Eating every other day and feeling great

LuckyLindy,
I've read about calorie restriction and the health benefits etc, but what I don't understand is if you had such good results from FT and you were going 12-20 times a day before starting IF, why you didn't just do another few FTs and be done with it instead of trying to find another way of managing your colitis? You mentioned you were too "lazy" to do another FT? Really? Even though it worked so well for you and you were so poorly off?

A fasting of a week as also been recommended by my naturapath, liquids are admitted, but you have to be medicine free, he thinks it is a kind of reset of your body. I never have had up to now the courage to stop of the medicines now, especially since Remicade is working and I am blood and pain free..but thanks for sharing..I have been considering fasting for months now..

killcolitis said...
LuckyLindy,
I've read about calorie restriction and the health benefits etc, but what I don't understand is if you had such good results from FT and you were going 12-20 times a day before starting IF, why you didn't just do another few FTs and be done with it instead of trying to find another way of managing your colitis? You mentioned you were too "lazy" to do another FT? Really? Even though it worked so well for you and you were so poorly off?

That's what my wife keeps asking too! I honestly don't have a great reason ... although it's partly because I want to "to do it right" when I do it again. Meaning eating right, having daily implants for a week, resting on my side for a couple hours after each implant, etc. The fecal transplant was easy, but took about 4 hours from start to finish the last time for 1 implant. I'd really need a week vacation from work to "do it right" this time. When I found intermittent fasting and realized it had the same benefits as caloric restriction (including reduced inflammation), I figured I'd give it a try ... if nothing else I'd get a lot of side benefits.

Theagremling said...
A fasting of a week as also been recommended by my naturapath, liquids are admitted, but you have to be medicine free, he thinks it is a kind of reset of your body. I never have had up to now the courage to stop of the medicines now, especially since Remicade is working and I am blood and pain free..but thanks for sharing..I have been considering fasting for months now..

I don't think a single week long fast is going to help you for a long period of time, at least it did not for me. I tried a week long 'juice fast', and a few shorter water-only fast. During the fast, I felt great, but within a couple days the symptoms came back. While I felt good mentally, physically the fast drained me (I'm pretty active). However, that was my initial clue that eating every other day might be beneficial - it seemed like I received 1-2 days of reprieve after the fast. Reading the research on intermittent fasting (24 hours eating, 24 hours fasting) got me interested enough to give it a try.

However, if you feel good and Remicade is working, stay with it by all means.

baconeggsyum said...
WE all eat WAY to much : I think the fasting idea is great, I will likely try it if I get out of remission as I am positive my drug crazed GI will prescribe remicade next....

Take Note --

Herschel Walker (48 yrs old)
- he still performs 2,500 sit-ups and 1,500 push ups every morning, the same routine the former Heisman Trophy winner has been doing since high school.
- “He eats one meal a day, at night,” he said of Walker’s meal plan. “He has salad, soup, maybe chicken soup, and bread, and he’s not afraid to put butter on it. He eats no meat and no fish.”
- “It’s just what my body has gotten used to,” Walker said. “I just started eating this way in college. I was going to class. I was a very good student, ran track and played football. I was always doing something so it didn’t have time to eat until the evening.”

Eating less makes us age slower ... Herschel Walker is a GREAT example. How many 48 year olds look like this (pic is from past year)?

VIEW IMAGE

kops2da said...
He must eat one BIG meal to sustain his weight - enough calories in one meal. Oh well, he does look good. Just makes me suspicious!
ElaineNY

True, but at the same time your metabolism decreases pretty significantly when you only eat one meal per day ... so he likely eats far fewer calories than other active 48 year olds.

LuckyLindy said...

Intermittent Fasting (eating every other day) - easy, works great
Fecal Transplant - a little gross, but worked for over 3 months. Haven't tried again
Ultra low-carb diet (<10g per day) - very hard to maintain, impossible to eat healthy, but worked

I dont know I had a bad flare and lost a third of my body weight because I was not eating anything and it did not help.

However if I flare at this new job I will certainly try this, right now spinach is working great but I am supposed to avoid it while on blood thinners so I had the dosage increased.

Can you elaborate on the Fecal Transplant ? It only worked for 3 months ??? Who was the donor, had they ever taken antibiotics, how many FT's did you do ? Were you completely in remission is also a good question to ask.

Thanks

Lucky Lindy

Thanks for introducing this idea. I spent the last 7 days trying it out and believe it has real positive potential for UC'ers.
I didn't feel up to a whole day without food so after reading up on it I decided I'd try the 19/5 timing. That is no food for 19 hours and eat in a 5 hour window. I chose to skip breakfast and lunch and eat in the afternoon/dinner.

It is easier than I thought, except that the Sunday I started was the Daylight Savings time change and I spent all day confused about what time I should start eating.

Sunday went very well anyway and I ate from 3pm to 8 pm. I always get hungry around teatime so that was perfect. Skipping breakfast and lunch was pretty easy as long as I stayed out of the kitchen.

Monday is my tennis day and I wondered how I'd do with no breakfast. The answer is:GREAT. My stomach and colon were so peaceful and my energy level was fantastic. I won all my matches, not an everyday event for me. And I was not fatigued afterwards. just made sure I had lots of fluids all day long.

The rest of the week went just as well. Since I'm not looking to lose weight I tinkered a bit with fluid intake and along with lots of water (I live in South Florida) I allowed chicken stock, honey in my tea plus coconut milk instead of dairy. IOW I allowed any fluid and all calories, just nothing solid.

I weighed myself yesterday and I'm one half pound less but that is probably not statistically significant. My weight goes up and down 2-3 pounds on any given day. lol.

