Is Intermittent Fasting Healthy? Surprising Things You May Not Know About This Diet
By: Lindsay Hodgson, MSN
In recent years, chances are good that friends, family, and coworkers have been talking at great lengths about their experience of intermittent fasting in pursuit of their wellness goals.
People have embraced the trend for various reasons from weight loss to possible health benefits such as improved memory, heart health, and physical performance.
Intermittent fasting is very desirable when your relationship to food feels chaotic and out of control. There can be a felt sense of relief in having structure around when you’re allowed to eat to prevent eating more than you think you're ”supposed” to eat. It can also provide permission not to eat, which can validate the part of you that wants to eat less to lose weight. It makes total sense that intermittent fasting feels empowering and like what you need to take back control of your eating pattern.
Perhaps you have dabbled with fasting, maybe you’re considering it, or you might be in a routine right now and you’re wondering, is it healthy? Here, we shed some light on this answer by myth-busting some common misconceptions about intermittent fasting.
What do we mean when we say intermittent fasting (IF)?
When we talk about intermittent fasting*, we’re talking about intentionally fasting for a given period of time, usually during certain hours of the day or week. Of course, it is natural to fast while you sleep and then break your fast after waking. What makes IF different is the designated time where eating is not permitted. Typically though with IF, fasting time starts earlier in the evening and lasts until later in the morning thus extending the normal fasting period for most adults.
Myth #1: Intermittent fasting is not a diet.
The wellness industry and diet culture have done a great job at packaging IF as a wellness practice and lifestyle as opposed to a diet. While some people use IF explicitly as a weight loss diet, others intermittently fast for the sake of “health” instead of weight.
Nonetheless, restriction and deprivation that are characteristics of all diets can show up in numerous ways. There may not be “off limits” foods, portion control, or tracking in IF, but restriction is found in the time spent intentionally not eating.
Intermittent fasting, as a diet, is detrimental to your well being and relationship with food because:
It problematically normalizes overriding hunger. Glorifying starvation is yet another way eating less is celebrated in diet culture (not to mention it neglects the reality that many people facing food insecurity intermittently fast by necessity instead of choice).
It creates rules around when is an acceptable time to eat with time-related restriction. These external food rules compromise your ability to build trust with your body. Contrary to Gwenyth’s belief, there is nothing “intuitive” about fasting!
It disrupts feelings of hunger and fullness. The body needs consistent nourishment in order to function optimally, and to produce hunger and fullness cues in the first place. Periods of fasting not only disconnect you from your hunger and fullness cues, but they can also dull hunger and fullness cues so it’s more difficult to tune in and respond to your body cues.
It contributes to being undernourished and fosters a scarcity mentality with food since it is much harder for you to meet your needs for energy and nutrients when you have a smaller window of time you’re able to eat.
It creates more chaos with food. The restricted time allowed for meals and snacks is relevant to the restrict-binge cycle. In this way, IF may lead you to feel out of control with food, eat fast fullness, or experience bingeing behaviors during the time period when eating is permitted.
Myth #2: Intermittent fasting is healthy.
One of the main reasons IF is considered ”healthy” is because it is a diet and seen as a pathway to weight loss. Like much of the eating behavior praised in diet culture, it wrongfully assumes weight equates to health. Further, it has been studied (with inconclusive results) as a weight loss intervention for “obesity” (obesity is included in quotes because this language makes body size into a disease, which it is not). This research, and the broader cultural conversations are rooted in fatphobia and a misled understanding of health. In reality, you cannot measure health by looking at someone or weighing them. Health is much more complex!
Additionally, it is ironic that IF is framed as a means of achieving wellness, when it may be the culprit for feeling unwell. Periods of fasting (and restrictive eating in general) can contribute to physical symptoms like fatigue, anxiety, brain fog and difficulty concentrating, plus digestive symptoms like constipation, nausea, and irregular bowel movements. Your body is incredibly wise and often sends signals that being deprived of food is hindering its health.
Even if research could demonstrate that IF causes improvements to health markers in all populations of people (it cannot), it should not be considered healthy. It normalizes overriding your hunger, skipping meals, and restrictive eating. Like other diets, it promotes disordered eating. The conversation about IF and health needs to encompass an eating disorder awareness perspective, which it currently lacks in diet culture.
Myth #3: Intermittent fasting is safe for people without an eating disorder or eating disorder history.
Like many trendy wellness plans and diets du jour, IF is framed in the context of health without acknowledging eating disorder risk. This fails to capture the intersection between the two, when in fact there can be significant consequences to someone’s relationship with food while fasting. Interestingly, IF is not recommended for people with eating disorders.1 In theory, it makes sense not to push fasting on someone who is predisposed to an eating disorder. In reality, as a diet IF promotes disordered eating by creating rules and rigidity with food, contributing to a dynamic of deprivation. Diets can trigger an eating disorder in anyone, even someone without a prior history. Unfortunately, we live in a dieting culture where eating less is normalized. Healthcare providers, coaches, social media influencers, and anyone involved in health-related spaces need to consider eating disorder prevention to truly assess the safety of recommending IF.
Is there an alternative to intermittent fasting?
If you feel like you cannot trust yourself around food, IF might feel beneficial to control your eating. But it doesn’t have to be this way! You don't need to rely on rules of when you can and cannot eat. Instead, you can heal your relationship with food and your body. You can work towards eating intuitively, nourishing your body according to when it needs more energy. Moving away from IF and giving yourself unconditional permission to eat at any time of the day helps build trust with your body and cultivate a sense of safety so your body is assured it will not be deprived of food. It may feel scary to move away from an IF regimen, but you don’t have to face it alone. Working with an anti-diet dietitian can be essential to support you on your journey to reclaim your relationship with food and your body.
Diet culture is the culprit for popularizing IF. Because of this, it makes total sense if IF appeals to you. The truth is depriving yourself of food should not be celebrated. There are harms associated with IF despite its use for “wellness,” and there is an important link between IF and eating disorder risk that society needs to better understand. Your body deserves consistent nourishment and honoring of your hunger for a nurtured relationship with food and body.
* There may be other reasons that people fast, such as for religious reasons or otherwise. For the sake of this article, fasting is discussed in terms of dieting purposes only.
Sources:
Intermittent Fasting: What is it, and how does it work? John Hopkins Medicine. Accessed June 6, 2022.
Welton S, Minty R, O'Driscoll T, Willms H, Poirier D, Madden S, Kelly L. Intermittent fasting and weight loss: Systematic review. Can Fam Physician. 2020 Feb;66(2):117-125.
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Do you feel like intermittent fasting hasn’t supported your wellness like you thought it would?
It is so normal to want to create discipline and control over your eating by designating periods to fast. The tough thing is, your body is wise and it is tremendously difficult to outsmart your body. Your body knows when it’s being deprived of food, and this can make you feel even more out of control with your eating. At Bravespace Nutrition our Seattle-based anti-diet Dietitians work virtually helping people who are struggling with food and body image. It’s possible to change your relationship with food and your body, free up headspace, and live your life with more presence, abundance and peace. Learn more about Bravespace Nutrition, our philosophy, and the services we offer.