FatLoss, Fasting & Fabry

Holy Moly!!

Those hospital scales screamed at me!

I don’t weigh myself ordinarily, I only know how much I weigh from my hospital visits and boy my emotional eating and a Covid lockdown had me piling on the kilos in a year plus new meds and the disease potentially too..

Feeling like A Stuffed Sausage

I can feel it in my clothes, I mean I laugh, I bought a cool sweatshirt online ( are sweatshirts even cool?) size 12 and was convinced they had sent me aged 12 –  but no!!
My wardrobe is feeling tight and restrictive and i’m feeling like a stuffed sausage.

Ok, i’ve got this the last 12 months have been really tough and maybe I needed to eat just what my body desired (Bread & Butter with lashings of tea) ready to then reset again..

What Works Best For Me

I would have always have said Keto style for sure a little bit Atkin, like creamy sauces cheeses protein etc back in the early 2000’s..
But now I need to really think about it, plan things, research, monitor because I have Fabry thrown into the mix and midlife peri menopause…

Take your own body into consideration, not the latest diet is or what your friend is doing, and when your dealing with health issues and hormones it’s really not as simple as calories in calories out.
I’m dealing with a multi organ disease what I choose for one organ may have a knock on affect to another..

Know Your Body

When I was training, lifting weights because again i’d figured out what style of training worked for me, I would be high protein, medium fat, low carb, I was having about 140g of protein a day loading up on eggs chicken steak..
That no longer serves me because i’m adding stress to my kidneys in them processing all this protein when they are already not working optimally, I need to think Heart Health too as I have damaged heart arrhythmia enlarged heart and small vessels blockages and then brain health think blocked blood vessels to the brain can lead to early onset vascular dementia and we know that everything is connected in terms of gut/ brain health so what I feed and fuel my body with is vital.

There Is No One Size Fit’s All

I am my own experiment, I am trying to work out what best suits my body and tweaking it as I go, armed with cook books, medical books, online Pub Med Research, Science papers & a Functional Med Practitioner I am armed and ready to try to figure something out.

This is the start of my journey to getting my body back into shape :

Metabolic Health:

Fabry disease is a rare inherited disorder of glycosphingolipid (fat) metabolism resulting from the absent or markedly deficient activity of the lysosomal enzyme, α-galactosidase A (α-Gal A). This disorder belongs to a group of diseases known as lysosomal storage disorders. Nord
Could this play a role in gaining weight? There is very little to no information about diet and lifestyle with Fabry.
With rare diseases and depending on how rare they are, very little money can be given to gain traction on research unless someone takes a great keen interest and really pursues it themselves out of the medical scope.

What Is Fasting:

Fasting is a great for metabolic health with intermittent fasting, you only eat during a specific time.

So, Fasting for a certain number of hours each day or eating just one to two meals, can help your body burn fat.
Scientific evidence points to some health benefits, as well!!
But, it does not work for everyone and you also need to be aware of your fasting window.
As I mentioned before about my kidneys, I need to be aware of what I am fuelling them with but also what pressure I am putting on them.
Fasting can affect the kidneys and the filtration rate eGFR.
I will need to be able to monitor this and hopefully, as I have just recently had my bloods and urine tested I have a base limit to go from and can get them checked again in about 8 weeks.
The research I have done is mainly based around fasting in the muslim community and Ramadan and those with CKD. The toleration for fasting seems to be around 12-14 hours.
Normally I would do 16-8 but taking into consideration my Kidney health I have changed this to 14-10.

Diet / Lifestyle/ Way Of Eating

It was clear from my research and looking at the organ damage that Keto was not going to be the best option for me.
The more I delved into foods and the impact they can have on the body the more it got a little complex.
I mean even healthy foods can have harmful impacts if eaten in high volumes. Take for example lot’s of berries and spinach that I was making my smoothies from each day great for antioxidants and helping to reduce inflammation but can also on the flip side if having in high volume they are high in potassium and oxalic acid – this can be harmful for those with already having kidney disease. Oxalic acid can increase your risk of developing kidney stones.

It is A Lifestyle

The best style of diet or as i like to call it Lifestyle as this is something I won’t be just jumping on for 12 weeks is the Mediterranean Diet. Lot’s of colourful veggies, good fats think high quality olive oils, fish, avocados and good quality lean protein. It has so many benefits for Heart Health, Brain Health & works well for my Kidneys too plus with the added benefit of working for my waistline..

What Is the Mediterranean Diet

It’s not the vision of a little side street in Naples with bowls and bowls of fresh pasta although don’t be fooled the food is so so flavoursome wholesome and vibrant that you never feel restricted or like you are missing out on anything.

The main thing we are avoiding is processed foods, sugary foods and starchy carbs.

The main types of food I will be eating:

Good Fats:
Olive Oil
Avocado Oil
Coconut Oil
Avocados
Oilly Fish
Nuts
Eggs
Some full fat dairy Yoghurt / Cheese
Seeds
MCT Oil

Protein:
Fish
Shell Fish
Eggs
Chicken
Steak
Lamb
Pork
Beef
Protein/ Collagen Powder

Carbs:
Spinach
Celeriac
Green Leafy Veg
Tomatoes
Aubergine
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Courgettes
Cabbages
Berries
Green beans
Onions
Beetroot
Peppers

This is just a few of the amazing flavoursome foods you get to eat!! Along with an abundance of fresh herbs and spices to really pack a punch and flavour the most tasty of dishes.

A great starting point for this is Michael Mosley’s The Fast 800 Recipe Book

Will This Work For Me?

Honestly, I have absolutely no idea hence why I will be logging and tracking and tweaking along the way.

I will be testing to see if my body starts to burn fat for fuel this is really an unknown area baring in mind my body stores fat in the cells rather than breaking it down. To use this first off I will use the keto testing strips that will tell me my ketone levels they are pretty accurate but it maybe later that i need to delve further into this if i don’t see a change on the strips.

I am logging my food to start with to keep my net carbs to a minimum.

I will check back in on this in 2 weeks time to see how things are going.

Looking at what i have tweaked, if i am burning fat and going into ketosis or not all whilst I will be researching more around this.

Claire xx