I just started working from 6 am to 4 pm Monday through Friday, I sleep from 9 pm to 5 am those days. I am a primarily hypoglycemic type 2 diabetic. I have been doing 16:8 but with my new work schedule I am considering doing 20:4 with my eating window being 4 pm to 8 pm. Is such a long fasting window safe for a diabetic with an extremely physically active job? I tend to do between 15k and 20k steps over the course of any given workday and I’m on my feet my entire shift. I don’t like to eat at work because I have severe IBS-D and I tend to get explosively sick about half an hour after eating. Lately I have found I’m not sleeping well and I’m waking up with shaking hands so I wonder if I’m pushing too hard. I’m also not losing weight at all so I wonder if my body is holding on to what I am eating because it’s not enough.
Note that I also have heart/lung/kidney issues caused by a very difficult pregnancy and labor where I actually coded 3 times. My cardiopulmonologist wants me to lose 50 pounds to get on the heart-lung transplant list at some point in the next 10 years but she told me to just figure out which diet works best for me. She didn’t give me any dietary advice. And the small clinic in our rural community doesn’t have a dietitian. I can’t get into the city easily because I don’t drive.
Perhaps check out if Dr. Fung has any videos more specific to your diagnosis. I know he has a few videos about fasting and diabetes.
I am not super well versed on the matter at all, but I used an OMAD schedule to lower my A1C. I am fairly healthy, just overweight, so I don’t mind the 1 meal a day schedule. I started with a A1C of 6.6% and 4 months of OMAD I got it down to 5.9%.
Since you are awake early, you might consider having a nice big well balanced meal at 4 or 5 pm and give yourself some time to digest before going to bed at 9pm. That would be my suggestion and see how you feel. Though you should ask your doctor about when you have too low a blood sugar when faster during the day…
Just want to stress that you really should talk to your doctor. I’ve read about t2 diabetics who fasted but you have a lot more stuff going on besides diabetes and you should really speak with an expert who knows your medical situation.