In my last couple articles we’ve talked about intermittent fasting, what it is, what the benefits are, why you should give it a try.
In this blog post, I’m going to cover the main styles of intermittent fasting, to help you figure out the best form of intermittent fasting for YOU.
The Most Popular Method Of Intermittent Fasting
The most popular is probably the 16/8 method. This is where you fast for 16 hours and eat during an 8-hour window. For example, you could eat between noon and 8pm every day, and then fast from 8pm until noon.
This is the easiest way to get started with fasting. You don’t have to go very long without food and it’s very lifestyle-friendly. It’s easy enough on your body that you can do it every day if you want to.
One thing you’ll find, when it comes to fasting, is that it’s often easier to fast when you’re already fasted. In other words, once you break your fast and enter a “fed” state, you’re more likely to feel hungry again. So it easiest to fast in the morning and then eat later in the day, rather than the other way around.
Another benefit to this kind of fasting is that you can drink black coffee in the morning to stave off any hunger.
This kind of fasting is very conducive to being productive in the morning. You don’t have to mess around with breakfast, and all the ups and downs with your energy levels–instead, by fasting, you’ll find it easy to maintain a strong and steady focus on what you’re doing.
And because you’ll be fasted for about 16 hours, that’s just long enough for your body to start the cellular self-cleaning process called autophagy.
Warrior Diet Style Fasting
Next, there’s the Warrior Diet 1 meal a day method. In this type of fasting, you graze during the day–just eating light snacks. Then at night you eat one, big, satisfying meal for dinner.
This is definitely more extreme than the 16/8 style of fasting.
I’ve tried this a few times, and I wouldn’t want to do it every single day…but it’s an option to do every now and then.
For example, if you overeat on Sunday, you could do this kind of fasting on Monday to make up for some of those extra calories.
Then you could do a workout before dinner, and your one meal on Monday would help your body recover from the workout.
Overall, though, I wouldn’t do this every day. It’s a little too extreme for me, and also, because you’re grazing throughout the day, your body won’t get the benefits of autophagy.
Alternate Day Fasting
There’s alternate day fasting, which is where you fast every other day.
This is a really intense type of fasting that is probably too intense to be useful for most people.
I wouldn’t recommend it.
Eat Stop Eat-Style Fasting
A little less intense and much more useful is the Eat Stop Eat style of fasting, where you fast for 24 hours once or twice a week.
Brad Pilon has I believe recommended doing this from noon one day until noon the next day.
So one nice thing about it is that you get the benefit of a longer fast, 24 hours, AND you still get to eat something every day.
For most people I would probably say to only do this kind of fasting once a week, no more than twice a week.
Doing Longer Fasts (More Than 24 Hours)
And finally, you can fast for more than 24 hours in a row.
This is a little more extreme. So it might be something you want to build up to.
Personally I have been experimenting with 36-hour fasts. So I’ll eat all day on Monday, for example. Then I go to bed, which is obviously fasting, and I’ll fast all day Tuesday.
Then on Wednesday morning I’ll break the fast with…breakfast, fittingly enough.
So it turns out to be about 36 hours or so without food.
Your body will be in the state of autophagy for quite a long time, say 20 hours or so, so this should have a really powerful self-renewing effect on your body.
As I mentioned, though, it is a bit extreme. So if you find yourself getting really hungry, then you might just want to break the fast and eat a little something healthy.
If you want to try an even longer fast, you can certainly do that. I wouldn’t recommend going any longer than 72 hours, since research shows that’s about when your metabolism starts to slow down.
So, What’s The BEST Style of Intermittent Fasting?
A longer fast is not always necessarily better. After all, if you do the 16/8 style of fasting, you can do it every day. Whereas if you fast for 24 or 36 hours at a time, you might only be able to do that once a week.
So there are pros and cons.
Now that said, some research has suggested that going up to 72 hours without food could have a beneficial effect on your immune system. So there could be an extra benefit to a longer fast…but again, it’s more difficult and you can’t do it as often.
My recommendation, if you’re new to fasting, is to start with 16/8 style fasting. Stop eating at about 8pm, and eat your first meal at about noon or so.
It’s the easiest way to get started, and you can star to get a feel for how intermittent fasting works for you, how it makes you feel.
Then if you want to experiment with a longer fast, you can, after you’ve kinda gotten the chance to get used to it.
Right now my preferred style of fasting is about 36 hours, once a week. But once in a while I’ll throw in a 16/8 style here or there.
For example, if I’m traveling, to me those are often good days to fast…because you don’t usually have access to very good food anyway if you’re at an airport or whatever.
At the end of the day, practically speaking, the best style of intermittent fasting is the one that works best for YOU and your lifestyle.