Fasting is so simple and has so many benefits.
Children, pregnant and breast feeding women or those that are clinically underweight shouldn’t fast. Those on medication may wish to check with their doctor before starting. It is also advisable that those with a history of eating disorders to be very cautious. Everyone else is good to go.
Which regime is best for you?
12 hour fast - You eat between 7am-7pm and balance that with 7pm-7am of fasting. This is how most people used to typically eat and we are asleep for a good portion of that anyway.
16 hour fast - You extend the 12 hour fast by a little. Skip breakfast, eat at 11am and stop eating by 7pm. This gives you a 8 hour eating window. This is sometimes called the Lean Gains Method.
20 hour fast - If you extend it a 16 hour fast a little more you might want to do a 20 hour fast with a 4 hour eating window. This is also known as the Warrior Diet and you may eat between the hours of 3pm and 7pm for example, although the timings are always down to you
24 hour fast - Although named the 24 hour fast, it’s technically a 23 hour fast. As an example you may eat one large meal at 1pm on day 1, skip dinner on day 1 and breakfast the next day and eat again at 1pm the following day. I have had a lot of success on this plan but I tend to eat at around 4pm as I find that works best for me.
5:2 fast - This was popularised by Dr Michael Mosley and this is when you eat normally for 5 days of the week and eat a very low calorie diet on the remaining two days. He now recommends keeping keeping under 800 calories on fasting days for both men and women. Technically this is not a fast but can give you many of the same benefits of fasting.
Below are the more extreme types of fasting that can still be done safely BUT you should probably clear this with your doctor before embarking upon
36 hour fast - This is also termed as alternate daily fasting. For example, you finish dinner on day 1 at 7pm, you skip breakfast, lunch and dinner on day 2 and then have breakfast on day 3
42 hour fast - If you skip breakfast on day 3 you can easily push your 36 hour fast into a 42 hour fast
3,5 or 7 day fast - 7 day fasts are popular and are also referred to as a cleansing diet. Most people feel very well during a fast and actually find their energy and mental alertness increases.
You must stay hydrated and you can drink water, sparkling water, black green tea and black coffee. You can flavour you water and tea with natural flavours such as lemon or cucumber.