I tried 22/2 Intermittent Fasting For 1 Week (OMAD)

I did a similar article not long ago about 20/4 intermittent fasting and people really enjoyed it, so I'm following up with my results from doing 22/2 intermittent fasting for 1 week.

Comparing 20/4 and 22/2 Intermittent Fasting

During 20/4 intermittent fasting, you have a 4 hour eating window followed by a 20 hour fasting window. So, of course, 22/2 is just extending your fast for 2 more hours and having only 2 hours of eating time.

I don't eat the for the full 2 hours. I break my fast with some food and eat until I'm satisfied. Then later on I will have some more snacks. It usually ends up being one main meal with 2-3 different snacks and then I'm done eating.

Hunger

Just like with 20/4 intermittent fasting, I was getting hungry right around the 17 hour mark. I still had 5 more hours to go before I could eat. At the 22 hour point when I would break my fast, I was often very hungry and ready to eat a lot.

Oftentimes this hunger is psychological, so if you keep your mind off of food, then you do a lot better. Also having zero calorie drinks (that don't contain fake sugar) help quite a bit with that.

Calories

During the week that I did 22/2 intermittent fasting, I didn't count calories. I just ate what I wanted to and however much I felt like I needed to eat. I really hate to count calories. It's so frustrating to count and measure every morsel that goes into your mouth. But if you are someone who enjoys it, that's fine.

There were no dietary restrictions at all. I just ate whatever was around. It's important to note that if you're going to do intermittent fasting, you probably should have adequate food around for when you complete your fast, as you will be hungry and probably won't feel like shopping.

How Much Weight Did I Lose?

For 1 week I lost a total of 3.5 lbs. I was pretty happy with that. A lot of bloating went with it. I noticed the inches were going away. Clothes were fitting better, face was more defined.

During my week of 20/4 IF, I lost 2 lbs, so that gives you an idea of how much more effective 22/2 IF can be. I lost 1.5 pounds more from extending my fast by 2 hours and only eating for 2 hours. It makes sense because I am probably consuming less calories.

It's very interesting to see the difference this can make. I got way more benefits just from that small change. It's also very motivating.

I felt more energy and felt better in general, despite the hunger. The hunger is definitely hard, but it's worth it to feel better and lose weight. Intermittent fasting has so many health benefits.

I Tried 20/4 Intermittent Fasting For A Week

As the title suggests, I tried 20/4 intermittent fasting for a week. I'm going to be talking about my experience, how much weight I lost and how it went. So if you are interested in all that, stay tuned.

What Is 20/4 Intermittent Fasting?

First off, I want to explain what 20/4 intermittent fasting is for those that don't know. You eat all of your daily calories within a span of 4 hours. You can't have calories outside of that window. So basically, you have no calories for a total of 20 hours, and then have all of your calories.

Your calories would typically be eaten in the form on a big meal and a couple snacks, but you can consume the calories however you want to. As long as you only eat within the 4 hour window.

While you are fasting for 20 hours, you don't drink diet coke, sparkling water, fruit juice, or any of that nonsense. You have water only. You can have some lemon or lime juice (fresh squeezed) in your water if you want it. You can have black coffee. But nothing else. I can't stress this enough.

Read: I Tried 22/2 Intermittent Fasting For 1 Week

How Did It Feel?

I was pretty hungry. I am someone who has been intermittent fasting for several years on and off, so it wasn't a huge shock to my system. I can take it, and I know what to expect. It would probably be very different for someone who has never fasted before.

But intermittent fasting is one of those things that if you fall off the wagon or stray a bit and then try to come back, it's just as hard to get back into it. So it is still a challenge for someone like me, since I have been off the wagon a little bit.

I would get hungry usually around the 17 hour mark, or lunch time. Whichever one just so happened to come first. This is just a habit though because my body is used to eating around lunch so all these hunger hormones get released, making me feel hungry. The hunger does go away and it gets easier after some days.

Non-Scale Victories

I did have some non-scale victories. A NSV is when you notice a change that doesn't have anything to do with the scale or your weight.

My non-scale victories are as follows: My lower belly is definitely inches smaller. It's visibly reduced in size, and clothes are more loose there. Also, my face has less bloating and is more defined. My belly in general (upper and lower) are both smaller. I just noticed it a lot more in my lower belly. My thighs feel smaller when I walk, like they don't rub against each other as much. Also, my teeth feel cleaner since I'm only eating in a small window.

