Single Sign-on

A cornerstone feature of HU’s technology solution is the custom single sign-on (SSO). Heads Up integrates with TFM’s WordPress website and client portal via SSO to create a seamlessly fluid, on-brand user experience. 

Heads Up has the ability to integrate with any patient portal or existing membership platform. With a custom SSO, HU can open as an iframe within the existing webpage or in a separate tab from the client portal. TFM chose to have HU open in an adjacent tab from the main dashboard, allowing users to navigate multiple features of their website simultaneously.

Like many clinics in the health and wellness space, TFM has an extensive database of electronic health records. With SSO, clients are automatically connected to their HU dashboard when logging into their TFM account. This secure and streamlined approach eliminates the need for clients to sign onto multiple apps and programs to achieve their health goals. 

TFM Custom Dashboard

The Heads Up dashboard, when accessed by TFM clients, is fully branded with TFM’s logos and color palettes, as well as being pre-programmed with the proper tiles for tracking fasting metrics alongside other lifestyle data (weight, blood sugar, nutrition, sleep etc.) and lab data (cholesterol levels, hemoglobin a1c etc). 

The TFM program leads to substantial improvements in body composition and the new TFM dashboard lets clients see these changes in relation to other lifestyle metrics. 

The goals The Fasting Method protocols are to regulate the insulin response, reduce medication dependency, and improve overall wellness through intermittent fasting. The Heads Up integration with TFM gives clients an easy way to track their most essential metrics of fasting.

Heads Up on Mobile and Computer for Fasting

Custom Dashboard Metrics

TFM clients see the following metrics on their custom dashboard:

  • Fasting: Tracking fasting intervals gives insight into when the body is using stored sources of energy to fuel itself. Whether following an intermittent or extended fast, you are lowering blood sugar and body fat by using these stored sources of energy. The timer helps motivate users so they can see exactly how long they’ve been fasting and to learn how their other vital signs (sleep, blood glucose, ketones etc.) are changing.
  • Weight: Fasting has recently been rediscovered as a highly effective weight loss method, in addition to its many other healthy properties. Though weight may fluctuate throughout the fasting journey, measuring weight change over time is one baseline metrics of a healthy lifestyle.
  • Body Fat: Reducing overall body fat is key in improving fitness and avoiding health problems. Tracking changes in body fat is a tool to assess body composition and measure lean mass gains.
  • Blood Pressure: TFM’s method of intermittent fasting can lead to reduced blood pressure by reducing insulin and improving weight loss. Tracking blood is a metric of elasticity of the circulatory system, a key health indicator. 
  • Ketones: As blood glucose and insulin levels begin to drop during fasting, the body starts to burn fat and produce ketones. Measuring breath ketones indicates periods of nutritional ketosis versus glycolysis.The dashboard can sync ketone readings from Keto-Mojo, Ketonix and Biosense or can be entered manually.
  • Blood Glucose: Glucose and fat are the body’s main sources of energy. If glucose is not available, then the body will adjust by using fat, without any detrimental health effects. Tracking glucose gives insight into the metabolic stage that the body is in during fasting.
  • Sleep: Timing meals affects our circadian rhythms that exert a powerful influence over our sleep and wellbeing. Monitoring sleep and waking hours is helpful in timing intermittent fasting windows and ensuring proper rest. TFM clients can sync sleep data from Oura, Garmin, FitBit, Biostrap, Apple Watch and other industry-leading wearables.

In addition to the above metrics, TFM clients have access to the full suite of Heads Up tracking modules and integrations. Tracking other metrics such as exercise, macros, or HRV can serve as additional markers of a healthy lifestyle.

Custom Lab Results

With a focus on data-driven results, the custom portal also allows clients to track their lab results as they embark on the journey with TFM. 

