Being the much hyped diet plan promoted by the rich and famous in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, the intermittent fast has reached its maximum popularity in recent years.
But experts now fear that the restrictive regime – a quasi-religion followed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and actresses Jennifer Aniston and Vanessa Hudgens – could be a dangerous cover for an eating disorder.
“It’s a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing,” dietitian Tammy Beasley told The Post. “I would like the intermittent post to have a warning stamped.”
The buzzy fad, promoted as a weight loss and maintenance strategy, suggests that people eat only at certain times of the day or, in one of its strictest forms, the week. It was the most sought after diet in 2019 and the second most sought after diet, after keto, in 2020.
According to a 2019 review published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the program makes people lighter and improves their health, but more recent research published last year by JAMA Internal Medicine did not find it more effective than the average diet to combat flab.
“It’s a wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing. I wish the intermittent post had a warning stamped. “
Tammy Beasley, dietitian
However, conflicting information did not delay the growing number of devotees, leading many to extremes. Variations include alternate fasting, regular fasting and so-called time-restricted feeding. Dorsey, for example, is known to eat only one meal a day between 6:30 and 9:00 p.m., and usually goes without food throughout the weekend – claiming to be more focused because of it.
The intense habits of the 44-year-old billionaire partially inspired the event planner Kristin White to try the intermittent post in November 2018.
“I’m slightly influenced and I thought, ‘If it works for a high-flying businessman like him, I should do it,'” said the 54-year-old Seattle resident.
Allowing himself to eat only between 3pm and 10pm, White ate the same fare every day: a hard-boiled egg with an apple, grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner, followed by a protein bar or a small portion of peanut butter. before bedtime.
The self-described 5-meter and 9-meter perfectionist lost 15 kilograms in six weeks and weighed 112 kilograms. But her “success” came at a cost.
“I struggled with my concentration and I was pretty horrible to be around,” White said. Worse, at the annual examination, the doctor detected an alarmingly low heart rate and advised her to seek help.
In April 2019, she entered an Alsana residential treatment center in California, where her eating disorder was addressed by staff, including Beasley, vice president of clinical nutrition services. Fortunately, the survivor of anorexia and orthorexia is now at a much healthier weight and mindset.
“Intermittent fasting was another excuse for me to deepen my control of my body,” White said. “But it accelerated everything for me.”
Indeed, Lynn Slawsky, executive director of the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, said that a fashionable diet can lead to risky behaviors.
“Your body is hungry when intermittent fasting happens,” Slawsky said. “People can develop overeating or bulimia as a result, leading to all sorts of other physical and psychological problems.”
She added that it can be particularly triggering for vulnerable populations who are already susceptible to a messy diet – and for whom the diet serves as a cover.
“It’s an easy way to explain why you don’t want to go to dinner or burn calories at a party,” Beasley said. “You can mark it with time: ‘I’m in an intermittent position and it’s not my window.’
“It diminishes and distracts from the root why you are either afraid to eat or join that event.”
Former Alsana client Maria Rupprecht, 26, quickly fell into the trap of learning intermittent fasting, which she believes effectively masked her dysfunctional approach to food.
“I thought, ‘This is socially acceptable,'” she told The Post. “The whole world was doing what the teachers told me was unhealthy.”
The 5-legged and 6-year-old girl refused all meals and snacks between 19:00 and the next lunch, losing 40 kilograms in three months. She had the lowest weight of 125 pounds in 2016.
“I missed my friends’ birthdays and graduation parties because I didn’t want to eat out the window,” said Rupprecht, who was eventually diagnosed with anorexia.
Now recovering and with a healthy weight, the newlywed from St. Louis, Mo, is successfully managing her relationship with food and is going to qualify as an authorized professional counselor in October 2022.
In the meantime, she warns that the potential risks associated with intermittent fasting are likely to be exacerbated by the competitive nature of type A disciples.
“I would compare myself to others,” Rupprecht said, describing how he felt the pressure to extend his hours without food. “My window will end at 7 pm, but then I would have a friend who would just do it [eat] between 13-15
“Some of my friends are and are in that world [still] undiagnosed ”.
If you or someone you love is struggling with an eating disorder, you can get help. Call the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline at (800) 931-2237 or visit nationaleatingdisorders.org.