Intermittent fasting Breaking your fast.

Not sure what you mean.. I break my intermittent fast by eating something.
Its only a few hours after all.. just like extending sleep time.
A longer than 24 hour fast I'd suggest starting with something smaller and lighter after once breaking a 7 day fast with a full sunday lunch (keto at the time of course) which left me feeling a bit (a lot) bloated.

I have to start with a small amount of protein, otherwise, it's easy to spike my BS's.

Just about to break mine with (Courgetti) bolognaise, this will be my main meal today, with eggs in some form or soup at tea time

I have done everything between 16:8 up to 48 hours, and to date I have not done anything special and have suffered no ill effects. I am breaking a 54 hour fast later on today, and am not sure if I will do anything different. Probably not. How long are you talking about @Andy_Warlow ?

I just pick up where I left off by eating the next scheduled meal.
If I was fasting for several days , I would return to eating by choosing something light and easily digestible,

Now that I have been put into retirement, I now use intermittent fasting a lot more, in fact every day. It's easier than sticking to the breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper rigmarole! (And cheaper!)
The way I use fasting is to actually please myself when I eat and don't keep to any set timing, I have not eaten breakfast since lockdown, lunch can be anytime before evening, and dinner may be supper at around 7pm, due to the idea, I don't want to be in hypo levels before I retire.
I eat when I want. I usually have salad every day. Eggs and of course meat as my protein, which is freshly cooked.
We do not need to eat as much as we do, all those meals every day is why some people have trouble with obesity. Because most of the staple food we eat is high GI carbs.
To break a fast, I use just a couple of bites of cooked ham, with a bit of lettuce, or a bowl of low carb soup, then my main meal is sometimes just meat, a low carb curry, gammon and eggs, I love omelette or a fry up!

Stay safe

Andy_Warlow said:

I am doing a 20 hour fast at the moment.

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Honestly unless your GI system is of the sensitive variety, I don't think 20 hours is long enough to worry about eating any special way to break it, Obviously staying low-carb will continue the benefits of fasting somewhat. Good luck.

Edit: Oh, and 20:4 is more or less my normal routine, so I break a lot of 20 hour fasts. I don't do it any particular way, but I think cheddar or feta cheese seems to be the first thing I usually put in my mouth. It's always on hand, quick to have ready, perfectly keto, and has that salty-goodness I crave.

ianf0ster said:

I break it by eating lunch.

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I regularly don't eat any breakfast, so apart from (generally) having a mug of coffee with a little cream first thing, I'll break my fast too by eating lunch, which is whatever I fancy or have previously planned to eat.

But I've never actually considered skipping breakfast as "official" fasting as it's something I've regularly done since my early teens and was originally nothing to do with diabetes, simply not wanting/needing to eat. I think it started as a nervous issue about going to school, as being an army child I was always going to new schools, which took a lot of getting used to. It's only in recent years on the forum that I've come across all the different type/styles of more formal fasting.

FWIW, I ended a 54 hour fast yesterday by eating whatever... probably too much (keto) food. It did not go so well. From now on fasts longer than 40 hours, I will break more carefully.

The longest I’ve have fasted is 36 hours. Those days I have a mug of bone broth with a cracked egg in it.
some days that’s all o have if I’m not feeling too hungry. It’s gentle on the stomach and helps get enough salt.