Is Fasting Good For The Gut?Is fasting good for your gut? Hi all, Linsy here! Do you have any experience with fasting, and/or have you found it helpful in your own personal healing journey? Some people swear by it, and others it just doesn’t work for them. And that’s okay!

Everybody is different, which is why we are always advising to lean into your own body wisdom and listen to your gut – as your body knows what it needs.

Well, today I’d like to share with you my experience with fasting – but first, let’s take a peek at some of its potential benefits.

Is Fasting Good For Your Gut?

While it’s important to be mindful of what we eat (or what we don’t), it’s actually also extremely important to be mindful of when we eat. Why? Because our body’s internal clock changes throughout the day, and this affects how we digest things at various times of the day.

In this teleseminar with Jini and Dr. Paul Goldberg, Dr. Goldberg mentions that for many of his patients, not eating as much food actually increased their health! With those patients, he found that decreasing food intake rather than increasing made a huge difference.

Similar to when Jini recommends an elemental diet to give the GI time to rest, fasting can provide bowel rest and give the body time to heal.

This article explains the effects of fasting on the gut:

Intermittent fasting can also change the makeup of your microbiome. Your gut bacteria are very responsive to the presence and absence of food,” explains Devkota. “When you remove food, the microbiome shifts in composition.” There’s a rapid expansion of a particular bacteria (Akkermansia muciniphila) that is associated with positive health markers, like decreased intestinal inflammation and a healthier gut barrier.

Animal studies show that the microbiome has its own circadian rhythm and is constantly cycling between different populations, explains Amir Zarrinpar, MD, Ph.D., an assistant professor of gastroenterology at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine who studies the gut microbiome.

He hypothesizes that in humans when you’re asleep and not eating, one set of bacteria may thrive. When you wake up and start to eat, others may bloom and take over. The cycle repeats every 24 hours but can get thrown off when you eat off-schedule or consume an unhealthy diet. Time-restricted feeding can reinforce and help reinstate those naturally occurring fluctuations, reports a paper co-authored by Dr. Zarrinpar and published in the journal Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism in 2016.

The shift in the composition is what we want!

I have also found that, for me, fasting has helped with healing wounds in the GI tract. This is because it allows a break of passing stool which can re-injure the wound. As you will read later on, fasts were hard for me at first – but the times I could tolerate them, it was so nice to give my tummy a break!

Longer fasts for many can often have a bigger impact on the gut to shift the microbiota. For example, doing a fast for two hours vs. 18 hours can make a really big difference. But always consult your healthcare professional before trying any fasting methods.

Types of Fasting

Did you know that there are different types of fasting? Being able to differentiate the different types can make a huge difference because extreme fasts and diets can be unhealthy or even dangerous. So, the key is to do it in a way that’s safe and nurturing to the body.

As explained in this article on Healthline, here are 5 of the most popular eating patterns for adding intermittent fasting to your diet:

  • Time-restricted eating: Involves fasting every day for 12 hours or longer and eating in the remaining hours. A popular example is the 16/8 method. It features a daily 16-hour fast and an 8-hour eating window wherein you can fit in 2, 3, or more meals.
  • The 5:2 diet: The 5:2 diet involves eating as you normally do 5 days of the week and restricting your calorie intake to 500–600 on the remaining 2 days.
  • Eat Stop Eat: Eat Stop Eat involves a 24-hour fast once or twice per week.
  • Alternate-day fasting: With alternate-day fasting, the goal is to fast every other day.
  • The Warrior Diet: The Warrior Diet was among the first popular diets to include a form of intermittent fasting. It involves eating small amounts of raw fruits and vegetables during the day and eating one large meal at night.

There are a lot of methods out there, however, so I encourage you to do your own research – don’t feel restricted to just these. This is just to give you an idea and get your wheels turning.

*Note: If you are still having flares and extreme GI distress, consult a doctor first before implementing any method of fasting. Although there are many benefits of fasting, for some it may be more beneficial to wait until they are stabilized and no longer losing weight from their IBD to try any method of fasting.

For others, they actually can gain weight with fasting and heal quicker – but again, it depends on the person, the body, and their place in their healing journey. For example, there was no way I could have done fasting while I was bleeding and experiencing extreme weight loss, my body was so depleted it couldn’t handle a full-on fast. It wasn’t until I healed quite a bit that I could experience and try different fasting types – and slowly work my way into it.

I personally think when you’re experiencing extreme symptoms (bleeding, weight loss, etc.) it’s not a great time to fast, but for others it can calm the body/GI – so consult a professional, choose the right time, and listen to your own needs!

My Experience Fasting + Tips

Personally, I could only handle fasts when I was not under stress. I had to make sure I had no work or events coming up until I got used to fasting.

I started fasting hour by hour, which is a longer transition period but an easy way to get the body used to doing it. This helped me ease into it in a way that was comfortable for me, and I wasn’t starving. You can start by taking one extra hour of not eating each day, then increase that schedule until you get to the fast period you want.

Here’s a personal story:

My body has always been OVER/hyperactive. This means when I was sick and trying to heal my IBD, I had a super-high metabolism. I was eating constantly and had chronic diarrhea. This made fasting almost impossible for me at first because I felt gut-wrenchingly starving all the time! So, when I tried to fast the hunger was exponential and intolerable – and I’d end up quitting the fast before it could do any good.

I believe a part of my extreme appetite was the overgrowth of pathogens and possible parasites which created that constant starvation sensation. It took a lot of work to calm everything down and normalize from both a physical and an emotional standpoint.

I had to do a lot of breathwork, tapping, and practice mindfulness so I would not fixate on food and my appetite. I made sure I felt safe, comforted, and well during the fasts, and that I was drinking lots of water.

At the same time, I didn’t push myself. If I got to a certain hour and I couldn’t stand not eating one more minute, I would eat! A trigger for me on my healing journey was often NOT eating. I would actually feel worse and get extreme cramping (like in the fetal position, on the ground cramps), so if I could even do a few hours of fasting it was a miracle – and I took it as a win!

And you know, sometimes going with the flow is helpful. There are days I am constantly feeling the need to eat, and others I barely eat at all and fast. Again, I lean into my body and its needs.

Avoid Things That Stimulate the Appetite

It’s important to listen to your body and be mindful of how it responds to certain stimuli. I came to figure out that certain teas and bone broths stimulated my appetite, so I would avoid these before and during fasting periods.

What you eat before, during, and after a fast matters! Based on science, proteins can make your tummy feel full, so you may want to make sure not to stuff yourself with carbs before a fast – even if it temporarily fills you up.

A nice pre-fast meal would be a good mixture of rice, fruit or vegetables, and protein according to this article. It shows some examples of what to eat before and how to break a fast.

Also, I encourage you to look at Jini’s recipes for new ideas while you think about fasting!

Pro tip: Since the correct style of fasting can shift the microbiome, make sure you are taking probiotics. That way, when it does shift, it’s going to shift in the right direction. Probiotics may increase appetite, though, so if you are fasting perhaps try taking your doses before your meal with intermittent fasting – for example, to alleviate any gas or bloating.

Now that I’ve shared with you some of my experiences, I’d love to hear from you all! Have you tried fasting? If so, what was your experience? Drop a comment below and share with me. 🙂