Can chronic HBV carries do Intermittent Fasting on a regular basis?

[patolino]

Hey guys,
I started to do intermittent fasting 3 months ago and I feel better than ever. (16 hours of fasting drinking water, caffe, green tea and 8 hours of feeding )
Im not really overweight but I enjoy all the other benefits of intermittent fasting.
Overall, I live a pretty healthy life style exercising regularly,  eating mostly plant base foods, clean meat and fish protein and always drinking a lot of water.
I have been on entecavir for the past 2 years, my liver enzymes are balance (last time i checked was 3 months ago and Im not checking until a few more months) HBV DNA has been undetectable for the past 2 years and I have no liver damage.

Initially, I thought  that intermittent fasting was really good for liver health from what i was reading but recently I started to research about intermittent fasting & HBV and there isn't much information out there. Most of the info is on Ramada fasting (with no drinking water) and long periods of starvation (3-5-7-20 days water fasting only).
It seems like the bottom line is no fasting for people with liver damage and ask your doctor if you can fast on ramadam. Some people in this forum seems to be fasting on ramadam with no issues but im not sure if they are on entecavir or not.

I didnt really find any useful info on the web on just doing intermittent fasting on a regular basis for HBV carriers.
Is anyone here familiar with this topic? Is anyone doing intermittent fasting as well? If so, can you share your experience? Are you on antiviral as well? What did you doctor tell you about it? Are your test results stable?

Thanks guys and I appreciate anyone sharing their experience since there isn't much info out there.
All the best to everyone and stay safe.

[Brohim_2122]

I've been doing intermittent fasting as well for almost 2 months now and I do feel great. I've lost a lot weight although I wasn't  overweight to begin with. I tried not to do anything extreme and planned to add more calories to maintain a health Weight. I read several articles that this was helpful for folks with HepC who weren't on treatment to help control the virus and liver disease progression. I eat a lot of cruciferous vegetables and mostly healthy fat - rarely eat grass-fed red meat. Liver Enzyme has been stable so far ALT/AST 26/18 , HBsag level trending down (not sure if it's related to Tef+Supplement+Diet), DNA undetectable.  
Keep up the good work folks...Dr Berg has several video on YouTube on how to lower inflammation in your body through intermittent fasting including several supplements that Stef and some members have recommended. I hope to give more updates down the road.
Peace!
      

[FingHb]

It’s should be good for your body. But losing more than 4 pounds a week can cause injury to your liver.  So don’t try to go too extreme.

[melcul]

I never fasted before and was thinking of trying some sort of fasting. Ironically, while most of my friends gained weight, I went from 80kg to 72kg in 6 months, since Covid started, because i started exercising almost daily, and I'm aiming to reach around 67 kg.  (29 yo, 171cm) .
On the hydration topic, i drink 2L of water + 2,3 coffees / day. I'm not sure what effect it has on kidneys, but I do know it helps the liver though,  and I love it, lol.

[melcul]

If we are on this topic, How do you guys keep your kidneys healthy ?
I'm on tenofovir, and I'm drinking 2L + of water / day but my Egfr is barely 90, at 29 Years Old. (creatinine 98 )

[patolino]

hi there...i havent check my kidneys to be fully honest, but now that you said something ill check in my next blood exam.
as far as i know it is a problem manly for people that already have a kidney issues.
in any case, i drink a lot of water as well and eat mostly plant base food with some fish , eggs and meat occasionally. Hopefully this help to keep my overall body healthy.
Have you been fasting ? did your egfr went up since you started fasting ?
just to be clear, you are allowed and advised to drink a lot of water during the fasting state. this is not a dry fast with no water.

[patolino]

Thanks guys, your answers are very appreciated. Stef - unfortunately where I live they dont test hbsag levels for  regular tests. As far as i know we follow the same protocols as in the USA, where they dont test it either on regular checks, only private. I got excited when learning about the medical benefits of intermittent fasting and hopefully can help with keeping the liver healthier.
Hepbresearch - Thanks for your inputs as well, Im very excited to hear from your experience and results moving forward. Currently Im between 16-8 and 18-6, but at some point I would like to continue extending my fasting window to hopefully enjoy more benefits.

My main issue is that Im losing a lot of weight, since Im very active with exercise and sports and I have to eat significant portions in my feeding window to reach a minimum of calories intake. Hopefully this dont put extra stress in the liver to metabolise all these food, specially protein that i have been eating anywhere from 120 - 200 grams a day. Hopefully this is not so bad since most of it comes from healthy foods like lentils, salmon, sardine, quinoa, beans ,chickpeas, etc.. And my other concern is that big portion of my diet and calories are from healthy fats (+- 60 grams )  like nuts, cacao nibs, natural peanut butter, tachine, avocado etc..
Because I generally eat very healthy and almost dont touch process, all my carbs and veggies are relatively low calories which makes it harder to reach 2000 calories a day in 6-8 hours of feeding window.
I have been doing this new routine for a few months now, I never felt so great and so far my liver enzymes are stable ( a bit higher than my last blood test, but i guess it varies depending on the blood sample)
I went on roll here :), but if anyone have any insights on this matter, it is alway appreciated.

[hepbresearch]

Just to let you know I am on my 36th hour of a fast right now. Between the 24 Th and 29th hour I even did a night hike of 6miles.  At hour 30 i had a glass of celery juice.  I will eat an avocado tomotao sandwich made on Ezekiel bread now. Next time I will go for 48h, 36 hour was not that tough especially because I kept myself busy during those 36 hours.
I read your comments - why do you need > 100 g proteins.  Please do your due diligence on that much protein. Other than that I wish I were doing all thiS five years ago.
(My hbsag quant is at 1, hbvdna <20 but still hbsag +).

[patolino]

good for you.... I also would like to increase my fasting window at some point, but I lose weight pretty quick and i dont like the skinny look. I already try as is to eat very high caloric dense food now specially from healthy fats....so not sure how much more calories i can eat when i increase my fast. Regarding the protein, i agree with you. I was not aware of the amount of calories until i started tracking a few days ago. Ill try to keep them around 100 moving forward. Do you happen to know if it ok for us to take MCT oil in the fasting state?

[hepbresearch]

I started five days 18/6 and two days of 24 hour fasting (water and black coffee only).  Plan to extend my 24 hour to 36 and then to 48 hours. Will keep posted on what I experience beaidea the wt loss.  I am doing this primarily to avoid or delay recurrence of HCC

[stef2011]

if you are on nucs it makes no difference having hbv or not, your immune system can be weaken and rebuild stronger without any relapse, the antiviral takes care of the virus.please let us know if you find hbsag levels dropping since your immune system should rebuild stronger