18/6 intermittent fasting has benefitted me greatly

[Gzephyr]

Long story short: Intermittent fasting with a 6 hour eating window has noticeably improved my symptoms.

I started in September 2024 sometime and noticed a benefit within a week. Now, several months later, I think the benefits are even more noticeable.

My fatigue levels have decreased from a 7/10 to maybe a 5/10. Not life changing but for sure a real win for anyone dealing with CFS.

I still crash but they’re much less frequent and much less debilitating.

The biggest change that I’ve noticed is brain fog improvements. My fog has been knocked down to around a 3 or 4 out of 10 down from maybe an 8!! This even persists while I’m in a flare up. I’ll have a lot of the same physical symptoms that I’m used to but my brain fog improvements stay mostly unchanged. How cool is that?!

Keep in mind that I’ve also been taking liposomal glutathione for a few months. Just increased my dose from 500mg to 750mg and I think it’s knocking me down a little at the time of writing this post. Not sure how much I’m benefitting from it but I do know that my CFS symptoms were much more manageable shortly after stating IM fasting.


I’ve posted here before but my CFS was/is caused by ebv that constantly reactivates and gives me mono-like symptoms if I don’t take valacyclovir for longer than 16 hours.

The only other treatments that have given me any kind of noticeable improvements are NAC and low dose naltrexone. I don’t currently take either because they both give me mental side effects. NAC provides me with some of the same benefits that IM fasting does but without the brain fog improvements.

I suspect that I have had inflammation problems before CFS that probably stem from the gut. I’ve always had a slightly white tongue that cleared up when I tried IM fasting pre-cfs. My mild brain fog and fatigue improved as well. Unfortunately, IM fasting made me too hungry to keep up with, especially since I was way more active in college with sports and walking.

On a side note, let’s just say I had a slight gastrointestinal issue over the last few months, which has now been resolved by surgery, that inflamed my gut and stomach pretty badly and brought along that white tongue worse than ever before. My tongue has now cleared up more so than it ever has before after I had surgery to fix the issue. I accredit IM fasting. Fortunately, the fatigue benefits of IM fasting lasted throughout the duration of my gastro issue.

I’m saying all this because I think if I continue to target pre existing gut inflammation, I may begin to feel even better. A very low sugar/high fiber diet had almost no impact on me before IM fasting so I need to get a little more creative with my diet. Maybe go hard with the fermented food direction.

I’m also planning on having my problematic tonsils that are filled with ebv removed by laser in the upcoming months. Insurance covers it so I’m pretty excited about that. I’ve had a couple docs think that it could benefit me greatly to have them removed.

Moving in the right direction

 

[Estel]

It's great you've experienced so much benefit from IM.

I also have gut issues and brain fog and have been thinking about trying some dietary changes. Can I ask what your eating schedule looks like now and what it was before? What was the adjustment period like?

 

[Gzephyr]

It's great you've experienced so much benefit from IM.

I also have gut issues and brain fog and have been thinking about trying some dietary changes. Can I ask what your eating schedule looks like now and what it was before? What was the adjustment period like?

Before IM fasting, I would eat whenever. I would usually skip breakfast and eat lunch around 11 or 12. Then I would have dinner sometime between 6 and 9. I would then snack all the way until midnight, at least.

Now, I eat between 1 and 7pm pretty much every day. Sometimes I’ll get really hungry around midnight and break my fast but that’s rare.

It took me a week or two to adjust. The first few days were the hardest as I was hungry all the time. I powered through and now it’s much more doable.

 

[bad1080]

On a side note, let’s just say I had a slight gastrointestinal issue over the last few months, which has now been resolved by surgery

it is not uncommon for PwME to feel better after a surgery, i hope you found something that helps you long term though!
i felt better with intermittent fasting (16/8) but that was because it helped with a different issue (which i then didn't know of yet, well i knew of it but it was still undiagnosed), my me-cfs is pretty much unchanged even after treating the other issue.

