How to do a One Day Fast

Dinner is your last meal before the one day fast, because you want to take advantage of the time you spend sleeping as part of the fast. If you know for sure you won't eat if dinner if five hours before bedtime, then schedule dinner for five hours before bedtime. For example, if you go to sleep at 11pm, eat your last meal at 6pm. If you can get away with eating dinner earlier without feeling hungry before bedtime, then that is even better.

The longer you sleep, the less time you have to be hungry before the 24 hours is up. If you sleep at 11pm with a dinner at 6pm and wake up at 11am, you only have seven hours of fasting to worry about. If you get up very early, you will have more waking hours with possible hunger.

At noon, you should be at around 18 hours. This is already a very long fast but it was also easy to this point.

It was easy until noon to do 18 hours. But the last six hours can be very difficult to finish the one day fast. Drinking zero calorie liquids such as water and diet sodas can help a lot to get to the finish line. It is very important to stay busy at work or at home. Keep up your physical activity but not to the level of exercise, otherwise you will feel the pangs of hunger come very quickly.

It is highly recommended that you stay away from foods with sugar as much as you can. Don't eat bread, rice, pasta, fruit, dessert, etc. Eat low carb veggies in moderation. The lack of sugar from the last 24 hours will make it very easy for new blood sugar to make you feel like overeating. If you eat just protein and fat, like from meat patties and eggs, you will still have a satisfying meal without the urge to overeat due to a sugar high. It would be a shame to overeat after all the work you've put in for the last 24 hours.

The 18 hour version is much easier to do than the one day fast. You can do that very regularly if you think the 24 hour version is too rough. The 18 hour version goes from dinner to as late lunch as possible, taking full advantage of the overnight sleep hours and the busy work during the morning hours.