Welcome to A Healthy Shift | The Shift Work Podcast, the podcast helping shift workers thrive while changing how organisations think about people working in 24/7 environments.
Hosted by Roger Sutherland, Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist, this is where evidence meets lived experience.
After more than 40 years of working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, followed by years studying nutrition, circadian biology, chrononutrition, sleep, human performance and women's health, Roger is on a mission to challenge the belief that fatigue, poor sleep, burnout and declining health are simply part of working shifts.
Because they don't have to be.
Whether you're a nurse, paramedic, police officer, firefighter, doctor, aged care worker, manufacturing employee, FIFO worker, miner, pilot, flight attendant, truck driver, dispatcher, or anyone working outside the traditional 9-to-5, this podcast will give you practical, evidence-based strategies to help you sleep better, improve your energy, optimise your health and perform at your best.
If you're a leader, manager, People & Culture professional, WHS specialist, or responsible for leading a 24/7 workforce, you'll discover a different way of thinking about shift work—one that focuses on building shift work capability from within through education, leadership and practical systems that create healthier people, stronger teams and higher-performing organisations.
Each episode explores topics including:
• Shift work • Night shift • Sleep after night shift • Circadian rhythm • Fatigue management • Shift worker health • Nutrition for shift workers • Chrononutrition • Recovery and resilience • Women's health and shift work • Leadership in 24/7 organisations • Human performance • Workplace wellbeing • Fatigue risk management • Building healthier, safer and higher-performing workplaces
This isn't another podcast offering generic health tips.
It's a podcast about changing the future of shift work.
Because healthier people create stronger teams.
Stronger teams build better organisations.
And it all starts by understanding how to work with biology, not against it.
Could the key to unlocking your health potential be as simple as watching the clock? I'm Roger Sutherland, and in this episode, we're cutting through the noise to bring you the solid science on intermittent fasting. For those working around the clock, the difference between intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding isn't just jargon—it's the cornerstone of a health strategy that could be life-changing. We're tackling the 16-8 and 5-2 methods head-on, dissecting the myths around fasting as a muscle-building miracle and spotlighting the unsung hero in fat loss: calorie control. If you've been curious whether skipping meals could give you an edge, you'll want to soak up every minute of these myth-busting insights.
As your guide through the maze of meal timing, I'll also delve into the promising world of early time-restricted feeding (ETRF). Imagine harnessing the power of your body's natural rhythms to not just manage your weight but improve your insulin sensitivity and blood sugar levels. It's not just about when you eat, but how aligning your meals with your circadian rhythm can curb hunger and rev up your metabolism. Whether you're considering narrowing your eating window or just hungry for knowledge, this episode is packed with evidence-based revelations you won't want to miss. Join me as we chart a course towards a healthier lifestyle, one timed bite at a time.
Roger Sutherland is Australia's Night Shift & Sleep Specialist and the founder of A Healthy Shift.
After more than 40 years working rotating shifts with Victoria Police, Roger now helps organisations reduce fatigue risk, improve staff wellbeing and build healthier, safer and higher-performing 24/7 workplaces through evidence-based education, circadian biology and the Shift Work Champions™ Framework.
Disclaimer: Roger Sutherland is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before implementing any strategies mentioned in this podcast. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Roger Sutherland will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of the information contained in this podcast, including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness, or death.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Healthy Shift , the podcast . At the moment , nutrition is in a really , really interesting space . We are really really up against it as evidence-based practitioners . One of the biggest problems that we have at the moment is people with massive platforms that are pushing a particular style of dieting as the solution for everybody . We see people pushing the carnivore diet , but one of the other ones we see is intermittent fasting . Are we actually doing intermittent fasting right ? According to the science , Is intermittent fasting actually really beneficial for us ? Hold on to your hats . Today's episode is going to address intermittent fasting from an evidence-based perspective .
Speaker 1
Shift work can be brutal , but it doesn't have to be . Welcome to a healthy shift . My name is Roger Sutherland , certified nutritionist , veteran law enforcement officer and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades . Through this podcast , I aim to educate shift workers , using evidence-based methods , to not only survive the rigors of shift work but thrive . My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and wellbeing so they have more energy to do the things they love . Enjoy today's show . It gives me great pleasure to welcome you and thank you for listening .
