Intermittent Fasting Window Calculator

Plan your intermittent fasting schedule with clear eating and fasting windows.

How it is calculated

The tool is pure clock arithmetic. eating window = 24 − fasting hours, and last meal = (first meal hour + eating window) mod 24, written as hh:mm. First meal hour is on a 24-hour clock and may be decimal, so 9.5 means 09:30, and must be at least 0 and below 24: 23.5 is 23:30 and works (with a 16-hour fast the last meal is 07:30), while 24 gives no result. Fasting hours must be above 0 and below 24 and may be decimal (16.5 is fine). If the eating window runs past midnight the time wraps around, so a first meal at 20:00 with 16 fasting hours ends at 04:00 the next day. The eating and fasting windows are shown to one decimal, in hours. The tool does not judge whether a fasting length suits you.

Worked example

You want a 16-hour fast and your first meal is at hour 12 (noon). Eating window = 24 − 16 = 8.0 h. Last meal = 12 + 8 = 20, which prints as 20:00, and the fast then runs 16 hours until noon the next day. With a first meal at 9.5 (09:30) and an 18-hour fast, the window would be 6.0 h and the last meal 15:30.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Typing the time as 12:30 or 9.30 for half past nine. The field is a decimal hour, so use 12.5 and 9.5; 9.30 means 09:18.
  • Entering the eating window instead of the fasting length. For a 16:8 plan the answer needed is 16 fasting hours, not 8, otherwise the windows are swapped.
  • Entering 24 as the first meal hour for midnight. Values from 0 up to just below 24 are accepted, so use 0 for midnight.
  • Expecting a full 24-hour fast to work. Fasting hours must be below 24, so one-meal-a-day plans are best entered as 23 or 22.
  • Missing that a late window wraps past midnight. A last meal shown as 02:00 is early the next morning, not before your first meal that day.

Sources

About this calculator

Intermittent fasting protocols such as 16:8, 18:6, 20:4, and one-meal-a-day (OMAD) all work the same way: they compress food intake into a fixed eating window and leave the remaining hours as a fast. The idea builds on time-restricted feeding (TRF) research from circadian-biology labs — Salk Institute researcher Dr. Satchin Panda's studies showed that confining food intake to a consistent daily window can shift metabolic markers independent of calorie changes, which is part of why clock-based fasting schedules spread from bodybuilding circles into mainstream apps like Zero and Life Fasting Tracker.

Turning a protocol label like “16:8” into an actual daily routine means doing the same arithmetic every day: pick a start time for the first meal, then work out when the eating window closes and when the next fast begins. This calculator does that conversion instantly from your first-meal time and target fasting length, so you get concrete clock times to plan meals around work hours, gym sessions, or family dinners instead of counting backward in your head.

It performs only the time arithmetic behind a chosen schedule — it does not judge which fasting length or eating pattern is right for any individual.

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