16/8 - 2021 thread

[feliznavidad2]

Anyone else starting afresh in the coming days? I've dabbled in 16/8 in the past but then got a tummy bug and didn't restart.

I'm now the biggest I've been in 10 years and am keen to start taking some action to make me feel healthier and to lose some weight. 👋🏻

Aside from 16/8, I'm going to be reducing my carb intake (although still eating some) and ensuring I eat more fruit and vegetables.

Hello to any others who may be keen to join. I'll be weighing weekly on a Monday and using the Zero app to track my fasts.

Hi all. Glad I'm not the only one to have a "dirty drink " !! I have a Nespresso around 12 But then don't start eating until about 3 and I have my evening meal about 9sh.
I hope this is ok. I've not weighted myself since my first weigh in as I don't want to get disappointed and sabotage my self!!
I'm going for low carb as muxh as possible and if I do eat carbs I try and eat wholemeal bread or a whole meal wrap.

Urgh I ate loads of crap today and feel rubbish, still started my fast on time tho - here's to a better day tomorrow, hopefully 😬

Ate too much of the bloody apple strudel but otherwise not too bad.

Here's to keeping on keeping on all.

Can I join here please? I've just finished 12 weeks of 5:2 and now on maintenance. Will carry the 5:2 but this week I also introduced fasting. Some observations.

Normally I do 13/11 but this Monday I fasted 16 hrs the first time and it worked out really well. I woke up hungry but a black espresso took the edge off. I felt really good all day.

Today, I decided to fast 18 hrs but it was 19hrs in the end as my lunch took so long to cook! I made butternut & cashew soup from the Fast800 online programme and it tasted amazing after the fast. I also had a slice of spelt sourdough with some butter. It was all so heavenly. BUT, soon after I had a massive crash and ended up having a 10 min snooze on the sofa. I also felt bloated long time afterwards.

In hindsight I now realise that I probably shouldn't have broken my fast with such a carb rich lunch . Is that right? I realise it's fairly low carb to someone who eats "normally" but as I've had a low carb diet for the past 3 months, butternut squash and sourdough probably is too much.

Other than that, the 19 hour fast felt like a doddle much to my surprise. I did wake up hungry again but the feeling does pass quickly. I'll do 18 hours tomorrow again but will break my fast with an omelette this time. Will be interesting to see if the bloating will stay at bay.

Hi RedHot
I’m new to this so learning. Day 3 for me doing 16:8 and now I’m trying to do the 5:2 as well, I know you’re meant to stick to 800 calories but I’m seeing that it needs to be low carb too. So much to learn!
Just interested how much weight you lost doing the 5:2 for 12 weeks if you don’t mind sharing?

Hi Skinny Not at all, I want to shout it from the roof tops

I lost 1.7 stone in total and 7 inches off my waist. That's 11kg and 18cm respectively. I'm over the moon about it! And best of all, I've never eaten this well in my life.

I'm 5'4 and 48 years old. Currently size 8-10 which I haven't been since my wedding in 2007. I am a former sugar and carb addict (lol) and kept putting the low carb diet off as I thought life wouldn't be worth the living without sandwiches, burgers and sweets. But I promise it's amazing here, on the other side. I'll never go back to carbs, don't miss them at all.

I'm sorry if this sounds somewhat evangelical

Wow that’s amazing. Well done you! I’m not sure I can give up the carbs 😬 I love bread, pasta and rice but I’m going to try and look for alternatives. One step at a time, just trying to get my body adjusting to not stuffing my face all day long at the moment.

Just been reading more and I think I’m confusing the fast 800 and 5:2 😩 so far I’ve had three days of 16:8 eating and on Tuesday I had a lower calorie day of 861 (couldn’t get it to 800) but I think for 5:2 the 2 days need to be 500 cal?
If I try to stick to 16:8 eating having around 1400 calories a day and then have two lower days at 800 would this work or am I confusing myself and just stick to 16:8 and 1400 a day?
Also what to do about carbs? Should I try and reduce them whichever one I’m doing?
I’m basically 4 stone overweight, but would be happy losing 3 stone.
Sorry for so many questions!

