IF/Women/Hormones
 

Interesting article about women and fasting.
On paleoforwomen:
I googled women and intermittent fasting today. Thanks you Library Girl for posting your feelings - because like yourself I am frustrated. I myself have experienced major mood swings lately and my weightloss has been at a snails pace. My moodiness has gotten so bad over the past few months that I have started seeing a counsellor and am considering medicating...although for me I don't think this is an option. What I do know is that I can not continue on as I am. I am so saddened to learn that JUDDD may be the cause of this. I seriously have thought I was going crazy over the past few months. I don't know what to do with all this anxiousness, and if its not that I am crying and crying and crying. From one extreme to the next, it is quite scary and rather upsetting to me and everyone around me.

I completely lost now. How do I eat? Is 5:2 the answer? FAST 5? I am so pissed that I still have to think about this. Here we go with the extreme emotions again...where are those effing emoticons!!!

It is pretty clear that something needs to change. I think I need to re-examine JUDDD. I am exhausted being hungry EOD. I am tired of being moody. :cry:

Not sure where to go from here...I really thought I was going to be a JUDDDER for life. :stars:

I really think I am putting too much stress on my body.:confused:

I have read that article before too....I was wondering if that hormone change only applies with complete fasting EOD? I did find it interesting about the sleeplessness-that is happening to me..
hope I don't start growing a beard lol
So sorry you are not seeing the results you desire-especially when you are being diligent. I wonder if going on a higher calorie DD would help? Maybe a higher weightloss/maintenance mode?
Good luck, hoping you figure it out.:hugs:

BTW, I WISH I were your weight!!

I'm so glad you brought this up...I have been losing very slowly after the first eight weeks...and in reading, I made one connection about myself...seems I was doing great until I started increasing the hours fasting on dd's..now...maybe that has nothing to do with the slowdown,,,,but, I'm going back to doing it as I did at first..just ud and dd and not going quite as long in between eating...I know we are all different, and our bodies respond differently..
I sure hope it will work for me because I like being able to eat every other day.

:hugs: to everyone who's struggling.

I have done a variety of IF programs and most of the originators of these plans recommend shorter fasts for women (or at least acknowledge that many women do better with short fasting periods.)

While it is shown that you can eat up to a certain amount and still see the health benefits and weight loss from fasting, it is NOT proven that lower calories or zero calories is any more beneficial than 400, 500, 600 or <insert amount>.

It is hard to make peace with impatience. I didn't gain it in a month, I can't compare myself to others. My path is my path - I am finding the one that helps me make peace with myself, my body and my impatience. :-)

I have been JUDDDing for 9.5 months...and would have happily kept strolling along. I like the rhythm of JUDDD, as 9.5 months might suggest, I have never tried a WOE for that long.

My moodiness has gotten so bad over the past few months that I have started seeing a counsellor and am considering medicating...although for me I don't think this is an option. What I do know is that I can not continue on as I am. I am so saddened to learn that JUDDD may be the cause of this. I seriously have thought I was going crazy over the past few months. I don't know what to do with all this anxiousness, and if its not that I am crying and crying and crying. From one extreme to the next, it is quite scary and rather upsetting to me and everyone around me.

I completely lost now. How do I eat? Is 5:2 the answer? FAST 5? I am so pissed that I still have to think about this. Here we go with the extreme emotions again...where are those effing emoticons!!!

:hugs: to you Hope! I'm so sorry you're not feeling right. You're so close to your goal, I wonder if you went to more maintenance levels if you'd feel better. I know you probably feel like you're maintaining now, and increasing cals could cause you to gain, but you may be surprised. You could try it, and if you do gain, rethink it. I'm so impressed you've been doing this for so long, especially since you've been frustrated.

I just hate that you're so unhappy. I wish I could give you a real :hugs:.

Hope-I am so sorry to see this!! :hugs: to you!! That must be awful! Maybe 5:2 would be less stressful for your body? There's a good thread on that in the "other plans" area. I hope you can find what'll work for you, all the way around!! :console:

Hope what if you just took a week off and ate when you were hungry. That way you may be able to tell if Juddd is the cause or if it's something else.

For many reasons explained in this article, I'm no longer comfortable being a JUDDD guinea pig myself . Before I totally give up on IF though, I'm switching to the 5:2 plan today.

Best wishes to you in finding the resolution you need.
:hugs: Ann

Check out bulletproof executive
 

He talks about women's hormones and how women suffer during a fast because their bodies their bodies think they are starving. His recommendation is that they have bulletproof coffee (1 tbl grass-fed butter and 1 tbl coconut oil mixe in blender with coffee). The fat tells the body that it is NOT starving and yet will not interrupt the body being in ketosis! It's a great technique. I would suggest you start your morning with bulletproof coffee on UD's and DD's. The extra calories on the DD's will be mitigated because, according to him and his antiaging team, the body does not store MCT's but burns them as fuel! Something to think about.

