So I went to the hospital for my routine control (for my Hashimoto’s disease) and decided to direct me to the dietician so I went to the doc. And I told him that I do IF and I really don’t feel like to eat anymore than I used to and told him that if it’s okay because I really didn’t have any serious issues like diabetes or hypoglycemia. He told me he has never heard such things and called it BS. I know I have to lose weight but I’ve never heard from a doctor calling iF bs.
Then he told me to eat every 2 hours except consuming bread which I never eat (I used to eat fast food and snacks). He gave me a list that was already printed and told me to do all day. I really don’t think it’s a good idea to eat in small portions and every day. The doctor thinks I eat too much after fasting a long time, literally treated me like I’m an ignorant. I told him that I gained weight mostly because of my hormone issues and depression afterwards (gained like 15 cuz of this) and he told me I lie to myself and find an excuse not to do it.
Fast forwards I went back to my home and my mom had gone to another doc like years ago and compared to that list and it’s freaking the same!
I don’t think I can apply his list that he gave me and eating in small portions every 2 hours.
What should I do? I am a student and it’s literally impossible to prove everything in the list as well.
I am in the US. I am a woman, 66. I am being treated for sarcoidosis an autoimmune disease at a VA hospital. In January of this year, I had my last infusion treatment. I use to get infusions of remicade every 8 weeks. I am in remission after 8 years. I attribute this to regular extended fasts.
My VA assigned rheumatologists and neurologist do not agree with fasting. I started a 120 hour fast. While that fast was on going, I did a 36 hour dry fast. I had a VA appointment within days of completing the 120 hour fast. My labs spoke loud and clear. The inflammation markers Crd and Sudrate drastically reduced. And the puffiness in my face, that I had lived with for years was gone.
My VA doctors do not agree with fasting. But I will continue fasting and advocating for myself.I started with IF. As my fasting muscles got stronger, I increased the duration of my fasts. Per Dr. Fung.
Doctors are human and depending on their specialty may not have heard or been interested in certain dietary lifestyles or other treatment pathways. To go as far as to call it BS when they don’t even understand it is his or her thinking they know better than everyone about everything. Being a doctor doesn’t make them a God. Get another opinion, or just use your own. I have mad respect for doctors but I have argued with many of them or thanked them for their advice and did it my way.
If you have underlying medical issues, you should always speak to a competent doctor before undertaking any life style changes….however…If losing weight simply means restricting eating periods to a certain time… dieticians suddenly find themselves out of a job!
It’s so easy a 5 year old can understand the principle! Likely, these are the reasons they don’t like it. Plain and simple.
Look at Dr Fung, he’s an MD and a specialist. If what he said was BS as your doctor claims, he’d be sued and struck off from practicing. Clearly neither of these two things have happened.
Too much evidence to prove that proper IF that’s got controlled eating periods, fixes ALOT of issues not just weight.
Myself:Cholesterol downBlood pressure issues and meds gone!Blood sugars down (still on pills but aiming to be off)Liver functions, back to normal rangeKidney funcyions normal rangeBody fat reduced significantly32lbs down in 4 months.
What changed? My diet…20:4 daily and 5 k walks.
So I call it not BS.
My doctor was like WHAT! How?
in the end, we all have to be responsible for our own health. Doctors are useful for certain things…but there’s no substitute for finding out what works for you and then being successful!!! You can do what works, and just go to the doctor to get the great test results every so often! Then they’ll take credit…haha eating every two hours sounds like bad blood sugar waiting to happen, and no weight loss unless you stick to an all-celery diet. If doctors knew so much about nutrition, why is there an obesity crisis and epidemic of type 2 diabetes??
Im a doctor and on IF. I know a lot of colleagues on it too.
Unfortunately there is still a lot of controversy of what works for weight loss in the medical field as well as some old coots who never stay up to date. There has been evidence on what those doctors suggested to works, and it’s likely they have had success with their other patients with that, but not every strategy works for every person.
I would echo however to keep an eye on your calorie count. Losing weight with hashimotos has to be tough
I recently attended a dietician due to IBS. She takes a dim view of IF also. Mainly because she’s concerned that it restricts the opportunity to eat a balanced diet (she mentioned calcium intake as an example)
I can see her concerns. My diet on OMAD is very restricted. When you only have one meal a day, you eat your favourite things. You just cut out your “meh” things.
Perhaps some people have the personality to have vast and varied single meals, but I’d bet that many of us are creatures of habit.
At the moment I’m going to be temporarily abandoning IF in favour of a low Fodmap diet under her direction, but I don’t think it will do me any harm to learn as much as I can about food for a few months - and when I return to IF I’m hoping I’ll do it with far more nutritional awareness.
This person should not be a dietician. The only universally accepted longevity mechanism around the world is caloric restriction especially when emphasized in proper time windows. Utterly unacceptable for a dietician to not understand this principle at this point. It’s not the 90s anymore.
As soon as the dietician called IF BS, I would have thanked them and left the appointment. That was unprofessional and for them not to know anything about it, also demonstrated their incompetence.
You can manage most thyroid conditions without a dietician. And since IF has been shown to help so many conditions, thyroid issues may well come under better control as well. I have hypothyroidism as well and take NP Thyroid because I don’t seem to synthesize the T3 as well as most people. I’m curious to see how my numbers look after I’ve been doing IF for 6 months or a year. I suspect I will always need to take meds but maybe not as much.
I’ve come to realize most doctors these days are not what they used to be. It’s very rare to find a Doctor out there who actually cares about their patients and the science. Sadly most docs are in it for the money. And to make matters worse. They’re run by business tycoons who only want to turn a dollar so quality of care goes down. Hence the list of things printed out. You’re better off finding help on YouTube these days.
Look, I’m no doctor. The diet industry (which pays dieticians the big bucks) is a multi billion dollar industry built on lies and never ending cycles to keep you paying more and more of your money to never feel any better. IF is free. It may be worth directing the next one who calls it BS to the article in the New England Journal of Health about intermittent fasting. Some doctors will only listen to other doctors.
I would suggest you look into the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP), if you’re not familiar with it.
There are fantastic resources on Reddit and Facebook. The groups are incredibly supportive and helpful. Many have put their autoimmune diseases into remission following this lifestyle.
Check the website unbound wellness. She has great resources and recipes and if I recall she had hashimotos too.
Perhaps consider a functional medicine doctor instead of a dietician. As another commenter mentioned, in my experience dietician often push their own opinions rather than offer sound, researched approaches. The last time I saw one she just tried to sell me biscuits she made because it would fix my gut and it was full of sugar.
I’ve been on AIP for a few years, combined with IF and it’s been life changing.
There are two podcasts you could look at. Dr Mark Hyman speaks about inflammatory foods quite thoroughly. I think his podcast is called ‘the doctor’s farmacy’ and another on fasting called ‘the fasting method podcast’.
Just listen to your body, it knows what it needs when it needs it. And stop listening to jackass indoctrinated establishment doctors that think in terms of “one size fits all” when it comes to treating people. I would’ve walked right out on his ass if he’d treated me or any of my family like that; you don’t owe him anything! These establishment doctors aren’t interested in helping/curing ANYONE; if they gave you the cure, then they’d be out of a job & more importantly a paycheck!!! Big Pharma (who’s in bed with the food industry) has got to GO!!BTW… there’s natural treatments/remedies for Hasimoto’s disease. Look up the Medical Medium book series by Anthony Williams… Good stuff!!
I had my doctor tell me basically the same thing. And asked if a doctor told me I was gaining weight and tired all the time because of my thyroid? Thyroid hormones have nothing to do with my sleep cycles or weight gain. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
I found a new doctor, she’s a little better
Hmm that’s weird. I’m a licensed dietitian-nutritionist and they should definitely know about intermittent fasting. There aren’t too many doctors who know enough about it to feel comfortable recommending it. If you feel unsure about getting started, you may want to read “Life In the Fasting Lane” by Dr. Jason Fung. It’s only fairly recently in human history that we’ve started eating around the clock- 3 meals plus snacks, so it’s really not very extreme. Unless you are under orders to NOT fast for medical reasons, you should be fine if properly informed and prepared.