Weight Loss

During my week of 20/4 intermittent fasting, I lost a total of 2 lbs, which is pretty average weight loss. So in one month, I could lose about 8 lbs if I were to continue. I do want to say that I didn't count any calories. Most people who are doing IF count calories as well just to make sure they aren't going over. I honestly don't like to count calories, so I didn't.

During my 4 hour window, I ate what I wanted without regards to how many calories was in the food. I probably could have lost more than 2 lbs if I had actually counted calories, but I'm not upset with these results at all. I am visibly less bloated. It just feels good to lose that bloat.

So that's what I got for you today. If you have been on the fence about trying intermittent fasting, I encourage you to at least try. Start off with a 16/8 schedule if you are new just to see what it's like.

6 Things You Need To Know About Intermittent Fasting

In today's post, I will be discussing 6 things you need to know about intermittent fasting. Some of these things are negative, but some are advantages that you receive from intermittent fasting. I think that they are all useful to know if you are going to begin an intermittent fasting plan.

You Will Be Hungry

You probably expected that you'll be hungry on an intermittent fasting program and it's true. You'll have to endure some hunger. If your body is used to eating at certain times, hormones are released during that time that will make you hungry. If you skip a meal, then you'll have to endure that hunger.

The good news is that it does get easier the longer you practice intermittent fasting. Your body will become fat adapted and will learn how to efficiently pull energy from your fat stores to fuel you. You will get less hungry. But you'll always have to deal with some amount of hunger.

Hunger comes and goes in waves. You may feel ravenous for 2 hours, but then the feeling subsides and you aren't so hungry anymore.

People Will Judge You

If people around you find out that you are intermittent fasting, they will judge you. Some will preach at you about your body needing multiple meals a day. Some will stay you're in starvation mode and starving yourself. It seems like everyone becomes a health coach as soon as they hear that you are intermittent fasting, even though they, themselves, are overweight and have been for a long time. But they know better than you.

You can't do much about this problem. You can try to educate them, but some people are way too brainwashed to even bother with it. The best thing to do is probably keep your mouth shut about intermittent fasting. Only tell someone if you absolutely have to, or if you feel like they are open minded enough to understand it.

Keeping On Schedule Is Hard

You can't end your fast until 2 p.m. but there's a company lunch at 12 p.m. These things happen all the time. If you know about an event beforehand, you can always readjust your fasting window to line up with the event you are supposed to attend. That would mean that you stop eating a little bit earlier the following day so that you can attend that company lunch.

Sometimes adjustments have to be made. Sometimes you just have to say, "To heck with it," and not fast at all on some days. It's okay to do that, as long as it's not a regular thing. As long as you are intermittent fasting 95% of the days, you will see results.

You'll Get Fast Results

This is one of those benefits I was talking about. The results you get from intermittent fasting will come a lot quicker than traditional diet and exercise. That is because intermittent fasting is superior to the traditional diet and exercise guidelines that everyone is taught.

You can expect to lose more fat as well. If you take pictures, you will especially notice your body changing quickly on an intermittent fasting plan.

You'll Feel Better

Little aches and pains that you used to have may go away. That is because intermittent fasting is anti-inflammatory. Sometimes certain things will just completely resolve. I know that many people comment that they used to have digestive issues that cleared up completely on an intermittent fasting schedule.

When you go periods of time without eating, your body can heal more quickly and more efficiently. You are especially giving your digestive system a rest so that it has time and energy to repair.

You Can Eat Cake

There may have been certain foods you had to avoid while on a traditional diet, but on intermittent fasting you have a little bit more freedom. People can eat a wide variety of foods that are considered "no-no" foods in the diet community, and still drop weight just as fast.

Now, I'm not advocating for an unhealthy diet full of processed foods. I'm just saying that you have the freedom to eat those things without it causing as much problems. You are mitigating some of the damage of eating that junk, and in some cases even reversing the damage it causes.

I hope you enjoyed these intermittent fasting tips.

Can You Mix Intermittent Fasting Schedules?

I see this question a lot: Can you mix intermittent fasting schedules? So I wanted to address it in a post. But first I wanted to include some definitions.

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

For those who don't know, intermittent fasting is when you have a period of fasting (only consuming water) and a period of eating. This can also be called "time restricted feeding." You essentially eat all your calories of the day within a certain time frame and do not eat outside of that time frame. It has many health benefits including anti-aging, cancer prevention, and lowered risk of disease. Here are some popular intermittent fasting schedules.

