Intermittent Fasting: Top 10 Mistakes You Should Avoid

Yes, intermittent fasting is growing rapidly as one of the most popular methods of losing weight. This is due largely to the fact that many people don’t want to dramatically change what they eat or their lifestyle in any significant manner. The main benefits to intermittent fasting is that it allows its adherents to live a relatively normal lifestyle while controlling their intake of calories in a way that allows them to make great strides in weight loss in a healthy and sustainable way.

In this article:

1. Not Drinking Enough Water
2. Start Fasting Too Fast And Too Hard
3. Not Getting Morning Electrolytes
4. Not Getting Enough Food
5. Combining I.F. with A High Carb Diet
6. Eating Small Meals Or Snacks
7. Adding Collagen To Your Keto Coffee
8. Not Being Flexible With Your Eating Window
9. Drinking Alcohol Outside Of The Eating Window
10. Not Getting Enough Solid Sleep

The main problem that people run into with intermittent fasting is the pitfalls that come with doing it wrong. These mistakes can completely destroy any hope of reaching your weight loss goals. So, let’s take a look at the key things to avoid.

1: Not Drinking Enough Water

Dehydration is the enemy of anyone who wants to lose weight no matter what kind of diet they are involved with. And, the worst thing that anyone can do is start their day without a sufficient amount of water. This is especially true for those who are using intermittent fasting or a Keto Diet because the loss of food sources only contributes to the loss of water intake. This is the case because everyone gets a significant portion of their necessary hydration from the foods that we eat.

Not only that, starting your day with the proper amount of hydration keeps your system running smoothly and makes the most of all of your efforts. It’s also really important because it helps to prevent headaches which are a known hazard to all those who engage in these kinds of dieting strategies.

#2: Start Fasting Too Fast And Too Hard

This can be a big mistake for people who have a high carb diet and even more so for those who have a really bad diet in the first place. The main thing to remember is that adopting the use of intermittent fasting is that it is actually reprogramming your body by getting rid of what is called dysfunctional mitochondria which is the main source of energy for the body. This allows the body to remove the unwanted ones but keep those that offer the necessary benefits that the body needs to function at a high level. This means that if you are used to a high carbohydrate diet where you eat every two hours or so, or, if you tend to eat a lot of processed foods it might not be a good idea to just jump into the plan with a sixteen hour fasting period. In these cases it’s probably best to start off with fasting periods every other day.

If, on the other hand, you do tend to eat a diet rich in whole foods and lower carbs it’s probably okay to start off with a more aggressive program since your body is already more prepared to go for longer stretches without food.

#3: Not Getting Morning Electrolytes

Not having enough water in the morning is bad enough but when combined with a lack of electrolytes can be even worse. One way to avoid this is to have a pinch or two of sea salt with your morning water intake which will allow your body to function properly and make any attempts at weight loss that much more beneficial. 

#4: Not Getting Enough Food

Sure, the idea behind intermittent dieting is to lose weight but not eating enough during your eating window can be a huge mistake. After all, the body needs fuel to strive and in order to perform at a high level it needs to have the proper level of food intake to perform all of its necessary functions. So, the bottom line here is that your body should always be starting it’s processes on a full tank, so to speak. The bottom line here is that you should always feel satisfied by the time you leave your eating window.

In fact, failing to fully satiate your desire for food will not allow your internal system from burning carbohydrates at the desired level and will lead to an increase in Ghrelin which will kick in to tell you that you are not feeling fully satiated. This will leave feeling hungry and, most likely, angry as you move on through your day. In the end this will result in you having a miserable experience and one that you will not likely continue with.

#5: Combining I.F. with a High Carb Diet

Having a high carb diet leads to having a high level of insulin which means that your body will have a harder time burning the unwanted fat that you are trying to get rid of. This pretty much destroys everything that you are working toward as the body needs to have lowered levels of insulin so that it will burn fat instead of sugars.

Beyond that, a high carb diet prevents you from eating more fats and proteins which then leads to more spikes in the feelings of hunger and prevents you from reaching the state of ketosis which allows you to burn the fat at a higher and more desirable rate.

#6: Eating Small Meals Or Snacks

Coming out of a fasting period and eating just a small meal or a snack can send a very bad message to your body. That message is that there is not enough available food which can create a sense of biological chaos in the body as it believes that it will not be able to get enough food going forward. This means that the body will begin trying to switch into another mode where it is prepared to conserve fat in order to get through a potentially long period of starvation. As you can see, this is directly working against the goals that you are trying to achieve.

What it really comes down to is the simple fact that you should always try to eat enough to feel fully satiated whenever you are leaving your eating window. In fact, this is a good rule to follow whether you are in a dieting mode or not.

#7: Adding Collagen To Your Keto Coffee

Now, it seems that this idea is becoming rather trendy but the one key thing to understand is that Collagen is an amino acid which can be converted into sugar by the body. This means that it is actually breaking your fast. So, if you don’t want to end up throwing your body into another gear right in the middle of its efforts to burn fat instead of sugars this should be avoided at all costs.

#8: Not Being Flexible With Your Eating Window

There is one sure way to ruin any weight loss program and that is to make it so rigid that you won’t want to stick with it. Yes, a little flexibility goes a long way in ensuring that you’ll be able to maintain your desire and keep you on the right track. Look at it this way, if you find yourself in a situation where you are going to dinner with friends and the meal is scheduled for a time that’s outside your eating window you can’t realistically just sit there sipping on water while everyone else is eating. So, do yourself a favor and alter your schedule in order to make your plan fit your lifestyle. You’ll be glad that you did and you’ll get better results in the end.

#9: Drinking Alcohol Outside Of The Eating Window

Okay, so alcohol, in most forms, is a liquid. That doesn’t mean that it’s the same as drinking water. Furthermore, alcohol is loaded with carbohydrates and sugars so having it during your fasting period is as bad as throwing a monkey wrench into the gears of the finely tuned gears of your body and the system that you are trying to adhere to. In short, if you are going to drink alcohol then you really need to do it during your eating window. And, remember from earlier, it’s okay to have some flexibility in when that is.

#10: Not Getting Enough Solid Sleep

If you are wondering what this has to do with anything the answer is simple – when you fail to get enough restful and restorative sleep your body attempts to compensate for this by seeking out more food. That right there should make it clear that this is a bad thing. The basic fact is that a lack of sleep results in a rise in cortisol levels which leads to greater feelings of hunger which, of course, only makes everything that you are trying to do related to intermittent dieting all that harder.

At the end of it all, there are a handful of simple rules for Intermittent Fasting that can make your quest for a leaner, healthier and happier body much easier to achieve. We hope you enjoyed this article. Please keep checking back for more.