Doing low FODMAP diet, what to track?

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I am doing a low FODMAP diet per doctors orders for the next 8 weeks. I am 1 week in. So far I am tracking a health quality index (HQI), any fodmaps I eat (which have been 0 so far), bowel movement time and type, and sampled my gut microbiome using ubiome (i plan on sampling at the 4 week and 8 week marks also, but will be doing smart gut every other week).

Any thoughts on what else to track? I have continued to see research on intestinal permeability and think it would be interesting to measure but not sure if at all useful. Anyone have thoughts on this?

Thanks!

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Dear Isaac, thanks, interesting. I’m currently involved in both a science project as well as an R&D/Running project regarding the relation between gut issue, the micro biota and the running performance/experience, in the context of (training for) a marathon. Have you identified confounders, as drivers for risk or issues, in general and in your case? I would look at measurements / trackers, for the biggest / most likely drivers. I would look at both quality and quantity scoring. The risk of permeability seems correlated to stress and to running. You could consider tracking HRV, as a proxy for (the risk of ) stress levels. All the best, Marcel. PS: See more on the project ‘Running Guts’ via http://running2020.com/?p=923

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Thanks Marcel. Tracking HRV is a great idea and easy to do. It would be interesting to see the data pre/post race days and pre/post FODMAP diet, especially when I start the reintroduction phase and will likely hit a few bad foods.

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Isaac, you’re welcome! Consider using breathing technique(s) and chunking up your meal in smaller portions as an A/B-like intervention.

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Timing of meals? I see huge changes in my resting heart rate based on intermittent fasting windows.

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Could you tell me more about what you experienced. There are very few studies documenting this - from Russia and from Los Angeles as far as I have seen. I think this effect is big and fasting also effects autoimmune diseases, but little is documented, since it is hard to make money out of fasting and if it goes wrong, the doctor is exposed for recommending it. The first question is whether it lasts post fasting. The second is whether it is stress reduction due to the fasting process or something more fundamental.

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Hello, @IsaacGerg! I’m wondering since it’s been more than 8 weeks, how did this go? Was the low FODMAP diet helpful? Did you see anything interesting in your data?

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The FODMAP diet was a complete fail. Things actually got worse during it. I ended up starting another medication and it seems to be helping a lot. I am really glad I gave the FODMAP the old college try because I know I will never have to do it again. Keeping good data was really helpful in discussing the results with my doctor.

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Hi ig,
What did you eat while on the diet?
Did you add new foods?
Reduce calorie input?
Change dietary percentage of certain foods?
Was it stressful managing the details of staying Low-FODMAP?
Other factors you noticed?

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  1. I ate foods with no FODMAPs. I used the monash android app to tell me what I could and couldn’t eat.
    A typical day of food for me when NOT on FODMAP is yougurt or mixed nuts/chocolate chips in AM for breakfast. A salad with chicken and some grapes and clemintines for lunch. Usually an apple with pb as a snack. Dinner is usually either salmon or chicken with salad or fruit. Maybe once or twice a week, I eat out. During FODMAP diet, I just modified everything to be non-FODMAP and we never ate out.

  2. I added no new foods. All the foods consumed during FODMAP I had eaten before just in different quantities. For example, I ate a lot more Kale.

  3. I did not reduce calorie input.

  4. I did not measure my macros but I know I ate slightly less carbohydrates but not much less.

  5. The first week was stressful. My wife is an excellent chef so it wasn’t too much of an issue. Mostly the biggest issue was my lack of energy after being on the diet for a few weeks. But, it wasn’t killer though. For example, I did a 19 mile mountain bike race 2 weeks after being on FODMAP and placed 9th.

  6. My IBS symptoms and mood got much worse on FODMAP.

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Did you switch to Low-FODMAP all at once?
Was there a die-off that aggravated your symptoms? (maybe show up in Ubiome results?)
Did your diet oxalate content increase?
Have you done gluten free before?
What FODMAP food do you associate with energy level?
Did you get HRV measurements?

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  1. No, I did a 1 week practice before starting the 8 weeks.
  2. ubiome results showed no difference. No way to tell if a die-off result and also believe that pheneomon does not exist here.
  3. I do not know.
  4. I did not go gluten free, only FODMAP free. I have done gluten free for 2 weeks in the past; no difference.
  5. None
  6. No I did not.
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Thank you for the update, @IsaacGerg! Sorry that it didn’t work out, but important to hear about your experience. Too often with diets, there is a problem with silent evidence: people talk more about the successes than the failures.

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