 

[Gzephyr]

it is not uncommon for PwME to feel better after a surgery, i hope you found something that helps you long term though!
i felt better with intermittent fasting (16/8) but that was because it helped with a different issue (which i then didn't know of yet, well i knew of it but it was still undiagnosed), my me-cfs is pretty much unchanged even after treating the other issue.

I did feel pretty good after the surgery due to the steroids and stuff they injected but I was seeing benefits from IM fasting well before and now after the surgery, which was over a month ago. So, I’m pretty optimistic that this will be a long term thing for me.

16/8 doesn’t seem to help me as much. I need to at least do 18/6. Will probably try to push that to 20/4 in the upcoming weeks.

 

[ilivewithcfs]

I'm doing very well on 18/6 intermittent fasting right now. 60% of my symptoms are gone. I started with 16/8 fasting, which didn't do much, but 18/6 is a different story.
I'm not celebrating anything yet. Usually things, that work initially stop working with time. I try not to keep my hopes up to avoid heartbreak. I'll just wait and see what happens.

 

[cfs since 1998]

I tried fasting when I was mild. It didn't help then, however, I only stuck with it for a month at a time. Now that I am worse, fasting gives me very bad side effects.

 

[Wayne]

Now that I am worse, fasting gives me very bad side effects.

When I started intermittent fasting, I felt worse as well. In the beginning, I could barely go 12 hours. But as I persisted in the following weeks and months, I was able to slowly increase my fasting time in very small increments. Like 12 1/2 hrs, 13, etc. until I finally reached about 16-18 hours. Going from 12 to 18 probably took me over a year.

I think it takes time for the body to adjust to a whole new eating regimen as different as IM. Another thing the body has to adjust to is the increased autophagy activity. It can be a real cleansing process, and if a person is already sick to begin with, that process can be challenging for many of us. I know it was for me.

One thing that helped me increase my fasting times was to drink teas with ingredients that help balance out blood sugar. I was drinking a lot of clove tea in the beginning, to which I added cinnamon and fennel. Some may think that's "cheating", but it's what helped me (comfortably) increase my fasting times.

I don't know that everybody can follow a similar route I took. I suspect not. We're all so different in what our bodies can handle. And that changes as we age. I feel I got a LOT of benefit out of IM, but after about 2 years, my body began to feel like it needed a little more weight. And a little less "rigidness" about eating times.

So I began to eat an additional meal a couple times a week within my normal fasting time frame. Viola, it works just fine, perhaps even better. I think it's important to keep in mind that we all have to find a regimen that works for us, and is comfortable to do. Whether that involves IM--or not.

 

[Viala]

I did 15/9 a few years ago and it helped with my stamina, and that's not even close to 18/6. I looked into IM recently to try it again and it got me thinking.

Does taking supplements break the fast? I think minerals and vitamins are ok, but I also take aminoacids, some spread throughout a day and that could affect IM, if the body perceives it as food.

 

[ilivewithcfs]

Does taking supplements break the fast? I think minerals and vitamins are ok, but I also take aminoacids, some spread throughout a day and that could affect IM, if the body perceives it as food.

I don't know, if supplements break the fast, I don't take them during fasting time, just to be safe. During the fasting time I just drink water with electrolytes.

 

[ilivewithcfs]

One thing I forgot to mention. I didn't just start 18/6 or 16/8 fasting right away. I started with 14/10 and slowly got to where I am now. It helped me avoid major side effects.

 

[Viala]

I don't take them during fasting time, just to be safe. During the fasting time I just drink water with electrolytes.

That's what I thought. I hope they'll be fine though, I take a lot of supplements and it would be difficult to squeeze them into a 6 hours window. I think aminoacids could interfere with autophagy induction.

 

[Wayne]

Another thing the body has to adjust to is the increased autophagy activity. It can be a real cleansing process, and if a person is already sick to begin with, that process can be challenging for many of us. I know it was for me.

In THIS POST, I describe how coffee enemas helped me (greatly) when dealing with the cleansing process, and the overall feeling miserable feeling I would get after not eating for over 12 hours.