Intermittent Fasting Schedules

Intermittent fasting schedules are the schedule at which you eat/fast. Some majorly popular ones are 16/8, 18/6, 24/24, OMAD and 5:2.

16/8

16/8 is where you fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour eating. It's essentially just skipping breakfast. This is one of the most popular schedules, especially for beginners because it's one of the easiest to stick to.

18/6

This is a schedule where you would fast 18 hours and eat for 6. So this is like eating lunch and an early-ish dinner, reducing late night snacking and skipping breakfast.

24/24

This is a schedule where you eat normally for 24 hours and fast for 24 hours. There are some popular programs that revolve around this intermittent fasting schedule.

OMAD

OMAD stands for One Meal a Day. Usually your eating window every day is just 1-2 hours, so you fast for 22-23 hours. This is a tough schedule, but some really like it.

5:2

5:2 is when you eat normally for 5 days of the week and fast for 2 days of the week. The 2 days should be separated by at least one day, since you are only fasting for 24 hours at a time. This is a more relaxed version of intermittent fasting.

Most people that do intermittent fasting will keep the same schedule every single day. But what if you want to have different schedules? Let's explore that further.

Mixing Intermittent Fasting Schedules

For most intermittent fasting schedules, you could mix and match to meet your needs. As an example, let's say you enjoy OMAD but can't do it every single day. Then you might choose to mix 16/8 with OMAD, doing each on alternate days. That would work very well for someone who just gets too hungry or weak on OMAD.

Let's say you want to have a relaxed weekend, but really buckle down during the week. So Monday thru Friday you could do 20/4 and on the weekend you could do 16/8 to give yourself a little extra treat. I've done something similar to this and it worked.

If you are choosing to do a more weekly schedule, such as 5:2, mixing may not work since you are scheduling weekly and not daily. Something you could do is switch it up weekly. You could do 5:2 one week and 24/24 the next week.

Benefits of Mixing Intermittent Fasting Schedules

If you mix your intermittent fasting schedules, it can provide lots of benefits. One of the big concerns I see with intermittent fasters is they have to go to this event, or that birthday part, or this company lunch and, "What do I say to my coworkers/family/friends?"

Some of them even feel like they have to come out and tell everyone they are intermittent fasting just because everyone keeps asking. As you may know, not everyone understands the science behind intermittent fasting and that it is truly a very healthy way of living. So when you come out with it, you can be met with a lot of criticism and lectures from others that you will have to endure from now on.

This can make you feel depressed and feel like an outsider. Suddenly your mom, sister, aunt, coworker is an expert nutritionist (even if they have weight to lose themselves). Suddenly they know all and begin to argue with you and try to "educate" you. This can be very frustrating and can cause problems with relationships.

Now, it's not always bad when people find out. Some people are more open minded or have heard of it before, so they are more apt to listen to you when you talk about it. And you may notice that some of them start doing intermittent fasting just because you told them you were doing it.

Benefit #1

Mixing intermittent fasting schedules might mean not having to tell anyone that you are intermittent fasting. On the day that you have to eat earlier than normal because of some social event, you can just choose to have a different eating window that day. It's okay to have different eating windows some days. You will still benefit and still lose weight.

On days like those, a 16/8 schedule would probably work just fine. And if you know ahead of time about the event, then you can plan ahead. All it would take is ending your eating window earlier the previous day. That way once the event comes, you will have fasted the full amount.

Let me give you an example so we can put this into context. Let's say you are eating a 19/5 intermittent fasting schedule. You have to go to a birthday party at 1 p.m. tomorrow. All you have to do to stay on schedule is stop eating by 6 p.m. the day before the party. When it's time for the party, you will have fasted 19 hours. Simple right?

If this helps you avoid telling everyone about intermittent fasting, then it's probably the way to go. Most people are not open minded about it yet, so telling them can be hard on you.

Benefit #2

Mixing intermittent fasting schedules could help you stick to intermittent fasting much easier. If you allow yourself to have more relaxed days here and there, you may be able to do this more long term. On your relaxed days, you are still intermittent fasting. You are just choosing a more relaxed intermittent fasting schedule than other days.

I would try hard not to fast for less than 16 hours, because you still want those benefits of intermittent fasting. So do your best to at least keep that rule going as you mix intermittent fasting schedules.

