From this article, you can download our Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan PDF.
Intermittent fasting is an eating strategy that doesn’t define what you eat but instead when you eat it. It’s grown in popularity in recent years for weight loss, reducing insulin resistance, lowering inflammation, and even anti-aging.
What’s amazing is that intermittent fasting studies show you don’t have to change your diet whatsoever to lose weight.
But, we’re here to tell you that it is much, much better if you do to receive all of the health benefits. Here is our typical intermittent fasting meal plan.
intermittent fasting meal plan (pdf included)
Think about it, let’s say you’re on the popular 16/8 intermittent fasting schedule (16 hours of fasting with 8 hours of eating).
If you’re chowing down on a burger and a milkshake up until the last minute of your eating window, your body only has 16 hours to process all of those carbohydrates and sugars.
If — depending on what else you ate that day — your body doesn’t burn through all of those carbohydrates for energy, your insulin levels won’t reset and your body can’t move onto burning fat.
Whatever your goal, there are ways to reach your goals faster and become healthier by being selective of what you eat during your eating windows.
In this article, we’ll break down the different intermittent fasting schedules and which ones are best based on your goals and metabolism. We’ll also share a printable intermittent fasting meal plan to make sure you’re fasting safely, effectively, and healthily.
If you’re short on time, you can download the printable PDF meal plans through the form below and revisit this article later. Otherwise, read on to learn how to implement and succeed with these meal plans.
Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan (Printable PDF)
Download and instantly access the intermittent fasting meal plans, including a printable meal planner to create daily menus.
Plus, we're just an email away for support.
Experiment With Your Intermittent Fasting Schedule
Intermittent fasting isn’t just one hard-and-fast thing. Instead, everyone does it differently.
We encourage you to experiment for at least 3 weeks before changing it up to gauge the full benefits. Generally, if you’re fasting between 12 hours or more a day, it’s considered intermittent fasting. And yes, that includes the time you sleep!
Intermittent fasting controls when you eat, not what you eat. The healthier your diet, the better your results. That’s why this intermittent fasting meal plan is so useful.
If you’re taking any medications or have diabetes, low blood pressure, are pregnant, or have a history of an eating disorder, consult your doctor before starting intermittent fasting.
Which Intermittent Fasting Plan Should I Begin With?
In our article, ‘Intermittent Fasting How To Guide,’ we dive into this step-by-step, including how to define your goals, calculate your daily caloric needs, and build intermittent fasting into your routine. Don’t miss it!
In this article, we’ll share meal plans for the two most popular fasting schedules:
- Daily Intermittent Fasting 16/8 Schedule
- Alternate Day Fasting (24 hours on, 24 hours off)
If you’re brand new to intermittent fasting, the 16/8 plan is recommended. If you have some experience and want to optimize your food and schedule, the next section is for you!
Don’t forget that while fasting, it’s incredibly important to stay hydrated. Intermittent fasting puts your body under some healthy stress, but don’t add to the stress by allowing yourself to become dehydrated.
Generally while fasting, you can consume beverages under 50 calories, which includes black coffee, unsweetened tea, and lemon water.
Figuring out the “Best” IF Schedule For You
As we said, intermittent fasting isn’t one-size-fits-all. In terms of finding the most effective intermittent fasting plan for you, whether it’s 16 hours of fasting (or more, or less), we’ve researched this extensively.
And the short answer is… there is no answer. It is entirely dependent upon your lifestyle and even body composition. Things that affect your body’s metabolism include your diet, stress levels, sleep quality, and how much exercise or movement you get in daily.
Therefore, the general consensus from these studies is this:
The best IF schedule is the easiest one that you can commit to.
Well, for some of us with big goals, that isn’t good enough. But we’re here to share two options.
1. The DIY Option
Pick a schedule that makes sense for you, download the Meal Plan PDF in this article, take great notes with “before” stats, and do your best. There will still be some guesswork involved here, but as long as you’re feeling good and progressing towards your goals, then you’re on the right track.
Or, for data lovers like us who want to take the guesswork out of fasting and reach your health goals faster, you can track your metabolism.
2. The Metabolism Tracking Option
You can buy an at-home, real-time metabolism tracker called Lumen. New to the market just in the past few years, it’s been groundbreaking for us.
