Fasting for non-religious causes – and whether or not it’s good or unhealthy for you – has turn out to be a scorching subject within the well being and health area. Everybody has an opinion and so they appear to be getting increasingly more enthusiastic about it by the day.
Leap into the feedback part of an Instagram submit of fasting and also you’ll see what I imply.
Personally, I get up HUNGRY.
My sister can’t take a look at meals earlier than midday.
I really feel like crap if I don’t eat earlier than figuring out.
My pal Jules seems like crap if she does eat earlier than figuring out.
Way back to 2019, “intermittent fasting” was one of the vital searched diet-related phrases on Google and the subject solely appears to have heated up since then.
With all of the hype round fasting, particularly for ladies, it’s straightforward to get caught up within the pattern. However right here’s the factor: fasting for ladies isn’t so simple as it might appear.
After diving into the analysis, my largest takeaway is that this: Irrespective of your opinion on fasting, you’ll doubtless discover analysis to help your perspective. However with regards to fasting for ladies, we have to contemplate some vital elements, from the analysis gaps to how fasting impacts energetic girls’s wants for power, muscle restoration, and hormonal stability. Right here’s what it’s best to know.
What Is Fasting, Actually?
Fasting merely means taking a break from consuming (and typically consuming) for a set time frame.
Technically, all of us quick in a single day whereas we sleep—and that fasting window is definitely vital! It provides our our bodies time to relaxation, restore, and faucet into saved power as an alternative of regularly processing new meals. And breakfast is actually the meal once we break the in a single day quick.
This pure “pause” requires that our our bodies deplete glucose and fatty acids circulating in our blood and faucet into power shops. It trains our our bodies to get higher at processing power.
However What About Longer Fasts?
Some folks deliberately stretch that in a single day quick into an extended break, a apply generally known as intermittent fasting (IF). Some of the well-liked variations known as time-restricted consuming (TRE), the place you restrict your consuming to a selected window – typically round 8 hours (or much less) – and quick the opposite 16 hours of the day.
For instance, you may eat dinner at 6 p.m. after which not have any extra energy till 10 a.m. the subsequent day—so that you simply’re fasting in periods of low or lowered exercise.
There’s a Lack of Analysis on Fasting for Ladies
Many of the analysis on fasting has been accomplished on males and plenty of have solely been accomplished on animals. Individuals who help fasting typically make the leap that findings of these research apply to girls as nicely, however that’s a fairly large leap as a result of girls’s our bodies reply in a different way than males’s (or mice)—particularly with regards to lowered calorie consumption, our hormonal cycles, and train.
The huge majority of research on fasting for ladies concentrate on sedentary girls and people contemplateed obese or overweight. However with small pattern sizes it’s onerous to generalize the findings to energetic girls and those that usually are not thought-about obese or overweight.
We do see that for individuals who are inactive or sedentary, research have proven fasting generally is a useful stressor on the system that helps enhance insulin sensitivity, glucose metabolism, amongst different issues.
However if you’re an exerciser or an energetic girls or in perimenopause, there’s a main hole within the analysis that makes it even more durable to use the present fasting analysis to your life—particularly with regards to understanding how fasting impacts train efficiency and restoration.
Fasting for Weight Loss
The analysis on fasting and weight reduction is kind of clear: on the finish of the day, with regards to weight reduction, fasting is actually only a technique of calorie restriction. Whereas proponents declare fasting has particular metabolic advantages, there’s no strong proof exhibiting that it’s any more practical than different types of calorie management, like portion management, monitoring your meals consumption, or balanced consuming.
Fasting is only a technique of decreasing your calorie consumption through the use of the clock to restrict your consumption. And when calorie consumption is managed for, fasting isn’t higher than different “diets” for reaching long-term weight reduction or well being enhancements.
Fasting and Train
Combining fasting and train is the place it will get difficult—particularly for ladies. Primarily, it’s because fasting and train do comparable issues—they each lower your blood glucose and different vital molecules circulating in your blood.
So while you mix them and train whereas fasted, you may find yourself with some points.
First, for each women and men, exercising fasted might make your blood sugar ranges go too low and go away you making an attempt to actually run on an empty tank. No fuel makes it actually onerous to work out or work out onerous sufficient to get the outcomes you’re after. It might additionally make you dizzy and cross out.
Second, fasted train is related to decreased efficiency, elevated fatigue, lowered ability, impaired focus, and an elevated notion of effort (so train feels more durable than it ought to). This makes it much less doubtless that you simply’ll have good coaching periods and even wish to work out.
Moreover, muscle preservation is important for total well being and metabolism, and fasting alone could not do the job in addition to different consuming methods that prioritize protein and carbohydrates for muscle restoration and progress.