I hope this answered your question and gave you some tips for how to mix intermittent fasting schedules and still be successful.

What is 19/5 Intermittent Fasting

19/5 intermittent fasting is an intermittent fasting method where you fast for 19 hours out of the day and have a 5 hour eating window. This is used as a method for weight loss or weight maintenance. Most people would lose weight using this eating schedule. I used this intermittent fasting method to lose 25 lbs.

How To Do 19/5 Intermittent Fasting

During 19 hours of the day, you would only drink water or zero calorie drinks. In this post, I explain what drinks you can have on intermittent fasting. In short, you would stay away from diet sodas that are laden with fake sugars that will spike insulin. Stevia is okay as it does not spike insulin, and some people prefer a fat source in their coffee such as butter. But all in all, you will be calorie free for 19 hours of the day, making sure you drink water as you are thirsty. You will get hungry. Expect it. Don't try to get rid of the hunger. Instead, get used to it and know that you are gaining benefits from intermittent fasting. Waves of hunger will come and go. Sometimes it will be stronger, but just know eventually it will die down again.

As I said, you would be fasting for 19 hours out of the day. The other 5 hours of the day are your eating window. During this eating window, you can have food and drinks with calories. You can choose to count calories if you want to. I never did that. I used intermittent fasting for the sole purpose that I wanted to be able to lose weight without counting calories. But some people do choose to count calories, carbs, or follow some other diet plan. Just know that you don't have to, and it's not required to do so. Eat as you want during this eating window, then stop eating until the next day's eating window.

An Example of 19/5 Intermittent Fasting

A typical day of 19/5 intermittent fasting would look like this:

Tuesday 8 p.m: Finish dinner and stop consuming calories.
Tuesday 8 p.m. to Wednesday 3 p.m: Do not consume anything besides water.
Wednesday 3 p.m: Break your fast with a meal.
Wednesday 3 p.m. to Wednesday 8 p.m: This is your eating window. Eat as you see fit.
Wednesday 8 p.m. Stop eating.

You can change the window to be during breakfast or lunch or any hours that work better for you. Many people choose to have an eating window that is around dinner so that they can have a meal with family, but what works for some does not always work for others. It's perfectly fine to change the eating window to earlier in the day. Just try to keep it at the same time each day so that you get the full 19 hour fast.

This isn't the only intermittent fasting method. There are other ways of intermittent fasting and some may suit you better, depending on what you are looking to do.

Intermittent Fasting 1 Year Results

This post is going to be about my past experience with intermittent fasting. I began intermittent fasting in 2012 and continued through 2013. I want to talk about my intermittent fasting 1 year results and what I experienced and learned in that year.

First off, a small introduction to intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is a schedule of eating. It's not a diet per se, but it can be used as a method of weight loss. Intermittent fasting doesn't tell you what to eat. You can eat whatever you decide to eat. Intermittent fasting just tells you when to eat. You have periods of time where you eat and periods of time where you do not eat.

As for me, at the time of starting I weighed about 140 lbs and I am a female. I exercised casually here and there. Nothing major. Just pilates 2 to 3 times a week. I ended up losing 25 lbs and effortlessly maintained that weight loss over the year. The weight came off rather quickly, within the first few months of intermittent fasting, and then I just maintained the weight loss for the rest of the time.

Now I'll explain what I did to lose 25 lbs and keep it off. I would eat my meals over a 5 hour 'eating window' every day. I would typically eat from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. I didn't eat non-stop during that 5 hour period. Instead, I would start out with a small meal at 3 p.m. that was similar to breakfast. I would follow up with a snack in a couple hours and then I would have dinner and a dessert usually. I ended up weighing 115 lbs eating dessert almost every single day. Some days I would eat out and even break my fast with Chinese buffet. That's why I say I maintained that 25 lbs weigh loss effortlessly. I wasn't starving. I wasn't limiting or depriving myself. My body just naturally set at that weight and stayed there (until I stopped intermittent fasting of course).

During this period of time with intermittent fasting, on the weekends I was a lot more relaxed with my eating window. I would usually start eating around noon and end at 8 p.m. so it was more of a 16/8 schedule.

If you want more information about what 19/5 intermittent fasting is and how to do it, click here.

So to sum up, I lost 25 lbs with intermittent fasting on a 19/5 schedule, with weekends eating about 16/8. No dietary restrictions. I just stuck with the eating schedule and lost the weight. That was in 2012 and 2013. So where am I now?

