Intermittent Fasting Success Stories Round Up
Twelve stories demonstrating the incredible healing power of fasting. When I started spreading the word, I never dreamed that the results would be so life-changing. I hope you spread the word too.
This has been one of my favorite posts to write. Notice in each of these stories that fasting is radically improving people’s quality of life. If you drop pounds on Weight Watchers but you’re miserable and hungry all the time, have you really improved your quality of life? Losing weight loses its luster when it’s time consuming to count points, you feel restricted, and you never feel satisfied.
With intermittent fasting (IF), weight loss is only the side effect. The main point is increased energy, feeling younger, and finding significant health markers improving. People keep going because they never want to go back to how they felt before.
Keep in mind that willpower is a limited resource. People stick with fasting because it doesn’t require the white-knuckle willpower that everyone eventually runs out of on conventional diets. You do need to use willpower to push through the adjustment phase with fasting. But after you adapt, it becomes an easy and enjoyable lifestyle.
1. Down 125 lbs in 10 Months and “Never Been Better”!
2. An Aquintance’s Blood Sugar Dropped 30 points in 3 weeks!
I’ve been doing in-person intermittent fasting workshops, and a lady came to my first workshop who had type 2 diabetes. She went home and started fasting. She came to my second workshop about three weeks later and reported that she had lost 30 points off her blood sugar! Eek! That makes me so happy.
3. Reversing PCOS-caused Infertility
I bumped into an acquaintance in August, and as often happens with me, the conversation turned to fasting. 🤣 It turns out this friend has suffered from PCOS for years and had difficulty conceiving. I passed on the Three Week Challenge to her and encouraged her to start fasting.
She later texted me saying that she got pregnant in the middle of completing the three-week challenge after trying unsuccessfully to conceive for eight years! 😳 🎉
Dr. Fung’s coworker Natalie Pataguana, who co-wrote the book The PCOS Plan with Fung, talks in this video Solving PCOS with Fasting and Keto: Ep 52 about many people who got pregnant at her metabolic clinic, sometimes within a couple of months. But this is the first time I’ve heard of it taking only a few weeks to work. Crazy!!! (Note: there are many causes of infertility besides PCOS. Fasting primarily helps infertility when PCOS is the cause.)
4. Therapeutic Ketosis Heals Debilitating Migraines in Teen
My friend’s son Charlie (not his real name) has suffered migraines on and off since kindergarten. However, for the last two years, they became progressively worse. On a pain scale of 1-10, he lived most of his life at a level 8. Last year, he missed more than half the days of school.
Charlie’s parents took him to Seattle multiple times to visit a top neurologist. They tried all the drugs. The next step was to get his spinal cord and head numbed. My friend had heard of the keto diet for migraines, and they had tried it for a few weeks but it didn’t really work.
But then we got together, and I went over all the research as well as how to do the diet hard core as a therapy. I also showed her how to use the Keto Mojo for taking ketones, and she bought one.
I gave her the link to the podcast called Migraine Miracle Moment by neurologist Dr. Joshua Turknett who has many success stories using keto to heal chronic and severe Migraines. He has a website called MyMigraineMiracle where he has resources on how to do the diet. He also wrote The Migraine Miracle: A Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free, Ancestral Diet to Reduce Inflammation and Relieve Your Headaches for Good.
They decided to go all-in with the ketogenic diet. Today, this high schooler’s life is completely changed. His pain level is down to a level 2 or less most days, and he’s off ALL his medication. They canceled all his appointments in Seattle. Last I knew, he had not missed a single day of school this year.
One thing that really helped him was using the Keto Mojo blood monitor to measure ketones and working toward that 1.5 number. He doesn’t want to eat the wrong thing because he wants to see that number get higher. Sure, there are times when he eats the wrong this and the pain returns. But this is about progress not perfection.
I am floored by the fact that no neurologist ever mentioned this treatment at all the appointments they went to! But praise God they found it when they did. This is also shows how important it is to find the right support, websites, info, testimonials when doing something hard.
