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Fasting before surgery: your personal timeline

Enter the time your operation or anaesthetic is scheduled to start, from your admission letter, and see the standard adult cutoff times for food and drink. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.

When is your operation scheduled to start?

Use the time on your admission letter. If you only know the session, use its start: 07:00 for a morning list, 13:00 for an afternoon list, then confirm with your hospital.

Your fasting timeline

Enter your date and start time, then choose Build my timeline.

Reviewed against ASA preoperative fasting guidance and RCoA patient preparation information.

Sources

  1. Practice guidelines for preoperative fasting American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), 2023Population guidance for healthy patients having elective procedures.
  2. Preparing for surgery: fasting and drinking before your anaesthetic Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA), 2021The adult "6-2" convention: food 6 hours, clear fluids until 2 hours.
  3. General anaesthesia NHS, 2023

Last reviewed: 2026-07-16

Getting ready for the anaesthetist's questions too? Work through the pre-assessment preparation checklist next, or read how the types of anaesthesia differ.

Why fasting rules exist at all

An anaesthetic switches off the reflexes that normally keep food and liquid out of your lungs. If the stomach is empty, that does not matter; if it is full, stomach contents can silently enter the airway, a rare but serious complication called aspiration. Every fasting rule on this page exists to make that near impossible.

The rules are also deliberately not "nothing from midnight" any more. Modern guidance encourages clear fluids up to two hours before an anaesthetic, because patients who arrive well hydrated feel better, wake better, and recover faster. The point is a precisely empty stomach, not a miserable one.