【It’s OK If You Slipped】5 Reasons People Quit Fasting, and 7 Steps and Mindset Tips to Restart Successfully

“I slacked off on my fast again…”

“I gave up after just three days. I’m hopeless.”

If you’ve ever given up on fasting, don’t worry.

Giving up on fasting doesn’t happen because you’re weak-willed.

It’s just that your method and your mental preparation weren’t in place.

In this article, I’ll share a psychological approach and 7 action steps for making a sure restart after you’ve slipped up on fasting.

The Real Reasons People Give Up on Fasting

Giving Up Isn’t Caused by “Weak Willpower”

For most people who fail at fasting, the cause is one of the following.

If even one of these rings a bell, that’s the cause of your setback.

In other words, once you know the cause, you can avoid repeating the same mistake when you restart.

It’s a well-known story in the field of habit formation that many people who start a new habit drop out partway through.

The Causes of Giving Up Can Be Divided Into Two: “How You Start” and “How You Prepare”

If you sort the five reasons, (1) and (2) are problems with “how you start,” while (3), (4), and (5) are problems with “how you prepare for stumbles.”

Problems with how you start can be solved by shortening your fasting window or learning how to deal with hunger.

Problems with preparation can be greatly reduced by deciding in advance on rules and a mindset for when you slip up.

Knowing which one tripped you up makes it clear what to change next.

Know When You’re Most Likely to Give Up

Setbacks with fasting don’t happen equally at any time; there are times when they’re more likely.

If you know these times in advance, you can mentally prepare: “Today’s a risky day, so I’ll be careful.”

Just as knowing the weather forecast calls for rain lets you head out with an umbrella, it’s important to forecast the days when you’re likely to give up, too.

My Own Experience of Giving Up

The first time I tried fasting, on the night of day two, a friend invited me out to an izakaya (a Japanese pub), and I just quit my fast right there.

I thought, “I failed once, so it’s over,” but later I realized that all I needed to do was decide in advance on a rule for “what to do in weeks with a drinking party.”

Physical Signs That Lead to Giving Up on Fasting, and How to Deal With Them

When Hunger Is Tough, Wait for the “Wave” to Pass

One of the most common triggers for giving up on fasting is intense hunger.

Hunger doesn’t keep getting stronger and stronger; it’s said to rise and fall again and again, like waves in the ocean.

When a wave of hunger comes, try drinking water, warm water, tea, or black coffee, and wait a little while.

If you make a habit of waiting for the wave to pass instead of eating the moment you feel “I’m hungry,” dealing with hunger will get easier.

Besides drinking something, it’s also effective to distract yourself from hunger by taking a short walk, brushing your teeth, drinking sparkling water, or focusing on the task in front of you.

If you think of hunger not as “something to endure” but as “something to ride out,” you’ll feel much more at ease.

What to Do When Headaches, Sluggishness, or Irritability Appear

Until you get used to fasting, you may feel headaches, sluggishness, or irritability in addition to hunger.

These kinds of discomfort often happen during the period when your body isn’t yet used to a new rhythm.

Don’t think of the discomfort itself as “failure”; take it as a sign to adjust your approach.

In Cases Like These, the Right Call Is “Stopping,” Not “Giving Up”

If you experience dizziness, lightheadedness, palpitations, cold sweats, or strong nausea, don’t push through it; stop fasting right away and eat something.

Stopping because you feel unwell isn’t giving up; it’s the right decision to protect your body.

Also, people with chronic conditions, people taking medication, people who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and growing children should not start fasting on their own judgment, but should consult a doctor first.

Binging After a Fast Can Also Lead to Giving Up

It’s not uncommon for people to overeat all at once after ending a fast and then feel down, thinking, “I really am hopeless.”

If you eat a lot of sweet or fatty food after a long stretch of hunger, your blood sugar shoots up and then crashes, making it easy to fall into a vicious cycle of feeling intensely hungry again.

