• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Anyone seen any actual evidence on Intermittent Fasting?

LucySW

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,959
Location
Denmark
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi guys. I'm very keen on Intermittent Fasting personally, because it seems clear that it *ought* to work - allowing our insulin homeostat to reset itself, and so allowing insulin sensitivity to increase. I'm about to do a presentation for my spouse on how he could tackle his Metabolic Syndrome by low carb and IF. But it occurs to me that, though I find Jason Fung very persuasive, I don't think I've seen any actual *evidence* of IF decreasing insulin resistance.

So I'm asking, has anyone else?

Not screwing up with my spouse is very important. Health, happiness - you know.

Lucy
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I can't imagine my wife giving me a presentation. She just tells me what to do, and like any good husband I pretend to agree.

No, I haven't seen any actual evidence anywhere.

I have been trying to follow an IF regime for couple of moths, so way too early to have any worthwhile observations. My IS has improved over time, as I have lost weight, especially the last 20llbs, so I too think it "ought" to help with the final piece of the puzzle, but I think most of it is being done on faith, rather than certainty that it will make any difference.
 
Jason Fung's you tube videos always have a comprehensive list of studies and references, but I haven't followed them all (most) of them up.

I imagine his website will have plenty of refs too, but I haven't been to it in a couple of weeks, so can't remember clearly...

Personally, I have high IR (caused by non-D meds, plus obesity, plus RH, plus physiological insulin resistance due to VLC) and haven't noticed IF making one jot of difference. But it DOES keep my bg as steady as a rock, so I am happy to continue with it.

Perhaps just point your hubby at bloodsugar101 as a starting point. It kind of makes a handy, sensible intro, even if IF isn't yet a major subject she covers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Check out the work of Brad Pilon - I recall hearing an interview with him where he said he started researching fasting trying to disprove it and was completely flummoxed when he discovered how effective it was. I think his book is the one that Fung acknowledged as his major source on the science. There are quite a lot of interviews with him out there in podcast land.

http://bradpilon.com/meet-brad/
 


Here are some videos where Jason Fung in person talks with people that he has helped and shows them in front of the rest of the group where he talks about diabetes. They have improved their insulin resistance by losing weight.
 
Having started IF before Christmas, maybe a little bit earlier after my endocrinologist suggested it, and I must say, that it helps not having to eat so many small meals and as Brun has said helps control a great deal.
Also doing the research around the internet, the closest I have discovered is just odd snippets around different ways of fasting. I'm not certain I've found any real convincing evidence that it works for insulin resistance.
But my experiences of doing quite a few days of prolonged fasting and now IF, I believe it helps keep money in your pocket and helps with control.
Good arguments there!
If you lose weight and feel good, why not?

And I do believe that fasting through the morning till mid afternoon helps my insulin homeostat rejig itself fully through the sleep cycle, which is always good for me!
 
What kind of evidence are you looking for? In addition to those already listed in this thread, the Fast Diet by Michael Mosley quotes a number of studies showing improvements in health and insulin sensitivity.

Anecdotally, I have benefitted from IF when I added it to my LCHF regime in the sense of improved FBG and (continued) weight loss. However, I don't even know that I am insulin resistant - I assume that's the case, as I developed T2D after many years of PCOS, pre-diabetic HbA1Cs and obesity - but I've never had an insulin tolerance test.
 
britishpub said:
I can't imagine my wife giving me a presentation. She just tells me what to do, and like any good husband I pretend to agree.
Click to expand...
I know. But I get one chance, and one only. So I have to present the stuff, and make it funny, and then shut up about it.
 
Hi @LucySW I involved my family in my diet and we generally eat the same meals. We had Xmas dinner a la Diabetes Cookbook modified for LCHF, and it was a great success. My fussy daughter actually prefers much of my new fangled recipes, and we are still munching LCHF, albeit with some compromises (i.e I have 1xsweet pot, they have white pots), but we share cauli mash and celeriac mash et al.
BTW: i was doing IF before I knew what it was, but my difficulty is that if it lasts more than 15 hours, then I get a large liver dump that spoils things. Also, I need some food to take my meds on, so this limits my fast time too.

I have not seen any proper RCT studies on IF yet.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi @LucySW I'm sorry I have no studies to contribute with, only that if we were meant to graze continuously we probably would look more like cattle than primates.
 
All I can give you is my personal experience. I takes an 18 hour fast for me to return back to a constant baseline of 4.8 from 5.5 to 6

I do not know if it improves IR or I am just emptying my liver of all stored glucogen and therefore it cant release glucose as freely or it switches me out of glucose burning so therefore do not need to release as much.
 

I am so envious. Nothing takes me down to the 4s, except Reactive Hypoglycaemia.
Fasting, exercise, fat fasts... none of them work. I just dip to the 5.1-3 range and coast along till I next eat.

RH does drop me lower, but it is horrible, so I avoid it - and anyway, it just liver dumps me and I bounce back up to a 6+
 
LucySW said:
I'm very keen on Intermittent Fasting personally, because it seems clear that it *ought* to work
Click to expand...
Several of my friends who like me will be in their 60s (results might have been different if they were younger) have all successfully lost weight with intermittent fasting, but none of them are diabetic, just carrying too much weight.
 
Is there such a thing as an insulin intolerance test? I've never heard of one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…