Break your fast the right way
What you eat first matters more than most of the fast. The longer you have fasted, the gentler and slower you should go. Tell us how long, and we will give you a first meal that will not wreck the next few hours — or, past a point, tell you honestly to get medical help first.
How long did you fast?
Protein first, and do not go feral.
For a normal daily fast, the first meal decides whether the next few hours are controlled or a landslide. Break with protein and vegetables, then add your carbohydrate.
- 1 Start with a palm or two of protein: eggs, fish, chicken, Greek yoghurt, tofu or a protein shake.
- 2 Add vegetables or salad for fibre and volume.
- 3 Eat your starchy carbohydrate (rice, potato, bread) last, once the edge is off.
- 4 Eat slowly, and stop when you feel comfortably full.
Avoid
Breaking a fast with sugar, pastries or a big bowl of pasta on an empty stomach spikes and crashes your blood sugar and tends to trigger overeating.
Ease in with something gentle first.
After a full day or more without food, your gut has quietened down. Go in smaller and gentler than usual, then eat a normal balanced meal an hour or two later.
- 1 Start small: a little bone broth, a piece of fruit, or a handful of nuts to wake the gut gently.
- 2 Wait 30 to 60 minutes.
- 3 Then have a normal balanced meal, protein and vegetables first.
- 4 Keep the first meal modest. Hunger after a long fast overshoots what you actually need.
Avoid
A huge rich meal straight after 36 hours often causes bloating, cramps and nausea. Size down.
Safety
Talk to a doctor before any fast longer than 24 hours, especially if you take medicine or have a health condition.
Refeed slowly. This is where refeeding syndrome matters.
After two or three days without food, break the fast slowly and in small steps. Refeeding syndrome is a dangerous shift in electrolytes when the body gets food too fast after a long time without it. Clinical guidance treats eating little or nothing for more than 5 days as a risk, and more than 10 days as a high risk, but people who are underweight or have other risk factors need care sooner. You should already have talked to a doctor before a fast this long.
- 1 Break with a small, low-carbohydrate start: broth with a little salt, or a few bites of protein and vegetables.
- 2 Keep the first few meals small and spaced out over several hours.
- 3 Make sure you are getting electrolytes, especially potassium, magnesium and phosphate from food.
- 4 Return to normal-sized meals gradually over a day, not in one sitting.
Avoid
A large feast straight away. Our suggestion is to build back up to normal meals over a day or so.
Safety
Refeeding syndrome can be serious. If you have any risk factors (very low body weight, alcohol use, an eating disorder history, certain medications), speak to a doctor before fasting or refeeding at this length.
This needs medical supervision. Please do not do it alone.
Fasts beyond three days carry real risks, and both the fast and the refeed should be supervised by a medical professional. We will not give a self-serve refeed plan for this length, because doing it wrong can be dangerous.
Safety
Do not attempt an extended fast of this length, or refeed from one, without medical supervision. If you are considering it for a health reason, that is a conversation to have with your doctor first.
Related: what breaks a fast · the fasting calculator.
How to use the break-fast meal planner
How to break a fast depends on how long it lasted, so the planner starts there. Choose how long you fasted: up to 24 hours, 24 to 48 hours, 48 to 72 hours, or over 72 hours. The planner shows a plan for that length. Most lengths give numbered steps, a box of things to avoid and, for the longer fasts, a safety note.
For over 72 hours, the planner gives no steps at all. Breaking a fast that long needs a doctor, so it says that instead.
How to break a fast of up to 24 hours
Daily schedules such as 16:8 and 18:6 sit in this group. The plan is protein first, then vegetables, then starchy food such as rice, potato or bread. Putting the starch last made the after-meal rise in blood sugar 73% smaller in one small study, which tested 11 adults with type 2 diabetes. That is early evidence, from people with diabetes, so the order is a habit to try, with no promised result. Protein is also linked to feeling full.
| First meal | Protein | Energy |
|---|---|---|
| 3 large eggs (150 g) | about 19 g | about 215 kcal |
| Low-fat Greek yoghurt, 200 g | about 20 g | about 146 kcal |
| Roast chicken breast, 150 g | about 47 g | about 248 kcal |
| Firm tofu, 150 g | about 26 g | about 216 kcal |
| Boiled lentils, 1 cup (198 g) | about 18 g | about 230 kcal |
Each row is the protein food only. Add vegetables and a starchy side to make the meal.
A worked example
Take a 70 kg (154 lb) adult on 16:8. The adult minimum for protein is 0.8 g per kg a day, so that is 56 g. Three eggs at the first meal give about 19 g, a third of the day’s minimum. A 150 g chicken breast at the second meal adds about 47 g, which takes the day to about 66 g. People who exercise need more, 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg, and the TDEE calculator gives a range for your weight.
Breaking a fast of 24 to 72 hours
After 24 to 48 hours, the planner starts you small. Its first step is a little broth, one piece of fruit or some nuts. A normal meal follows after a wait of 30 to 60 minutes. That timing is our suggestion, not a clinical rule. For scale, a medium apple has about 95 kcal and a medium banana about 105.
For 48 to 72 hours, the plan changes. The first food is low in carbohydrate, such as salted broth or some protein with vegetables. Keep the first meals small and spread them over several hours. Get potassium, magnesium and phosphate from food, and build up to normal meals over a day. A fast of 2 to 3 days needs a doctor’s advice before it starts and before the first meal.
Refeeding syndrome: why longer fasts need a doctor
Refeeding syndrome happens when food returns after a long stretch without it. Levels of phosphate, potassium and magnesium in the blood fall sharply, and it can be fatal. The risk starts after over 5 days with little or no food, and past 10 days it is high. For those people, clinical care restarts food at up to half of daily energy needs for 2 days.
This site goes further. If a fast has run past 2 to 3 days, get medical advice before you eat. The full clinical risk list, including a low BMI and recent weight loss, is set out under refeeding risks in our water fasting guide.
Who needs advice first
People on insulin or a sulfonylurea need a doctor’s plan for dose timing around the fast and the first meal. Never change a diabetes medicine yourself. Pregnancy and an age under 18 each mean talking to a doctor before you try fasting. After an eating disorder, we advise against fasting and the refeed that follows it. If a first meal often turns into a binge, the fasting troubleshooter has a panel for it.
Before you count a drink or snack as part of the fast, look it up in our database of drinks, foods and medicines.
Frequently asked
What is the best thing to eat when breaking a fast?
After a daily fast of up to 24 hours, start with protein and vegetables and eat your starchy food last. Three eggs give about 19 g of protein, and 200 g of low-fat Greek yoghurt about 20 g. Protein is linked to feeling full.
Is bone broth good for breaking a fast?
It is one of the gentle first steps the planner lists after a 24- to 48-hour fast. A wait of 30 to 60 minutes then comes before a normal meal, and that wait is our suggestion. A cup of bone broth can be anything from about 15 kcal to over 100, depending on the brand, and many brands sit near 40.
How do you break a fast after 3 days?
Talk to a doctor before a fast that long, and again before you eat. The planner gives small, spaced meals for 48 to 72 hours and no home plan beyond 72. Over 5 days with little or no food is a refeeding risk.
Why do people break a fast with dates?
Dates and water are a long-standing way to end the Ramadan fast. This site makes no health claim for dates. The Ramadan planner on this site gives the iftar time for your city.
What happens if you break a fast early?
On a daily schedule, ending early only makes that fast shorter. Weight loss depends on what you eat over weeks, so one short fast changes little. End the fast at once if you feel faint, confused or unwell.