The ratios are time fasting: time eating. I’d start at least 14:10.
Here’s what you do - look at the clock, stop eating, drink water (plain), black coffee, black or green tea. Look at the clock again. Has it been 14 hours? If yes, eat. Eat your daily meals in the next 10 hours. Repeat.
Increase to 16 hours fasting in two weeks.
Don’t eat at night. After 7 or whatever time you finish dinner. Skip breakfast, only have black coffee or tea. No milk, cream, sugar, etc. Don’t eat until lunch.
After you get used to that, start pushing lunch back an hour every week.
I think that you the easiest way for you to begin would be the standard 16:8 method. Basically you fast for 16 hours and then you have an 8-hour eating window. And don’t forget that if you do this at night while sleeping, those hours do count as part of your 16 total hours of fasting.
I have done fasting for over 3 years now and I have found what works for me is to fast 6 days a week and have 1 day as a cheat day. My starting weight was 265 my current weight is 217. Just stick with it… It’s a roller coaster… You’ll mess up sometimes… It’s okay. Just stick with it.
Firstly, the ratio is fasting window : feeding window. Most people start their day with a hot beverage with creamer and/or sugar around 7 am, and end their day with a snack usually before they go to bed, around 11 pm. This would be 8:16 (8 hours fasting, 16 hours feeding. Sleep time is included).
If you’re looking for the easiest way to start and stick with IF, (alternatively called time restricted feeding) this is what I’d suggest;
Spend a few days taking notice and being aware of your eating window. Take note of what time of day you first start consuming calories (liquid or solid), and the time of day you stop consuming calories. A lot of people fail to note little things like milk & sugar in tea or coffee.
The easiest way to start, would be trying to cut out late night snacks, and/ or cut creamer and sugar out of your morning beverage. This could add anywhere between ~ 1 and 4 hours to your fasting window. During your fasting window, it is extremely helpful to consume lots of zero calorie beverages (ideally water, unsweetened tea & coffee) to keep your stomach full and fulfil routines/ habits of consuming something.
Once you’ve become comfortable with this, try shifting either your first meal an hour or two later into the day, or your last meal an hour or two earlier in the evening. Once you’ve become comfortable with this, you can try to push these meals forward/ back more.
If you try and implement an extreme fasting window off the bat, it will cause most people to fail. Routines and habits are hard to break, and if you’re used to eating at certain times of day, you’ll become extremely hungry if you suddenly don’t eat at these times. So it’s best to ease your way into it.
The most common fasting windows are between 16:8 and 23:1. This could be anywhere between 2 meals a day with snacks, or just one meal a day.
Hope this helps!