With so many types of dieting plans available in the media, It’s confusing to pick one. Many diet plans come with their rulebook but Intermittent fasting is very simple to follow and maintain.

The most important part of any dieting is to follow it strictly. If any dieting plan is causing you stress, or simply hate it, it’s not the right diet for you. Your goal could be to lose weight or maintain your weight. To enhance your fitness, choosing the diet plan that suits you is the right foundation for the goal.

Intermittent fasting is refraining from eating for a certain number of hours regularly. In those hours, you can have water or calorie-less drinks but that’s it. It helps in weight loss, lowers cholesterol and improves immunity. While other diets mention what to eat and the quantity, Intermittent fasting is focused on keeping long gaps between meals.

Note: Intermittent fasting is safe for healthy people to pursue. People with underlying medical conditions should refer to their doctor and consult them.

There are different ways of fasting. You can choose to do it daily, on alternate days or weekly. I have explained it further-

• Table of Contents

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  12:12

• 16:8 Window

• Alternative Day Window

• Skipping Meal

• 20:4 Window

12:12 Window

This window is for people who are just starting out. You eat for 12 hours and take a gaps of 12 hours. It’s an everyday practice. If you include sleeping period in your fasting window, its easy to complete the time. It controls the midnight snacks that we don’t need and give break to our digestive system.

This also helps to time your meals and give proper rest to your digestive system. For instance, if you eat breakfast at 8.00 Am, complete your dinner by 8:00 PM so the next day you can have breakfast by 8:00 AM.

16:8 Window

As the name suggests 16:8, the fasting period is 16 hours in a day and eating period is for 8 hours. Once you are comfortable with 12:12 window, you can increase your time.

Be mindful of your food quantity in the 8 hours of eating window. Be mindful when you eat the first meal after the gap. Its easy to overeat if you are feeling hungry. Eating healthy and in appropriate portions will show you the result sooner. Eating twice a day makes it easy to follow this window.

24 Hours

This diet plan is followed on days basis instead of time basis. As the name suggest, the fasting period is the Whole day. Its quite an intense fasting. This method helps to burn your stored fat by using it as a fuel for energy. Its your choice how often you want to do it; Once, twice or thrice a week.

Its very important to stay hydrated, eat nutritious meals while following this diet plans.

You can move to this fasting plan once you are comfortable with 16:8 hours window. It requires strong willpower and dedication to follow it.

Skipping Meal

If you aren’t sure whether intermittent fasting is for you or not; you can start with this one. Instead watching your time, You can skip a meal- breakfast, lunch or dinner. Its entirely your decision. This method helps to avoid eating a meal when you aren’t hungry and eat only when you are hungry.

20:4 Window

This one is for the experts who’ve been fasting for quite sometime. As the name suggests, You fast for 20 hours in a day and only eat for 4 hours. It gives you only one chance to eat main meal for the whole day. Its recommended to include fruits, vegetable and carbohydrates in that short span of window.

This diet is intensely challenging and could show negative effects on body if enough nutrients, protein and fiber hasn’t been consumed. Once the body gets used to one meal, it can bring new energy and youthfulness in the body.

Please choose the diet plan that will serve your body right. It’s always best to start from an easy fasting plan and then shift to other fasting plans. Hope this Helped.