It’s possible that he will not have to stay on this diet for life because of the epigenic changes that ketones impart. They may only have to continue for 6 months to 2 years.
5. Mother and Daughter Pair Get Smashing Results
I met in person with Trish and her adult daughter Rachel on July 23 to explain IF and they started the next day. After one week, Trish lost 4 inches off her waist and Rachel lost 9 lbs. Rachel’s husband Keith then started fasting and lost 20 lbs in the first week. Keith then got his mom started and she lost 7 lbs the first week, her fasting blood sugar dropped 20 points, and her doctor said she could stop Metformin.
Their results 3 months later:
Keith has lost 65 lbs in 3 months of fasting!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Trish is now down 19 lbs and 7 inches off her waist. She wishes she would have known about fasting 50 years ago (but it’s better late than never.) She recently visited a holistic chiropractor and he said, “I believe you are a testament to the power of fasting. You tested healthier than almost anyone I ever see in the office.” Not bad for someone in their late sixties! Every time I hear her telling others, she always mentions this overwhelming feeling of well-being fasting has given her.
Rachel has lost 25 lbs and 26 inches off her body. Here is what she wrote on Aug 30, just 5 weeks into starting:
For the last three years I have struggled with fatigue, headaches, chronic colds/coughing, overactive bladder, GI issues, gynecology issues, insomnia, stiff joints, weight gain, moodiness, anxiety & even depression. My hysterectomy in December took care of the gynecology issues but threw me into surgical menopause, which doubled down on my moodiness & depression, and introduced me to hot flashes. I was on two prescription medications and several “diets” had failed me. I pretty much hit rock bottom!
As you know, my mom asked Leslie to come chat with us and the rest is history! I agreed to Clean Fast. (This was huge for me because I loved my “desert” coffee in the morning and diet soda. I also took out all sweeteners and seed oils from my diet).
I started IF (16:8) on July 23rd and, by the end of the week, I was doing OMAD. Today, EVERYTHING in that long list…. IS GONE - including the prescriptions!! I still have hot flashes but they are not as severe (taking a few supplements for this). I have lost 12” off my body!! I’m so thankful. Please praise the Lord with me for His Loving Kindness and all the healing (body & soul) that has taken place!
One might think that Trish’s 19 lbs or Rachel’s 25 lbs don’t sound particularly life-altering. However, in the case of Trish, she lost it almost exclusively around her middle. I want you to visualize putting 19 lbs of butter in a giant mixing bowl—that’s 76 sticks of butter. Now imagine unwrapping those 76 sticks of butter, softening them, and then spreading them around your internal organs—your heart, stomach, liver, kidneys, pancreas all entrapped in 76 sticks of butter. That’s a guaranteed disease state.
Furthermore, abdominal fat sends out inflammatory cytokines (signals) that trigger systemic inflammation, the root cause of nearly every chronic disease including neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
That’s why in this post on taking your measurements, I encourage people to get their C-reactive protein (or CRP) measured by their doctor before they start fasting because it’s very rewarding to have the data showing that inflammation dramatically decreasing through fasting. (Cells communicate through inflammatory signaling pathways, and CRP is one of the easiest to measure, but there are others. Ketones are one of the most powerful anti-inflammatory signals.)
6. Lowered Blood Pressure through Fasting
A close relative of mine has heart disease and had extremely high blood pressure at a recent doctor’s visit. She has already been eating a very low carb diet for two years but was eating three times a day. I encouraged her to add in fasting since it’s even better than just low carb at reducing abdominal fat, a major contributor to high blood pressure (she appears thin but abdominal fat be high even in people who appear thin and high blood pressure is the sign).
The first week she did IF, she lost 4 lbs (she had previously thought she was at her goal weight), and her blood pressure dropped 10 points. (This study showed that IF was even more effective than low carb at reducing abdominal fat. A combination therapy is the most effective of all.)
