Along with my blood type diet of late, I've incorporated intermittent fasting. You can look it up. There are several different ways to use this. I've been giving my stomach a break from 10 pm to between three and five pm the next day. (I know this doesn't sound healthy, but you'd be supprised how many calories I can pack into a four to six hour period)
Anyway, giving my gut a break from digestion has seemed to help me with malabsorption issues that I am still having.
It seems to be the best thing to help my stomach rest and heal after so much damage.
Again, I let go the idea of getting the proper testing done for Celiac. I just do not want to go back on gluten to have prof of damaged villi.... there seems to be no point when I can see that gluten/grain free is good for me.

Have any of you tried this? Would you consider trying it?
If you have tried, what are your results?
Here are a couple of links for your consideration...

modern forager also has a blog series about what happens to your body when you fast. Pretty interesting...

From this site:
http://www.dadamo.com/wiki/wiki.pl/Longevity
http://www.dadamo.com/wiki/wiki.pl/PDK4_pyruvate_dehydrogenase_kinase,_isozyme_4_polymorphism


http://www.modernforager.com/blog/2008/03/04/my-intermittent-fasting-success-story/

With this one, ignore the "what would you say if" stuff.
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/intermittent-fasting/fast-way-to-better-health/

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting/

Fasting and calroie restrction are both very stressful for the body.
  Just my two cents worth.

Well fasting is very hard on O's and I think Dr. D mentions that somewhere in his books so I won't be looking into this but everyone has to follow their own intuition about their healing.  

I know that the gut heals on it's own when you follow the eating regime for O's.  

There most likely will be others with varying opinions in this.  

I try to miss lunch or dinner once a week as Im sure its good for balancing my gut somehow

Quoted from Maldo

I try to miss lunch or dinner once a week as Im sure its good for balancing my gut somehow

I think it might be good if you are getting enough food and not actually hungry.  I know there is someone else here on the threads that has an amazing breakfast and then dinner.  But does not go hungry... anotherwords eats enough to maintain until the early dinner.  

Personally I don't want to eat so much that I can make it that long.  I get too hungry inbetween.

the explorer cleanse suggests going raw once a month.....
no drastic measures though are necessary.

I read somewhere, before where fasting durring a digestive flux is good for you.
The thing is, I have a digestive flux...um..ALL the time.
Not sure if it's damage done when I was eating vegetarian...
you know whole wheat and plenty of peanut butter.
I did get better on the BTD even on the secretor diet.
But since my system went crazy about nine months ago, I'm still recovering or something. I eat plenty for my size. Usually betwen 1300 and 2000 (even on the days that I only eat for five or six hours) calories a day. I'm at a healthy weight for my height 5'4" and 115-120 lbs.
So this is all about giving my system a break. Yes there are stress hormones that are released during a fasting state. But I'm one of the most laid back people ever. So, I'm not feeling stressed. Actually more relieved that my stomach seems to be digesting better than ever. So, a couple days a week of not eating until late in the day is seeming like a life saver for me. I even seem to have more energy now.

Thank you for your opinions. I appreciate them!

let food become your medicine!
did you listen to Dr Ds interview?
http://www.4yourtype.com/media1.asp

he speaks among other things about food that helps you heal and not about the lack thereof.

You know what came to me when I was reading all this? I wonder if during the hours that you're fasting, if you ate a Tbsp. ghee by itself every couple of hours, maybe that would aid the healing.  I bet it would.

Maybe that's excessive.  Maybe 1 tsp. melted in a little water every couple of hours.  You could call it the Ghee Fast.  Or the Ghee Whiz.  lol

I did listen to the audio interview the other day, thank  you.

My stomach does not digest most fruit and vegetables. (Beneficial, neutral....I don't try avoids) I can eat banana, avocado, sometimes broccoli, spinach, green beans... Pretty much everything else makes me ill. Serious malabsorption.
Celiac is not ruled out. I do not want to go back to eating gluten to get a diagnosis. Most with celiac go ten years trying to get a diagnosis. I really do not want to spend a decade on tests to be told "don't eat gluten". I already know to not eat gluten.
I could rant more here. I'll spare you.
I eat eggs, bison, beef, almonds, walnuts, macadamia, organic butter and ghee (plenty of ghee, Ribbit, but with food) spinach, broccoli, green beans, some tomato (very small amounts) some banana and avocado.... that's about it.
I've been really strict on myself. About every three months or so, I'll eat something with honey ...I know I'm not supposed to have.
But, I do not see honey being a huge issue here.  