No matter if you want to build muscle, lose weight, or just get healthier with intermittent fasting, Lumen will tell you with precise measurements how your body is responding to a meal, workout, fast, etc. and make specific food and meal recommendations for the day.
For more information on metabolism trackers, continue onto the next section and consider reading our full experience and Lumen review, complete with $50 $100 off with code RYANANDALEX.
Demystifying Your IF Schedule and Meal Plan with a Metabolism Tracker
Here’s how precise Lumen can be with an example from today:
Based on my morning measurement, showing that I woke up burning 75% fat and 25% carbs, Lumen recommended a low-carb day with the following breakdown:
- Breakfast – 35g of carbs
- Lunch – 35g of carbs
- Snacks – 10g of carbs
- Dinner – 10g of carbs
See the below nutrition plan and meal recommendations from the Lumen app.
By the time I finished tracking my snack, I saw that I was perfectly on target with my carbs and needed a heavy protein/heavy fat dinner. Quickly looking at Lumen’s recommended dinner options, I went with their ‘Low-Carb Tempeh Bowl’ and simply threw in more tempeh to meet my protein goals.
Done and done. Simple.
But the real test came in the morning when my body thanked me and I woke up in 95% fat-burn mode after a 12-hour fast at 7 am. When my stomach started growling 2 hours later at 9 am, my metabolism read at higher carb-burn rates, indicating that it was time to break my fast at 14 hours.
Without the Lumen, I probably would have guessed and continued fasting for several more hours — and it would have been unnecessary or potentially detrimental to my metabolism. My body was telling me loud and clear that it was time to end my fast.
So, that’s the difference between Option 1 and Option 2.
Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan (Printable PDF)
Download and instantly access the intermittent fasting meal plans, including a printable meal planner to create daily menus.
Plus, we're just an email away for support.
Daily Intermittent Fasting 16/8 Meal Plan
Most people follow a daily intermittent fasting plan of 16/8: 16 hours of fasting with 8 hours of eating. For us, this was the most simple and sustainable to get started with.
Pros
+ Allows for better flexibility around social and work schedules
+ Is similar to most people’s daily eating habits already
+ Sustainable and easy to get started with
Cons
– Full health benefits are only seen with a very healthy diet
– Our metabolism trackers show that some days we need less or more time fasting
Here’s an example of a popular eating window according to a 16/8 intermittent fasting eating schedule:
Below is one week of daily meal plans to follow while 16/8 intermittent fasting. The Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan PDF is also available to download if you prefer to print the meal plan.
What’s great about the 16/8 intermittent fasting schedule is that you’re likely nearly there today. If you’re getting in 8-hours of sleep a night, and not eating before bed, you’re nearly there.
For us, we opt to eat later in the day, having breakfast around 11 AM. This seems like the most popular route, but do what makes the most sense for you and your body.
The big fault we find with this 16/8 intermittent fasting schedule is that it only works best if you already have a good diet.
Most people intermittent fast to lose weight, reset insulin levels, and start burning fat. Therefore, a poor diet never gives you a chance to reset or get near to ketosis.
Ketosis is the state when your body has run out of carbohydrates to burn for energy and therefore moves on to fat. This is the basis of the popular keto diet, which, we do not recommend, as explained in our article on why fad diets are problematic.
Alternate-Day Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan
Alternate-day intermittent fasting is when you eat one day, but not the next. Repeat.
Pros
+ Most similar to how our ancestors naturally ate
+ More fasting time for your body and hormones to rebalance
+ Cheaper grocery bill (don’t pretend you didn’t think of this, too!)
+ Not as necessary to optimize your healthy diet
Cons
– Less flexible schedule around work and social events
– Not as necessary to optimize your healthy diet
This style of feasting and fasting is the most studied, as it mimics how our ancestors likely ate.
The research is incredibly compelling, showing that putting our bodies under stress in a natural feast-or-famine state builds resiliency, better ensures that our blood sugar levels reset, and alleviates our bodies of oxidative stress.
For most, alternate-day fasting is a challenge because of work and social schedules and norms. However, for the ones who can be more flexible the health benefits are immense.
Here is an hourly schedule of how alternate-day fasting is typically done:
Below is one week of daily meal plans to follow for alternate-day fasting. The Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan PDF is also available to download if you prefer to print the meal plan.
Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan (Printable PDF)
Download and instantly access the intermittent fasting meal plans, including a printable meal planner to create daily menus.
Plus, we're just an email away for support.
Closing THoughts On Intermittent Fasting and Meal planning
No matter the style of intermittent fasting you choose, always be thoughtful about how to break your fast.
When breaking your intermittent fast, ease into it. The best practice is to avoid high-sugar, high-carb foods that undo all of the hard work you’ve just done.
Instead, focus on nutritious foods like vegetables and foods high in healthy fats like avocados.
About half an hour before your meal, start with our favorite digestive infusion to perk up your digestive system.
Digestive Enzyme Distraction Drink:
- One cup of hot water
- One half a lemon squeezed (excites digestive enzymes)
- Two caps full of apple cider vinegar (balances pH levels in the gut for healthy bacteria growth)
- A pinch of cinnamon (to stabilize blood sugar levels)
For a step-by-step plan, check out our article titled, ‘How to Break a Fast Properly & The Best Foods to Eat.’
Long Term Success with IF and Food
We’ve shared the most effective meals to kickstart your weight loss and maximize your intermittent fasting results. Keep a good journal and know that what may have worked for you in the past won’t necessarily work for you again in the future.
That’s why we recommend taking the guesswork out of everything and using a device that will tell you when you’re burning fat and when you’re burning carbs in real-time. For years, the only way to get this metabolic data was in a lab. This was far too expensive and inconvenient for anyone who wasn’t a professional athlete.
But now, you can get this information immediately and at home with a tracking device called Lumen.
It works like a breathalyzer and measures the carbon dioxide in your breath. Not only will it tell you that you’re burning 25% fat and 75% carbs at that exact moment, it will make recommendations on what to eat today to optimize your metabolic flexibility.
We’ve used them since May 2023, and it’s mind-blowing. We discovered that our bodies use fuel completely differently, despite eating all of the same meals. I discovered that my fasting window is much shorter than Ryan’s — something the device helps you figure out.
So if you’re ready to zero in on your weight loss, then your metabolism is the most important metric to track. Why?
Focusing on metabolic flexibility is the best way to lose weight consistently because it is influenced by four pillars—movement, food, sleep, and stress. As you optimize these, weight loss comes more easily.
The Lumen is going to be your new best friend. There’s no better investment for your health that we’ve found, plus, here’s our $50 $100 off code RYANANDALEX for more savings.
Lastly, please feel free to download our Proven Fasting Bundle (below) to help you plan, track, and succeed with both intermittent and prolonged fasting.
Leave any specific questions about meal planning in the comments below. We prefer that to email because the discussion helps all future readers. Thanks!
For more resources and guides about fasting, such as how to succeed with both intermittent fasting and sleep, head over to our Fasting Page.
The Proven Fasting Bundle (Printable PDF Guide)
Read by 143,364 fasters in 2022 alone, the Fasting Bundle is the structure and tools you need to succeed.
- Intermittent and alternate-day fasting meal plans
- Checklist for before, during, and after a prolonged fast
- Benefits, challenges, and a beginners how-to guide
Plus, we're just an email away for support.
30-Day Weight Loss Challenge
As engineers with a combined twelve years of health coaching experience, we needed to create a data-driven way for our clients to sustain weight loss.
Too many weight loss challenges involve a long list of what you can, cannot, and need to do every day. We’ve reduced the overwhelm and only require you to track five numbers a day — calories, steps, fiber, sleep, and waistline.
You’ll track five numbers daily to give you the highest return for sustainable weight loss. As a bonus, we’ll share our Weight Loss Bundle, which includes strategies, progress tracking tools, and additional weight loss plans.
Hey we're Ryan and Alex
A husband-wife duo, two engineers, and the creators of Ryan and Alex Duo Life.
After eight years working in the corporate world as engineers, we left to tackle our true passion:
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How do I get the PDF for meal plans for 16/8 fasting plans. I do not see the pdf?
Hey Ingrid, the form for the PDF is at the bottom of the post. Enter your name and email and it will be in your inbox shortly. I’ll also send you and email with the PDF right now. Thanks for reading and let us know if you have other IF questions!
