How to break a fast — your plan

You fasted: 16 to 20 hours · The 16:8 and 18:6 windows.

A normal meal, with the protein and vegetables ahead of the bread and rice.

How well this is known: Meal order has real human data behind it. What it does not have is a study in people breaking a fast, so treat the size of the effect as unknown for you.

First

Protein and vegetables

Eating the protein and vegetables before the carbohydrate lowers the glucose rise from the same plate. The big effects were measured in people with type 2 diabetes on metformin, where the area under the glucose curve fell by more than half; the healthy-adult evidence points the same way and is much smaller — six studies and about a hundred people between them. None of it was measured in anybody breaking a deliberate fast.
- Soft-scrambled or boiled eggs one or two
- Plain yoghurt or kefir a small pot
- Avocado half
- Steamed or cooked vegetables a small bowl
Then

The rest of the plate

Bread, rice, potato, fruit — all fine, and none of them needs to be avoided. They go last rather than first.
- Chicken or turkey with cooked vegetables a normal plate
- Oily fish with vegetables a normal plate
- Eggs with vegetables and toast a normal plate
- Lentil or bean stew a normal bowl

Avoid at first

A sugary drink or dessert as the first thingThe one avoid line that applies at every band, and not for the reason usually given: the longer the fast, the BIGGER the glucose rise from the same carbohydrate, because a fast lowers insulin sensitivity rather than raising it. It is a spike, not a crash. Nothing about it is dangerous in a healthy person; it is simply the most pointless way to spend the first thing you eat.

Portions are rules of thumb, not measurements. No study has established the right first-meal size after any length of fast, and this sheet says so rather than printing a figure it cannot defend. What is reliable is the direction of the error: people overshoot. Stop while you could still eat more.

Never skip, delay or adjust medication to protect a fast. If a medicine needs food, the food wins. Nothing on this sheet is medically reviewed; every guideline figure on it names the guideline it came from.

getfasted.app/tools/how-to-break-a-fast — every length, with the reason behind each step. Not medical advice.