Intermittent Fasting for Beginners: How to Start 16:8 in 7 Steps

By Fadi — Unicity Senior Director Distributor & Metabolic Coach · Published 2026-06-22 · Updated 2026-06-22 · 8 min read

Quick answer: New to intermittent fasting? This beginner's guide explains how to start the 16:8 protocol, what to eat, how to handle hunger, and what to expect in the...

Intermittent fasting (IF) has become one of the most widely studied and practically effective strategies for weight loss, metabolic health, and longevity. But if you have never done it before, it can feel daunting — especially when you see conflicting advice about when to eat, what to drink, and how to handle hunger.

This guide cuts through the noise and gives you a simple, beginner-friendly roadmap to start the 16:8 protocol in seven steps.

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting is not a diet — it is an eating pattern. Instead of changing what you eat (at least to start), you change when you eat. The most popular and well-researched protocol is 16:8: a 16-hour fasting window followed by an 8-hour eating window.

For most people this looks like: stop eating at 8pm, sleep, wake up, drink approved beverages (more on this below), break your fast at noon, eat normally until 8pm, repeat.

Why 16:8 Works

During the 16-hour fasting window, insulin levels drop significantly. Low insulin signals the body to shift from storing fat to burning it. Research has shown that time-restricted eating also reduces visceral (belly) fat, improves insulin sensitivity, lowers fasting triglycerides, and improves cognitive function — independent of total caloric intake.

You are not starving yourself. You are simply compressing your eating into a window that allows your body to do metabolic maintenance work during the other hours.

Step-by-Step: How to Start 16:8 Intermittent Fasting

Step 1: Choose Your Eating Window

The most common and beginner-friendly window is 12:00pm – 8:00pm. This works because:

• You sleep through most of the fast
• Morning hunger can be managed with approved drinks
• You can have lunch, dinner, and snacks without social disruption
• Evening hunger is the hardest to resist, and 8pm is a natural stopping point

If your schedule requires it, you can shift the window (e.g., 11am–7pm or 1pm–9pm). The key is consistency: eat at roughly the same time each day.

Step 2: Set Up Your Fasting Window Beverage Stack

The fasting window runs from 8pm (after dinner) through noon the next day. During this time you can drink:

• Water — still or sparkling, as much as you want
• Black coffee — no milk, cream, or sugar
• Unsweetened tea — green, black, or herbal
• Unimate — a yerba mate concentrate that suppresses hunger and improves mental clarity without breaking the fast. For most beginners, this is the single most important addition to the fasting morning.

Avoid anything with calories, sweeteners, or dairy during the fasting window.

Step 3: Start Gradually if Needed

If 16 hours feels like too big a jump, start at 12:12 or 14:10 and extend by 30–60 minutes per week until you reach 16:8. Most people find that by week 2 or 3, the 16-hour window feels natural and hunger is minimal during the fasting period.

Step 4: Eat Normally (But Wisely) in Your Eating Window

A common beginner mistake is to overcompensate by overeating in the 8-hour eating window. You should not be hungry enough to do this if you are fasting correctly, but be mindful. You do not need to count calories, but try to:

• Lead with protein and fiber at your first meal to stabilize blood sugar
• Avoid ultra-processed foods and refined sugars, which create glucose spikes that undermine the metabolic benefits of fasting
• If using Unicity Balance, take it before your biggest meals to blunt post-meal glucose and insulin spikes

Step 5: Handle Hunger Like a Pro

Hunger is the biggest obstacle for beginners. Here is what actually helps:

• Drink Unimate immediately when hunger strikes. Its chlorogenic acids and theobromine suppress the hunger hormone ghrelin and provide sustained energy for 4–6 hours.
• Stay busy. Most fasting hunger is habitual (your body is used to eating at a certain time) rather than true hunger. It passes within 20 minutes.
• Drink water. Thirst is frequently mistaken for hunger. 500ml of water often eliminates the hunger sensation.
• Be patient. The first 3–5 days are the hardest. By day 7–10, most people report that the morning fasting period feels easy.

