With ulcerative colitis, the history of my dieting experiences are an absolute rabbit hole, so I will attempt to spare everyone the insanity one experiences when when going through it all. So the purpose of this post will be to help a person in poor state of health fast safely with a few added complications.

January, 2019 begins my greatest leap in managing my ulcerative colitis symptoms.

The keto diet, naturally introduced intermittent fasting as a thing and not just starvation, due to the necessity of restricting carbs to less than 20 each day. Fewer meals made low carb possible. Circumstances changed, I wasn’t less than 20 carbs a day, but still conscientious of limiting carbs by eat fewer meals a day. It didn’t seem to change my limited effectiveness in managing symptoms.

Although the low carb flu had brutal consequences, triggering a horrible flare. And a again when I started carnivore diet, but that flare kept getting worse until I got so sick that I began fasting again, eating one meal a day, and a few pieces of Salo as a snack each day.

Now, I’m convinced that fasting, not the types of food I’m eating, is the bulk of my success in managing ulcerative symptoms. And it makes logical sense why my history of liberally eating healthy food always did worse than my history of conservatively eating only crappy foods.

Fasting is still new to me, given my poor health, I have lots concerns and worries that I’m thinking have caused to make poor and stupid decisions when attempting fasting.

First and 1/2: most of the information about fasting is geared towards weight loss, people whose metabolisms are completely different from mine, as they get fat from sugar, I’ve always been an ectomorph that has never weighed more than 145 pounds, even in the army or on prednisone.

It makes sense that a person with a weight problem would restrict carb intake, because carbs are a huge reason behind the problem they are trying to fix. So I don’t think that I need to be as mindful of carbs as they do, other than I should focus more on clean Whole Foods when I eat, but I would love to put more fat on my body.

First and 1/1: I can’t fast the same as a person with excess waist line because I don’t have excess waist line. My BMI is barely above 18.5. Longer fasts are probably more dangerous for me than them.

Second: Until a few days ago, my fasts were one meal a day with high fat supplements in-between because I worried about losing weight. And I did lose about 8 pounds doing this. Out of my fear, I think ended up destroying the full benefit of fasting and ended up doing a calorie restricted diet which is why it failed so much.

First conscious 24 hour fast was 3 days ago – I felt great after 12 hours, kept feeling better with more energy until I ate.

Yesterday was a 31 hour fast – It was the same, where I started off feeling mediocre and kept getting better and better. at 24 hours, I went to bed and woke up with ulcerative colitis symptoms, sort of a grinding hollow feeling in my stomach. So I broke my fast immediately. The UC symptoms seemed consistent with my previous low carb flu experience. I’m thinking that what I’m experiencing is the herxheimer reaction. The state of my health being so crappy that the detoxifying process is overwhelming my body.

What ever the symptoms may be, I can’t allow them to pacify my effort to inhibit my life more than already, I need to take my time.

My fasting plan:

I’m going to limit my fasts to 24 hour fasts and try to eat 2 meals plus fruit supplement on my eating days. I’m thinking that keeping my body burning food for at least 12 whole hours with consistent insulin spikes will hopefully cause my body to store enough fat to survive the next 24 hour fast. If I lose weight, I need to make adjustments, if I gain weight I got more room to play with.

I think the dangerous aspect of fasting isn’t really the fast, it’s that my health is still devastated from my last flare and I still have diarrhea. Food absorption is likely pretty crappy, which is why I think I need to ensure I’m getting the most energy I can through frequent eating when I’m eating.

With all that said, I’m really attempting to build a better base to give me a stronger position to launch more zealous fast from. Should I worry about macro nutrient ratios or any of the other dietary nuances? Will I even get the preservation of muscle effects from a 24 hours fast or is everything just going to degenerate in that 24 hour period?

Us ulcerative colitis guys tend to substitute reason for hopes and wishes that God will end its sadistic torture of us, what are the obviously stupid things I’m doing that aren’t conducive with the fasting theory? What don’t I know that could help me be more successful if there is such a thing, and I’m not going down deeper into the rabbit hole?

Tyler