16:8 diet

[Mummytron]

Anyone doing it and can give tips please? I know it's where you only eat in an 8 hour window but wondered if there's anything else I should know?

Why are you leaving it so long?

If you stopped at 6 you could have eaten at 10am. And in fact, probably needed to!

Hi Giddy

Ah yes, I have and you have reminded me I have a box at the back of the cupboard - will dig it out!

Just had dinner so feeling a bit better.

Peanut it does get easier! I don't think I could be bothered making breakfast now - I just have coffee and water.

I didn't want to have to stop eating tonight at 6 Elspeth - I was a bit peckish last night and it stopped me getting to sleep. I would rather be a bit hungrier in the morning so I can have an evening snack (well by 8pm anyway). Wasn't fasting yesterday just decided to do it today so maybe wasn't prepared!

You're doing great Nomojo2016 15 days is a massive achievement, quitting sugar is definitely something I aim to do but I just don't have that much confidence in myself to do it. I was reading up on it earlier while shovelling Percy Pigs into my gob.

Welcome to the newbies, the more people the better. I love reading about people's progress.

I've not had a very good weekend, Sat morning I ended up eating that roll and sausage way before my fast should've been up and it just snowballed into Sunday then onto Monday. I blame half term as DS has been with me and we've had his friends over etc, it has been hard.

I've finished guilt tripping myself now and have had a good day today, that's me back in the zone. Hope you all have good losses this week.

Am in Blackpool of all places and finding it almost impossible to make " healthy choices" or eat at right times....back down sarf tomorrow and back on waggon.....

Thanks Rita - percy pigs I have surprised myself tbh!! NEVER in a million years thought I could go this long...but despite the tiredness today, I'm in a groove with it now. I suddenly realised tonight that my achy elbows that have been bothering me for a year and half are not aching anymore I am gobsmacked but am sure it's due to the no sugar thing!

I have made myself a little weight chart ,old-fashioned with pen & paper!> and am enjoying seeing the line go down.

Good luck to everyone for this week!

Hello everyone, welcome new folk! I finally got a different number on the scales today - phew! 12 stones 2.4 from 12.9 as had a great loss first week but have hovered around 12.4 - 12.5 for the last 10 days so roundabout half a stone in 3 weeks which I'm really happy with. Have had a few controlled sugar blips but on the whole am still amazed at how easy it's been to quit(ish) the sweet stuff. Also I discovered today that vodka lime and soda is carb free - yay!

Off to add licorice tea to shopping list!

Well done iknowimcoming

...in the absence of a vodka emoji!

Morning all, day 5 in the no breakfast house(in my best Newcastle accent) and going well so far. Just taking a break form cleaning. It's weird because if I'm distracted I don't even feel hungry. Nothing passed my lips after 7pm and I'll take it to 12pm before I eat. Doing 5:2 successfully taught this die hard breakfast eater that the sky does not fall in if she misses a meal. I just found 5:2 very hard to keep up after 6 months and fit around family whereas this is great, nobody has noticed. i'm thinking that when I'm back at work and have reached my target, I might just skip breakfast at the weekend and stick to NO S in the week to maintain. It's great to pour your thoughts out here, god knows nobody else is interested!!

I've well and truly plateaued weight wise but I'm not too discouraged as there's no question I'm actually consuming much less. I'm certainly not going to go up the scales, so I'm fairly relaxed about it.

I messed up with my timings the other day and didn't manage to eat dinner before 5.30. That was hard. But I made a cup of tea and stuck it out.

I'm also finding that I often go past 9.30 in the mornings, not on purpose, just cos I'm so busy. And on the days where im at home with the kids I've usually finished by 5.15 cos I eat with them. So my eating window is usually more like 6.5/7 hrs.

Tonight I'm having Wednesday Wine night. I'm going to try to not snack too much though. One nice thing only.

Ironically I have never ever been so disciplined on any other eating plan. I personally have no rules whatsoever other than keep it to 16:8. It's so simple. It's easy to restrict times you can eat when you're not actually restricting WHAT you can eat.

Agree Elspeth, it feels like the no diet-diet.

Morning Giddy - yep, I have done 5:2 before but found it much harder. I think eating small amounts of food is harder than eating nothing tbh. It's like your body is going "Hurrah! Food! FFS is that it??" and just wants more...

I have found the weight loss the same on 16:8 although probably dropping sugar has helped with that.

I woke up feeling absolutely awful this morning, really nauseous and with such a dry mouth. I think my body is beginning to realise it's not going to get any sugar and is protesting!!

Nomojo - I have noticed that I REALLY notice that I'm thirsty now and I'm drinking loads more than before (which is a good thing imo). I did feel really tired around the second week of no-sugar but I've started to pick up again now, so keep up the good work

Can I join? I am doing this on and off but need to be more consistent! I find not eating until 12 quite easy as I am busy at work and drink loads of water but the issue I have is once I've started eating at 12 I cant stop!! biscuits, ice creams, chocolate literally all the bad stuff!! Has anyone got any tips/ideas??

Hi oranges8 , just stop eating between meals. Simple rules are the best. Make a packed linch and stick to it.

Thanks iknow . I have a really dry mouth in the morning and am concerned about "atkins" breath as my diet is very low carb but just I just try to make sure I drink loads of water.

