Top 10 Intermittent Fasting Tips

Looking for some fasting tips to kick start your fasting weight loss program? Here are some of my personal tips that I want to share with you. This blog is meant for experience sharing, so what I write is based on what I did.  

1. Identify the tips provider. This is very important, especially when you are looking for some information which might have an impact on your health. Many give warnings and horror stories about fasting had actually never fasted. Best to look for tips from someone who has the real fasting experiences.

2. Open-minded. Forget about some eating rules that you might have been told a million times, such as breakfast is the single most important meal in a day, eat breakfast like a king, eat 6 to 10 small meals in a day is completely necessary to lose weight…and so on. Food companies brain-wash people with these rules so they will get more sales. Research reports supported by food companies or restaurants always ask you to eat more for all kinds of reasons. If they ask you to fast, then they will be out of business soon.

3. Stick with short term intermittent fasting. Researches have proven that short term fasting does not slow down the metabolism or cause any physical damage. You won't even lose an ounce of muscle while losing weight. If you want to find out the scientific facts, I would encourage your reading Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat. 

4. Do not binge on food. This is one of the most important fasting tips I would ever give. Short term fasting is a good opportunity to start off with healthy eating habits along with losing weight. Eating crazily before and after will destroy your fasting effort and can be dangerous. Read more about breaking a fast. 

5. Start slow, work progressively. Try skipping breakfast to begin with. Extend your fasting window gradually until you feel comfortable doing a full 24-hour fasting. For beginners, you may find it hard to go through your first or second attempt of 24-hour fast. You may feel irritated, experience headaches and feel a little of hunger. Believe me, the more fasts you do, the less these problems will bother you and you'll feel better. 

6. Start with juice fasting. If you have no fasting experience and want to give it a try, go for juice fasting first, as it is easier than water fast. Also juice fast provides most of the nutrients and calories that solid foods provide. Apart from this, it gives you some tastes in your mouth which will provide some kind of satisfaction. You just give your body a chance to experience a period without solid food. 

7. Keep busy. Food is sometimes a psychological need rather than a physical need. To withstand hunger, simply don't think about it. Do something (non food-related) that engages and therefore distracts you as much as possible. 

8. Keep silent. Seek support only from people with fasting experience. If you tell everyone that you are fasting, you're sure to receive discouraging comments such as people warning you that you will pass out at any moment and starve to death. As for myself, someone even satirized me of saving food money by fasting. 

9. Keep fasting simple and natural. Stick to juice and/or water. Forget about supplements, vitamins, protein drinks, adding egg white powder or mineral salts to your water…and any other fancy little things to complement your shortage of food. If you do all these, you are not dedicated to fasting and I'm sure you'll quit pretty soon. Eat normal in between your fasting days. 

10. One slightly longer fast per month. While 16-24 hour fasts are easy to do, try to include one slightly longer fast such as 30 hours once a month. For example my 30-hour fast looks like this: breakfast on day 1, dinner on day 2. That way I'm still eating everyday. However you can opt to do dinner on day 1 and breakfast on day 3. Do it when you feel comfortable and your schedule permits. 

You may find lots of other fasting tips. Even real fasters may have different views. For instance, some even don't consider juice fasting as a real fast. After all, there isn't a single fasting bible that has been approved by all. Make your own sensible judgement as to follow fasting tips that sound sensible and work well for you. 

I wish you best.