For me, the idea of 12 hour intermittent fasting does not sound appealing. However, I only recently realized dietary fasting has unintentionally been part of my lifestyle for years now.
And the health benefits of intermittent fasting are definitely worth taking note…
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Definition of Intermittent Fasting
- 5 Popular Intermittent Fasting Methods
- Quick History Lesson from Plato and Hippocrates
- 6 BIG health benefits of Intermittent Fasting
- 3 Steps to incorporate a 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting
- How to Begin and Maintain a 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting Schedule
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is an eating method that goes between fasting and eating on a consistent schedule. It is proven that intermittent fasting is beneficial in so many ways. Such as, enhanced detoxification, managing your weight and so many more.
Intermittent Fasting Plans
Here are 5 different intermittent fasting plans that can help you create the perfect intermittent fast method for your life. Fasting can make a big impact on your health, digestion and more. Keep reading for the big health benefits of intermittent fasting.
NOTE: Be sure to check with your doctor before you begin intermittent fasting. Once you get the approval, introducing the practice is simple.
#1: 16 8 Fasting
The 16 8 Fasting Method consists of eating all of your calories within an 8 hour window each day. Within this 8 hour window, it’s suggested that you squeeze in 2-3 meals.
In simple terms, you stop eating immediately following dinner and then skip breakfast the next day. For example, if you finish your last meal in the 8 hour window, then you don’t eat again until 12pm the next day. This establishes the 16 8 Fasting Method.
How to Begin 16 8 Fasting
For people that get hungry first thing in the morning, this 16 8 Fasting schedule may be a bit tough to embrace. My suggestion is to push back the morning window by 30 minutes every day or two until you’re comfortable waiting until 12pm to begin your 8 hour eating window.
You can also consider drinking water, coffee and other drinks that have no calories. This does help reduce the feelings of hunger and make it a little easier to transition.
What to Eat During the 16 8 Fasting Window
It is highly recommended that you eat healthy, whole foods. We encourage anyone that asks, to adopt a clean eating diet plan. The 8 hour window is not intended for you to slam excessive calories or poor food choices.
16 8 Fasting for Women
I’ve read numerous studies that women should not fast beyond 14-15 hours in order to best support their hormones and metabolisms. So, we don’t encourage women to take on a 16 8 Fasting method.
Our 16 8 Fasting Method Conclusion:
The 16 8 Fasting method is best suited for men that eat healthy and want to establish the health benefits from fasting 16 hours and eating their daily caloric intake in 8 hours a day.
Yes, the way I am describing this, it seems simple in theory. However, I have tried this method before and as a woman, it did negatively adjust my hormones and reduced my metabolism. Carefully consider 16 8 Fasting and work with your doctor before embracing this method.
#2: 5 2 Intermittent Fasting
The 5 2 Intermittent Fasting method adopts 2 days a week of limited calories and 5 days of eating normally. On those 2 days of limited calories, it’s encouraged that men consume 600 calories for those days and women consume 500 calories.
How to Begin 5 2 Intermittent Fasting
You will begin by eating normally for 5 of the days each week. By eating normally, we encourage you to eat a clean, healthy diet that is filled with whole foods, healthy meats and pastured eggs.
For the 2 fasting days, you will eat 1 meal consisting of 600 or 500 (men and women respectively) or 2 meals each day consisting of 300 or 250 calories each.
Again, you can also drink water, coffee and other drinks that have no calories.
What to Eat on a 5 2 Intermittent Fast
Limiting calories on those 2 days makes it tough to create sustainable meals. Be sure to follow a clean, whole foods diet during the 5 days of eating normally. Then, choose balance whole foods such as: raw fruits and vegetables to help your stomach stay full longer. Pair this with fiber, such as oatmeal and plant-based proteins like flaxseeds and hemp seeds. A big green smoothie is also helpful.
You can also consider drinking water, coffee and other drinks that have no calories. This does help reduce the feelings of hunger and make it a little easier to transition.