Traditional lab tests such as lipid panels (cholesterol, HDL, LDL, etc.), metabolic markers (fasting insulin, Hba1c, etc.), and thyroid markers can all be tracked by clients. Clients can see for themselves how TFM is improving their markers of health and disease. Similarly, TFM experts can review these results with clients to help optimize and personalize the treatment protocol for each client. 

Custom Lab Results for Fasting on Computer


Conclusions

Clear access to health data gives TFM clients the tools they need to set actionable goals and track improvement. The HU team designed a seamless user experience on both the frontend for clients and backend for practitioners.

With an eye on customer retention, HU’s custom dashboard is designed with a clean look and intuitive feel to facilitate customer motivation and satisfaction. Whether accessing the dashboard on desktop, mobile, or tablet, clients and practitioners have an elegant and practical experience from sign in to sign out.

Interested in a custom data portal for your practice?

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The Fasting Method on iPhone

Update From Megan Ramos And The Fasting Method.

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Ep. 52 – How Megan Ramos of The Fasting Method is Using Intermittent Fasting and Heads Up’s Remote Monitoring Technology to Help Patients Worldwide Reach Their Health Goals

Ep. 52 – How Megan Ramos of The Fasting Method is Using Intermittent Fasting and Heads Up’s Remote Monitoring Technology to Help Patients Worldwide Reach Their Health Goals

by | Aug 7, 2020 | Podcast

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Megan Ramos is the co-founder of The Fasting Method Program based out of Toronto, Canada, developed with Dr. Jason Fung, author of books such as The Obesity Code and their latest book: Life in the Fasting Lane. Together, Megan Ramos and Dr. Jason Fung have helped thousands of patients get their lives back through the use of intermittent fasting and data tracking.

Join Dave Korsunsky, founder of Heads Up and his co-host, TJ Anderson, as they talk all things intermittent and long-term fasting with Megan Ramos for both practitioners and patients. 

Practitioners go through the Fasting Method Program for their own health to learn how to utilize fasting for their own patients. If you’re unsure of how to go about fasting, wonder if and when it’s safe, or how to implement it with your patients, then listen in to this episode that is jam-packed with all kinds of useful and exciting information. Megan Ramos shares a wealth of information and how you can find out more about joining in on this hot topic in health and wellness to be on the cutting edge with your patients. Learn how Megan Ramos and Dr. Jason Fung are using their unique fasting approach, powered by Heads Up, to deliver remote monitoring, support, education, tracking and behaviorial coaching to help their patients obtain greater health outcomes.

Listen in iTunes!

This podcast is brought to you by Heads Up, a web app designed to help you centrally track all of your vital health data. Instantly synchronize your medical records, connect your favorite health devices and apps, and use your data to optimize your health!

Click on the button below to start your free 30-day trial. Or, read on for more information about our latest podcast episode!

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“People who track their own data make sustainable changes to their lifestyle. They modify their habits.” – Megan Ramos

In this podcast you’ll learn:

  • Megan Ramos talks about how easy it is to get started and how it’s simple because there is only one rule: Don’t eat. You’re asking your patients not to do more, but to do less [5:30]
  • Why patients with brain fog can really benefit from fasting because it takes less, not more – supplements, special foods, rules, etc. [7:50]
  • Fasting is like a muscle – the more you do it the easier it gets [8:40]
  • Examples of different types of intermittent fasting [9:50]
  • Megan Ramos talks about ways to quantify success and results with tests; i.e fasting insulin, C-peptides, ALT, GGT, HDL, ferritin, and more [11:50]
  • The importance of changes in body composition versus weight on the scale, etc. [14:30]
  • How to know if a patient is eligible for fasting and when they wouldn’t be a good candidate for fasting due to nutrient deficiencies or specific functional issues [16:40]
  • About fasting during pregnancy and breastfeeding [19:15]
  • Not to discount other disease processes that could be happening by writing off that the patient is just not eating enough [20:00]
  • How people with chronic conditions can fast too if they’re in a stable state [20:30]
  • Tracking fasting lab results – be mindful of uric acid levels – what to look for and how to navigate if they elevate while fasting [23:13]
  • About fasting, thyroid health and Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis and the swing that can happen from hypothyroid to hyperthyroid [26:00]
  • How Megan Ramos empowers her patients with laboratory data that they can overlay with other metrics in Heads Up to see that their diet and lifestyle changes are that are working or not working for them [27:50]
  • The top measurements that Megan Ramos uses – waist to hip ratio, why BMI is bullshit, why and when/when not to use DEXA scans and how organ fat affects the results [28:45]
  • TJ asks Megan Ramos about longer-term fasts and autophagy and learns how it has helped patients lose up to 160 pounds and not require loose skin tissue removal due to autophagy [35:30]
  • Considerations for a 3, 5, or 7-day fast right out of the gate – who benefits, who shouldn’t do it [38:00]
  • Long term fasts, diabetics and their meds, hypertensives and their meds and more [39:20]
  • In a long-term fast, you need to be mindful of electrolytes early on, and not wait until later in the fast [40:20]
  • Autophagy peaks around the 72-hour mark and stays relatively active for the first 5 days of a fast [42:00]
  • How Megan Ramos and Dr. Jason Fung have systemized their process of intermittent fasting by remotely monitoring fasting patients with the use of data and teaching their patients to understand the data [44:15]
  • Their new program allows Dr. Jason Fung and Megan Ramos to help patients track their data and customize their approach all over the world through remote work [49:20]
  • That 28% of people in the program are healthcare professionals [55:39]

References

The Fasting Method – You can enroll with FSA or HSA

The Fasting Method Blog

Diet Doctor – Dr. Jason Fung

About Heads Up 

Heads Up is a website designed to empower individuals who want to take a self-directed approach to managing their health. Instantly centralize your medical records, connect your favorite devices and apps (e.g., Oura, MyFitnessPal, Keto-Mojo, FitBit, Apple Health, MyMacros+, Withings and many more) and use your data to optimize your health.

Click on the button below to start your free 30-day trial now!

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11 Remarkable Health Benefits of Fasting

11 Remarkable Health Benefits of Fasting

by | Nov 21, 2019 | Features | Self Tracking, Self Tracking

Fasting vs. Starvation

Many people mistake the practice of fasting with starvation, especially in the United States where food abundance and the idea of being hungry is perceived as a negative state (or altogether inhumane, something only happening to the ‘less fortunate’). The truth is, fasting and starvation are two completely different things. That’s why we put together this list of 11 remarkable health benefits of fasting… but before we dive in, a few other background points.

Starvation deprives you of nutrition and begins the process of breaking down your body, while the benefits of fasting on the other hand, are as long as they are deep. Fasting is a time-tested and controlled state that is not only beneficial to your health, it’s essential for creating optimal health, managing chronic diseases, reaching a healthy weight for your body type, reversing aging and much more. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the benefits of fasting… the healthy way, as recommended by Dr. John Limansky, the Keto Doctor… Heads Up friend and advisor. Thank you Dr. John!

