This is really strange . I have fasted a month all my adult life and never had this problem . It was severe to the extent that I could not fast today and I have taken some electrolytes today because I was feeling so weak it’s been a month now . I guess I will try rares advice on the water because it seems to make sense with what I believe in . Or it can be the toxins as the other sites say .
I hope ur situation improves bronx

This is becoming a familiar event with me and 5 episodes this am after breakfast but no pain. Hopefully it will settle although I’ve been doing this 5:2 for 7 weeks now. I was interested to come upon this thread and will just accept it is par for the course.

I’d like to know if there is someone who tried this and didn’t work! 

After just a couple of weeks of eating fermented vegetables with every meal, at least a bit, I’ve cured myself of all gut issues. I eat Kimchi, live sauerkraut, real fermented pickles, Kvass, raw cheese made from unpasteurized milk, Kombucha. Before I couldn’t handle eating a lot of raw greens because I’d be doubled over with gas – but now – nothing. These fermented vegetables are miracle foods, and they have also cured my allergy attacks which vanished into thin air.

Ive been on this diet 5 months. Lost 39#. Yay
When I started this diet i had terrible constipation but the last two to three weeks abt 40″ after my first meal i have really almost explosive diarrhea. Yowza. Not sure it’s safe to eat away from home. I came to this site by way of google. Being a nurse my mind went to worst place as source of this new diarrhea. Almost relieved others have had. My friend who started same time as me still constipated. Does it get better?

I’m now on day 6 of the diet and all is well with the weight loss; currently 9lbs, and am finding sticking to the 800 calories per day achievable as well. My only problem is that on day 3 I had an evening meal and then went for a vigorous walk. On returning I needed to dash to the toilet and found that whilst my motions started normally they concluded with an extreme whoosh! I am finding that currently this is happening as a single episode, after which all is well, but my concern is that it has just happened again today; day 6, same as before, normal motion to s start with …. I really want to stick with this diet to try and reverse my type 2 diabetes but really can’t live with these types of bowel movements so may have to reconsider if I can’t find any help or solution to the problem. Cheers. Pete.

UPDATE: I have continued to suffer these symptoms over the last couple of years even though I stopped doing the fast. I don’t know whether the fast diet caused a chemical imbalance that never rectified or whether my body stopped functioning in the way that it should but my symptoms were akin to “Gastric Dumping”.
I have self managed the condition over the last 18 months by never drinking with a meal for either breakfast or lunch and never skipping a meal. Bananas have been my go to breakfast food as they seem enough to settle my tummy first thing if I don’t have time for a “proper breakfast”.
I have finally got a referral to see a gastro specialist and he has diagnosed bile acid malabsorption, and given me a drug called Questran to try. So to all those having ongoing issues then I’m hoping this info might help.

I wrecked my gut bacteria with antibiotics and often had bouts of IBS the day after drinking alcohol or coffee or if I have very fatty foods. Changed my diet to a more healthier options, cut out alcohol and caffeine and seemed to have avoided any fun accidents in public but since starting the 5:2 diet I have started back on the diarrhea band wagon. I fast on Monday and Wednesday and it’s normally on Thursday or Friday that I get a bit of a fever, headache, stomach bloating and full blown diarrhea for about 2 hours…as an office worker this is less than ideal.

Am going to buy some probiotic tablets on the way home and see if this helps with it..will report back.

After 2 months on the diet I appear to have overcome this issue. Tried probiotics but definitely forgot more than once to take them and found that my tummy has settled. I wouldn’t start my day after fast with anything greasy, normally just a banana and I found I still had the tummy issue but given time it has settled down on its own accord – have even been able to have a few coffees!

My fast day diet is normally a banana at 1pm then a frozen weight watchers meal around 6pm and that is me done. Don’t like small snacks because they don’t satisfy me and only prove to remind my tummy that I am hungry so try to just trooper on through.

Good luck to everyone reading this thread – I can completely empathise!

Hi, I have tried making saurkraut but went slimy, now trying to make kombucha, do you recommend any recipes or books for me on fermented stuff, I live in New Zealand and have had cancer, now free of it, can’t take gluten, read how good fermented foods and drink is so would like to be more successful with it. Thanks for your thoughts. I am in my seventies but go to gym, play tennis 3 times a week…cheers

I just want to let everybody with the problem of having diarrhea after breaking a fast to know what worked for me.
I was having uncontrollable diarrhea after eating following a fast until I started taking NOW pancreatic 10x- 20mg with the first bite of food. Can get on amazon. So glad they work. If I forget to take it the diarrhea comes back with a vengeance!
This is not medical advice, just what worked for me. Just sharing my personal experience.
Other digestive enzymes didn’t work for me.

Never had the problem myself, but a friend did. On my recommendation, she went on the 5:2 and lost 20 pounds. But she was having awful problems with her bowels and gave up the Fasting as a result.

I think it has to do with gut flora. Those are the good little bacteria which help to process the food in the intestine. The Standard American Diet prunes out most of the good bacteria because they aren’t getting the nutrients they need. Green smoothies are a remedy for this. BUT IF YOU START THEM ALL AT ONCE, you will have a lot of distress — pain and cramping.

My remedy is to make a simple smoothie [LOW fat, LOW calorie] and begin by adding 1/2 a leaf of lettuce/kale/chard/spinach. Drink that for 2-3 days. Then, add more greens, so that your intestines can adjust to the new regime. and so on until you are up to this:

GREEN SMOOTHIE: 77 calories 0.3 g fat 1.6 g fiber 1.7 g protein 31.3 g carb 30.7 mg Calcium PB GF
HINT: this makes enough for three 6-oz servings, so it will save you time on the next 2 breakfasts.

2 cups mixed greens – spinach, romaine, lettuce, chard – roughly chopped 2 oz banana, sliced 2 oz berries ½ apple or pear 12 oz tomato juice [such as Knudsen’s organic] 10 ice cubes

Put the fruit and greens in the blender and swirl it together on ”high” just long enough to break down the fruit and greens. Set blender to “low,” add the juice and ice cubes. Process until smooth. Put what you don’t drink today into a jar in the ‘fridge. Next time you use it, shake it well. If you think it has become too thick, feel free to thin it with water or OJ.

This has been in my blog a few times, with nice responses.

Try this. It makes a good beverage for breakfast [along with some high protein food] or lunch any day.

all the fasting books I have every read and tried, recommended coming off a fast, even one day, with miso soup or something with fermentation to repopulate your intestines with healthy bugs and close to no fat until an hour after taht. I do it every time, twice a week and have no problem now.

Have hit my goal weight of 161,(lost between 40 and 50 lbs.) but have had a worsening case of the “trots” for over one month. Otherwise normal. No blood or anything, just chronic runs. At first I suspected e.coli, but the symptoms are dissimilar. I have given up all artificial sweeteners thinking stevia/erythritol was the culprit, and drink black coffee and water. (This sucks, btw.) I do not feel badly, other than I cannot stray far from a toilet. IBS? Colitis? Anyway, Michael Mosely is truly brilliant and I will always owe him my gratitude for helping my wife and I reverse the slow decline into obesity and poor health. She has lost approximately the same amount of weight, and is looking more and more like her old self. I’m going to try probiotics aggressively, but chances are I’ll be seeing a sawbones.

I’ve found a solution!!!

I’ve also suffered explosive diarrhoea after fasting, and stumbled upon the solution quite by accident while experimenting with a longer fast of 14 days. Even though no food was going in during this period of time every few days I would suffer from loose bowels and definitely NO fart could be trusted!!!

Anyway the cure was to have 2 teaspoons of psyllium husks or unflavoured metamucil. This has completely solved the problem.

It absorbs the fluid in the digestive tract and even though I sometimes get an urgent need to go, it’s well formed and easy to pass. Importantly it’s also stopped those dangerous and embarrassing farts!!!

It takes a few days to go through and kick is 100% but it’s completely taken away my one complaint of the diet.

EDIT: I now take it every day as it seems to be very good for bowel function anyway from the research I’ve read.

Cheers and good luck!

I now take it every day. I think you could probably just take it on fast days. I was taking it the day before and the morning of my fast day. Play with the dose. And if you do take it on none fast days you need to stay hydrated as it can block you up if you don’t have enough water. Not a problem on fast days obviously! Lol

Cheers

Hi southies:

For all you newbies out there, 16:8 is not fasting, so you don’t have to worry about fasting leading to southies problems.