Embracing the 5 2 Intermittent fasting method still reaps the health benefits of intermittent fasting.
#3: Eat Stop Eat (24 hour fast one day a week)
Brad Pilon shares in his book the 24 hour fast benefits and methods of Eat Stop Eat. He teaches a 24 hour fast once per week is a lifestyle that will help most people burn through the glucose they have stored in their bodies. While subsequently transitioning to using fat as an energy source instead.
During the week, you would eat normally 6 days a week and then do a 24 hour fast 1 day a week.
24 Hour Fast Benefits
The 24 hour fast benefits of 1 day a week will also provide you all of the healthy benefits of intermittent fasting. However, eat stop eat intermittent fasting is not easy to embrace and we encourage you to be mindful and ease into a fast this long.
#4: Alternate Day Fasting
We suggest that you get comfortable with the eat stop eat method above before attempting alternate day fasting. There are several versions of alternate day fasting methods, but the 24 hour fasting method is the most common.
Again, if you’ve not intermittent fasted before, be mindful that this alternate day fasting is not for beginners and should be considered seriously.
Alternate Day Fasting Schedule
The alternate day fasting schedule consists of alternating between a full 24 hour fast and eating normally. This type of fasting is a bit extreme and should be used with cautious and under a doctor’s care.
#5: 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting (Our favorite method!)
Truthfully, the first 4 fasting plans do not sound at all that desirable to me. However, 12 hour fasting is a different story.
12 Hour Intermittent Fasting Schedule
The 12 hour intermittent fasting schedule feels the easiest, least painful and most natural method of fasting. If your last meal ends at 8pm, your next meal does not begin until 8am. If you eat a late evening snack at 10pm, then you don’t eat your next meal until 10am.
This method of 12 hour intermittent fasting is flexible, much better for women’s hormones and metabolism balances. Plus, you get all of the health benefits of intermittent fasting.
Easier Intermittent Fasting Plan
In my opinion, 12 hour fasting is the easiest and least painful way to go about fasting. If you are following an otherwise nutrient dense clean eating diet, it should actually be easy to do.
Truly, if you’re interested in embracing intermittent fasting, this 12 hour intermittent fasting plan is the most pleasant way to go.
As mentioned, I have been doing it more or less by accident for years.
Download our FREE Beginner’s Guide here.
What are the Health Benefits of 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting?
For much of human history, sporadic access to food was likely the norm, especially for hunter-gatherers. Fasting to improve health dates back thousands of years, with Hippocrates and Plato among its earliest proponents.
Although the idea of eating five or six small meals throughout the day has been popular among dieters, if you think about it, it is highly unlikely that people who lived 1000 years ago were eating three meals a day plus snacks.
Science is now starting to agree that keeping your stomach filled to the brim with food all day long might not be the healthiest thing to do after all.
More recently, fasting diets are starting to gain popularity among mainstream doctors and scientists.
Modern Physicians are Incorporating Fasting Protocols Into their Diet Recommendations
Two doctors I highly respect, Terry Wahls, M.D. and David Perlmutter, M.D., both recommend fasting in their most recent books, The Wahls Protocol and Brain Maker (see photo above.)
But Intermittent Fasting Is Nothing New!
“There is nothing new, except what has been forgotten.” – Marie Antoinette
“The best of all medicines is resting and fasting.” – Benjamin Franklin
“Everyone has a physician inside him or her; we just have to help it in its work. The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well. Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food. But to eat when you are sick is to feed your sickness.” – Hippocrates
BIG Health Benefits of 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting
There is good research to support a number of different health benefits of 12 hour intermittent fasting. You don’t need to avoid food for days on end to reap the benefits either! Here are some of the benefits of 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting.
#1: Improved Brain Health from 12 Hour Fasting
12 Hour Intermittent Fasting has been shown to support mitochondrial health and anything that supports mitochondrial health also improves brain health.
According to research published in Dr. Wahls book, there is even some evidence that intermittent fasting may reverse progressive brain disorders.
