So how do you know if it’s safe to try intermittent fasting? Our experts shared that it’s all in your head — or, more specifically, in your mindset.
“The key difference lies in mindset, intent and impact on daily life,” Mehr said. If you are able to do intermittent fasting without obsessive thoughts about food or body image, and without rigid food rules that impair your daily functioning, then it might be OK. For everyone else, it can quickly spiral into disordered eating.
This might look like “experiencing intense anxiety about breaking ‘rules,’ obsessing over food, feeling shame about eating, avoiding social events involving food or using fasting as a way to control weight at all costs,” according to O’Melia.
“No one sets out thinking, ‘I want to develop an eating disorder,’ but for individuals with certain genetic, psychological and environmental risk factors, seemingly healthy choices can inadvertently lead to dangerous patterns,” O’Melia said.
Signs intermittent fasting is triggering disordered eating include:
- Compensatory behaviors, like excessive exercise or purging.
- Avoiding social meals that don’t fall in your eating window.
- Increasing preoccupation with food, body image or weight.
- Low energy, mood disturbances, sleep issues or trouble concentrating.
- Only eating “safe” or “healthy” foods.
- Eating in isolation; secrecy or hiding of eating behaviors.
- Binge eating symptoms, feeling of loss of control when eating.
- Feeling anxiety, guilt or shame if you eat outside your “allowed” window.
- Experiencing medical issues such as fainting, amenorrhea, GI distress, or fatigue, dizziness, weakness, irritability or obsessional thinking about food.
- Negative or emotionally reactive responses to expressions of concern about changes in behavior.
- Any additional or increasing behaviors that can be associated with eating disorders, such as laxative use, changes in exercise patterns, developing food rules about the types of food eaten rather than just the times that food is eaten.
- If fasting starts to feel like an obligation instead of a choice — or affects your ability to enjoy life — it may be time to reevaluate.
“It’s critical to remember that the human body is incredibly complex — and it thrives when treated with compassion, not punishment,” O’Melia said.