Step 6: Know What to Expect (Week by Week)

Step 7: Stack Your Results with the Right Support

The Feel Great System was designed specifically to make intermittent fasting sustainable and more effective:

• Unimate in the morning — bridges the hunger gap in the fasting window
• Unicity Balance before meals — reduces post-meal glucose spikes, which lowers insulin and sustains fat burning into the next fasting period

Together, these two products address the two weakest links in most people's fasting attempts: morning hunger and the post-meal glucose crash that triggers afternoon cravings.

Common Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

• Breaking the fast with carbohydrates. Your first meal after a 16-hour fast should include protein and fat, not a bowl of cereal. Starting with carbs creates an insulin spike that undermines the morning's work.
• Giving up in week one. The first week is the hardest. If you quit then, you never reach the point where fasting becomes effortless.
• Adding cream or sugar to coffee. This breaks the fast and is one of the most common mistakes beginners make without realizing it.
• Over-restricting in the eating window. Intermittent fasting is not about eating as little as possible. Eating too little creates a cortisol response that counteracts the metabolic benefits.

Not sure which protocol fits your lifestyle? Take our free 2-minute quiz to get a personalised recommendation based on your health goals, schedule, and country.

To learn more about optimizing your metabolic health, you can read our guide on the About Fadi page or take our free 2-minute metabolic health quiz to get personalized recommendations based on your goals.

Scientific Synergy of Viscous Fiber and Fasting

The metabolic benefits of combining viscous soluble fiber (like the Biosphere Fiber matrix in Unicity Balance) with intermittent fasting are documented in clinical research. Soluble fiber slows gastric emptying and carbohydrate digestion, which stretches the satiety signal GLP-1 and keeps post-meal glucose spikes low. When you transition into the fasting window, your baseline insulin levels are already lower, allowing your body to transition into fat-burning mode (ketosis) much faster. This synergetic relationship is why combining Unimate yerba mate in the morning with Balance before lunch and dinner yields superior weight management and metabolic health outcomes compared to calorie restriction alone.

The Complex Science of Insulin Signaling and Resistance

Insulin is a hormone produced by beta cells in the pancreas, vital for regulating carbohydrates and fat metabolism. When glucose enters the blood, insulin binds to receptors on cellular membranes, initiating a cascade of intracellular signals that recruit glucose transporter proteins (GLUT4) to the cell surface. This allows glucose to enter cells, lowering blood sugar. However, chronic overconsumption of carbohydrates causes constant, high insulin release. Over time, receptors become desensitized to insulin, a condition known as insulin resistance. The pancreas compensates by producing even more insulin to force glucose into cells. This state of hyperinsulinemia prevents lipolysis (fat breakdown) and encourages lipogenesis (fat storage), particularly visceral fat accumulation around organs, leading to cardiovascular risk, metabolic syndrome, and fatigue.

The Physical Action of Soluble Fiber and Gastric Gel Barriers

Soluble fiber matrices, such as the Biosphere fiber system, operate on physical and chemical principles in the gut. Upon hydration in the stomach, the fiber particles swell and form a thick, viscous gel. This gel slows down gastric emptying, delaying the transit of food into the duodenum. In the small intestine, the viscous gel acts as a physical barrier, trapping sugars and starch molecules. This slows down their exposure to digestive enzymes (like amylase) and delays their absorption across the intestinal microvilli. Consequently, glucose enters the bloodstream gradually over several hours, rather than in a sudden spike. This flat glucose curve prevents the subsequent crash in blood sugar, eliminating reactive hypoglycemia, reducing insulin demand, and helping maintain stable, long-lasting energy.

The Metabolic Pathway of Autophagy and Ketosis

During a 16-hour fast, the body transitions from an anabolic state (storing energy) to a catabolic state (mobilizing energy). As liver glycogen stores are depleted, insulin levels drop, and glucagon levels rise. This shift activates hormone-sensitive lipase, which breaks down triglycerides in adipose tissue into free fatty acids. These fatty acids are transported to the liver, where they undergo beta-oxidation to produce ketone bodies (acetoacetate and beta-hydroxybutyrate). Ketones cross the blood-brain barrier, providing an alternative fuel source that is more energy-efficient than glucose and produces fewer reactive oxygen species. Fasting also triggers autophagy, where cells degrade damaged mitochondria, misfolded proteins, and viral components. This cellular recycling promotes longevity, reduces inflammation, and restores metabolic health.

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