Intermittent Fasting Cheat Sheet

Just a foreword on this one, intermittent fasting is great for creating a calorie deficit, and can work on the short term very well, but over what might be a 6 month period, this would be incredibly difficult, you may end up skipping meals with your family, not going out to dinner or enjoying your nutrition in general. Weight loss is a long term game. 

You could have one or two fasting days a week, which would be a lot more manageable.

Intermittent Fasting: 

Put simply, this is a diet where for a certain period, you don’t take in any calories. Generally, a fasting time is selected, as an example; 16 out of 24 hours, which gives an 8-hour eating window.

This eating window isn’t an opportunity to cram in as much food as possible, but more so eat a standard, moderate breakfast, lunch and dinner. This diet won’t work effectively if you constantly take breaks from it, consume high amounts of sugar/fat foods during the window, or consume high caloric drinks during the day/night.

 Balance is the most important thing, we gain weight when we are over-consuming calories. Weight loss is a basic equation of calories in vs calories out, so, to simplify it even more, I’ve given two options below. 

Option 1: The Go-Getter.

Fasting Time: 15 hours – Eating window: 9 hours.

How: You can have breakfast, and start a 9-hour timer, or alternatively skip breakfast, start at lunch and have food later in the day. (This suits most people who work 9-5 and have dinner late.)

Total Fast is 105 hours a week. This is a total calorie reduction method only.

Option 2: The Pick and Mix

Monday – Fasting Time: 16 hours – Eating Window: 8 Hours

Tuesday – Fasting Time: 16 Hours – Eating Window: 8 Hours

Wednesday – Fasting Time: 17 Hours – Eating Window: 7 Hours

Thursday – Fasting Time: 17 Hours – Eating Window: 7 Hours

Friday – Fasting Time: 16 Hours – Eating Window: 8 Hours

Saturday – Fasting Time: 14 Hours – Eating Window: 10 Hours

Sunday – Fasting Time: 14 Hours – Eating window: 10 Hours

Total Fast is 110 Hours a week, this allows partial breaks on the weekend.