Not Drinking Enough Water
Given the focus on not breaking the fast during particular hours, many people forget to drink water and some believe that it’s even not ‘allowed’ during the fasting period. This is absolutely not the case, explains Trotman, and it’s one of the biggest intermittent fasting mistakes to make. “It’s so important to drink enough water as you aren’t getting any water from food during the fasting time, so it’s possible that you may become dehydrated,” she says.
How to avoid the mistake: Make sure you’ve always got a bottle or glass of water beside you and be sure to refill it as soon as you’ve finished. Ideally, according to the NHS, we should be aiming for between six to eight cups a day – or around three liters.
Youre Not Following Your Plan As Instructed
Following an intermittent fasting plan can be difficult for some dieters as they arent used to going long periods of time without eating, says Smith. So if you keep cheating your plan week to week or cutting corners, it probably isn’t going to yield the weight-loss benefits you were hoping. So, you may want to reconsider whether IF is right for you and your lifestyle.
How to fix it: Choose an intermittent fasting plan that best matches your lifestyle and can be followed for longer periods of time, says Smith.
Foods To Eat On A 20 Hour Fast
Since a 20 hour fasting only allots a four-hour eating window, the foods you eat during this intermittent fasting window are crucial to refueling your cells and getting the most out of IF.
Remember that your body will be converting fat into ketones, so its important to fuel your body with plenty of healthy fats and fatty whole foods.
The best choices include nourishing whole foods like:
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Why 3 Pm Is A Key Time To Start Eating Less Food
Peeke also recommended that I stick to having lunch be my biggest meal of the day. Theres a study that a majority of Americans eat over the course of 15 to 16 hours out of the day, with the majority of their calories coming after 3 p.m. Its a recipe for disaster, she says, referencing a study published in November 2015 in Cell Metabolism.
Peeke suggested that rather than having my banana protein shake as an evening dessert and not eating anything before exercising, I instead drink it first thing in the morning. This way, the carbs from the banana would give me an instant source of energy to fuel my workout and my body would be processing the carbohydrates at an optimal time of the day.
The switch immediately paid dividends. I had way more energy throughout my workout. Because my body was working at a higher intensity, I was burning more calories than I would be even if Id been doing fasted cardio. Peeke recommended that I try to stay under a 12-hour window of restricted eating, but I was able to manage my dinnertime to keep my eating in a 10-hour window. Although my weight drifted up by 2 lb, it was because I was adding muscle mass instead of fat. The additional muscle in my arms and shoulders were noticeable. And as my body fat percentage got lower, I started to see some veins popping out of my biceps, forearms, and calves.
How Is Intermittent Fasting 20 4 Diet Applied
Those who do 20/4 intermittent fasting should primarily not consume processed foods and carbohydrates. Vegetables, raw nuts, protein should be fed. Intermittent fasting diet is done in 3 different ways. According to the first method, in the fasting diet, one is provided with certain meals within 8 hours and fasted for 16 hours. This is known as the 16/8 method.
In the second method, one stays hungry for 24 hours after eating a single meal. It is known as Eat Stop Eat. The third method is fed with normal meals five days a week and fasted on the other two days. This is also known as the 5:2 method.
The most easily applied diet is the 16-hour fasting method among these methods. Excellent results are obtained in terms of losing weight and being fit.
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Why 20/4 Intermittent Fasting Method
Intermittent fasting 20/4 vs 16/8
What happens is your body starts to have significantly lower glucose levels after 16 hours of your fast because of low insulin secretion. But your body needs more glucose to carry out its operations.
Since after 16 hours glycogen stores get depleted, the body starts to create glucose through glycogenesis using mainly Glycerol and other components like lactic acid, and the amino acids alanine and glutamine.
As the fast goes on the body starts demanding more and more glucose, it starts to create glucose through more glycogenesis, and as a result, it forces your body to bring in more fat to turn into glucose.
Yes, fat can get turned into glucose because the brain is demanding so much glucose.
This is how fat loss takes place.
How You Can Make Your 20 Hours Fast More Effective
You can adjust this schedule to whatever time you wake up
1. Lets say you wake up at about 6 oclock in the morning. After 15 minutes of waking up at 6 15 a.m, you have two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar along with your water. This is going to drive you into a fasted state faster by activating the ampk pathway.
- Basically, it puts you into a deeper fast state so you can get more out of your fast quicker.
2. Between 6:30 am and 6:45 am is when you start having your caffeine, do not wake up and immediately have caffeine because that does some stuff to your overall neurotransmitters but also does something to your adenosine receptors.
