Intermittent fasting is the buzz term right now in scientific and medical circles and for good reason. People lose weight easily and keep it off, long term. On top of weight loss, intermittent fasting has an overabundance of health benefits; it’s like a fountain-of-youth injection. There’s only one thing deterring some people joining the part-time diet revolution and that’s the relatively small calorie allowance on fasting days: 500. However, latest findings show that fasters can lose just as much eating far more – up to 1600 calories a day – simply by choosing the hours, or days, when they feast or fast.
A fast day that leaves room for wine and chocolate? #bringiton! Let’s start with a little story…
Happily Slimmer After
Once upon a time, there were two sisters… actually, there really were, and this is no fairy tale. Sister A had gained 30kg over the year and was so over trying desperately to lose it, only to regain, she gave up and resigned herself to a life of kaftans and big hair. Sister B, meanwhile, had slowly packed on 25kg but was determined to keep trying to lose it on outdated diet methods, even though she yoyo-ed up and down and lived in denial-lycra for years. Then one day Sister A discovered intermittent fasting.
Consistently, wonderfully the weight came off and Sister A was euphoric, telling Sister B to join her.
‘It’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done,’ Sister A insisted.
‘There’s no way I could do that,’ said Sister B.
‘But you get to eat whatever you want on the other 5 days.’
‘Don’t care. I’d be too hungry. I’d have to give up wine. I’d be hangry all the time. I’d rather be fat.’
And so the tale continued and soon Sister A was a slimmed down, hot little version of her former self with sleek, normal hair.
‘I feel so happy,’ she said.
‘I feel like a big fat sibling-failure,’ moaned Sister B whose lycra was still stretched to capacity, ‘but I’m sure I could never, ever do that.’
‘Well you know, there is this other method…’
Sister A went on to tell Sister B about another way of intermittent fasting she’d read about, a “part-day” method instead of part-week. ‘You just fast 16 hours a day which means eating within an eight-hour window. I’m going to give it a try,” said Sister A.
‘Part day you say?’ Sister B asked, intrigued now.
‘Yep. I’m just going to give up breakfast and do 12pm till 8pm. You can have up to 1,600 calories within that time, which seems a lot.’
‘1600 calories?’ squealed Sister B.
‘Uh-huh. Leaves room for wine or chocolate, I’m reckoning.’
Both sisters tried the method the next day and soon Sister A was so slim she hit goal weight, losing all 30kg. Soon an ecstatic Sister B did the same, hitting her total weight loss goal of 25kg – gone for her 50th birthday. She even does the 500-calorie method every now and then now, not really minding missing a little wine when she can feel this good without it. Meanwhile, Sister A went on to research everything else she could find out about fasting and the best methods, eventually co-founding a weight loss company: SuperFastDiet.
There are many different methods of fasting and it really comes down to individual choices because they work equally as well. After years of research, below are our favourites at SuperFastDiet.
2-day method
What to do: eat normally five days a week and eat 500 calories two days a week.
Tips: go for the most filling low-calorie foods you can on a fast day. You’ll be surprised just how much you can eat!
May especially suit: busy people on their busiest days and anyone who prefers to ‘get things out of the way’ and party on the rest of the time.
3-day method
What to do: eat normally four days a week and eat 1000 calories three days a week.
Tips: save up calories for your favourite meal of the day so you still feel like you are splurging but eat filling snacks throughout too.
May especially suit: people who work part-time or can cram a lot of activity into three days a week to stay distracted from ‘diet’, then let their hair down the other four days.
part-day method
What to do: eat up to 1600 calories within an eight-hour window, most days.
Tips: drink lots of fluids like black tea, coffee, clear broths, water, herbal and fruit teas during fast times. Before you know it, you’re feasting again!
May especially suit: people who can distract themselves during part of the day to enjoy a nice big meal (and possibly a cheeky glass of wine) as their reward.
Advanced: Mix it up to turbocharge results
What to do: eat 500 calories one day per week and 1600 calories for the rest – or – 500 calories one day per week, two days at 1000 calories and four days normally
Tips: it’s only one 500-calorie day and you can suck that up to get the fast results – vrroommm!
May especially suit: people with a big, awesome reward goal coming up! Strutting your stuff in a bikini in Hawaii? Turning a scary number? #smashingit!
Note: all calorie allowances in this article are based on the average Australian woman. To calculate an allowance exactly right for your body and activity level we recommend you find out your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). Don’t worry, there’s a TDEE calculator built into our program.
Did you enjoy this nifty little breakdown of different methods for intermittent fasting? Punch in your name and email address below, and we will send you a free pdf so you can keep these tips on file! Cool bananas!
Leave a Reply