Intermittent fasting is being recommended by many influencers to boost energy and improve health. Many scientific studies back up this claim and it can be very helpful.
However, there is one condition where you should not under any circumstance do intermittent fasting and that is if you have any Adrenal Fatigue, aka burnout, or you are chronically stressed.
Why?
When you are chronically stressed or suffering with burnout, otherwise known as Adrenal Fatigue, then essentially what is happening is your stress response system is stuck in flight-or-fight and your stress bucket is full. It can’t cope with any more stress. Expose yourself to any additional stress at this point and your symptoms, primarily of lethargy, insomnia, weight gain (or loss), brain fog, anxiety, depression and body pain, will worsen. Intermittent fasting is a significant stress to your body.
Why Is Intermittent Fasting A Stress?
When you skip or miss a meal, your blood sugar drops. To prevent you from going into a hypoglycaemic episode, your body has to increase your blood sugar. How does it do that?
The stress hormone cortisol does it. Yes, one of cortisol’s main jobs is to keep your blood sugar stable. When your blood sugar drops, your adrenal glands produce cortisol, which tells your liver to release a stored form of sugar in the blood to increase your blood sugar. If we didn’t have this mechanism, we could not go long periods without food.
Trouble is, if you have burnout or Adrenal Fatigue, your stress response is stuck in fight-or-flight. Your job is to reduce as many stressors as possible to empty your stress bucket. Intermittent fasting is a stress to your body. Do not do it!
The other problem is if your production of cortisol is declining (which happens if the late stage of Adrenal Fatigue and leads to very serious lethargy and weakness) fasting or going long periods without eating will use up what little cortisol you have and make your lethargy every more extreme.
Do not do intermittent fasting if you have any chronic stress, burnout or Adrenal Fatigue. So how do you eat? Read on to find out how there is a very specific way you need to eat to heal Adrenal Fatigue.
What Is The Recommended Diet For Healing Adrenal Fatigue?
Many people I work with and coach have terrible eating patterns. They are overachievers who care too much, take on too much, and do too much. They are lovely people! However, these types of people get Adrenal Fatigue as their stress buckets fill up quickly!
They also unfortunately push themselves for long periods of time without eating. I see this all the time and it takes a long time for my clients to learn the lesson that this pattern of going long periods without eating is making their Adrenal Fatigue and other health problems a lot worse.
So how do you eat to recover from burnout?
The main principle to follow is that you need to eat approximately every three hours! Yes, it sounds a lot, but you don’t want your blood sugar dropping, which is a significant stress (either using up your declining cortisol if your are in the late stage of AF or producing more if you are in the first stage of AF-both a problem). Having stable blood sugars will help you prevent brain fog, mood swings, and energy crashes. It will also help prevent many modern day diseases.
Learning what to eat and when to eat will help you immensely to recover from burnout and it’s something you can start right now. Most people with burnout need to change their diet, as many people with burnout tend to go long periods without eating, and when they do eat, they eat the wrong types of foods that increase their anxiety, brain fog, and fatigue.
Below are the four dietary principles to follow for burnout recovery, and I’ll provide a detailed explanation of each.
1. Ensure you eat an anti-inflammatory source of healthy protein with each meal to keep your blood sugar level stable. You will feel fuller for longer, and more calm. The serving size for most animal protein foods should be about the size of the palm of your hand. Vegetarian sources of protein vary in size according to the type.
2. Ensure you eat every three hours to keep your blood sugar stable. This ensures you are not calling on your body to produce the adrenal hormone cortisol to increase your blood sugars when they are low, which is a significant stress to your body.
3. Make sure you include some healthy carbohydrates with each meal. You are not meant to have large quantities of carbohydrates, as they will cause your blood sugar to rise too high. However, it is important to include small servings of healthy carbohydrates.
What makes a carbohydrate healthy? It should be a low glycemic index (GI), and as natural as possible.
Choose low glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates—so you don’t have unstable high and then low blood sugars, which would leave you feeling anxious, lethargic, and suffering brain fog.
ttps://www.gisymbol.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/GI-Foundation-Glycemic-Index-Fact-Sheet-2017.pdf
See the table below- which has low GI foods on the right.
4. Include some healthy fats with each meal.
It doesn’t matter what stage of AF you are in, intermittent fasting is not recommended.
Dr. Wilson, a world leading expert in Adrenal Fatigue, explains that one of the major mistakes people suffering with AF make is not eating soon enough after waking.
You need to eat breakfast within two hours of rising to replenish your declining glycogen (stored blood sugar), otherwise you may feel worse during the day.
• You need to eat a mid-morning snack.
• You need to eat lunch by 12 p.m.
• You need to eat an afternoon snack.
• You need to eat dinner by 6 p.m.
1. Dr. James L.Wilson ND, DC, PhD, Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome, Smart Publications, 2014