- If you wait a little bit after getting up, youll find you have a much better tolerance or actually less tolerance, meaning you can get by with less caffeine, which is better for you.
3. Then at seven oclock am about an hour after you wake up is the ideal time to work out it allows your hormones to kind of get to that advantageous position so if youre an am worker router there you go thats a perfect time.
Refill Your Body with Nutrients
4. Nine am is when you should probably add electrolytes to your body. Dont have electrolytes right after your workout why because your body is really good at developing its own homeostasis and leveraging where electrolytes and where minerals should be.
The Ultimate Tip
- So if you went for a just an easy walk or did a little bit of cardio you could really up to your game with your fat loss in this fast
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It Could Lead To Disordered Eating
The Warrior Diet places an emphasis on overeating, which could be problematic for many people.
Though Ori Hofmekler argues that one should know to stop eating when you feel pleasantly satisfied, this may not translate into healthy eating practices for everyone.
The Warrior Diet could lead to binging and purging behaviors, especially in those at risk of developing disordered eating.
Binging on large quantities of food may also lead to feelings of regret and shame, which can negatively impact mental health and body image.
Choose The Right Fasting Style For You
An Obesity Society study found alternate day fasting can cause an impaired glucose response in women with a healthy body weight, so this may not the best fasting style for women. Mor agrees that women may need to be more careful with intermittent fasting than men. More studies are needed to understand the impact of intermittent fasting on women in particular. There has been some evidence that men can benefit from intermittent fasting, while women may be negatively affected.
Intermittent fasting may be easier in terms of fitting around a typical working day, where you are busy during the day which takes your mind off not eating,” says Dr Lee. “With any diet, but perhaps especially calorie restriction, you need to plan your meals and prepare them in advance. You can also work intermittent fasting around your social life more easily perhaps, making sure you only accept invitations on non-fasting days.
But intermittent fasting can have side effects, she says. As blood glucose levels fall, this can spark headaches, and result in feelings of dizziness and weakness.
“Studies of those fasting during Ramadan have shown that during fasting, severe hypoglycemia can occur. Intermittent fasting may not be suitable for the elderly, as low blood glucose levels can increase the risk of falls.
Our feature on intermittent fasting for beginners: expert tips to get you started has more information for intermittent fasting novices.
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Youre Not Hydrated Enough
Not drinking enough water during your fast may not only leave you dehydrated, but by not drinking enough, youre also missing out on water’s benefits when it comes to quelling hunger.
How to fix it: Drink up! And you can get fancy with your water. Intermittent fasting-approved drinks include: hot tea, black coffee, seltzer water, iced tea, tea or coffee with Stevia.
Week Three Phase Three
This is known as the concluding fat loss week or the high-carb high-protein cycle. During this week, your food consumption should be as follows :
- 1 to 2 days high in carbs
- 1 to 2 days high in protein and low in carbs
- one to two days high in carbs
- 1 to 2 days high in protein and low in carbs
High-Carb Days
1. Undereating window Eat the same foods that you had been eating during the first week.
2. Overeating window Break your fast with the same salad that you have been having. The next large meal or smaller meals should consist of cooked vegetables, some animal protein, and one main source of carbohydrates like corn, rice, potatoes, whole-wheat pasta, barley, or oats.
High-Protein Low-Carb Days
1. 20-hour Underfeeding window The same foods and drinks that you have been having throughout the previous weeks.
2. 4-hour Overfeeding window Break your fast with the same salad, and the next meals should have 227 to 454 grams animal protein and some cooked, non-starchy vegetables.
3. Fruit While you should not consume grains or starchy veggies during these days, you can have some fruit if you are still hungry at the end of the night.
Once you have completed this 3-week phase, you are supposed to start it all over again. If this suggestion does not appeal to you, just stick to the undereating rules set for the 20 hours and then consume healthy, high-protein meals in the 4-hour overfeeding window.
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Results Died Down After A Month
One month in and we were both thrilled with the impact on our bodies. They had definitely shrunk in body fat and our stomachs had deflated.
The scales were not reflecting the change but our clothes sure fit loosely.
And better than any other result, we felt amazing in the morning. Our sleep was more restful and our mornings became more energetic. Were not morning people so to us, this was a blessing.
Unfortunately at this point, I stopped seeing a noticeable impact. The first 2 weeks were so dramatic that it was a bummer to feel stagnation in the results.
Still, I much prefer maintaining my weight over gaining, and the 9-hour window was ensuring I didnt gain weight.
