Time-restricted eating
Confining food to a set window, often 8-10 hours a day
Food goes inside a fixed daily window; outside it, only water, tea or black coffee. Windows range from a relaxed 10 hours all the way down to one meal a day. Reported benefits run from simpler eating decisions and better sleep through to metabolic markers, though the evidence for the metabolic side is genuinely contested and several people here have softened their enthusiasm. Almost everyone agrees on the simpler version of it: stop eating a few hours before bed.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Andrew HubermanDoes it
Neuroscientist · Huberman Lab
Compresses the eating window, typically skipping breakfast and finishing food several hours before bed.
Source: Huberman Lab: Fasting and meal timing - Bryan JohnsonDoes it
Founder · Blueprint longevity protocol
All of his food goes in the first half of the day, finished well before evening, which he ties directly to his sleep results.
Source: Blueprint protocol site: lowering resting heart rate before bed“Eat your final meal/snack of the day four hours before bed. I stop eating around noon each day and that will get my RHR to around 39 beats per minute right before bed.”
Blueprint protocol site: Do these things to lower your resting heart rate before bed (opens in a new tab) - Chris WilliamsonDoes it
Host · Modern Wisdom
Stays fasted until early afternoon most days, usually eating from around one or two o'clock.
Source: Ben Greenfield Life podcast transcript - Dave AspreyDoes it
Biohacker · Bulletproof Coffee
His own version, Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting, swaps breakfast for a fat-only coffee and runs the fast to lunch or later. He writes that he sticks to the classic form most days and breaks it with collagen in the cup on the days he trains. Purists would not count a buttered coffee as a fast, and he knows it.
Source: Dave Asprey blog: A Proven Path to a High-Energy Morning - Hugh JackmanDoes it
Actor · Wolverine and The Greatest Showman
Runs a 16/8 window when bulking so the size goes on without fat. He finds it far easier than eating every two to three hours, which he found brutal, and says he sleeps much better on it. Spoken in 2017, around the Logan press tour.
Source: TRAIN: Hugh Jackman Workout and Nutrition Tips“With my diet I go with a 16/8 intermittent fasting regiment, and that really works for me. With 16/8 you allow an 8-hour window in which to eat … I sleep so much better as well.”
TRAIN: Hugh Jackman Workout and Nutrition Tips (opens in a new tab) · 28 Jun 2017 - Jennifer AnistonDoes it
Actor · Friends and The Morning Show
In 2019 she told Radio Times she does intermittent fasting with no solid food in the morning, and that she noticed a big difference from going 16 hours without eating; Sundays were a cheat day. She described herself as a night owl who wakes around 8:30 or 9. Whether she still fasts is not something she has said recently.
Source: CNBC Make It: Inside Jennifer Aniston's daily wellness routine (quoting Radio Times) - Jocko WillinkDoes it
Retired Navy SEAL officer · Jocko Podcast
Hunger does not arrive until mid-morning, and he eats in a compressed window most days, framing it as simplicity rather than a metabolic protocol.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #107 transcript - Lex FridmanDoes it
AI researcher · Lex Fridman Podcast
Mostly one meal a day, though he says he keeps it flexible rather than rigid.
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #435 transcript - Mark HymanDoes it
Physician · The Dr. Hyman Show · author of Young Forever
He keeps at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast. Every night. Three or four times a week he stretches that to 14 or more, to give his body what he calls a chance to do autophagy.
Source: The Doctor's Farmacy: My Personal Longevity Routine“So I try to not eat, give myself at least 14 hours between dinner and breakfast, which gives my body a chance to do autophagy, clean up at night at least three or four times a week”
The Doctor's Farmacy: My Personal Longevity Routine (opens in a new tab) · 10 Mar 2023 - Mark WahlbergDoes it
Actor and producer · The 2:30 a.m. daily routine
Eats between noon and 6 p.m. on most days, an 18-hour fast five days a week, with a longer eating window on harder training days. He told the Wall Street Journal he does less cardio and less gym time on the schedule and feels he is getting better results, and quickly.
Source: Boston.com: 4 things we learned from Mark Wahlberg's new WSJ interview“I don’t have to do as much cardio, I don’t have to spend as much time in the gym, and I feel like I’m getting better results … I’m trying to share that information with everybody because I’m really, really seeing the benefits and pretty quickly.”
Boston.com: 4 things we learned from Mark Wahlberg's new WSJ interview (opens in a new tab) · 20 Nov 2022 - Rhonda PatrickDoes it
Biomedical scientist · FoundMyFitness
Eight in the morning to six in the evening is her eating window, and she has covered the circadian side of meal timing with the researchers who study it.