When you break your fast, starting little by little with miso soup, vegetables, and protein makes it easier to prevent binging.

Rethinking Your Pre-Fast Meal Makes Hunger Easier

If hunger during your fast is too hard to bear, try rethinking what you eat before you start the fast.

If your dinner is all carbs like rice or noodles, your blood sugar rises and then drops quickly, making you more likely to feel intense hunger in the middle of the night or early morning.

Getting plenty of protein from meat, fish, eggs, and soy products, along with fiber from vegetables, mushrooms, and seaweed, keeps you full longer and makes the waves of hunger gentler.

The key to easier fasting lies not only in the hours you don’t eat, but also in “what you eat during your eating window”.

7 Steps to a Successful Restart

Step 1: Treat Your Setback as “Data Collection”

Stop blaming yourself for giving up, and reframe it as “an opportunity to learn what caused it”.

Simply writing down “why I couldn’t keep it up” greatly increases your chances of success next time.

Once you write it down, you should start to see your own patterns, such as “I tend to eat snacks on nights when I’m tired.”

Once you know your patterns, you can plan measures suited to those situations, making it harder to repeat the same mistake.

Step 2: Restart With Your Fasting Window “One Step” Lower

If you gave up on 16-hour fasting, restart next time at 12 to 14 hours.

“A goal set a little lower than last time” is the golden rule for a successful restart.

Lowering the bar isn’t losing; it’s a strategy for winning in the long run.

Once you’re used to 12 to 14 hours and gaining confidence, extending it by 30 minutes to an hour each week will get you back to your original goal without strain.

Step 3: Reconfirm “Why You Want to Fast”

“I want to lose weight.” “I want to improve my blood sugar.” “I want a clearer head.” Write down the reasons you started fasting and post them somewhere you’ll see them.

When your motivation drops, coming back to this “why” becomes the engine of your restart.

The more specific the reason, the more it tends to resonate, such as “I want to play energetically with my grandkids” or “I want to look great in my favorite clothes” rather than “for my health.”

Step 4: Write Down Your “Exception Rules”

Make rules on the assumption that days will come when you can’t fast, such as drinking parties, trips, or feeling unwell.

Step 5: Create a “Restart Ritual”

Turn what you do the day after a setback into a routine.

For example, “If I slip up, the next morning I’ll reset my fasting tracker app while drinking black coffee.”
The trick is to make restarting not “something special” but “part of your usual routine”.

Step 6: Let Go of “Perfectionism” and Switch to “Batting Average Thinking”

In baseball, a batter who gets 3 hits in 10 at-bats is considered “excellent.”

Fasting is the same: succeeding on 25 out of 30 days is plenty.

Drop the “all or nothing” mindset and switch to batting average thinking: “How many days did I succeed this week?”

Step 7: “Announce” Your Restart

By announcing “I’m restarting today!” on social media or to fasting buddies, the social commitment effect kicks in and your chances of sticking with it rise significantly.

Telling someone makes it many times easier to keep going than quietly trying again on your own.

Psychological Techniques to Keep From Giving Up After Your Restart

Small Wins That Build “Self-Efficacy”

The sense that “I can do this” (self-efficacy) grows as you stack up small successes.

When you restart, set your first goal as “keep it up for just today”.

Once you’ve managed one day, gradually extend it to two days, then three.

Understand How the “Failure-Fearing Brain” Works

The human brain has a “loss aversion bias” that makes losses feel about twice as big as gains.

That’s why the sense of loss from “I skipped my fast for a day” feels so big, when in reality the damage from skipping one day is minimal.

Practice separating your emotional reaction from the actual damage.

Make Your Restart Concrete With “Implementation Intentions”

Psychology research has found that deciding concretely on “when, where, and how” in advance dramatically increases the rate at which you follow through (implementation intentions).

It’s important to decide on the specific date, time, and method of your restart, such as “I’ll restart my fast at 9 p.m. tonight” or “Tomorrow’s breakfast will be black coffee only.”