Hi orange welcome! I find eating a more high fat/low carb diet makes you feel full. I was the biggest sugar addict going and have eaten a miniscule amount of sugar since I started HFLC. I appreciate not everyone wants to eat this way though. Could you have a fruit tea afterwards? And liquorice tea is really sweet too - then clean your teeth?

Second Giddy's idea of taking a packed lunch - if you prefer to eat carbs.... lots of salad leaves, some roasted veg, boiled egg, bit of halloumi, some protein and seeds with a oil/vinegar dressing and maybe a couple of oatcakes.

Do you like dark chocolate? If I'm really really desperate, I'll have a square of 85% cocoa dark chocolate but I don't have it every day as it's a slippery slope for me. Probably not allowed on a no sugar diet but it keeps me on track and doesn't affect my weightloss. I don't count it as real chocolate as it's actually quite good for you and has minimal sugar in it.

I've also made some biscuits from the iquitsugar book. You use rice malt syrup or stevia which don't elevate insulin levels like sugar. I'll have one of these with a coffee if I'm really missing biscuits. Unfortunately my son ate most of them - he said they were amazing

TodayI actually went 19 hours before eating. Dinner last night at 6.30pm.Was at a friend's for lunch at 1 and then we didn't eat until 1.30pm and I was absolutely fine. I'd had one cup of tea at 8, water, then a coffee at 11 and that kept me full. I REALLY enjoyed my lunch and luckily my friend makes delicious healthy food so I enjoyed avocado and fennel salad, roasted tomatoes with feta , beetroot, bean and mint dip with 2 small pieces of ciabatta. I was full until 7 so I've just had a 2 egg mushroom and pepper omelette with green salad. Taxi duty tonight so no alcohol but I feel like I've had an indulgent day. Can't believe this completes 7 breakfast free days. I feel trimmer so am hoping the scales will reflect that tomorrow!Fingers crossed.

Brilliant Giddy

Let us know what the scales say tomorrow!

Hi there, well the scales have complied and I am 9st 8.5lb this morning, a drop of 1.5lb in a week. I am so pleased as apart from skipping breakfast every day, I have eaten lots of delicious and nutritious food and haven't felt hungry. I also notice how much longer food is lasting in my cupboards and fridge with me not picking and that's a wake-up call.

Excellent giddy - well done!

Hi there I'd like to join please! I'm not hugely overweight, in fact I don't know my weight as we've no scales in the house but Ive basically been eating like it's Christmas since Christmas and am now living in the same two pairs of trousers for work week in week out because nothing else fits I'm 5'2" so don't carry any extra weight well and early 40s/peri-menopause is making it hard to shift weight off my belly.

I decided to try 5:2, did my first fast day on Thursday which went remarkably well considering the ridiculous amount of crap I normally eat. I came across this thread yesterday and after reading the whole lot (you're all so inspiring!) I've decided that on my non-fast days I'm going to do this 16:8 "diet".
It's gone really well so far today, busymorning taking the kids to swim lessons and then off to visit my sister so I didn't even feel hungry. Broke my fast at 2:30pm with a poached egg and 2 slices of low cal whole grain toast. I'm full! DH got a bag of jam donuts and I don't even want one. Planning on having beef burgers for dinner, I'll have mine with a salad instead of chips. Reckon that will be around 7pm and then I'll fast again until lunchtime tomorrow. Planning on doing my 5:2 fast days on Mondays and Thursdays
Thanks to you all for your updates it's great to hear how others are doing it. Sorry if my post was too long!

Well done Giddy that is great, when you think over a month that could be 6lbs off - fab

Hi macnab!!...so pleased others are joining Your post was fine! I love hearing all the details of what everyone is eating and how they are making it work for them.

I am down to 9st 7.6 this morning which is 6lbs down from 2 weeks and 5 days ago. I am really chuffed. Had a slip up today though - DH wanted to go for lunch and we ended up in an Indochinese place. I was really difficult to choose something off the menu which wasn't carby - I had a sort of chicken stirfy thing without noodles or rice but ended up bingeing on prawn crackers (DH ordered those). I could tell from the sauce that it was full of sugar - felt so sleepy afterwards.

Anyway, am not letting it deter me. There are always going to be times when you just have to go with what's on offer. I'm not going to sit there with a few lettuce leaves and a plain chicken breast. I really enjoyed my lunch and I just don't feel hungry tonight. I think my body doesn't need as much food now. I don't think I could eat what I used to - esp not all the chocolate and chocolate chip brioche and bags of revels & giant chocolate buttons that I used to

Nomo I agree and I am more relaxed at the weekend because that is life and there has to be enjoyment. Today I thought it went too far as I didn't get to eat my lunch until 3.30pm!!!! This was not planned and probably not wise. We went out for the day with the teenagers and were planning lunch out but being a lovely sunny day, could not get a table anywhere. After lots of trudging eventually found somewhere and the food arrived at 3.30. Boy was I ready for it. I ordered a smashed avocado on brioche with smoked salmon and a poached egg. It was yummy and I felt so full. This evening at 7.30(late for me)I wasn't that hungry but needed fruit so had a small bowl of strawberries, blueberries and grated apple with some Greek yoghurt and 2 glasses of white wine as it's Saturday I did learn that I can quiet easily go 21 hours without food. The hunger doesn't get worse, it comes and goes and depends on how distracted you are. Good lesson to learn for when you think you really need to snack. You don't.

quite easily!