Hi everyone,
Has anyone tried a prolonged water fast to see if it improves their IBS symptoms?
If so, what was your experience?
I'm thinking of building up to a 7-day fast, gradually.
Previously, I tried a "juice cleanse" (I made it to 9 days) because the bloating was getting worse. Considering I have issues with sugar, it makes sense that it only made things worse.
Thank you,
Eniko
I have tried for one day only. I didn’t find that it helped, sorry. Seven days sounds rather a long time and it’s likely you would need medical supervision.
I’ve tried one-day fasts multiple times in the past, but I always waited months before trying again because I never noticed a positive difference. Instead, I usually ended up feeling really bloated by the end of the fast.
But last month, I did two 24-hour fasts just a few days apart, and something felt different. It didn’t help with the bloating, but for the first time since my gallbladder removal, I stopped experiencing that intense hunger pain—whether from eating and still feeling painfully hungry or from waiting too long to eat.
Yes, 7 days is a lot, but I hope that if my body gets used to fasting, it will be a piece of cake.
I am a little off topic in my reply to you . I read you had SIBO and your GB removed. I had SIBO , gas, cramps, d for around 6 years which changed to c and my bowel was stretched. elongated and floppy. Had my GB out 6 months ago due to cholecystitis caused by a blocked bile duct. My IBS symptoms disappeared and I was always hungry.My weight was fairly constant before, but I have put on half a stone due to eating more.Now on a mission to stop over eating and return to my previous healthy weight. Did your diet change after GB removal and did you gain weight? Thanks.
Oh wow, I’m glad to hear that your SIBO issues have resolved! I've been thinking that I might have problems with my bile duct since the surgery hasn’t resolved my SIBO.
YES!! I was very thin until 2023 (the year of my surgery), but because I’ve been feeling hungry all the time, I started eating a lot and gained 7 kg. I still look normal, but I’m not happy with my new body.
If you don’t want to try fasting, I can recommend something else I just tried for bloating. I drank a cup of beetroot juice every morning for four days before eating, and it reduced my appetite even further.
Thank you for the beetroot tip. I am still a healthy BMI, but prefer to be 7 lbs lighter as I was before.My SIBO was treated with antibiotics which worked well. We still can make gallstones, despite having the gall bladder removed. Starvation diets and serious fasting is bad for those without a gall bladder.I read that a low fat diet is best with frequent small meals, in order to avoid stones reforming. I certainly ate far more since my GB has been removed. I am going to try a low fat diet Mediterranean diet, no butter, no chocolate, no cakes or buscuits, small amount of carbs and only a very occasional glass of wine. Aiming to lose a pound a week or pound a fortnight. I will try a slow fix. Good luck.
No....I wouldn't want to go without water for any length of time, it's crucial for our bodies and it keeps the bowels moving. I'd have headaches and feel tired if I didn't drink water.
What I meant is that I only drink water while doing it. Actually, you can have coffee too, if I'm not mistaken.
Fasting from water is highly dangerous for the body. It could result in kidney damage, constipation, kidney infections and collapse. The body can’t function without a regular amount of water. It is highly unlikely to be causing your IBS unless the minerals in your local water are an irritant. Try filtering your water instead using a carbon water filter.
I think you will find that you SHOULD NOT fast for more than 2 days without medical supervision as this could cause problems with your organs.
I might try to find someone to help with this. Thank you!
Yes, I think you should to be on the safe guard. I wish you well
well there’s a Reddit page where many people fast for 2+ days . I can’t see how it would cause organ damage , if your dehydrated your lacking essential minerals even vitamin d anyway.
I didn't say it would cause organ damage, I said it could do. Read NHS not Reddit
I don’t have much faith in NHS. After several years of symptoms and baffling symptoms no one picked up several out of rnager markers in my blood tests. Short google search found many studies showing all same link. I supplemented accordingly good for emergencies very poor for overall health unfortunately it’s fumbled all to drugs what make money…
I don't think many people have much faith in nhs lately Starfish, but I also like to read what they say. Healthline also said you should be monitored if you want to fast for 7 days because it could cause organ failure. I do wish you well and hope you eventually get yourself sorted.
