My Diet Plan For Intermittent Fasting (16/8 Schedule) For Women
So, some of my readers have been asking me to create a specific diet plan for someone who is doing intermittent fasting on the 16/8 schedule. So, I will do exactly that! HOWEVER, just keep in mind –
I got most of my information on Intermittent Fasting from Eat Stop Eat (Read my review about the book for more information). I can guide you guys to the best of my ability, but I should at least give credit to the source of my information and knowledge.
You know the adage – give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day (as long as he’s in his intermittent fasting window). But teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime (following a strict 16/8 regime). The best way to make a diet plan is to do It yourself after reading Eat Stop Eat!
So, you want a diet plan on a 16/8 schedule – meaning you want to fast for 16 hours, and have an eating window of 8 hours to get in your calories (by the way, I still recommend following a workout in addition to following IF. Bikini Body Workouts is fantastic.)
Are you going to break your fast at Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner?
I’ll make an individual plan for each of the possibilities. Use the Table of Contents at the beginning of the page to go to the one that fits your needs, or scroll them all if you’re still trying to decide.
By the way, you want to keep your eating patterns as stable/monotonous as possible, so your body has time to adjust and your hormones remain balanced. Pick the diet plan that you can stick to most consistently.
Consistence is key in working out and dieting, as many of the women who saw success with intermittent fasting will tell you.
What To Eat During Intermittent Fasting
MORNING
This is for people that want a diet plan that breaks their fast in the MORNING, which generally means you’ll be skipping DINNER.
I need to mention – this is the least optimal way to do IF honestly. The program was designed for people to skip breakfast.
The way you would IDEALLY handle this would be to:
- Eat and drink nothing in the morning ( Water is allowed, as is Black Coffee, certain Teas, and sugar free gum. (You want to take in 0 calories, so 0 calories drinks are allowed as well – just make sure you look into how accurate their 0 calorie claim is).
- Instead, you would take 10g of BCAAs and proceed to do your morning workout fasted – this can take some time to get used to if you’re new to fasted workouts.
- Following your fasted workout, instead of breaking the fast, you would take another 10g of BCAA approximately 2 hours after you broke the fast.
What? BCAAs instead of eating? YES!
IF is designed for people to skip breakfast, but this is the provision that would be made so that you could still workout in the morning.
You would take BCAAs every 2 hours, beginning before your workout, until it was time for you to break your fast at LUNCH (Scroll down to the lunch section). This would prevent your body from turning to your existing muscle as a sort of fuel.
However, if you REFUSE to do this – Here’s a diet plan for breaking your fast early morning.
Take your BCAAs early morning before the workout (highly recommend you follow the Bikini Body Workout) whenever you workout/whenever “early morning” is for YOU
Then, break your fast. If you’re going to wait longer than 2 hours to eat your breakfast, take BCAAs following your workout. Otherwise:
POST WORKOUT/ FAST BREAKING MEAL PARAMETERS:
- Should be the largest meal of the day.
- Should be very high in protein
- Should be at least 30-40% of your daily calorie intake!
OPTIONS
Carbs:
Sweet Potatoes
Chocolate Milk
Oatmeal
Poptarts
Fruits
Rice Cakes
Rice
Potatoes
Pasta
Vegetables (of course)
Quinoa
Cereal
Protein:
Protein Powder
Protein Bar
Eggs
Chicken
Ground Beef
Tuna
Greek Yogurt
Salmon
Beans
Fats:
Bacon
Nuts
Butter
Oil
Trail Mix
Cottage Cheese
Blue cheese
Extras:
Mushrooms
Peppers
You want to mix and match, find combinations, look up recipes, etc. using these sort of ingredients. Whole foods that are healthy for you – (With the exception of Poptarts, which I would eat as a post-workout once a week and had no problem achieving fantastic results).
After you eat your first big meal of the day, which is whenever you want to eat this breakfast and break your fast, the rest of your day will look like this:
- Second Meal (20-30% of remaining needed intake) – 3-4 hours after first meal.
- Third and Final Meal (20-30% of remaining intake needed) – 3-4 hours after second meal.
You should be reducing both your calories and carbs throughout the day with each meal.
Of course, you’re allowed to eat more often than this, as long you remain in your eating window and keep track of your NEEDED caloric intake. You can do 6 meals a day and still follow a 16/8 diet plan.
