I suffered for a long-time from IBS. I decided to do the fast diet mainly to support my wife who difficulties shedding the pregnancy weight and I hoped to get some health benefits on the long run.

I was surprised how quick the fast diet cured my IBS. Of course the IBS is gone on the fast day but after 3-4 weeks I can almost eat anything which normally would trigger IBS e.g. fish and chips and the stool is fine.

On my fast days I usually eat:
– Simple porridge made of whole oats (not instant) cooked with water, little bit of almond milk is added in the bowl.
– One apple
– Salad for lunch at work or from M&S.
– Dinner is often yellow pepper stuffed with quinoa mixed with lots of parsley and lemon juice. Sometime griddled gem lettuce on the side.

I have started to eat more healthy on other days e.g. high fiber food. I love puy lentils with salmon, I do a nice barley risotto with chestnut mushroom, spinach and bacon lards.

So my week looks normally as following:
– 2 day fast
– 2 day healthy and high in fiber
– 3 days whatever

Hi Jill and welcome:

Constipation is usually caused by lack of salt so you might try drinking some salty drinks or putting some more salt in your food.

Here are some tips: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Hi Jill:

There is a big difference between having excess salt in your diet and not having enough. Recent research indicates that people that follow low salt diets have a much higher chance of dying from various causes and that there is no reason to closely monitor your dietary salt – moderation wins out again: https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/category/lectures/the-aetiology-of-obesity-lecture-series/. When you fast, your body flushes out high quantities of salt as part of the water weight loss (like you experienced). So the salt needs to be replaced.

As for constipation (and other things you might encounter when fasting like dizziness, feeling weak} watch minutes 33 through about 36 of this video (actually, the entire video is informative): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFD2q5iqevY

Good Luck!

PS- Is there something you recommend for replacing salts? Like drinking broth or something?

I used to suffer from IBS, but have totally cured myself by carefully eating fermented vegetables with every meal, and avoiding sugar like that plague, and eating lots of cruciferous vegetables to provide nutrienst for your gut microbiota. Sugar feeds the wrong microorganisms in your gut, and fermented vegetables adds in TRILLIONS of beneficial bacteria with every forkful, much more than you’d ever find in a bottle of probiotics. In fact, it’s possible to ingest the equivalent of 10 bottles worth with just a few ounces of fermented vegetables. Not only is my IBS gone, but so too are my allergies now gone, and my gut health is 100%. I’m so excited by this discovery of mine that if I am planning on eating out, I eat my fermented vegetables before I go out so that I never have even a single meal with out it.

As for the Kimchi, take a lesson from Korea, the nation with the lowest obesity rate in the entire world, where Kiimchi is eaten with every meal. If you want to look slim like the Koreans, then you’d better eat like them too. I think that the hot red pepper flakes speeds metabolism, at least that’s what they say.

Fermented vegetables would include: homemade live sauerkraut (the stuff on the shelf in the grocery store is dead =totally useless), live Kimchi, real fermented pickles – not the kind made from vinegar in the grocery store, Kvass (fermented beat juice), raw cheese – made from unpasteurized milk – harder to find, but usually available as an import – and these cheeses are loaded with beneficial bacteria. Kombucha – a fermented tea fermented with “scobi” – symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. This stuff is super easy to make, and very cheap to make. Sauerkraut just costs you the price of a few cabbages. Most of the Yogurts in stores now is just dessert with a ton of sugar in it, and not much in the way of pro-biotics, and often it is pasteurized and dead. Ultimately, almost any vegetable can be fermented. You only need a little bit of fermented vegetables added to your daily food to work magic. But the more kinds of fermented food that you eat, the bigger the diversity of bacteria that you’ll eventually build in your gut. Even carrots with a bit of dirt on them – don’t wash off that valuable dirt. It’s good for you.

Avoid antibiotics and “diet drinks” like the plague, and they will ultimately make you fat too. Somehow the artificial sweeteners in diet drinks change the profile of your gut bacteria to the wrong kind which makes you fat by altering your body’s metabolism.

Hello, I too have IBS and did my first fast last Thursday and have eaten pretty normally for me since and amazingly my IBS is not playing up. Before the fast if I have two veg heavy meals in succession I am always glued to the loo pretty soon after but since Thursday I have been normal. NORMAL! My gut hasn’t been this happy for twenty years. I anticipated cramps from gas going so long without food but no in fact probably less gas than I’ve recently accustomed too. I read yesterday that the 5:2 was not suited to IBS sufferes but based on my limited experience I’m sticking with it. Truly astounded and very happy. Beats to all 🙂