How to Start Fasting With a 12-Hour Eating Window

9 min readNov 21, 2020

I am now 32 and am a new “me” thanks to fasting and to the people who introduced me to time-restricted eating.

I’ve struggled with getting to a weight that’s healthy for me for my entire life.

In my case, fasting was a game changer. I started noticing a few benefits in the first week, and by the end of the month, I had experienced most of the benefits that are expected from fasting. It showed me the power of nurturing good habits, and in doing that, it had a direct impact on my quality of sleep, my exercising, my reading habits, and my ability to learn.

That’s why I like to think of fasting as a gateway habit to weight loss and a healthy lifestyle. The thing about the term gateway is it implies that it’s easy to get started, but most configurations of intermittent fasting are far from easy to adopt. In my case, the idea of going without food for more than four hours seemed outrageous, but I was lucky enough to be presented with a toned-down version that eased the way to a life-changing habit.

The concept of time-restricted eating is simple; you set a daily time window during which you allow yourself to eat. For the remainder of the day, you fast. The most popular form of time-restricted eating is known as 16/8, where you fast for 16 of the 24 hours in a day and you can eat during the remaining 8.

I Doubted It’d Work for Me

It was my physical therapist, Nuria, who first told me about the benefits of fasting. She told me how I’d been running on glucose and how easily my body would find energy from my stored fats.

In an article titled “The Science Behind Fasting Diets,” Mark Barna compared this concept of switching energy sources to “changing to a backup gas tank,” except fats aren’t merely a last resort, but “the body switches from glucose to fatty acids, a more efficient fuel.”

Nuria also said it’d help me lose weight as well as helping with inflammation, both probable causes of my back pains.

At least, that’s what I assume she told me because all I remember from that first discussion is a blur of words. Inflammation, ketosis, carbs, energy levels, tests on rats … And the reason I don’t remember more is I didn’t listen. How could I?

I am the kid who sneaked to the fridge to get chocolate when his parents were not looking. As soon as she said something about not eating for 16 to 20 hours, I shut down. She’s out of her mind if she thinks I’m going to try that.

For many of us who struggle with healthy eating, the idea of fasting is too far-fetched. We believe other people can do it. The beautiful people, people like my physical therapist — fit, thin, and athletic. As she spoke, I was so convinced I couldn’t do it that I didn’t even truly listen to her perfectly logical science-backed explanations. There was no way I was doing it. There was no way I could do it. So I didn’t care for her promises of results.

The Experiment: 12-Hour Fasting

The next time I visited her at the clinic, Nuria talked about how much my life would change if, for only one week, I fasted 12 hours every day and limited my eating to two fulfilling healthy meals.

She cut back on the scientific evidence and the unrelatable rat tests. Instead, she focused on how easy it’d be to just try for a week and asked for my trust, which she had earned over years of treatment.

There’s a very logical reason why she got me started on 12 hours. I didn’t know it then, but she explained it a few months later. “I just knew you could not be convinced to try 16 hours.”

There’s no scientific evidence that I’m aware of suggesting that 12 hours is a good fasting configuration. The optimal window for time-restricted eating is still under debate, but most research suggests a minimum of 16 hours. However, 12 hours was enough for me to see some benefits, but, most importantly, it made the challenge small enough that I agreed to give it a shot.

How to Survive Your First Week of 12/12 Intermittent Fasting

Remember, the experiment is simple: For one week, fast 12 hours every day and have only two meals.

By now, I’m assuming that you’re willing to give this a try. The goal now is to find a few tricks that’ll make the challenge as easy as possible. To help with that, here are a few tips I’ve picked up from my experience fasting for the last two years.

My go-to meal is a big bowl with a base of mixed steamed vegetables and a few extras. Image by the author.