I feel so bad for you, I too have read the studies about fasting and hormones. I have been doing IF for 9 months in one form or another. I have found that complete fasts a couple times per week works best for me ( sorta like Eat Stop Eat). I could not comfortably do an eating window of any type...Fast 5, 20-24, 16-8, you name it I tried it. The only thing that made me feel good was a complete fast and I have had great success. In the past I have had depression and anxiety issues for which I took medication, but my fasting doesn`t seem to trigger any of that. I hope that you can find a plan that will work for you Hopefulsweigh. By the way, I couldn`t do JUDDD either, I know that you can do it low carb, but when I started low carb I vowed I would never count another calorie again as long as I lived and I haven`t.

This bp coffee is in the PHD (Perfect Health) plan as well. It doesn't interrupt the fast, however, when women are pre or peri meno, the fasting itself seems to aggravate the weight loss. In other words, they may hit a stall and have difficulty breaking through. I have seen this happen for myself and it is very frustrating when you are literally not eating. Nancy may be along here and have something to say, but she said that in her own JUDDDing when she was completely through with meno, is when the weight losses then became regular like clockwork.

I am sorry to everyone who is suffering. :console: I believe that is why the 5:2 is so popular because it isn't too much of a good thing.

Hope according to your stats you are at a healthy weight for your height. I think the effects of JUDDD or IF get stronger when our weight is about right for our height. I love fasting until 9:30pm on DDs and 7pm on UDs, but recently as my weight has become appropriate for my height I'm realizing I should reconsider this practise. It's very hard because I love low DDs, but I'm concerned that at this stage I should not be as extreme as I've been. I get really awesome DD energy and want to carry that energy over to my UD, but it starts to feel like a "high" after a while and I'm not sure that is good. Today I intentionally had half a cup of coffee with a T of half and half. To me this is not fasting and I was concerned about trying it, but I feel better today and the cream did not wake the hungry monster. I may make a second 1/2 cup later.

Thanks you JUDDD BUDDS for all your support.

Carly - I think this is the issue - that I am at a "healthy weight". I think this is why I did not have fast losses, even when I was at the far end of the weight spectrum.

Grammy I did try the bullet proof coffee - to tame hunger - I found no difference.

This WOE has taught me so much.

I am learning to listen to my body, still in a bit of shock that my mental health issues are due to my eating. I am going to eat intuitively for the next few days. Incorporating lots of nutrients. I pulled out the juicer out this afternoon and dusted it off. A nice Green Juice for lunch. As far as calorie counting goes, I think that is going out the window too. I would like to incorporate some form of IF in the future, maybe 5:2 will be the answer. Maybe even JUDDD but more calories on DD's.

You are at a very nice weight, let us know if changing from JUDDD helps things out please

Maybe doing lower carb JUDDD would help with hormones, mood and prevent hunger? It works for me but probably depends on the person!

Dee

Wow, Hopeful. That is really discouraging. I am going through the same, as everyone knows lol. I even tell myself when I know I'm going into a stressful situation that I *will* not react crazily. :D Yet, I do! Raging anger, then sadness at another time...feel normal right now, thank god. I asked bf last night if he thought I was going insane. I thought it was peri-menopause, but could it really be JUDDD?:cry:

ETA: I skimmed the article, but it seems to say fertile women, not peri or post meno women...plus, I have no trouble sleeping. Hmmmm, jury's out.

Librarygirl - It was your posts that had me searching the internet looking for a reason why. Was IF the reason?

At first I thought I had a thyroid issue. Had that checked out...and nope that was not it. Then I thought I must be perimenopausal. When I went to the doc she was more concerned with my leaky breast (that is in the process of getting fixed) So given the leaky breast and the mood swings I thought that I must have "hormone issues". These "swings" started at the beginning of the summer. I started JUDDD April 18...It makes sense. I don;t want it to because although I am frustrated with the scale sometimes, I can follow JUDDD, maybe upping my calories is the answer instead of trying to keep them low?? I dunno.

I know your are suffering to Librarygirl. I hope we can both find a better balance.

Hi Hope, Sorry to hear you are so down :console:
I am VERY similar, I'm about 141 at the moment and 5.5ft, a healthy weight. BMI is 23.5. I am guessing for your height, you are about the same.
I don't know if you have read in recent posts, but I am mixing it up a bit to confuse my 'healthy' body into shedding those last few kilos. As our bodys are quite happy at this weight, it's so much harder to do.
As for the emotional side, I can see and know how frustrating this is! Every second day, hungry, sleepless DD nights and with no result. The way I see it is that I haven't gained. if I started having UD's every day, I know I would.
I agree that you should take a week off, eat when hungry, put your scale away. I actually did this the week of christmas and it did no harm. Then if you feel up to it, play with your numbers a bit. I know I cheat. I know I dont count my calories and this is probably why I have stalled.
I will be back to Juddd rotations as soon as I can figure these things out (fast5, what I'm trying ATM has no room to cheat and no cal counting).
Whatever you choose to do, I wish you luck and hope to hear of your progress soon. Go easy on yourself, its just a way of eating. Take a well deserved holiday from it. Hope to hear from you soon :hugs:

Hope, 9.5 mos. is enough to drive anyone crazy with diet fatigue. Even Dawn & Carly have taken maintenance breaks for a month at time. :console:

I just want to mention that this does *not* work for me, and perhaps wouldn't for others with adrenal and/or blood sugar issues.

