Can I drink chai during intermittent fasting?

Not with milk and sugar if you want a strict fast, because both have calories. Water, black tea, black coffee and plain lemon water without sugar are the usual choices in the fasting hours. Have your milky chai inside the eating window.

How much weight can I lose with 16:8 intermittent fasting?

About as much as you would by cutting the same calories any other way. In a 12-month trial in China, people eating 1,200 to 1,800 kcal a day lost about 8 kg with an 8-hour window and about 6.3 kg without one, and the difference was not statistically significant.

Is a 12 pm to 8 pm window better than 8 am to 4 pm?

There isn't strong evidence that one timing wins for weight loss. Pick the window you can keep on working days and at family dinners. For many Indian households that means a later window, because dinner is often the main shared meal.

Does intermittent fasting cause muscle loss?

It can if protein is low and you don't lift weights, as with any diet. In a study of resistance-trained men eating within 8 hours, fat-free mass and strength were maintained while they kept training and ate enough protein.

Is Navratri or ekadashi fasting the same as intermittent fasting?

Not really. Religious fasts follow their own rules and purpose, and many involve vrat foods rather than no food. They can overlap with fasting patterns, but they aren't weight-loss plans and don't need to be judged as one.

Intermittent Fasting with Indian Food: Does It Work?

Yes, intermittent fasting can work with Indian food, but mainly because a shorter eating window or a few low-calorie days help you eat less overall. In trials comparing it with ordinary calorie cutting, people lost about the same weight either way. If skipping breakfast and eating dal, roti, sabzi and curd between, say, 12 pm and 8 pm suits your routine, it's a fine method; if it doesn't, a normal calorie deficit works just as well.

Before you pick a window, find your calorie target with the calorie calculator. The window only helps if the total for the day ends up below your maintenance.

What is intermittent fasting?

It's a pattern of eating where periods of eating alternate with periods of not eating, or eating very little. A 2022 review in Nature Reviews Endocrinology describes the three most studied versions:

Time-restricted eating (16:8 and similar). You eat only within a set window each day, often 8 hours, and fast for the other 16. Water and plain black tea or coffee are fine in the fasting hours.
The 5:2 diet. Two non-consecutive low-calorie days a week and five normal days. An NHS London guide describes the fast days as about 600 kcal.
Alternate-day fasting. Fast days of 0 to 500 kcal alternate with normal eating days, according to the same review.

Does it work better than normal calorie cutting?

Mostly, no. It works about as well. Three studies are worth knowing.

The TREAT trial (Lowe et al., 2020). In this 12-week trial in JAMA Internal Medicine, 116 adults with overweight or obesity either ate only between 12 pm and 8 pm or ate three structured meals a day. The fasting group lost about 0.94 kg and the three-meal group about 0.68 kg, and the gap between them was not significant. In a smaller subgroup measured in person, the fasting group lost more appendicular lean mass (mostly arm and leg muscle). The authors concluded time-restricted eating on its own was not more effective than eating through the day.

Liu et al., 2022, NEJM. In this 12-month trial, 139 adults with obesity in China all ate a calorie-restricted diet (1,500 to 1,800 kcal for men, 1,200 to 1,500 kcal for women). Half also ate only between 8 am and 4 pm. Weight loss was about 8.0 kg with the window and 6.3 kg without, a difference that was not statistically significant.

The 2025 BMJ network meta-analysis. This review of 99 randomised trials and 6,582 adults found that every fasting style and continuous calorie restriction beat eating freely. Against continuous calorie restriction, only alternate-day fasting showed an extra benefit, about 1.3 kg, and mostly in shorter trials. In trials of 24 weeks or longer, the diets didn't differ from each other. The authors' summary: intermittent fasting has similar benefits to continuous energy restriction.

There's also a practical catch with the stricter versions. In a 1-year alternate-day fasting trial, 38% of the fasting group dropped out compared with 29% of the daily calorie restriction group, and people ate more than planned on fast days.

So why does it work at all?

Because you eat less. Cut out breakfast and the late-night snack, and many people simply take in fewer calories.

A 16:8 window doesn't cancel out a big dinner, though. Ghee parathas, rajma with a heavy tadka and a sweet can fill most of a day's calories in one sitting. If your weight isn't moving, the calories inside the window are the thing to check, as covered in calorie deficit and maintenance calories.

The fasting styles compared

Style	How it works	What the evidence says	Suits	Watch out for
16:8 time-restricted eating	Eat within about 8 hours, e.g. 12 pm to 8 pm	Similar weight loss to calorie cutting when calories match (TREAT, Liu et al.)	People who don't miss breakfast; late family dinners	Overeating in the window; low protein
5:2	2 non-consecutive days of about 500 to 600 kcal, 5 normal days	Similar to continuous restriction overall (BMJ 2025)	People who prefer a few hard days over daily limits	Hungry, low-energy fast days; overeating after
Alternate-day fasting	0 to 500 kcal every other day	Slightly more loss than daily restriction in short trials; more dropouts	Few people long term	Hardest to stick to; training on fast days
Daily calorie restriction	Eat 10 to 25% below maintenance every day	The comparison standard; works as well over 6 months or more	Most people, especially anyone who trains hard	Needs some tracking

What does a 16:8 Indian day look like?