Thanks for PDF
You’re welcome!
Thank you for this meal plan.
Glad you find it helpful and best of luck, Alex!
Gracias por compartir tan valiosa información
Con gusto!
Please share 16/8 diet in pdf
Hey! In the PDF, there’s a blank meal plan that you can print to write your own intermittent fasting weekly meal plan. Is there a chance you only saw this empty page? Please scroll through the entire PDF, because we do share a 16/8 diet meal plan for a week. Each day includes food ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and two snacks.
I hope this helps and please let me know if you have other questions. For more information on the 16/8 intermittent fasting diet check out the articles on our Fasting Page.
Great read thank you for educating regarding options
Thanks, Melissa! Hope it helps 🙂
Hey! I would love to download the 16:8 pdf but don’t see it. Can you please send it to me via email?
Hey Ashley!
Ooo thanks for the feedback! The email form is pretty far down, so noted! I’ve added in your name so you should be seeing that email soon. Enjoy and good luck!
Beginning my first 3-day water fast early this morning, thank you for all of the helpful information to follow while fasting and the tips you shared on properly breaking the 3-day fast.
Hey Jordan,
Thanks so much, we appreciate the comment! So… how did it go?! We hope some of the information in here was helpful – it was just our experience and we’re always eager to hear more.
May I get a copy of your PDF Intermittent Fasting 12-8 Daily Meal Planner. Starting in 2 days and excited. Thank you.
Hi Katrina!
Were you able to download the 12-8 Daily Meal Planner already? In this article you’ll find the form to sign up and you’ll get the PDF immediately sent to you. If you don’t see it, check in SPAM. Thanks and good luck!
Hey! I would love to download the 16:8 pdf but don’t see it. Can you please send it to me via email?
Hi Isaac!
Thanks for the feedback, we’ll try to make the sign up form more obvious. You’ll see it on the Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan page in a sign-up form under $0 – Intermittent Fasting Meal Plan. Good luck and thanks for the comment!
How often do you guys do cardio?
Hey Jeremy, we typically do cardio 4-6 days a week. I ran a marathon three weeks ago so my cardio load has been significant for the last four months. Does that help? Let us know if you have more questions.
I downloaded and printed the IF plan but are their recipes for the intermittent fasting 16/8 plan to go with the suggested plan? Like smoothie/w yogurt, banana, spinach, ginger. How much do I put of each in the smoothie?
Hey Aime! You’re right, they are not exact recipes. This is difficult because everyone has different portion sizes. Generally, you can either keep to the same amount of food you would eat prior to IF. Or, you can calculate your Daily Caloric Intake (DCI) — an Apple watch or FitBit does this for you — or you can use a calculator like this and then log your food in a free app like MyFitnessPal to make sure you’re hitting your calorie targets. This will take some trial and error over the first few days to get it right, but once you’re familiar with the portion sizes it’s easy to eyeball it from there. One of the downsides of IF is that people frequently eat too little, so that’s the main thing we’re trying to avoid.
I hope this helps! But yes, to answer your question more directly, per person our smoothies generally have 1 banana, 1/2 cup of frozen spinach, 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, and 1/2″ nub of ginger with water or almond milk. Also 6 or so ice cubes.
Excited to give it a go! Thanks for making the pdf available.
Thanks Jerry! Let us know how we can help, and good luck!
Please send the pdf
Hi Jenny!
The PDF is available through the form on this site — unfortunately, we’re not legally supposed to send it out without the form sign up. Good luck with IF and let us know how we can help!
Please send me the PDF.
Hi Liza!
Were you able to find the PDF? You can put your email address in the form above to receive it. Unfortunately, we’re not legally able to send it to you directly!
Can the intermitent fast reset my metabolism
Hi Kagiso!
Intermittent fasting has been shown to benefit and potentially increase metabolism by as much as 12%. Through fasting, you can stabilize your metabolism without wreaking havoc on it. Again, make sure to consume a sufficient amount of calories throughout the day. Intermittent fasting isn’t about calorie restriction! Thanks!
Hi – I have started the 16/8 fasting. Eat at 12 and last meal before 8. I have no idea how many meals to eat ? I eat super clean however only have 3 meals due to not being hungry in between. I include no more than 15g of carbs / 20g protein and fat in the first 2 meals and evening meal is veg / protein and a fat.