This program is extremely flexible, and I don’t want to limit you because I found the best results when I started making up my own parameters. If you’re having trouble with this, once again, I have to recommend reading Eat Stop Eat to get a good handle on the idea of Intermittent Fasting.
LUNCH
This is for people want a diet plan that breaks their fast at LUNCH, which generally means you’ll be skipping BREAKFAST.
You will eat and drink nothing in the morning ( Water is allowed, as is Black Coffee, certain Teas, and sugar free gum. (You want to take in 0 calories, so 0 calories drinks are allowed as well – just make sure you look into how accurate their 0 calorie claim is).
If you’re working out (highly recommend you follow the Bikini Body Workout) you will do it around 11-12:30, and you will take BCAAs right before you do – otherwise you be doing harm to your muscles.
You are then free to break your fast anytime following your workout – I like to wait 30 minutes or so before I do.
POST WORKOUT/ FAST BREAKING MEAL PARAMETERS:
Should be the largest meal of the day.
Should be very high in protein
Should be at least 30-40% of your daily calorie intake!
OPTIONS
Carbs:
Sweet Potatoes
Chocolate Milk
Oatmeal
Poptarts
Fruits
Rice Cakes
Rice
Potatoes
Pasta
Vegetables (of course)
Quinoa
Cereal
Protein:
Protein Powder
Protein Bar
Eggs
Chicken
Ground Beef
Tuna
Greek Yogurt
Salmon
Beans
Fats:
Bacon
Nuts
Butter
Oil
Trail Mix
Cottage Cheese
Blue cheese
Extras:
Mushrooms
Peppers
DINNER
This is for people want a diet plan that breaks their fast at Dinner, which generally means you’ll be skipping BREAKFAST and LUNCH.
You will eat and drink nothing in the morning ( Water is allowed, as is Black Coffee, certain Teas, and sugar free gum. (You want to take in 0 calories, so 0 calories drinks are allowed as well – just make sure you look into how accurate their 0 calorie claim is).
If you’re working out (highly recommend you follow the Bikini Body Workout) you will do it around 11-12:30, and you will take BCAAs right before you do – otherwise you be doing harm to your muscles.
You are then free to break your fast anytime following your workout – I like to wait 30 minutes or so before I do.
POST WORKOUT/ FAST BREAKING MEAL PARAMETERS:
- Should be the largest meal of the day.
- Should be very high in protein
- Should be at least 30-40% of your daily calorie intake!
OPTIONS
Carbs:
Sweet Potatoes
Chocolate Milk
Oatmeal
Poptarts
Fruits
Rice Cakes
Rice
Potatoes
Pasta
Vegetables (of course)
Quinoa
Cereal
Protein:
Protein Powder
Protein Bar
Eggs
Chicken
Ground Beef
Tuna
Greek Yogurt
Salmon
Beans
Fats:
Bacon
Nuts
Butter
Oil
Trail Mix
Cottage Cheese
Blue cheese
Extras:
Mushrooms
Peppers
You want to mix and match, find combinations, look up recipes, etc. using these sort of ingredients.
After you eat your first big meal of the day at lunch, the rest of your day will look like this:
- Second Meal (20-30% of remaining needed intake) – 3-4 hours after first meal.
- Third and Final Meal (20-30% of remaining intake needed) – 3-4 hours after second meal.
You should be reducing both your calories and carbs throughout the day with each meal.
Of course, you’re allowed to eat more often than this, as long you remain in your eating window and keep track of your NEEDED caloric intake. You can do 6 meals a day and still follow a 16/8 diet plan. You could also go more extreme and do one meal a day.
If you want be as full as possible, you’ll want to avoid or limit the “Bad” foods. Just keep in mind they are fine in moderation.
TL;DR
So – general takeaways when decided when your diet plan on a 16/8 schedule –
- After your workout, consume BCAAs every 2 hours until you decide to break that fast – whether its in the morning, around lunch, or in the evening.
- The meal following your workout should be your biggest meal of the day.
- If you eat before your workout, it should be your smallest meal of the day – around 20% total daily calories.
- You want to eat whole foods, such as those listed above, but get creative with how you mix and match them, as well as what you use to season them.
That’s about it!