Two Different Things
Catholics often use “fasting” and “abstinence” interchangeably. They are not the same. The Church distinguishes between them clearly, and knowing the difference matters — especially during Lent, when both apply.
Fasting is about how much you eat. On a fast day, you eat one full meal and two smaller meals that together do not equal a full meal. No snacking between meals. Liquids — including milk and juice — are permitted at any time.
Abstinence is about what you eat. On a day of abstinence, you do not eat meat. Fish is permitted. Eggs, dairy, and all other foods are permitted. The restriction is meat only — which in Church law means the flesh of warm-blooded animals: beef, pork, chicken, lamb, and so on.
A day can be one or the other, or both. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of both fasting and abstinence. Fridays during Lent are days of abstinence only. The rules are simpler than people think.
When Do the Rules Apply?
Abstinence from meat is required on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all Fridays during Lent. In Australia, the bishops have also asked Catholics to practise some form of penance on all Fridays throughout the year — abstaining from meat is the traditional way, though other penances are permitted outside Lent.
Fasting is required on only two days of the year: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
That is it. Two fast days. About eight days of abstinence during Lent. The requirements are genuinely modest.
Who Is Bound?
Fasting binds all Catholics from age 18 to 59. If you are 17 or younger, or 60 or older, you are not obliged to fast — though you may choose to.
Abstinence binds all Catholics from age 14 onwards. There is no upper age limit.
Exceptions. Those who are pregnant, nursing, ill, or engaged in heavy physical labour are excused from fasting. Common sense applies. The Church does not ask you to harm your health. If you are genuinely unsure whether your circumstances exempt you, ask your parish priest.
What Counts as a Full Meal?
The Church does not specify portions in grams or calories. A “full meal” is whatever you would normally eat for your main meal. The two smaller meals should be modest — enough to maintain your strength but not enough to constitute another full meal. Together, the two smaller meals should not equal the full meal in quantity.
Some practical guidance: if your full meal is dinner, your two smaller meals might be a light breakfast and a small lunch. A piece of toast and a bowl of soup. A sandwich and a piece of fruit. You are not meant to go hungry to the point of illness. You are meant to feel the absence — to notice, throughout the day, that you are eating less than usual, and to let that small discomfort turn your mind toward God.
Why the Church Asks This
Fasting and abstinence are not arbitrary rules. They serve a purpose — several purposes, in fact.
They express repentance. The body participates in what the soul intends. When you fast, your body says what your heart means: I am sorry. I want to change. I am willing to sacrifice comfort for the sake of something greater.
They build self-discipline. The person who can say no to food when they are hungry is better equipped to say no to temptation in every other area of life. Fasting trains the will. It is spiritual exercise.
They unite you to Christ. Jesus fasted for forty days in the desert before beginning His public ministry. When you fast during Lent, you are walking with Him — sharing, in a small way, in His sacrifice.
They open you to others. The money you do not spend on meat, the meal you do not eat — these can be given to someone who has less. The prophet Isaiah makes this connection explicit: the fast God chooses is not mere hunger but justice — loosing the bonds of wickedness, sharing bread with the hungry, clothing the naked (Isaiah 58:6–7). Fasting without charity is incomplete.
What About Fridays Outside Lent?
This varies by country. In Australia, the bishops’ conference has asked Catholics to observe every Friday as a day of penance throughout the year. Abstaining from meat is the simplest way to do this, but other forms of penance — extra prayer, an act of charity, giving up a pleasure — are also acceptable.
The underlying principle is older than any particular rule: Friday is the day Christ died, and Catholics have marked it with some form of self-denial since the earliest centuries of the Church. The specific discipline has changed over time. The instinct behind it has not.
A Lost Practice Worth Recovering
For most of Catholic history, the fasting and abstinence requirements were far more demanding than they are today. Until 1966, every Friday of the year required abstinence from meat, and Lenten fasting was stricter. The relaxation was well-intentioned — the Church wanted to emphasise interior conversion over external rules — but something was lost in the process.
Many Catholics today find that voluntarily taking on the older disciplines, or going beyond the minimum, deepens their spiritual life in ways they did not expect. Giving up meat every Friday. Fasting one day a week. Reducing meals during Advent as well as Lent. These are not obligations, but they are invitations — and generations of Catholics found them transformative.
The minimum the Church asks is genuinely modest: two days of fasting and a handful of days without meat. It is a small thing. But small things, done faithfully, have a way of opening doors you did not know were there.