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 ...🍷

DH has joined me!

This is a guy who's never been on a diet in his entire life. But he's realised it's a way to stop him pigging out in the evenings, which he has always struggled with.

Nice to have some company!

Ive had a good day
Fasted for just over 20 hours, and eaten 2 slices of toast, a small salad with carrot sticks,cucumber and tomatos and some rasberries as snack
And 3 cups of tea (i'm working on cutting down my tea!)
Began fast again at 7pm

Hope youve all had a good day too!

@ElspethFlashman Thats great! Hopefully itll make it easier now you have someone to team up with

Did about 17 hours today, ate as follows:

30g muesli with yoghurt
Bowl of lettuce soup with croutons
Three wholewheat crispbreads with butter and half a tin of sardines
Small bowl of a sort of Black Forest trifle I made at the weekend

Was fairly active today too so not bad all told.

I’m really concerned that I’m going to slip though. I feel (and look) like I’ve lost a lot of weight, but I’ve still got about a stone to go and I always get complacent and screw up at this point in a diet.

I’m finding it pretty easy to stick to, but it’s the success that is tempting me to take some days off. Argh!

Is that enough food though?

How is everyone tonight. I fasted about 18 hours. Had eggs on toast for lunch & chicken curry for dinner followed by a little piece if chocolate cake. Not bad!

@FieldOverFence we have a teenage girl in the house as well. It feels important to think about what she sees me do in terms of food. Her and dh are definitely scoffing less biscuits of an evening now I’m not joining in.

Is that enough food @Sissy31? I would be starving.

@WinterAndRoughWeather I feel a bit the same at the moment. Like I’m loosing momentum. Still loads if weight to lose, so need to get back in the right headspace. There is an intermittent fasting stories podcast which I’m going to listen to see if that helps.

Hope everyone has had a good day 🙂

Was that question for me? I’m not hungry, so it feels like enough.

I’ve been taking a multivitamin and iron supplement though because I can’t see how I can be getting enough nutrients without more calories.

I thought that too just before my eating window closed but i dont feel hungry so i'm guess it is enough if i would have ate anything else it would have been because i thought i should rather than because i wanted it. I guess i will see how hungry i feel at lunchtime tomorrow!

@Pandapotato I'm listening to the IF podcast too. I'm only a few episodes in but its good. I listen to it in the morning while i'm tidying up and it motivates me through the last few hours of the fast

We should definitely be mindful of what we are eating, we need to make sure that we are taking in enough calories for basic daily function - I was reprimanded by My Fitness Pal one day last week for not consuming enough calories. To be fair I had done a lot of exercise that day so even though I had consumed about 1200 calories it was showing as only 500 when it accounted for those that I had burned.

Good morning, how is everyone today?
I've been sticking to my 16:8 really well - I did drink each evening over the weekend and am really pleased (& surprised) that I still only ate/drank in my 8 hour window. It is definitely harder when I'm drinking alcohol but doable, although I will try not to drink too often - my drinking has really crept up over lockdown.
I'm still not at a point where I want to count calories, but I am definitely eating less than I was - simply because I don't have enough time to eat that much 
@WinterAndRoughWeather & @pandapotato I am very good at that self sabotage of giving up before I've lost all the weight I want to too - no advice really except to say maybe try taking one day at a time - it has helped me in the past to say to myself today I will do this and then think about tomorrow when I get there.
During fasting I've been drinking water sand black coffee, can I drink chamomile tea and fruit tea (the teabag types)?
@pandapotato and @Sissy31 could you tell me what the podcast is that you listen to please?

Didn't mean to bold that paragraph!'

The podcast i listen too is called The Intermittent Fasting Podcast by Melanie Avalon and Gin Stephens

Hi! Broke my fast today with some left over chicken curry for lunch. It made me feel a bit sick. That’s happened a few times. Maybe I need to be more mindful of eating something gentle on the stomach to start with.

@JamieFrasersSassenach I’m listening to the same one as @Sissy31. Very motivating. And loads of intersecting stuff about the science. I’m hoping to get out for a long walk with the baby later on so I can have a listen. It’s just so hard to get 5 minutes peace during this lockdown. There is another on with IF stories as well, which I think might be good at pushing me forward.

Oh no! Did I kill the thread?!
Hope you’ve all had a great day.

Haha you havent i'm sure!

Ive had a good day, but struggling with chocolate cravings now

I’m here! A quiet few days but I’m keeping up with it so far and managing to keep the Couch to 5k going! No idea if I’ve lost anything this week (trying to keep to Friday as my weigh in) but my clothes are definitely looser and my love handles have shrunk!

Hello. Pretty good day. Fasted for 18 hours, had muesli, yoghurt, a peach and tuna and bean salad for dinner, followed by a couple of mini magnums (well, Lidl own brand ones).

I’m really tired and irritable at the moment though, which is tempting me to slip. I’m really sick of renovating - have been painting the house all day in the sun. Really need a break but we have to get it all finished by the end of the month,

I’m all about the chocolate cravings today @Sissy31! May have stolen some of the kids kinder sticks 😂
Also hear you on the irritability @WinterAndRoughWeather. I think that being stuck at home (we are in wales, so till very much in lockdown) is starting to get to me.
Nice work on the c25k @CaveMum. I’ve been good at pram walks, but rubbish with any other exercise recently.

