CHAPTER 8
How to Take Care of Yourself with Intermittent Fasting Fasting for short periods of time is safe and simple for healthy adults. No special preparation or changes to your daily activities are required. You just choose periods of time not to eat, and go about your normal business while fasting. Once you start doing research you’ll find dozens of websites and videos detailing “secret tips for optimizing your fast,” from drinking apple cider vinegar to supplementing with branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) or medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) oil. But there’s no need to make this more complicated than it needs to be! While none of these tips are harmful, they’re also not necessary—and they can create a lot of extra work and confusion, making fasting seem much more difficult than it really is. The more complicated it is, the less likely you are to stick with it. It’s best to keep things simple. In your research, you might also come across articles obsessing over electrolyte imbalance and scary information about something called “refeeding syndrome.” If I were new to fasting and had no background in metabolic science, I would be turned off to the whole thing. But these are not important concerns for healthy adults who practice intermittent fasting and eat an adequate diet otherwise. There are some good practices for taking care of yourself on your fast, which we’ll review in this chapter. For example, drinking broth is a good practice for multi-day fasts. You can take some supplements if you notice they make you feel better. But it’s really not essential to do any of that. People all over the world fast all the time without consuming special foods or supplements to prepare, and do just fine.
Interview with Megan Ramos Subject: Therapeutic fasting Q: Tell us who you are and what you do. A: I’m a clinical researcher, and cofounder and CEO of the Intensive Dietary Management program along with
Dr. Jason Fung. IDM is a therapeutic fasting program. I run the business, and train providers on how to use intermittent fasting with their patients. I also write books and speak on podcasts on the subject of fasting. When I was younger, I was what you’d call “skinny fat” [skinny, but with metabolic health problems common to people who are overweight]. I had fatty liver disease and PCOS. For some reason, doctors didn’t care about body composition; they just cared about the number on the scale. I was able to stay “skinny fat” because I did time-restricted eating without even meaning to. I was in school studying, and I just usually forgot to eat. When I was done with school, it was important to start functioning “like an adult,” which meant
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