<aside> <img src="/icons/light-bulb_blue.svg" alt="/icons/light-bulb_blue.svg" width="40px" /> I don’t mean to stop you before you even get started!

Whether you’re taking a strategic break from fasting for adaptive reasons, you just fancy some time away from fasting, or you feel it’s not for you anymore, stopping intermittent fasting can be as tricky as starting it.

Once again, you’ve become accustomed to a certain way of living, and reverting back may not be straight forward for everyone. So, I’ve put together a few tips to make the process a little bit easier, should you find yourself looking to take some time away.

Focus on the quality of food

When returning to an ordinary eating schedule, you may find difficulty in distributing your meals so that you don’t overeat.

Now that you’re accustomed to a certain freedom with the quantity that you eat from fasting, this freedom may not be quite as prominent and that may take some getting used to.

Some time to find your feet is to be expected, but my primary suggestion in the meantime is to focus on high-quality whole foods.

Seek quality in what you eat as opposed to quantity, ensuring a balance of nutrients in each meal.

You can also use some of the tips and tricks found in ‘Hunger’ to make sure you leave each meal full and satisfied.

Enjoy the process of making breakfast

After intermittent fasting for some time, you will be used to the early period of the day being free from food, and you may find the process of cooking, eating, cleaning, etc. a little stressful.

It may feel like time’s getting on in the day, and you’re “still only eating”.

Making enough time so that you can relax and enjoy the process of cooking and eating makes this transition much, much easier. I can tell you this from personal experience.

You could also consider prepping breakfast the night before!

Finding a happy medium

If you decide to stop or take a break from fasting, why go from one end of the spectrum to the other?

There are lessons that can be learned from the process of fasting that can carry into a regular eating schedule.

There’s most certainly a balanced middle ground. If you wake up and aren’t hungry or don’t feel like eating, don’t force yourself to; you’re not “getting your metabolism going” by doing so.

Also, limiting late night eating, regardless of whether or not you are fasting, has major benefits to your health, so, now that you are no longer fasting, why not continue to cut eating off a few hours before sleep?

Follow an exercise routine–and why not keep the fasted workouts going?

In the process of stopping fasting, there may be some weight gain concerns, and this is only natural.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the battle is lost!

Focusing on a structured exercise routine can really add piece of mind that you’re fuelling your training with this food consumption, supporting performance and recovery.

Also, if you really hit it off with fasted workouts, why stop now? Fasted workouts may be another way that you can find that happy medium.

Avoid snacking between meals

You may have developed a habit of snacking in your feeding window when fasting, but with the new meal distribution throughout the day, this may be a great time to cut the snacks.

By continually snacking throughout the day, you never allow yourself to fall out of that ‘storing mode’, as seen by a fall in insulin.

Taking timely breaks between meals allows this to occur and also allows your digestive system to rest and get ready for the next meal.

After eating breakfast, maybe try to visualise that you’re still on your previous fasting protocol from that point, with your next meal being at 1:00pm (for example).

</aside>