Is it advisable? Any hacks? What to do and what to avoid?
Do it. Fasting has improved my mood very much. You need to combine the fasting with a good selection of foods to get the most out of it. My mood and energy has greatly improved in the last couple weeks since starting up again.
Unrelated to IF, but I found that 25 years of depression were all a vitamin D deficiency. I did not need psychotherapy; it wasn’t “how I was made”; and it was not a failure of my upbringing or experiences, nor did I need the right relationship or friends.
Worth mentioning in case daily supplementing with 4000 IU changes your life like it changed mine :-) Of course, I realize this may not be the case for most people. I’m not saying “depression is easy to deal with”. It’s not.
Disclaimers: lifetime clinical depressive; biology is messy so what works for me may not work for you; I have zero medical, scientific, nutritional or physiological training; do you really want to take advice from some keyboard-punching rando who knows nothing about your particulars.
That said, I suggest looking at food first. My beautiful bride and I did the Whole30 program. We chose it because it helps you figure out what food contributes to feeling poorly, and helps isolate any low-grade food intolerances or allergies you may have. Once you know these, you can improve your food plan for when you start IF.
IMO clearing up crud in the blood goes a long way to improving depression, and so when you start IF you can get a greater “bang for your buck.”
TW: SUICIDE MENTION
I don’t know how you’ll feel about this idea but I just saw a Dr. Berg video where he discussed a man who was extremely depressed; this man decided he was tired of living and would end his life by starving himself. By day three of not eating anything, he’d begun to feel better. Not saying a prolonged fast will cure your depression, but there may be merit in pursuing fasting as someone suffering with depression.
As someone who had depression for about a decade and still has a (greatly improved) personality disorder, I am an advocate for healthy fasting because I feel much more in touch with myself and excited about life after fasting. The longest I have gone to date is 38 hours, but I am planning to ween my way up to a 7 day water fast.
Now obviously these are extremes and there are still plenty of viable benefits to be had from much shorter fasting windows, but I hope this helps and encourages you to try intermittent fasting out to see how you feel!
Edited to add trigger warning
Absolutely do it. I was suicidally depressed and anxious for years. Take it a day at a time, much easier to digest mentally than consciously setting this huge goal. Keep your long terms in your subconscious. This goes for everything though and can especially be helpful for depression. Break what you want to achieve down into tiny pieces because the smallest tasks can overwhelm us.
I didn’t control the foods I ate at all actually, not in the beginning. It was more important for me to build momentum and then eat healthier foods when I could handle it. The drastically cut down eating window helped enough.
If you feel urges, do something mentally engaging that’ll get your mind off it. Urges are like waves and once your body is accustomed to your new eating schedule, it’ll be cake. I think this is easiest when it includes something physical, for me it was Beat Saber. It also forced me to shower which was hell but rewarding. Sometimes I played games or watched shows though.
Meditation was very helpful for me personally. I started with 2 minutes a day my first week. Then ramping up a little every week. It helped me detach from emotions and push through “negative” feelings. This included dealing with urges and completing tasks.
Be kind to yourself.
Its up and down for me but I do find IF to improve my mood in general. But I don’t know if IF is what did it or the fact that I’ve lost 100lbs and that has improved my life in general. IF is useful if you have depression issues because you have a better sense of control when it comes to eating your feelings. Can’t binge on depression eating because you’re not in your eating window so it teaches you how to wait and cope with your feelings instead.
I have a personality disorder though so it’s not totally the same thing.
I recommend I also have depression and anxiety and IF massively helped with my bing eating disorder. They were gone in 3 weeks and my mood improved massively. Try keto, before taking vitamins consult a doctor. Check out Dr Berg and Dr. Jason Fung on Youtube they have plenty of videos on this topic with scientific explanations as to why it helps.
IF helped me lose the weight, but I personally experienced the best results for depression when I switched over to a cleaner keto diet and significantly increased my fats (grass-fed butter, avocado, fatty meats, occasional olive oil and coconut butter).
As a physiotherapist and a person who has suffered with depression, i have seen depression and work with it a lot. For most people, taking actions to improve ones life, however small, can really help turn things around. One step at a time (sometimes literally) can really make all the difference. Dont stress the failures and focus on the victories (like coming on here for help!) and keep on moving forward. Good luck!
i’m doing IF while managing depression and this helps me manage the twin battles against my brain and my weight because 1. mornings are a little easier when I don’t immediately burden myself with the sluggishness of breakfast; 2. an IF window is a stronger barrier against late-night emotional eating than “just don’t eat” is; 3. the more consistent energy throughout the day that i feel when i’m in a prolonged fast tends to keep me more productive and happier. In fact some days I only first feel a twinge of depression kick in after i break the fast… it seems to be if it’s a carb-heavy meal but this is totally anecdotal of course.