#2: Enhanced Detoxification.
Your body is constantly trying to detoxify itself 24 hours a day. The body uses a great deal of energy to detoxify, but it also uses a great deal of energy to digest food. When your body is not busy digesting food, it can focus its energy on eliminating toxins and healing.
Giving your body time to focus solely on cellular repair through the process of 12 hour intermittent fasting can be incredibly beneficial for optimizing detoxification.
#3: Reduced Inflammation by Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting can help reduce your body’s overall inflammation. This is done through enhanced detoxification.
12 Hour Intermittent Fasting “turns on” the NRF2 gene pathway, which not only produces a dramatic increase in antioxidant protection and enhanced detoxification, but also decreases inflammation.
#4: Weight Loss / Weight Management from Fasting
In general it takes between 6 to 8 hours for the body to burn through its glycogen supply. When glycogen is depleted the body will then turn to the energy stored in fat cells.
Eating throughout the day makes it much harder for the body to burn fat. Extending the time between eating with 12 hour intermittent fasting will force your body to tap into stored fat reserves.
(Since writing this post, I’ve learned so more benefits of Intermittent Fasting that I wanted to pass onto you.)
#5: Improved Workouts Thanks to Intermittent Fasting
According to PubMed, training with limited carbohydrate availability can stimulate adaptations in muscle cells to facilitate energy production via fat oxidation.
Which means, when you workout during the fasting window of your 12 hour intermittent fasting, your body gets better at burning fat for energy since there are no foods to pull from.
#6: Intermittent Fasting Can Help You Live Longer
Scientists have known for a long time that restricting calories can lengthen life. Intermittent fasting activates many of the same mechanisms for extending life as calorie restriction does.
Even Plato in 420 BC and Hippocrates in 460 BC were writing about fasting.
Download our FREE Beginner’s Guide here.
3 Quick Steps to Incorporate 12 Hour Fasting Into Your Day
If you want to try incorporating a 12 hour intermittent fast into your day, you’ll need to follow these important considerations:
Step #1: Leave at least 12 hours between your evening meal and your morning meal. This is called “12 hour fasting”.
In other words, if you typically eat dinner at 7 pm then you will want to wait until at least 7 am before having anything else to eat. This will leave a break of a 12 hour fast in between your eating schedule.
Step #2: Eat a nutrient-dense diet and have stable blood sugar
I should point out though that if you are new to clean eating, you may find it very difficult to go for long periods of time between meals.
Before I changed my diet, I distinctly remember how I not only always needed an after dinner snack, but I would wake up in the morning ravenous.
Step #3: Make sure that you can go long stretches without eating and still be comfortable.
And speaking of feeling comfortable, I am not at all hungry during the dinner-breakfast “fasting” window either. I don’t think it’s a good idea to ever eat when you are not hungry, but I also think it is a bad idea to let yourself be miserable and hungry for hours on end too.
Having said that, I do think if you are eating a nutrient dense diet and a solid and healthy dinner, you should find it rather easy to do a 12 hour fast. You could potentially be doing your body a big favor too!
How to Begin and Maintain 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting
Here are three ways to begin and maintain a healthy intermittent fasting routine. However, I have also shared the one main reason why 12 hour fasting may not work for you.
#1: Start Slow! Take Your Time to get to a Full 12 Hour Fast
There is no reason you need to start out fasting for the full 12 hours. This is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It takes time for your body to adjust to not eating especially if you typically have an evening snack or grab breakfast right when you wake.
For me, I typically take my evening supplements around 9pm. Then, I wake up slow and take my time getting ready in the morning.
#2: Your Body Will Adapt – Give Your Body Time to Acclimate
When are you first starting out, you may experience some hunger pains. This is because you taught your body that you are going to feed it first thing in the morning. If you extend intermittent fasting by 20-30 minutes a day, within a few weeks you can extend your fasting period from 8-9 hours to the 12 hour fasting window.
