The FastDay Forum

I have recently discovered the idea of fasting and have been fasting on a 4:3 pattern this last few weeks with great results. From talking to some friends I have a few questions would be great full for any help!

1) I am still breast feeding my 4th child. He is not solely breastfed any more, only supplementing his normal diet. He is very healthy weight. I have tried to research and it seems consensus is fasting is fine as long as you are not still solely breast feeding. Is this true? ( I am obese and have been loosing weight with slimming world since my son was 6 weeks old.)

2) talking to a nursing friend today she was worried about the long term effects of fasting on the heart. I can't find anything speaking into that specifically.

Hi fruitcake

I can't see any problem with fasting and breastfeeding. There is a slight change in the nutrient content of the milk but no issues (studies done on breast feeding women fasting during Ramadan).

Long term, frequent fasting (alternate day complete fast) was shown to caused stiffening of the heart muscle in rats. Of course a day to a rat is a lot longer in terms of its lifespan than a day to us, also I doubt you will be doing every other day fasting long term? I would hope that once you get to your target weight you would reduce the frequency. Studies of Ramadan fasters found no detrimental effects on the heart (fasting every day for a month).

I can look up the studies if you'd like...but you can probably find them in the nerdy stuff section as I did post on this topic a while back. Don't have time right now to find them...sorry!

Thanks so much!