<aside> <img src="/icons/light-bulb_blue.svg" alt="/icons/light-bulb_blue.svg" width="40px" /> Many healthy lifestyle choices can cause an abundance of stress if made to be too restrictive, followed too rigidly, or practiced too often.

So much so that any potential benefits are far outweighed.

Deciding what to eat and when to eat it can be very mentally taxing. If you find that keeping careful track of what you eat can become a little too much, creating a period of the day where the choice is removed, fasting, followed by a period where you can be relaxed about food, can make this equation much simpler.

On the other hand, if the mental distraction of not eating entirely detracts from a given period of the day, fasting during this period may not be for you.

If you’re sat by the TV, and everyone’s tucking into their favourite snacks around you, but you’re outside the time you’ve chosen to eat, sitting and watching them while your mind is closer to the fridge than it is on enjoying yourself is clearly not the right approach. In that moment, it may just be “healthier” for you to tuck into whatever it is you crave, so you can put your mind to rest and relax, rather than stewing over the situation you find yourself in.

On the flip side, in this situation, you might not actually want anything, you may be aware that you’ve indulged a lot recently, or it just wouldn’t be worth it anyway, so you don’t have to deviate.

It’s a surprisingly fine line between showing constraint and chaining yourself down; that’s why it’s so important to become your own personal expert on what you need to find that sustainable balance.

Stressful stimulus comes in many forms in the modern world, and these must be managed collectively:

Fasting itself comes with its own stress response, as seen by a rise in cortisol, the primary stress hormone.[22]

For this reason, an individual can “over-fast”, especially if in conjunction with other stressors.

You must be your own personal expert here, as everyone encounters a different amount of stress and also tolerates this stress differently.

Be sure to check in with yourself and your stress levels regularly, especially if you are prone to anxiety.

Coffee also increases cortisol, so a fasted period fuelled with coffee may be a little on the stressful side. Try switching to green tea once and a while, which contains the calming amino acid l-theanine.

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