Weekend time is your time, time to relax, restore and have fun—especially during the summer. So why would anyone want to create restrictions and do a fast?  The truth is that fasting can feel as good if not better than an indulgent weekend. You can design a fast by limiting your eating during the weekend to certain hours, remaining committed to enjoying your weekend, and showing up fully. Happy spending time doing the things you live with your friends, family, pets, and favorite pastimes. 

Here are our simple tips to rock your weekend fast.

As part of any healthy lifestyle, always consult with my doctors and coaches and make sure that you are on track for your goals and optimal health. Likely unless you eat all day long, you are already familiar with eating and fasting windows—but maybe haven’t labeled it as such. If you are not eating, you are technically fasting. Or perhaps you already incorporate intermittent fasting or time-restricted eating into your weekly routine. That is great. This weekend the goal is to stretch your fasting windows for a healthy reset giving your body a break from digestion and provides an additional perk of supporting your cellular health with renewal in a process called autophagy. 

Intermittent fasting (IF) is often described as less intense than extended fasts or complicated diets because it restricts everything.  IF is a simple, powerful, and healthy lifestyle strategy because it is easy to understand and straightforward to follow. (Don’t eat except during specific predetermined time windows—called your feeding window.) Intermittent fasting has a positive reputation and continues to grow in popularity (men and women have naturally experienced bouts of fasting since the beginning of time). It doesn’t cost a fortune (it’s free), and it can save time typically spent shopping, cooking, and cleaning up. This weekend, you can dedicate that saved time to more time for you.

History

People of all walks of life, ages, and ethnicities worldwide rely on fasting as part of their lifestyle. Fasting is used for many goals and is not a modern invention, but instead a time-tested practice tradition used for healing by almost every culture and religion on earth, to varying degrees. Hippocrates wrote, “To eat when you are sick is to feed your illness,” and Benjamin Franklin wrote, “The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.”

Benefits

The purported benefits of fasting under medical supervision include weight loss, brain optimization, anti-aging, prevention of insulin resistance, and even reversal of the early onset of Alzheimer’s. The impact of fasting occurs deep in our physiology at a subcellular level. As we fast, the process of autophagy—the destruction of damaged cells and the creation of new ones—takes place. Some describe fasting as cellular cleansing, given it allows the body to activate its natural ability to isolate and remove old and unhealthy cell membranes, organelles, and other cellular debris. 

Protocol

There are many different approaches to fasting. A 24-hour fast, however, is as simple as it can get. Don’t eat for 24 hours and eliminate all calorie-containing beverages for the day. 

Here is a protocol our Editors love and have personally tried, inspired by fasting expert Dr. Jason Fung’s guide to a 24-hour fast, with an additional optional recommendation for supplementation with essential amino acids.

How To Do A 24-Hour Fast

Consult a health practitioner before starting any lifestyle change.

Consume your final meal at 7 p.m and then fast until the following dinner at 7 p.m.

You should drink water and, as desired, augment with herbal tea and black coffee (am only).

Skip your usual workout—opt-in for a gentle, fasted training experience out in nature—try to walk, stretch, meditate.

Optional: Add EAA (essential amino acid) powder. 

6 p.m. Friday:
Eat dinner.

7 p.m. Friday:
Drink 500 milliliters (2 cups) of water.
Begin your fasting window.

9 p.m. Friday:
Drink 1 liter (4 cups) of water
Bonus: Take 5 grams of EAA powder.

7 a.m. Saturday:
Drink 1 liter (4 cups) of water
Tip: If an energy boost is needed: Drink 250 milliliters (1 cup) of green tea
Bonus: Take 5 grams of EAA powder.

12 noon Saturday:
Drink 1 liter (4 cups) of water.
Tip: If an energy boost is needed: Drink 250 milliliters (1 cup) of green tea
Bonus: Take 5 grams of EAA powder.

4 p.m. Saturday:
Drink 1 liter (4 cups) of water.
Tip: Drink 250 milliliters (1 cup) of herbal tea
Bonus: Take 5 grams of EAA powder.

7 p.m. Saturday:
Drink 500 milliliters (2 cups) of water followed by a small snack and a small meal.

Sunday:
Resume your normal (but healthy!) eating window.

This protocol is more doable than you might think and has substantial health benefits. A review of research published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2019 found that intermittent fasting improves longevity and lowers the risk of cancer, heart disease, and obesity. Although these were animal studies, it is promising to see the potential of fasting and an excellent health strategy to experience the benefits for yourself.

Fasting Tips:

Staying hydrated is key.

Space your hydration out throughout the day and mixed it up with some sugar-free but tasty cucumber-infused water and tea selections. Be sure to avoid any added sugars or artificial flavors and keep everything natural, homemade, and organic.

Breaking the fast is simple.

It is also an excellent opportunity to reset your approach to eating. As the fasting period was relatively short and this easy weekend fast only recommends 24 hours, no real challenge or protocol is recommended to break the fast.

In general, avoid stuffing yourself with a big meal and opt to break the fast with a small healthy snack or your favorite smoothie, and then have a small healthy salad with nuts and clean protein later for your first meal.

Pay attention to how you feel during the fast.

The goal is to feel great and full of energy and empowered to own your health. If you notice that during the fast, you begin to feel unwell or find yourself needing to will power it through, then consider instead stopping the fast and discuss further with your healthcare provider. It is expected that you may feel like you want to eat. However, one should not experience feeling faint, nauseous, or generally just not feeling well, and it is wise to end the fast at that point. The goal is not to suffer needlessly but to feel great and move toward health!

Give yourself space to relax.

It is also wise to keep your social commitments and work demands to a minimum and stay active. Try getting outside in nature and just relax. It is best to not relax inside near triggers that provoke you to eat—like the couch or the kitchen counter. Instead, spend the day in reflection, reading, planning, self-care, and connecting to what matters to you most.

It is possible to rock your weekend and reset your body with a fast, so after you consult your physician, give it your personal best!