As a result of the article, I started to second-guess myself. I am one of those women who loves intermittent fasting. I feel very good in a fasted state. I can consistently lose weight. My skin improves, everything improves. My menstrual cycle becomes much more normal. But, I read the article, and doubt started to creep in. What if all the studies she mentions in the post could be applied to me? What if I was burning out my adrenals, and ruining my metabolism? What if I was doing serious damage to my hormonal regulation?
This fear was reinforced by the fact that my doctor at the time was very much against fasting. She wanted me to try a straight ketogenic approach to diet, exercise some, (not too much), and take Phentermine, an appetite suppressant. Unfortunately, I listened to them, I worked really hard to limit my calories, worked with my doctor to come up with good ketogenic macros, and consistently ate three meals a day. I lost about 20 pounds over about 2 years. I didn't feel very good much of the time. I was encouraged to increase my Phentermine from 1/2 tablet to 1 whole tablet, because I wasn't losing weight consistently. I would lose 5 pounds and then plateau for 3 months, then I would experiment with my macros and add more fat into my diet and lose a couple more pounds, then plateau again. After a while I became very discouraged.
I started asking myself questions. Why was I taking an appetite suppressant when eating too much was obviously not my problem? If a ketogenic diet was supposed to suppress appetite, why did I need an additional drug that did the same thing? In the middle of all this questioning, I went on vacation to Wales for two weeks. On the trip over, I was faced with absolutely no healthy food choices in the airports or on the plane. I decided to fast instead of eating badly, and stuck as closely as possible to my ketogenic diet while over there. I also tried to fast each day so that my eating window was more easy to control. I wasn't perfect, after all, I was on vacation, but when I got back I began the diet and drug plan with renewed enthusiasm. But the questions remained, and now I had a new one: Why was it that when I did fast, I felt less hungry and had a great sense of personal well being? As opposed to feeling lethargic and weird most of the time?
I started to wonder if maybe Stephanie Ruper and Diane Schwartzbein were right and that women really shouldn't be following a low-carbohydrate diet? So, I did some reading and decided to try a Whole30 without worrying about the carbs. My previous doctor had just retired, and my new doctor was Paleo-friendly, so in the four weeks before I met with him for the first time, I decided to try out the Whole30 and just eat ad libitum as they suggest. It was delicious. I gained 12 pounds.
When I met with my new doctor, he suggested two things: that I lower my carb intake, and that I read Jason Fung's blog. He thought I might be interested in what Dr. Fung was doing, and I was. Jason Fung is a Canadian nephrologist who is using a fasting protocol to help his diabetic patients lose weight and get off their medication. He has a program called Intensive Dietary Management, which utilizes fasting as a tool for weight loss in combination with a Low Carb High Fat diet (LCHF). Basically, the fasting forces your body into ketosis, and the diet keeps you there. Weekly periods of fasting help with this, so that even for people who have cheat days, overall the protocol works wonderfully.
After several weeks of Intermittent Fasting on my own schedule, (Mondays and Wednesdays) and experimenting with daily fasting I met with my doctor the week before last and asked him to give me the information I need to join Dr. Fung's Long Distance IDM program. I have a 5 hour class that I will take October 23rd, and I will be starting off with a 7 day fast. The most I have ever managed is a 3 day fast, so I find it slightly frightening, but also exciting and challenging. M doesn't think I can do it, but I am sure I can. I am going to be home for the first four days. They say that the first three days are the hardest, but then ketosis will kick in and your appetite will be much more manageable. I did a three day fast a few weeks ago, and after about 56 hours, I felt good, like I could have kept going...but ended my fast with a family dinner thing.
So this is my new n=1 experiment. Will fasting help me get into ketosis and help me burn fat? I think it will.
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