16/8 support group

[Klaudia14]

Anyone interested in joining me here? I posted this on an older thread so will just copy and paste my story below:

I'm on day 8 doing the 16/8. I'm loving it!! I'm against dieting as restrictions always lead me to binges and feeling rubbish. I haven't weighed myself in 5 years as I got rid of my scales due to a very unhealthy obsession with weighing myself. I am very interested in intuitive eating and have been trying to get in tune with my body but it's been hard and the lockdown has thrown me off guard and I was overeating, feeling bloated and fed up. I'm loving 16/8. My eating window is 11-7 and I find this fits well with my lifestyle. I'm surprised at how much energy I have in the morning. Even managing an hour long walk with the dog ...getting up at 7 as well with lots of energy. Feeling less bloated and just happier overall! I think this is really helping me be more intuitively about what I actually want! Having good, hearty food. Butter and cheese and full fat yoghurt! These foods were always a no no for me but I much prefer theses to fat free/low fat options. I feel satisfied after my meals too .
Oh and I can't do this without a bit of milk in my morning coffee ( freshly brewed filter) so haven't cut that out. And have had a cheeky glass of wine during my eating window ...🍷

How is everyone this evening? I hope you all had good days. It’s been so much cooler here today. Kind of nice not to be lathering sun cream on the kids every 5 mins!

I stuck to my fast, but went for it a bit with some treats this afternoon and I feel so full now. I was so full of biscuits, I couldn’t finish my dinner. Unheard of! It really wouldn’t be a bad thing if this way of eating stopped me from being able to stuff my face!

@FieldOverFence are you eating enough if you end up feeling hungry so soon after? Or do you think it’s habit / boredom? I would definitely try to sit with that hungry feeling a bit and work out which it is. Then you can tackle it by filling up or maybe keeping busy.

@JamieFrasersSassenach I think your plan sounds ok. And the time fasting is probably the most important. I tweak my times a lot, but don’t go under 16 hours.
Like @Sissy31 I’m seeming to fall more naturally into an 18:6.

@Snuggz that sounds like a brutal night! Ds has been sleeping pretty well, but getting up about 5ish, which makes the day feel so long. He cut his first tooth today. Teething is one of the hardest bits of babyhood I think. Well done for not munching on that toast. I’m terrible for that type of stuff too.

Let us know how you get on with the book @MoonBabysMagicalKalimba ? I keep meaning to download it.

@SuperDuperC I think it’s really a personal thing. The general rule is not to have anything that can spike your insulin as it takes you out if the fasted state and makes you hungry. But we are all so individual, each body responds differently to things, I guess that only you can really tell if it’s working for you or not. I’m not a milk drinker, but I’d really struggle if I had to give up my black coffee.

@pandapotato I'm the same. I had to force myself to eat dinner because i was worried id not eaten enough.
I had tea and toast at 2pm then dinner at 6pm (small portion as i wasnt hungry) followed by fruit. I feel absolutly stuffed.

I think im going to experiement with skipping a meal if im not hungry. So to be honest today i could have had my tea and toast at 2pm and fruit at about 7 and been happy. I made myself have dinner as there isnt much nutritional balance in toast and a couple of pieces of fruit !

Wow! I needed to see that snippet re the milk! That's it for me, no splashes in the fast! I'll stock up on some herbals xxx

Good day today, managed to get past 3pm before breaking the fast (was still 16 hours as was drinking wine til 11 last night).

Small bowl of muesli and yoghurt, Thai green chicken curry with brown rice for dinner. Several hours of digging, shovelling and weeding today, am knackered.

I found it surprisingly easy to stop having milk in my coffee, which we mostly did because we only have one cup a day and no real other use for milk, so it was going off before we got through it.

Hi everyone, I started 16:8 on Monday and it's going pretty well. I'm also using a calorie tracker and not going above 1600 a day - today was 1400. I am breaking my fast at 11am and finishing at 7pm. I'd like to lose about 2 stone.

Just a question - do you do 16:8 7 days a week? I've read about people having a day off and wondered if there was any reason for this other than just having a day off?

If anyone wants another interesting video here’s another TEDx talk from Cynthia Rowley on women’s health during peri menopause and menopause. She refers to IF being a magic bullet for women in this zone of life, and certainly I’m beginning to realise that at 39 I am starting to show signs of being peri menopausal.

By the way, I know I’m sounding like a Cynthia fangirl, but it was her other TED talk on IF that I stumbled across that gave me the final kick up the bum to actually start it.

Welcome @Purplecalm !
I do it 7 days but have a day off for a special occasion, like i did for my birthday as i knew i would be drinking till late in the evening.
Its more of a lifestyle than a "diet", thats what makes it so easy once youve got past the first few days

Sorry that should be Cynthia Thurlow - Cynthia Rowley is a fashion designer I think 😂😂

I gave into tempation this morning and weighed myself.