Source: FoundMyFitness: her eating pattern - Valter LongoDoes it
Biogerontologist · The Longevity Diet
Every meal lands inside a twelve-hour window, breakfast included. He keeps breakfast because studies have linked skipping it to harm, he told TODAY.
Source: TODAY: Diet and exercise habits of a longevity expert who wants to live to 120 - Zac EfronDoes it
Actor · the Baywatch body and what it cost him
He started intermittent fasting right after he stopped being vegan, and says it has been really helpful. Two meals a day now, with the fast broken late morning.
Source: Men's Health: Zac Efron's Body Told Him To Give Up Veganism“I started intermittent fasting just after I stopped being vegan. My body wasn't processing the vegetables in the right way”
Men's Health: Zac Efron's Body Told Him To Give Up Veganism (opens in a new tab) · 7 Sep 2022 - Chris HemsworthDiscusses
Actor · Limitless and Centr
He bulked for Thor: Love and Thunder. Then he dropped the weight on a 16:8 eating window, according to trainer Luke Zocchi, who says it worked because the window suits his lifestyle and keeps portions in check.
Source: British GQ: Chris Hemsworth wanted smaller biceps for Extraction 2 - Jeff NippardDiscusses
Natural bodybuilder · Science-based lifting
Intermittent fasting shows up in his writing as anecdote and as a tool. His protein article points to the fasting community getting jacked on one or two meals a day as a sign that large protein doses are not wasted; his get-lean guide lists it as a help for people who do not want to count calories. He himself prefers loosely tracking calories and protein.
Source: jeffnippard.com blog: The Smartest Way To Use Protein To Build Muscle (Science Explained) - Layne NortonDiscusses
Nutrition scientist and powerlifter · Biolayne
He used to recommend against intermittent fasting. His own protein research was the reason. It now sits on his list of things he has changed his mind about: a standard 16:8 window does not appear to cost lean mass, he now says. The conditions are that people lift, eat enough total protein over at least three meals and train inside the feeding window.
Source: Dr. Layne Norton Podcast: Things I've Changed My Mind On - Peter AttiaDiscusses
Physician · The Drive · author of Outlive
Early on he advocated prolonged fasting, then publicly stepped back, concluding it cost him muscle without a clear payoff.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show: Peter Attia transcript, 2021 - Rich RollDiscusses
Ultra-endurance athlete · The Rich Roll Podcast
Fasting and eating windows come up with many guests, though he notes high training volume changes the calculation considerably.
Source: The Rich Roll Podcast: fasting episodes - Stacy SimsDiscusses
Exercise physiologist · Women Are Not Small Men
For active women she thinks fasting usually backfires: thyroid activity drops, cycles turn irregular and body fat goes up when energy demand is left unmet. Sedentary populations may see something from it, she allows, but most of the encouraging data came from men.
Source: Dr Stacy Sims: Why Fasting Does Not Work for Active Women - Steven BartlettDiscusses
Entrepreneur · The Diary of a CEO
He has not settled on a fixed protocol. Meal timing and fasting have been covered from several angles.
Source: The Diary of a CEO: official episode feed - Tim FerrissDiscusses
Author · The Tim Ferriss Show
Extended fasts and various eating windows have all been run as personal experiments, with results he reports as mixed rather than dramatic.
Source: The Tim Ferriss Show #826 transcript“And so intermittent fasting would certainly be, if you were to ask me, if you could only add one chapter to The 4-Hour Body, what would it be about? It would be about intermittent fasting.”
The Tim Ferriss Show #826 transcript (opens in a new tab) · 10 Sep 2025
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under longevity or energy.
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Resistance training
Lifting weights 2-4 times a week to build and hold muscle
On record from 43 of 62 tracked people: 37 do it, 4 recommend it, 2 have discussed it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Zone 2 cardio
Easy aerobic work you can hold a conversation through, 3+ hours a week
On record from 12 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 5 recommend it, 2 have discussed it - Protocol$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Cycling
Steady riding, outdoors or on a stationary bike, as daily low-intensity cardio
On record from 9 of 62 tracked people: 9 do it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
High-intensity interval training
Short all-out efforts with full recovery in between, a few times a week
On record from 6 of 62 tracked people: 5 do it, 1 has discussed it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Daily cardio
Around half an hour of aerobic work most days, at any pace you can sustain
On record from 4 of 62 tracked people: 4 do it - ProtocolFREE, no cost
Anti-inflammatory eating
Mostly plants, some fish and lean meat, and little sugar, dairy or processed food
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 does it, 1 recommends it
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