A Curious Fasting Tale | Intermittent Fasting Success

Mine is not your usual “success” story.

My first year of fasting came at the age of 52, after a lifetime of dull-but-not-newsworthy poor health. My skin was inflamed, my immunity very low, I would catch every virus going round, and I would easily spend more time sick or recovering than well in any given year. In my forties, I spent six months in bed with chronic fatigue, and had learned through trial and error what foods would make me feel sick, and what foods would trigger inflammation and joint pain in my system.

Stats

Starting weight: 264lbs/120kgs
Goal weight: 181lbs/82kgs
Current weight: 227lbs/103kgs
Highest weight: 264lbs/120kgs
Height: 5’6/168cm

No more diets.

Any time I followed a restrictive “diet”, I would lose weight (but not feel that much healthier) …until I couldn’t sustain it any more. Then, I would regain the weight I had lost, plus gain some more. In my thirties, I decided that this was the road to crazy, so I elected to never go on a diet again, but use food to support the other healing that I was doing. This had varying results, but my body found a weight that it settled on, (120kg/264lb) and that, it seemed, was going to be that, for the next decade. Except that I was tired all of the time, so much so that I just wasn’t able to live a normal life. I would have to sleep right up till any event, (including my teaching work) and then rest for days afterwards. I couldn’t eat out, as my food choices had become very restricted (no wheat, sugar, dairy, potatoes, tomatoes…) And I was frustrated, as my brain was foggy and my creativity had sunk into nothingness, which is not a good place for a writer and musician to be.

Do I risk it?

During the early months of 2020, I had heard several people I admire speak about IF, and how they had managed to relieve back issues, weight concerns and blood sugar problems using time-restricted eating. A friend recommended Jason Fung’s book The Obesity Code, which I bought… and “stored” on the floor of my studio for three months. I think I thought “this is only going to trigger another weight gain”, or “just another unsustainable diet”. It was only as the year came to a close that I dug it out from the pile of “things to do” and read it.

The very beginning.

Five days before Christmas I started IF, by choosing to not eat breakfast until late morning. That first day, I ate at about 11am, and after dinner, I chose to drink black tea and not eat anything else. Christmas Eve, I found myself making beds and vacuuming, and feeling really buoyant and clear headed. I believed that it would all disappear after Christmas, as the Christmas food any other year usually made me feel bloated and sick. But it didn’t! I continued to feel good right through January, and by late January I had lost 4kg/8.8lb, on a basic 16:8 eating pattern. I ate pretty much what I had eaten previously, but now I found I could include a number of foods (in moderation) that used to be off limits for me.

I could see that IF was having an effect, and, keen for quicker results, I tightened my window and decided to delay any alcohol until I was closer to healthy (and closer to my weight loss goal).

Find a cheerleader who can help you maintain perspective when things get wobbly.

What’s in a goal?

In February I started regularly weighing and taking measurements. I set a weight loss goal of the weight I was when I was first married, at 82kg/181lb. I remember feeling at that weight, that I was enormous and unwieldy (I look at our wedding photos now and wonder how I could have been so awful towards myself. I was so delighted about marrying my darling partner, but deeply ashamed that I could not “control” my physical body.) Anyway, 82kg was the weight loss goal I had set. In BMI terms, I would still be considered “Obese”, but I figured it was a SMART goal (Specific – 82kg, Measurable – by regular weighing, Achievable – not unrealistic, I thought, Relevant – would give me health and size benefits, and Time-Bound – I gave myself two years). Oh boy, was I in for a (not good) surprise!

A Complication.

One of the things I learned in my 49th year was that I had been carrying a Borrelia and Babesia infection for (probably) most of my life. This gave me an explanation for ALL the vague symptoms, the fatigue, the rashes, the brain fog, the odd food sensitivities, the tinnitus, and the muscle and joint pains. A health care provider helped me send my blood to the US for testing, and upon confirmation, I worked through an exhaustive (and exhausting) series of her treatment protocols designed to manage and eliminate as much of the infection as possible. But these infections are sneaky and can lurk in the system for years. In the US, they form part of what is known as Lyme disease. In Australia, Lyme disease is not officially recognised at all.

Find what brings you joy and pursue that as hard as you can. Tomorrow is not given.

The side effects of weight loss.

So, why am I telling you this? Because as I started to see success, I started to regularly experience symptoms like those I had when following the treatment protocols for Lyme disease. I would have strange rashes for several days. I had unexplained joint pains that took days to resolve. I would have bouts of extreme fatigue, or fogginess that affected my reflexes and made me nervous about driving. So, even as my skin was becoming clearer and my body was getting smaller, I was still having days and times when I felt dreadful. The fasting was enabling my immune system to seek out and destroy even more of the Borrelia/Babesia biofilms, which resulted in these very typical reactions. I was in several Facebook groups, and would read about the clear-headed-ness, and the increased energy, and just keep saying to myself “it’s coming soon, it’s coming soon.” And yes, I would have the odd day where I felt clear and bright, but only as the next wave of reactions was coming. If it hadn’t been for my continued weight loss, and the drop in the number of actual colds I was catching, I think I would have dropped the whole protocol.

My first year’s results.

So, by Christmas 2021, I had lost 22kg/48.5lb. I was delighted to be below the 100kg mark, and (I thought) on my way to the “Onederland” that the US fasters speak of. I was so chuffed, I happily told my story to Graeme Currie of The Fasting Highway. I booked an interview with Gin Stephens, and started drafting a memoir of my first year of fasting.

And then, I caught it. THE virus.

Probably.

I had ALL of the symptoms but never succeeded in getting a positive test. And I got it bad. I slept all day, ate very little, lived on pain relief, and ran hot and cold fevers. About a fortnight after I started to improve, I ended up in ER with terrifying chest pains, and a recommendation to get a stress echo done. But I was too exhausted to even drive the 45km to the nearest testing unit, let alone undertake the test. And then, another bout of a similar virus (again with no positive result) knocked out whatever reserves I had. By the time I started weighing again, I had post-viral exhaustion, muscle weakness which stopped me even crossing the road, extreme joint and muscle pains (which required regular pain relief to help me sleep), and I was up 5kg/11lb.

P.S. I will be on Gin Stephen’s Intermittent Fasting Stories in late October 2022.

Please don’t think this is a horror story.

It could have been. If I had contracted this virus pre-IF, I truly don’t think my body could have handled it. With the help of the healing elements of intermittent fasting, my body has had a much better chance of becoming stronger and healthier than without.

As it stands, I have regained some stamina, my joint and muscle pain has all but gone, and I am able to get around and do my daily routine without needing more than an afternoon nap (March-May this year, I spent more time sleeping than anything else.) I recently got to the heart stress test, and was told my results were comparable to a thirty year old’s.

But what about the weight?

I still weigh over 100kg. But my body is maintaining that weight, and has done since February. I choose to believe that it still has healing to do, before it gets around to weight loss. I extend myself when I can, by doing gentle exercise and living my life, and consciously resting more than I ever did before. As my acupuncturist tells me, I “only spend the interest”, as I make these small gains in energy. And I fast, switching up my routine from 19:5, to 22:2 some days, and doing ADF when I can, without feeling guilty when I can’t.

I have come such a long way since the beginning of the year. It’s not dramatic in terms of my size, but in terms of my life and capacity to live, it’s massive.

I’m here to say, please keep tweaking your IF protocol. Fast, because it’s giving your body the autophagy it needs to heal all kinds of things, especially if you have on-going health challenges. And you may not see it in your size or your weight, but you will notice it in other ways. So stick with it.

With love,
Amanda.