-Short primer for beginners-
How does one fast? One doesn’t eat or drink any calories. It is that simple. At the very beginning, let us see who is not supposed to be fasting. Pregnant and nursing women, children and individuals with eating disorders should not be fasting regardless of circumstances. To determine if fasting is safe for you, consult your doctor. In case your doctor is not familiar with fasting, do yourself a favor and seek a more knowledgeable doctor. If you are all cleared and ready to improve your life, jump right into it.
Intermittent Fasting can be defined as voluntary, temporary abstinence from calorie consumption. Records of people fasting predates known history. All major organized religions have adopted and prescribed fasting in various forms. In recent times, fasting has become one of the most popular methods for weight reduction, weight maintenance and disease prevention. From Silicone Valley to Mecca it seems that the whole world is fasting as data show that around 2 billion people worldwide are adopting some form of fast. How should a newcomer start their fasting journey? We described many fasting protocols here including our own ultra-flexible Fasting Savers Protocol. We recommend a slow and gradual adaptation phase. The starting point for most is a 12 hour fasting period. This can be achieved very easily with sleeping during the fasting period. Moving breakfast forward for a couple of hours and having dinner earlier also makes the adaptation phase pass effortlessly. Once you feel comfortable and realize that going for a few hours without food won’t kill you it is time to include meal skipping.
This is the point where the real magic happens. Pick whether breakfast, lunch or dinner and skip it. In choosing which meal to skip, consider what is most convenient for you as daily dynamic differs from person to person. No snacking between meals, unless you are not fasting. Any food or drink with calories breaks fast. Unsweetened coffee and tea are usually allowed but that decision is up to you. Make sure to drink a lot of water. If you feel “hunger” drink some more water. The feeling of hunger will pass after a few minutes. It always does. Do not ever be in discomfort and pain and you can assure that by making gradual steps on your fasting journey. Your body and mind will adapt quickly and will thank you for giving them a much-needed break. Processing excess and not needed energy had to be converted to body fat before but fasting could solve weight gain issues for good.
Now that you joined millions of those who fast we can only congratulate you on your willpower to change for the better. Remember to take small steps and have fun doing this. Never go against common sense. Fasting empowers us all. We control when we eat and when we don’t so that way our family does not have to suffer because of our eating habits. Save health, save lives. Fast.
Fasting raises some challenges and also some misconceptions that we have to address. Afraid of hunger? Don’t be. Organism auto-regulates gnerlin, hunger hormone so after some adaptation you should expect to fast free of worry that you will experience hunger and discomfort. What about overcompensation once one breaks fast? No, you won’t overeat once you start eating. Research and vast anecdotal evidence confirms this.
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