Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan - Basics

What does one eat while Intermittent Fasting? What constitutes this Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan?

This article will cover this in a broad manner and hence will be short. Will go into specific recipes in later articles.

Small Disclaimer: I am an Indian Vegetarian. This means that I don’t eat meat or eggs, but will consume a lot of dairy products. So a lot of these points may come from my own experiences with Intermittent Fasting but I think the broad concepts can be used by anybody.

Firstly, prioritize your Fasting Schedule. Sometimes, this can have a huge impact on what you need to eat during your feeding period. I have seen some people prefer to skip dinners and instead have a breakfast and an early lunch. The logic being that they feel that they need energy during their work day and not so much at night. The majority of those Intermittent Fasting prefer skipping breakfast. So if you (like me) are one of those, then these 5 tips will help you better.

1. Load up on zero calorie liquids in the morning. I find that I feel thirsty in the morning and even if I’m hungry, would prefer to have liquids in the morning. Black coffee, black tea or green tea are your best friends for a morning boost. Keep mixing these up and once in a while stick to water so that you don’t get a caffeine addiction.
2. Try your best to avoid any other food during the fasting period. Once in a while especially on those days where you’re mentally not 100%, you can choose to have some nuts or some milk.  But other than that, the longer you’re on a strict fast, the better for weight loss and the other host of good stuff that happens in your body when you fast.
3. Choose your protein of choice. This is important since it will help you plan your cooking. In my case, my protein of choice is milk and Paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese). These are either carb or fat heavy so I make the necessary adjustments to my carb and fat intake from other food sources.
4. Choose your cheat foods wisely (https://www.pradhyumna.com/intermittent-fasting-part-2-cheat-codes/). We are human after all. But what we can consciously do is choose to cheat in the most effective way. I’m not encouraging you to do this regularly but what I am trying to say is that should you choose to waver a bit, do it smartly. Diet Coke /Pepsi, dark chocolate, mints etc. are some of the ways to do this (as mentioned in the link above).
5. Do not snack after dinner. Please don’t do this. Not even for a cheat day. I think this habit of ours to have a quick greasy sandwich or cup noodles /Maggi after midnight has serious repercussions on our biological system. Such cravings usually indicate that you’re not feeding correctly and you may want to increase your protein or even carb and fat intakes during your feeding period.