Beginner’s

Guide to
Fasting
Unlock your body’s potential with
fasting

Assoc. Prof Caryn Zinn &

Prof Grant Schofield
Beginners Guide to Fasting

Associate Professor Do you want to flip your metabolic

switch and add fasting to your toolbelt
Caryn Zinn and of tools to optimise your health but don’t
Professor Grant know where to start with fasting or if it’s
even right for you?
Schofield, wrote the
book What The Fast? Read on as we share the basics of fasting
and how you can get started. Here you
where they explore will find actionable tools that cut through
cutting-edge science the noise and help you understand how
to incorporate fasting into your life to
and distil it down to optimise your health and get better
actionable tools for health outcomes for yourself, your family
or your clients/ patients.
fasting.

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

Is fasting for you?

Let’s go back in time. Once, there were no

Is the concept of ‘fasting’
clocks that indicated a prescribed meal-
– and perhaps even the time. There were no ‘breakfast’ foods,
word itself – too ‘lunch’ foods, ‘snack’ foods, ‘supper’
foods’ or ‘dinner’ foods. There was just
confronting to even think food – and it was eaten when available
about, let alone and not eaten when not available. Simple
contemplate doing? Does as that.
the thought of not eating Now, in the developed world, food is
automatically conjure up pretty much always available. For many,
negative thoughts, such going without food today actually
requires conscious effort. But here’s the
as hunger and discomfort? good news: there is nothing about fasting
to be afraid of, because it’s just not as
If it does, you’re likely not hard as you think . . . if you do it right. The
science is telling us that periods of not
alone and it’s not your eating are good for us. This is nothing
fault. We’ve become so new, really.
accustomed to eating at
Fasting was first mentioned in the Bible in
every opportunity, on 1500 BC – it was, apparently, mentioned
every occasion, with 78 times, mostly for spiritual purposes. We
every emotion, for fun, for now understand that fasting can help with
weight loss, with preventing and
fuel, for boredom and improving chronic diseases, with allowing
when the clock tells us to. the body’s cells to repair themselves, and
even with promoting longevity (living
But consider this: it hasn’t
longer).
always been that way.
Before you get stuck in, though, it is
important to work out whether fasting is
for you given your specific circumstances
and your goals – and, most importantly,
whether fasting is not for you. So, I urge
you to take our ‘What the Fast!’ test.
Fasting is not for everyone and, despite its
potential health benefits, it can cause
some people more harm than good,
sometimes without them even realising it.
So, you need to know if it is right for you
before you buy in.

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

What the Fast?

Test
Take the What The Fast? Test to find out if fasting is for you.

Answer YES or NO to each of these 12 questions. For each YES, score 1

point. For each NO, score 0 points.

1 Do you have unwanted body fat to lose?

2 Do you have unwanted body fat that you just don’t

seem to be able to shift?

Do you sometimes eat when you’re not hungry? (i.e.

3 out of boredom, happiness, sadness, celebrations
and/or commiserations)

4 Do you want to improve your longevity? (i.e. ‘live long,

and healthily’)

5 Do you want to be better equipped to minimise your

risk of getting cancer?

6 Do you want to get your blood sugar levels under

control?

7 Do you want to help regulate your hormones that

control hunger and fullness?

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

8 Do you want to improve your overall eating patterns

and habits?

9 Do you want to sharpen your mind and enhance your

brain function?

10 Do you want to strengthen your immune system?

11 Do you feel like you need a detox?

12 Do you eat more than 28 times in a week? (4 times a

day)

Once you’ve answered all the questions, tally your score.

Unlike most tests, where 6 out of 12 or 50% is a pass, in this test 1 out of
12 is a pass. That’s because answering YES to just one of these questions
means that you can benefit from fasting in some way.

That’s a great start!

