How to Ensure Fasting Doesn’t Wreck Your Hormones

Disclaimer: The information provided is for educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

Fasting gets a lot of hate in the female hormone world, and I want to try to change that view.

Fasting is a practice that has been employed for thousands of years for religious and health reasons.

It is simply the practice of not consuming food for a period of time, opting instead for nothing or at least non-caloric beverages like water and herbal teas.

Fasting can provide numerous benefits, when done properly, like:

• Resolving gut dysfunction
• Reducing inflammation and supports immune regulation
• Improving hormone sensitivity and insulin sens
• Increasing growth hormone
• Healing us metabolically and allowing the body to burn body fat for fuel

But, there are rules to fasting, and for you to get the most out of it, I highly recommend you follow these rules before or when you decide to implement fasting.

<aside> 1️⃣ Adequate Intake

This point has a few pieces to it:

1. Feed Prior to Fast - I do not recommend anyone implement fasting if you are currently eating below an adequate intake. If you have been chronically dieting, or inconsistently eating, or have no idea how many calories you’re consuming, track your food first and ensure you’re eating enough before attempting it. You can use the tdeecalculator.net to determine what that intake is for your body size, but I recommend AT LEAST 2-3 months ensuring you are at a healthy, balanced intake before attempting any form of fasting. Otherwise, the body will likely not respond how you want.
2. Don’t Drop Calories Too Low - When you implement fasting, you may have 1-2 days of lower calories (as seen in the example I put below), but most of the days should be pretty close to that ‘maintenance’ intake that you see in that calculation. The benefit of fasting is not necessarily from low calories, it is from the fasting window. So when you DO eat, you want to ensure you eat enough.
3. PROTEIN! Prioritize protein because fasting can quickly turn catabolic for females (i.e. you start breaking down muscle) if you are under-eating, especially protein. The goal is to consume close to 0.8g of protein per pound of body-weight most of the days of the week. You may not consume that on the 1-2 days of deeper fasting, but the other days you should be consuming that amount.
   </aside>