The Best Intermittent Fasting Schedule for Fat Loss

In this blog post I want to discuss and extraordinarily important concept that we use in our Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky weight loss centers. This concept is intermittent fasting, or more appropriately, time restricted eating. I will use these terms interchangeably in this post. Intermittent fasting can be a very powerful way, when done correctly, to stimulate the body to metabolize body fat. It can help control hunger, improve insulin sensitivity and turbocharge fat loss. The question is, “how do you do intermittent fasting effectively?” Below I will describe the intermittent fasting schedule that we have found works best based on years of experience and the scientific data.

First let’s define intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting is a broad term encompassing schedules of not eating anything for entire days to eating one big meal a day to what we are going to focus on today which is simply restricting the time you eat (Time restricted eating). What this means is that you choose a specific period of time in a day and eat all of the food for that day within that time period. The two most popular schedules for time restricted eating for weight loss are the 8 hour eating window with a 16 hour fast and the 6 hour eating window with the 18 hour fast. Let’s look at the research first.

According to an article posted in JAMA in August of 2022, Time restricted eating was more effective for weight loss and controlling blood pressure than eating throughout the day. Another article posted in JAMA in October of 2023 further noted that Time restricted eating was also more effective as a weight loss strategy that counting calories.

So, Time restricted eating/intermittent fasting seems to be a valuable tool for weight loss, but how do we do it correctly, most effectively. When do we eat and when do we fast? Again, we look at the research. An article posted in The New England Journal of Medicine in December of 2019 concluded that “eating in a 6 hour window and fasting for 18 hours can trigger a metabolic switch from glucose based to ketone based energy, with increased stress resistance, longevity and decreased incidences of diseases like cancer and obesity.” The 6 hour eating window and the 18 hour fast seems to be the sweet spot if we are primarily focused on consistent weight loss, and the weight being lost being fat.

This certainly agrees with what we have found after working with 1000’s of clients and helping them lose fat and keep it off for life. The 8 hour eating window and the 16 hour fast works. Clients lose weight on this schedule and it’s much easier than counting calories. The 6 hour eating window and the 18 hour fast just seems to work better. On this schedule clients lose fat more consistently and, on a whole, are far less hungry while fasting. These positive benefits equate to far more clients being successful in the short term and then going on to being able to keep the weight that they lost off for life.