Maybe it's just a matter of time.  How long have you been gluten-free?

Fasting is a wonderful way to 'rest the system' & it seems you absorb better afterwards. The harm in fasting would be eating junk afterwards to negate the good. But since you are on a good diet, it only can help.  I am starting to do it again. I was doing Sundays, but when & had to work the past 2 Mondays, I didn't. [I need the next day to recoup.]
Short, regular fasting(sipping water) with a good diet can only be good for you.  It helped heal me in my 30s & 40s.

I've been gluten free *strictly* for 14 months.
Though I know I was "glutened" last month. It's been a hell of a ride! I've been pretty sick for the past four weeks. Which doesn't help due to the fact that I teach Pilates and I've been low on energy. It's coming back though!  

I suppose being glutened once in over a year is pretty good, considering it's everywhere. Washing your hands a lot when you've been out in public helps. So, overall, I'm doing well.

Mrs T, you have good experience with fasting?
I'm kind of glad to hear that. I seem to be having some success with it. Though the last month cannot be counted in on that. I just upped my vitamin intake and hoped I was getting enough nutrients.
I've not had anything I would consider "junk" in years. So, that certainly isn't an issue here. I do feel that it has helped me to digest and absorb much better than what I was before. I will be able to say more for or against that in the coming months.

We all here know how important it is to eat real food. Hopefully, organic and as nutrient dense as possible.
Especially when you have challenging systems like us nonnies. ^_^

Thank you!

Ribbit! Your kids are beautiful!
Thought I'd add that. Congrats on new addition too!

Thanks, Crimson!

they re not only beautiful but a pleasure to be with!!
I feel lucky to have met them in TN!

You are welcome!

Ok I thought I'd bring the IF topic back, lol. I started this today. Doing Intermittent fasting and then when I eat, GTD.

I remembered after looking into it, that it is the way I used to eat before I had children, when I weighed 100 lbs and was all muscle. I used to just eat a big lunch and a big dinner and that was it, and I was super happy. I know what Lola thinks (lol), but has anyone ever tried IF? It makes a lot of sense to me. I don't believe in the whole caveman theory but I do believe that the first people on earth probably were not sitting watching TV for 4 hours every night eating Haggen Daz.

What do you guys think?

Quoted from Jesi

I don't believe in the whole caveman theory but I do believe that the first people on earth probably were not sitting watching TV for 4 hours every night eating Haggen Daz.

Quoted from Jesi

Ok I thought I'd bring the IF topic back, lol. I started this today. Doing Intermittent fasting and then when I eat, GTD.

I remembered after looking into it, that it is the way I used to eat before I had children, when I weighed 100 lbs and was all muscle. I used to just eat a big lunch and a big dinner and that was it, and I was super happy. I know what Lola thinks (lol), but has anyone ever tried IF? It makes a lot of sense to me. I don't believe in the whole caveman theory but I do believe that the first people on earth probably were not sitting watching TV for 4 hours every night eating Haggen Daz.

What do you guys think?

Like everything else, I think it depends on the individual.  I could never eat just a lunch and dinner - I'd pass out by 10am.  I've always been like that - my mom too.  I NEVER skip breakfast and only ever skip a meal if I'm so sick I can't get out of bed.  My dad is the opposite though; he often doesn't eat until dinner (but then he becomes the person you described eating icecream in front of the tv all night ).  (I have heard that A's dig breakfast and O's tend not to be hungry in the morning)

Interm. fasting seems ridiculous to me, but if it works for you and you feel good doing it I'd say go for it.  Everyone's body is different, and we have to find what is right for each of us.  The problems begin when we believe that there is a single correct way to eat and we eat that way instead of listening to what our bodies want

Dr. D. specifically recommends against fasting for AB BT as being too stressful (LR4YT pg. 291).  As such, I don't do it, because this answers why I have never felt good skipping meals.  I can even have trouble if I delay a breakfast for several hours...