For girls who do select to quick or exercise fasted, it’s vital that they proceed to concentrate on consuming sufficient meals – particularly protein and carbs – all through the day throughout their feeding window to reduce the chance of low power availability and stop muscle breakdown and loss.
Self-Consciousness: The Key to Making Sensible Fueling Decisions
Whether or not you’re fasting or following one other consuming plan, self-awareness is crucial. Everybody’s physique is completely different, and meaning tuning into your private wants and the way your food regimen (and train) impacts your power, temper, and efficiency.
And context issues—so keep in mind that it’s not nearly skipping that one meal, it’s about the way you’re balancing your wants throughout the day as nicely. So what works for one individual, could not give you the results you want. And what used to give you the results you want, could in the future now not be applicable or efficient.
Some girls thrive on fasting, however many others discover that under-eating or fasting interferes with their exercises and restoration.
Everybody’s physique has distinctive wants, and there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy.
After I introduced up the subject of fasting to my colleague, Jules Mitchell, writer of Yoga Biomechanics: Stretching Redefined, she shared how difficult it may be for individuals who weren’t athletes rising as much as acknowledge their physique’s alerts.
“The older I get, the extra privileged I really feel for having performed sports activities as a child and spent my childhood working races. At eight years previous, I discovered {that a} half banana earlier than a 10k would make me sick. I’ve been taking note of my physique’s alerts my complete life. However if you happen to’re simply now in perimenopause and entering into train, all of the blended messaging should be so complicated.”
Her expertise reminds us that self-awareness isn’t nearly noticing what we really feel as we speak—it’s about understanding how our our bodies reply over time, by means of completely different phases of life and exercise.
If you happen to’re always feeling drained, weak, or sluggish throughout your exercises, it is likely to be an indication that you simply’re not fueling your physique correctly.
Self-awareness is about listening to your physique and making changes primarily based on how you are feeling, not simply following the most recent pattern.
Many Lively Ladies Are Usually Underneath-fueled
One of many key factors that usually will get ignored with regards to fasting for ladies is the difficulty of under-fueling.
Many energetic girls underestimate their whole day by day power expenditure (because of all these foolish 1200-1500 calorie food regimen suggestions that we grew up with) and find yourself consuming too little to fulfill their power calls for. That is very true for ladies who do common power coaching, high-intensity exercises, or endurance coaching.
A 2016 examine carried out on 109 feminine leisure exercisers discovered that 45% had been in danger for low power availability – that’s almost half of the ladies recruited from native gyms and health facilities had been in danger as a result of under-fueling.
So under-fueling and low power availability aren’t only a concern for “high-level” athletes, any exercising girl will be in danger.
Underneath-fueling can result in poor restoration, decreased efficiency, and even hormonal imbalances. Ladies who prepare onerous want to make sure they’re consuming sufficient carbohydrates and protein to gas their exercises and get better successfully. With out the right vitamins, your physique can’t rebuild muscle, and you could expertise fatigue, temper swings, and hormonal disruptions.
In my work as a private coach serving to girls with osteoporosis construct and keep bone mass, most of my discussions with purchasers encompass consuming extra, not much less.
Dietary Therapist Michaela Smith agrees. She shared her ideas with me:
“The overwhelming majority of ladies I work with are under-fueling already, even those that need to shed some pounds! Underneath-eating is a big stressor that may manifest into hormonal imbalance, weight adjustments, and even cognitive adjustments.”
In her apply, she usually doesn’t advocate intermittent fasting for ladies. Right here’s why:
- Many ladies are already under-eating, which may contribute to anxiousness, mind fog, overwhelm, and hormonal imbalances.
- Fasting can negatively have an effect on blood sugar, resulting in:
- Drops in blood glucose
- Launch of stress hormones
- A rebound spike in blood sugar
- A “blood sugar curler coaster” that leaves girls feeling off stability when it comes to power and meals cravings
- There may be restricted analysis on the results of fasting on girls, making lengthy fasts a questionable technique.
As a substitute, Michaela recommends the next strategy to help regular power and hormonal well being:
- Eat a balanced breakfast inside 30–60 minutes of waking.
- Gasoline persistently all through the day with common meals and snacks.
- End dinner early sufficient to permit time to digest and profit from a delicate in a single day quick.
- Purpose for a 12-hour window between dinner and breakfast—this helps power metabolism and intestine well being with out over stressing the physique.
“The long-term outcomes I see with the ladies I work with are extra even power, fewer jittery emotions, improved blood sugar response, and extra steady weight. All wins in my e book!”
When You Eat Issues, However So Does What You Eat
Whereas timing your meals or solely consuming inside a selected window might sound fashionable, it’s extra vital to concentrate on what you eat and whether or not it meets your physique’s wants. Whether or not you’re consuming earlier than or after your exercise, be sure to’re getting sufficient carbohydrates to gas your train and protein to get better.