I am worried I am not eating enough calories compared to your eating plan
Could you advise me here ?
Hey Liza, thanks for reaching out. Three meals in an 8 hour window is good. It will take time to transition. At first, eating all of your daily calories in much less time will make you feel stuffed. So don’t worry if you are not eating enough calories right now. Take some time for your body to get used to IF and then you can adjust. Are you eating the same amount of calories you were before starting IF?
Hey guys I have just stated looking into IF and thank you so much for all your help and information.
I have downloaded the 16/8 if pdf, thank you for that.
A question if I May you mention that tea and coffee etc, can be consumed during fasting, but why only without milk ?, I get the sugar side of it.
Thank u Regards,
Kevin.
Hi Kevin!
We avoid the milk simply to keep it zero calorie, just in case even a splash kicks you out of the fast. Actually, you even have to be careful with some teas which do have calories, such as yerba mate! This is something we recommend for longer fasts, such as our 3 day fast. For shorter fasts, you can add milk but I would label that as the end of your fast.
Have you been fasting? How has it been going so far?
What about diabetes and IF? Isn’t it dangerous not to eat near bed time for blood sugar levels?
Great question. It’s critical to manage your blood sugar levels as it could be dangerous to not eat near bed time. Please talk to your physician or doctor about intermittent fasting. If they give you the okay, you’ll have to monitor your blood sugar and see how your body responds. Also, it’s good to talk to your doctor about any medications you’re taking (dosage and when to take them).
I am a triathlete and have morning workouts.. I prefer the 14/10 window is more sustainable for me. but I would like to try the 16/8.
Have a problem with what to eat after my morning run.. I do not do intense workouts in the morning. Another issue most of my intense bike or run after work between 6-8, this is why I use the 14/10
Hey! It sounds like the 14/10 window fits your lifestyle well. Of course give 16/8 a try but make sure you’re still getting enough calories to fuel your workouts. After your morning run, greek yogurt (plain 2% FAGE is good) with granola or an egg and veggie scramble is good. If you’re not already having a recovery smoothie, this is a great way to get more protein, micronutrients, and raw veggies like kale or spinach. The best time is after a morning workout. We have some favorites if you need a recommendation. Let us know how it goes and what other questions you have!
IF pdf please
Hi Kay!
You should see the meal plan in the form on the site, you’ll just need to enter in your email which I’m not legally allowed to do for you. Thanks and I hope that your IF journey goes well!
Hello how do I get the PDF? Can you send it to my email please.
Hi Jess! Legally I’m not supposed to send this directly to you, but a form should pop up on this page to enter in your info. Thanks for understanding!
I was wondering what the daily calorie intake is on the 16/8 intermittent fasting food plan?
Hi Kali! Really great question, and one that no one has asked yet!
The 16/8 intermittent fasting meal plan we share is more of a guide and we don’t share specific calories or portion sizes. We recommend calculating your daily calorie target, either by taking a deep dive like how we walk you through in our article 30-Day Weight Loss Challenge, or more generally using a calculator like this one here.
Then, the idea is to follow the meal plan but to meet your daily calorie goals within the 8 hours. Some ways to easily modify the meal plan to hit your daily targets is to log calories in a free app like MyFitnessPal and either go lighter or heavier on the higher-calorie foods like oil, peanut butter, avocado, cheese, and Greek yogurt. (We actually have a convenient list of common high calorie foods here if that helps to reference.)
Hope this makes sense and helps! It will take some calculating on your end to determine your daily target calories, but once you have that number, it will all fall into place!
I go to the gym at 7 am and spend about 1.5 to 2 hours. I do strength training on MWF. Yoga on Tues, Thurs. Cardio 5 days a week, about 30 minutes on elliptical machine, usually after strength training and yoga. If I were to do 16/8 IF, I’m a bit worry about working out during fasting period. Will it be too much for my body to handle? I can try toeat between 10 am and 6 pm
Hey! You sure have a great routine. Talk about motivation! It’s going to be an adjustment for sure, but yes, your body should be able to handle it if you transition gradually. Check out our article on Intermittent Fasting and Morning Workouts and let us know if you have other questions.