Is Intermittent Fasting Beneficial for Menopause?

Lately, intermittent fasting (IF) has been gaining popularity. Which may leave you curious if this might be your solution to the weight gain associated with menopause.

Fasting is not some new fad diet. It has been around for thousands of years and is a common practice in many cultures such as Islam, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Christianity.

While IF has been getting lots of attention in social media (and elsewhere) lately, little research has been conducted specifically with women entering menopause. Let’s discuss the details.

What is Fasting?

Fasting methods vary within cultural practices and within therapeutic treatments.

Intermittent fasting (IF) is when you undergo periods of low calorie or no calorie intake. There are many different styles, or subcategories, of IF. Subcategories of IF include time-restricted feeding (restricting the time of intake without calorie restriction, such as 16:8 or 20:4), and alternative day fasting (fasting two days, feasting the remainder). One version of alternative day fasting is also known as the ‘5:2 diet’. It involves alternating days of reduced caloric intake (25% of usual intake), with feasting days, during which you can have as much food and beverages as you like.

How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?

During fasting, the body goes into a state of starvation (12-36 hours without food consumption). In this time, your body switches from using glucose (sugar) as a source of energy to using ketone bodies, a process known as ketogenesis. You’ve likely heard of ketone bodies (ketones) from all the attention on the keto diet in the past years. Weight loss happens as the body breaks down fat stores to create these ketone bodies. 

Potential Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

The studies for menopause, to date, have been used rats and small numbers of human beings. And, they’ve been for short periods of time, such as 2 months. The studies seem promising. Alternative day fasting is has created reductions in body fat, lower blood pressure, lower heart rate, and decreases in both total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol (i.e. the bad cholesterol) levels. Similar small, short-term studies have shown IF to have a positive impact on metabolic syndrome. In Canada, 2014 reports indicated 25% of women aged 40-59 have metabolic syndrome.

Proceed with Caution

While shorter fasting periods have shown no adverse effects, the initial transition into a fasting regime can cause irritability, fatigue and dizziness as the body gets used to using ketones instead of glucose for energy.

Furthermore, prolonged periods of fasting have shown to have potential risks such as decreased bone density, edema, mild metabolic acidosis, and a negative impact on hormones.

Alexandra’s Thoughts

Although menopause is a natural process, most women do not look forward to it. The weight gain associated with this time occurs due to our body’s decline in estrogen levels. To date there

is limited evidence-based data on the health benefits of intermittent fasting, and even less on IF for women experiencing menopause. While most studies show a reduction in weight, there is no significant difference in weight loss when compared to other methods that reduce overall calorie intake. More research is needed to provide insight to the hypothesized potential health benefits of intermittent fasting.

As menopause is a time when the body is going through many hormonal changes, there is no one solution to ease the process.

Kristen’s Thoughts

So, am I pro or con IF? My position is much more nuanced.

I see clients who feel great doing different types of IF. I support them continuing with what is working well for them.

However, in my 25 years of experience, I’ve seen many “amazing solutions” receive a lot of attention, only to fail to live up to the hype when larger, longer-term study results come in. So while I’m very keen to review the research as it’s published, I’m not jumping on the IF bandwagon yet.

Although, that being said, I’ve been recommending a mild form of IF for many years now. I just didn’t focus on the fasting part of it. You see, I’m a big fan of getting enough sleep. Because as we’ve touched on in previous posts, lack of sleep has a negative impact on our nutrition and weight. I also recommend not eating too close to bedtime. And, I recommend eating when you naturally feel hungry on the morning. When you take all these recommendations together, it usually works out to an approximately 12 hours overnight fast.

I’ll close with a word of warning if you’re considering doing IF. While the science hasn’t looked for it yet, I do see a negative impact of IF for some folks. I’ve seen clients who had a healthy relationship with food before trying IF. But, by waiting to eat until they were “allowed” to, they started eating uncontrollably when it was finally time to eat. They seek help from me afterwards because they’ve stopped doing IF, but the “bingeing” has continued. In other words, doing IF has tipped them into being out of control with food and now their eating and their weight are worse then before they started IF.

Looking for ways to boots your metabolism? Check out this blog post.

Co-Author: Amazing student Alexandra

Photo by Jutta Wilms on Unsplash