The Health Benefits of Fasting

  1. Achieve your optimal weight. Different than starvation, fasting gives your body a chance to burn the energy from food instead of storing it as glycogen or fat. During longer fasting periods your body will burn through the glycogen stores and then begin burning fat stores.
  2. Overcome insulin resistance and balance blood sugar levels. Fasting gives your cells an overdue break from insulin so that they can ‘rediscover’ their sensitivity, overcome insulin resistance, and use glucose more effectively. That means blood sugar crashes along with your sugar cravings, taking the strain off of your overworked pancreas while significantly reducing your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
  3. Increase metabolism by as much as 18%. It’s been long-believed that fasting will bring your metabolism and weight loss efforts to a grinding halt. The good news is that’s no longer true. Research now shows that a stress hormone called norepinephrine increases during fasting, releasing fatty acids from the fat cells. This in turn makes it faster and easier for your body to use its fat stores.
  4. Keep cortisol levels in check and better manage stress.
    Remember the research that suggested that your cortisol response depends on having glucose in the blood? In those same studies, participants who fasted and drank water had a much lower cortisol response than their peers who drank glucose solution. This indicates that fasting keeps cortisol levels low, helps us to respond to stressful situations in a much healthier manner, and protects us from the harmful effects of chronic stress.
  5. Reduce inflammation by inhibiting the immune response.
    Inflammation occurs in response to pain, injury and/or disease, and in some cases, your immune system continues releasing inflammatory chemicals even after the original state is gone. Such sustained exposure to those chemicals can create other chronic disease states, but fasting helps inhibit that prolonged immune response and blocks the continuing release of inflammatory chemicals
  6. Regenerate your immune system from the inside out. When you fast, your body saves energy by recycling old or damaged white blood cells. This drop in white blood cells flips a ‘regenerative switch’ in the body, stimulating the production of new stem cells. These stem cells then go on to develop into new, healthy immune cells, meaning you’re essentially regenerating a whole new immune system.
  7. Improve heart health by reducing blood pressure and LDL cholesterol.
    Fasting is shown to reduce blood pressure and harmful LDL cholesterol, and it also helps to maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of diabetes. It also reduces heart disease risk by protecting your vascular system.
  8. Improve brain health by stimulating the production of new neurons.
    Fasting stimulates the growth of new neurons and increases production of a hormone called brain- derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). Altogether, this helps to protect against depression, improve brain function and memory, slow cognitive decline, and reduce the risk of neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s.
  9. Protect against cancer.
    Cancer is characterized by the rapid and uncontrollable growth of cells. Although further studies are needed to confirm this, fasting is believed to help prevent cancer by depriving cancerous cells of the essential hormones they need to grow. Insulin Growth Factor, or IGF-1, is one such hormone, which goes into decline as soon as you stop eating.
  10. Increase cellular turnover and regeneration.
    Fasting sends your body into cell recycling, a process of self-digestion at the cellular level called autophagy. But you’re not just digesting your fat to fuel yourself while fasting. Your body also targets malfunctioning cells and old tissues to optimize resources for survival.
  11. Improve sleep quality.
    New studies show that routine intermittent fasting in many ways helps the body stay well aligned for sleep and strengthens the circadian clock. That means it’s easier to fall asleep and stay asleep so you can wake feeling more rested.

Is it working? Track it and see.

The best way to understand how your body is responding to fasting, no matter what plan you’re on, is with hard data. Getting an app that collects your key health metrics along with tracking your fasting cycles is not only an easy way to track progress and see how you’re changing, it’s also a fun and motivating method to stay on track. 

The Heads Up app, for example, offers a fasting timer, along with a dashboard to track weight, body fat percentage, sleep, blood sugar, ketones and other vital health metrics, giving you a holistic view of your health before, during and after fasting. Start with their 30-day free trial to connect your other health data, then select an affordable monthly plan to continue tracking your metrics over time.

Should you fast?

With so many metabolic health benefits that are now research backed, it’s hard to say fasting doesn’t have some benefit to most people, however, it’s important that certain demographics should not fast at all, such as those with diabetes or other chronic disease, those who are pregnant or breastfeeding, the elderly and children. Most importantly, check with your doctor before starting any new diet regimen. 

Once you decide to give fasting a try, check out all the various fasting routines to get a sense of what type may be right for you. Not all fasting plans are right for everyone. The other key will be to find a useful tool (e.g. web or mobile application) that you can use to track your fasting plan as you go, and as importantly, to track your key health stats during the fasting state. 

This will be a good indication of how fasting will work for you, and how it impacts your health day to day. It will also be the perfect data to offer to your doctor as you work to achieve your personal health goals over time. 

The big picture? Fasting can become a steady and ongoing part of your healthy lifestyle plan for the long haul, rather than just a diet fad. 

As with any healthy lifestyle plans, consult with your health practitioner first.

 

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