Intermittent Fasting: All You Need To Know
A healthy diet for all!
You’ve all probably heard about the popular diet plan called intermittent fasting. This eating plan has become widely popular and is a healthier approach to portioning calorie intake and losing weight. Instead of following unhealthy diets that could potentially harm your body and mental health, we recommend you try this fasting technique!
The most popular method of intermittent fasting is the 16:8 method.
Intermittent fasting is when you periodically fast for 16 hours and then eat for a window of 8 hours. Although most people say to consume only 500 calories a day to actually lose weight from fasting, as long as you are eating healthy within your 8-hour eating window you can eat over 500 calories. Anything consumed over 50 calories is said to break your fast so it is typically okay to drink water, tea, or black coffee while fasting. However, if you put sugar or milk in your coffee or tea you must be aware of the amount you are consuming. Another tip to keep in mind is that a lot of people also believe that for women, fasting 14 hours and eating for 10 hours is more ideal than the 16:8 eating schedule. Everyone’s body type is different so do some research and choose the right intermittent fast for you!
What To Eat During Your Eating Period
Healthy meals when intermittent fasting.
For breakfast, we recommend you eat at around 12 PM so you can eat throughout the day until 8 PM. We think you should eat some scrambled eggs, fruit and a piece of toast with some green tea or water. This is a healthy breakfast with some protein, carbs, and nutritional fruit! Green tea is an amazing drink to adopt into your morning routine because it increases your metabolism and will help the fasting phasing lose weight!
For lunch, there are a variety of options. You can go for a nice salad with some fruit on the side or even a sandwich with protein such as chicken or turkey. Fish is also a very important and healthy food that can help with weight loss. You can eat your favorite dishes for lunch but just make sure to control your portions. For example, if you have pizza at home, just eat one or two slices and be mindful of what you will be eating for dinner so that you don’t go over the calorie limit.
Eat a filling lunch and dinner.
When choosing snacks, it is best to eat high-fiber foods such as nuts, beans, fruits, and vegetables. Make sure to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated throughout the day and keep your energy levels high. If you need something flavored to sip in, remember, a little coffee will not hurt and you can never go wrong with tea!
For dinner, we recommend you eat at around 7 PM so that you have an hour for your last meal and a few snacks right before your fasting starts. You should eat something that will fill you up all night but isn’t high-calorie. Pasta is a filling meal and you can make it in a variety of forms. For example, you can eat mac n cheese, penne, spaghetti, or even lasagna. Make sure to include some veggies!
Snack on the variety of nuts there are!
We know it can be hard the first couple of days to stick to this schedule but we promise you that the results will be worth it. Sometimes, it is best to be strict on your diet and control what times you eat because it can get unhealthy going down at 12 AM for those alluring midnight snacks. This way, you have a set schedule of when to eat your meals throughout the day and it will help you remember so that you don’t skip any meals. If you are feeling weak and want to break your fast, just distract yourself by keeping busy with work life and social life, as well as, just relaxing and even sleeping throughout the night so you do not have to think about eating. We hope this diet method works for you and wish you the best of luck!