Apparently I've lost 6lbs in 5 days.

Which is ludicrous, it's obviously water weight.

But still I'm a bit flabbergasted!

I'm properly hungry this morning, after being properly hungry last evening, but thank God for tea as it's definitely making it manageable. Drinking tons of water too.

People who say 'not eating enough ' make me 🤣🤣

Why is that funny? I've only seen it on this thread in relation to people that are finding IF difficult due to hunger. Why is it funny to think they might need to eat more? Any way of eating need to be sustainable. Its not sustainable if people are so hungry that food is all they can think about.

It must be a tough life if you’re literally crying with laughter (two emojis worth!) over someone saying they’re hungry. You mustn’t get a lot done littlemeitslyn.

@CaveMum

If anyone wants another interesting video here’s another TEDx talk from Cynthia Rowley on women’s health during peri menopause and menopause. She refers to IF being a magic bullet for women in this zone of life, and certainly I’m beginning to realise that at 39 I am starting to show signs of being peri menopausal.

By the way, I know I’m sounding like a Cynthia fangirl, but it was her other TED talk on IF that I stumbled across that gave me the final kick up the bum to actually start it.

Just watched it, great vid thanks Cavemum!

@ElspethFlashman I did the same this morning as I noticed my belly was sticking out less and to my shock I appear to be 4lbs lighter than I was on Sunday 😱

Like you I’m sure a lot of that was water weight and bloating (though I’m averaging at least 15 glasses of water a day so not like I’m dehydrated) and Sunday was the last day of my period.

Either way I’m thrilled! Long may it continue!

As far as breaking my fast goes, I tend to go straight into a meal - usually high in protein - so today I’m planning on bacon with an omelette.

I did the Whole30 4 years ago and lost just under a stone (became pregnant a month after finishing it and promptly put 3 stone on again 🙄), there are some lovely recipes in there that I still use. One really good one I found is the “Protein Salad” which involves chicken or salmon in a homemade thousand island dressing (surprisingly easy to make!) then I make it with spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes, grapes, apple and chopped almonds.

Hi everyone, well done @CaveMum and @ElspethFlashman with your fab losses! I feel as though I may have lost a little - but as I don't want to get back into weighing myself I will be going by how my clothes fit.
Last night I ate my dinner - jackfruit campfire stew with mash, and then nothing else - unheard of for me!! I did have a G&T which I didn't finish until 9.30pm so it put me back by half an hour with fasting.
As I am going to be having a few drinks tonight, I thought I would try to stretch my fast out to give me leeway if I need it this evening.
I broke my fast at 3.50pm, so 18 hours and 20 minutes (if my maths is right) - I am quite shocked I managed to go that long - gives me hope for a few 18:6 days in the future

Amazing results everyone, congrats!

We’ve had a good day today, hours of hardcore work on the garden. We didn’t feel hungry at all so we fasted until 3pm (18 hours) and just had a small bowl of muesli and yoghurt.

We’ve treated ourselves to a takeaway grilled chicken, chips and salad from the restaurant in the village.

No idea if we’ve lost weight this week but we’re feeling good.

Can I join you? I've been lurking a little for the last 10days of fasting. I weighed in on Weds after one week and I had lost 6.5lbs.

Joining as could REALLY use some support.

I've been doing this a week now. Have stuck to my fasting hours religiously (don't find that bit hard tbh) but not sure it's making a difference. Am a real emotional eater (particularly during lockdown). Sugar is my weakness, I don't enjoy veggies at all. Real struggle to get them down.

I think I'm over-compensating with food or eating the wrong food during my 8-hour window. Also perimenopausal so for the first time in my life weight goes on at the drop of a hat and simply doesn't shift.

I really don't want to keep piling on weight but I haven't managed to be successful with any diet thus far.

Any tips for how to make 16:8 work? Really grateful for advice.

I only eat twice during my window. I eat lunch and dinner. I don't tend to eat anything else except maybe a banana to break my fast.

So my window starts at 11am, but that doesn't mean I eat a late breakfast or brunch and then lunch as well.

I tend not to snack, but I suspect if you do need biscuits and stuff then you would have to have fairly low fat ones or you're essentially eating a meals worth of calories just from snacking.

The whole point is to be in calorie defecit. When I tried before and it didn't work, it was because I was basically eating as much as before, only in 8 hours.

Morning! I had a bit of a day off yesterday. It was our 10th wedding anniversary and we had the loveliest afternoon tea from a local cafe for lunch. It was a very late lunch as dh took ages to pick it up! So my initial fast was 19.5 hours. But I had a few drinks and snacks last night, so today’s will be a short one. Amazingly though, I definitely didn’t eat as much cake as I usually would. And I’m not desperate for breakfast this morning to soak up the booze. My appetite is definitely changing.