I have sorted myself out. It’s why I post here getting the right amount dos vitamin D and essential minerals as ‘cured’ me
That's great news. Well done
Does anyone know if bottled water affects different to tap water? I only drink still bottled water after living in Spain for many yrs and getting used to it
Hi
First tell your practitioner your plans, see what they say… make sure you prep by eating clean whole foods before you start for at least 1 week prior then maybe mono juice day before it maybe not fruit .. keep a journal.. fasting is great for the body as it allows healing while abstinence from eating.. do not gulp water down, have a colonic enema night before cleaning the colon will also help… bottled water with slices of chosen fruit steeped for 4 hours is beneficial watch A Healthy Alternative for factual support and information
Do not over exert yourself read meditate and watch things of positivity abstain from social media and negativity, the mental peace and clarity will allow your mind to become stronger and more focused..if religious 🙏🏽 and read some testimonies
Throw out any processed foods so after your fast you are not tempted to reach for them
And continue clean eating ..as the aim is to heal your gut so no longer consuming a diet that is destroying your enzymes micro biome helpful bacteria etc..
Fasting is a positive approach to the start of a new way of life … changing how and what we eat is a battle but over time with support and determination you will witness improvements in your body, and soul
Thank you for your kind and caring words! I really appreciate it.
I don't have a practitioner at the moment, but I will look for someone experienced in fasting.
I eat clean food most of the time. Occasionally, I enjoy a piece of cake, but everything I eat is made from scratch, including the sauces. My digestive system is very sensitive to everything, so I don't have much of a choice. I've had digestive issues since I was very young, and I have a niece with similar problems, so I guess it's somehow in our DNA. But I will never give up on improving it!
The mono juice diet with vegetables is actually a good idea. I will also definitely make sure not to eat too many acidic foods in the week leading up to it.
The colonic enema is causing a lot of pain, so I'm not sure I'll be able to do that.
I'm planning to incorporate everything you mentioned, like meditation, positivity, etc. I’m sure it will help me get through it.
I’ve even planned what I would eat after a 24-hour fast—it’s very important. I tend to experience a lot of pain eating animal products after fasting, so I will definitely avoid them.
I want to do this fasting because I've been dieting for years and it hasn't made a huge difference in my life. Hopefully, with healing, I’ll experience less pain from eating fiber, for example.
Thank you again for your kindness.
All the best,
Eniko
fasting is great especially short periods. Overall you would be far greater benefited from adequate vitamin d and essential minerals .
I have been taking them for a while and there is no difference. I also eat healthy and unfortunately, it’s not enough in my case.
How much do you have IU of vitamin d and do you know about elemental magnesium
I tried different dose of vitamin ds. Right now I have been using a liposomal spray and my daily dose is about 4000 IU. I also take high dose of vitamin b-s. I have tried lots of forms of magnesium. The liposomal one helped me with sleeping. I also take l-glutamine.
Hi EnikoF
That’s fantastic you are able to make all your foods from scratch, apparently we get our gut micro biome from our mothers, something to do with birthing…
Yes some people have issues with meat I don’t eat much like I use to, I find it slows down digestion…. But when you have fasted it’s best to give it a week to reintroduce meats maybe .. keep it simple and easy don’t over complicate things
I feel you have the ability to make a positive change considering how well you care about the foods you eat, if you can grow your own, or organic, even purchase from farms as grass fed meats is better quality foods , and please don’t forget to wash fruit and veg before storing…
Is q professional colonic irrigation is not possible maybe a colon cleanse and or parasite cleanse… all stuff worth looking into
Please not the stomach needs a healthy balance of good and bad bacteria
Keep in touch and do let me know how you get on
Warm Wishes
🪷
Hi Elf3,
Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful words.
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what influences our microbiome, but my sister doesn’t experience the same issues I have. However, she struggles with her weight, so perhaps that could be related to her microbiome as well.
For me, the main issue with meat (aside from simply finding it unpleasant) is that it makes me feel incredibly hungry. I completed a 24-hour fast today and didn't consume any animal products yesterday. Because of that, I wasn’t overly hungry, which made the fast much easier. I honestly feel like I could have gone longer, but I wanted to take things slow and focus on small steps at a time. After fasting, I won’t be eating animal products for several days and will only slowly reintroduce them. In my previous fasts, even small amounts of animal products made me feel very unwell, so I want to be cautious.