@Skinnydecafflatte
Just been reading more and I think I’m confusing the fast 800 and 5:2

I think traditionally 5:2 means eating up to your TDEE on the 5 days you're not dieting, although there is an idea of matching your TDEE to your maintenance weight. @ListeningQuietly on the 5:2 thread may be able to help further.

That said, I am combining 5:2 and 16:8. Mon and Wed are FDs so up 600-800 cal (am still breastfeeding so don't want to go much lower). Tues, Thurs, Fri = about 1600 cal but I don't start eating until after 16 hours of fasting. Sat and Sun I don't follow 16:8 but try to be sensible in terms of calories, although will definitely enjoy a takeaway and a couple of glasses of wine both nights!

I've lost 2kg since 4th January, so relatively happy with that.

Not had a great day today! Started the day finishing off a Galaxy bar about 6 squares. Then had mushrooms on toast and a chocolate biscuit and thought I will stop there. Then I had a sugar craving and had a big piece of cake!

It's so difficult to have self control when it's right there....

@LivingInAPrettyWorld it's just one bad day, back on tomorrow. Hope it was lush so worth the calories :-) I'm so close to opening wine. I've had a shitter of a day but trying to work out if the guilt I'll feel after it is worth it

I've been doing 16:8 this week (10:30am to 6:30pm) combined with a low carb WOE and I'm surprised to say I've found it easier than I thought. I was always a "2 pieces of toast with peanut butter at 8am" kind of gal, but if I have a couple of cups of green tea I can easily go to half10. I appreciate it's early days but not snacking, or feeling "snacky" of an evening will hopefully help me shift the lbs.

Good work @JamMakingWannaBe ! I find the idea of fasting way worse than the reality.

Still plodding on here. Went on the treadmill last night for the first time since I had Covid in November, depressing how much my already low fitness abilities had deteriorated but feeling motivated to get going again.

Happy Friday all. 🥳

Sorry to hear you had Covid Feliz, how are you feeling now?

I’m on day 5 of 16:8 and found it ok so far but I realise the weekend might be harder. Not that we’ve anything planned but just a different routine!
I’m been tracking calories and this week so far have had:
Monday 1681
Tuesday 819
Wednesday 1428
Thursday 1368
I’m not eating my exercise calories as I’m walking for an hour and it’s telling me 400 which seems high?
I was going to try and do 5:2 as well hence the low day on Tuesday but realised i was confusing fast 800 and 5:2 and didn’t know about the low carb side. So to stop confusing myself I’ll stick to 16:8 and MFP to record calories. Friday is always homemade pizza night in our house. I’ve worked out the recipe and so will be strict with calories otherwise today and enjoy pizza tonight. (560 just for the base! 😱)
Monday is weigh day, I’m so tempted to peek earlier but won’t!!!
Hope everyone else is ok x

morning all! wishing you a speedier recovery feliznavidad2 I was very ill a few years ago and lost a lot of my physical conditioning - it does come back through - slow and steady and be kind to yourself!

Skinnydecaflatte we are also having pizza tonight! We have this unusual Indian vegetarian pizza place near us that has really interesting pizzas - I usually get the tikka paneer pizza. My two favourite cuisines combined - pizza and Indian LOL.

Am a tiny bit disheartened this morning as up 0.5kg from yesterday. I hope its just water retention from the soy sauce on my dinner last night. I've been really disciplined all week!

Ah thanks both, I'm fine now, just not at all fit (I could only run a slow 5K pre-Covid...).

I bet your gain is due to the soy sauce @ladybranstonpickle - salt plays havoc with the scales for me.

Chicken breast burger made by OH this eve with wedges and homemade pizza tomorrow night (maybe with a G&T within my window!)

How's everyone doing today?

I definitely find weekend mornings the hardest to delay eating... just under an hour to go.

