Intermittent Fasting
IF has the above health benefits. It is recommended to fast from 6 or 7pm until 11am or noon the next day. This can be done daily or several days out of the week. Many do best starting off doing IF every other day.
No preparation necessary. Coffee in the mornings is acceptable with IF. Recommended to eat lunch, snack and dinner. (See meal plan guides for 800–1000 cal.)
24 Hour Fast
In a 24-hour fast, your body kicks into autophagy (after 13 hours of fasting), which is the body’s way of cleaning out damaged cells in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells. You also see increases in Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which helps to maintain, build, and repair healthy tissue in the brain and other organs. This hormone can help speed up healing after an injury and repair muscle tissue after exercise, and it helps to build muscle mass, boost metabolism, and burn fat. You also get the beginnings of stem cell production in the body — new, healthy cells — on a 24-hour fast. This can be done as a water fast or a dry fast (no food or water).
Alternate Day Fast
Alternate day fasting is just what it sounds like — every other day fast. This can start after dinner one day and go until dinner the next, or be extended through to the following morning as a 36-hour fast to increase autophagy and ketosis/fat burning. Alternate day fasting also helps with reducing belly fat, lowering insulin levels/insulin resistance, improving blood sugars, lowering cholesterol, and improving cardiac health.
Dry Fasting
Dry fasting has many benefits including detoxing, boosting the immune system, improving cardiac health (like lowering blood pressure and cholesterol), reducing inflammation, healing the brain, lowering blood sugars, preventing (and perhaps even healing) osteoporosis, helping with weight loss, slowing the aging process, improving resistance to oxidative stress, improving skin and metabolism, and can destroy cancer cells. What more could you want? It is recommended not to dry fast for more than 24 hours.
Do not dry fast when you are going to be outside in the heat or exerting high amounts of physical energy.
Extended Fast
For any fast lasting 3 days or more, preparation is recommended. You should know what you’re doing going into it and have a plan! Extended fasts not only significantly lower inflammation, but also destroy and remove damaged cells, and then create stem cells to heal the body and repair damaged areas.
Fast Mimicking / Modified Fast
The Fasting Mimicking Diet (FMD) consists of eating plant-based foods for five days while your body is not recognizing that it is eating. This causes the body to stay in a fasting mode. It is very low calorie (600 calories or less), high in fats — eat avocados/nut butters — with no more than 20g of protein.
What to know when preparing for a fast (especially an extended one)
- Wean off of caffeine (to avoid headache)
- Wean off of sugar to help reduce cravings
- Feast on higher, healthy fats and complex carbs leading up to the fast
- Do not feast — trying to make up for the fast. Eat just fruits/veggies or have a plant-based shake when breaking an extended water fast.
- Don’t over-exert with exercise — going on walks and doing light exercises/stretching are helpful
- Eliminate all meat, dairy products, fish, eggs, black tea, coffee, sugar, alcohol, cigarettes… greasy foods. This will make the process of prolonged fasting enjoyable, and it is strongly recommended 2–5 days prior to an extended water fast.
Keep reading: Explore dry fasting, the 800, 1,000 and 1,200-calorie plans, and training while you fast. Questions? Talk to our team.