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.

Ps in case people are querying about gallbladder and eating the chips - I'm
not sure if that is the problem, GP had requested a scan and some bloods but it started after a v small amount of chorizo... so who knows?!?

I hear about the plateau, maybe you hit yours at the moment @Whoateallthechocolate ? Keep going and I’m sure you’ll notice it next week. Also have you taken your measurements? Maybe there’s a difference there? I must admit I forgot to take my measurements. 😳

I managed to lose 1kg this week (2.2lbs) so I’m pleased to have lost 4.9kg (10.7lbs) in three weeks, I know it wont keep coming off at this rate. My aim was to be below 13 stone for 1st March so 3lb to go for that. 🤞🏻🤞🏻

Hope everyone else had a good weekend?

@Skinnydecafflatte I usually have carrot and cucumber sticks (can't be bothered to chop a salad), reduced fat hummus, and/or soup with a small slice of bread. Today though, inspired by a PP I'm having a small jacket potato with baked beans - its only 156 cal for beans, plus 120 for the potato. I'm hoping it'll feel more filling than plain vegetables. Tonight is a baked frittata with garlic mushrooms and roasted peppers.
And well done on your loss - a great start!

@Whoateallthechocolate I hear you! I also think I'm on a plateau - not sure if I need to be stricter on NFDs - I'm disciplined during the week but my husband loves a takeaway at the weekend, and maybe that's what's slowing my loss down. I also feel similarly about activity levels - Before going on mat leave I would easily do 17000 steps a day between my commute and walking around during the day at work. Now its a real effort to get to 10000, although the nursery run has helped. I go the long way home most days.

Welcome @timkerbellx and @SaraJS216!

I also have a baby - she's nearly 14 months. How old is yours?

Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better @feliznavidad2 - I don't know much about gallstones, is it something to address with diet?

Hi everyone, just starting 16:8 today! Some really inspirational stories here already.

Hi @Salacia welcome to the group. Good luck with it all.

I think I have joined @Whoateallthechocolate and @ladybranstonpickle on their plateau! I am the same as last week (11 st), which is strange because I have been super-good this week, and have been running. Two positive things though: at least it is not going up, and also, I am feeing healthier and fitter. Less exhausted, clothes more comfortable, and fitter when running (I am doing the couch to 5k at the moment). And my skin feels and looks better - I am not so horrified when I look in the mirror in the mornings (unless in fact my eyes are going and I am deluded). I am also getting heart from the success stories on here!

I am applying the avalanche principle - a gradual buildup while nothing is massively visible, but then once there is enough momentum, it will all start rolling.

@feliznavidad2 you poor thing! gallstones, if it is gallstones, are horrible.

@SaraJS216 good luck with your start today! I have never been much of a breakfast person, so I do not miss breakfast, but I imagine your body will get used to it slowly. Congrats on your baby.

@Whoateallthechocolate. I agree completely about not realising how much we normally move about. My normal job is not enormously desk-based, but at the moment that is all I do.

Hope everybody has a good week!

Hi all,
Is it ok if I join in?

I started with 16:8 IF a few weeks ago. Initially I did well and lost 8lb but I'm finding that I'm yo-yo-ing a bit.

My goal is to be around 10stone and currently I'm 11stone 10lb (sometimes a bit more). I run a few times a week providing I can fit it in around the 2 babies (2yrs and 1yr old)

I skip breakfast and eat at 1pm generally. Sometimes I go longer.

I wondered is it normal to lose a lot initially and then it slows down? I feel like there's no reward if the weight has become stagnant but I also know I've only been doing it a few weeks.

I am vegan and I have been trying to eat as clean as possible - all freshly made stuff and fresh ingredients. There is a lot of vegan junk food out there now so it can be difficult to not just reach for the convenience foods that I can shove in the oven.

Today I had black coffees til 1pm, then I made a stir fry but I fucked the recipe up a bit and it turned out not great so didnt eat much of it. Also had a carrot, a biscuit (shared with DD and DS), I've just eaten a handful of pistachios and we will probably eat at around 7pm but I'm feeling quite hungry now.

Also forgot to add - clothes are feeling much looser already after 2 weeks and I look less bloated.
I wondered if it was worth trying to do keto too to try to extend the fat burning. I'm not sure I want to make that much effort seeking out keto vegan recipes though 🤣 I get so fed up of cooking sometimes. I am a good cook, I just hate doing it!

Help!

Completely fallen off the wagon. Due to house move and lack of kitchen facilities, ate takeaways, now can't get back on the path.

Need motivation!

I feel as though I have infected the thread with weight gain and plateau! Selfishly, I'm glad I'm not the only one to be a bit disappointed.
Today my mood seems to have been one of "ha! Weight! You're not going to get me down!" which is good as, when I've had a "bad" weigh in, I can go the other way and completely fall off the wagon.
I have done 30 mins yoga (never sure that that really counts as exercise) and am about to do 30 mins on the x trainer. I had a black coffee before lunch and then had a thin bagel with goats cheese and some sun dried tomato (disproportionately calorific so savoured the two small bits I had got out before reading the back of the jar!) and a pile of chopped veg for lunch. I had a square of dark chocolate mid afternoon, a banana about 5ish and then beef casserole with a couple of new potatoes and a pile of cooked veg.

Hi I’m joining you today. Well done to everybody! Would somebody mind posting roughly what you eat on a typical day thanks 😊

Hi @Sweetpea84 welcome to the group.

I’m only three weeks in and finding it ok so far.
Today I’ve had a skyr yoghurt at 11am, soup and a roll about 1pm, banana and walnut muffin just now and I have chipotle turkey meatballs and spaghetti. (PON recipe) for dinner at about 6. I aim to have around 1420 calories a day. I’ve 265 unaccounted for today which is unusual!

I’m using my fitness pal to keep track of food.

Welcome @Sweetpea84
Definitely don't adopt my eating plan from today! Today was a death by zoom day with pretty much back to back calls from 10am - 8pm and, with both DC home schooling, any gaps were spent helping them or just being with them. I put their lunch together and then realised I'd only done enough for them and forgotten about myself so I did a fridge raid and had a couple of cream crackers, 2 hard boiled eggs, some spinach leaves and cucumber and then a slice of toast before running upstairs for another call. I had a bite of chocolate fudge cake about 3pm followed by an apple and half a banana (which DS left in my study when he came in to ask for help) and then work calls overran and pretty much merged into a committee call I had so I had a bowl of tuna mayo then worried i hadn't had enough veg so steamed some broccoli, cauliflower & cabbage and ate that with some black pepper.
Tomorrow's aim is to have an actual meal!
I did 30 mins on the x trainer this morning and 10 mins yoga this evening. Otherwise, I have been sat on my backside all day. I'd be surprised if I'd even managed 500 steps

Morning all!

Missed you all yesterday. Took advantage of it not being a fast day, and needed to use up some puff pastry I had frozen before Xmas...so made a mushroom tart thing with fat free cottage cheese, mushrooms and cherry toms for dinner. The filling was relatively low cal - but the pastry ! Husband was horrified, LOL.

Today's a FD - @Sweetpea84 I usually have soup for lunch and then we do a very light dinner - tonight is tofu and spinach stirfry. Sometimes I do a frittata as that's very filling but low in cals.

@Whoateallthechocolate well done on the exercise. I am still going with my yoga everyday, but been driving my baby to nursery because of the snow so my step count is pretty shameful this week.

@Wearethetwirl how can we help? Do you need recipes, success stories, motivation reasons?

Hi everyone. Can someone explain to me exactly how this works?
I keep hearing people saying they "eat normally" outside their fasting hours. How does this encourage weight loss? Surely you still need to be at a calorie deficit? If I have to calorie count anyway, what is the benefit of fasting?
I like the sound of it but it seems too good to be true!

@Ohdoleavemealone I think there are some scientific explanations, but my feeling is that one reason it works for many is because even if you eat normally within the eating hours, you overall end up eating less than you would have otherwise? So, I normally now have lunch at around 1, and then a snack at around 5 and then dinner around 8. And the size of my meals are probably similar to what they were before, except before I was probably eating something in the morning, and definitely eating again later in the evening (evening snacking is definitely one of my weaknesses), so overall it is less? But maybe others know more about it.

For me, it also seems to work because I don’t have to worry about cooking extra meals or calorie-counting, and that makes life quite easy. I am also not cutting anything completely out, which seems to be good in reducing cravings.

@Sweetpea84 my meals are very much determined by what we are eating as a family at the moment. They include quite dreadful things cooked by my teenagers as I have put them on cooking duty for two meals a week (but they are improving and last week was not too bad). So yesterday lunch was pasta with tomato sauce (lentil pasta as normal pasta makes me feel nauseous) with cheese melted on top, green salad and some fruit for desert. I then had a chocolate chip cookie (I had to - they were made by the kids and I could not say no) in the afternoon, with a very milky coffee and then for dinner I had humous, olives, tomatoes, feta and pita and honey and yogurt for desert. The day before I had baked potato with tuna mayonnaise and salad for lunch and then leftover Chinese takeaway for dinner (had to be used up), and some fruit in between. Sunday I made a roast chicken/veggie sausages with roast potatoes and carrots and parsnips and sweetcorn. I had a bit of everything minus the chicken and the yorkshire puddings (not a fan of them anyway), and a small piece of chocolate cake with custard in the afternoon, and then a banana and peanut butter sandwich for dinner (a bit strange, I know!). On Saturday I had leftover curry for lunch and fruit in the afternoon and then dinner cooked by the kids (potato wedges and salad and omelette, which was actually pretty good). Friday was a bit rubbish and I had bread and cheese with soup for lunch, snacks and a beer at around 5, and then Chinese takeaway for dinner with another beer.