He also says this for Type O on pg. 124.  You have to do what you feel is right for you, however.

I am an A that MUST eat shortly after rising or I can get light headed and cranky!
I have been that way my whole life.
Like Brinyskysail, the only time I will skip a meal is if I am too sick/nauseated.

I read a lot about it when I used to  frequent that low-carb forum. It worked well for many people, but not everybody. From what I could see, more men benefitted from IF than women. It makes sense historically, when men were out hunting (having to not eat for hours while stalking prey) and the women were gathering berries and such (lots of frequent snack opportunities) and raising kids. Pregnant and nursing women need to eat more frequently, both in prehistoric times and now!

I don't do well with IF. I tried it, but got too faint and weak, so I didn't continue. I'm just glad my blood sugar stays stable long enough that I no longer get up to eat in the middle of the night (which started when I was pg, and stopped when I was low-carbing.)

What I took away from the experience is that "3 meals and 2 snacks a day" doesn't work for everybody. It's not "unhealthy" to hear about somebody who has a cup of coffee for breakfast and then doesn't eat until dinnertime.

It's all about individuality. Some of us need to eat frequently to keep blood sugar stable. Some of us do better eating less often to rest their GI systems. Frequency of eating can even change over time as your body heals and changes.

Is it the GT Explorers that get so engrossed in what they are doing that they forget to eat? My Dad used to be like that & I definitely can be...
If I check my emails before going down to the kitchen, it can be several hours before I remember to go get food, especially if there is nobody else around who needs me
Yet on other occasions I can get low blood sugar It must depend on what I ate the previous meal ie if I ate the right amount of protein I can go longer without eating

The longer I do this way of eating the easier it is for me to go without food. I forget to eat sometimes I get so caught up with doing things. Most of the time it is lunch that I skip.
  I have come to believe that intermittent fasting may have some benefit, hormesis.

Quoted from Andrea AWsec

The longer I do this way of eating the easier it is for me to go without food. I forget to eat sometimes I get so caught up with doing things. Most of the time it is lunch that I skip.
  I have come to believe that intermittent fasting may have some benefit, hormesis.

Good to know Dr. D finally caught on :

http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1299544506/s-11/#num11

Patrick I love onions on meat too! I have been having calf liver with onions a lot lately...yum!!!

Today is day 4 of Intermittent fasting for me. Basically I fast from 8 pm until 12 noon. I feel great! Well, except for today, I am in TERRIBLE pain from this stupid funnel cake and a churro I ate on Sunday at Sea World. My hubby thinks I'm crazy and that I just made a wrong movement with my arm. It's my bad shoulder, writst, and fingers...the worst I've ever felt and the worst reaction I've had since February when I started this way of eating. I took some deflect on an empty stomach, maybe it will do something, anything! Once I have lunch I will eat all diamonds, and the pain will go away. I could do that now but I'm sticking to the fast (I am 25% hardheaded Basque u know). But ARGH the pain is terrible.

When I work out fasted, I feel so much lighter (not my weight, but my legs , my muscles overall, it's great) and I feel like i have more energy. My pants are feeling a little looser too.

Skipping meals is a fast way to a migraine headache for me.  I can't eat breakfast upon rising though. My stomach isn't ready for food for at least an hour, but more likely 90 minutes.  

Skipping any food (snacks included) makes me a bit crazy.  I have to eat something small every couple of hours.  If my schedule gets disrupted, I feel off for days.  

Quoted from Possum

Is it the GT Explorers that get so engrossed in what they are doing that they forget to eat? My Dad used to be like that & I definitely can be...

Same here.  We'd both tinker on things until the wee hours.  He kept going on beer, I kept going on Kool-Aid.

Quoted from TJ

Same here.  We'd both tinker on things until the wee hours.  He kept going on beer, I kept going on Kool-Aid.

It doesn't matter how engrossed I am in anything, I won't forget to eat.

