During my late teens, I went through a period where I was experiencing near daily panic attacks. Part of how I coped was to eat. And eat. I found eating comforting. It helped numb my ever-present feeling of anxiety and terror. I gained 30 or 40 pounds then.
After the panic attacks began to die down, I became fixated on losing the weight that I had gained
But I wasn’t well
During the months that I was fasting for part of the day, I experienced frequent dizzy spells and times that my heart would be racing out of my chest. I also began getting the most terrifying kind of migraines during this time — migraines with aura — which basically means you lose your vision for 20 minutes and see zigzags of lights.
I don’t remember exactly how I stopped fasting. I think those scary migraines — which coincided with low blood sugar moments — tipped me over the edge. I started eating breakfast again, and making sure not to go too long between meals.
It still took me many years to eat more normally, and to address my disordered eating. I now follow a more intuitive eating mentality, and I’ve tried to embrace learning to love my body at whatever size it is.
I know that intermittent fasting seems to “work” for many people
I am not surprised that it helps people lose weight. And I bet there are people who don’t end up feeling like crap as a result of having fasting periods daily.
But I also question how healthy a plan like this can be as a long-term thing. And while I know intermittent fasting doesn’t trigger disordered eating for everyone, I honestly don’t know one person who doesn’t have a history of some sort of disordered eating, and I could see how intermittent fasting could easily screw up someone’s relationship to eating.
To me, the healthiest diet is one that is based on hunger cues, that isn’t tied to outcomes like decreased body size, and that involves self-care and love. For me, intermittent fasting was anything but that.