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

When Shouldn’t
You Fast?
Pregnant or breastfeeding If you find that this is not having any
negative impact, you can carry on.
If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, Fasting might actually help improve your
fasting is not for you right now. It’s relationship with food, but if you find it
unlikely to be harmful (because – let’s having the opposite effect, then it’s just
face it – the morning sickness you often not for you. Of course, this requires that
get in pregnancy means that you end up you be mindful and honest with yourself
fasting some of the time), but the goal in and others. You might need to seek
this phase of your life is to optimise professional help to figure this out. The
calories and nutrients for your baby. last thing we want is to cause harm to
Fasting might very well be for you at a you and your loved ones. This aim of this
later date, so put it on hold and come book is to help you achieve optimal
back to this later. health and wellbeing.

Stressed
Disordered eating
If you know you are a stress-bunny in
If you have a history of eating disorders
general, be extra-careful if you decide to
or have an extremely volatile relationship
pursue fasting. The reason is that when
with food (in that thinking about it
you fast, your stress hormone cortisol
causes you a serious amount of distress,
increases. While this is no problem for
beyond that which is considered
those who don’t suffer from anxiety, if
normal), be wary of fasting. It could
you do then fasting has the potential to
work for you or against you, so you need
make things worse. So it might be that
to make sure that you’re doing it for the
fasting is not for you, or that you need to
right reasons. If you do try it, make sure
take smaller steps than what we’re
you keep close tabs on whether and
suggesting in our Monday/Tuesday
how your emotions/state of mind are
Super-Fasting method. Either way, the
affected. If you feel confident about
bottom line is to pay attention to how
giving fasting a try, the best way to keep
you feel, as you will soon work out
things in check is to ‘start low and go
whether fasting is or isn’t beneficial for
slow’. By this I mean getting your
you and your health, physical or mental.
fastingfeet wet first by selecting an easy
protocol to start with (i.e. missing one
meal, like breakfast) and going from
there.

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

Under 18
If you are a growing child (under 18
years of age), just focus on growing and Fasting is an exciting new
enjoying eating a whole-food diet,
keeping regularly active and enjoying area of metabolic health
life. If you miss a meal unintentionally, as and may be a useful tool
kids often do, that’s fine – but leave
purposeful fasting for later on. for you, your friends and
family or your clients/
Type 2 diabetes patients.

Not eating is a great way to get your

blood sugar and your HbA1c (a measure
Always approach with
of long-term blood sugar control) caution and make sure
heading towards, and even achieving,
normal levels. If you have Type 2
you’ve done your
diabetes and are not taking insulin, then homework before kicking
fasting should in fact be part of your
management plan. BUT when insulin is
into fasting.
needed, it’s a different ballgame. While
this doesn’t mean you can’t fast, it does
mean that you have to be armed with
There are of course many
the right information beforehand, and myths about fasting and
you need to be prepared to adjust your
medication as you go. Ideally you should
more extreme prolonged
do this in conjunction with a supportive fasting protocols, to learn
medical professional. There are also
diseases where fasting might not be
about these check out our
recommended so talk to your medical online course.
professional before you contemplate
fasting.

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

Getting Started with

Intermittent Fasting?
There are many types of intermittent fasting protocols, but they all have
one thing in common – going a period of time without eating.

The most popular form of fasting is time-restricted eating (TRE), which

basically means reducing the number of hours you can eat each day. This
is called the eating window.

There is evidence that reducing this window to between 6-12 hours

(without changing what you eat) positively impacts metabolic health and
the gut microbiome [1,2].

TRE has been shown in human studies to reduce body weight and fat
mass, improve glucose tolerance, and reduce blood pressure. Many of
these benefits are particularly notable in people with overweight,
obesity and with insulin resistance [3].

Isn’t that great news? By simply skipping breakfast and eating your first
meal at midday you can experience some of the positive effects of
fasting.

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

A Closer Look at Fasting

Let’s take a look at the main fasting methods out there, the ones which you’ve
likely heard about. Because we are all different, you could try some of these if you
like and see how you respond. Here, we’ve taken the liberty of commenting on our
experiences and the behavioural and biological pluses/minuses of each method.

