How Do I Start Fasting If I Never Have?
Quick answer: Start with one meal. Choose a day, skip lunch or breakfast, and use that time to pray instead. Keep it between you and God, drink water, and end it when the meal would have ended. One meal, done honestly, is a real fast. Most people never need to begin anywhere else.
Key takeaways
- Your first fast is one meal, not one day.
- Replace the meal with prayer, or it is only a skipped lunch.
- Drink water. Keep it quiet. Nobody needs to know.
- If you are pregnant or nursing, diabetic, on medication, or have a history of disordered eating, talk to your doctor before fasting.
Start with one meal, not forty days
Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness before his ministry began (Matthew 4:1-2). That is not the entry point. Skipping one meal is. It is long enough to be real and short enough that you will actually do it this week instead of planning it for next month.
A first fast you can keep
- Pick the meal and the day. Lunch on a weekday is easiest. Tuesday, this week.
- Decide what you are asking. One specific thing. Write it down before you start, so you know what you came for.
- Pray when the meal would have been. Ten or fifteen minutes, or the length of the meal. Put your phone away.
- End it. Eat, and thank God for the food.
That is the whole thing. Do it again the next week.
When you sit down in that hour, you may find the words hard to find. How to pray when you don't know what to say gives you a simple way in.
What do I do with the hunger?
Expect it, and expect it to pass. Drink water. Keep the day normal otherwise. Go easy on caffeine if you normally drink several cups, and do not plan a hard workout or an important deadline in the first meal you skip.
Hunger is not the point, but hunger is useful. When it shows up, it reminds you what you are doing and who you are doing it for.
What kinds of fasts are in the Bible?
- Food, but not water. This is the fast most people mean, and Jesus did it in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-2).
- Partial fasts. Daniel asked to be given vegetables and water instead of the king's food (Daniel 1:8-16). During a season of mourning he ate no pleasant bread, no meat and no wine for three weeks (Daniel 10:2-3).
- Group fasts. Esther asked God's people to fast with her for three days before she went to the king (Esther 4:16).
- Giving up another comfort. Many people extend the practice to food-adjacent habits such as streaming, social media or coffee. Useful, but keep the main thing the main thing: this is time turned toward God.
Mistakes to avoid
- Telling people. Jesus pointed the other way: clean up, look normal, keep it between you and your Father (Matthew 6:16-18).
- Turning it into a diet. Weight loss is a side effect, not a fast.
- Fasting to get leverage. You cannot push God into a decision.
- Quitting forever because you broke one. Broke it at 2pm? Start again tomorrow. Grace is not on the line.
If that last one raises a bigger question about your standing with God, Can a Christian lose their salvation? is worth reading next.
Common questions
Do I skip water too? No. Drink water. Extended water-free fasting is dangerous and not something to attempt on your own.
Can I fast if I have a health condition? Ask your doctor first, and do not feel you have to prove anything. Grace does not depend on it.
How often should I fast? Once a week or once a month is a serious, sustainable start. Consistency will do more for you than intensity.
What if nothing happens? Then you still kept a set time with God, and that is not nothing.
One next step
Foundations, Lesson 4, Prayer and Fasting, walks through what fasting is for, what it is not, and how to begin, in plain words. Twelve short lessons, always free.
Want this as a printable card? Every card lives here.
Get Foundations free. Free. Always. Start here