How to manage hotel breakfasts abroad while doing 16:8 fasting

Genuinely, what difference would it make if you ate earlier if it was the same caloric intake?

Asking as I've been slim since shedding the lbs 20 years ago and what I tend to do at hotels is eat a massive but low calorie breakfast (beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, veggie sausage) and then eat again at dinner time. Could you do that?

It's only really a problem if you're leaving the hotel as 10am is a long time for people to wait for you if you want to sit down. Otherwise just do as you've said, portion it into tupperware and eat it on the hop at 10am. If you aren't going out, just go to breakfast twice. It's your holiday too.

But in all honesty I'd try to adjust as it'll be inconvenient working around your breakfast everyday.

And if I'm really honest, if you can't adjust, even for half the week, it isn't really a lifelong solution to managing hunger.

Could you all the hotel top make a gluten-free breakfast for you to take away? Then you can eat it later when it fits your window. Win-win. However I echo the comments that you should relax and enjoy time with family. My husband normally eats his first meal at 12 but in holiday has breakfast with us and just goes back to his fasting routine when we get home...

I have been following the 16:8 fasting regime for 2 years now and it’s brilliant for me. On holidays I have to relax the rules a little bit around breakfast time. Most breakfast services are open until 10.30, so you should be fine. Sometimes I take Kind bars for in between breakfast and dinner, I believe most of them are gluten free and quite filling.

I’ve been doing 16:8 for a while now and my plan is just to relax it on holiday as a week or two off it won’t do much harm!

Personally I'd aim to go low-carb on the holiday (if you want to stick to something) and forget the 16:8. It's easy to maintain when you are in your own routine, in your own place, but very hard when having to fit in with 'normal' mealtimes and other people's needs. I usually skip breakfast, eat a large low-carb lunch (French school cantine) at 12h15, a light dinner at home, and stop eating by 8pm. It's dead easy because it fits with the regular French lunch routine and our British family dinner time. But on holidays it all goes out the window

The word diet means way of eating by the way. Our diet, your diet, his diet.

A diet is a weight loss plan, Im on A diet.

Anyway, you'll just have to relax how you normally eat and eat differently to fit in. Unless you want to find it much harder than it needs to be.

I’ve just returned from a holiday, and for the first time in years stayed b&b. I’ve gone carb free, don’t eat processed food, cereals or sugar. I ended up having Greek yogurt with a tiny amount of honey or lots of cinnamon. A couple of days I relented and had wholemeal bread with butter. I was careful what I chose for dinner and had a salad for lunch. I did, however, have half a bottle of wine each night, and a lager a couple of times. I was more active than I am at home. I lost 2lb. Just eat mindfully but not obsess about what you should and shouldn’t eat and you may find that you enjoy your food more and eat less as a result.

I think you have a few options:

Go to breakfast as late as you can, and extend your eating window to 10 hours rather than 8. I think there's a reasonable amount of evidence that a 14:10 pattern still gives IF benefits.

Go to hotel breakfast and drink a couple of black coffees, then take something from the buffet for later

Don't go to breakfast and buy yourself something later.

As pp have said, if its a decent sized hotel most have a fairly international buffet, so there should be meats/cheese/eggs on offer, and berries.

It seems like there will be more things available that are both gluten-free and protein-rich at breakfast than at lunch (depending on where you are holidaying). Eggs, bacon, yogurt, smoked salmon, etc. are readily available at breakfast buffets, whilst lunches everywhere (in Europe, anyway) seem to be some form of sandwichy, bready thing. Or pizza. Or ploughman's-type, which is always kind of stodgy, even if you skip the bread. If I were you I'd eat breakfast and have a salad for lunch.
eta: I do IF as well, and this is how I handle holidays.

Can you actually eat at a buffet if you’re coeliac? I usually can’t eat at buffets as I have a serious shellfish allergy and people are gross and touch everything. I know my friend’s husband doesn’t eat at the buffets when they travel and they get something specific for him.

in this situation I’d probably skip breakfast, have a slightly early lunch and then a slightly later dinner. Would that work? It’s great that you don’t want to make your family fit into your eating requirements, but this might be less faff.

Do not take a tupperware. Do not have the hotel breakfast. Take some suitable snacks with you and have a small early lunch instead.

Well it is a diet. A diet is any way of eating - unhealthy diet, healthy diet, low carb diet.

Skip breakfast and just eat lunch and dinner.

Will you be able to get dinner at 5.30? Most restaurants don't open until 6 abroad.

Just skip breakfast? Easy to do.

I'd just skip breakfast.

I’d change the hours slightly you’re eating in a 8 hour window so not harsh, or just have coffee for breakfast and eat from lunch.

There is nothing magic about 16:8-the point is to have a significant gap between dinner and breakfast. Eating a bit earlier during your holiday week is not going to ruin your diet, though it's a bit sad to be dieting on holiday.

Relax your rules - eat eggs for later breakfast. It's your family holiday.

Pause the fasting while on holiday, but omit the carbs.|
That is, go for a protein breakfast; avoid the toast, croissants, etc