Same things happens in the evening. Perhaps you have taught your body that when you sit down to relax after dinner, you like to have something sweet to eat. By reducing this back by 20-30 minutes a day, you can optimize your 12 hour intermittent fasting window.
#3: 12 Hours of Feeding + 12 Hours of Fasting
You have to decide when to start fasting, add 12 hours and then starting feasting. I tend to go with the 9pm – 9am fasting period and sometimes, will extend my morning by 1-2 more hours a few times a week.
This helps to keep my body guessing when I am going to feed it, which helps my focus and prolonging the detoxification process.
BUT… 12 Hour Fasting May Not Work
If you are anything like I was with hormone issues, gut imbalances, sleep issue, a liver needing detoxed or any vitamin deficiencies, 12-hour Intermittent Fasting may not work for you.
I always suggest to anyone interested in implementing a 12-hour Intermittent Fasting schedule, to get their bloodwork and labs. This helps to ensure your body is in optimal shape to change your diet.
Consider the following labs: hormones (thyroid, cortisol, estrogen, testosterone) along with vitamins and minerals.
If your lab results show an imbalance, check out a few articles at Clean Cuisine to get you back to optimal health so you can begin taking advantage of all of the 12-hour Intermittent Fasting benefits.
Have You Experimented with 12 Hour Intermittent Fasting?
If so, please be sure to leave a comment and let me know how it has worked for you!
Hannah Prior says
This was really helpful, thank you
Shawn says
I have been intermittent fasting for approximately 4-5 months now and it’s been great. I’m eating in an 8 hr window – 9 to 5 or 10 to 6 usually. If I have a planned dinner later, I push the times back, just drink more water! It only took a few days to adjust to the new schedule. I’m not hungry when I wake up like I used to be and my digestive system is getting a break. I’ve lost weight too. I’m a woman and disagree w/article that states it’s not recommended for women.
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
Hi Shawn, Thank you so much for your feedback. I’m so glad that the 8 hour fasting window is working for you so well. For women with sub-optimal health to include any hormone-relayed issues will likely not draw most of the benefits from fasting. It’s ideal to work with a doctor and have bloodwork checked first. Everyone’s body is different and I am so glad that you found what works best for you!
jamie Jordan says
Thank you . This is enough information to get me interested. 16/8 is hard for southern women! I am starting tomorrow
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
Jamie, Yes – I know exactly what you mean. Since my hormones aren’t always leveled out (perimenopause at 38 with Hashimoto’s), I tend to stick to the 12/12. Just go at it slowly, take your time and adjust over the course of a few weeks to see how you feel. If you start seeing any negative side affects of the change, then slowly go back to a 12/12 and grab some blood work from your doctor. Keep us posted!
T.K. Jagannathan says
Your article is practical Informative and useful. Thanks and complements. 5 years back I started intermittent Fasting.
After my dinner on Monday 8 pm my next meal is 6 pm Tuesday. No water also. Total fasting.
After dinner on Thursday 8 pm only water, fruit juice, very thin watery yogurt ( India-Butter milk)
Other days also simple vegetarian food-less carb – minimum fat – more veggies-nuts – less sweet fruits.
I am 79 – never hospitalized- not on any tablets
Teach yoga for 20 years with 3 booklets to my credit.
Most of us eat much more than what is needed.
My formula Is adapt moderation for good health as there’s no better wealth than Health.
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
Thank you for sharing TK — I love that this is working for you. These are all wonderful concepts that have certainly done well for you.
Rosy Malik says
Being Muslim we used to do Ramadan fasting so I started intermittent fasting Monday and Thursday ..simple I stoped eating from sunrise till sunset that’s what Muslim do no water nothing for 12 hours fasting I am doing. I am feeling good but is it safe every week 2 days fasting without water will it dehydrate my body or not that is bit confusing me . Rest I am feeling very good after 2 days fasting .
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
Staying hydrated is very important. I would recommend that you drink black coffee (no additives) or water during your fasting window.