Quoted from Patrick H

Good to know Dr. D finally caught on :

http://www.dadamo.com/cgi-bin/Blah/Blah.pl?m-1299544506/s-11/#num11

   Nice Patrick.. too bad you missed it.

Hands down best remedy for joint pain, beef bone broth! It took away the pain in about 30 minutes.

Ok guys I had to report back on my intermittent fasting! I went from a size 7 to a size 1 in six weeks. My abs are ripped and my legs and arms are lean again! It really helped me shed the fat I had gained last year, but allowed me to keep my muscle mass. I won't know how much weight I lost until I see my dr next month. I fast everyday until noon, workout at about 10:30-12, then eat. I eat a snack sometimes if I'm hungry, and then eat dinner. I eat most of my carbs at dinner, it's my biggest meal. I know it sounds backwards to everything the "experts" tell us but it really works. Check out leangains.com, the guys names Martin Berkhan.

I'm glad you found something that works for you! The thing about most "expert dietary advice" is that it's all "one size fits all." We're all unique, and what works for one won't work for somebody else.

Quoted from Jesi

Ok guys I had to report back on my intermittent fasting! I went from a size 7 to a size 1 in six weeks. My abs are ripped and my legs and arms are lean again! It really helped me shed the fat I had gained last year, but allowed me to keep my muscle mass. I won't know how much weight I lost until I see my dr next month. I fast everyday until noon, workout at about 10:30-12, then eat. I eat a snack sometimes if I'm hungry, and then eat dinner. I eat most of my carbs at dinner, it's my biggest meal.  

Jesi, you sound very much like me. I'm not hungry in the morning- been that way since I was a kid. My hunger doesn't kick in until 11ish. If I wait until 1p to eat- I have mega energy!

I will be trying this intermittent fasting. But I think this method is easier on the body overall. Thanks for sharing!

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html

This is probably the best article in the entire site he has. I also read that short term fasting actually helps regulate your insulin levels. Obviously it can't work for everyone, but if it worked for this hunter it might work for another! Sooks I'm glad you're going to try it! Let me know how it goes.

Jesi, I just sent you a message, let's connect- I'm interested in your experience... Since I'm a Hunter too  

I've been doing intermittent fasting too the last 2-3 weeks and love it.  3 meals a day just got old; I burned out on breakfast in paticular.  I'm already small but also have lost muscle mass over the years, seemed to become a grazer, was allowing myself several hundred too many calories on a regular basis.  My feeling is that being in the "fed" state all the time though not terrible weight wise was slowing me down physically and maybe even aging me.  I have become less motivated over the years.....and less athletic.  

There's a ton of good info online, a lot of people are really in to IF.  Contrary to it being hard on the body, a lot of people seem to thrive on less frequent meals.  I'm doing the one meal at night Warrior Diet by Ori Hofmekler most days, I undereat on fruits and veggies during the day.  I've also done some higher calorie days and 24 hour fasts; I'm losing body fat for the first time in years and feel great.  The pdf to WD and Eat Stop Eat are on mediafire.com if you want to read them.  Brad Pilon author of ESE says fasting lowers insulin much more than protein based diets like the Zone.......I combined BT with the Zone for years and can definitely tell a difference.

Quoted from 14442

The pdf to WD and Eat Stop Eat are on mediafire.com if you want to read them.

Woohoo! Thanks Sahara!

It's an amazing book, one of the most inspiring I've ever read.  Now if I can  just get my muscle mass back up.  This with weights and,possibly whey protein & colostrum is my last hope.  I wish I'd never started dieting & continued to exercise but its hard...the problem with being a Hunter is weight control can be easy.  Time for dinner, famished.

Quoted from 14442

It's an amazing book, one of the most inspiring I've ever read.  Now if I can  just get my muscle mass back up.  This with weights and,possibly whey protein & colostrum is my last hope.  I wish I'd never started dieting & continued to exercise but its hard...the problem with being a Hunter is weight control can be easy.  Time for dinner, famished.

I'm reading the WD book now. I love it. So up my alley. Luckily as a hunter we lose weight pretty easily, but yeah it's getting the muscle mass back up. Just want to be lean and slightly cut.  