Your words, "I feel you have the ability to make a positive change," truly mean a lot to me. Thank you for that. It gives me hope and keeps me motivated. I do my best to eat as healthily as possible, but it can be overwhelming sometimes. Preparing everything from scratch takes hours, and when there’s no positive outcome—just pain and bloating—it’s really frustrating.
I’ve tried colon hydrotherapy twice, and the second session was so painful that I’m still not sure I want to try it again. It took me 2-3 weeks to feel like I was back to "normal" afterward.
I’ll definitely keep you posted on how things go. Right now, I’m taking small steps and focusing on gradually building up to a 7-day fast when I feel completely ready. Until then, I’ll keep doing smaller fasts to help train my body.
Wishing you all the best,
Eniko
I can’t drink water direct from the tap it gives me terrible diarrhoea
I tried a couple of days I think it was? it was a while ago now, and started getting burning pains in my stomach before the end, so stopped early and ate something easily digestible which settled the pain fairly quickly. No idea what was wrong because I'd tried 24-hour fasts in the past with no issue before getting IBS, but wouldn't recommend, but of course everyone's unique.
It sounds like acid. I will try it as last resort. 
hello, my IBS is different from yours, however I struggle with awful bloating, bubbling gas that causes severe pain. I get so constipated it hurts to move, walk, even sit down. A few years ago I went keto ( a reason I am telling you this ) while on keto I read about egg fasts ( the second fast I’ve ever done. ) The other was accidental ( I was quitting smoking 26 years ago, I know yuck 🤢 ) every time I craved a cigarette I would either drink a glass of water or eat an apple. Which had me feeling very full as the cravings were constant, I also started walking my dogs a lot more as a result to take my mind off the cravings when water and apples didn’t satisfy my cravings. I lost SO much weight it was insane! My doctor thought I was sick, until I explained why my weight had dropped so fast.
I don’t encourage a diet of water and apples, it caused awful acid reflux, but, I did drop a lot of weight really quickly 🤷♀️
On the keto diet ( for health reasons for my husband and weight loss ) I came across egg fasting, I don’t recommend it unless you are in ketosis, and used to the diet itself. However, the longest fast I did was 7 days, eating eggs ( various meal methods not just boiled ) with a form of fat and cheese ( keto is low carb high fat diet ) healthy fats by the way, I highly recommend learning about it before trying the diet. If this is something you wish to do, there are three day egg fasts, I have lost 7 Lb on a 3 day egg fasts, again I was already in ketosis, it takes on average 3-5 days to hit ketosis, that’s when you start burning fat, and when I say burning I mean burning 🔥
The beauty of keto is you burn fat not carbs, you can literally not eat for days without even feeling hungry or eating just one small meal, and drinking water. It’s common and actually really healthy to do regular fasting on the keto diet, it’s a breeze as I said you are burning fat. Keto did solve a LOT of my IBS issues and food allergies as you cut out grains, cereals, wheat and gluten. However, if you have dairy or egg allergies it definitely is not for you at all. As these make up the main part of your diet.
Sorry I can’t help with the water fast, my only thing I would say is, while drinking solely water and eating nothing, you are starving your body of nutrients completely. You’ll also be peeing out sodium, which can be dangerous to drop so low in sodium.
While doing a 7 day egg fasting I dropped a stone, the goal was weight loss, I had a lot to lose. My husband was diagnosed with diabetes hence why we went keto. It reversed his diabetes, until we came off it. We are in the process of transitioning back to keto at the moment. ( joy!! ) it isn’t the nicest thing quitting carbs, they’re like a drug, the body loves carbs, and tries everything possible to get them back even suffering a form of flu episode, known as keto flu. As I said, thoroughly research the diet before trying if you decide it’s for you. The great thing though, is you eat psyllium husk and flax on the diet, which both help with constipation, as does celeriac ( also keto friendly ) and cauliflower and broccoli are a staple on it also. No root veg, nearly all fruit is an no and def no sugar permitted, as I said super low carbs.