Speaker 1
In this podcast , we are going to dive deep into evidence-based strategies for thriving in a shift-working environment . I'm your host , roger Sutherland , and today I would just like to talk about the truth behind intermittent fasting and how we can actually do it better . Now what I want to do is I want to dive into the world of eating patterns today , with a specific focus on intermittent fasting and , in particular , early time restricted feeding , which is also known as ETRF . So I'm going to talk about intermittent fasting to start off with . Now . I don't want to go into huge detail around this . This is incredibly topical , but this is what the science tells us . This is not what your Insta-famous Insta-guru , insta-whatever-you-want-to-call-them . I'm going to call it the Insta-wanker , because they're just actually skewing what everything is being said . So let's just break it down and have a look at what it is .
Speaker 1
So , first of all , intermittent fasting is what most people do . What they do is actually time restricted feeding , so let's just call it for what it actually is . Now , intermittent fasting can be done in various forms . Now , what a lot of people do is they eat from midday through to 8 pm and then they fast from 8 pm through until midday the next day , don't they ? So what we get there is the 16-8 , and that is intermittent fasting , and this is what most people do because they think it's magic . Also , intermittent fasting can be seen as a 5-2 , which means it's normal eating for for five days and then on two of those days it's either a full fast for two days or you eat between 500 and 600 calories on the others . But let's just be clear on one thing Intermittent fasting is not optimal for muscle building , and I will explain why very shortly .
Speaker 1
First of all , intermittent fasting is literally just skipping breakfast . For what a lot of people do those that are eating from 12 o'clock to 8 pm and they're not eating , thinking it's magic , what you're actually doing is just skipping breakfast . And what you do do is you have breakfast at lunchtime because it's break fast , break fast . That's what it is , that's all you're doing . You're breaking the fast and you're breaking it at midday and then you're eating in a restricted window up until 8pm . Now that means that you are literally just in a calorie deficit , and that calorie deficit is what is bringing about that fat loss for you , because in that restricted window of eight hours you can't eat too much food . I mean , you could if you tried , you could if you wanted to , but the bottom line is you generally won't . So the thing is , what we need to do is we need to look at it for what it is , and that is skipping breakfast .
Speaker 1
Now I want to go back to why it's not optimal if you are a person who wants to build muscle . I'm not going to go into great detail here , but suffice to say , when it comes to building muscle , we have to eat protein in a window of every three to five hours for it to be optimal . And the reason why this needs to occur is because we have muscle protein synthesis that occurs every three to five hours . So if we haven't eaten or we haven't got protein amino acids running through our bloodstream for those three to five every three to five hours what happens is when the muscle opens to look for those amino acids , and in particular leucine , which is actually what triggers the muscle protein synthesis . When it's not there , the muscle closes again and starts to break itself down to actually function . Now , that is not optimal for a person that wants to build muscle . So for people that are restricting their calories between 8 pm and midday the next day , you are literally going 16 hours without an amino acid pool in your bloodstream . So every time that muscle opens looking for amino acids and they're not there , then your muscle starts to break itself down . So keep that in mind .
Speaker 1
If you are in a muscle building phase , the way most people do , it is literally just skipping breakfast , and the science also is showing and this is what's really important for you to know that if calories are equaled , then fat loss is exactly the same for a person that is intermittent fasting or a person that is actually eating during the day normally . So if we're both and to explain that , if we're both on 2,000 calories a day and one is eating the 2,000 calories between midday and between 8 pm , or the other one is eating them between 8 am and 4 pm , you're going to get exactly the same fat loss out of it . And that is the facts of intermittent fasting and normal caloric restriction . So there you go , that's what it is . And then someone's going to say to me but what about autophagy ?
Speaker 1
Autophagy what a classic . Autophagy is literally the recycling of dead cells , and people say that what we have is we have with intermittent fasting , that autophagy is enhanced . Let me just be very clear with you in relation to autophagy . Autophagy is actually occurring in your body 24-7 , regardless of whether you are restricted , fasting or what you're doing . It is literally just occurring . And if you really wanted to enhance autophagy like literally , if you really wanted to enhance it because it was so important to you resistance training actually supports more autophagy than anything else does . So go and pick up some weights and eat normally . That's the bottom line . What is really important for people to understand is that intermittent fasting is not magic , it's just a different way of eating .
Speaker 1
Now I want to be clear here for those people that are absolutely tutting and carrying on at the moment I am absolutely not demonizing intermittent fasting . What I'm doing is I'm just stating what the science tells us . If this works for you , absolutely fantastic . If this is how you go about creating your caloric deficit and it helps you to lose body fat , amazing . Keep doing that . But please don't label it for longevity , for life or for anything else , because the science does not support that in any way whatsoever .
Speaker 1
But what I do want to discuss is time-restricted feeding , and there is a difference in this Restricting your reading to within certain hours of the day , for example , from 8 am to 4 pm for argument's sake during the day , or even down to a six-hour window from 10 am to 4 pm . This has been shown to be an excellent strategy for fat loss . If you're doing this during daylight hours , now that's time-restricted feeding . So intermittent fasting has all types of different ways of going about doing things , whereas time-restricted feeding is literally just pushing it down and maintaining that every single day in the same window of eating . But what I want to bring your attention to today is another form of time-restricted feeding , which is called early time-restricted feeding or ETRF . So let's make this all about today's podcast and the discussion points that I want to go over today is what actually is early time-restricted feeding ?
Speaker 1
How does early time restricted feeding work ? What are the potential benefits of early time restricted feeding , and what considerations are there that we need to factor in before we try early time restricted feeding ? So , first of all , our first point what is early time restricted feeding ? Now , early time restricted feeding is a type of intermittent fasting that focuses on compressing your eating window into an earlier part of the day . So , therefore , what you are doing is you are basically you are consuming all of your meals within an early , specific time frame , which is typically six to eight hours , and then you would fast for the remaining hours .
Now , how does this work ? Now , there's no one size that fits all approach to early time restricted feeding . You can literally choose your eating window based on your schedule . For example , some people might like to opt for that eight-hour window between 8 am and 4 pm , as I said before , and some people might actually prefer a six-hour window which starts at 10 am and finishes at 4 pm . The key is to restrict your caloric intake to that chosen window and then fast for the rest of the time . So what are the potential benefits of this early time restricted feeding ? First of all and this is the most important and the key one , it shows improved blood sugar control .
Speaker 1
Now , studies are quite clear now and are suggesting that early time restricted feeding may improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar levels , potentially benefiting individuals with prediabetes or that have metabolic issues . If you are a person who is obese or morbidly obese and you are overweight in that way and you wanted to lose body fat and improve your metabolic and biological functioning by actually practising early time restricted feeding will support , or may actually support , this and help you with it . We also get enhanced metabolic health from early time restricted feeding . It may promote better fat burning and also metabolic flexibility , which allows your body to switch between using carbohydrates and fat for more energy more efficiently , and this is an interesting thing that actually occurs in early time restricted feeding . So the body can switch between using those carbs and fat for more energy , and it does it more efficiently if you do it in the morning .
Speaker 1
Now , in relation to weight management , while it's not a guaranteed outcome , early time restricted feeding can lead to weight loss by limiting your overall calorie intake window . Once again , it's just another way for us to create a caloric deficit , and that's the only way that you can lose weight . Now let me just spell that out quite clearly for you . It's not hormones . It's not that you got a problem . Anybody that is in a calorie deficit , and ie that means if you are burning more energy than you are actually consuming , you will lose weight . If you are standing on the scales day after day and you are not losing weight , you are not in a calorie deficit , and I'll use a scenario for you that will make this very , very clear for you . If you look at a prisoner of war , they did not go into starvation mode where they started putting on body fat . They lost it until there was absolutely nothing left and died . So let's just be quite clear that a calorie deficit is the only way for you to lose weight , and how you create that is entirely up to you .
Speaker 1
Early time restricted feeding , time restricted feeding , intermittent fasting , none of it matters . It is literally just going to come down to being in a calorie deficit . All right . Now what is really exciting about this early time restricted feeding , which was a byproduct of the actual research as the research was being done , was the people actually reported that it reduced their actual hunger . Some people actually reported experiencing less hunger with early time restricted feeding , which was potentially due to the improved blood sugar regulation and those hormonal changes . Now , if we look at our circadian rhythm , which is an area that I'm quite averse with or averse with , we need to understand that by eating earlier in the day , our body is functioning better , our blood glucose control is better , we digest food better early in the day .
