Why I Quit Intermittent Fasting

Reminder: This is my experience with Intermittent fasting, but I am not a doctor and it is to be used for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Fasting has become very popular because it can help you lose weight, which shouldn’t surprise anyone because anytime you eat less you lose weight. Last year I practiced Intermittent fasting for about eight months because I heard a lot of people saying that it has amazing health benefits and can improve your gut health. I will try any diet that claims it will improve my gut health in even the smallest way because my bowels don’t work properly and are naturally slow to begin with so I am all for anything that might give me a little less pain. Fasting may help some people reach their goals, but I would not recommend it for people with medical conditions who have gut issues because your body needs nutrients to function optimally, and it can be quite dangerous for people with medical conditions. I was hopeful that Intermittent fasting was going to work because it’s incredibly easy, but it did the complete opposite of what I wanted it to do and was not going to work long-term. Intermittent fasting did give me some positive results, but the negatives outweighed the benefits, so I stopped. Why did I quit Intermittent fasting? In this post, I am going to talk about why I decided to quit Intermittent fasting.

It worsened my bowel health– People sometimes say that when you fast, it can improve your blood pressure and resting heart rate, which may be true, but it can worsen your bowel health if you don’t do it right. It is true that when you eat less, you poop less, which may sound like a good thing, but not always, because if you aren’t eating enough calories, it can trigger constipation. When you skip meals, the meals you do eat have to be larger, which can be a problem for people who have bowels that don’t work properly, because larger meals are terrible for your digestion and often cause a lot of bloating that can lead to constipation. I feel better when I eat smaller, more frequent meals, and when I was fasting, I was doing the complete opposite and eating larger, less frequent meals. When I first started fasting, I thought it was improving my gut health because I was starting to see some small improvements until I started getting more constipated, and my already slow bowel function was even slower. If you want to prevent constipation, it is so important to give your body enough calories because you will make yourself constipated if you don’t get enough fiber, and when you fast, it’s easy to not eat enough.

My stoma leaked more- When I was practicing Intermittent fasting, I did a relatively short fast and only fasted for about sixteen hours, and my first meal was usually around noon. If I did a workout the night before, I ate a little later and there were some days, I did not eat my first meal until two or three in the afternoon. The stoma I have connected to my bowel reacts to some foods and sometimes will leak because it’s just a little hole on my lower abdomen, and anything I put into my body can come out of my stoma. I have less stoma problems when I make healthier choices and eat on a regular eating schedule which I was not doing when I was fasting. My stoma did not like my irregular meal schedules, and I had more stoma problems than I normally would; it was making it so I could never do anything. It is normal for me to have a leaky stoma after breakfast because it’s the first meal of the day, but usually it’s not too bad and stops within an hour or two. When I was fasting, my stoma problems were much worse, and I dealt with constant stoma problems all day long. I couldn’t figure out why I was having so many problems suddenly until I stopped fasting, and all my problems went back to normal.

It worsened my relationship with food- I have struggled with having a positive relationship with food and my body for most of my life and because of my history with poor body image I should have never considered fasting. It worsened my relationship with food because when you restrict food, it makes you even more concerned about the food you do eat. When I stopped fasting, I was able to heal my relationship with food and my body, which I don’t think I would have ever done if I kept doing a diet that encouraged severe restriction. The best thing I ever did for myself to heal my relationship with food and I would not have been able to do that by following a plan that told me when and how much to eat. I would not recommend anyone who struggles with body image to do any kind of fasting because it is easy to undereat when you fast, and it can make your poor body image struggles even worse.  

My hunger cues were non-existent- When I was fasting, I was eating less often which sounds like it would be good, but I think it was causing me to undereat calories and my hunger cues were non-existent. Since I was getting my body use to eating a lower amount of calories, I think it was slowing down my metabolism because I was not hungry when I should have been and as a result, I was not eating enough. My hunger cues have come back since I stopped fasting which makes it a lot easier to fuel my body properly.

When I was Intermittent fasting, I lost weight but that was about the only positive I got from fasting and for me that was not enough to want to keep doing it. Fasting can help you lose weight but it’s not the only way to lose weight because you can lose weight by making healthier choices. Some people may get great results from fasting, and I am not suggesting that it’s a horrible thing for everyone and that no one should do it, and I am only sharing my experience with it. I wish I would have gotten more positive results from fasting because I didn’t have to change my diet in any significant way and it’s relatively easy to do but the reality is the negative effects outweighed the benefits. Fasting is safe for a vast majority of people, and it may help some people lower their cholesterol provided you are being safe and doing it right. As a disabled person, I am always open to trying new things that might improve my bowel function and although Intermittent fasting did not work for me, I am glad I tried it because I would have never known it’s a horrible diet for people with bowel conditions if I never tried it and don’t consider it a failure but learning experience. What was your experience with Intermittent fasting? If you liked this post, please leave a comment below and share it with your friends.

---

Subscribe And Never Miss A Post