Intermittent fasting (IF) is not magic by any means, but it can be a useful tool to make hitting lower calorie targets more manageable, and you’ll likely benefit from eating satisfying meals rather than “fun size” meals that leave you wanting more. Also, it can help some people break their mental addiction to food and the need to constantly snack.
To incorporate IF with Avatar, we recommend sticking to a 14 – 18 hour fasting window, rather than going all day without eating. This shorter fast is more manageable and less stressful on the body, carries a lower risk of muscle loss and any adverse effect on metabolism, and is more conducive to an active lifestyle.
To set a fasting timer on your Avatar tracker, open the main menu from the top left of the app’s dashboard and tap the Intermittent Fasting option. From here, you’ll be able to enable fasting on your tracker and set your eating windows to standard fasting schedles, or set up a custom fasting plan.
You’ll also need to continue tracking your macros. After all, no matter how small the feeding window, it’s still possible to under or overeat and sabotage your body composition goals! To ensure you progress toward your goal, continue to hit the daily macro targets Avatar Nutrition sets for you. Because you’ll be compliant with the system, there are no special considerations or edits to your profile that will need to occur.
If you’re planning on trying IF for the first time, realize that it isn’t for everyone. In fact, if you can relate to the following, you’d probably do better to avoid IF:
You love eating every two or three hours
You have trouble controlling your blood sugar levels
You’re extremely active and require a lot of fuel
You’re eating higher calories and need all the meals possible to fit them in
You’re unwilling to risk losing muscle (i.e. your goal is muscle gain)
To learn more about intermittent fasting and whether it’s right for you, read our article here.