“a video I watched talked about slowly working up to the 14-16 hr fast....it doesn’t have to be cold turkey, although that’s tasty too.”
I came in slow too. First skipping breakfast - not too hard, then skipping lunch too, and then finally taking the plunge and also skipping dinner. Then slowly adding days. My highest is now 10 days on water and black coffee. Shorter fasts are routine for me, not even a second thought. Just getting to about 3 days without eating simply resets the body, including bringing insulin resistance back to normal (which is what’s needed to control blood sugar).
And while I have no sign of elevated blood sugar, I actually do the above to simply lose weight, because when I do eat, I GO TO TOWN!
Eat dinner at 6pm, no snacks and eat breafast at 8am .... 14 hour fast. People think it’s hard but who hasn’t gotten breakfast until after 8am? Skip breakfast and you are at 18 hours at noon, enjoy your lunch!