Rely on “If This, Then That” Systems Rather Than Motivation

Motivation is as changeable as the weather; you don’t get the same amount every day.

That’s where it helps to decide on actions in advance in the form “If X happens, I’ll do Y.”

With rules like these, you don’t have to hesitate or agonize in the moment, so you’re less at the mercy of your motivation.

Picture yourself running not on the unstable engine of motivation, but on the stable rails of a system.

Speak “Kind Words” to Yourself Instead of Blaming Yourself

If you harshly blame yourself for failing, the feeling of “It’s hopeless anyway” only grows stronger, and restarting slips further away.

If a friend made the same mistake, wouldn’t you probably tell them, “Everyone has days like that. Just start again”?

Say those same words to yourself.

Being kind to yourself isn’t letting yourself off the hook; it’s important preparation for getting back on your feet.

Even just saying out loud on the night you slip up, “Today didn’t go well, but I’ll try again tomorrow,” makes it easier to switch gears emotionally.

There’s also a way of thinking that whether a habit sticks is decided not by “how many days you kept it up” but by how many times you can repeat giving up after three days and starting again.

How to Create an Environment and Rules That Make It Hard to Give Up on Fasting

Move Temptations “Out of Sight”

Continuing to beat temptation with willpower alone is hard for anyone.

That’s exactly why creating an environment where you don’t encounter temptation in the first place makes it much easier to keep going.

Just changing your environment a little can reduce the very number of times you have to “hold back.”

Rather than fighting temptation, finding ways not to encounter it is a much smarter approach.

Keep a Record to “Make It Visible”

When you keep a record of your fasting, you can see at a glance how well you’ve kept it up.

Simply circling dates on a calendar is enough, and watching the circles add up becomes a small reward in itself.

Even on days you couldn’t do it, if you write “rest day” instead of an “X,” you won’t be left with the impression of having failed.

If you also jot a quick note about your weight, how you feel, and how well you slept, you’ll find it easier to notice the small changes fasting brings, and your reasons to keep going should keep growing.

Get Your Family and Friends on Your Side

If you don’t tell the family you live with about your fasting, they may offer you snacks at night or your mealtimes may not line up, making it harder to keep going.

Simply telling them up front, “I’m trying not to eat after 8 p.m.,” makes it easier for the people around you to cooperate.

Having buddies who do it with you, or someone who will sometimes tell you what you don’t want to hear, makes it even easier to keep going.

Fit Your Fasting Window to Your Daily Rhythm

It’s important to decide your fasting window based on your own daily rhythm.

Choose a form that doesn’t strain you, such as skipping breakfast if your mornings are busy, or eating dinner earlier if you don’t often have evening social plans.

Rather than copying someone else’s method as-is, choosing a window that fits your own days is the surest shortcut to not giving up.

Set Up “Rewards” Other Than Food

It’s also a good idea to prepare rewards other than food, such as buying a book you like after keeping it up for a week, or going somewhere you’ve been curious about after a month.

When there’s a reward, the feeling of “let’s push a little further” comes naturally.

However, be careful: if your reward is sweets or a binge, it could undo all your hard work fasting.

Frequently Asked Questions About Giving Up on Fasting and Restarting

Turn Your Setbacks Into Strength and Become Someone Who Truly Sticks With Fasting

Giving up on fasting isn’t the end; it’s the doorway to a smarter restart.

Analyze what made you give up, lower your goal, decide on exception rules, and announce your restart.

If you put these 7 steps into practice, this time you can make fasting a real habit.

What matters isn’t never failing even once, but being able to come back as many times as it takes, even when you stumble.

The more of that experience you build up, the more fasting should gradually change from “something you push yourself to do” into “a natural habit.”

When you think, “I gave up again,” come back and read this article.

And starting tonight, give it just one more try.

If you want to review the basics of how to fast, please also read my basic guide to intermittent fasting.

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