Well, I stopped intermittent fasting and gained the weight back. You do have to continue some form of intermittent fasting for weight maintenance. You can't go back to eating all day and expect to keep the weight off. But the good news is that intermittent fasting really isn't that hard. I love intermittent fasting. I believe it is a very natural way to eat. I believe the way we have been taught to eat all day is very unnatural and causes premature aging and all sorts of illnesses. I believe intermittent fasting is a great way to look and feel good.

As of right now, after these holidays, I weigh 153 lbs. I do plan to get back into intermittent fasting. I want to blog my experience and intermittent fasting journey this time. Hopefully in the near future I will have some links down here to a few results posts after a week or so of getting back into the routine.

What Can You Drink During Intermittent Fasting?

So you're intermittent fasting and wondering what you can and can't have during your fasting window. In this post I will talk about intermittent fasting drinks you can have.

During your intermittent fasting window, you should be aiming to consume zero calories. Now if this is hard for you, there are drinks you may have that could help you complete your fasting window successfully. What we want to do here is not spike insulin, as that is what breaks a fast. Anything you consume should not cause an insulin response in the body.

What Can't You Have?

So what spikes insulin? Carbs such as sugar definitely cause a spike in insulin. Do not drink sodas and teas that have sugar or honey in them, as these drinks will push you out of the fast. They are not good for your fast. Having those drinks wouldn't be considered a fast. It would be more like a liquid diet, which is not what you are trying to do.

Another thing to watch out for is fake sugar. Aspartame and sucralose may be hiding in your diet soda. It is not okay to consume diet soda during a fast just because it is 0 calories. Aspartame and sucralose have proven to cause insulin spikes, which knocks you out of a fasted state because then your body starts having increased hunger.

There are people that debate about this all day because they do not want to give up their precious diet coke, but I don't even consume those outside of a fast because in my opinion it's super unhealthy to consume these fake sugars. Be careful to watch the labels of any flavor powders you add to water because they usually have aspartame or sucralose in them. Read the ingredients and steer clear of those products.

What Can You Have?

Stevia, on the other hand, has not be shown to cause a high insulin response. The insulin response with stevia is very low, so you could find flavor packs that only use stevia as a sweetener and that would be a better alternative.

Studies have shown that it's sometimes okay to have a little bit of fat in your fasting window. Some people use coconut oil, heavy whipping cream, or butter in some of their hot drinks. You should however limit yourself to one tablespoon if you are going to do this. You don't want to be consuming very many calories. Many people swear by putting butter in their coffee.

And lastly, I would urge you to just find a way to feel comfort in the discomfort of fasting. We are trying to find intermittent fasting drinks so that we can ease the discomfort, but really you need to just accept that you are fasting. Fasting has so many benefits, and even making yourself go through the hunger is beneficial to you mentally.

How To Get Through The Fast

One way to get through periods of hunger is to read articles about the benefits of intermittent fasting, or listen to lectures about it. It will help remind you of why you are doing this and will motivate you to continue.

Try to stay busy, since hunger is largely a mental thing anyway. Reading, working on projects, cleaning, and just getting things done in general will help you. You'll notice on days that you are busy, intermittent fasting is much easier. There is a reason for that.

Slowly Adjust To Your Eating Window

You may want to think about slowly increasing your fasts day by day until you complete a full fast. This will help your body adjust so that you may feel less hunger. You will always feel some amount of hunger on just about any intermittent fasting schedule, but some people find that if they ease into intermittent fasting at first, it really helps.

You could start off with just 12 hour fasts and slowly work your way to completing 16 hours a day by adding an hour per day.

Using an app to track your intermittent fasting can really help you to watch the progress of your fasts. These apps will time your fast for you and show you how well you are doing over time.

Intermittent Fasting For Women: How To Intermittent Fast

Intermittent fasting is a popular and relatively easy way to lose weight that has caught on a lot more in recent years. In this post, I will discuss intermittent fasting for women and how you can pick out the ideal plan for yourself. Before beginning any fasting regimen, discuss it with your doctor, especially those that are on medications.

Photo by Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash

What Is Intermittent Fasting?

If you want to start intermittent fasting, it's a pretty easy thing to do. All you have to do is eat during specific times, and not eat during specific times. The part that takes a little bit of planning is the part where you figure out which hours you will fast/eat. This is all an individual choice, and you should take into consideration your work schedule, daily activities, and lifestyle.

