Intermittent fasting involves entirely or partially abstaining from eating for a set amount of time, before eating regularly again.
There are different methods of Intermittent fasting such as 24 hours fast, a regular diet 5 days a week and restricting your calorie intake to 500-600 on the remaining 2 days, the warrior diet which involves eating small amounts of raw fruits and vegetables during the day and one large meal at night…
The 16/8 method is the most preferred option because it is more sustainable in long term. This method recommends fasting for 16 hours in 24 hours, only drinking a liquid that is not starting to operate the digestion system such as water, herbal teas, or coffee, and eating food in 8 hours.
If you have never experienced intermittent fasting you can start your with fasting 12 hours and increase that to 14 and then to 16 hours.
Meal Planning For Intermittent Fasting
You can prefer to have single, 2, or 3 meals a day by consulting your nutritional specialist.
• If you prefer to eat 2 meals a day, you can arrange hours such as 9 – 17 / 10 – 18 / 11 – 19.
• If you prefer 3 meals a day, you can arrange hours such as 8 – 12 – 16 / 9 – 13 – 17 / 10 – 14 – 18.
It`s always better to have at least 4 hours between meals to let our leptin hormone which helps us to balance our insulin hormone and not to crave food all the time.
When you wake up, you can start your day by drinking water and breaking your fasting with a cup of warm water with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if you have a healthy stomach.
It`s always better to wait at least 30 minutes for absorption and then you can prefer to start your day with a healthy smoothie or cold-pressed juice which is rich in minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants.
If you want to have your first meal other than a drink you can prepare yourself a healthy and colorful breakfast plate that has eggs-vegetables-fruits and healthy fats, soup, porridge, or a granola bowl. Whichever you choose please always try to balance your fat-carbohydrate and protein intake and add whole or powdered dark green leafy vegetables to your plate to help your detox mechanism!
