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The simple answer is yes. If your primary goal is health benefits, not weight loss, the science suggests you should eat only one meal on a fast day. Remember that how you consume calories over the fast day does not affect weight loss. Top scientists from the United States are in agreement that to get the absolute best out of intermittent fasting you need to either fast completely for 24 hours or, at most, have one small meal in the middle of the 24-hour period. The tests where they try other kinds of calorie restriction over the 24-hour period just haven’t been done yet, so it’s hard to tell for sure whether the science backs this up.

If you’re reading this and thinking, Help, there’s no way I can only eat once a day, then you’re not alone. And this is why I do not advocate skipping meals unless it’s something that appeals to you and it’s something you can see yourself sticking to in the long term.

First and foremost this is because it does not affect the rate at which you slim. If your main objective is to lose weight and gain the health benefits that come with sustained weight loss, then stick to the 500/600 calories on your fast days, but do not worry about when you eat them.

Secondly, although the health benefits may not be optimized, you are still getting some of them. You are fasting and your body is going into repair mode so don’t panic if you are not fully ‘optimized’. Is anything in your life fully optimized? I know it’s not the case for me.

Finally, and most importantly, what do you think is best: having a strict fast with only one meal but finding it so hard and de-motivating that you give up after a month or eating two or three small meals on your fast day and finding it sustainable in the long term?

I’d say the latter is by far the best option, but use your own preference. If you find it easier to skip a meal, then do so. I often, but not always, skip lunch on a fast day. But if three meals a day works for you then don’t change it. You are doing great as you are.