Jackie says
Hi, so glad I found your website. I’m planning to do 11.30pm to 12.30pm (13 hours) as I enjoy a glass of wine in the evening. Will this work in terms of weight loss?
Tracey says
I unknowingly used to fast as well, but things had changed for me when I began having a thyroid issue. Fasting was not a need with Graves’ disease. I was able to eat excessively without weight gain. Once on meds things started to change, I was bloated and eating pretty much the same, but with some weight gain (10 pounds).
Feeling bloated and gaining weight was not a happy thing for me, so I have recently started to concisely fast for a 12 hour period. I am happy to say the bloat dissipated after one day and I have been able to control my excessive eating. I feel great! I recommend this to anyone, but especially those with autoimmune disease.
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
Tracey, This is wonderful to hear. I have Hashimoto’s and until I balanced my gut and hormone levels, fasting didn’t work well for me either.
Arun Sahajpal says
Hi – I thought I would share my experience. I’ve been IFing for 10 or so months, following a 16 – 8 model (noon to 20:00hrs). I did this from the outset rather than starting with shorter periods of fasting. I came into this having had a few years of 2 home-made healthy smoothies a day with a fairly healthy 3rd meal – but no restriction on the timing of the meals.
My smoothies had served me well in the beginning for a year or so with incredible weight loss but I became complacent and started having a snack before the morning one and then I would find myself having an unhealthy late night snack despite having had a smoothie or traditional dinner.
IF has introduced a great discipline around the morning/late night snacking and I think the key, almost irrespective (within reason) of what you eat during the eating period, is that the body has a chance to handle what you’ve ingested.
Please don’t be daunted by the idea of 16 hours – I drink lots of water (warm!) and the occasional herbal tea. The hunger has never hit me.
I feel really good for the IF and have lost weight and feel healthier and look younger – so my wife and kids tell me 🙂
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
Arun, This is so good to hear. Thank you for sharing. We are actually working on a 16/8 beginner’s guide. We may ask you for some support to offer helpful advice to those just beginning. Would you be interested?
Michael says
I read somewhere that fasting while you sleep isnt as effective. it has to be 12 waking hours.
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
The idea here is getting a break from eating so your body has time to refresh and be in optimal health. This can be done while waking or sleeping – but sleeping sure does make it easier to get through those 12 hours.
Jax says
Hi! Ever since hitting perimenopause my body has totally changed. I walk on the treadmill for an hour a day and eat healthy although perhaps at this point a little too many carbs and am gaining weight! I would like to try the 12:12 fasting. The only thing I am concerned about is the morning. So I wake at 5am and I walk on the treadmill for an hour. Typically I would eat a little something and have half a cup of coffee (with half and half) before I get on and then finish it after I am done with the workout. I get headaches if I don’t eat every 4-5 hours during the day. I would like to try and fast from either 7am-7pm or 8am-8pm. What can I do between 5am and the time I would start eating to keep my energy up and not get a headache since I am exercising at that time? Would water with lemon and black coffee help? Could I have half and half in the coffee? Thank you so much I look forward to hearing from you!
Woody miller says
I have been trying to folllw the “Plant Paradox” diet for the past 18 month. I have type I diabetes and have a hard time controlling my blood sugar, particularly through the night, usually waking up several times with low blood sugar. I had be reluctant to try fasting because I thought I needed to eat to avoid getting low. Much to my surprise my blood sugar was very stable after 4 hours of not eating or injecting insulin. Lately I have been eating just coffee and a smoothie for breakfast, a good size meal around 2-3 pm, and only eating whatever is necessary to normalize my blood sugar, (no insulin injecting), before going to bed. I’ve been able to sleep through the night without low blood sugar episodes!