An uncle has been doing IF for several months. He’s lost 30 lbs, his blood pressure is back in normal range, and he can’t believe the increase in energy.
My husband also brought his blood pressure down 30 points from about 145/90 to 115/75 when he lost 20 lbs through IF. More about him below.
7. Tammy: Down 46 lbs Despite Many Obstacles
This story is special to me because I always struggle with the desire to want to share fasting with people with health problems but I don’t always know how to bring it up without offending people. Tammy has a lot of health problems and recently had multiple surgeries. I was thinking that the extra weight she was carrying could be negatively impacting her already poor health but I was unsure about how to bring fasting up. So I prayed that God would give me an opportunity to talk to her about it if it would help her health.
A mentor of hers read my posts and told Tammy she thought it would help her. So at her mentor’s prompting, Tammy contacted me out of the blue and asked if I would meet with her and explain how to do IF. What an answer to prayer!
She mentioned that she’s not much of a reader, so I knew I couldn’t just forward her my posts. So I made a print out of the IF basics—how to do 16:8, eat protein first, no artificial sweeteners, etc for her to put on her fridge, and I spent about an hour explaining how to do it.
A week later I got a text from her saying she followed all the things I said but she gained 5 lbs. I told her that can happen at the beginning but just stick with it. Then I didn’t hear from her for a few months, and I didn’t want to bug her because I knew she had more surgeries and was struggling with lots of pain. I thought maybe now wasn’t the best time for her to try fasting.
Then one day recently I get a text out of the blue that she’s lost 46 lbs! I had assumed she had stopped fasting after the initial weight gain when I didn’t hear from her. 🤯
That right there, my friends, is dedication and determination. She stuck with fasting despite gaining weight at the beginning, despite being in pain, despite have multiple surgeries, despite some nausea after surgery that made eating protein more difficult, despite some of the hardest circumstances of anyone I know, she did her fasting!
If I could give her a fasting medal, I would. And it also amazes me that she did it with so little support. It’s not that I mind answering questions and coaching people—in fact, I enjoy it—but there’s something inspiring about someone who only had a print out on the fridge, only got together with me once, never asked me another question after the initial weight gain question, and just did the thing. Bravo! Hats off to her!
8. Neuropathy from Lyme’s Gone from Carnivore
A good friend has suffered from Lyme’s Disease for over a decade. During this time, she tried all the mainstream medical protocols such as rounds of antibiotics, and then tried all the alternative cures she could find. But she still suffered from painful neuropathy in her limbs. I sent her this podcast which tells the story of Craig Emmerich who had Lyme’s and also tried every treatment, conventional and alternative, and finally healed his Lyme’s through the carnivore diet.
She decided to try carnivore, and her neuropathy went away within a few days. Every time she goes off the diet just a little, her neuropathy starts to come back a little. But when she returns to the diet, it goes away again in about a day.
Most people are averse to the idea of eating such a strict diet. But when you’re in pain and you’ve already tried everything else, it can be a godsend. Furthermore, what you don’t know until you try eating that way is how great you feel off of carbs and sugar. Your cravings go away and you have tons of energy and clear mind. It’s not for everyone, but for treatment-resistant cases, it’s a blessing to have the option.
9. Gestational Diabetes Cured through Low Carb
A family member developed gestational diabetes despite being a small person and only gaining a normal amount of weight during her pregnancy. She does not eat inordinate amounts of carbs but gestational diabetes, like type 2, has a strong hereditary factor.
She texted me one day that after she was diagnosed with gestational diabetes saying she was told to “eat plenty of whole grains.” 😳 (She knew how I would feel about this advice.) In reply, I sent about 8 gifs trying to adequately express my frustration.
Really? Eat glucose when your body is impaired in its ability to handle glucose? Is this a joke???
(Note: in gestational diabetes, the pregnancy hormones cause some people’s cells to become suddenly insulin resistant. This causes the blood sugar to rise and the body to become intolerant of glucose. It’s a similar pathology to type 2 diabetes. Grains, whole or otherwise, must be avoided, except in very small amounts!)
