How to break a fast — your plan

You fasted: 20 to 24 hours · A 20:4 window, or one meal a day.

Start with something small, wait, then eat the meal.

How well this is known: No trial has compared a small first bite against going straight to the meal. This band is practice, and it is labelled as practice.

Minute 0

Something small

A small portion — a couple of eggs, a bowl of soup, some yoghurt. Enough to start eating, not enough to be the meal.
- Soft-scrambled or boiled eggs one or two
- Plain yoghurt or kefir a small pot
- Avocado half
- Steamed or cooked vegetables a small bowl
After 15 to 20 minutes

The full meal

Protein and vegetables first, then the starch, for the same reason as the shorter bands. Eat until you have had enough rather than until the plate is empty; hunger after a fast overshoots what you need.
- 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.
Eating until you are full because you earned itThe hunger after a long fast overshoots what you need, and it does not stop being hunger when you have had enough. Stop while you could still eat more.
AlcoholOn an empty stomach after a long fast it arrives faster and hits harder, and it is a poor first thing to ask a quiet gut to process.

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.