What happens in the free Discovery Call?

A 15-minute chat to understand your goals and symptoms, check fit, and recommend the right service (Initial, Follow-Up, Quick Check-In, or the Starter Bundle). No pressure, no prep needed.

Do you work with perimenopause, menopause, and gut issues together?

Yes. I specialise in women 30+ where hormonal shifts and gut health often overlap—think bloating, irregular digestion, sleep changes, weight fluctuations, and low energy.

Are sessions online or in person?

Both. I see clients across the Sunshine Coast & surrounds and via secure telehealth online—choose what’s easiest each time.

How soon will I see results?

Many clients notice wins in 2–4 weeks (energy, digestion, sleep). Body composition and cycle-related changes typically build over 6–12 weeks with consistent support.

Can you work alongside my GP or HRT?

Absolutely. I collaborate with your care team and nutrition plans can complement HRT or non-HRT approaches safely and effectively.

Do you recommend supplements?

Only when useful and evidence-based. Food first, then targeted supplements (dose, form, timing) if they’ll genuinely help your goals and labs.

Do I need lab tests before we start?

Not required. If you have recent results, bring them. If testing could clarify next steps, I’ll explain options and coordinate with your GP where appropriate.

What’s included in the Starter Bundle?

A structured kick-start: Initial Assessment + Follow-Up + Quick Check-In, with a personalised plan, reviews, and accountability so progress compounds week by week.

What’s your cancellation policy?

Please provide at least 24 hours’ notice to reschedule or cancel; late changes may incur a fee so that your spot can be offered to others.

How do I get started?

Book your free Discovery Call to choose the right pathway—or go straight to the Initial Assessment if you’re ready to begin.

Alternate Day Fasting in Perimenopause: What the Research Says

You may have seen it by now. A confident voice on your feed, or an ‘expert’ on a podcast saying that alternate day fasting is the thing that finally works in midlife. That it burns belly fat, resets your metabolism, switches on cellular repair, and does what “just eating less” never could.
It is a compelling story. And there is real research behind parts of it, which is exactly what makes it hard to sort out. But this is one of those situations on social media where the ‘expert’ and the ‘science’ may not quite be the fact. And that’s why this can be so frustrating for you and why I do what I do.

So, let’s look at the science and the facts of alternate day fasting.

Here is what the evidence actually shows about alternate day fasting, what it does not show, and what any of it means for a woman in her forties or fifties who is tired, bloated, and quietly wondering whether she should be fasting harder.

First, what is alternate day fasting?

Alternate day fasting, or ADF, means cycling between a day of little or no food and a day of normal eating. In most studies, the fasting day is either zero calories or around 500 to 600 calories. Some versions describe it as roughly 36 hours without food followed by a 12-hour eating window.
It’s also NOT the same as 16:8 or time-restricted eating, also known as intermittent fasting, where you simply narrow your daily eating window. ADF is a considerably bigger ask.

What the strongest research shows

Two large pieces of evidence landed recently, and they are the ones worth knowing about.

A major review in the BMJ (2025) pooled 99 randomized trials involving more than 6,500 adults. The average participant was 45 years old and two thirds were women, so this is not irrelevant to us.

The finding: alternate day fasting did edge out standard calorie reduction for weight loss.
The difference was about 1.3 kg. Alternate day fasting also came out slightly ahead of time restricted eating and showed some benefit for cholesterol.

Now the part that rarely makes it into a reel. The researchers had set a threshold for what counts as a clinically meaningful difference, and 1.3 kg did not reach it. More importantly, in trials that ran 24 weeks or longer, that advantage disappeared altogether.

A Cochrane review (2026), which is the gold standard for this kind of question, looked at 22 trials and nearly 2,000 adults followed for up to a year. It found no clinically meaningful advantage for intermittent fasting over ordinary dietary advice, or over no structured plan at all.

So what does that actually mean?

Alternate day fasting works. It just does not appear to work for the reason people say it does.
It reduces weight because it reduces overall energy intake, not because the fasting schedule unlocks something the rest of us are missing. When researchers compare it fairly against simply eating a bit less across the week, the difference is small and it fades over time.