I have been slowly but regularly losing weight since I started, with some weeks better than others. I guess that portion size could also matter a lot - I suspect my portions are fairly moderate, but it is difficult to know?

Hope everybody's week is going well

@Ohdoleavemealone I agree with @anothermadamebutterfly. Also, there is such a thing as "appetite correction" which is supposed to kick in after you've run down all your glycogen stores in your liver. This means your appetite decreases and moves more in line with your caloric needs, so you're less likely to overeat.

Gin Stephen's (author) talks about this in her book Delay, Don't Deny, which I recommend.

I personally do calorie count, but that's because I'm combining 5:2 with 16:8. I want to track my calorie intake on the fast days as well as make sure I'm eating within my calorie limit on non fast days.

That said, I have had the hardest FD so far today! It might be because I had an extra cup of coffee this morning with milk that possibly spiked my insulin...but I just had to eat some bread with my soup at lunch. With the stirfry for dinner tonight I think I'll come in at around 800 cal, so more like a mini-FD.

Going to try to make it out of the house for a walk this afternoon as the sun is shining!

In my completely non-sciencey understanding, isn't there supposed to be something to do with how your body reacts to food after 16hrs that encourages weight loss too? I do wonder if I would do better to eat a bigger meal at lunch and dinner and only eat of those two occasions rather than graze a bit mid afternoon. Today, for example, I had lunch, then a cup of tea with milk an hour or so later, have now just had a square of dark chocolate with a cup of milky coffee and may well have a banana around 6pm as I know I won't have dinner until 7.30ish. All of those instances of eating must be spiking my insulin.
I also wonder if the supplements I take before bed have any impact on my fast but I couldn't take them any earlier as the magnesium is to help me sleep.

@ladybranstonpickle

I am comfort eating during lockdown, I suppose I am bored and looking for a pick me up. But it's terrible for my health. I am 11 stone and lost 12lbs but regained 4. I am heading for Obeseville but don't know how to stop.

How to keep the motivation up??

@Wearethetwirl you did so well to lose that much. Did you notice any differences? What did you like about that?
I've put on 7lbs or so in the last year or so and, whilst I can get into my clothes, they all look too tight but I don't want (and can't afford!) to go up a size. If I can lose another 7lbs after that, I will then be within a normal BMI which I should be as, other than laziness and greed, I have no reason to be overweight and will be able to wear everything in my wardrobe rather than just half of it!

@Wearethetwirl finding motivation when it is not there is so tough, and I so understand the lockdown boredom, I find wfh really difficult and claustrophobic. My job normally involves constant interaction with people, and the whole zoom thing does not hack it for me at all.

Not sure how I could help, but maybe we could all do a bit of brainstorming on what motivates us?

For me, I am definitely motivated a lot by vanity, wanting to wear clothes that no longer fit AND look good in them, and some strange, and probably misguided feeling that being slimmer will mysteriously stop the ageing process and make me feel younger, wanting to feel and be healthier and fitter and less tired, and a hope that at some point spring will come and lockdown will ease and we will be able to go out and meet people and do at least some of those things we used to do.

Can anybody think of any others?

@Whoateallthechocolate

Definitely noticed the difference and felt better. I am the fattest I have ever been, the other day I saw a pic of myself oh God I looked like a long haired Christopher Biggins.

But with few places really to go and unwind, I see a choccie biccie and think "yeah!" and it cheers you up for a bit but the spare tyre around your waist increases...

@anothermadamebutterfly
I work from home and the motivation to look smart/presentable has decreased I must confess.

I know I need to do this. Rebel Wilson spoke about "a year of health" and this motivated her weight loss. I need to have at least 3 months of health just to get down to a more healthy weight.

I'm confused.com. This is week 3, I have notices my hips seem flatter and some trousers seem slacker and yet I've just weighed myself and I'm the same weight as when I started!?

Just seen this somewhere else and it made me chuckle.

Argh I wrote a super long reply and then it didn't post!! Will try again later.