This might well be a "Hunter only" temporary dieting strategy.  I have known some Gatherer men who only eat lunch and dinner, or I should say dinner and supper, given how late they take their meal.  I expect these Gatherers to become diabetic once they have some kind of crisis.

"The fast in the morning until you catch something" would be a typical day for an ancient subsistance hunter (thinking spears 'n boomerangs here).  I doubt that I could get away with that partial fasting.  When I lost weight before the BDT, I got crabby at 11 am on an all-oatmeal breakfast - you could set your watch to it.  I noticed a great difference taking Glycoscia when I was on the health maintenance pack - it did the job with blood sugar regulation.  If you have trouble later in the morning, but are still motivated by the need to loose weight, you might keep the program going with the supplement.

Quoted from paul clucas

This might well be a "Hunter only" temporary dieting strategy.  

This may very well be true. While reading the book, many of the ideas the author talks about work very well for my psysiology. I kept thinking about other genotypes and how they would fare -as in the Gatherer. Since Gatherer's do not do well on calorie restriction, and may end up worse off.

I don't get cranky or crazy if I don't eat. I usually have a reserve of energy that takes over to tide me over until I do eat. It's definitely a hunter trait, I think

Actually, I do not chose to not eat breakfast as of late I am just sick until between 0930 an 1100 depending on the day. I am sometimes lucky to eat lunch. some days I wake famished and must eat quickly but can go til dinner time without food. but there are times that if I don't eat I am rather cranky. I too can tied up in projects and forget to eat (may be ADHD-runs in the family). Typically, fasting for my family is first sunday of the month from after dinner satuday night to dinner sunday night. This has been modified due to health and age for some. We eat until midnight, if we chose. Then no food after that water is allowed. No Breakfast, unless it is a blood sugar issue which does come up-eat enough to take the edge off or you are under age 8-which youngest is 10 now. Then we eat after church usually after 1230 or 1430, depending on the year. But we do this for the purpose of guidance in our lives and help with trials we may be going through or others needs, i.e., tsunami victims in Japan.

Mine is also a digestion issue-not everything I eat is always digested properly, in fact some comes out unprocessed especially after gluten or corn or potato contamination. sometimes all I can eat is protein and drink water. It ry to add greens and veggies, but it has been struggle as of late.

I just wish I knew what exactly my body was doing so I knew what to expect day to day. I had been feeling better but went through another round of CFS and candida. I start all over again. This is why I've had a hard time with my SWAMI. I really try but seem to be failing.

Just like Sahara I'm also doing the Warrior Diet...I use it in conjunction with the Genotype food recommendations...a lot of Ori's food recommendations have the BTD taken into account to start with...And most of his recommendations are quite general, so it's easy to fill in the blanks with beneficial/super beneficial.

I've been using the warrior diet eating structure with sustainable (6 months) and great success...this includes an abundance of energy during the day, increased strength gains on a weekly basis (I'm a strength athlete in my off time), better sleep...really good sleep...I'm been sleeping soundly 9-10 hours with no random wake ups, and finally...being able to "feast" on a daily basis is a huge morale boost, to be able to completely and fully satisfy yourself once a day and stay lean and mean is simply put...awesome.

The primary reason I started and have continued this diet is that I agree quite fully with Ori's statement that the human body thrives under hardship, A factor that I feel has been over looked in most of the health and nutrition community.

Just to clarify, when I said:

Quoted from ChuChuTrick

I agree quite fully with Ori's statement that the human body thrives under hardship

I was referring to hardship as Acute oxidative stress (short intense exercise or periodical fasting), rather than Chronic oxidative stress (chronic infection, chronic over training or chronic dietary abuse)

This is an interesting thread....I wonder if we could find out Martins blood type, that would be helpful to know!

guys I lost 12 lbs since my first post on IF...what was it like 2 or 3 months ago? Haven't done my BIA yet so I don't know how much fat I've lost. I'm loving it!

2.5 months = 12 lbs lost! woot woot! I actually just came in to see when I had started it...lol

That's awesome!  My dad's an O and just naturally follows the same kind of eating schedule as you, but then he eats cr*p   I've gotten my mom to cut down on grains though