The three most common intermittent fasting mistakes

I sometimes meet people who have heard about time-restricted eating from someone they know, or the internet. They try this particular form of intermittent fasting, but don’t get the results they are hoping for. Here I share three of the most common mistakes practicing it. With time-restricted eating, the devil is in the detail. This is why I wrote The Ten Hour Diet - so you can get it right. 
 
1) The harder, longer, more punishing the overnight fast, the better the results.
Wrong. There is a sweet spot with overnight fasting.

Most of the health benefits come between the 12th and 14th hour of overnight fasting during what is called the metabolic switch.

Weight loss is more effective when eating is focussed earlier in the day than later. Calories eaten earlier in the day have more chance of being burnt, so focussing on what lovely nutritious food you put into your body earlier in the day is a better strategy than concentrating on a long arduous fast all morning and then pushing most of your eating into later in the day. 
 
2) Can you consume zero calorie fizzy drinks and sodas, or sugar-free mints during the fast?
Don't do that if you want to lose weight, improve your diabetes markers or have better digestive health.

Artificial sweeteners may cancel out potential benefits of fasting. They can mess with our body chemistry and trick us into thinking we have consumed sugar. This can lead to spikes in insulin, the fat-storage hormone, or disrupt the pattern of the microbiome (gut bacteria) that helps control our weight. 
 
3) Fasting can be practiced successfully by highly-stressed individuals. 
Not necessarily. If you are getting less than six hours sleep a night and eating past 9pm, AND then doing long overnight fasts, you could put more strain on your body making you gain weight, and develop type 2 diabetes, and heart problems.