The 8 different methods of intermittent fasting - WeFast (2024)

When you hear intermittent fasting, 16/8 or 18/6 fasting probably comes to mind.

But intermittent fasting is a broad term that includes many different fasting schedules.

The duration of the fast is the main differentiator: Some methods simply extend the overnight fast by a few hours, while with others, you abstain from food for a whole day.

Let’s have a closer look at different intermittent fasting methods.

1. 12-hour or overnight fasting

12-hour fasting is the absolute beginner version. You fast for 12 hours every day, and it includes your nightly fast. So you simply fast for a short period before getting to bed and after waking up.

You typically eat three meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This sounds more like a normal eating schedule and less like fasting. The difference is that you abstain from snacking, which would shorten your fasting time. Let’s say you finish dinner by 7 pm–that’s when your fast starts. If you were to keep snacking after dinner, this would shorten your fasting period by a few hours.

You may think that this small difference does not have a big effect–but you’d be wrong. In a study of diabetic patients, findings showed that eating three meals per day without snacking significantly decreased their weight and lowered blood sugar. At the same time, the insulin dose could be lowered (1).

How is this possible?

Every time you eat something, your blood sugar and insulin rises and takes a while to go back to normal. When you constantly snack, blood sugar, and insulin have hardly time to come down in-between snacks.

With only three meals, blood sugar and insulin rise only three times, and the levels are in the normal range for most of the day. For this reason, sticking to three meals without snacking already helps to lower insulin and improve insulin resistance (the underlying cause of type 2 diabetes). And because insulin does not only lower blood sugar but is also a fat-storage hormone, keeping insulin low also helps to lose weight.

So, even if you don’t have diabetes, constant snacking increases your diabetes risk, so avoiding it decreases your chances and improves overall health.

There is another way to practice 12-hour fasting–eating only two meals: breakfast and dinner. This way, you have two long fasting periods per day. This schedule suits many people who like to eat breakfast in the morning and want to enjoy a social dinner with family or friends but don’t have much time for lunch at work.

Recommended for:

  • Beginners
  • People who don’t have much weight to lose but would like to experience the health benefits of intermittent fasting

Main benefits:

  • Regular eating times with breakfast, lunch and dinner
  • Improves overall health and decreases the risk of chronic conditions, such as diabetes

2. 14/10 fasting

14/10 intermittent fasting is another beginner-friendly method that you can immediately implement without prior fasting experience. You fast for 14 hours and eat within a ten-hour period.

14/10 is popular among women who struggle with longer fasting periods, because it is easy but has similar benefits as the famous 16/8 method.

You can eat two or three meals during your eating window. If you eat three meals, you have to move them a bit closer together. With two meals, you have quite a long break in between.

Recommended for:

  • Beginners
  • Women who struggle with longer fasting periods

Main benefits:

  • Easy to implement
  • Facilitates weight loss

3. 16/8-fasting

The 8 different methods of intermittent fasting - WeFast (1)

16/8 fasting is the most popular intermittent fasting method. It is a bit more advanced than the first two versions, but still very beginner-friendly. You eat within an eight-hour period every day and fast for 16 hours.

Most people eat two meals during this period: Either breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner. It is also possible to eat three meals; you just have to shorten the time between meals to stay within an eight-hour window.

Most people can easily adapt to 16/8 within a short time, and they can lose weight without feeling hungry. What’s nice about this form is that even though it’s relatively simple to do, you can still expect to see results. Studies have shown that the 16/8 diet can help individuals lose weight, improve insulin resistance, and decrease inflammation, while maintaining muscle mass (2, 3).

After 16 hours of fasting, autophagy is expected to start. Autophagy is a vital recycling process that is responsible for many of the health benefits of intermittent fasting. Longer fasting times are more potent in promoting autophagy, but 16-18 hours are already sufficient to start this process.

A potential con to this method is that you may not see results as quickly as someone who is on a more restrictive fasting diet, like alternate day fasting. You are also probably not unlocking all of the anti-aging and longevity potential that fasting can offer you.

But this is a great form if you’re new to fasting or enjoy going out to eat with friends and family regularly!

Once you get used to 16/8 fasting and feel that you could easily fast for longer, you can also switch to 18/6 intermittent fasting. This is a popular variation of 16/8 fasting and simply means that your fasting time is 2 longer than with 16/8.

Recommended for:

  • Beginners and people with some fasting experience
  • People of normal weight or slightly overweight

Main benefits:

  • Facilitates weight loss
  • Powerful method to reduce insulin resistance
  • Promotes autophagy

4. Warrior diet or OMAD

The 8 different methods of intermittent fasting - WeFast (2)

OMAD stands for One-Meal-A-Day. You eat only once per day, as the name implies. Most people have dinner as their only meal because it fits their schedule best. This way, you achieve a daily fasting time of around 23 hours.

The warrior diet is a variation of OMAD and was popularized by the fitness expert Ori Hofmekler: you eat small amounts of fruits, nuts, and vegetables during the day and have one big meal in the evening.

OMAD is quite an advanced version of intermittent fasting. Still, some people who are not hungry in the morning and have not much appetite at lunch find it quite easy.

In order to successfully do OMAD, pick a time that you want to eat daily and eat all of your daily caloric needs at that time. And yes, this should be a very calorie-dense meal. If you decide to try OMAD, you shouldn’t be eating 500 calories a day - you should be eating 1500-2000+ depending on your age, sex, height, and physical activity level.

Eating too few calories long-term has been shown to be harmful to your health so this is something you should keep in mind when trying OMAD. It may be difficult to eat so much at first, and that’s fine, but after a couple weeks, your body should adapt and eating a calorie-dense meal should become much easier. If you still find eating this much impossible, this may not be the best diet for you.

With only one meal a day, insulin levels are low for the major part of the day. For this reason, OMAD is a powerful weight-loss method. Moreover, this long fasting time puts the body in a state of ketosis. During ketosis, fat is turned into ketone bodies, which present an additional fuel source. Ketosis is very powerful for weight loss because it enables access to fat storage.

A con to this strategy is that going the whole day without eating may be very difficult for some people. If you try this and are really struggling, try easing into it by extending your fast gradually until you can go through most of the day without eating. Practice makes perfect.

Recommended for:

  • People with intermittent fasting experience
  • People with a busy schedule who don’t have time to eat during the day

Main benefits:

  • Promotes autophagy
  • Enables ketosis
  • Facilitates weight loss
The 8 different methods of intermittent fasting - WeFast (2024)

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