If you want to be able to sit down and have a meal with your family at the end of the day, then choosing an eating window that includes dinner hours would be a good idea. If you don't mind skipping dinner, and lunch or breakfast are your big meals, then choosing those hours to eat would be beneficial.

Which Eating Window To Choose

The next step is to choose how big of an eating window you would like. There are a few popular styles of intermittent fasting and these include 16/8, 18/6, 20/4, and OMAD (one meal a day). Women need less calories than men on average, so if you are hoping to do intermittent fasting to lose weight and you do not want to end up counting calories, then a smaller eating window may be right for you. A shorter or more sedentary woman may only lose weight if her ratio is closer to 22/2 or 23/1, which is essentially enough time to only eat one meal and we call this One Meal a Day (OMAD).

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

OMAD

As stated, OMAD refers to when you consume one meal a day. This is one big meal that contains all of your daily calories to lose weight. It's very popular among those who have a hard time losing weight. If you are short or sedentary, this may be the intermittent fasting option for you.

This diet is a bit extreme and can be hard to handle for days on end. Some people will widen the eating window to be 2 or 3 hours per day instead of just 1 hour. I personally have a hard time eating a large amount of food in one sitting. A lot of people report feeling very tired after their one meal.

16/8

This is when you fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour eating window. So you day may look like the following:
Day 1: 8 p.m. (stop eating)
Day 2: 12 p.m. (noon) (eat your first meal)
Day 2: 8 p.m. (stop eating)
and repeat.

This type of fasting is basically skipping breakfast and not snacking late at night. The rest of the day is pretty normal. That is why this is a really poplar form of intermittent fasting, because it's pretty easy to start and stick to this diet.

ADF

Alternate day fasting is where you fast for 24 hours and eat normally for 24 hours. This type of fasting goes by various names, but it's also a pretty popular one among weight lifters. It can be hard for a beginner to complete a 24 hour fast, so if you are just starting out, this may not be the right plan for you. If, however, you enjoy challenges then you may enjoy trying this.

5:2

The 5:2 diet is a diet based on fasting 2 non-consecutive days of the week and eating normally for the other 5 days of the week. It yields slow but steady weight loss for those who follow it. Don't expect to lose quickly. You have to be in it for the long haul. Be patient with this diet. It does work and has been proven to work in studies.

In some cases this diet was found to be easier to stick to long term than calorie restriction. That is because you are essentially only restricting or dieting for 2 days of the week. The other 5 days are lived normally, so people tend to be more satisfied with this diet over all.

19/5

I have the most personal experience with this eating window. I was able to maintain my weight at 115 lbs and eat whatever I wanted to while I was doing 19/5 intermittent fasting. This is what personally worked for me in the past. It may not be for everyone. That's why I suggest playing around with the schedule and trying different ones before settling into an intermittent fasting schedule.

Which Intermittent Fasting Schedule To Choose?

My suggestion is to play around with the larger eating windows for some weeks. If you aren't losing weight or just not losing as quickly as you deem necessary, then just play with tightening the eating window until you reach a good place where you are losing weight in a consistent manner.

A typical schedule for a woman who wants to eat dinner with her family might be fasting from 8pm to 4 pm the next day, and then having a 4 hour eating window from 4pm to 8pm where she may be able to fit in a meal and a couple of snacks, or 2 meals. If you work a night shift job, intermittent fasting can be even more confusing, but just figure out when's the time that you would most like to eat and then have your eating window during that time.

What Can You Eat/Drink While Fasting?

What can I eat/drink during the fasting window? People ask this all the time, and the simple answer is just water. Don't consume anything but pure water. Fasting is an exercise of will power. It's not supposed to be comfortable. We live in a society that is in the habit of ridding themselves of discomfort as soon as they feel it. Get used to the discomfort and soon enough it will not be so hard for you.

I will tell you this: Hunger pangs do come and go. They don't just continue to intensify. You may be ravenously hungry for 30 minutes to an hour at some point in your fast, but then the hunger subsides and you don't really feel hungry for the next few hours. It's typical for people to believe that once you feel hunger start up during a fast, that it will continue to get worse and hurt worse but that is not the case at all. Hunger is largely a mental game.

So I hope this article has inspired women out there and let you know that intermittent fasting isn't just for men trying to bulk up, but intermittent fasting for women can be a great way to slim down.