Intermittent Fasting: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide – Part 1

How to choose your intermittent fasting plan and start your new lifestyle

So, you want to start intermittent fasting? You’ve come to the right place. Welcome to Fastic’s Beginner’s Guide, where we’ll give you the rundown on healthy fasting and holistic health! Whether you’re truly a beginner or a veteran who wants a quick review, we’re here to guide and support you through your journey and help you find the right intermittent fasting schedule!

Intermittent fasting. What is it, exactly?

Intermittent fasting – an eating pattern that helps you create new, healthy habits.

Quite simply, intermittent fasting is an eating pattern that alternates daily between periods of fasting and eating. Through healthy fasting we create new mealtime habits that can dramatically improve our health!

We live in a world of constant snacking, and when we eat sporadically throughout the waking day, our body uses energy from the food we’re consuming. This means that our blood sugar and insulin (the essential hormone that regulates our blood sugar levels) are always high. As a result, this can lead to obesity and diabetes (type 2) over time.

What happens in your body during intermittent fasting?

Weight loss tip: Intermittent fasting can help you burn fat naturally and provide long-lasting results.

Conversely, eating within an intermittent fasting schedule allows your body to enjoy an important and much needed break during the fasting state.

Your gut gets a break from constant digestion, and your important gut bugs are able to focus on cleaning up the remaining food. Your organs are able to get a bit of a rest, which means that they can focus on other things besides digestion! Insulin levels also stabilize – the hormone can work even better at controlling sugar levels when it needs to.

A medical study from the New England Journal of Medicine showed that during the fasting stage your body is able to turn its attention to utilizing the boat loads of energy it has stored in its fat cells, rather than the constant stream of energy from snacking. Good news for you, as this means you begin to burn fat and lose weight! You’ll also gain more mental clarity and energy, and not to mention, have much more free time to do the things you love.

You may be thinking, “Ok, ok… so what’s the catch?” Sounds too good to be true that simply switching the times we eat can help us reach our goals…

Intermittent fasting methods

Be sure to fit fasting around your daily life when choosing your preferred method. Your intermittent fasting schedule should work for you, not the other way around.

Intermittent fasting consists of breaking up the day into two windows: one for fasting and one for feeding. Here are some common ways to split your day – so let’s break it up and break it down:

12:12

Start here and work your way up! This is a gentle approach to fasting. We recommend starting with a fast of 12 hours and an eating period of 12 hours to ease your way in.

16:8

Getting the swing of things! You can increase your fasting window to 16 hours, meaning your eating window will be 8 hours. This is a sustainable way to integrate IF into your daily life.

20:4

Master faster! A 20 hour fasting period and a 4 hour eating period; use this option occasionally and cautiously to boost your progress or when you’re up for a challenge.

The fasting period for any of the recommended fasting schedules should fit your daily life
and does include sleeping time.

Intermittent fasting daily plan

Fastic Tip: Are you an early bird or a night owl? Pick an intermittent fasting method that fits your daily routine!

Let’s look at an example:

So you decide to try 16:8 after getting accustomed to 12:12. You usually end your evening with a home cooked meal, so you decide to start your fasting period after dinner, around 8pm. You go to sleep, and in the morning you have a small, black coffee and head out for the day. You break your fast and eat your first meal around 12pm.

If you love breakfast, adjust the fasting times accordingly and start your fast a bit earlier!

Judging by the example above, we’ve all tried intermittent fasting before, probably unknowingly: an early dinner, a morning without breakfast. When you do it intentionally, though, you can begin to reconnect to your body, learning when it’s truly hungry and providing it with a structure it can rely on, one that fits your life and gets you the health benefits you deserve.

Fastic makes your intermittent fasting journey simple

The Fastic app will suggest the right fasting times for you, however, you can always adjust the settings yourself. Track your fast and get reminders about when to start your fasting timer and when your eating window begins.

You deserve to live a healthy, happy life. Download the Fastic app and get the results you’ve been waiting for. If you have underlying health conditions, are pregnant or unsure if IF is right for you, please consult with your doctor.