My fasts are all naturally falling to 18:6 now, which is interesting. I’m still feeding ds, so won’t try to stretch them any further I think.
Exciting news of the day here is that I’m about to go to the supermarket for the 1st time tonight. We’ve been getting veg from the greengrocers delivered to top up the Tesco shop. But it’s been so very expensive! I’m actually really looking forward to hitting up Lidl 🤣

Well we were shattered when we got up this morning so we’ve given ourselves the day off painting and went to Ikea instead.

Shopping and dining is a bit of a faff with all the masks and one way systems, but it was nice to go out and do something other than renovating and gardening. Also we broke our fast with meatballs and a daim bar, which was mighty enjoyable.

After a week of consistent 14:10 or 15:9 fasting - I've GAINED 2kg! I definitely look smaller around the middle and feel great, but why the gain?! I have no idea. Not eaten too badly or drunk any alcohol. GAH!

Can I join

So I’ve started doing 16:8 - I’m feeling more sedentary WFH after a period of mat leave where I was more active (lots of walking!) and chocolate and wine have recently become my coping mechanisms for quite a stressful work role I’ve come into.

I’m trying to do a 12:30-8:30 eating period - tbh I hate breakfast so that works for me! But one question for the thread (which may have been asked before - sorry!) is about drinks in the fasting period. I need a coffee when I wake up and maybe a cup of tea mid morning to keep me going til I break the fast but really can’t deal with these being milk less...! Is the milk in two drinks going to send my whole 16:8 out of whack if I don’t cut them out?

Also exercising more (running 3 x a week, walking and yoga in between times) and feeling hungrier because of it! Also coupled with a low carb diet and being veggie I’m struggling to get those very filling meals in that aren’t carb-based or meat-based. Eggs have featured highly. Any tips on that front?

So envious of your Ikea trip, especially the meatballs @WinterAndRoughWeather! What a delicious way to break a fast.

@wejammin everything I’ve read says to use measurements rather than scales. It’s hard though! 2kg isn’t much - water retention etc can affect our weights so much. I wouldn’t give up hope just yet!

Welcome @zwerty. I think the milk thing is a personal choice. And I guess it depends on your goals from fasting. If you are mostly after weight loss, then the calorie deficit from eating less should probably do. But, if you are after the other health benefits of fasting, then you need to do a “clean” fast, which doesn’t include milk, unfortunately. That’s my take on it anyway.
My husband is a veggie. His proteins generally come from eggs, cheese, meat substitutes, and pulses. I suppose all that depends on how low in carbs you want stuff to be.

Hope everyone is ok today? I’m just making some Mexican baked eggs to have when the time comes. So good 😋

Hi @Pandapotato

Thanks for milk tips, it’s reassured me - I think initially it’s weight loss but other positive side effects would be brilliant too. I notice I do have more energy when I generally eat more healthily and reduce the rubbish - and have more motivation for exercise which in turn helps my mental health, sleep etc etc. I’m a bit of an “all or nothing” mindset with healthy lifestyle so the 16:8 has been helping a lot with that as it feels like an easy route for me to go down but still feels like I’m doing something! Otherwise it’s pizza, chocolate and wine in large quantities!
Yes eggs, cheese and lentils seem to be my go to - I do have some quorn and veggie alternatives too but have tried to reduce this lately because they’re a very processed and seem to be quite salty too. And I love tofu but DH isn’t a fan.
Just about to get an omelette ready with some fruit and yogurt for pudding. Aldi do a great tropical trail mix which has been a lovely topping for yoghurt!

@zwerty, I'm vegan and conscious of protein intake, although I'm a carb-lover so can't help with the low carb bit. I eat a lot of lentils and beans, so lentil Bolognese, curry, bean chili, love roasted chickpeas.
Tofu is a regular, would your husband eat it in nuggets, my kids love cubed tofu rolled in cornflour and shallow fried.

I also really like Kallo protein cakes, which are like rice cakes but made from lentils, really protein-y if topped with houmous or peanut butter.

Zwerty I think the issue with milk is that it contains lactose, which is a sugar and so it triggers an insulin response which then means your body is using sugar rather than fat as its energy source.

@wejammin I like the idea of the tofu nuggets - I will try that next week! I think it’s all in his head that he doesn’t like tofu (his Mum seems to slate it whenever I mention it so possibly to do with that!) and the Kallo rice cakes sound great. We’ve been shopping at our quiet local Aldi recently but hopefully might be able to get a shop in at Sainsburys soon and stock up on this kind of thing.

And thank you @CaveMum - that makes sense. Maybe I’ll try getting my much needed caffeine boost in the morning from green tea. I can drink coffee black but only with a spoon of sugar! Which would defeat the object

Today is going well so far (apart from the aforementioned milk in tea) I had a great omelette for lunch and planning gnocci with a big salad for dinner! Weighed myself and I’m 5lbs down in 10 days - much of that will have been the pre-period bloat/water retention but it’s cheered me up What’s everyone else having?

I’ve set a timer too so that by 8.40 the fast begins again - always more challenging on a Friday night when we stay up a bit later and snacks are tempting!