What’s The Best Fasting Schedule For Me?
Fasting schedule
What's The Best Fasting Schedule For Me?
When I say “fasting” most people automatically think, “intermittent fasting” or “18:6”. However, the act of fasting is a lot simpler than that. It is committing to eating at certain times and not eating at other times. This means there are so many ways to fast!
Some common fasting schedules we work with clients on are 14 hour fast (overnight fasting), 18:6 intermittent fasting and then some more moderate and advanced routines such as 24 hour, 30 hour and 48 hour programs.
14-hour fast (the fast you do when you sleep)
If you eat breakfast at 8:00 am and dinner by 6:00 pm, this means you are eating for 10 hours of the day and fasting for 14 hours. Up until the 1980s, this is how most of use ate every day without even thinking about it. Snacking between meals was frowned upon because it would ruin your appetite at your mealtimes. Children were not having afterschool snacks, adults were not replacing meals with sugar laden iced coffees, and we were not nibbling on small amounts of food throughout the day justifying it by saying “it’s only 50 calories”, “it’s low fat”, or “it’s healthy sugars”. This made is a lot easier to inherently listen to our body and “fast”.
And guess what? People were healthy. Nothing bad happened from not eating every two hours. The balance between feeding and fasting periods allowed people to effortlessly maintain their weight. People were not following special diets. They were eating white bread and jam. They were eating cookies and cake. They were not counting their calories. But they were not eating all the time. That’s the key. They fasted overnight almost every day of the year.
The 14 hour fast should be the baseline for the way we do every day. It can help maintain a stable weight but is not always enough for fat loss results. To lose body fat, we simply need to tip the scales in favour of fasting.
16:8 or 18:6 fast
In this routine, you fast for 16 hours of the day, and feed during the other 8 hours. For example, you might start eating at 11:00 am and finish by 7:00 pm. Alternatively, you might start eating at 8:00 am and finish by 4:00 pm. You are expected to only eat during the 8-hour feeding window. This is also called time-restricted eating.You can eat two or three meals within the feeding window. Generally, we suggest that people eat only twice as it is the least disruptive strategy. It is not always easy to plan for a 11:00 breakfast, 3:00 pm lunch and 6:00 dinner.
We recommend the 16:8 fast at least 6 days out of 7. By making this a habit, it makes weight loss more automatic, as you do not have to ‘think’ about which days are which. After an initial adjustment period, most people have no difficulty doing this fast.
If you want to push the time-restricted eating protocol, you can extend the fasting period to 18 hours, which gives you a bit more power for weight loss. For example, you might start eating at 12:00 noon and stop by 6:00 pm.
24-hour fast
In a 24 hour fast, you skip two consecutive meals. For example, you might eat dinner on Sunday evening and then fast 24 hours until Monday evening. This 24-hour fast is also called ‘One Meal a Day’ or OMAD, since you still are eating every day but only once. You may also fast from breakfast to breakfast or lunch to lunch, but the dinner to dinner fast is the most popular, as it allows a regular dinner together with family and friends. This fasting protocol also allows you to take medications with food, if needed.
We suggest starting with a 24 hour fast three times per week. It can be three days in a row, on alternate days, or in any other combination. Some people even do this every day as they find it easy to fit into their schedule. This often works great, but eventually many people find their body weight plateaus. If this plateaus at a weight more than you would like, then changing up the fast may change things enough.
For example, alternating between 30- and 16-hour fasts may keep your body from getting stuck. You eat dinner on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and lunch on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. On Saturday, you eat both lunch and dinner. For 6 days out of 7, you are still eating one meal a day, but varying the length.
Appetite often drops when people start fasting and they only want to eat once a day. They often say their stomach shrank. That’s great. If you are fuelling your body with body fat, there is no need to eat more. When you are full, stop eating, even if it is only a small meal once a day.
36 hour fast
During a 36 hour fast, you skipped three consecutive meals. For example, if you eat dinner on Sunday night at 7pm, then fast all of Monday and do not eat again until Tuesday morning 7am, that is a 36 hour fast.
The 36-hour fast is very powerful because it takes advantage of two sleeping periods to increase the duration of fasting. From the 24 hour fast, dropping a single meal extends the fast by a whopping 12 hours because when you are sleeping, you are getting an extra 8 hours of fasting for ‘free’ during which time your body continues to burn fat.
Many people who fast are accustomed to skipping breakfast and may not want to break their fast at 7am. Many people are simply not hungry in the morning, and if you are not hungry, you should not eat if you are trying to lose weight. You may elect to skip breakfast which pushes the 36 hour fast more towards 40 or 42 hours. The 36- and 42-hour fasting protocols are ideal for individuals looking to lose significant weight or with severe metabolic syndrome.
If the longer fasts seem daunting at first, just work up to it. Start with shorter fasts and extend it a little bit more each week. It definitely helps to have support and accountability especially when you start your journey so if you are looking for coaching services, let us know!