Sometimes people who practice Daily Intermittent Fasting feel a need for more boundaries. After all, most of us have lived or tried to live within certain food boundaries for decades through various diet protocols in our adult lives. Thus, Daily IF can feel a little loosey-goosey to some people—especially in the beginning before Appetite Correction (AC) sets in and our hormones are balanced, when we naturally eat less during our eating window. The first and most natural boundary that a Daily Intermittent Faster can, and probably should, implement to get the best results is changing up of the Fasting and Feeding Windows.

This is an easy fix for someone who isn’t getting the results they desire or someone who has been doing Daily IF consistently for over a month and still feels that the feeding window is too out of control. A simple tweak, such as going from 18:6 to 19:5 or 20:4 (18, 19, or 20 fasting hours and 6, 5, or 4 feeding hour) is a boundary that can make a huge difference without any extra counting or food choice limits. This tweak is especially helpful if you find yourself eating two full meals during 18:6 but only one meal and a snack or two (small) during 20:4.

As much as I hate to recommend this because one of the beauty of Daily IF is NOT counting, I feel that I must. Some people need a period of time in which the old crutches of “dieting” are still being implemented during their eating window. Eventually, this might become a thing of the past for lifetime dieters, but during the first three or four months, many people need this boundary to feel success and get results.

In this scenario, a person is fasting for 16, 18, 19, or more hours but also doing one of their old diet protocols. This may be carb counting in order to stay keto or LCHF (low carb high fat). It might be point counting, such as in a Weight Watchers program. Or it might be calorie counting if that is what the person feels “safe” with. One benefit of any of these counting scenarios is that a person might have greater weight loss in the beginning whereas some people do not lose a lot at first until Appetite Correction sets in. Another benefit is that a person can gradually realize that they can eat this way without counting and still have success—but this happens over time, so they feel more confident in Daily IF.

An easy boundary that I have implanted that helps me utilize Appetite Correction (AC) more fully is the OMAD/3. OMAD stands for One Meal a Day. Divided by 3 means that we are dividing the feeding window (the “one meal”) into three parts: (1) Appetizer/Snack/Salad when feeding window is first opened; (2) Entrée an hour or two later; (3) Dessert or Snack just before closing feeding window (if desired).

OMAD/3 gives some structure to what new Daily IF’ers might feel is unstructured—the feeding window. It helps while you are waiting for AC to set in, during the first few weeks when you are basking in the IF liberties of eating whatever you want a little bit too much. Rather than just eating continually during three, four, or five hours of a feeding window, the food intake is more controlled as “eating episodes” while still not necessarily dictating WHAT the person eats.

This boundary has been a lifesaver for me. First of all, I was feeling a little hypoglycemic when I opened my eating window with carbs. While I haven’t been pre-diabetic for years (controlled it with 100 carbs per day and supplementation), I felt it coming back when I ate carbs only or sugar during my eating-window-opening. However, when I started opening my eating window with low carb foods (for others it might just be something really nutrient dense, not necessarily low carb), this feeling completely went away.

Thus, the first part of OMAD/3 for me consists of something 20 carbs or fewer. Another benefit to this is that a person seldom overeats or overindulges on nutrient-dense foods or low carb foods—and since AC usually happens later in the eating window, this simple boundary keeps the IFer from eating crazily as the window opens. Another thing this window-opening boundary helps with is getting in the nutrition that we need. Yes, we have the freedom to eat pizza on pizza night, but starting with something healthful helps us get more nutrition in on pizza night or birthday cake party day!

Again, not my favorite boundary, but one that definitely works and doesn’t require counting and recording. This boundary is one in which the Daily Intermittent Faster chooses certain days to not eat certain types of foods. If you are still having trouble overeating during your feeding window, this can help you stop that madness.

Another beauty of considering certain food types off limits on certain days is that it is short term deprivation. Just like Daily IF is easy to follow because it is short term deprivation for long term results, making Monday and Wednesday low carb days or Tuesday and Thursday no sugar days can help you get a handle on overeating without counting anything and without feeling deprived every day of the week.

1) Have Shorter Eating Windows/Longer Fasting Windows

2) Count Something

3) Implement OMAD/3 and Utilize Appetite Correction More Fully

4) Open Window With Nutrient-Dense Foods

5)   Consider Certain Foods Off Limits on Certain Days

After 3 to 4 weeks of consistent Daily Intermittent Fasting, a process called Appetite Correction sets in. During the first few weeks, people wonder how they will ever lose weight eating everything they want during a three five , four, or five hour eating window. However, Appetite Correction happens when we balance our hormones through Intermittent Fasting and we quit wanting to eat everything in sight.

Appetite Correction is a built in monitoring system, a natural boundary for us without us having to count anything or try to manipulate our food too much. We crave healthier foods with Appetite Correction, and by eating healthier foods, we are not eating as much junk. This results in weight loss. Moreover, Appetite Correction causes us to just be “done” eating when we would normally keep on eating more desserts and more treats at the end of our eating window.

Daily Intermittent Fasting causes us to become Fat Adapted. Fat Adapted means that each day during our fast, we use up our circulating glucose and/or glycogen stores and start burning body fat rather than burning the food we just ate. That is, the food we ate yesterday gets burned up during the fast somewhere between the 12 and 16 hour mark, and our body goes into Fat Adaption where we burn our body fat for fuel.

This is when real weight loss occurs because this is similar to when the body goes into ketosis during a low-carb diet (keto diet). Our body moves seamlessly from burning circulating glucose and glycogen stores into burning its own body fat for fuel. Usually someone has to follow a very low-carb diet, such as 20 to 30 carbs a day, and/or much interval and high intensity exercising in order to burn body fat. Daily Intermittent Fasting does it for us naturally.

When we start to do Daily Intermittent Fasting consistently, the combination of Fat Adaption and Appetite Correction and seeing our body shrink through fat burning causes us to organically eat more healthily. We stop wanting junk food as much, though we have the freedom to have treats, and we do not overeat as much.

Treats become just as they were intended to be – treats. We do not eat so many of them so that we have way too many calories in any given day. We organically and naturally eat better, and we lose weight in the process.

A smaller eating window of three, four, or five hours will naturally yield fewer carbohydrates. It is thought that the average person eats 300 or 400 carbohydrates in any given day. A short eating window will often find the Intermittent Faster eating between 100 and 150 carbs per day.

While 150 carb sounds like a lot of carbs compared to the keto diet of 30 carbs, the fewer carbs we eat (along with moderate protein), will reduce the amount of circulating glucose and the amount of stored glycogen. This means that we will go into that Fat Adaption, or body fat burning, earlier….sometimes even at the 12 hour fasting mark for non-keto people.

When we have shorter eating windows of three, four, and five hours, and we also have Appetite Correction, we will have a calorie deficit many days of the week. So even without considering being Fat Adapted, eating fewer carbs, consuming fewer treats, having Appetite Correction, etc., we are creating a calorie deficit every week.

If a person stays on Daily Intermittent Fasting consistently, overtime, that person will naturally lose weight from a small calorie deficit in addition to all of the other perks of weight loss that occur with Daily Intermittent Fasting. And….weight loss breeds more weight loss. Success leads to more success.

1) We Lose Weight When Appetite Correction Sets In: Appetite Correction Book

 2) We Lose Weight When Fat Adaption Happens: 5 Ways to IF Hours and Schedules slideshow

3) We Lose Weight When We Organically Eat Fewer Treats: Delay, Don’t Deny

 4) We Lose Weight When We Naturally Eat Fewer Carbs

5) We Lose Weight Over Time When We Create Even a Small Calorie Deficit and Then Have Motivation From the Weight Loss