If you’ve been thinking about giving fasting a try, but you’re not sure it’s something you can do. I encourage you to give intermittent fasting a try.
There’s an easy way to get your feet wet and see if this is something you can do to burn more fat, improve your health, give your body a chance to heal itself, and gain mental clarity all at the same time. And all it takes is pushing back breakfast for a few hours (or skipping it altogether).
You Can Do It – Get Started with 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting
Start with a 12 hour fast. I promise you that you can do this. Eat an early dinner, sleep through the majority of your fast, and then postpone breakfast by an hour.
You can do this. In fact, most of us fast for 12 hours already unless we’re bad about snacking after dinner. If so, skip those snacks for a week and you’re there.
With exceptions for some medical conditions, a 12 hour fast should be the minimum normal for adults. You should not be eating more hours than you are resting your digestive system.
You Can Do It – If You Want to Take it Further Skip Breakfast
Next, see if you can push yourself a little further. Push back breakfast until you’re really just eating lunch and dinner. There are quite a few people who work on a 16:8 schedule. They fast for 16 hours per day and eat two meals in an 8 hour period. It’s a lot easier than it sounds.
Look at this Easy Intermittent Fasting Example
Let’s say you have dinner around 6 pm. You eat a big meal so you don’t need a snack before heading to bed at 11 pm. You wake up at 6 am and are already 12 hours into your fast.
You get a shower and grab a cup of black coffee while you get ready for work. You head to the office and by the time you get there at 9 am, you’re almost there.
Get some work done and head out for a late breakfast or early lunch around 10 or 11 am. You got your 16 hours fasting done.
Heck, if you’re doing well, just stick it out until noon for an even longer and thus more effective fast. Eat a big lunch and you’ll be full until it’s time for dinner at 6 pm.
Experiment and Find a Fasting Schedule that Works for You
From there feel free to experiment with other types of intermittent fasting. Some people work well eating two to three meals in an 8-hour window. Other’s cut it down to one big meal in the late afternoon, running on coffee and bone broth the rest of the day.
Or maybe you like your current schedule of three square meals per day. You can still benefit from intermittent fasting by fasting for 24 hours once or twice a week.
You can forgo all food and stick to just water and coffee, or have a little food (usually under 500 calories per day) on your fast days. Being able to have just a little food (like soup for example) on your fast days makes it easy for people to stick to it. Plus you know you’ll be able to eat whatever you like in a few short hours. That really helps with willpower.
If intermittent fasting scares you, start slow. Give it a try on the weekend when you’re already sleeping in. Start with coffee and just see how long you can comfortably go without food.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised how easy it really is and that you can still function well enough to get work or exercise even if you don’t eat for a few hours.
If you need help with creating your fasting schedule or support during your fast then join me on a coaching call and we can work out your schedule.
