My personal take on this - there is a "myth" in Paleo circles (including Dave Asprey's brand) that goes back to the Paleo for Women blogpost on fasting that Dr Fung links to and pretty much refutes. Kiefer of 'Carb Nite' fame says that when you're talking about diabetics, you're talking about a whole different ballgame to normal metabolism, but it's an issue glossed over by most Paleos as they tend to be writing to a non-diabetic audience.
I think the main thing for women to be concerned about is stress - if you're already stressed, adding fasting to the equation is probably not a very smart move. Stress is what causes problems for both adrenal and sex hormones. Despite being a fan of a lot of Paleo writers, I always have to keep in mind that diabetes trumps everything else.
I've been following a LCHF/Primal WOE for over 3 years. I doubt I've ever had a "carb re-feed" in those 3 years - I doubt if even when I've had cake or other rare treats that I've exceeded 100g carbs on any day during that time. Despite that, I just seem to get healthier, so I'm not giving too much credence to Paleo - especially the Crossfit/exercise fanatic end of the spectrum and their 'safe starches' obsession. TBH, I'm more interested in what my own body (and my glucometer) is telling me than what some "guru" has to say.
Hi Indy - yeah - I've been thinking about this too since reading about it online - how, and if, fasting has a different affect on women of reproductive age than it does on men, and I've written a few things in the forum about it.
And I have chuckled more than a few times at those I call 'the jock paleo eaters' on youtube (who can be women as well, as you know), with the carb re-feeds and so on. I know what you mean. And yes - I know as a diabetic I could never join in on those convos, even if I wanted to. (Not even when a young body building woman back in the day would I have wanted to I think! I pretty much kept to myself in the gym back in those days. Soooooo much body worship and ego stroking! It often comes across more as a religion than a Way Of Eating and lifestyle that I see Paleo as.)
I hear what you are saying, and understand absolutely folk like us wanting to get it right about the effects of fasting on us. And absolutely - being diabetic puts us in a whole different ballgame, and the insulin/blood glucose/liver and pancreas health thing takes precedence. Absolutely.
But, I really do think that fasting may have a different effect on women of reproductive age, from the evidence particularly, and anecdotally, even in this forum. We know that reproductive ability is affected profoundly by semi-starvation levels. A big part of insulin's role is to regulate 'all this stuff', along with other key hormones. It does seem that the rhythm of fasting affects women differently. Or, of course, we can say that men are affected by fasting differently to women, due to the fact women carry and bear and feed our young from our bodies. There does seem to be an added level of 'starvation resistance' for women of childbearing age, which makes it that much harder to deplete glycogen stores and so on. My memory isn't good enough to come out with the links and research and so on, but I will get it together and post it anon. But it looked pretty convincing to me.
Anecdotally, it has also looked like it to me here on the forum, that men, when fasting have had much quicker greater effect on their weight and on their BG by VLCD and fasting,
at the beginning at least. Which is what the rat/mouse studies seemed to indicate. (But yes - we aren't mice! For sure.) Enough for me to wonder to myself quietly, before reading the mice/rat research and the paleo women writers and get an "Ah!" response. (it made sense to me, that women, especially younger women, have a greater losing fat resistance for reproductive purposes.) It COULD be that the competitive thing was stronger and the 'BG number race' thing was just stronger for some of the men. I don't know! Just posing ideas.
Saying that - Dr Fuhrman and Dr Jong refute that women have different fasting effects (or, we can say - men have different fasting effects than women). I was very interested reading that too. But I need to re-read to comment more closely.
I am no longer of reproductive age, so it is all academic for me, but still interesting indeed, and especially for women diabetics who might also be wanting to reproduce, or trying to control their blood glucose and get pregnant at the same time. (I had insulin resistance when in that situation, I just didn't know it, so I have a lot of sympathy for women in that situation - it cannot be easy!) I have engaged with women in the forum on the subject.
But it is certainly interesting for us if women DO have a greater fat-loss resistance, another physical hurdle, another layer of protection from semi/starvation (as mothers of humanity), that we need to take into account when trying to regulate our health with fasting and ways of eating, as we do in here.