Speaker 1
But what we're learning as a result of the science now is , if you were actually to eat from seven in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon and then fast from three o'clock in the afternoon until you went to bed , now a lot of you would go oh , there's no way that I'd do that , no way , no , and the researchers weren't even looking at this . But what we did find through the research was that people actually reported that they weren't hungry after the three o'clock because they had put all their calories in in the early part of the day . So if you're a person that wants to try and lose weight or lose body fat , you have absolutely nothing to lose by eating the normal foods that you would normally eat , but eat them between seven in the morning and three o'clock in the afternoon and then fast from there on in A water diet , black coffee , do whatever but not coffee too late , obviously . But you could go through that and that may in fact help you , because when your satiety is high and you are not as hungry , it will stop that snacking later in the evening . And this is what's really really causing us so much damage in the evening , and this is what's really really causing us so much damage .
Speaker 1
Okay , so what considerations are there that we need to put it foremost in our mind before we actually try early time restricted feeding ? The first thing that we always do , and the first thing that we must always do , is , we must listen to our body . If you're experiencing any discomfort or you get any form of dizziness or any difficulty concentrating , then adjust your window or consult a healthcare professional . Around that , now , it's not for everyone . Early time restricted feeding might not be suitable for pregnant or breastfeeding women or individuals that have certain medical conditions , or even for those that are taking specific medications , and this is why it's really important that you speak to a healthcare professional prior to starting it , so that they can factor in your whole health picture .
Speaker 1
Before you do anything like this and gradual implementation , what we don't do and what everybody seems to do when it comes to dieting is they jump straight in and go all or nothing . Don't just jump straight into a small restrictive window of six hours from 10 o'clock until four . Gradually shorten your eating window over time to allow your body to adjust . Remember , this is a circadian rhythm that we are educating . So as we shorten that window , so our body will learn when the food comes in , what time it comes in , and it will prepare for that digestion . We can educate our circadian rhythm . Think about what happens when we actually travel . When we travel and we get jet lag and we go to a new time zone . We get light at different time , we get movement at different time and we eat at different times , and these are all cues for our circadian rhythm until we adjust . And the same thing will happen with early time restricted feeding . If you were to literally just gradually shorten that window until you got into a window that you were quite comfortable with , your circadian rhythm will literally adjust with you and it will work really well . So there it is . Now . That's a wrap for today's episode , but what I do want to make a very , very important note here is it's always best to consult with your healthcare professional before you start any is . It's always best to consult with your healthcare professional before you start any any new dietary regime or any supplementation , and especially if you have an underlying health condition , because they can help you to determine if early time restricted feeding is a safe and appropriate approach for your individual needs . Okay , so let's just rehash quickly Intermittent fasting is literally eating over a period , that it can be done in many ways .
Speaker 1
You can do five days of normal eating , two days of fasting . You might do two days of eating normally , one day of fasting . Three days of eating normally , one day of fasting . It can be done in various ways , but majority of people will actually fast from 8 pm at night until midday the next day , and this is literally the wrong way of going about it . According to science , the best way to go about it is literally to eat from 7 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon and then to fast from that time on , because the metabolic improvement in your body that you are chasing by intermittent fasting , because you think , oh , autophagy , et cetera that is actually going to work better for you by eating at seven in the morning until three o'clock , because your blood glucose control is better . And , bear in mind , this is when a lot of people train as well . People train early and feed around . That is the best possible time .
Speaker 1
Think about things logically , people . This is what I want people to really do . Start thinking logically around calling out the bullshit that is actually going on in your social media at the moment , around all the different diets and fads and exercises that people do . Keep it simple . That's the best way to actually go . All right , I want people also to remember that I actually coach shift workers one-to-one . I will improve your life , your shift working life . I stand right behind my product in relation to that . I will teach you to thrive and not just survive , and give you more energy to do the things that you love outside of your shift working life , and that is what everyone wants .
Speaker 1
For more details around this , you can find me at ahealthyshiftcom or on social media on Instagram at a underscore healthy , underscore shift , or on Facebook at a healthy shift all one word , and don't forget , on the podcast . If you get any benefit out of this , please share it and please tag me in it . I love to see the shares and the tags on social media . It's fantastic , and if you've got a moment , don't forget , just hit five stars . It really does help the podcast enormously . All right , so thanks for joining us on a Healthy Shift podcast today .
Speaker 1
I hope this episode provided a helpful overview of early time restricted feeding . Remember , a healthy lifestyle is all about finding what works absolutely best for you . If you have any questions or comments , feel free to reach out through our social media channels . Stay tuned for more healthy shifts coming your way and I will be in your ears again soon . Thank you for listening . If you enjoyed this episode , be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released . It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on . If you want to know more about me or work with me , you can go to ahealthyshiftcom . I'll catch you on the next one .
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