Anyone ever experience sudden acne breakouts after breaking a fast?

fasting
acne
pcos
(sue) #1

I used to have terrible cystic acne (when I had undiagnosed PCOS). After much trial and error I found my magic combo of skincare and keto to keep my skin clear for several years.

I dabbled into fasting for the first time last month and did 4 days on water, black coffee, tea, chicken broth, salt. This month I did 6 days of the same.

I broke my first fast with a night of just more broth, avocados and eggs. The next 2 nights I went out for birthday outings. Had drinks (wine, vodka diet soda), Mexican (basically steak) and Korean (pork belly and duck meat). The third day after the fast I had a terrible breakout of pustules on my chin, upper lip, inner parts of cheek, and worst of all on my nose where my glasses rest. They’re the kind of pimples that normally would heal very quickly but these spread like wildfire but stayed within those areas. Really was bizarre and I chalked it up to a weird food reaction.

Except… The same thing is happening this month! Tomorrow is day 3 post fast and sure enough pustules have cropped up in the same spots. It started with 1 yesterday, about 5 today, and by tonight about 12. This time I’ve only had food at home since breaking the fast so the usual eggs, avocados, etc.

I am not really looking for skincare tips, I feel that I have that part under control.

I’m looking to see if anyone has had similar reactions after fasting like I have. I know my skin really well and this is not “that time of the month” hormonal acne or stress acne or “oops tried a new product and had a bad reaction” acne or “didn’t wash my makeup off well enough” acne. I feel like this is a whole other beast. Individually the pimples are harmless and easy to take care of but they spread and form clusters.

Anyone else experience this strange phenomenon?? What is going on?? :dizzy_face:

Forgot to mention any other anecdotes. During both fasts I lost about 6-7 pounds. Net loss after resuming eating maybe 3-4 pounds. Generally during the fast I felt great! Definitely will take me a couple more times to feel amazing but I definitely plan to continue at least once a month. I am a 27 yo female at 5’4" and 168 pounds.

(Susan Kurtz) #2

The same thing happened to me three days after breaking a fast. I only did a 24 hour fast, but the amount of pimples that came up was ridiculous. They were deep pimples that took about a day or two to surface, they itched, and here I am a week later dealing with them. I dated on a Tuesday and broke the fast the next morning. By Friday my entire chin and law line looked worse than any breakout I had even in high school (I’m a 34 year old female). I’m wondering what happened.

(Susan Kurtz) #3

Fasted, not dated

(Donna ) #4

I’ve heard that as women break down their fat cells, they also release estrogen that was in them. If this is true, it may be that you had an overload of hormones that were released from your fat cells during the fast. (But, weird that the breakout only happened after the fast was broken . . . so, I may be way off base.)

(sue) #5

I’ve heard that as well. One time the acne STARTED a few days into a fast, but really did not erupt until after breaking the fast (1-2 days after). and the acne was like, contagious and spread like wildfire lol. took me a few weeks for it to settle down.

(sue) #6

next time I do an extended fast I’ll take careful notes and then we can compare lol. It’s really frustrating because I love longer fasts but am not willing to put up with the extensive acne and scarring that lasts for weeks/months afterward :frowning:

(Susan Kurtz) #7

I bought a benzol peroxide acne spot treatment today to help kill the bacteria, I hope that helps. Neutrogena makes a spot treatment that has 2.5% so it doesn’t dry out your skin to much (think winter).

(sue) #8

yes next time i’ll be prepared w/ an antibacterial treatment like BP. I’m used to only relying on salicylic acid and niacinamide to manage my skin but the nature of how it spread makes me think that using BP next time will be a good idea :slight_smile:

(Karina Alegria) #9

I did a 5 day Water only fast. Unfortunately, to brake my fast, I joined friends for dinner and, eat a little of everything from a 3 course meal: appetizer, Entree and, Dessert. A few hours later, I went my back was bothering me and, I took of my shirt to look at my back and I had a back acne brake out.

I have had persistent issues with acne on my face and, to a lesser extend on my back. But, it seems to have been made worst after eating after this 5 day water fast.

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