Intermittent Fasting: Beginners Guide to Intermittent Fasting

When you're fasting, the only things you can consume are calorie-free beverages like plain water, black coffee (either plain or sweetened with a calorie-free sweetener like aspartame, sucralose, or Stevia), natural teas (either plain or sweetened with a calorie-free sweetener like aspartame, sucralose, or Stevia), and diet or sugar-free sodas

very practical way to get deep enough sleep is to drink a sleeping concoction that I learned from bestselling author Tim Ferriss, who also learned it from somebody else. Mix a tablespoon of raw honey, 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (Braggs, preferably), and a cup of hot water. Drink this concoction before going to bed, and enjoy deep sleep like you've never experienced before.

If you don't get enough quality sleep on a consistent basis, you'll feel weaker and more sluggish throughout the day. If you feel this way, you'll most likely try to compensate through food and drinks that contain a lot of sugar, which will only make things worse. So do yourself a favor, and get enough quality sleep every night.

What factors determine the quality of your sleep? Two things: duration and depth. You can sleep for 10 hours, but if your sleep is very shallow, you'll still feel as if you didn't get enough sleep the following day. If you sleep very deeply but only for 3 or 4 hours every night, chances are high you'd still feel the same the next day.

Drink lots of water because it will make you feel fuller for longer, ensure you stay hydrated (and feel more energetic), and allow you to exert more effort at the gym, which can lead to burning more calories and body fat. On the other hand, being chronically dehydrated will make you feel "hungrier" and weaker, which can amplify your risks for eating during your chosen fasting periods and eating more than what you really want or need during your feasting windows.

Another more serious challenge with this protocol is social in nature. If you love meeting up with friends and colleagues during the day, you might find it quite challenging to stick to the protocol during such meet ups, which will probably involve food and drinks that aren't consistent with the protocol. More than just the food and drinks, you may also have to deal with peer pressure to eat and drink with your well-meaning friends. The Warrior Diet may make you think about where your loyalty lies: your friends and family, or your health and fitness? However, if you're an introvert who loves to spend most of your time alone, this may not be such a big challenge, unlike for extroverts.

While exercise is not a part of this protocol, unlike LeanGains, it's highly recommended that you engage in regular exercise while on this protocol, too, particularly weightlifting exercises. For one, you only need to fast once or twice a week, which means you don't have to work out hungry like in the LeanGains protocol. More importantly, weightlifting exercises can help you burn more body fat compared with aerobic workouts, which means you can exercise for less time and get the same – or even more – fat-burning bucks for your workouts.

This protocol is possibly the easiest one to implement because, at most, you'll only have to fast twice weekly without any restrictions on the types of food you can eat. The only restriction is the amount, which is "moderate." However, here's the catch to fasting only once or twice weekly: your fasting periods will be for 24 hours straight. This is possibly the reason for many people choosing the three other protocols over this one despite having to fast only once or twice a week.

This protocol may be the ideal one for you if you're already eating a healthy diet. If the primary goal of the LeanGains protocol is optimal body mass composition, the primary focus of Eat-Stop-Eat is moderation, which means you're pretty much allowed to eat anything you want in moderate amounts. Have a slice of pizza and not the whole box. Drink a can of soda, not a 2-liter bottle.

The best way to start implementing this protocol is scheduling your 14- or 16-hour fast starting in the evening. Why? This will make it easier for you to fast because for a big chunk of the time, you're asleep, and by doing so, you can eat for the most part of your waking hours beginning from 6 hours after waking up, which will give you enough energy to do the things you have to do during the day.

When you're fasting, the only things you can consume are calorie-free beverages like plain water, black coffee (either plain or sweetened with a calorie-free sweetener like aspartame, sucralose, or Stevia), natural teas (either plain or sweetened with a calorie-free sweetener like aspartame, sucralose, or Stevia), and diet or sugar-free sodas.