She was also told that some people can’t control gestational diabetes through diet and have to resort to meds (maybe because they’re eating grains 🤷🏼♀️). She thought to herself, but can’t I just lower my carbs as low as I need to until my glucose goes into range? Ding, ding, ding—a genius.
But the next couple of weeks were tricky. She was sent home with a glucose monitor and was tasked with taking her fasting glucose every morning. She began lowering her carb intake but she was still getting numbers in the high 90s and low 100s (fasting glucose should be below 90.) Pregnancy is tricky since fasting is not recommended while pregnant. For those not pregnant, we can nip high blood sugar in the bud quickly through fasting. The low carb method takes a bit longer.
She was communicating with her doctor and hearing that if her glucose didn’t drop soon, she’d have to go on meds. So she lowered her carb intake down to almost zero and then suddenly one morning, her fasting glucose was in the 70s which is even lower than it needs to be. After that, she never had another diabetic reading. Yay! We did it!
Gestational diabetes greatly increases one’s risk for pre-term labor and other complications. This precious baby was born a healthy 7lb 1 oz (uncontrolled gestational diabetes can lead to extra large babies).
I can’t help wondering how many people are told to eat plenty of whole grains and then put on medication because the diet of whole grains is not going to reverse gestational diabetes.
Come on, medical professionals. Let’s put our thinking caps on, kay? There’s too much glucose in the blood. Grains have glucose, whether whole or white. Sure, whole grains are absorbed slightly slower than the white version. But they’re still supplying glucose to a person whose glucose tolerance is impaired. It’s not rocket science! What do they teach in these medical schools? Oh yeah, how to prescribe drugs.
10. My Own Story for Those Just Tuning In
In January of 2022 I was prediabetic and had chronic migraines about 7 days/month that I was on the prescription Imitrex for (generic name sumatriptan) but it had mostly stopped working.
I had a painful autoimmune condition called interstitial cystitis, aka chronic bladder inflammation, which kept me from sleeping many nights (more on that here). When I was having a flare, it kept me up nearly all night.
And I had gastritis, or unexplained stomach inflammation which caused bloating, gas, discomfort, and frequent burping.
I began intermittent fasting to deal with the prediabetes but it cured all of the above ailments as well. (It took me from January to August before I began seeing any results, and that made me realize how important it is to have the right info from the beginning rather than just hear a snippet about IF and then trying it alone. I tell the whole story in this podcast.)
From August of 2022 to March of 2023, I lost 45 lbs and 8 inches off my belly. I am now mirgraine-free, my interstitial cystitis is gone, no more bloating or burping, A1c (average blood sugar) is 5.0 which is far below the average making me no longer diabetic, I sleep better at night, wake up refreshed, no longer have carb cravings (although I enjoy carbs at time but I’m no longer addicted), no longer feel tired in the afternoons, and have more energy than I’ve had for years. I would never, ever want to go back to the old person I was. Becoming a lifelong faster is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
11. My Husband’s Story
Hubby saw the transformation I went through and decided on his own that he wanted to do IF. I encouraged him since he has a family history of early heart disease and his blood pressure had been elevated for the last several years. It’s also important to note that although his BMI was within a healthy range—he weighed 194 and is 6 ft tall—we both knew this probably wasn’t the best weight for him. Many men are healthy at that weight and height but he weighed about 165 through college and his 20s.
I encouraged him to do just 16:8 for starters—wait unit noon to eat and finish at 8 at night. However, he gets up pretty early and always has a lot of phone calls in the morning where he has to be talking and alert. Every morning for several months, he would cave at around 9 or 10 in the morning (he works from home). This is likely at the exact time when his body was switching from burning glucose to fat. You’ll feel a bit hungry for 20 minutes and then the hunger will disappear.
