I personally enjoy intermittent fasting and do it almost every day. More specifically, about 6 (if not all 7) days of any given week. If you are thinking about doing intermittent fasting, just jutting starting out with intermittent fasting, or have been doing it for years – continue reading to learn about the Top three biggest intermittent fasting mistakes that people make when beginning their fasting journey. I have also included a short video if you prefer to watch and listen.

MISTAKE #1 – FREAKING OUT!

“Hunger comes in waves, based on your usual eating patterns – and it goes away shortly after.”

– Lu from YAstrength

Relax, take a deep breath, and do not freak out when you get hungry for the first few times! When you first begin intermittent fasting, your biggest initial hurdle is learning to conquer your brain’s hunger signal. Being able to have strong control over your initial urge to immediately eat when tempted by your first urge to take a bite, can make, or break your fasting goals. Many people give up after a couple of days because they cannot resist or block out those initial hunger feelings.

 A big intermittent fasting mistake is freaking out and thinking that the minute you get that hunger feeling, you are going to be hungry and miserable until you reach your feeding window and can finally eat. But this simply is not the case. Hunger comes in waves, based on your usual eating patterns – and it goes away shortly after, regardless of if you ate food or not after you got that “hunger signal”. So, do not worry! You will not feel hungry all day, because remember what I said – hunger comes and goes in waves.

MISTAKE #2 – CONSTANTLY ADJUSTING YOUR WORKOUT WINDOW TO YOUR FEEDING WINDOW

“Once you decide on your feeding window, stick to it.”

-Lu from YAstrength

Many people try adjusting their workout windows to their feeding windows. But that can over complicate things to an extent. When you begin intermittent fasting, based on my experiences, it is best to pick a feeding window based on your preferred types of meals. By that I mean choosing to break your fast at breakfast vs.  lunch or lunch vs. dinner time frames. If you stick to that approach, your feeding window will begin either at mid-day into the evening or morning into the after noonish/mid-day time frame. Once you decide on your feeding window, stick to it, and try not to adjust for a couple of weeks-or-so.

A big beginner mistake is trying to tailor your feeding window to your workout times, which can sometimes cause you to adjust your feeding windows too often. This makes it more difficult to stick to a constant fasting window because you’re sporadically changing your eating windows several times per week. Ideally, you’ll want maintain consistent eating windows.

Plus, keep in mind that you can work whenever you have free time to do-so, regardless of if you are in your feeding or fasting widow. In fact, working during your fasting window can boost fat burning – so it you may see more fat burning results when you do not adjust your workout window to your feeding window.

MISTAKE #3 DOING TOO MANY THINGS AT ONCE

“Do not overcomplicate things while intermittent fasting.”

– Lu from YAstrength

Dieting while just staring out with intermittent fasting, aka doing too many things at once, is what I consider to be the biggest intermittent fasting mistake of all for beginners. Technically, intermittent fasting and dieting are not the same thing.  In fact, they are two completely different things when looking at their definitions alone.

• Diet is food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and its effects on health or a particular selection of food, especially as designed or prescribed to improve a person’s physical condition or to prevent or treat a disease – i.e., a diet low in sugar (1).

• Intermittent is stopping or ceasing for a time or alternately ceasing and beginning again – i.e., an intermittent pain (2).

• Fasting is to eat no food for a period of time (3) – i.e., intermittent fasting.

As a beginner, or even if you consider yourself to be a seasoned intermittent fasting guru – a huge mistake is also trying to implement a new diet while simultaneously becoming accustomed to intermittent fasting.  Do not overcomplicate things while intermittent fasting.  Eating too little because of a random new calorie restricted diet you want to implement is not an ideal way to burn fat faster for a beginner. Instead, it will likely burn you out faster (as opposed to just fat) and you will want to give up on intermittent fasting before you know it.  Long story short, doing too many things at once will make intermittent more difficult for you. Don’t make that mistake.

TO CLOSE – LAST WORDS

I encourage you to keep these in mind as you are intermittent fast or plan to begin intermittent fasting. Also keep in mind that intermittent fasting becomes easier each day you do it, and your body will adjust. Just remember to avoid these 3 big intermittent fasting mistakes moving forward as you adjust to your intermittent fasting lifestyle.

1) Avoid doing too many things at once

2) Avoid constant adjustments to your feeding windows

3) Avoid freaking out

I hope you found this post useful, and informative. Be sure to like, share, and comment below. Feedback is always appreciated.

REFERENCES

1. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/diet
2. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/intermittent
3. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/fasting
4. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY