Poll: Do your symptoms improve when you fast for 1-2 days?

I purposely picked 1-2 days as a sweet spot educated guess. Too little time fasting might not be enough time to see symptoms improve, too much time fasting might cause ME symptoms to get worse.

 

I know this is not what you're asking, but, not eating after 6 p.m helps me feel less sluggish the next day. I'm not doing a 'fast' per se, but not eating for 16-17 hours takes the stress off my digestive energy.

 

Have you tried longer fasting and compared?

 

No.

 

Not sure about fasting. When I am at my sickest I get very weak with nausea and cannot eat. I start to improve a few days later with the help of a little lemonade which I only take sips of.

It seems my own body puts me into a fast when this sick which might help for a little while, a day or two, but any longer than this makes me feel even worse, more weak and sick. So, adding the lemonade on day two helps. I don't always have lemonade in the house so usually day two when I start taking.

 

I regularly do 20 hour fasts and in the past have done twice weekly 36 hour fasts for weeks on end. I also tried a few longer fasts.

Since starting keto style eating in April I haven’t done fasts above 20 hours.

I find if I want to do any activity, I do much better not eating until after the activity.

The most active thing I do is Agility with my dog. I don’t run, but the concentration and the little bit of adrenalin can leave me a bit wobbly on finishing (I have a bucket chair at the finish) That wobbliness is much reduced since combining keto eating with on-the-day fasting. I had thought I might have to give this all up (again) in March this year, but keto, combined with fasting til after I’ve competed has allowed me to continue with what I love.

This is an competition round from the weekend past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipfWCw9Oq4Q

PS This lovely judge complimented my Finn, by telling me I had a “remote control dog”. I was so proud - most people run to every single obstacle with their dogs, so we are a bit different.

PPS I have been quite ill with ME in the past - for 3 years I walked no further than the bathroom and back daily. The big step up I had was after taking an anti-retro viral drug for a year. The fasting and keto is just fine tuning. They did not produce such a big improvement as the drug.

 

My experience so far is that up to 36 hrs fasting can really help. I routinely do this when I know I’ve overdone it for a while, as it seems to be the most efficient form of rest (while staying in bed, of course). Like @Rosie this will also happen spontaneously when I’m really ill.

More than 36-48 hrs however appears to be too much. My body will start signaling that it is not happy, and I have several times reactivated viruses in this way, ending up being really sick for a week or two instead of feeling better. The body needs glucose to fight viruses if I remember correctly, so I guess that makes sense.

I used to do 5-10 day fasts without any issues and feeling good during them (except for what you expect, like headaches), so I know the feeling I get now is not just the body being depleted of glucose, etc., but telling me something is not ok.

ETA: I also restrict my eating window every day, like others I feel able to do more in the morning when I haven’t eaten and will make sure that all appointments that I have to leave the house for are before meals

 

I'm not sure how common (or relevant) this is, but, in the first couple of months following onset, I lost my appetite and a lot of weight. Part of it may have just been a reaction to feeling ill, but I suspect it also had to do with the fact that I suddenly got odd reactions to eating most things. Pretty much anything that contained sugar (even bread) sent my pulse over 100 within minutes. I wonder how I could have even digested food quickly enough to produce a reaction that fast.

Another "out there" possibility for loss of appetite might be that somehow the body knows that eating is fueling the disease, and the body tries to fight the illness by killing your appetite. Of course, that strategy can only work so long.

 

Like you @Forbin I lost a load of weight (28lbs) in the first months after ME onset. I just felt nauseous a lot of the time, and had no appetite. As ME became established so my appetite returned and I gradually regained some of those pounds. However when I took the ARV drug in 2016 I regained all the weight, and returned to my initial weight (slightly over weight ).

I'm currently getting myself gradually down to a better weight with Keto eating & some intermittent fasting, and have dropped about 10lbs from my highest weight. I'm now just a couple of pounds above a healthy BMI. So I hope to lose a little more, but not too much. (Family did not like it when my BMI was 22! LOL)

 

@Forbin and @Keela Too wow my symptoms where the same. I didn’t have constant nausea although intermittently I did. Though a strong and immediate symptom after getting ME is that my appetite completely disappeared for 5 months or so. I also lost weight but I was already thin before so my body fought to not lose anymore.

For me feeling sick and the intermittent nausea were not the cause of the appetite loss, it was a distinct symptom caused by ME. Same as you as the ME established itself I slowly got my appetite back.

 

I lost a lot weight at my severe onset also. I also couldn't make up that weight that I lost until I got to menopause. (14 years from severe ME onset to menopause).

Something I noticed during those years until now regarding my weight was every time I gained weight near the 60kg mark I would get PEM and lose the weight I had gained. So I was very sensitive to putting on weight, it would cause PEM for me. I couldn't take that extra weight because it was triggering PEM.

Since menopause I have adjusted to being over 60kg but have had some very rough years and other health problems have surfaced.

 

I'm not interested in fasting for myself but this recent article may be of interest to those that are:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/898953_4