Here's a hypothetical vegetarian day with a 12 pm to 8 pm window, at about 1,650 kcal and 76 g of protein. Values come from the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 and USDA data, using the same portions as our 1,500 calorie Indian diet plan. A katori is about 200 ml.

Time	Meal	Approx. kcal	Protein (g)
Before 12 pm	Water, black tea or black coffee, no sugar	0	0
12 pm	2 phulkas (30 g atta each)	190	6
	1 katori toor dal with 1 tsp tadka	145	6.5
	1 katori gobhi sabzi (2 tsp oil) with 30 g soya chunks	230	18.5
	1 small katori curd (about 150 g)	90	5
4 pm	1 glass cow's milk (200 ml) or milky chai, no sugar	145	6.5
	1 apple (about 150 g)	95	0.5
7:30 pm	2 phulkas	190	6
	Paneer bhurji (100 g paneer, 1 tsp oil)	355	19
	1 katori palak or bhindi sabzi (2 tsp oil)	125	3
	1 small katori curd	90	5
Total		about 1,655	about 76

Soya chunk values are from typical packet labels (about 52 g protein and 345 kcal per 100 g dry). For a non-veg day, swap the 100 g paneer for 150 g raw chicken breast: that's about 1,600 kcal and 90 g of protein.

Your target may differ. Swap dishes and check your day in the Indian food calorie counter.

How do you keep protein up and train while fasting?

A shorter window makes it easier to under-eat protein. That matters, because the TREAT subgroup lost more lean mass, and muscle is what you want to keep.

Set a protein target. The ISSN position stand on protein suggests 1.4 to 2.0 g per kg of body weight a day for people who exercise, spread in doses of about 20 to 40 g. An 8-hour window fits three such meals. Get your own number from the protein calculator.
Put protein in every meal. Dal, curd, paneer, soya, eggs, chicken or fish, not just roti and sabzi.
Train in the window, or close to it. A study of resistance-trained men who ate within an 8-hour window (1 pm to 8 pm) found they lost fat while keeping fat-free mass and strength, as long as they kept lifting and ate enough. A 5 to 6 pm session after the 4 pm snack works well with a 12 to 8 pm window.
Morning gym person? Shift the window, for example 9 am to 5 pm, so you can eat after training. Our posts on the pre-workout meal and post-workout meal have Indian options for both.

What about Navratri, ekadashi and Ramadan fasts?

For many Indian families these fasts carry religious and personal meaning that has nothing to do with weight loss, and they follow their own rules. Ramadan fasting runs from dawn to sunset for a month. Navratri and ekadashi practices vary a lot by family and region; some people skip grains, some eat one meal, and many eat vrat foods like sabudana, kuttu, singhara, potatoes, fruit and milk.

Two practical points if you also care about your weight or training:

Vrat meals are often starchy and fried or cooked in a lot of ghee, so a fasting day can end up higher in calories than a normal one. The same calorie logic applies.
If you have diabetes, any fast needs a plan with your doctor. The IDF-DAR Diabetes and Ramadan guidelines note that people with some medical conditions can be exempted from fasting, and that those with diabetes who fast need proper guidance and care.

Who should not do intermittent fasting?

Talk to a doctor before trying it, or skip it, if any of these apply:

Diabetes on medication. Delaying meals while on insulin or tablets that lower blood sugar can cause hypos. Diabetes UK says to speak to your healthcare team first if you treat type 2 diabetes with insulin or other diabetes medication.
Pregnancy or breastfeeding. The NHS London guide says pregnant or breastfeeding women should not attempt intermittent fasting.
A history of eating disorders. The same NHS guide says people with a history of anorexia or bulimia should not try it.
Under 18. The trials above were in adults, and the BMJ review excluded studies of children. Teenagers who are still growing need regular meals.
Other conditions. Kidney disease, a history of low blood sugar, being underweight, or any condition where your doctor manages your diet.

What side effects should you expect?

Usually mild ones. The BMJ review found most trials reported things like constipation, nausea, hunger, diarrhoea and dizziness. A separate 2024 meta-analysis of 15 trials found no higher rate of fatigue or headache with intermittent fasting than with control diets in adults with overweight or obesity, though dizziness was slightly more common in one subgroup.

Drink enough water during the fast. If you feel faint, shaky or unwell, eat something and rethink the plan.

If your weight stalls after a few weeks, it's the same problem as with any diet, and the fixes in weight loss plateau apply.

The short version

Intermittent fasting works mainly by helping you eat less, not through any special fat-burning effect
In trials, 16:8 and 5:2 give about the same weight loss as normal calorie cutting
Pick a window that fits your family meals and work; 12 pm to 8 pm suits many Indian homes
Calories inside the window still decide the result; check them with the calorie counter
Aim for 1.4 to 2.0 g of protein per kg if you train, across two or three meals
Train in or near your eating window, and lift weights to keep muscle
Skip it or see a doctor first if you have diabetes on medication, are pregnant or breastfeeding, have an eating disorder history, or are under 18

This is general information, not medical advice.

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