I had dropped a few more pounds by yesterday morning as well @cavemum and @elspethflashman. They have been talking about “the whoosh effect” on the podcast and it’s really interesting. However, I’m sure I’ve ruined mine With booze last night 🙊
trustyspotter.com/blog/whoosh-effect/

@PurpleCalm I do it 7 days a week, but flex a bit for special occasions.

Thanks for sharing that ted talk @CaveMum. Will definitely be having a look when I get a minute. I recently turned 40 and so many friends are talking about being peri.

@BatleyTownswomensGuild my tip would be just to give it a bit of time. Fasting is about so much more than just weight loss. much of what I’ve read suggests not to expect immediate losses as your body adjusts and heals from the inside first. Take small steps to get used to the fasting, then small ones to change what you are eating in your window. I’m hoping to lose weight, but doing this for the health benefits more than anything. The intermittent fasting podcast has been ace for me in learning about the science behind it all.

I hope you all have a great day. Atrocious weather here. I’m snuggling in bed watching tv with the 4 year old. Lovely!

Hi Batley, welcome to the thread.

Unfortunately I can only tell you what you already know (and don’t want to hear). 16:8 isn’t magic and you can’t eat what you like in the 8 hours if you want to lose weight. Fasting supposedly has other health benefits and some people find it easier to lose weight by cutting out a meal.

What’s working for me so far is eating less, especially sugar and gluteny carbs like bread, pasta etc. You need to retrain your taste buds, wean yourself off sugar and learn to like vegetables I’m afraid.

It’s shit, but dieting is shit. I’ve been a fatty all my life and while I’ll never be skinny I need to get as healthy as I can (while being a foodie, so veganism, clean eating etc is not an option), because I’m hurtling towards 40.

Well I tried on some of my bellwether clothes this morning, and I’m delighted. I’ve got items in my wardrobe that I haven’t been able to wear for years which I can now easily zip up (and they don’t look entirely terrible...).

I’ve been wearing a pair of shorts this week that I stupidly bought in a sale years ago and could never get over my arse. They’re tight, but they’re comfortable.

This is the danger zone for me now though. I always start slipping after initial good results as I tell myself, “it’s fine, you know you can do this now, so a bad couple of days won’t hurt”. Then I’m back to square one before I know it.

If I had to guess, I reckon I’ve got about another stone to lose.

Oh ALSO (sorry for spamming the thread), I’ve a non-weight loss thing to report.

The last couple of days, despite long days doing strenuous activity like digging, shovelling gravel etc, I’ve had little to no pain and inflammation. Normally I get horrendous pain in my hands, as well as RSI-type symptoms, and generally creaking joints everywhere. Often I’ve had to have days off from strenuous work to let my joints recover while I do less physically taxing jobs.

I haven’t had to take any ibuprofen this week. I really hope this isn’t a one off.

I have been taking a multivitamin and and iron supplement daily for the last couple of weeks, so I don’t know if that’s helping to keep the inflammation down, along with the fasting.

pandapotato
Thank you - wise words. I am looking at this for the long term as I want to reduce my likelihood of diabetes. So will stick at it. Don't actually find the fasting period so hard..

Winter
Thanks - deep down I know you are right. Veggies are hard because I also have ARFID and they are a food group that I struggle with. They make me gag. But I do need to cut processed carbs as much as possible. Or at least eat higher fibre ones with whole grains and seeds and stuff.

Have just broken my fast and had natural Greek yogurt with low-sugar granola and chopped almonds. Will try and stay on the straight and narrow today. Maybe a support group will help

Great news about your clothes @WinterAndRoughWeather! I managed to do up my rain jacket today for the first time since having the baby 🙂 And really great news about your non weight benefits. There seems to be some good evidence supporting if and reduction in inflammation. I’ve noticed this week that my migraines are less frequent. I’ve just had a period, and often get a cluster towards the end as my hormone levels change. But nothing this month. I’m still bf’ing, so it could be that. But I’m sure the fasting is helping to regulate my hormones.

Everyone is very supportive here @BatleyTownswomensGuild.
Do be careful that this way of eating is the right one for you though. I know they really don’t recommend it if you have a history of disordered eating. But I don’t know enough about ARFID to know what that means about it. I suppose I’m just trying to say to make sure you are taking good care of yourself.

Broke today’s fast with the loveliest bacon & avocado toastie. I love that I don’t feel bad about it like I would do on a normal diet. I also enjoyed a leftover scone from yesterday’s afternoon tea box. Perfect!