Start smaller than you think
A lot of people jump straight into 16 hours of fasting when they’re not even used to going 10 hours without eating. That’s like trying to run a marathon before running a mile.
Start with 12 hours. A big part of that happens while you sleep anyway, and it gives your body a natural window to rest and reset. A good baseline: stop eating 3 to 4 hours before bed, then wait until you’ve hit 12 hours before your first meal.
Once 12 hours feels easy, move to 14, then 16. Give your body a couple of weeks and build gradually. It’ll be more sustainable, and it’ll feel easier.
What you eat matters as much as the fast itself
Let’s say your day looked like this: you wake up sleepy, stop at Starbucks for a pastry and a latte, grab McDonald’s for lunch, and try to save it at night with a Caesar salad. The next day, you start your fast. A few hours in, your stomach starts talking to you. You ignore it — after all, you’re fasting. But now you’re irritated, your head is pounding, and for some reason, everyone feels extra annoying today.
You push through. You finish the fast. But after a morning like that, are you going to want to do it again? Probably not.
What you eat during your eating window affects how your fast feels. Set yourself up for success: whole foods, fruits, legumes, vegetables, protein, healthy fats.
Plan around your actual life
Most of your fasting will happen at night — that’s when the hours add up anyway. But plan ahead. If Friday is pizza night, adjust your window. If there’s a party that weekend, either shift your fast or do fewer hours.
As you go, notice when you get hungriest, when your willpower sinks, when your energy and focus start lacking. That way, you can build a realistic strategy around the best times to fast.
A good fasting routine doesn’t need to be 16:8 or 18:6 every single day. What matters is that you can lose weight sustainably, without feeling stressed or miserable, and still have a good quality of life.
What to do during your fast
No calories during the fast. Drink plenty of water. Coffee and tea are fine — they can help with focus, hunger, and energy. Try to avoid zero-calorie sweet drinks like diet soda or flavored water; some people handle them fine, but they often backfire and cause more hunger.
When hunger comes, drink water first. Hunger usually arrives in waves. If you sit with it and don’t react, it passes within about 15 minutes. Go for a walk, think about your goal, distract yourself. It goes away.
Light movement while fasting is fine. Intense training — wait until you’re better adapted.
The thing that actually got me through it
Electrolytes. And almost nobody talks about this.
When you fast, your sodium, potassium, and magnesium levels can drop. That’s where the headaches come from — the fatigue, the cravings…
I figured this out on my own, partly because the water in my home doesn’t have many electrolytes. Adding them to my water also helped with hunger in a way I didn’t expect.
You can buy electrolyte packets, ideally unflavored. Or you can make your own and save money. I cover exactly how to do that in this video.
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Not medical advice. If you’re pregnant, breastfeeding, under 18, or have a medical condition, check with your healthcare provider before fasting.