How to Prevent Overeating When Doing Intermittent Fasting

Stay Hydrated

Leslie said that it's helpful to have some black coffee or tea and ample water in the morning before your first meal. This not only helps with hydration but also hunger.

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Have Your First Meal Prepped

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One of the most crucial things you can do to avoid overeating is to have your meal all prepped. Either bring a packed lunch to work or plan out exactly what you're going to cook at home. Since you'll likely be pretty hungry when you're eating window opens, having a plan helps you avoid grabbing the quickest (and maybe not the healthiest) thing you can get your hands on.

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Fill Up on Veggies First

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Start off your eating window with a large portion of veggies. Fibre will keep you full, so try starting off with a salad for some fullness before moving onto your savory pasta dish, for example.

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Eat Slowly

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Eat slowly! We tend to want to eat quickly when we're extremely hungry, so make sure to slow down and be mindful. Take 20 minutes to eat and focus on enjoying your bites, the colour, flavour, the aroma, and how the food makes you feel. "Before going for seconds, you can watch the clock and make sure it has been about 20 minutes since starting your meal." Leslie said. You might find you're not as hungry when you wait another five or 10 minutes.

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Eat Enough

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Intermittent fasting defines when to eat, not what or how much. You should still aim to eat your daily calories during your eating window and not have too much of a calorie deficit. If you're not eating enough, or you're cutting certain foods out like carbs, or you're only eating foods you think you're supposed to eat but hate (we're looking at you, celery juice!), then deprivation will drive you to overeat. Leslie said to focus on healthy, filling foods, and remember that it's OK to indulge and have fun foods, too!

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Make Your Last Meal Balanced and Filling

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Before your eating window closes, you want to fill up on a nutrient-dense, healthy, satisfying meal. Leslie said to eat good amounts of protein, plant fats, good fibre, and complex carbs for ultimate fullness. This will keep you fuelled through your fasting window.

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Listen to Your Body

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Limiting your eating window doesn't mean you have to overeat. If you follow 16:8 for example, just because you only have eight hours to eat doesn't mean you should cram in all the food you can for eight hours straight. Leslie said you still want to listen to your hunger and fullness cues."

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Be Flexible

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Staying consistent with your intermittent fasting goals is important, but you also need to be flexible. If you had a particularly gruelling morning workout and you're starving by 10 a.m. and your eating window doesn't open until noon, you may want to shift your eating window earlier to prevent feeling so famished that you can't help but overeat. Maybe eat from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m.

You also want to be flexible about extending your eating window if plans come up. "I never want clients to feel overly restricted either," Leslie said. "If you have a dinner out at 7 p.m. but this is after your fasting window, please don't turn your plans down!" Go enjoy yourself and get back on your routine tomorrow.

Or maybe 16:8 isn't the best fasting protocol for you and you'd do better with 14:10. Or maybe you'd do better not doing IF every day. Or not doing intermittent fasting at all! Intermittent fasting is supposed to feel effortless and be beneficial, so if it's not, why do it?

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