Skip breakfast, push your first meal to noon, let your body "reset." It's some of the most repeated wellness advice out there, and for a lot of men, the research holds up. What almost never gets said is that a good chunk of that research was done in men, or in rodents, and when scientists look specifically at what fasting does to a female body first thing in the morning, the picture gets a lot less tidy.

Dr. Kelley Reis breaks down why the cortisol awakening response makes mornings the worst possible time to add a fasting stressor, the reproductive axis mechanism that makes women's hormones more sensitive to energy scarcity than men's, and who should think twice before structuring their eating around any kind of fast, postpartum women, perimenopausal women, women with PCOS whose HPG axis is already disrupted, and anyone with a history of disordered eating or HPA axis dysfunction.

She's also fair to the research that does support fasting in certain populations, and lays out what actually has more evidence behind it than skipping breakfast: an earlier eating window instead of a later one.

You, Restored is hosted by Dr. Kelley Reis, Naturopathic Physician and founder of Liberty Natural Wellness — a fully virtual direct-care practice rooted in nervous system regulation, gut health, and hormones.

Learn more at libertynaturalwellness.com