What Type of Intermittent Fasting Should You Do?

There are plenty of ways to go about intermittent fasting. With all of the choices, you can pretty much make intermittent fasting fit into your life no matter what's going on. Here are some of the ways you can intermittent fast:

12/12

This is basically just an extend of the regular nightly fast that everyone does. You would have an eating window of 12 hours and fast for 12 hours. So if you stop eating at 8 p.m. you would resume eating again at 8 a.m. the next morning. Don't expect many fasting or detox benefits from this one, but practising it first can help you transition into a more challenging form of intermittent fasting.

16/8

The next level of intermittent fasting requires an eating window of 8 hours and a fasting window of 16 hours. So if you finish dinner at 8 p.m., you would not eat again until noon the next day basically skipping breakfast only. Depending on how healthy you ate the previous night, there could be some detox benefits from this one. You will know if it's benefiting you when you begin to feel the common detox symptoms such as a coated tongue or headache.

19/5

This style of intermittent fasting is referred to as the Fast 5 diet. You'll be fasting all but 5 hours of the day. So if you finish dinner at 8 p.m. you won't eat again until 3 p.m. the next day. You'll have a 5-hour eating window and you'll start the fast again at 8 p.m. This is definitely going to be challenging for someone who hasn't fasted before. The other levels may help you get used to fasting first so that you can eventually make it to this level. You will get some hours of detox in this type of fasting during the last few hours before you break fast.

24 hours fast

Some programs, like Eat Stop Eat, recommend a full 24 hours of fasting. There are many health benefits to this one. You'll be able to get a decent amount of detox done before you end your fast.

36 hours fast

Some people extend their fast to get even more detox benefits. This may be difficult for people who are just starting out, but it would give you a great detox.