Im 18 years old Male weighing around 229 pounds. I started IF just a few days ago and i’ve started with the 16:8 pattern. My fasting times were scheduled 2pm-6am. I’d usually break the fast by 6:30 with a bowl of sugar free muesli. I saw a Dr. Berg video where he suggested to wait atleast for 4 hours after waking up to break the fast. Is this necessary? Is it important?
Everyone is different, but for the average beginner, it’s probably easier to adhere to a fasting period that continues a few hours after you get up. This is for two reasons.
Most people already know what it’s like to skip breakfast and are able to do this as long as they have caffeine, which you can consume in black tea/coffee without breaking your fast.
Most people find it jarring to go to bed hungry, which you might experience – at least at first – if you end your eating window at 2pm or sometime in the range of when you’d normally each lunch instead of dinner.
As others have mentioned, the most important part of IF is adhering to your 16+ hour fasting window, not when the window is.
So if 6am-2pm isn’t creating any resistance discouraging you from continuing to adhere to IF, then stick with it.
If it is, probably better to switch sooner than later to at least see if another window works better so you can begin to build consistency with that window.
And to any beginners reading this, I’d recommend starting your eating window later in the day first due to the reasons mentioned above.
It’s not necessary, nothing is necessary, he was probably saying theres health benefits to waiting, which I’m assuming is true as I assume he has evidence to back it up, but really if it’s not going to be soemthing you can maintain best not to, you can make whatever schedule works best for you.