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 2026-10-25 · 8 min read

Written by Fadi, an independent Unicity distributor who earns a commission on orders placed through this site. Educational content, not medical advice. Product research: unicityscience.org · unicity.com.

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.

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.

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