Watchful eating, regular exercise, medication and antibiotics are traditional methods of managing IBS symptoms. However, more and more patients are recognizing the benefits of intermittent fasting in dealing with IBS.

Can intermittent fasting help with IBS? Anecdotal evidence shows that intermittent fasting can indeed improve a patient’s quality of life by reducing pain and discomfort, as well as regulating bowel movements.

In this article, we talk about the benefits of intermittent fasting on IBS, and what happens in your body when your intestines aren’t busy digesting food.

What Is Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting (or IF) is an eating pattern with periods or cycles of eating and fasting. Unlike regular meal times, people on an IF schedule fast for a specific number of hours and only eat within a certain window. Intermittent fasting is not concerned with the kinds of food you eat but is more focused on the timing of consumption.

Intermittent Fasting VS Regular Fasting

Regular fasting can be predicated on medical conditions or religious practices. Individuals undergoing a fast go on hours of not eating, sometimes extending to days, in respect to medical prerequisites (when preparing for a colonoscopy) or according to religious mandates (during the holy month of Ramadan).

On the other hand, intermittent fasting is a dietary option usually done for its perceived benefits, the most popular of which is weight loss. Unlike regular fasting, intermittent fasting follows a schedule and is recurring. Individuals who adopt IF often make adjustments to their lifestyle, specifically with their meal times, in order to accommodate the cycles of eating and fasting.

Types of Intermittent Fasting

The key principle of intermittent fasting is limiting your meal times within a certain window. As such, there is no one way to do IF. Below are three of the most popular ways to do IF:

1. 16/8 Method

Considered by many as the most sustainable way to perform IF. The 16/8 method involves 16 hours of fasting and a window of 8 hours for consumption. The 16/8 window can be adjusted into 14-16 hours of fasting with 8-10 hours of consumption.

The 16/8 is sustainable because it already resembles regular feeding patterns. An example of a 16/8 method is eating your last meal at 6 PM and eating your next meal at 10 am. To many people, this eating pattern is already instinctive and doesn’t need to be reinforced. But to those who tend to snack every hour, IF might prove beneficial for their weight loss goals.

2. 5:2 Fasting

The 16/8 method requires a daily commitment to the fasting and eating times. Another option called the 5:2 fasting only involves 2 days of fasting every week. Instead of consuming the usual 1,500 – 2,000 calories per day, dieters are expected to eat only 500 – 600 calories for two select days and eat normally for the rest of the week.

Although less restrictive, the lower amount of calories consumed twice a week may prove too few for some individuals. The 5:2 fasting is typically not recommended for individuals who need consistently high energy to complete their day to day activities.

3. Eat-Stop-Eat

Eat-Stop-Eat refers to a 24-hour fasting cycle done one to two times a week. Doctors don’t recommend fasting for more than 24 hours for longer than 3 days because this can severely impact your energy levels.

Drinking water, coffee, and tea are allowed during the 24-hour fast. Caloric beverages such as energy drinks and shakes are also not allowed. Individuals doing the eat-stop-eat IF are recommended to reach their daily caloric goals on their feeding days. Additional restriction on non-fasting days can increase the chances of failure and lead to binge eating.

The Effect of Intermittent Fasting On IBS

Intermittent fasting has many known benefits. For people who want to lose weight, IF offers an opportunity to cut down on calories and control one’s relationship with food. But its real health benefits hailed by science go beyond cutting down extra weight.

By altering feeding and fasting cycles, the body is able to “take a break” from digesting food. The modern human consumes a significant amount of preservatives from everyday foods. But even without these preservatives, sugars, oils, and salts in the system, the mere quantity of food being digested today is usually enough to upset the stomach, which is especially true for people with IBS.

IF allows the body to restart certain metabolic processes that promote better overall health. Studies show that intermittent fasting can decrease inflammatory responses and reduce stress, both of which are crucial in managing gastrointestinal syndromes, specifically IBS.

How Intermittent Fasting Can Help With IBS

For the majority of IBS patients, food consumption often triggers symptoms. Diarrhea, bloating, and abdominal pain can occur immediately after eating. Intermittent fasting can help manage symptoms by limiting gut responses to specific meal times.

Read more: What Makes Irritable Bowel Syndrome Worse?

This means that patients no longer have to endure discomfort throughout the day. Instead of feeling abdominal pain 24/7, patients who undergo intermittent fasting have better control over their symptoms, and can easily make adjustments in order to prevent any episodes.

More importantly, IF allows the gut to relax and repair itself by establishing periods of non-consumption. Instead of introducing new foods every 3 hours or so, the gastrointestinal system doesn’t have to work on digesting foods, which for many patients is enough to trigger abdominal pain and distension.

With no food to process, the gastrointestinal system doesn’t produce any uncomfortable responses. When done right, intermittent fasting can put an end to urgent bowel movements, constipation, and bloating.

Patient Success With Intermittent Fasting

Although more research is needed to make intermittent fasting a definitive solution to managing IBS symptoms, anecdotal evidence shows that IF can significantly improve a patient’s quality of life.

Patients report a “lighter” experience due to the eating restrictions necessary to perform intermittent fasting. Patients feel less bloated and less prone to urgent bowel movements. For patients whose sleep is disturbed by untimely bowel movements, IBS has been proven to regulate their toilet visits as long as a strict eating window is followed.

One patient affirms that intermittent fasting has helped regulate his bowel movements. With a slow digestive system, food takes a lot longer to process and is often expelled at irregular times. Even then, as is the case with majority of IBS cases, the bowel movement doesn’t relieve the feeling of having to go to the toilet.

But with intermittent fasting, patients have reported a significant improvement in abdominal pain, distension, irregular bowel movements, and stool consistency.

Benefits of IF for IBS: The Science Behind a Clean Gut

The feeling of being “lighter” and “cleaner” after adopting intermittent fasting isn’t just a placebo effect. IF activates certain mechanisms that are difficult to maintain with constant eating. Periods of fasting or “emptiness” allow the gastrointestinal system to resume maintenance procedures that normally wouldn’t be triggered during digestion.

The Role of Bacteria in IBS

Changes in gut bacteria can interfere with normal intestinal functions, affecting intestinal motility (or the movement of the intestinal muscles) as well as mucus secretion that protects the intestinal lining.

Bacterial composition changes depending on a person’s age, environment, eating habits, and drug use. However, bacterial cultures in IBS patients are different from healthy individuals, in that beneficial bacteria are lower in individuals with IBS.

In order to control the symptoms, it’s important to promote bacterial balance in the gut in order to restore normal digestive functions.

What Is the Migrating Motor Complex (MMC)

The migrating motor complex is a series of processes in the gastrointestinal system. Although what triggers the MMC is still unclear, scientists have observed that this kicks in about three hours after the last meal.

The MMC’s primary role in the digestive process is to clean out any undigested residual material. Extra bile secretions are also observed during the MMC, which plays a crucial role in maintaining a healthy habitat for beneficial bacterial culture. Bile is also known to manage systemic inflammation, which is useful to patients trying to regulate their IBS symptoms.

Here’s a general rundown of what happens when the MMC is activated: