Fasting tips

Drink water. Dr Fung recommends starting your day with a glass of water so you can rehydrate and get started on drinking plenty of fluids during the day.

Ride the waves.

When your stomach starts rumbling, have a hot cup of black coffee (it’s a mild appetite suppressant), black tea or a glass of water to help you ride out the wave of hunger. It will pass!

When you eat, eat well.

When you break your fast, don’t do it with a bag of chips and a doughnut, or eat more to compensate for all the meals you missed. Eat whole, unprocessed foods high in healthy fats and low in refined carbs and sugar; an LCHF diet will help your body stay in fat-burning mode.

Keep it quiet.

People will try to talk you out of ‘starving yourself’ because they don’t understand the benefits of fasting.

Keep busy.

Ever forget to eat during a busy workday? Fasting is much easier if your focus is on something else.

Give yourself time.

Fasting probably won’t be easy from the get-go. Give your body at least a month to adjust if you don’t take to it right away.

Fit fasting into your life – not the other way around.

This, says Dr Fung, is his top tip for helping you stick to it. If a social event comes up where fasting is impossible, don’t force it. Nobody wants to be the one sitting at the Christmas table with a glass of water. Enjoy the day and pick up where you left off afterwards.