Catrina says
i HAVE BEEN DOING 12:12 FASTING FOR OVER A MONTH. iT’S VERY EASY. i MOSTLY STOP EATING AT 7PM AND THEN EAT AT 7PM. HOWEVER ON WEEKENDS i FAST FOR 16:8 HOURS, MEANING 16 HOURS A DAY. i STOP EATING AT 8PM AND EAT AND NOON. tHIS HAS BEEN MY TYPICAL WEEK. hOWEVER, ATER A MONTH OF DOING THIS, i AM NOW MOVING TO A DAILY 14 HOUR FAST FOR 5 DAYS A WEEK AND A 16 HOUR FAST ON WEEKENDS. i AM DOING THIS BECAUSE THE FAST AS GOTTEN EASIER TO MAINTAIN AND i HOPE TO SEE HEALTH BENEFITS AT MY NEXT DOCTOR’S VISIT.
Ivy Larson says
Hi Catrina! Thank you so very much for sharing your fasting progress with us. It definitely gets easier with time to extend the fast to longer and longer periods. I would love to hear how things go at your next doctors appointment! Please do keep us posted. Wishing you the best of luck and thank you again for taking the time to comment!
Jaina says
Such a great article!!
Nadia says
Can teens do intermittent fasting ? Does it increase growth hormone?
Ivy Larson says
Hi Nadia, that’s a great question! I would say that yes, it is absolutely safe to do intermittent fasting for teens as long as they are not hungry during the time period. I don’t think it is good for anyone to go hungry for too many hours, but it’s especially not optimal for teens.
As to whether it will increase growth hormone, I honestly don’t know the answer to that?
I hope this helps?
Ivy
Kathleen says
I have been fasting intermittently 16/8 along with following a plant-based, whole foods eating plan for the last 3 weeks. Lost 10 lbs. I am typically not hungry in the morning nor do I care for breakfast foods very much so no problem at all for me. Never read before that 16/8 was not the best hormone-wise for women. I’m 5’3” and weighed 149 lbs. Now 139 lbs. I’m in my late 50’s. In younger yrs I weighed in the 120’s without trying. Less when I worked out regularly. I feel good and could stand to lose a few more pounds so I will continue. But I will also read up more on the hours of intermittent fasting.
Aimee Harris Niedosik says
Thank you for sharing Kathleen — it sounds like you’ve been on a wonderful intermittent fasting journey. If you’re battling any hormone influx, definitely consider dropping the fasting window down a bit to see if that helps. Work with your doctor to ensure your levels are optimal before going back tot he 16/8. 🙂 Please come back and keep us posted.
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Melissa says
Hi there, I just began a 14 hour fasting window ending at 8 pm and beginning at 10 am. That is definitely tough for me because I’m always hungry in the morning but I’ve been able to do it for about a week now. My problem is that I find myself hungry all day like I can’t get enough food. Even if I do protein rich foods like an omelet and turkey bacon and toast, I could eat more. I stop myself. I am not a large person. I’m 5’1 and about 125 lbs but since starting this intermittent fasting I always feel hungry. Have you heard of this reaction to fasting before?
Thank you
Melissa says
Oops I meant fasting period begins at 8 pm and ends at 10 am
Ivy Larson says
Hi Melissa, I apologize for not responding sooner, somehow your comment got lost in the shuffle. But here’s the thing, I would absolutely not fast if you are hungry while doing so. It is my opinion that hunger is your body’s way of communicating to you and I always encourage people to tune in to their bodies. Also, the 14 hours might just be a bit too much of a strain on your body. How about try doing just a 10 hour fast for a week then move to 11 hours the following week and 12 hours the 3rd week (there’s no real reason to extend the fast beyond 12 hours) –also, it is ESSENTIAL you get enough nutrients or your body will be hungry regardless of how much food you eat. I’m not sure if you have any of our books, but the number one diet mistake people make is not eating anywhere near enough fruits and vegetables. So, how about you do this, how about also be sure to add in at least a fruit and vegetable with every meal AND have a green smoothie (made with fruit and vegetables) once a day for a snack. Fruits and vegetables are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet and I have a feeling if you do that you will no longer be hungry. Please keep me posted!