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

[Kitchenbattle]

Posting here for traffic. Need a bit of advice and/or perspective perhaps. I have started a new way of eating (I hate the term diet) and that involves 16:8 intermittent fasting. My question is I’m due to go abroad a few times this summer. And breakfast is included in the hotel and I will be with my family. I don’t normally eat my first meal until 10. How will I manage this? I don’t want to eat breakfast too early. Should I just take what I can from the breakfast buffet put it in a Tupperware and eat at 10. I also am avoiding carbs as as much as I can. And I am coeliac, so I can’t just go have a croissant and I won’t want to either. So I’ll need protein etc. Anyone else in the same situation who can give some advice?

we will normally have dinner around 5:30 six so that’s not a problem really. It’s just breakfast.

I fast OP, I’ve done it for about 15 years. At home I don’t eat until noon. On holiday though I suspend fasting, I’ll eat breakfast normally with my family. It’s part of the fun 😊

If this is the new you forever and you want to stick to it, remind yourself that just because food is in front of you, if that food doesn't suit you, you don't have to eat it.

Go to breakfast with your family, have a coffee and a chat. They'll barely notice what you're eating (or not eating). Grab a banana on your way out. Keep whatever you'd normally have (or a local, portable version of it) in your room for later.

I think dinner is going to be much more tricky as in many places in Southern Europe the earliest you can get a table is 7 often 7.30-8 . Also most hotels have a ban on removing any food from the buffet breakfast I would shift your eating window from 10-6 to more like 1-9pm

Relax your rules and enjoy a protein and fruit / vegetable breakfast with your family.

This.
I've been in your situation. I hate it when people say 'relax...you're on holiday...loosen up' as you're trying to make life long changes.
I'd widen the eating window but try to be really protein based. Eggs, Greek yoghurt, nuts, some meat and cheese but avoid all those pastries etc and no fruit juice. You'll feel nice and full too then.

I normally only eat 2 meals a day between the hours of 8 and 4. I have just come back from a 10 day holiday in Italy. I didn't stick to any plan. Ate lots of food and drank far too much wine! Enjoy yourself. Life is far too short! I'm now back to my normal eating pattern.

Must hotel breakfast buffets are open until 10, so go at 9.30, get a plate, drink your tea/coffee and then eat the food at 9.45, which is barely any different to 10. Don't take tupperware, hotels hate people doing that, they think you are helping yourself to a "free packed lunch".

To be honest though, I think you need to relax the regime. Intermittent fasting works mainly because you are intaking less calories a day. So if it's important to maintain, just find another way to limit your calories. Lay off the wine (sadly it's booze that piles weight on for me).

Like others have said, you'll have difficulty finding an evening meal at 5.30pm unless you're self catering or there are all day fast food places nearby. You may be better off having lateish breakfast and earlyish dinner and skipping lunch. That's what I do. If it's hot I often find I don't really have much appetite at lunchtime on hols.

Chances are you'll be more active when abroad anyway, so it's a perfect time to give the diet a rest.

Eh just eat an hour earlier?

Hotel breakfasts usually finish about 10am, so go for breakfast at 9.30am, have a glass of water and a cup of coffee or tea, and then about 9.45am have some eggs or yoghurt. That way you’re very close to your target time. They won’t kick you out at 10am. It just means no additional food is available from 10am.

I do 18:6 ish. Roughly. I eat when I feel hungry.
I wave it when it's not convenient. It really won't hurt you and you're more likely to be able to eat more protein and fewer carbs if you have breakfast and are selective than if you skip it and then struggle to find a suitable lunch

Just think about all the different healthy choices there will be on the breakfast buffet- different fruits to what you would have at home, toppings like seeds or dates with honey- you can stick to protein and low carbs, but give yourself a treat of new gut microbiomes. And also a treat of sharing breakfast with your family!

Same. If we go away then I eat with everyone but would focus on eating protein. When I get home I go back to my natural routine.

OK, I suppose my main issues that my family would want to eat breakfast probably around eight. Which is two hours earlier than what I normally do. I know a lot of people are saying to relax and eat with them and that’s great if people can do that, but I don’t think I can. Because of the nature of the kind of person that I am all or nothing so if I fall off the bandwagon on holidays, I will stay off the bandwagon and it will be very hard for me to get back on. So for me, it is important that I stay somewhat within my 16:8. In terms of dinner we always have dinner at that time and we’ve always managed to have dinner abroad at that time so I’m not worried about that. I could push that out to 6:30.

this is not something that I’m vocal about it it’s very much for me in my head so I would never make it an issue with the rest of the family. I will sit and have a cup of tea while they eat their breakfast. Help the kids get their breakfast, etc. My DP eats breakfast a lot earlier than me naturally anyway. We won’t be hanging around in the hotel for me to nip back down at nine-ish. I imagine we’ll be out doing things. But we’ll see.

I generally can’t have sausages from a buffet because they’re not gluten-free. So it will have to be bacon and meat and cheese. Possibly boiled eggs if they have them.

I don’t have lunch. I just have two meals. Solid breakfast and solid dinner.

I'm in agreement with most of the PP here in that I think you should relax your "rules" for these family holidays. It's not a medical issue and an hour or two one way or the other isn't going to make you ill. The fact that you feel that if you do so you are "falling off the wagon" and won't be able to resume your eating pattern when not on holiday is pretty extreme tbh. Why have you adopted this intermittent fasting pattern in the first place?
The problem with your solution of just having tea at breakfast and supposedly not eating anything at lunch either is that you're going to be either very hungry and/or tired. And even if you pack something to eat later at your "assigned" breakfast time, how are you going to do that without inconveniencing the rest of your family and the day's activities?

I’ll just eat it as we go. I don’t mind. Dp might want a coffee at that time anyway. Dc can have a juice etc. it doesn’t have to be bang on 10am just there or after. Like yesterday I didn’t eat until 11:30 because I was busy.

It's really not going to have much impact on your body if the regime is 15:9 or 14:10 for the duration of the holiday. Just go to breakfast as late as possible and have supper as early as possible and don't worry about it otherwise.

Hotels that include breakfast but charge for lunch will be on the lookout for packed-lunch-hoarders. They my even have Ts&Cs that boil down to saying that food on the breakfast buffet is only free if taken for immediate eating, and if you are taking it away it will be charged for.

I do intermittent fasting but not every day. I find it really helpful. Instead of having breakfast I have dinner at a normal time and then fast till lunch or have a mid morning snack and then a big lunch.

This works for me on holiday but I do it every other day. I like to go for a run or swim first thing and by the time I've done that, we've got the kids ready and out the door it's 10am anyway. I don't find it restricting on holiday as then eat as I want the rest of the day, usually a big lunch with a beer!

Your update sounds exhausting.
You could have some nice things in the fridge/freezer at home that make it easier to slip back into a routine.

Thank you. I could widen it slightly perhaps yes but I don’t want to eat at 8am that’s 2hours and then I’ll want lunch and dinner…which is not what I need to do at all. 🤣

Can you hold the family off till 9 ?

Could you hold off a herd of wild horses? 🤣🤣 no way 😅

to be honest, I don’t really want to be vocal and try to adapt how they eat. This is not for them. It’s for me. When they have lunch, I’ll just have a herbal tea or something. And I’ll treat myself to an ice cream if I like etc

Keep it to a cup of tea/coffee at breakfast and have a solid lunch instead?

You know what? This is not a bad shout! maybe, I could just do this and have a piece of fruit or something. And then have lunch with them when they’re having lunch.

Have yoghurt or eggs for breakfast with fruit or sliced cucumbers/peppers. Skip lunch altogether and then enjoy your early dinner.