Hi joshtfd

Although I’m many years away from being a teen my husband doesn’t have a weight issue and has some reservations and preconceived ideas about fasting so I can sympathise with your dilemma.

On fast days I have a smaller version of my normal breakfast and then nothing until evening except water and black tea (lots of both), i.e. breakfast of small orange and 25g of unsweetened rolled oats either with a sprinkle of berries in the summer or cooked into porridge in the winter. For dinner I have a much smaller version of whatever is on the menu, usually grilled or stir-fried protein with lots of veg but no potatoes or bread.

I appreciate that if you’re not doing the cooking it’s hard to control what and how much you are served but I have found after 8 months of intermittent fasting that even if more is on my plate I can’t eat as much as before, so maybe you could plead feeling full.

Do you go to work/school/college? An alternative is 16:8 which means 16 hours without food (nothing after your evening meal until lunchtime the following day), limiting eating to an 8-hour window.

Does your family all sit down together at breakfast? If not you could opt for one of the ‘liquid in the box breakfasts’ to satisfy your mother’s concerns, take it with you and then have it for lunch. There are significant health benefits with 18hr fasts, even if the weight loss is slow(er).

Most teenagers in my experience have very high metabolic rates because they are still growing and are very active. Have you calculated your TDEE(see ‘How’ at the top of the page). It might be possible to reduce/eliminate your between meal eating so your energy intake falls inside your TDEE every day, and/or by avoiding lunch as well if you’re not at home.

An interesting challenge but don’t give up.

Thanks for posting! The Fast Diet diet isn’t for teens; However if you are concerned about your weight, please speak to your GP about how to manage it. As a GP myself I can reassure you that you should be able to speak to her privately about this and anything else, though even better if you can go with your mum too so that she is able to support you. As a mum with teenagers I do think it is a good idea if at all possible for you to work with your mum on trying to eat a healthy balanced diet, rather than going behind your mother’s back. There is some misinformation about fasting and no evidence for starvation mode with intermittent fasting (Michael has written a lot about this), however for teenagers who are still growing & developing we really do not recommend regular fasting.

There are some general principles which you can take from the Fast Diet in the mean time which you might find helpful, assuming you are not underweight; Try not to snack between meals, avoid sugary drinks and smoothies, drink plenty of water, eat lots of non starchy vegetables and reasonable amounts of protein as you may still be growing, adding a small amount of healthy oil to food is fine, and do try to cut down on refined carbohydrates and processed food if you can.

I know that’s not the answer you wanted and hope you have some luck with your GP.
Clare (Michael’s wife and also a GP)