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7-Day Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan For Beginners

Intermittent fasting is one of the hottest weight loss trends right now. Fasting may seem scary, but once you hear the health and weight loss benefits of it, you might be singing a different tune.

Fasting isn’t a new phenomenon. Our ancestors used to fast due to their limited access to food and there are numerous religious ceremonies that involve dietary fasts being done every year.

But the intermittent fasting meal plan takes this one step further, creating a lifestyle around fasting that has plenty of fat-burning benefits!

What You Need to Know About Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting, also known as the fast diet, involves alternating cycles of fasting and eating. You can pretty much eat whatever you want, but only during a specific time period. During the fasting period you can drink water, coffee, tea and other non-caloric beverages to keep you from getting hungry.

Going for a walk or distracting yourself by calling a friend, reading a book, or engaging in a side hobby are also great ways to keep cravings at bay. There are multiple intermittent fasting plans, and the great thing is you can choose the one that works best for you and your lifestyle. It’s a simple way to consume less calories and lose weight, so let’s dive in!

There are multiple ways to approach intermittent fasting, and if you’re interested in giving it a try, the first thing you’ll want to do is choose the fasting plan that’s right for you. Here are 5 ideas to get you started:

12/12 Method. This method is perfect for beginners. You fast for 12 hours and eat within a 12 hour window. If your last meal of the day is at 6 pm, you wouldn’t eat again until 6 am. This one is pretty simple, and you may even already be doing it! The most important part is not to eat a late night snack, even if you get the urge.

16/8 Method. With this method, you only eat within an 8 hour time frame each day and fast for the other 16 hours. For example, you only eat between 10 am and 6 pm or 12 pm and 8 pm.

20/4 Method. This is where it starts to get a little more intense. With the 20/4 method, you only allow yourself to eat within 4 hours of everyday and fast for the other 20.

Eat-Stop-Eat. For one or two days each week, you have a full 24-hour fast. So you wouldn’t eat anything from dinner one day until dinner the next day.

5:2 Diet. For 5 days of the week you can eat whatever and whenever you want, but for the other 2 days you only eat from 500 to 600 calories.

Metabolic Fasting. This method of fasting combines 2 or 3 of the above intermittent fasting. What makes this unique is metabolic fasting focused on food quality, carb pairing, macrobalancing, and hormone-focused eating.

Remember: there are no hard and fast rules as to what you can and can’t eat on an intermittent fasting meal plan, but you’re going to have better results with a healthy, well balanced diet. If you’re eating fast food and excessive amounts of calories everyday, you can’t expect to reap the awesome weight loss results.

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How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?

Intermittent fasting works by burning your fat and excess calories! What is fat? It just not gets deposited in your body but has a certain important function as well. Body fat is basically the storage form of energy for the body which it uses at the times of starvation. Our excess calories get stored in the form of fat.

In the periods of fasting or starvation, our body tends to revert to other sources of energy, like the ones stored within our body; fat. Thus when we don’t eat food or take any calories, our body makes several changes in its functions which make the energy from these stores more accessible. When we don’t eat anything, the body changes several things to make the stored energy more accessible.

What changes do exactly take place?

The nervous system activity is involved in this whole process. This is where the main changes take place. Various changes in the hormonal control system also take place simultaneously.

Let’s discuss some of the major metabolic changes that occur in your body during fasting.

INSULIN

Insulin regulates glucose levels in the blood. Its level increases with the increase in blood glucose levels i.e. after meals. In contrast, the insulin levels in blood decrease with a decrease in blood glucose levels i.e. during fasting. Insulin normally prevents fat metabolism. However, its lower levels in case of fasting promote the breakdown of fat for the production of energy.

HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE (HGH)

This is yet another hormone having an important role in the body’s metabolism. Normally, growth hormone promotes the breakdown of fat and deposition of protein in muscles. Its levels increase drastically, up to 5-fold, during the periods of fasting, promoting the breakdown of fat for the production of energy.

NOREPINEPHRINE (NORADRENALINE)

Yet another hormone associated with the metabolism of the body is Norepinephrine. This hormone signals the fat cells to break down fat into fatty acids and triglycerides. Thus, the nervous system sends signals to the fat cells in the form of this hormone to break down into its components for energy production.

CELLULAR REPAIR

The process of cellular repair also starts when you fast. The process of autophagy is upregulated during fasting in which the cells digest their own dysfunctional and old proteins and remove them from the body, preventing their build-up.

GENE EXPRESSION

Fasting causes changes in certain gene functions or up-regulates the expression of genes involved in maintaining the longevity of cells. These genes also protect the body against many diseases.

Benefits of Intermittent Fasting

Along with losing weight, there are additional benefits that come with the intermittent fasting meal plan, including:

  • Improved cognition and brain function
  • Decreased insulin resistance/risk of type 2 diabetes
  • Reduced blood pressure and cholesterol
  • Reduced inflammation

Enough about the awesomeness of intermittent fasting, let’s get into what a 7-day meal plan looks like…

7-Day Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan for Quick Results

If you’re not sure what to eat on the intermittent fasting meal plan, we’ve put together a 7-day meal plan to get your started on the right foot! The recipes are clean and healthy, but also incredibly delicious so you can enjoy them while watching your waistline! No matter which method you choose, we have you covered with this beginner 7-day eating plan!

16/8 Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

  • Meal #1: Turkey Bowl
  • Snack #2: Almonds
  • Meal #3: Grilled chicken salad

Saturday

  • Meal #1: Grilled salmon salad
  • Snack #2: Dark chocolate bark
  • Meal #3: Chicken tortilla soup 

Sunday

  • Meal #1: Sprouts, chicken, quinoa Buddha bowl
  • Snack #2: Greek yogurt 
  • Meal #3: Teriyaki chicken with cauliflower rice

Intermittent fasting doesn’t have to be a scary thing. When you can eat these delicious meals, who wouldn’t love this simple way to lose weight?

What Is Metabolic Fasting and Why Should You Try It?

See most people who start intermittent fasting, end up right where they end up with any diet. 

They lose a bunch of weight, feel great…but then…

The weight starts creeping back…

Then you start up again and repeat the vicious cycle of losing weight, gaining weight, losing weight, and gaining it back.

No fun if you ask me…and I’ve coached thousands of people that are struggling with this same problem.

See, most IF experts just tell you to fast a day or a certain number of hours, then eat whatever you want when you aren’t fasting.

This approach might make you happy, but it’s not helping your hormones.

And hormones is my wheelhouse!

In order to prevent regaining weight you need to address hormones, metabolism, and health.

Get healthy to lose weight, NOT the other way around.

Metabolic fasting is my solution to bad intermittent fasting programs that promise results that just don’t last.

Metabolic fasting focuses on:

  • balancing your hormones (boosting fat-burning hormones and stopping fat-storing hormones)
  • optimizing your metabolism (getting into fat-burning ketosis, using glucose correctly, etc…
  • upgrading your health
  • balancing your macronutrients in a way that keeps your taste buds, metabolism, and hormones HAPPY
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