Two things: acid reflux that used to wake me up choking and unable to breathe in the middle of the night. And blood sugar crashes that controlled my emotions all day. My blood sugar is no longer affected by when or what I eat. I eat when I choose to.
Poor eating habits. Fasting reset my relationship with food. I now pay more attention to the ingredients to make the most out of the time I am not fasting. Food became more flavorful as I quit eating to be full and ate for the nutritional content of the food (quality vs. quantity). Fasting was part of an overall lifestyle change. As I lost weight, I had more energy, slept better, and the food tasted different and more flavorful. Fasting was the kickstart I needed to improve my health.
Ennui, lack of motivation. When I’m too discouraged by life, I fast. Fasting gives me a goal, a reason to keep going, and each day as the fast progresses I tend to feel more motivated about other aspects of my life.
Knee damage.
During my first fast ever, I had an knee that was in perpetual pain from a snowboarding mishap. It had been 3-4 months of not being able to put my full weight on it, and also I couldn’t kneel on it at all…even to climb into bed.
Anyway I did a 10 day juice fast to lose weight. By day 7 my knee was healed. That was in 2007, and it’s never been a problem since.
Chronic lower back pain (that required way too much ibuprofen to manage - now I take none), I do much less mindless eating and grazing throughout the day, I’m saving a lot of money not buying lunch during the workday, my skin is better, and I’m much more mindful of my meals and look forward to trying out new things in the kitchen since I only ever eat dinner (23/1 OMAD low carb but not quite keto)
My horrific old eating habits. I work on the road (lots of car travel) and used to get fast food basically daily. With fasting, I just look at food as a distraction now.
Once you start fasting you quickly realize how much of the economy (in the USA at least) is constantly funneling you towards gobbling lots of food. Fasting really helped me break free from that habitual 3+ meals a day, and I feel way better for it daily.
Heavy menstrual bleeding. Mine were ridiculous. I fasted for 21 days using a 5:2 schedule late April into May of 2022. 5 days of water, two days of mostly raw eating. It was after this fast that i noticed the change in my cycle.
I released 32 pounds but the biggest win for me were periods that didn’t come with nightmarish symptoms or heavy bleeding for days on end. Sorry if tmi.
Sadly, nothing for me yet. I have been intermittent fasting regularly since early 2020. I think I need to introduce longer fasts to break into the healing aspects but I haven’t been able to overcome the mental hurdle yet.
Curious if anyone here has had luck with histamine issues/chronic hives. Mine is pretty well controlled with meds, but they make me tired and groggy, and they really mess with my appetite to the point where I’m never satiated. I do IF, I don’t think it’s really helped, but I haven’t tried any longer fasts yet.
Fasting has been incredible for my lower back pain. As soon as I started on a 18:6 intermittent fasting schedule, I was able to sleep without nerve pain in my lower back. This continues to feel great as long as I’m fasting on a schedule. I suspect it might be reduction in inflammation.
Fasting literally cured my chronic pain and inflammation. But then I stopped fasting and went back to my usual lifestyle of binge eating and now my whole body is in pain again. I’m planning to do another round of fasting but I keep putting it off.
MY eczema/psoriasis and insulin sensitivity.
For years I had eczema as a child, somehow it evolved into psoriasis as an adult, and I always had an issue with losing weight.
Cutting out breakfast, learning about insulin, and giving my liver time to rest helped me get rid of my issues. When I binge heavily on snacks or carbs, it tries to make a reappearance, but I just do a 1-2 day fast and it’s usually gone.
If I don’t have an intense workout, I’ll usually eat once for the day at around 4-5pm. If I gym, then I’ll eat once at 2 and again at 6pm. Every month I fast 48 hours once. And every year I will fast for 5 days once… and that 5 day fast started 12 hours ago
Food and sugar addictions. Eventually mental food addictions. Binging almost gone. Leaky gut that I had for all my teen and early 20s that made me allergic to gluten. PCOS symptoms but not cured. It gave me complete patience for goals and a reassurance/confidence that I can reach completion if I just keep going (in all my goals outside of fasting too).
Heartburn, I was on prescription medication for it prior to fasting and now I don’t get Heartburn at all anymore unless I don’t fast.
Also, I enjoy a workout so much more when I’m fasted, I just feel more energized.
Oh, and fasting has helped keep me regular..
Unfortunately not my dysautonomia nor autoimmune disease. Neither IF nor EF has made a dent in those. I suspect the physiological stress from the last 7 day fast may even have exacerbated the autoimmune stuff.
I’ve heard of EF doing wonders for the subset of folks whose autoimmune issues are gut-related, like Crohn’s, but I’m not in that population.