18 Amazing Intermittent Fasting Hacks To Try Right Now

Check out these intermittent fasting hacks! These fasting hacks can make fasting easier and more effective. Keep reading to learn more!

intermittent fasting hacks

Whether you are a seasoned faster or brand new to intermittent fasting, you will find tips in this article. If you’ve ever wondered how you can make fasting easier or how to maximize weight loss on intermittent fasting, we are here to help!

In this article we will share how to make fasting easier, how to lose weight with intermittent fasting and share other tips to help you on your fasting journey. Keep reading to discover the best intermittent fasting hacks!

18 Intermittent Fasting Hacks

Here are some of the top fasting hacks.

1. Understand That Everyone Is Different

This first hack is a mindset hack. Understand that everyone’s body is different and will respond differently to different fasting lengths and schedules. Just because your neighbor lost 50 pounds on OMAD (One Meal A Day), doesn’t mean that OMAD is the right fit for you.

Take time to figure out what fasting type is best for you!

2. How You Break Your Fast Matters

How you break your fast matters! This can hold you back from seeing results and could also cause you to feel crappy. This is a really common intermittent fasting mistake.

Avoid breaking your fasting with lots of sugar and lots of carbs. Consuming a ton of sugar or carbs on an empty stomach can send your blood sugar on a roller coaster.

Instead, break your fast with whole, nutrient-dense and balanced meals. Some people find it helpful to break first with a small snack and then eat a full meal later.

3. Drink Apple Cider Vinegar Before Eating

When you break your fast and before you eat, drink 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar mixed in a glass of water. Drinking apple cider vinegar before you eat helps to flatten your glucose curves.

Consuming 1 Tablespoon of apple cider vinegar before you eat cuts the glucose and insulin spikes of your meal by 20%.

This is an intermittent fasting hack because it leads to feeling fuller longer, it reduces cravings, it helps us lose and maintain weight and it helps balance our hormones!

4. You Can Adjust Your Fasting Window

Our schedules and lives vary! You can shift your eating window to be social and make this a lifestyle. Make sure you allow some flexibility and don’t get too rigid about what hours you are fasting.

Adjusting our fasting windows also makes us metabolically flexible! This is an awesome hack because intermittent fasting can be a part of our lifestyle every day and in every situation. We fast every day, some days we just fast longer and other days we have shorter fasts!

Do you want to learn more about fasting? Check out our ultimate intermittent fasting guide!

5. Drink Black Coffee

Did you know that black coffee has been shown to decrease appetite? Additionally, black coffee has been proven to increase fat burn and assist weight loss.

This makes drinking coffee while fasting a win-win! Plus it gives you a boost of caffeine! Drinking black coffee during your fast is a great hack to decrease you appetite.

If you struggle to drink black coffee, you may want to try to adjust your taste buds over the course of 2 weeks. For two weeks, take at least a sip of black coffee daily. Slowly, over time, your taste buds will adjust!

Sometimes it’s also easier to drink iced black coffee! Just make sure the coffee you are drinking does not have any added ingredients. For more information, check out our guide to the best coffee for fasting.

6. What You Eat During Your Eating Window Matters

Did you know what you eat during your eating window matters? When you fuel your body with nutrient-dense foods, you will see faster results! Results can come in many forms, such as weight loss, body recomposition, inches lost and more!

If you aren’t seeing the results you want from fasting, or if you are at a plateau, it may be time to switch up what you are eating!

7. Fasted Workouts Can Increase Fat Burning

If you want to speed up your results, consider adding fasted workouts to your routine! When you workout in a fasted state, research shows that you induce higher fat oxidation than a fed state.

Research shows you’ll burn more fat when you do aerobic exercise in the fasted state than when your body does not have circulating nutrients to use for energy. One study found that when people ran on a treadmill in a fasted state, they burned 20 percent more fat compared to those who had eaten breakfast.

This is because your body doesn’t have readily available energy from food, so your body has to look elsewhere and pull from stored body fat.

8. Think Of Your Fasting Windows As Hydration Time

I like to think of my fasting window as my hydration window! I use my fast to make sure I am getting my water in. During my fasting window I also enjoy green tea and coffee, but I focus on hydrating during my fast.

This is a helpful intermittent fasting hack because it keeps you busy, gives you something to focus on and then when your eating window is open, you can focus on delicious food!