1 Compressed
eating windows
In its easiest form, you simply fast for 16 hours – say 8 p.m. to 12 p.m. the next day –
and eat whatever you want over the next 8 hours. This is the same as time restricted
eating (TRE). The window could be compressed further to lengthen the fast and
shorten the eating window. You can also choose when you do/don’t eat based on
personal preference and lifestyle. Some evidence suggests that skipping dinner may
be more beneficial, but you need to weigh this up against the social friction it may
create in your home environment as dinner is typically quite a social meal.

Pros Cons
It’s just missing breakfast and is Uncontrolled eating in the eating
pretty easy to do. window could result in excessive
eating.
It’s a good starting point for a lot
of people who haven’t yet Without restriction on carbs and
dabbled with fasting. a plan to eat whole food, it’s
likely still to be a poor-quality
You can play around with the diet.
window depending on how you
feel, your goals and your desire to
self-experiment. We like this method. It’s the easiest
gateway to learning about fasting and
Fasts of more than around 16 overcoming the belief that you must
hours are likely to get insulin eat otherwise you won’t be able to
levels well down and autophagy function. The opposite is true, of
is stimulated course. This is the basis of Super-
Fasting, but we believe a bit more
It’s sustainable. structure around this is essential.

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

2
5:2
method

This is where you eat whatever you want, or at least your usual diet, on 5 days of the
week but restrict your calories down to 500 kcal (females) or 600 kcal (males) on 2
days of the week. Meal timing is not discussed, and neither is the composition of the
food.

Pros Cons
People eating this way do eat Without attention to meal timing
more on ‘normal’ days, but they and composition, including the
will most likely still be in net composition of meals in the
calorie deficit over the week remainder of the week, it’s
compared with the ‘normal’ unlikely that you’d develop your
eating. fat-burning abilities optimally.

There are modest improvements Without conquering the hunger

in weight and other metabolic biology, the 500/600 kcal days
outcomes. would hurt.

The behavioural aspect of ‘on’ You can actually spread your

and ‘off’ days is appealing. Some 500/600 kcal over the day in
find that very helpful. small increments, meaning that
you wouldn’t actually be getting
the physiological benefits of
fasting.

If your off-days are junk, then the

majority of your diet is still junk.

It’s a good basis on which to build some better ideas to make this sustainable and
do-able. That’s what we have tried to do with Super-Fasting.

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

3 Alternate day
fasting
This is where you fast every second day (there’s also a modified version where you
can have around 500 kcal on these days). Eat whatever you want on other days.

Pros Cons
People eating this way do tend to This will likely hurt.
eat more on ‘normal days’ but
less overall. If your off-days are junk, then the
majority of your diet is still junk.
There are good improvements in
weight and other metabolic
outcomes.

The amount of fasting will force

you to become a good fat-burner.

The behavioural aspect of ‘on’

and ‘off’ days is appealing to
some people

This can be pretty hard after a while. Socially, it’s hard. We doubt whether it’s
sustainable in the long term, although some trials have had people maintain this for 6
months.

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Beginners Guide to Fasting

4 Super-fasting

You eat once a day, an evening meal, with no snacks and no alcohol, on 2
consecutive days. The evening Super-Meal is simple, filling and nutritious, and low in
carbs. You don’t overeat. The remaining days you ideally stick to a mainly LCHF plan
based on whole foods (low HI factor). For a maximum of 3 meals per week, eating is
allowed to deviate in some way (e.g. more carbs or a treat).

Pros Cons
You get all the biological You need to be organised enough
advantages of the body’s natural to have the Super-Meals
repair and cleaning process prepared.
(autophagy).
If you use the 3-meal rule (3 treat
You maintain metabolic signalling meals a week) then you might not
through ketones, but are able to lose weight; you’ll likely need to
cycle back out of this to the be stricter than that to succeed
natural anabolic process with the with weight loss.
3-meal rule.
Overeating when not fasting may
On the fasting days you eat a be an issue for some people.
filling, nutrient-dense Super-Meal
when you are naturally most
hungry, i.e. in the evening.

It’s sustainable because it works

with the body’s natural biology,
not against it.

It’s a great gateway for those

interested in longer fasts.

Of course, we like this one! The devil, as in all of life, is in the detail. Structure around
this is essential.

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PK203 Fasting: The Science & Practice
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