The FastDay Forum

Hey all,

I've been searching the forum and can't find anything about fasting with IBS so I thought id start up a topic, especially as it's so common! This has been a huge source of distress for me and it's only in the last few months that I feel I'm able to talk about it. I suppose the forum helps me talk about things I wouldn't discuss with people I know in real life.

How do people find it affects your IBS? I had a bad week over half term and I feel it's really affected me quite badly, this week I've been suffering from severe cramping and just generally ill and exhausted. I had to take yesterday off work for it.

For me, I think fasting helps me manage better as I'm more conscious of what I'm putting into my body and I find it easier to pin point what's making me unwell. I was also thinking I've not had a flare up since Christmas time and, since I started fasting in the 2nd week of January, I believe fasting is settling my digestive track.

IBS was only diagnosed about 12 months ago in my case, including being lactose in tolerant.

When I fast, I eat less - i certainly have less pain, less bloating and i have less trips!

My overall health is better, so fast definitely helps me.

Cheers
maggie

Hi there!
I have Crohn's disease as well as CFS and IBS (so many abbreviations!) I find fasting helps repairing and resting my digestive system. I don't have much weight to lose but was interested in the health benefits of fasting and I have noticed an improvement on fast days.

Sorry if this is all rambled I'm a bit groggy at the mo.
Hope you both continue to see improvements

I don't really have any specific fasting plus IBS advice, but wondered if you had tried peppermint oil capsules? These are evidence based for IBS and I have had really good feedback from patients about them.

My sister suspected IBS for years and finally went to a dietician and naturapath and was put on a fodmap diet. Turns out she is allergic to sugars in bread, veggies and fruit. Olygosacharides (SP)

She went out to breakfast before her shift as a nurse and was told her egg breakfast was gluten free and she said the bread was light and fluffy so unlike gluten free and yes, she had the runs for a day and a half. After a long time of healing exluding what set it off can bring healing where you can have some of those foods introduced back in.

Fasting may be calming to the tummy.

Ugh I types out a real long reply to this and then it refreshed itself and I lost it all! Furious!

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences, some interesting points to note, especially that about the sugars in bread-never thought about that. I got tested for coeliac which came back negative which I was extremely shocked about so I'll ask my doctor on Monday.

I'll buy some peppermint capsules too-this week is actually killing me!!

I blame anything with wheat in it.....demonising the stuff now!!! Have you tried going without wheat products for a while???

I did and did feel a lot better for it, but this was during my 2 week health kick last year and I basically starved myself (lost half a stone and put it all back on as soon as I started eating again) ...that's when I started researching coeliac and had a million tests for it. They all came back negative which I was really shocked at - I seemingly have all the symptoms from menstrual problems to mouth ulcers.

I might start cutting out wheat and go gluten free...I'm a massive bread eater though! I'm going to see a new doctor on Monday (simply because mine isn't available) and speak to him about the millions of things I'm concerned about and see if he has any ideas. I think I'll give gluten free a go after that for a month or so. Bye bye bread my love

@auriga I just had a gander at your progress tracker, your loss is amazing-exactly what I'm hoping to achieve in a similar time frame! Mega jel/inspired, thank you!

Did you do it by 4:3 and cutting out carbs?

Yes @danielle21711 I did get this far by cutting out refined carbs and doing 4:3, plenty of green vegetables & salad though. I hope I may inspire you to go wheat free too, because of your IBS.....if you like a good horror story have a read of 'Wheat Belly': the terminology is very American, but I think he's on to something!
Good luck Danielle.

I have IBS, or should I say I can have IBS if I'm not careful. I went gluten free for 6 months which basically stopped my IBS totally. Then I started to introduce wheat and gluten back into my diet. I now needs days of eating bread and wheat products for the IBS to kick in.

You can be intolerant to wheat/gluten without triggering the coeliacs blood test parameters. If you are going wheat/gluten free you need to do it for 6 weeks minimum to be sure you have cleared your system. After that a good 3 months + will enable your gut to heal. Whilst this is happening you can introduce a live acidophylus type culture to build up the good gut bacteria which will speed up the healing. Once healed you may be able to introduce wheat back into the diet.

On a plus point, cutting wheat will also cut your carb and calorie intake so it should speed up your weight loss as well.

@julieathome I might as well not go to the doctor now!!!
No seriously, you've given me a lot of food for thought (ha ah ha), I'll definitely give it a go. I'll pick up some gluten free bread and stuff this weekend so I don't feel like I'm depriving myself from my favourite thing and see how it goes. Thank you xx

I agree with the comments about wheat/bread, and @danielle21711 if as you say you're a 'massive bread eater' I wonder if that's it, I used to get the occasional IBS attack although not as bad or as frequent as some people, but bad enough. A friend of mine recommended Colpermin tabs, they're like the peppermint oil ones from Holland & Barrett only no peppermint repeating (ugh). They definitely helped but it was only when I started really cutting back on bread and then started the 5:2 that the IBS seemed to clear up. I can't remember when I last had bad bloating even. I still quite often have toast at the weekend for breakfast but that's kind of it, and no more than 2 slices.

Good luck with it and I hope you find something that works for you, it's completely miserable when you're feeling like that.

Thanks @lizzieh! I'm definitely going to have a trial without bread, I think that must be it. At the very least cutting it out is going to make me cut down on carbs....win win really!

Some ideas for cutting the bread and the carbs as fake bread is can be even higher in carbs than real bread, is think outside the box. If you want a ham sandwich, have a ham salad instead. If you fancy a tortilla use a large lettuce leaf as the tortilla, fill with everything and roll it up. My favourite tortilla is a large lettuce leaf smeared with cream cheese, red pepper slices and a good grind of black pepper. Yummy. The cauliflower pizza base is even tastier than a dough based pizza and more filling. Don't let the name put you off it doesn't taste of cauliflower.I haven't tried it but courgettes very thinly sliced and quickly blanched or steamed is supposed to be a good replacement for spaghetti. Or have a look at any good paleo recipe website for tons of ideas.