9. Drink Green Tea

Green tea is a fasting-approved drink that can also help suppress your appetite! Additionally, green tea has also shown to be effective on fat burning.

Sipping green tea during your fasting window is a major hack to reduce hunger and increase fat burning!

For more information, check out our guide to the best teas for fasting.

10. Find Friends Who Are Fasting

Find or make friends who are also fasting! It really helps to have someone to chat with that can relate to what you are feeling and going through!

If you don’t currently have any friends or family members that are fasting, you could encourage someone to join you. There are so many benefits of fasting, so you are sure to find someone to start fasting with you!

You can also explore intermittent fasting Facebook groups and reddit threads to meet new friends and have someone to connect with!

11. Use A Fasting App

Using a fasting app can help you easily track your fasts! This can make your life a lot simpler, rather than trying to remember your fasting window in your head.

It’s also fun to track your streaks and see your fasting patterns and data in fasting apps! Personally, I use both the Zero app and the Window app. I like different things about both of them, so I track in both!

Another option is to use an intermittent fasting calculator!

12. Use Natural Appetite Suppressants While Fasting

You are bound to get hungry or feel hunger pangs while fasting. To eliminate those feelings, you may consider using a natural appetite suppressant while fasting. Here are some natural appetite suppressants you may consider:

  • Add a pinch of salt to your water
  • Drink green tea

By the time you utilize these natural appetite suppressants, you will notice your hunger fading and it’s easy to move on with your fast.

13. Stay Plugged In

Stay plugged in to fasting podcasts, books and communities. If you can stay tuned into fasting podcasts, books and communities, this can keep you motivated. It’s also nice to hear about success stories and non-scale victories that you can look forward to!

14. Incorporate Gentle Movement To Reduce Hunger

We already covered the benefits of fasted workouts above, but adding gentle movement during your fasts can help reduce hunger cravings. When you start to move, your body will tap into your stored body fat for fuel. This should reduce your hunger!

Walking while fasting (or other gentle movement) also keeps your body busy and out of the kitchen. This is a great hack to reduce hunger and get movement in!

15. Try Fat Fasting

Fat fasting means eating a diet high in fat before you start your fast. This helps your body adjust to using fat for fuel, so that when you begin your fast, your body is using body fat instead of dietary fat. Consuming fat before a fast can also help make you feel fuller longer during your fast.

When choosing high fat foods, pick whole food options like avocados, bacon, etc.

16. Utilize Electrolytes

If you aren’t feeling great when you are fasting, you likely may not be consuming enough water or may be lacking electrolytes.

Plain water isn’t enough to hydrate you! Consider adding some salt to your water or finding a fasting-friendly electrolyte.

This hack is a game changer! If you feel good while you are fasting, you are more likely to keep fasting and stick to your fasting habit!

17. Reduce Your Stress

When your body is under a constant state of stress, you won’t be able to lose weight.

When your body is stressed, it releases certain hormones. First, it releases adrenaline, which warns you to fight or flee. At the same time, your body also releases cortisol which reminds you to replenish your food supply. 

Back in the day, our ancestors literally had to fight or flee from threats, like animals chasing them, so these hormones were helpful. However, most of our stress today is very different. Luckily, there are things we can do to lower our stress and reduce the surges of adrenaline and cortisol. 

Breath work, yoga or meditation is a great way to reduce stress. You could schedule breath work, meditation or yoga during a time when you would typically eat. This will help take your mind off the hunger and help your body reduce stress.

18. Prioritize Your Sleep And Rest

Did you know that poor sleep is one of the biggest risk factors for obesity? According to PubMed, adults with poor sleep have a 55% greater risk for developing obesity. 

When we are tired, our bodies produce the hormones ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin tells you when to eat and leptin tells you to stop eating. When you are sleep deprived, our bodies produce more ghrelin and less leptin. This can result in weight gain. 

When we are sleep deprived, our bodies also release cortisol. Cortisol can cause our bodies to hold on to weight and not allow us to lose weight.

To avoid this, make sure you are getting enough quality sleep. You can ensure that you get a good night of sleep by avoiding caffeine in the afternoon and limiting your exposure to blue light before bed. 

It is recommended that the average adult gets 7-9 hours of sleep per night.

Related: Expert Tips On How To Get Better Sleep

Additional Intermittent Fasting Resources

Bottom Line

We hope that you found these intermittent fasting hacks to be helpful! Leave a comment below and share your favorite intermittent fasting hacks!

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