My eating window is 11-7 but I’m trying I push it if possible. I’ve sort of broken my fast about 10 minutes ago by having a tea with milk. Tastes amazing compared to the black tea!

I’ve just worked out my calories for this evening’s meal and now working out what to have for lunch. Dinner is a home made arriabiata sauce with red peppers and heck chicken sausages and pasta.

According to MFP Ive 600 cals that I can have for the rest of the day which seems good to me or 800 if I use exercise which I’m trying not too. Sticking to 1420 a day ideally. Weigh day on Monday 🤞🏻Happy weekend everyone.

My weekend has been a bit rubbish so far. Morning was OK, then leftover takeaway (curry) for lunch, but then I started snacking in the afternoon, which was not so great. I am finding it really difficult to switch off from work at the weekends, which makes me feel stressed all the time.

feliznavidad2 hope you start feeling stronger soon. Do you have a treadmill at home?

RedHot that is impressive and is motivating me to keep this going. I am around the same age and height and was around the same size on my wedding day (in 2001). I would be delighted if I get even close to that again!

Hope you are having a good weekend and have managed to enjoy the snow if you have had any. I had a lovely walk late afternoon, which definitely improved my day.

I'm the opposite @feliz. I find weekend mornings easier as I have a nice lie in which uses up my fasting time! Played with my wee one all morning and didn't actually eat until lunchtime (drank lots of tea though). I've done NO exercise this week so I need to do an online class of something tomorrow.

@anothermadamebutterfly yes, we bought a 2nd hand one that's kept in the garage - it's been really good as we live quite rurally now and it's too dark to run at night on your own.

@JamMakingWannaBe funny isn't it how we all find it different? I'm on my period so wonder if this is actually half the battle today, just SO HUNGRY.

Happy snow days to all of you with the white stuff. ⛄️

I had another 18 hour fast this week gone and this time I made a scramble with some goats cheese and sautéed peppers. I also made a 90 second Keto bread to go with it. Felt a lot better afterwards as carbs were fairly minimal but I still had some bloating afterwards. I wonder if it was the peppers this time. Just frustrating.

I also made beetroot brownies from the Fast800 cookbook the first time and they are delicious. No-one else in my family likes them though . My DS12 was keen to try them as he raves about beetroot brownies he can buy from his school cafeteria but I guess they add a tonne of sugar in them as his face was a picture when he tried mine .

Tomorrow's my 800 cal day and I'm planning to have a fast again until the lunch time. Will have smoked salmon with scramble, hopefully without bloating.

@anothermadamebutterfly Ah fab! Glad to hear its motivating! Originally I set a 6 kg weight loss as my target but then decided to make it a nice round number of 10kg as a target. In my head I thought it'll never happen but it bloody did! I hope you'll get there too .

@Skinnydecafflatte It is quite overwhelming at first and I didn't look into the fasting or counting macros until after several weeks of doing 5:2. I'm one of those who needs ample time to get my head around something that I perceive being complicated. Now I count macros for fun .

Take your time and don't feel the pressure to do everything straightaway. I really recommend trying to cut the carbs though as it makes a huge difference.

Lost 0.9lb which is entirely reasonable but I do think I need to up my game. There has been a little too much chocolate this weekend. And lots of carbs.

How is everyone else doing?

Good morning and happy Monday to all. I'm feeling quite disheartened this morning - back up to 67kg. I know this is probably due to the wine and carbs over the weekend but I can't help but feel annoyed. Using Happy Scale so trying to trust the process and just accept the blips. Hopefully the overall trend will continue to be downward. My scale does say that my body fat is declining, so maybe I need to focus on that. I know scales are notoriously inaccurate for body fat but I always heard you can trust the trend if not the measurement?

FD today - trying to drink black coffee rather than americano with hot milk. I've finished reading Gin Stephen's book Delay Don't Deny which is adamant that a clean fast is paramount in order to maximise fat burning.

Anyone else fasting today?