Fasting during chemo

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Hi everyone! 

How’s everyone doing?

I am doing ok, tomorrow is my first day of my very first chemo!  
I’m having Docetaxel & Carboplatin as well as Trastuzumab & Zoledronic Acid. My question is has anyone tried fasting through chemo?

My husband has been doing research & has read so much how it can benefit me with my recovery etc. I’m currently 24 hours into a fast & I feel grumpy & hungry!! I don’t want to give up (I’m aiming to do 48 hours) but I’m struggling. 
Has anyone tried this? Does anyone have any tips? Will being hungry make the chemo drugs symptoms feel worse? Should I just quit whinging & get on with it? 

Help 

from a very hungry lady ! 

  • Hi Mrs B 23 welcome to the forum. Ive not heard of this one before or how it may affect the chemo drugs, but I wouldnt have thought it would be a good idea to have chemo on an empty stomach.  I really think you could have a chat with the chemo team tomorrow and get their thoughts re fasting during treatment. They may advise against this until the chemo is past. Hope you manage to get some answers.  

    gail

     
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  • Hi MrsB23,

    I’m having EC chemo treatment and at my first session I fasted before I went as I didn’t want to be sick. The first thing I was asked was If I’d had breakfast and when I admitted to not eating I was strongly advised to have something before they started. The anti sickness helped a lot.

    Sorry if this doesn’t answer your question but I do agree with GRANNY 59.

    Good luck with everything! X

  • I can only echo what the others have said. They’ll advise you to eat tomorrow and eating little and often helped my nausea, if I got too hungry I felt dreadfully sick, I learned to eat a little here and there. Steroids make you feel starving too. I looked for studies on fasting during and those that were available that had any patient testing were too small to be objective. It’s mostly about the cell changes in mice. Everyone does this differently and chemo affects everyone differently but you really don’t want to go into this with your energy depleted and starving. Some people really struggle to eat after chemo and when you’re in a cycle, the few days before chemo can be when your tastebuds are ok again, a treat honestly. I wouldn’t dream of telling you what to do, but if I were you, I’d eat. Something really nice.  Good luck tomorrow, the first one of anything is always the hardest x

  • Hi, hope you're doing ok. 

    After my first chemo session I tried the Fasting Mimicking Diet after reading about it on some other posts. It tricks your body into thinking its fasting (by consuming around 800 calories a day, mainly plant based) so you don't have to starve yourself. There is information on the Cancer Active website if you're interested.

    Good luck with your treatments everybody x