That is not a reason to dismiss fasting. For some women, an eating pattern with clear structure is genuinely easier to follow than counting and monitoring every day. Structure that suits your brain is a real advantage. But it is a different claim from “this fixes midlife metabolism”, and the second claim is not supported.

The part that matters most for midlife women

Here is what concerns me more than the weight numbers.

In one of the most widely quoted fasting trials, in healthy adults of normal weight, participants did lose fat. They also lost lean tissue, roughly 2.7 per cent of it, over four weeks. The ratio of fat to lean improved, which sounds excellent and is how the finding usually gets reported. But the absolute amount of muscle went down.

For a woman in perimenopause or menopause, that is not a footnote. Muscle mass and bone density are already under pressure during this transition. Muscle is where you burn glucose, where your strength lives, and a large part of what keeps you steady, capable and independent later on. Any approach that reliably takes muscle along with the fat deserves
real scrutiny before you adopt it.

If you do choose a fasting pattern, protein intake and resistance training stop being optional extras. They become the thing holding your body composition together.

Black plate with salmon and veggies Gutsy Solution Nutrition protein

The evidence gap nobody mentions

Here is the honest limitation, and it is a big one.

Fasting studies almost always sort women into two boxes: premenopausal or postmenopausal. Perimenopause, the years when hormones are shifting most unpredictably and symptoms are often at their loudest, is rarely studied as its own group.
Which means that when someone tells you the research supports alternate day fasting for perimenopausal women, they are extending findings from other populations and presenting it as fact.

It may turn out to be reasonable. It has not been demonstrated.
I would rather tell you where the evidence runs out than pretend it goes further than it does.

Who should be cautious

Alternate day fasting is not a neutral experiment for everyone. Please speak with your GP or a qualified practitioner first if you:
🌿have any history of disordered eating or a difficult relationship with food. Extended fasting can reawaken patterns that took a long time to settle
🌿 are managing diabetes, low blood pressure, or take medication that needs food have a history of low bone density are already under-eating, under-sleeping, or running on empty. Adding a long fast to an overloaded nervous system tends to make the fatigue worse, not better
🌿 notice that longer fasts leave you irritable, sleeping poorly, or bingeing on eating days. That is useful information, not a personal failing

What I would suggest instead, or first

If you are here because your body has changed and what used to work does not any more, fasting is unlikely to be the first lever worth pulling. In practice, the things that shift how most midlife women feel are less exciting and considerably more reliable:
💚 Protein at every meal. Most women I speak with are well short of what supports muscle in midlife, and this alone changes energy and appetite for many of them.
💚 Fibre and plant variety, which support the gut microbiome and, through it, digestion, bowel regularity and blood sugar steadiness.
💚 Enough food during the day. A surprising number of bloating and evening-eating patterns trace back to under-eating before 3pm.
💚 Blood sugar balance, particularly at breakfast, which may help with energy dips, cravings and mood through the afternoon.
💚Some form of resistance training, because nutrition can only protect muscle that you are actually asking your body to keep.

None of that photographs well BUT it’s what works.

The bottom line

Alternate day fasting is a legitimate tool with modest, short-term evidence behind it. It is not a metabolic shortcut, it is not specifically indicated for menopause, and it carries a real trade-off around muscle that midlife women cannot afford to ignore.

If it appeals to you and you feel well on it, it is not a bad option. If it appeals to you because someone promised it would finally fix what feels broken, I would gently suggest the promise is doing more work than the science.

You do not need another restrictive rule. You need to understand what your body is asking for now.

Curious what would actually make a difference for your body?

A Gutsy Clarity Session is a 75 minute one-to-one consultation where we look at your symptoms, your history and how you actually eat, and build a plan that fits your life rather than someone else’s protocol.

Start with a free 20 minute discovery call. No pressure, no pitch, just a conversation about what is going on and whether I can help.
Book your free discovery call

Book Your Free Discovery Call

This information is general in nature and does not replace individual medical advice. For persistent or concerning symptoms, consult your GP or qualified healthcare provider.

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