28-Day FAST Start Day-by-Day

October 16, 2023
Stephens (Clean(ish)), host of the Intermittent Fasting podcast, presents a lackluster program on how readers can ease into the diet by gradually limiting one’s meals to a set timespan every day over the course of a month. Among the three plans for slowly increasing daily time spent fasting, the least severe recommends eating three low-carb meals per day within a 12-hour window for the first week and constricting consumption to two meals within a six-hour window by week four (the other plans ramp up faster and suggest even shorter time spans). Stephens prioritizes flexibility, suggesting that readers can change what time of day their window starts to accommodate their schedule. Chapters tied to each day of the monthlong program offer background on the benefits and science of fasting; “Day 9,” for instance, explains that fasting induces the body to “go from running on glucose (from the foods we eat and our stored glycogen) to running on the fat from our fat cells.” Stephens advises that “weight loss shouldn’t be your primary destination” while fasting, but her silence on ensuring fasting doesn’t lapse into disordered eating feels like an oversight, and the surfeit of exhortations to consult the author’s previous book on intermittent fasting will make readers wonder why they shouldn’t read that one instead. This comes up short.