Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Lori Geurin
Here are 12 intermittent fasting tips for beginners to help you learn all the insider secrets and get your fasting journey off to a successful start!
Intermittent fasting has many health benefits and is one of the quickest ways to lose weight with the least effort. These strategies are useful if you’re just starting intermittent fasting or need to reboot your healthy lifestyle. These tips and tricks aren’t hard and fast rules but more like insider secrets that will power your momentum from the very start.
- 12 Intermittent Fasting Tips For Beginners
- 1. Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
- 2. Drink green tea and coffee during your fast.
- 4. Start your fast after dinner.
- 5. Break your fast with healthy food.
- 6. Be aware of portion sizes.
- 7. Try Intermittent Fasting for at least 3 or 4 weeks.
- 8. Be flexible and expect ups and downs.
- 9. Stay busy and productive.
- 10. Move your body.
- 11. Allow time for quality sleep.
- 12. Listen to your body.
- Summary – Insider Fasting Tips Perfect For The Beginner
- 16:8 Intermittent Fasting Schedule Examples
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12 Intermittent Fasting Tips For Beginners
1. Stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water.
Drink 16 ounces of fresh water first thing when you wake up. This is the perfect way to start your day. Then continue drinking water throughout the day. This keeps hunger pangs away and prevents dehydration. Plus, it’s simply healthy.
When you’re fasting, you may find it helpful to add a pinch of pure sea salt or, my personal favorite, Himalayan pink salt to your water for the electrolytes.
Related: 9 Surprising Benefits Of Lemon Water
You can check out our Intermittent Fasting shirts and apparel in our Wellness Lori shop.
Simply click on the t-shirt below.
2. Drink green tea and coffee during your fast.
Black coffee and plain teas, like this green tea, are perfect. If you want to add all-natural Stevia, that’s okay too. Just avoid sugar and creamers because of the added calories.
Also, avoid fruity teas because they can contain added sugars that could break your fast. For more on this, check out What Is Clean Fasting And How Does It Work. Caffeine naturally suppresses the appetite, so that’s an added benefit.
Related: The Effects Of Caffeine On The Body: Pros And Cons, Intermittent Fasting & Coffee: Does Coffee Break a Fast?, and Intermittent Fasting Tea
Here are some high-quality teas to try.
4. Start your fast after dinner.
This is the easiest time for most people to start fasting because you’ll be sleeping for most of the fast. There’s no reason to make it hard on yourself, right?
So enjoy a delicious, healthy dinner, then start your fast. Going to bed feeling satisfied will help you sleep better, and you’ll be fasting while you catch all the zzz’s.
(Want to improve your communication? Check out these 8 Communication Skills To Improve Your Relationships)
RELATED: Break Your Fast, Still Burn More Fat.
5. Break your fast with healthy food.
Wondering what to eat when you’re fasting? Make sure you break your fast with plenty of nourishing real food. And stay away from processed junk food and sugar as much as possible.
Focus on eating plenty of
- Fresh vegetables
- Fruits
- Nuts and seeds
- Lean protein like grass-fed beef, fish, and vegetable protein
- Healthy fats such as nut and seed butter, olive oil, and avocados
- Leafy greens
- Cruciferous veggies like cauliflower and broccoli
- Unrefined whole grains, like quinoa, amaranth, millet, and wild rice (unless you’re strictly keto)
Related: 20 Proven Reasons Why Refined Sugar Is Bad For Your Health
6. Be aware of portion sizes.
Chew your food slowly and savor the flavors. When you practice intermittent fasting regularly, your body can absorb the nutrients in your food better. So don’t worry about trying to eat more to make up for the meals you missed. It’s not necessary. Just make sure that what you eat is nutritious.
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7. Try Intermittent Fasting for at least 3 or 4 weeks.
This gives your body time to adapt to the new timing schedule. It also gives you a fair amount of time to examine the benefits and decide if you want to continue.
Here’s a quick TikTok video about the benefits of fasting.
@wellnesslori Intermittent fasting benefits ##intermittentfastingbenefits ##intermittentfastingforweightloss ##intermittentfastinglifestyle
♬ original sound – LoriGeurin
I suggest gradually increasing the amount of time you’re fasting each day until you reach your goal. Below is a rough example for someone who wants to follow a 16:8 IF plan. This means you would ultimately be fasting for 16 hours and eating within an 8-hour window. This shows how you could transition into the 16:8 lifestyle within a week.
This is a reasonably quick transition to the new meal schedule, in my opinion. Transitioning to the fasting lifestyle took longer for me. Still, I was dealing with severe hypoglycemia symptoms on top of chronic Lyme disease, so I took it pretty slow in the beginning as my body adjusted. You could do it slower if you wanted also. It’s totally up to you.
Related: How Intermittent Fasting Cured My Hypoglycemia
16:8 Intermittent Fasting Schedule Examples
Please note in the below schedule that you can drink black coffee, tea, and water as much as you want. I just left that out for simplicity’s sake.
