How Long Should I Wait To Eat After Waking Up Intermittent Fasting?

On Aug 27, 2022

Depending on your lifestyle and when you can manage to stop eating, the best hours for intermittent fasting include the 16/8 or 14/10 fasting periods. Intermittent fasting is hailed by many as the new mantra of weight loss, disease prevention, and reversal of aging.

Depending on when you ate dinner and when you consume your first meal after you wake up, you can easily go through a 12 to 16-hour fast — with no physiologic change to digestive functions.

Several studies have shown that consuming a high-carb breakfast within 60 minutes before intensive exercise improved physical performance. Whether you eat within 30 minutes of waking up or find that eating breakfast two hours after waking fits best into your schedule, it’s your overall nutrient and calorie intake that matters most.

Longer-term fasts are different. Resuming eating after a longer fast takes more planning and care. As we start to incorporate fasting into our routines, our bodies physiologically take a bit of time to adjust to the new regimen, especially if we used to eat constantly.

How long should I eat breakfast?

Eating a Healthy Breakfast. Whether you eat within 30 minutes of waking up or find that eating breakfast two hours after waking fits best into your schedule, it’s your overall nutrient and calorie intake that matters most. Ideally, opt for a healthy combination of whole foods that are high in fiber and low in fat, sugar and salt.

Eating a nutritious breakfast can jump-start your metabolism and replenish the glycogen stores that will help supply the energy your body needs to begin your day. The Mayo Clinic lists some of the potential health benefits of eating breakfast, including: 1 Adds vitamins and minerals to your diet. 2 May help you maintain a normal body weight. 3 May regulate your blood sugar levels. 4 May reduce your fat and cholesterol consumption. 5 May help you perform better at work.

The Mayo Clinic offers some suggestions for making your breakfast healthy, including: Fruits and vegetables, including fresh and frozen, sugar-free fruit juices or fruit smoothies. Your morning meal can consist of simple whole foods and it doesn’t have to be time-consuming to be good for you.

According to a June 2014 article in Frontiers in Public Health, the standard definition of breakfast is the first meal of the day eaten before or at the start of daily activities within two hours of waking, typically no later than 10 a.m. in the morning, with caloric values consisting of 20 and 35 percent of total daily needs.

Ideally, opt for a healthy combination of whole foods that are high in fiber and low in fat, sugar and salt. Focus on the main food groups, such as whole grains, fruits and lean meat to feed your body with complex carbs, fiber, protein and a small amount of fat, all needed for health and satiety.

There’s no doubt that healthy eating and practicing portion control are important when it comes to weight loss. But the best time to eat breakfast after waking up is not as critical as your overall diet.

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What happens if you don’t eat your meals?

According to the study by Harvard University, if you are not eating your meals at the right time, it will be difficult for you to reach your weight loss goals.

Eating breakfast at the right time helps maintain your normal body weight, regulate your blood sugar levels, helps in reduction of fat and cholesterol levels and helps you perform better during the day.

A healthy wholesome breakfast helps us kickstart our morning by boosting our metabolism and providing us with energy for the day ahead. Talking about an ideal breakfast, we all know, it is a mix of carbs, protein and fat. But what about the breakfast timings?

Having breakfast after waking up is good for your metabolism, say experts. If you are a gym-goer and prefer exercising in the morning, have something light like a banana or an avocado toast, at least half an hour before working out.

How to minimize side effects of fasting?

Apart from shortening the duration of your fast, the best way to minimize side effects is to plan the best food to eat when you break the fast.

Breakfast for the intermittent faster is the meal consumed when you choose to break your fast, be it 6:00 AM or 6:00 PM. Fasting, especially for religious purposes, has been a common occurrence for centuries. And generally, throughout most of human history, not much concern was given to how to break the fast.

Ending a longer fast: a quiet gut revs up again. Longer-term fasts are different. Resuming eating after a longer fast takes more planning and care. As we start to incorporate fasting into our routines, our bodies physiologically take a bit of time to adjust to the new regimen, especially if we used to eat constantly.

Depending on when you ate dinner and when you consume your first meal after you wake up, you can easily go through a 12 to 16-hour fast — with no physiologic change to digestive functions.

Bloating. In very rare cases, nausea and vomiting. Since your body doesn’t have the immediately available digestive enzymes and juices available to breakdown your food , the food can sit in your stomach much longer.

During the refeeding period, insulin and counter regulatory hormones such as cortisol and noradrenaline are suddenly re-activated. This causes the movement of the major intracellular ions like phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium into our cells. However, due to the overall depletion of our body stores, this becomes quite excessive and leaves us with too little of these ions in the blood. This is what causes the major symptoms of refeeding syndrome:

Although there is no clear consensus or accepted definition about what the cut off is between a short and a long-term fast, Diet Doctor defines anything less than 24 hours as time-restricted eating, fasts between 24 and 36 hours as a short-term fast, and anything longer than 36 hours a long-term fast.