The 4-4-12 method has a shorter fasting window—12 hours—but eliminates snacking between meals. The goal here is to fast for at least four hours between breakfast and lunch, four hours between lunch and dinner, and at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast the next day.
Fasting for either 12 hours or 16 hours can promote fat burning. During a fast, the body depletes its stored glycogen and begins to rely on stored fat for energy. While both 12-hour and 16-hour fasting can promote fat burning, it's possible that a 16-hour fast may be more effective.
Benefits of 16 Hour Fasting
The main difference is that after 14 to 16 hours, your body can enter the autophagy phase, where it begins to repair itself at a cellular level.
Consider a simple form of intermittent fasting.
Limit the hours of the day when you eat, and for best effect, make it earlier in the day (between 7 am to 3 pm, or even 10 am to 6 pm, but definitely not in the evening before bed). Avoid snacking or eating at nighttime, all the time.
First, it creates a calorie deficit. Eating less than you burn causes weight loss. Second, when you fast for 12 hours, your body is forced to use stored energy in the form of fat. This process is called ketosis, and losing those fat stores can equal weight loss (so long as a caloric deficit is still present).
IF is not a quick fix, but a steady, healthy, weight-loss alternative. According to experts, 12 hour intermittent fasting results can be visible after at least ten weeks of following the routine. The average weight loss within this period is between 7 and 10 pounds. Note that each person has a different metabolism.
The easiest way to follow the 16:8 diet is to choose a 16-hour fasting window that includes the time that a person spends sleeping. Some experts advise finishing food consumption in the early evening, as metabolism slows down after this time.
The short answer is yes, you can drink coffee while intermittent fasting. However, this answer comes with a big caveat: You can only drink black coffee while intermittent fasting. Coffee drinks with cream, sugar, or other forms of calories will break your fast.
In the case of Intermittent fasting, skipping your dinner is better and easier. You can have your dinner either early or have a heavy snack and can begin your fasting. Research suggests that fasting in the evening and overnight, then eating early in the morning is the better way to follow this diet to lose weight.
Best Intermittent Fasting Method For Visceral Belly Fat
That means you restrict your food intake to a specific 10-hour period while abstaining from caloric consumption for the remaining 14 hours. Alternate Day Method: Alternate between fasting days (500-600 calories) and regular eating days.
For example, studies have found that people who regularly fast more than 16 or 18 hours a day have a higher risk of gallstones. They're also more likely to need surgery to remove the gallbladder. Eating for 12 hours and then fasting for 12 hours is likely safe for most people, Longo explains.
And yes, sleeping counts as fasting! If you are looking for significant weight loss, you might consider working up to 18-20 hours of daily fasting (OMAD or one-meal-a-day), alternate day fasting (fasting every other day, with up to 500 calories on fasting days) or a 5:2 schedule (fasting for two days per week).
“But doesn't drinking water have the potential to break the fast?” The short and definitive answer is NO – water doesn't contain any calories and therefore will not break your fast.
Long story short - the answer to the question “Does lemon water break a fast?” is no, lemon water does not break a fast. Lemon water contains almost no calories and zero sugars, it doesn't raise insulin levels, which means it will not break your fast (1).
For most people, foods including butter, ghee, cream, olive oil, coconut oil, and MCT oil are unlikely to break your fast as long as the serving size stays small — ideally one tablespoon or less.
The 12-hour fast method generally works for beginners because of its small fasting window. You may perform the fasting at night while you are asleep and just consume a relatively fewer amount of calories compared with your usual ones. One good example of this is if you choose 7pm to 7am as your fasting schedule.
Recently, a new form of intermittent fasting has come about in the '8 Till 8' diet rule—a slightly more forgiving take on the sometimes restrictive eating plan. According to UK-based GP, Dr Rangan Chatterjee, confining your daily eating window to 12 hours can lend itself to numerous health benefits.
Daily intermittent fasters restrict eating to certain time periods each day – say, 11am to 7pm. The fasting period is usually around 12 or more hours that, helpfully, includes time spent sleeping overnight. Periodic fasting will feel most familiar: No food or drinks with calories for 24-hour periods.
The three popular approaches to intermittent fasting are:
Usually, the small meal is fewer than 500 calories. Eat a normal diet five days a week and fast two days per week. Eat normally but only within an eight-hour window each day. For example, skip breakfast, but eat lunch around 11 a.m. and dinner by 7 p.m.
Technically speaking, eating or drinking any calories breaks a fast. That means it's generally considered OK to drink black, unsweetened coffee or tea, as well as water.