WEEK 1 FASTING SCHEDULE
| Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | |
| Breakfast | 8 am | 8:30 am | 9 am | 9:30 am | 10 am | 10:30 am | 11 am |
| Lunch | 12:00 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm |
| Dinner | 5:00 pm | 5:30 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm |
WEEK 2 FASTING SCHEDULE
| Sun | Mon | Tues | Wed | Thurs | Fri | Sat | |
| Lunch | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm | 12 pm |
| Dinner | 6 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm | 6 pm |
The beauty of intermittent fasting is that there are a hundred different ways you can do it. And YOU get to determine your own eating schedule. The one above is just one I came up with on the fly. You can take it and tweak it however you like. Or maybe you’d like to follow it strictly. It’s really whatever works best for you. What fits your life’s demands and schedule best?
Here are 50 things to do instead of eating while intermittent fasting.
8. Be flexible and expect ups and downs.
This is normal, just like the ups and downs in life. So focus on relaxing through these times and remember this too shall pass. Get outside if possible and do something you enjoy to relieve stress.
Fasting isn’t easy (at first) but it sure does simplify your life.
In the meantime, learn all that you can about IF and focus on all the positive, healthy changes you’re making for yourself.
Need some inspiration for your fasting lifestyle? Get 42 powerful intermittent fasting quotes to motivate you.
Related: 10 Ways To Relieve Stress And Anxiety
9. Stay busy and productive.
You may find your most productive time is during your fast. This has been my experience. In fact, I’m writing this article while fasting.
In the early days, when you’re first starting, you may find yourself a little more distracted while you adjust to this new way of living. If so, consider taking up a new hobby, writing in a gratitude journal, or calling a friend you haven’t talked to in a while.
10. Move your body.
There’s no need to overdo it here, especially if you’re just getting started, but you might lift some light weights, do a kettlebell workout or go for a gentle walk. The important thing is to move your body and do something you enjoy!
Find Your Trainer (Fyt) has a fantastic deal now! You can get a 14-day FREE trial of Fyt Duo – their digital 1-on-1 personal training experience. They design an individualized fitness plan based entirely on YOU – your current goals, health status, lifestyle, etc. Plus, their trainers are all NCAA accredited, and you can work out anywhere you choose (including your living room).
RELATED: 7 Ways to Stay Motivated When Fasting: Tips for Intermittent Fasting Success
11. Allow time for quality sleep.
Everyone is different but work on making sleep a priority in your life. Most adults need 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep.
If you have trouble sleeping, here are 12 Quick Tips To Help You Sleep Better Tonight.
12. Listen to your body.
Pay attention to your energy levels, moods and emotions, hunger and food cravings, and overall feelings. Fasting is the perfect time to get in touch with your body’s cues.
With all the distractions in our everyday lives, it’s easy to get out of touch with these signals. But our bodies often show us what they need. You’ll find that, over time, fasting can help you get back in touch with these cues.
RELATED: 11 Steps To Lose Weight Easily: Staying Motivated And Maintaining Your Diet
Summary – Insider Fasting Tips Perfect For The Beginner
I hope you’ve found these tips for intermittent fasting to be helpful. Different things work for different people, but I love IF for better concentration, weight loss (1), fewer sugar cravings, and many more health benefits.
But, whether you decide to try fasting or not, I know you’re a rockstar!
If you would like more intermittent fasting tips perfect for beginners, you’ll want to check out:
- Intermittent Fasting: The Ultimate Quick Guide
- 9 Health Benefits Of Intermittent Fasting
- 5 Favorite Intermittent Fasting Methods Explained
- 9 Essential Questions About Intermittent Fasting Answered
- Intermittent Fasting: The Effortless Way To Lose Weight
Have you tried intermittent fasting? What tips can do you have?
I’m not consistent but the 16/8 is pretty easy when I’m focused. However I would love to work myself up to 18/6 tolerance so I can create what they call autophagy! I also have Lyme and EBV I wan encouraged to have a IF lifestyle. Thx for the example schedule. I enjoy reading your blog 🙂
Hello Rayshawn! It’s so good to *see* you here. This is great to hear – autophagy is an amazing thing, isn’t it?!
I’m happy you’ve discovered this wonderful IF lifestyle. So sorry you’re dealing with Lyme and EBV. I was in so much pain and had a lot of inflammation from the Lyme but IF has really helped with that. I hope it helps/is helping you too! Thank you so much for the kind words about the blog. Hope to see you back soon!
I recently found out a book about fasting, BUT i was using an intermitent fasting protcol already. When i started i had a bit of issues, but nothing major. I think the most important point is, like you said, hydration, althought i believe, based on my recently adquired knowledge that you missed a bit of crucial information. Hydrating your body not only means giving it water, you need to add some electrolytes (sodium, potassium and magnesium) to avoid getting dizzy and help with your energy levels. God i wish i had known that before. Awesome post!
Great catch, James!
I’m so glad you mentioned this because electrolytes are essential any time you’re fasting. Some people drink broth or just add a teaspoon of sea salt to a glass of pure water to replenish the body.
Thanks so much for the kind words and comments. Come back soon!