Well, you’re in luck! This is a great primer on how to get started intermittent fasting.

First, some background – What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is less of a diet and more of an eating protocol if you will. It’s meal timing but not in a super calculated sport-specific calorie counting way.  Essentially, it’s alternating predetermined periods of eating (feasting) and not eating (fasting).

At its core, Intermittent fasting is simple. You designate time during the day to eat. Once that window has passed, you don’t eat till the next day at the time you’ve determined to eat or break your fast (hence the word breakfast).

It’s simple. It isn’t necessarily easy.

How to get started

Most recommendations I’ve heard say to start off with the 16:8 protocol (Need ideas on the protocols – click here for more info). But to someone who hasn’t consciously fasted, 16 hours might seem like an awfully long time to NOT eat.

Here are my steps to starting IF:

1. Evaluate your current eating pattern.
2. Shoot for consistency first if you aren’t already
3. Decide which end of the eating window you want to shrink
4. Start small by seeing if you can shrink your eating window 30-60 min.
5. Evaluate after a few days (maybe a week) to see if you can shrink further.
6. Adjust the quality of your food to see if you can go even longer.
7. Stop increasing the fasting window when you are seeing the benefit and aren’t going crazy.

1. Evaluate your current eating pattern.

Since I’m talking strictly about intermittent fasting, this evaluation is of the TIME Window during which you consume calories. It is not the evaluation of the quality of those calories. That will come later. If you’re like I was before IF, your evaluation would look something like this: Get up 7:00 AM black coffee till breakfast between 8:30 and 9:00. Snacking and meals till 6:30 PM, random snacking and/or wine till bedtime around 11 PM. 

Note that in my above example, I had black coffee, so my feeding window really started at 8. It ended around 11 ish. If you have cream or sugar in your coffee (or any other beverage with calories) it goes in your feeding window (as does alcohol).

There’s no judgment here. Look around you, everywhere we look there’s ads for food. And not just any food, but mouthwatering irresistible food we start to crave. Also, for a LONG time (and even still in some circles) the prevailing thought was that in order to keep your metabolism high, you need to eat constantly (or 4- 6 small meals a day… which feels like constantly if you get used to IF). 

2. Shoot for consistency first if you aren’t already

A lot of us eat pretty consistently. We are routine-based creatures of habit. (Whether we want to admit it or not). Our bodies actually are programmed to let us know that it’s eating time when the clock says it is, regardless if we are really hungry.

3.  Decide which end of the eating window you want to shrink

The cool thing about IF is that it’s incredibly flexible.  Take my example above. I chose to start slowing pushing breakfast back. AFTER I had quit snacking after 9 pm. But That meant, if I wanted to get to even a 14 hour fast, I had to push to 11 AM. I wasn’t sure I could (Hence step 4).  But, since somedays I got busy and pushed breakfast back to 9 or 9:30 it was where I was most comfortable starting.

But, that was me. If you are a “breakfast person” and you MUST have breakfast within a certain time from of waking up, or if you have trouble sleeping with a full stomach then maybe finishing your eating in the evening sooner would work better for you.

Ultimately, you can shrink both ends of the feeding window, and may have or want to do so eventually, but start with the one you think would be the easiest.

4.  Start by shrinking your window 30-60 min 

The more time you can move the window, the better. But don’t think you have to do it all or nothing. This is where you are exploring those questions I know you might be having like:

• What if I get really hungry?
• What if I get a headache?
• What if I get low blood sugar?
  What if I get Hangry?

I think that one of the best things overall you can do for yourself regarding hunger is learn to recognize real hunger cues, vs psychological “hunger” cues. The first few days you might be “hungry” when you normally would have eaten because our bodies set up their hormonal schedule to get hungry on a at a certain time according to when you normally have been eating.

Let’s look at the other 3: Headache, low blood sugar and hangry. The simplest answer is, eat. If you really are just starting out fasting, and you’ve only pushed it a few minutes, you can probably continue to push it a little longer, and the symptoms will subside. If they don’t, definitely see a doctor and rule out health issues. In fact, if you haven’t already, you should always talk to your doctor before trying any new diet.

Also, recognize that feeling jittery like you have “low blood sugar” could just be your body tapping into your fat stores for fuel. If it typically would have had some food “by now” and it needs to refuel its internal systems, You’ll tap into your fat for food.