Should I Try Intermittent Fasting
Sessions says this plan probably works best for people who are regimented and says yo-yo dieters will likely have a hard time fasting. The best way to lose weight is by finding something you can stick to.
“The long-term key to weight loss is to establish a lifestyle that you can sustain,” says Sessions.
If you think this will work for you, it’s best to work with a doctor or dietitian who can ensure you’re getting enough nutrients.
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Why I Prefer The Omad Protocol
20:4 fasting is done in a straightforward 20 hours of fasting followed by 4 hours of eating.
Assuming it is the same as One Meal A Day is not wrong, given that your one meal is within that four-hour window. Some would regard OMAD as a type of 23:1 fasting, but the difference is trivial.
Some would recommend having the eating hours during the day. But, I do it the Megan Fox way and eat my only meal in the evening. It is up to you.
Another common variant of 20:4 is the Warrior Diet, introduced by Ori Hofmekler. In that model, even during the 20 hours window, you can eat a low-calorie diet. But that is a different story than ours today.
Before I actively started intermittent fasting, I used to skip breakfast. Lunch was more a chance for socializing with coworkers. When I shifted to working from home mode, It was easy to skip breakfast and lunch entirely and adopt a One Meal A Day.
For these reasons I adopted a 20:4 protocol, it will also be good for you if:
- You can easily skip one or two meals already.
- You are looking for a lifestyle change more than a diet.
- You want to feast, not to count calories.
- You want to save time and money consumed in multiple meals.
If yes, lets get you started!
Fasting May Improve Brain Health
The Warrior Diet is promoted as a way to improve brain health.
There may be some truth to that based on scientific studies on intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting has been found to benefit the regulation of inflammatory pathways that affect your brain function.
For example, animal studies have shown that intermittent fasting reduced inflammatory markers like interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha , which may negatively impact memory and learning (
5 ).
However, research in this area is ongoing and more human studies are needed to determine the benefits of intermittent fasting on brain health.
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The Pounds Were Melting Off
So here are a few things about 20-4: its not easy from the get-go. Its basically like eating one meal a day but a very long meal at that.
Peeps this is working for me. Ive lost 6 pounds in 1 month. You may think its not much, but my goal was to lose an overall 18, so Im getting there slow and steady, which I always prefer.
There are a few reasons why I am LOVING 20-4 intermittent fasting:
- Im not a slave to food anymore. I only have to worry about preparing food for myself once a day.
- My stomach has become very small it takes less food to fill it.
- Ive lost the feeling of hunger. I get bearable hunger pangs very occasionally and feel satisfied 95% of the time that Im fasting.
- I feel more in control of my body.
- I can enjoy food that made me feel guilty before because its all within the 4-hour window. Its infrequent but I do have a sinful sweet here and there.
- Supermarket shopping has gone down from 1x every week to every 3 weeks. Im saving money!
May Improve Blood Sugar Levels
Intermittent fasting is generally associated with improving blood sugar control and insulin sensitivity . A pilot study done in 2017 showed that fasting for 18 to 20 hours a day could lead to weight loss and post-meal blood sugar control . This shows that fasting could be extremely beneficial to patients with type 2 diabetes. However, if you are suffering from this disease, please talk to your doctor before trying the 20-hour fast, or any other form of intermittent fasting.
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May Help Protect Against Alzheimers
Note that these results are from research done on animals and not humans. In 2017, a study posted online revealed that intermittent fasting, in general, may help protect against Alzheimers disease through the restoration of Aquaporin-4 Polarity . Later in 2018, another study suggested that intermittent fasting protects against this disease through the increase of lipoproteins to the brain .
What Can You Eat During Your Fast
Things which you should have with yourself are Tea, Coffee, and electrolytes that you can add to your water, bee pollen, or some bee propolis because with the length of a fast like this youre going to need it to replenish a few of your B vitamins but also to help out nutrient absorption.
You should also have Apple Cider vinegar, and some optional things such as lemon, Bone broth, and cinnamon.
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A Complete Guide To Intermittent Fasting 20/4
In life, it takes time to build on skills. Classical pianists once poked at the black and white keysmuch like you and I woulduntil they improved and perfected their craft. Although intermittent fasting isnt going to send you straight to Carnegie Hall, it will make you feel better and improve your overall health. However, just like anything, you have to start somewhere, and although 20/4 intermittent fasting isnt quite for beginners, it is a worthy goal for the road ahead.
How Does It Differ From The 1: 8 Method
This plan may sound very similar to the 16:8 intermittent fast with just a smaller feeding window, however, it is actually very different to execute. Heres why:
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