Conclusion: What I like about intermittent fasting is that it seems to give my colon a nice rest. Instead of working all day/night long it works only 1/3 the time and is much more peaceful. Kind of like before-UC.
I think IF (intermittent fasting or feasting some people call it) could be used in conjunction with diet modification (I am sticking with SCD) to help heal the colon faster.
IF has not caused me ANY side effects (fatigue, low energy or brain power) in fact the opposite.
If someone had told me about IF years ago I would have said "no thanks" cause I love my food. This last year's SCD diet mod. has taught me the discipline needed to reach remission.

I was 95% better using SCDiet and looking for the last piece of the puzzle. For me "intermittent fasting" is the last 5%.
Thanks again for the idea. This forum is awesome, with great people finding new ways since medical science doesn't work well for many of us.

this idea has me so intrigued.. I asked my husband about it, & he's not interested in trying it! For any of the other health benefits, nothing to do with IBD. Being a mom, & cooking for a family might make it tricky, but it is doable. Thing is, I've been thinking- say you do the 19/5 plan- what's the difference if you take all the food you'd eat during your 5 hour span, & eat it spaced out thruout the day? I mean, I eat dinner around 5:30, then don't eat again 'til around 9:30 the next morning. So there's a good 15+ hours of no food. I do have a very large coffee though, starting around 5:45am. I'm just trying to see where the actual benefit comes from- a lowered caloric intake in general, or actually not eating for xxx amount of hours. Thinking about how I eat, & when, it seems as if I already have the amount of calories one would get in a 19/5 plan. Does this make sense? I'm just wondering if really, all we need to do is lower our total calorie intake overall. I do think most people, especially Americans, eat far too much. And far too much of what we shouldn't eat too, fast food, fried foods, etc. Lots of saturated fats, not nearly enough vegetable proteins. Anyway, keep us posted- if I can figure out how to get thru a workday & homelife without eating, I may join you!

Eva Lou
I think you are missing the point by thinking about calories. The 19/5 plan is about letting your colon take a rest for the 19 hours. It's not about anything else IMO when it comes to UC.

Lowering calorie intake is a different issue altogether. I'm looking for colon healing not weight loss. Perhaps you want to do both.
If you spread your food intake over the whole day you aren't doing IF (intermittent fasting) you're just dieting.

The 19 or 24 hour fast is the important part, not the calories.

Hi Eva Lou
I am not qualified to answer your questions. I've only been doing IF for a week and LL stated that there is less data for the 19/5 than his 24 IF. I just chose 19/5 because it suits my schedule and so far I have noticed a difference in BM's (less #) and peaceful colon.

I am definitely eating less food because I simply can't eat that much in the 5 hour window. And my colon has less work to perform.
I'm not pigging out in the 5 hours, it's really a snack, then dinner, then a sweet to finish. That fills me up. It's not a full day's meals crammed into 5 hours, more like a meal and a half. You'll have to try it to see how it feels.

Don't make your husband do it lol, if he's like mine it's got to be his idea or forget it

Eating less meals/fasting will slow down a metabolism and can cause people to gain weight. Have you tried maybe taking a multi and some kind of healthy drink. Maybe a protein shake ?

LuckyLindy said...
@Dsm4life - that's only true if you eat the exact same # of calories. Most people find that they eat somewhat less when on an intermittent fast, and don't gain weight (I gained weight myself at first, but was happy to do so). Your statement is why I.F. is not a very good weight loss tool though ...

That is incorrect.

Lets say the body needs 2000 calories to survive. The body will try and do anything it can to obtain this. Now if you are eating 2000 calories spread out through out the day the body is happy. The body takes in the food you eat and burns it for all your daily activity's. It has all the carbs/fats/proteins its needs (if your eating a healthy diet) so it doesn't store any extra fat. Now lets say you deprive the body for 24 hours, what happens to most people ? The body will go into a state known as "starvation mode." This shocks the body into thinking it could possibly die. I know it might seem drastic but your body needs food and its not getting any. Now will we die ? Not at first. The reason is because our body has stored muscle and fat that it knows if it needs to it can survive off of. It's sort of a food reserve. Now even though you aren't eating you still have energy to do things but where do you think this energy is coming from? Your stored muscle and fat. So now your body is taking energy from your stored fat just to get through the day. Your 24 hr fast is over and now its time to eat. So now you eat a 400 calorie meal. What happens? well now in starvation mode your body says to itself "I need to store as much of this food as i possible because i have been dipping into my reserve." Remember your body will do anything it needs to survive. Most people don't realize it but the body will eat up all its muscle if there is no fat to survive. So remember when i said at the beginning that your body was happy and really had no need to store extra fat well your body is no longer happy. Its going to store more fat than it would have normally because it will anticipate you starving it again. So even though you might still only eat 2000 calories after your fast, your body is going to store more of that than it normally would have.


Starvation mode

Starvation mode is a state in which the body is responding to prolonged periods of low caloric intake levels. During short periods of caloric abstinence, the human body will burn primarily free fatty acids from body fat stores. After prolonged periods of starvation the body has depleted its body fat and begins to burn lean tissue and muscle as a fuel source.
Ordinarily, the body responds to reduced caloric intake by burning fat reserves first, and only consumes muscle and other tissues when those reserves are exhausted. Specifically, the body burns fat after first exhausting the contents of the digestive tract along with glycogen reserves stored in muscle and liver cells. After prolonged periods of starvation, the body will utilize the proteins within muscle tissue as a fuel source. People who practice fasting on a regular basis, such as those adhering to caloric restricted diets, can prime their bodies to abstain from food without burning lean tissue.. Resistance training (such as weight lifting) can also prevent the loss of muscle mass while a person is caloric restricted.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation_mode

Can the body be trained to adapt over time to this , yes but most people aren't consistent enough to be able to do this.