Intermittent Fasting For Beginners – A Guide to 16/8 Intermittent Fasting diet with tips and tricks to make it easy to adapt to a fasting lifestyle.
Intermittent Fasting For Beginners
Before I share my Intermittent Fasting For Beginners Tips, let me first share my own personal experience with intermittent fasting. When I first stumbled on Intermittent Fasting a couple of years ago, my immediate reaction was – that is NOT for me. There’s NO way I’d be able to fast for 14 or 16 hours a day. I love my food and I’m hungry too much. I’d be miserable and what’s the point?!
Fast forward a year or so and I’d followed the Keto Diet for about 9 months, decided to transition off, but didn’t want to put the weight back on. At that point, I’d remembered Intermittent Fasting and thought I’d look into it. As a way of maintaining my weight loss.
So, I experimented with different ways of intermittent fasting. It took a couple of weeks of trying different intermittent fasting routines to find what worked for me. That was around August 2017. Once I found my groove, I stuck to it and have pretty much been intermittent fasting everyday since then. (With the exception of the odd day here and then when travelling or for family celebrations.)
Why Start Intermittent Fasting?
This is a big question to ask yourself. Why do you want to intermittent fast? Think long and hard about your “why”. Without a strong why, you won’t have the motivation to begin properly and continue with this way of life.
As I mentioned, I started to prevent myself from gaining back my Keto Diet weight loss. Eating 2 meals a day rather than 3 just naturally reduces your calorie intake. I also find it easier to plan for 2 rather than 3 meals a day. (And save money too!)
How Do You Intermittent Fast?
There are a number of ways to follow an Intermittent Fasting routine. My tip would be to experiment with the different options and find what works for you and your lifestyle. You could fast for 14, 16, 18 or even 20 hours and then have an “eating window” of the rest of the day.
My routine is a 16/8 intermittent fast. So, I eat between the hours of 8am and 4pm and then fast from 4pm to 8am the following morning. Skipping dinner works wonders for me.
Others prefer to skip breakfast and start their eating window at around lunch time. I tried that but just got to hungry/angry/hangry.
If you’ve never done a longer fast before, then consider easing into it. Start by fasting for 12 hours – so finish eating at 7pm and then have breakfast at 7am the next day. Then slowly push your fasting time to 14, 16 and then 18 hours if you want to.
This is where being intuitive and really listening to your body is important. If you find that you’re absolutely starving, then EAT! There is always tomorrow. You don’t HAVE to follow intermittent fasting everyday. Some do it a few times a week, other everyday.
What Do You Eat While Intermittent Fasting?
During your fasting window, only have water. Some have bulletproof coffee, black coffee or tea. I prefer to just have water while fasting. Be easy on yourself though, if you NEED that cup of coffee in the morning while adapting then go for it.
You can always take it out in a few weeks when you’re used to the intermittent fasting way of life.
As far as your day to day meals go, aim for whole foods and a balanced diet. Sometimes I follow a Keto Diet way of eating, others not. (Click here for Intermittent Fasting Keto Meal examples.)
What Are The Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting?
If you’re really serious about beginning intermittent fasting, then my suggestion is to do some research into the scientific benefits of intermittent fasting. I found tons of inspiration and Intermittent Fasting advice in the book The 2 Meal Day. (Get it here.) There’s all the science you need to know about Intermittent Fasting, plus loads of recipes and meal ideas.
Personally, I find that I have more energy, that I feel comfortable when I go to sleep at night – rather than still full and uncomfortable from dinner and evening snacks. I like that I give my body a good period everyday to rest and digest – rather than feeding it for every waking hour.
To me, intermittent fasting is a way of life, not a diet. I love the way of feel after a 16 hour fast and will be continuing this way of life for the foreseeable future.
More Helpful Fasting Resources:
16/8 Intermittent Fasting Experiment
Intermittent Fasting Keto Meals
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Disclaimer – this post is meant for informational post only and should not be construed as medical advice. Please consult with your health professional before making any dietary changes.
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