The FastDay Forum

I am as excited about this eating plan as the rest of the world, but you probably won't want to hear my experiences so far.
Week 1- excellent
Week2- after 1st fast and 1st feed day, developed the filthiest cold and chest infection I've had in years. I don't normally get colds. Googled "benefits of fasting with a cold" and found that restricting calories affects the body's ability to fight off infection. Obviously abandoned fasting.
Week 3: still ill- no fasting
Week 4- holiday in Lanzarote- careful eating, no fasting.
Week 5- excited to start again. Day after first fast and first feed day, developed gastroenteritis for 2 days. Neighbour said my face looks dreadfully thin! Great.

Realise I've kept the fact that I've been fasting prior to each illness from family and friends- feel they'd just say, " well what do you expect?"
Any reassurance/ advice much appreciated. I so much want to continue, and have never felt as good in a bikini as i did on the holiday, but seems strange that I keep getting ill when I'm normally so healthy. Help.

[Moogie]

Hi Sunflower & welcome!

How unfortunate that these bugs coincided with the fasting. I'm not sure there's necessarily any certainty that the fasting caused them. Don't we usually incubate a cold/bug for several days before showing symptoms? So if your symptoms turned up the day after a fast, the odds are you already had it before you started.

I would suggest trying again and seeing how it goes, these two could well be explained away but it if happens each week perhaps it's not for you (or maybe your body just needs a bit longer to adjust). I would wonder if different eating habits on holiday might have caused the tummy bug when you got back, on returning to your more normal food?

I know some of us occasionally have had tummy pains for a day after fasting, which usually seems to be a result of eating when not hungry (ie breakfast too early because we fancy it or think we need it, although the body didn't ask for anything) or trying to eat too much - a normal sized portion can often be too big immediately after a fast. I don't get the tummy pains anymore now I've learned to listen to what my body's asking for.

Thank you Moogie, that explains my terribly painful day after last Tuesdays fast. I know I ate too much! I will be more careful in future.

Hi Sunflower, after my fourth fast day I went down with a horrible stomach bug. In retrospect I knew I wasn't feeling well on my fast day, but I carried on with it. And then the following morning woke up at 4am with a tummy bug. It took me about a week to get over it, during which time I didn't fast (well apart from the day when I was ill). After that I bounced back.

I have also noticed that I can't eat anything too fatty on a day after a fast day as it results in a very rushed trip to the toilet
The first time it happened I had eaten Chorizo. And today it happened after I had hot roast pork roll with some of the crackling.
It takes a while to work out what your body is telling you, and at different times of the month it will want different things.

Sorry to hear you have been ill. Maybe bad luck. As since saturated in mid jan. I've not had any illness dispute having 2 school ae children that have had various days off for different bugs.

Perhaps a vitamin supplement until you get sorted?

Sorry that you have been unwell. I think that it is unlikely to be the 5:2 WOE that has caused your problems because otherwise we would have heard more about this from others on this forum. It's more likely to be just a case of really bad luck, I'm afraid! Don't let it put you off this WOE (Way Of Eating) it really does get better and it does work - for weight loss, at least!

[Moogie]

I do find that if I eat too much rich/fatty food (in my case things like a lot of cream with something or *loads* of chocolate, as I don't like the fat on meat so have never eaten much of that) I also sometimes have to dash to the loo, but I see this as my body's way of telling me that's more fat than it can process. I can still enjoy all those things but not to extreme excess - which I find to be a good thing as it gives me a reason to stop. I can now tell when my tummy says "that's enough, or I'm gonna blow!" and stop there!

I've been doing 5:2 for 7 months now and normally over the winter would have a horrible bout of flu or a terrible cold. I honestly can't remember a single bout of poorlyness since starting this way of life, aside from those couple of times I've vastly overdone it and my tummy has disagreed suddenly! In all fairness now I think about it, even before 5:2 there were times I overdid it to the point of having to dash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc

[carorees]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc

Exactly!

As Moogie said, I think we would have heard about this by now if it was a common feature of fasting - we have accumulated quite a lot of experience between the members now and this is the first mention of any observation of illness following a fast.

Just very bad luck is my guess.

[Tracieknits]

5:2 isn't even proper fasting. I really don't think that not eating for a sum total of 12 or 18 hours is going to decimate the body's immune system. My guess is it would take at least a couple of days to have that sort of impact.

I'm really sorry for your bad luck though.

Thanks so much, everyone, for responding so quickly, I really appreciate it. I'm sure you're right and I've just had two unlucky coincidences. Here's to next week! Have a great weekend everyone.

I'm the one that got coincidentally got ill during each of my first two weeks of starting the fast plan. Happy to report have completed a full week now, including two fasts, with nothing " getting" me- phew!
Like other people I seem to feel extra cold on fast days, but
isn't it just so nice when those scales show a down turn? And isn't it so nice that it's weekend and you can enjoy an Indian meal and a lovely roast dinner?

Apart from weight loss, I like the idea that this plan helps your body to repair and renew itself .. But is it the length of time that you go without food that enables that process, or the fact that you've reduced the calories? I thought it was the former, but some people seem to be eating their 500 cals spread across the day. Guess I need to read the book more carefully.
Also, we've always been told that our bodies repair etc when we are asleep. Wouldn't it be interesting if it's not the fact that we are asleep that's important, but the fact that when we're asleep we are fasting?
Right- off for a lovely big breakfast now. Happy weekend everyone!

Good morning peeps!
Sunflower, I'm quite new in this so I can't contribute much regarding the fasting but I have two things to say:
1. I too experience e few loo runs after eating too much fat, or more fat than usual. It always happens on big holidays such as Easter, NYE etc.
2. Some seasons are worse than others. There are winters that we don't catch a single cold and winters that we are poorly and under the weather every other week. Perhaps this is just one bad season for you? I'm saying this because I can't see how eating less for a singe day could cause a cold or a tummy bug.
It's not that you aren't eating at all, or that you aren't eating for days. It's only a day and it's only different because you know it and you do it on purpose.
Personally, I know that many days in my life, when work was too much or when I wasn't feeling well I ate 500 the entire day and that was all!!! As I said when I was told about the 5:2 "I do it without knowing it"!!!