However, any change to established eating patterns can lead to changes in bowel movements. The body just has to get used to the new patterns.

simcoeluv I beg to differ.
It’s intermittent fasting – just a different protocol but the results are the same.

I have been doing it for a year and my sugar & cholesterol levels dropped after 2 months to normal range . Bonus is losing 6 kgs in the processs and all maintained without difficulty.

The diarrhoea has been a part of this protocol from the beginning and my system has STILL not adjusted to it.

Thanks Antmid – will give them a go

Hi southies:

I beg to differ. You might watch this interview from minutes 20 to about 31: https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dr.+longo+youtube&&view=detail&mid=6D8F7CB8DEE99AFB8F436D8F7CB8DEE99AFB8F43&&FORM=VDRVRV

Good Luck!

I have had this issue as well and realised actually for me it was from having dairy on the feast day after a fast day.

I get cramps and have diarrhoea that will last for a few hours. I’ve realised as tempting as the feast day is after a fast day, I have to ease into it and definitely minimise dairy consumption.

Anyone else noticed triggers such as that?

It doesn’t really make sense that so many people would suddenly develop a food intolerance after starting fasting, and then have diarrhea. I have had post-fast days without problems and others with diarrhea, usually within an hour of eating.
Though I haven’t sorted it out completely myself, it seems reasonable that opening the eating time slowly may help. It seems like nearly anything can encourage the stomach to contract strongly after fasting, but I think that if I start with refined carbs or finish with too many refined carbs, I am more likely to have trouble, and less when I start with some peanut butter or almond butter. I suspect since refined carbs also mean fats, that it’s a combined problems. Another thought–In the old days when folks would fast for longer times, the popular wisdom was to end the fast with some broth and wait a bit before having more or progressing, and progressing slowly. Will see if I get results and report back

Hi all–I was glad to find this thread! I’ve returned to IF after a several year hiatus, and the only difference between now and then is that I no longer have a gallbladder. And now I get horrible diarrhea the day after a fast! For me what’s going on is that I now have a constant slow trickle of bile acid getting released into the small intestine, which is unfortunately causes the intestinal epithelial cells to increase secretion, resulting in diarrhea (here’s a nice paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4211077/). This doesn’t just apply to people without a gallbladder, though. If you have gallbladder contraction (stimulated by the smell of, sight of, or thought of food, as well as actually eating) with an empty gut, diarrhea could result. I’m going to experiment with increasing the proportion of my fast day calories that are derived from fat and see if that helps at all.

Basically on a fast your digestive system shuts down, (trust me it needs a rest now and then) and it starts to clean itself.

Over years of continuous eating and absorbing toxic substances bad bacteria get caught up in the colon and intestines.

So during a fast the intestines begin to clean up all the old trapped faeces, which is good. Drinking plenty of fluids also helps this clean up.

If you fasted longer eventually all this mess would come out. But by eating (after only 1 or 2 days water fast) the digestive tract wakes up and stops cleaning and goes into normal digestion. Therefore, your body will immediately dump all the old faeces it has cleaned out whilst doing the fast.

The diarrhoea is not what you have just eaten since it can take any were from 6 to 18 hrs to past through your system.

A lot of doctors basically say you have not fasted long enough to clean out your system.

After numerous days of IF you will eventually clean out your system and no longer have diarrhoea, providing you stop feeding yourself toxic foods.

A lot of doctors recommend enemas whilst on a fast

I am glad it’s not just me! I have just started fasting again after about two years of not fasting. And I can’t believe how bad it is the day after! I fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays and without fail for the last three weeks I’ve been making urgent trips to the bathroom on Wednesdays and Fridays! It’s awful! But I am hoping it will subside the longer I am fasting. I don’t remember having this problem so severely the last time I was fasting regularly. I had good luck then and lost about 30 pounds, so I am not too discouraged. I am going to try being careful of what I eat when I break my fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays, and hopefully this will get better soon. It was so bad today that I have lower back pain from the severity of the “issue.”

I’m a bit late to this but did my first fast yesterday and wow today has been a bit of a roller coaster of pants up
Pants down and on and off the loo. I’m hoping this passes the more I get used to it. The fast itself was fine and I didnt struggle but today 🙄!!