Originally emailed to subscribers on Fri, 22 Aug 2025 11:41:27 +0000. Sharing here for those who missed it.
So maybe you
read the last email and thought: “Okay, fair enough. It’s not magic. It’s maths.”
And now you’re wondering how to actually do intermittent fasting without hating your life, snapping at your partner, or binge-eating half the kitchen at 8pm.
Let’s break it down.
Step 1: Pick a window that doesn’t ruin your life
Don’t start with 20:4 if your idea of self-control is stopping at three Jaffa Cakes. Try a 14:10 or a 16:8. That means you fast for 14 to 16 hours (which includes sleeping, calm yourself) and eat within a 10 to
8 hour window. Most people just skip breakfast.
Coffee, water, maybe a zero-calorie drink in the morning. Start eating at 12 or 1pm. Finish by 8 or 9pm.
Not too mad, right?
Step 2: Don’t eat like a lunatic during the window
You’re not a python. You don’t need to make up for lost time. Just
eat normal food. Protein, veg, carbs, fats. No heroic binge missions.
Fasting is not a licence to demolish an entire tub of Ben & Jerry’s because “technically I was fasting earlier.”
No, you weren’t. You were just delaying your overeating.
Step 3: Make it sustainable
If fasting makes you irritable, sluggish, or more
likely to inhale five sausage rolls at 4pm, it’s probably not for you. There’s no award for Most Hours Without Food.
Fasting is one tool. If it fits your lifestyle, great. If not, don’t force it.
Plenty of people get lean eating breakfast, lunch and dinner like functional adults.
Step 4: Watch for the
trap
The most common mistake? Getting cocky after a few days. You think:
“I’ve been good all week. I deserve this.”
Then Friday turns into a cheat meal. Saturday turns into a cheat day. By Sunday, you’ve reverse fasted your way through the weekend.
Newsflash: Three days of eating like an angel does not cancel out four days of
eating like an unsupervised toddler at a birthday party.
If you’re going to fast, stick to it. If you’re going to eat normally, track it and own it. Either way, consistency wins.
Intermittent fasting can work really well. It can also blow up in your face if you use it to justify a starve-binge cycle.
So just treat
it like what it is. A tool. Not a religion. Not a personality.
And if you want to know how we actually use this inside The ABS Gym with real people who get real results, ask (or click here).
We’ve coached hundreds of people through fat loss
using fasting, calorie tracking, intuitive eating, and plain old common sense.
Whatever suits the person.
Not just whatever happens to be trending on Instagram that week.
Bryan Kavanagh
BSc Sport Science and Health
CSCS, Level 4 ITEC Massage Therapist
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