5.  Evaluate after a few days or a week to see if you can continue shrinking the window

I wouldn’t expect someone to go right from eating 16 hours a day to fasting 16 hours a day.  So, periodically see if you can get shorter feeding windows. You never know, you might surprise yourself.

Also, if you’re starting out with about a 10 hour feeding window already, going to 8 isn’t that far.

Remember, even just a few generations ago, our people only ate when it was light out. They didn’t have bags of chips and pretzels to nosh on during sitcoms in the evening. Often, they only had 2 or 3 meals a day, and probably weren’t carrying around a bag of nuts to snack on in between breakfast and lunch to “hold them over”.

And, our ancient ancestors only ate when they could catch a meal. Our bodies are pretty resilient to fasting.

6.  Adjust the quality of the food to fast longer 

The better your nutrition, the more the food you consume will nourish your body and be used for energy production. You may find that moderate protein higher fat and lower carbs hold you over longer. You might find you need some carbs at every meal.  Or even that your body prefers Higher protein, lower fat and higher carb.

“best diets” are uniquely individual, kinda like our fingerprints.

The more you can eat minimally processed whole foods instead of refined, packaged or processed foods, the better you will feel (IF or not). Aim for lean protein and at least one serving of vegetables each meal. Play with the fat and carb content to see what works better for you.

7.  Stop increasing the fast window where you see benefits, and are not going crazy.

One of the reasons Intermittent fasting works is that once people start doing it, it gets much easier. And once it’s easier, it’s simple to sustain because not eating is technically easier than cooking a bunch of meals, always having to have food on you or stressing about what you’re going to eat next or when, or trying to do a meal plan. I mean, you just don’t eat.

That being said, it starts to get a little more complicated when you REALLY shrink your window down. Once you get down to 1 or 2 meals a day, planning is required. Specifically, because you need to plan for food that you can eat in a very short span of time in order to get all your recommended daily allowances of nutrients.

Stop at the window that you are most comfortable in. Somedays you  might want to push it further, and other days you won’t. And that’s OK.

I’ll also mention here that though it’s thought that the benefits really start at 16:8 (16 hours of fasting), you can lose quite a lot of fat even with “mostly” 14:10 with the occasional 16:8 and some 12:12 smattered in there. I know, because that was me when starting out. I used to joke that I was intermittently intermittent fasting.

A note about women and fasting: 

There’s some research out there regarding women and fasting.  It’s exciting to realize we aren’t just tiny men. We have a different set of hormones that react differently than men’s. Most notably, we are more sensitive to the hunger hormone ghrelin. So, don’t be alarmed if you feel hungry sooner than a male counter part. Or at the same time, but stronger.

Personally, I thought I was going to be hangry. And I even scheduled my longer fasts for days I knew I wasn’t going to have to interact with any one that wasn’t already living with me. Just in case. But I can honestly say I’ve been “hangry” only 2 or 3 times in the almost 1.5 years I’ve been doing IF.

I will also note that there have been studies, in rodents (always in rodents). That concluded there may be damage to reproductive systems in females. If this is a concern to you, I recommend talking to your doctor and/or dietician before beginning fasting and getting a baseline bloodwork done. Then, periodically check in with your doc/dietician to see if the numbers are moving in a direction that is alarming to you with regards to having children.

A note about other health markers:

In general, IF has been associated with a whole smattering of improved health markers. However, it’s generally recommended to get some tests before fasting and having them tested periodically to make sure something in you isn’t reacting poorly to the protocol.

Also, when fasting, your body is technically under stress. And you are only fueling your body with calories during your feeding window.  Definitely strive to get adequate hydration. (It may also help sate your appetite). But in some instances, you may need to add some minerals, especially the electrolytes: Sodium, potassium, magnesium, etc. In fact, sometime you might even need more sodium than you think you should have. This is normal, but always, if concerned, talk to a doctor.

There’s my recommended 7 steps to start intermittent fasting.  On the surface, it’s super simple (Don’t eat) but in reality, it isn’t always easy. Remember it’s OK if you make your own rules, regarding time frames. Probably the minimum fasting window for real benefits is 14 hours. The benefits go up from there, so it’s good to see what your limit is. But don’t force yourself to be miserable to eke out an extra 30 min of fasting. If you are really truly hungry, eat.