Intermittent Fasting 20/4: Your Complete Guide

Updated: Jul 22

Most of the diets you will hear about will tell you what to eat in order to have less calories in your diet. Intermittent fasting tells you when to eat so that you can eat the same amount but burn more calories.

What is intermittent fasting

There are many variations of this diet but usually intermittent fasting refers to having a window of 6-8 hours per day which you are allowed to eat and the other 16-18 hours you should spending fasting, some people only eat one really big meal per day. Alternate methods could include eating whatever you like for 5-6 days of the week and then fasting for 1-2 days.

What this does is it depletes our glycogen stores so we start burning fat as a fuel. This releases ketones into your blood stream which help to break down fat- this is similar to what keto diets achieve. However, I want to discuss 20/4 intermittent fasting where you fast for 20 hours and then have a 4 hour window to eat. During this 20 hour fast you are restricted to just calorie-free liquids

Most diets put you in a very uncomfortable place of hunger, tiredness and a feeling that the diet is temporary- WE DID NOT EVOLVE TO EAT LIKE THIS.

So how did we evolve? What is a more natural diet?

We did not evolve to be eating as regularly as we do, we evolved hunting our food whilst hungry and eating as much as we can when we had food available to us. Most diets have you eating every 2-4 hours, our ancestors would be equally jealous and disappointed. They would be much more used to this method of dieting where you have a 4 hour window of eating, then the bit which you hopefully don't need to do anymore- go hunt more food.

It can take 2-4 weeks before our bodies adapt to this diet. You may be very hungry, easily annoyed and hard to be around for the first week or 2- but stick it out and it will be worth it!

What are the benefits of 20/4 intermittent fasting?

There are many great benefits for of this diet such as; not having to eat less, spend less time thinking about food and you enjoy your food more. The health benefits include;

Promotes weight loss
Improved sleep
Decrease inflammation (which also can improve mental health)
Increase insulin resistance
Improve heart health
Teaches body to burn fat as a fuel
Brain health
Cancer protection
Lower cholesterol
Good for type 2 diabetes

Overall, 20/4 intermittent fasting speeds up the benefits of intermittent fasting but it requires much more discipline, but overtime your body will thank you due to the fact that during the fast you will be able to flush out many more toxins! This is a diet which you should build up to slowly through increasing your window of eat from 8 hours, then to 6 then to 4. You can chose when your 4 hour window is, this is great news if you are someone who is not a fan of breakfast!