During this time, he was encouraging me to start writing about fasting (since I was talking about it so much) so I started my Substack with him as my copy editor. As soon as he started reading about the science behind autophagy and all the ways fasting heals the body—bam!—he was making it until noon or 1:00 every day. In just four months, he lost 20 lbs and his blood pressure dropped 30 points from about 145/90 to 115/75. In the last few months, he’s dropped a few more pounds and hangs out around 171, now down 23 lbs. He’s not far from his college weight.
We’re working on healing his chronic heartburn. Many people’s heartburn goes away when they lose weight but his problem is that he’s been on Prilosec (omeprazole) for well over a decade, and the body becomes dependent on it. He is slowly weaning off it. It’s now been two weeks since he last had it. He’s struggling with a little heartburn but nothing like he used to have. I’m hoping that as he moves further away from the drug, the lingering heartburn will continue to fade. (We used to pill-popping people just like the rest).
I explain more about him in this post.
12. My Dad’s Story
My dad’s story is the saddest one here because it shows the callous indifference of a medical system committed to prescribing drugs in place of recommending diet changes for a disease caused by diet.
My dad had type 2 diabetes for over 30 years and was a good patient who visited his doctor regularly, followed his doc’s recommendations, and faithfully took all the meds. The problem with the meds is that they only partially manage diabetes—they do not cure it. This is similar to how a Tylenol for strep throat reduces fever but does nothing to alter the disease state. This distinction was never adequately explained.
When you manage diabetes with drugs, diabetes continues to damage the body. When you cure diabetes through diet changes and fasting, it no longer damages the body.
While taking the meds the doctor prescribed, my dad had a heart attack in 2007, about halfway into his diabetes journey (heart disease is directly caused by type 2 diabetes. In fact, researcher Dr. Joseph Kraft who spent his entire career studying the relationship between type 2 diabetes and heart disease said that there are no diabetics who do not also have heart disease.) Then my dad developed painful neuropathy (nerve pain), cataracts, peripheral arterial disease (clogging of the arteries in the legs), foot infections including a toe that needed to amputated, kidney disease, and finally heart failure.
In 2018, my sister gave him a copy of Fung’s Diabetes Code, the year it was published. He read it, followed the diet, and put his diabetes into full remission such that his doctors took him off of all his drugs. But the damage done to his heart was permanent.
If someone had bothered to give him the info 30, 20, or even 10 years before, he would have followed it then. Why didn’t his doctors tell him, the ones who took a vow to first do no harm? Why was the info withheld that could have kept the disease from ravaging his body? Why wasn’t the diet option presented? Why was he handed drugs but not told of the diet cure for a disease caused by diet? (For more on type 2 diabetes, see my Open Letter and read more Success Stories).
But now you know, and knowledge is power. And information is motivation.
So be like Tammy, and see what happens if you don’t give up!
And create a story to share with others, like Charlie.
And surprise yourself when you cure more than you expected, like I did. And transform your health, like Trish. And come off all your meds, like Rachel.
Have you noticed a transformation? If so, please leave a comment.
I’d particularly like to gather more stories of people who’ve healed mental struggles such as depression or anxiety through fasting/low carb.
Psychiatrist and Harvard Professor Dr. Chris Palmer has some great stories about this. But I’d love to hear more. There’s a book coming out soon by one of Palmer’s coworkers at Harvard, Dr. Georgia Ede, called Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind. I plan to read it as soon as it’s released in January.
When you fast and then feast, you will become well. Don’t believe me? Try it. Go ahead and try to prove that it doesn’t work. I double dog dare you.
Leslie
Another excellent piece. Have been reading them all. Have been finding fasting difficult these last few months and I realised that it's mostly due to the high carbs that I am eating during my window. Have stopped fasting beyond 16 hours and have started a keto way of eating. Hopefully can pick up on longer fasting on a couple of months. Reading these success stories is so inspiring. Thanks for writing Leslie.
Lots of love all the way from India
Yashashree
consider having hubby try some slippery elm capsules. they won’t break a fast and they really helped quell the reflux during the transition off the Proton Pump Inhibitors.