The FastDay Forum

I think I might have cracked it!

I started a strict food elimination diet a few weeks ago (failsafe - no salicylates, amines, glutamates, and I'm also testing lactose / dairy). I'm feeling 100% better overall - my CFS brain fog is nearly entirely gone, and I have more energy (within 24 hours of starting the diet). I don't feel hungry all the time anymore, either. The improvement has been rather shockingly drastic and fast!

And now my weight is starting to drop after fast days, and stay down and even keeps dropping on normal eating days.

Apparently food intolerances can be the cause of weight gain, and also weight that is hard to shift despite diet/exercise. I'll start food challenges this week, hoping I can add some foods back in, and pinpoint the cause of my symptoms. It's a very restrictive diet, but I'm not craving things at all (yet, anyway LOL) — which also surprises me.

So, the coming weeks will be interesting! I'm hoping the trend continues!

Sounds like a plan. I was going to suggest throwing in an extra day to make it 4:3 not 5:2

Had to look up no salicylates, amines, glutamates... tell us more. You may have stumbled on a solution that a lot of us here in the forum can benefit whose weight loss has stalled

Wow! I had to look it up too. So @AussieNisi what is there left to eat?

@AussieNisi has put some more detail (and links) in her blog:

blog/AussieNisi/maybe_a_breakthroughʔ_b-2954.html

Yeah, the list is VERY restricted! LOL. But keep in mind that the elimination diet phase is like that - depending on how you go with food challenges, you can widen the number of foods if you don't react to them.

There are only about 12 veg I can eat, and 1 fruit (pears). Plus other stuff of course, beef, chicken, beans, etc etc. No herbs or spices (and I'm a curry and chilli addict *sob*) ... very limited flavouring options (salt, citric acid, garlic, parsley in small amounts, poppy seeds, saffron).

I think that link to my blog won't work, split over the line break ... this might work better?
https://forum.fastday.com/blog/AussieNisi/maybe_a_breakthrough

Sounds like a plan. I was going to suggest throwing in an extra day to make it 4:3 not 5:2

Yeah, tried that, to no avail. And yes, I've mentioned it here in the hope that others who are stalled might see if this sort of thing might help.

Thanks for the links. I wish you luck my dear. Long may it last!

Some links to articles about food intolerance + weight :

http://www.ion.ac.uk/information/onarchives/foodintolerance
http://www.food-allergy.org/inflammation.html
https://www.patrickholford.com/blog/why-resistant-weight-loss-may-be-due-to-hidden-allergies

I'm not sure how thorough / reliable these articles are, but it's certainly food for thought.

Thanks for the links. I wish you luck my dear. Long may it last!

Thank you! I'll report back in a few weeks, to let you know how things are progressing

@AussieNisi how exciting that you're going so well. I just read your opening post on this thread, what relief you must be feeling; inspired too!

Thank you, @chinchin! Certainly very hopeful re/ weight, and SO MUCH better with my CFS symptoms. Just wonderful!

I did a clear out of my pantry yesterday ... 1.5 clothes baskets full of food I can't eat or cook with any more ... Asian, Indian, Mexican spices and ingredients, as well as heaps more besides ... but the trade-off is proving to be worth it.

"Easy" weight loss still continuing! I'm a bit amazed.

So while before any progress down after a fast day would be followed by a jump back up to previous levels, now once I lose any weight, it stays at that level on non-fast days.

Still in the elimination diet phase - dairy-free, gluten-free, and no salicylates, amines, or glutamates. Dropping dairy certainly seems to have had an impact, in particular. Will start doing food challenges in the next few days.

Dotted line shows exact weights, solid line shows trend.

That is great news!! Fingers crossed that the food challenges go well and you can add back some of your favorite foods. Thanks for the links, I'm always looking for a way to treat CFS. Good luck and keep us posted. Hugs Phyllis

Did my dairy challenge last week — testing whether I was reacting to dairy. Mmmm, yum.
My weight started to go up immediately that I was back on dairy, by 0.4 kg in one day, and then climbing. It's started to drop again as soon as I went off dairy. I also had a recurrence of symptoms.

So strike one against dairy. Bugger. But very interesting to see this direct correlation with dairy intake + weight.

Amazing! And you feel healthier as well? That's great to have learned. Thanks for posting.