Carbohydrates are your physique’s most important supply of gas for train, and it is advisable to replenish glycogen shops after exercises. The amino acids in protein are the constructing blocks for all tissue and helps rebuild muscle, keep bone, and help restoration.
For energetic girls, this stability is essential—regardless of while you eat. It’s all about giving your physique the vitamins it must get better and carry out at its greatest.
If you happen to’re not used to consuming earlier than you’re employed out, however you wish to attempt it, begin small with simply 100 energy of easily-digestible, low-fiber carbs or a sports activities drink to keep away from GI misery. Then, over time regularly improve the energy to coach your system to tolerate meals at the moment of day.
Fasting and Hormonal Well being: A Complicated Relationship
For girls with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), intermittent fasting has proven some promising advantages in enhancing insulin sensitivity, regulating blood sugar ranges, and selling hormonal stability. A number of research have advised that fasting can cut back insulin spikes, a key situation in PCOS, and will assist alleviate signs like irregular menstrual cycles, weight achieve, and zits.
Nevertheless, it’s vital to notice that almost all of the analysis on fasting for PCOS has been carried out on obese or overweight premenopausal girls and the findings are nonetheless rising. Whereas the outcomes are encouraging, extra analysis is required to know how intermittent fasting impacts girls with completely different physique varieties and at varied levels of life, together with those that are energetic and in perimenopause or past.
For energetic girls, particularly these in perimenopause, fasting can influence hormonal stability in ways in which will not be instantly obvious. Low power consumption, particularly when mixed with a number of train, can result in low power availability and/or finally Relative Vitality Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), a situation that impacts reproductive, metabolic, and bone well being. Indicators of RED-S can embody menstrual irregularities, fatigue, decreased bone density, and poor restoration.
And right here’s the kicker: throughout perimenopause, distinguishing between anticipated hormonal adjustments and the indicators of RED-S will be tough.
If you happen to’re experiencing fatigue, poor restoration, or irregular durations (which many ladies received’t even be capable of inform in the event that they’re utilizing contraception that alters their interval), it may very well be an indication that you simply’re not fueling sufficient to help your exercises and total well being.
Sufficient fueling, particularly with carbohydrates, is very vital in midlife to help each coaching and hormonal well being.
Conclusion: Fasting for Ladies—A Customized Method
Fasting may match for some girls, however it’s vital to keep in mind that, with regards to weight reduction, it’s only one technique of calorie restriction and it hasn’t been confirmed to be more practical than different dietary methods.
For energetic girls, self-awareness and taking note of how you are feeling throughout exercises and restoration are essential. Earlier than contemplating a fasting routine, ensure your physique is well-fueled.
A balanced consumption of carbohydrates and protein is important—particularly to help your exercises, restoration, and total well-being. Underneath-eating could make fasting counterproductive—growing stress on the physique quite than supporting well being.
And if you happen to’re very energetic or an athlete with objectives—working towards a PR in your lifts or coaching for a contest or race—you could wish to go away fasting within the mud as it will probably lower your efficiency and inhibit your restoration.
There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy. One of the best technique is well-thought-out and helps your power, efficiency, and long-term well being—not one which leaves you depleted.
And bear in mind that there’s a rising variety of “medical doctors” and specialists on the market who’re talking about fasting (and cashing in on it) though it is vitally a lot out of their very own scope of apply. So earlier than diving in head first, be certain you verify what sort of physician they’re and confirm that you simply solely take recommendation from certified vitamin specialists.
If you happen to’re uncertain the place to begin, contemplate getting help from a registered dietitian or nutritionist who concentrate on working with girls in your particular inhabitants (energetic, endurance athletes, and/or perimenopausal girls) to assist tailor a plan that works for you. —Karin
References
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- Cienfuegos, S., et al. (2022). “Intermittent Fasting and Reproductive Well being: The Potential Results.” Vitamins.
- Correia, M., et al. (2020). “Intermittent Fasting and Cardio Efficiency.” Journal of Sports activities Sciences.
- Batitucci, G., et al. (2022). “The Influence of Fasting on Muscle Mass and Physique Composition.” Frontiers in Diet.
- Zouhal, H., et al. (2020). “Results of Fasting on Train Efficiency: A Overview.” Sports activities Drugs.
- Mellin, A. (2025). “Carbohydrate Availability and Menstrual Well being in Lively Ladies.” Journal of Sport Diet and Train Metabolism.
- Aird, L., et al. (2018). “Fasted vs Fed Train: The Influence on Fats Metabolism and Efficiency.” Worldwide Journal of Sports activities Physiology and Efficiency.
- Slater, J., et al. (2016). “Feminine Leisure Exercisers at Danger for Low Vitality Availability.” Worldwide Journal of Sport Diet and Train Metabolism.
