Public poll: For those who have tried a 5+2 (or other intermittent fasting) diet do you think it helped your ME?

** Please note that this poll and thread are public and so viewable by non-members **

As per the title of the thread, please vote if you have tried an intermittent fasting diet. In order to keep the poll simple, if you think it had a positive or negative effect then please comment on which symptom(s) you think it impacted.

 

i've never tried but am most interested to see the result as i've considered it but was dubious about the effect it might have on my ME so interested in others' experiences

 

I used the 16:8 diet (only eat for an 8 hour period in each day). It helped me lose weight from an unhealthy starting point (BMI: 30) but made no significant difference to my ME even though my BMI has been around 20 for a number of years now. I was never overweight in my life before my ME became severe so knew that the severity of my ME was nothing to do with my weight.

 

I still do intermittent fasting, I fast once or twice a week anywhere up to 24 hours, some days its doable and others I cut it short if its making me feel too unwell. The primary reason I do it is to reduce bloating and improve IBS symptoms, I don't think it impacts anything else, if anything I hate those days as I have less energy and feel more fatigued. If I don't do them then it gets pretty uncomfortable however and its proved a necessary step of maintaining my gut function. So its positive and negative, but it has no impact on the core PEM.

 

I technically do that, though not on purpose. Morning coffee aside, I eat my first meal at 12:00 and the last one a small snack around 20:00.

For many years. Can't say it helped anything. Gut issues have been bad for a long time and no improvement there. Only antihistamines seem to help much.