Find someone who’ll be willing to support you, someone you can text every day about your achievements and your struggles. It doesn’t need to be someone who fasts; it doesn’t even need to be someone who believes in fasting. It just needs to be someone who you can trust to support you for one week.
Do not lower your usual calorie intake. If you’re used to three meals plus snacks, surviving 12 hours of fasting is already a big challenge; there’s no need to make it bigger. On those two meals combined, eat as much as you usually eat throughout the day.
There’s no need to make radical changes to your diet, but it doesn’t hurt to be strategic. For example, carbs may satisfy the moment we eat them, but they make us crave shortly after — so you may want to rely on other types of foods.
Have a go-to dish that’s easy to prepare and tasty enough. The less effort you spend thinking about what to cook and the more appealing your meal is, the less likely you are to be tempted with unhealthy alternatives. My go-to meal is a big bowl with a base of mixed steamed vegetables, olive oil, pepper, and a few extra things, like roasted nuts, steamed salmon, avocado, fruit, egg, etc.
Be rational. You’re eating as much as you used to, and you’re eating fulfilling food. If you get hungry two hours after a meal, you know it’s all in your head — focus on something else to distract your mind.
Set your 12-hour windows in a way that it’s convenient for you to prepare and enjoy your meals.

Fasting: A Gateway Habit to Weight Loss

Since I accepted the challenge to experiment with intermittent fasting a little over two years ago, I’ve lost 25 pounds. It’s not hard to find more impressive stories of weight loss, and there are many reasons why my ups and downs are not ideal. But at the end of the day, 25 pounds in two years isn’t bad for someone with my struggles.

My weight evolution, with its ups and downs, since I started fasting. Image by the author.

I like to think of this light-version fasting as the gateway to other healthy habits. One week isn’t nearly enough to experience all the benefits of fasting, but it’s enough to see some and to learn a lot about your body.

In a week of 12-hour fasting, you’ll learn it’s truly possible not to snack every few hours. Moreover, you start to think maybe it’s OK to be a little hungry.

For most, one week may not be enough to get used to long fasting periods, so expect to go through hardships. But one week isn’t a big commitment. Yet, one week is long enough that, by the end, you won’t doubt that you can turn this into a long-term arrangement.

In my case, at the end of the week, I decided to continue fasting. The first month was very challenging, but soon it felt easy enough that I extended the fasting window to 16 hours. Most days, it comes easy. Some days, I still struggle through the last couple of hours.

As I continued to experiment with my diet and my schedules, I made a habit of skipping breakfast. I discovered that exercising on a fasted stomach accelerated my weight loss. Then I discovered that with so much effort being put into exercising and fasting, I didn’t want to ruin my progress by ordering KFC. So eating healthy became less of a struggle and more of a choice.

The funny thing is that for the last 15 years, I had attempted countless times to lose weight, and I failed every single time. Fasting provided me with a very different approach, not only in the sense that I’d never tried skipping a meal but in that it made me focus on a habit rather than a result.

Reading James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits,” and Joshua Fields Millburn from The Minimalists has helped a lot. They’re big promoters of habits, rather than goals, as a way for personal growth.

So after I’d developed the habit of fasting 16 hours every day, I focused on exercising 20 minutes every day. Then I focused on eating healthy. Then I focused on sleeping enough. Then I focused on the quality of my sleep. Weight itself hasn’t been my goal for a very long time.

Learning to develop healthy habits has proven to be a powerful tool, and I believe it can be the single most powerful tool for people who, like me, have struggled with weight most of their lives.

Additional Reading

“The Science Behind Fasting Diets” by Mark Barna at Discover Magazine
“Researchers discover that fasting reduces inflammation and improves chronic inflammatory diseases” by The Mount Sinai Hospital at Medical Xpress
“The Sweet Spot for Intermittent Fasting” by P. D. Mangan at Better Humans
“I Lost 50 Pounds on a 5:2 Fasting Diet” by Dave Wentworth at Better Humans
“What are the most filling foods?” by Aaron Kandola at Medical News Today
“My Experience With Intermittent Fasting: How Time-Restricted Eating Changed My Life” by Jon Hainstock at Better Humans
“How to Conquer Food Cravings” by Dr. Jason Fung at Better Humans

How to Start Fasting With a 12-Hour Eating Window

I Doubted It’d Work for Me

The Experiment: 12-Hour Fasting

How to Survive Your First Week of 12/12 Intermittent Fasting

Fasting: A Gateway Habit to Weight Loss

Additional Reading

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