My blood sugar is high when I wake up in the morning; this is somewhat normal for diabetics. I want it to get down ASAP. Fasting does not accomplish this; neither does fat alone. Exercise doesn't even work!!! I have tested this many, many, MANY times, because honestly I'd rather skip or delay breakfast (save money, fewer dishes! :laugh:).

Eating protein makes my blood glucose go down into a healthier range. Even eating some carbs will get everything kick-started, because there will be an insulin release and after my BG goes up a bit, it will come back down (and stabilize, if I've had some protein & fat, not just carbs).

When you don't eat for a while, the liver releases stored glucose (glycogen, actually). Cortisol is somehow involved in this process...I won't pretend that I know how to explain it! And you all probably know that excessive cortisol can be detrimental.

So, assuming that high fasting blood sugar=high cortisol, having a meter was a tool to confirm my suspicions about how IF was affecting me. (I probably could have found a quicker way to say that?!! lol)

I know some diabetics do well with IF, but I also have bipolar disorder, and suspect it is an additional factor: cortisol release is often reversed (low in am, high at night) in this condition. But even though my am levels might be low, fasting or only having fat seems to prevent the cortisol from getting shut off. And when there's too much cortisol circulating, melatonin is suppressed. I have tendencies to suffer from insomnia anyway, but fasting & JUDDD made it unbearable.

I do hope bulletproof coffee or coconut oil is helpful to those who try it!!! But I've known of a few people with adrenal issues who mentioned that they were told to avoid fasting and to eat protein every few hours. And I take insomnia as a serious sign that something is not right!

It looks like books or something are sold on that site, so maybe that's why we can't provide direct links.

Googling "shattering the myth paleo for women" brings up the article, though. HTH!

:goodpost: I've been working on my weight since last October and I'm totally burned out right now-if I wasn't so close to goal right now I'd be leaning towards taking a month off and just maintaining. I think this happens no matter what plan you follow though. Losing weight is mentally and physically exhausting and at some point you have to just take a step back, take a deep breath, and ditch the scale in the bathroom closet for a few weeks :laugh:

I have been dieting for 4 months non-stop, which doesn't seem like a long time, but I could have some diet fatigue...however, at 58 lbs from goal I don't dare ditch the scales and quit for a "few weeks" for fear of gaining back half what I've fought so hard to lose! Oh the pressure! :D

ETA: I *know* that I am peri-meno because I only had 2 TOMs last year. None this year so far. What is your age, Hope?

Hmmm, maybe you could just throw a towel over your scale once in a while :laugh:

I was about ready to toss my scale out the window because it's been going through batteries like crazy. Then I realized my cat has been taking his naps on it, and he weighs just enough to turn it on and suck the batteries dry :doh:

LOL @ cat using up the batteries on your scale! :D Too cute. :) Mine has lasted since last May so far.

I can understand the frustration that weight stalls bring! It sounds like there are some great ideas here for changing up the fast. I don't have much to add except my experience that I had about a year and a half ago when I started to go into peri-menopause and the only real symptoms that started were the emotional ones. I was impatient with everything and felt like I had PMS all month for the months that I was not getting my regular TOM. What is really interesting to me reading this thread is that when I was having these issues I was attributing my bad moods to LC and I was gaining rapidly during this period of time which ultimately led me here. I think all of these mood issues have passed for me and I feel fine again. I never did figure it out and I don't attribute return of my even moods to JUDDD. I don't know if my experience has anything to do with what some of you are discussing here. I am sure adrenal issues with fasting could very well be a problem for many.i am also 46 so older than I think those having issues are.

I never attributed my issues to JUDDD Babs, but thought it might help (with peri-menopause issues). I will be so glad to get out of this emotional rollercoaster, lol. I suspect my age has everything to do with my problems, not JUDDD. I think Hope may be younger...? I am 48. Are you now post meno?

Well, I really wish I was but I am currently back to having regular TOM again. I am also able to lose weight right now. I am sure that these changes affect how much stress our bodies are under and how easy or hard it is to lose weight. I could see that fasting could be a factor with all of this too. I wonder if that is why some need higher DD's to lose and some need lower? Things I am sure I will never figure out. I hope things even out for you soon.