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If you suffer from, or might be suffering from, hypoglycaemia as a medical condition consult your doctor before beginning the diet.

The feeling of low blood sugar when you haven’t eaten for a few hours is a common problem and one which I have suffered from in the past. It may put someone off fasting, because they feel that they need to eat every couple of hours to keep their blood sugar stable. The basic problem is that if you don’t eat every three or four hours then you can become hypoglycaemic and therefore irritable, moody, light-headed and shaky.

This is an interesting phenomenon as only a small proportion of the population actually have a malfunction in their ability to regulate blood sugar levels. The rest of us, who do not have an underlying medical condition, do not have to worry about getting ‘low blood sugar’ while fasting. This is because the body is amazingly effective at regulating the sugar flowing around the blood.

A study in which young adults who have symptoms of hypoglycaemia went on a monitored 24-hour fast found that, while they reported ‘feeling hypoglycaemic, their blood sugar levels remained normal. What to do if you are worried about having a ‘blood sugar crash’ during a fast period? This is a very real problem that I myself suffered from when I started the diet. I now know that my blood sugar levels are fine; I am in fact just exceptionally hungry. Here are my tips that helped me get through it, which I hope will help you too.

• Eat regularly during your fast day – this means three small meals.

• If you feel a wave of light-headedness coming over you, know that it will in all likelihood pass and you will feel normal again in 15 minutes.

• Finally, if it affects your ability to function normally or gives you a headache then you should eat something – nothing that big, ideally 100 calories or so of something filling, a slice of toast or a small banana, for example. Allow yourself those extra calories for that day, but carry on with the fast day if possible.

Don’t let it put you off your next fast day, which will probably be easier. On your next fast day, see if you can last longer without feeling poorly.