Im sorry if this isn’t helpful or even remotely close to a water fast, oh, one more thing, as you’ll be fasting and drinking water, you’ll need electrolytes and sodium, as you’ll pretty much be peeing them out as I already said. I would suggest undertaking it under a doctors supervision if you are set on a water fast, as they’ll be able to monitor your sodium levels. Fortunately on keto you have electrolytes and up your salt intake slightly to counteract the sodium loss. It isn’t worth playing with your health to lose weight in such a short period of time. As you said your BMI is healthy, it’s not as if you are doing it for health reasons, your aim is purely for weight loss.
I hope you find this somewhat helpful, I hope you lose the weight you desire safely 😊
Thank you for your kind comment.
I will just briefly answer now because I’m working but will react to everything in the evening. I will do the water fast only because of health reasons (pain, bloating, etc). I was very thin before so putting on 7kg means just that now I look “normal”. I liked my thinner version better but maybe because back then I didn’t have water weight and I connect water weight to unhealthiness. But again, I have tried several diets with not only no positive results but also lots of pain. (And I tried them for months.) I tried the keto diet, unfortunately, I was very hungry and I’m not good with fat. The most helpful diet was the acid watcher diet. I’m sure one of my main issues is acid. I take electrolytes even on a short fast. I will be back on the evening and address anything I have missed.
Hi again,
I completely relate to your experience with severe bloating. Even the slightest touch on my belly can be painful, and the constant discomfort makes it hard to do anything. Sitting is especially unbearable. There was a time when my stomach was so bloated that I had trouble breathing—it was a really frightening experience.
I love your idea about quitting smoking (or any habit). I had a similar approach before—whenever I craved something sweet, I would make myself learn something new instead.
Yes, apples can definitely be tricky. The combination of sugar and acid can be harsh on digestion.
I think I had to stop keto because I was just constantly hungry on it, especially with my hypoglycemia. Too much fat makes me feel really sick. For example, when I tried eating duck fat, I had terrible, painful hunger pangs. I also feel like animal products make me too acidic, which might be causing the pain. I once did a week of a meat-based soup diet, and it made me feel awful—so much pain from the acid.
But this egg diet sounds really interesting! My sister is overweight but doesn’t have any digestive issues, so maybe I’ll suggest it to her.
I found this really interesting:
"The beauty of keto is that you burn fat instead of carbs, so you can go days without feeling hungry, eating just one small meal, and drinking water."
It makes me wonder why I felt the exact opposite. Maybe I wasn’t doing it right, or maybe, with my lack of a gallbladder and difficulty digesting fats, keto just isn’t the best fit for me. Or maybe I should try a vegan keto diet. I know a woman who has been following it for years.
Wishing you the best of luck with keto this time around!
Take care,
Eniko
Hi, I recommend to search for Mindy Pelz books and FB group . In her opinion You could do it but there is good/ bad timing in a monthly cycle. In my opinion having GB removed I won’t recommend it. Because bile is constantly dripping in your stomach, having no food in, with time you could develop gastritis (bile is very corrosive). I would start gently with easy digestible foods and FODMAP , to identify what food you react to . Or at the polar opposite try carnivore or elemental diet. Juice is the worst thing you can do in IBS.
Hey,
Thanks for your reply. The idea came after finding her. carnivore is the worst for me as I have problem with acid. Also, I gag from meet (but I still tried eating meet because I was desperate.) For me, fat is the worst. I also tried the fodmap diet. I also tried just eating chicken and three vegetables. Horrible pain in my chest and throat. I also tried to eat only rice. It’s been 9 years so I had time to try out a lot of diets. People with a gallbladder can have issues too during fasting. I’m happy to be the guinea pig. I’ve also had sciatica for a year that hasn’t improved so I have a lot to heal.
I’m sorry to hear how bad you suffer. 🤗 good luck, (it sounds like you made up your mind about it already)! Only advice I could give you is if you are not feeling well, don’t push through.
Aww. Thank you!! I’m going to make small changes first and letting my body get used to 24-hour fasts first. And then I will do some 36-hour fasts. Maybe, at the end, I won’t need the 7 days.
What can I do to make this better ? Plz help 
Has anyone had success with a U.K. nutritionist, dietician or naturopathic doctor?
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