Intermittent fasting has been popular for quite a few years now. Every so often I work with a woman who is desperate to lose weight and wants to give it a go.

I normally advise against it.

When it first came to my attention, I looked for more information. In one of the podcasts I listen to (I think it was “Ben Coomber Radio” with James Monk), both guys agree that intermittent fasting doesn’t work for women due to the complexity of our hormones. According to these experts intermittent fasting would lead to more hormonal imbalances in women. Therefore, I have never tried it myself or recommended to any of my clients until…

Last year, after having Freya, I was desperate to lose weight. I am a sucker for bio hacks and healthy approaches to nutrition, so when one of my favourite experts in nutritional science published a new book, I was on it. I dived into it without any reservations. As the book was based on the latest research (It was almost 8 years between when the podcast was recorded and the book published), claiming all different benefits of intermittent fasting, I really wanted to give it a go.

Benefits of intermittent fasting according to the book I read were:

Improved metabolic function

Improved brain health
Reduced disease risk, aging process slowed down

Sounds great, right. I hoped that we know more now about the effect of intermittent fasting on women and that we would experience same benefits as men do.

I was fasting for 13-14 hours, started my day with one or two cups of coffee (as recommended in the book to boost metabolism) and haven’t had anything to eat until 10-11am.

The results were great at first as indeed, I lost some weight. It was June last year.

The problem was that every day between 11am and 12pm I experienced a massive energy crash.

I always eat healthy and my nutrition wasn’t the reason why I crushed.

More than in the first months after giving birth. I didn’t pay too much attention to it at first as everyone knows that mums are tired. But this felt different. I was tired but could not sleep. I felt restless, fatigued. Two months later I experienced the biggest physical and mental crash so far. I was extremely stressed, tired and restless, wired, anxious, short tempered and really worried.

At first I though that it was only tiredness. I did so much and didn’t sleep enough. I experienced it before (first when I was in a toxic relationship, secondly when Dave had post-surgery complications and third time when I overtrained). We have no family here and when Dave got back to work (working 12h a day) I needed to do everything on my own. Constantly on the clock (as I was limited with Freya’s nap time) I was stressed all the time. Lack of sleep and rest was an important factor here as well. Fortunately, my mum came over a couple of weeks later and helped me for two weeks. I finally managed to get some rest.

It was the first step to recovery, to reclaiming my energy.

At the same time I started looking for more resources about post pregnancy recovery and female hormones. This is extremely fascinating and so different from what we read in media or learn in any PT courses.

Female body is so unique and so powerful.

Most of modern diets, health approaches and fitness programs are based on male hormones and therefore not only don’t work for women but wreak havoc on our hormonal health, while still being promoted to women. It turns out that intermittent fasting really doesn’t work for women in their reproductive years.

Alisa Vitti, author of the book “Women Code” explains that intermittent fasting can disrupt estrogen balance and throw a wrench in all these essential physiological processes. New mums have low estrogen levels for as long as they breastfeed. Adding intermittent fasting to this equation may result in even more chaos.

Here is how estrogen imbalance may show up:

Low energy
Poor glucose control
Weight gain
Impaired cognitive function
Decreased bone density
Poor muscle tone
Reduced skin and hair health
Poorer cardiovascular health
Infertility

A disruption in one hormone in the body can trigger other hormone imbalances. Intermittent fasting may also imbalance cortisol, the stress hormone, and thyroid hormone.

When cortisol is imbalanced, symptoms include:

Anxiety
Low energy
Insomnia
Feeling wired-but-tired
Sugar cravings

When thyroid hormones are imbalanced, symptoms include:

Weight gain
Brain fog
Anxiety
Depression
Dry skin
Dry hair
Irregular periods
Trouble regulating body temperature

So while intermittent fasting may have some benefits, this cascade of negative health effects for women may outweigh any benefit.[1]

What I finally realised, over one year after having a baby, is that I didn’t prepare myself for the fourth trimester of my pregnancy at all. I focused on pregnancy itself and the birth. I read some basic information about the postpartum time, but I didn’t pay enough attention to what I will need after the little one is with us. I knew how to exercise to rehab my abdominal muscles, but I had no idea what hormonal challenges I will face.

I didn’t know what birth trauma was and how to deal with it.

I didn’t know how much help I will need and how difficult it actually is to accept my new body.

I didn’t know what a mental and physical struggle it will be to lose baby weight.

I didn’t know enough about all the hormonal changes that will happen in my body postpartum.

Intermittent fasting was a bad idea, but if I didn’t try it, I would not learn what I have learned afterwards.

As I am now trying to prepare my body for the second pregnancy (I suffered two miscarriages before we had Freya and I will be 41 in July) I am now focused on balancing my hormones. I stopped breastfeeding about 3 weeks ago (OMG, it was so hard and if I was younger or didn’t have two miscarriages before I would keep on going for as long as Freya wanted it) and I am extremely focused on guarding my energy. There are better and worse days but overall I think I’m doing great. I’m learning to listen to my body more often and be kind to myself. Here is what I focus on these days to keep my energy up and restore my hormonal balance.

No more intermittent fasting
I eat breakfast no later than 90 min after waking up (as Dave cooks it is more like 30-45 min after waking up). We have eggs, avocado and homemade bread. I top it up with different salat leaves. It gives me a long-lasting energy and no cravings.
No drinking coffee before breakfast
I start my day with a pint of water. I often have a second one before breakfast. My first and only coffee is about 30-60 minutes after my breakfast. Two months ago I had about 3 cups of coffee a day. Last month I dropped it to one cup and this week I limited it to half a cup. As caffeine may interfere with fertility, I decided to quit it completely this weekend. I am absolutely committed to getting my body ready for the second pregnancy.
Nutrition and exercise in sync with menstrual cycle
After struggling so much with getting back to my pre-pregnancy fitness routine I needed to take a step back and rethink my approach. I train less, I focus on abdominal strength, mobility and stretch to stay pain-free. I work on releasing tension from my body as that helps keeping my mind more relaxed (have you heard about the body-mind connection? It works both ways). I have now started eating foods to support different phases of my menstrual cycle.[2] It is fun but a bit too early to tell you how it worked for me. I’ll tell you more in about 12 weeks’ time.

Intermittent fasting may be the latest “proven” way to lose weight and improve overall health, but it hardly ever works for women in their reproductive years. Even though I lost some weight when I tried it, I ended up crashing and burning (=messed up my hormones).

Intermittent fasting, together with drinking coffee on an empty stomach, having no one to help me with daily responsibilities and support me in my postnatal recovery (post 36 hours in labour and an emergency c-section) exhausted my adrenal glands and lead to fatigue. I would not recommend it to any new mum until you fully recover, your hormones are balanced, and you know how to do it to make it work for you as a female (according to Alisa Vitti there is a time and a way to make it work but I don’t know if I ever try it again).

[1] https://www.floliving.com/intermittent-fasting/

[2] Check out “Woman code” book by Alisa Vitti, HHC for more details

#30: Why intermittent fasting doesn't work for new mums