18:6 and finish eating by 3pm - more impact?

[Sssloou]

Just read that 18:6 has more impact than 16:8 - anyone tried this?

Also that the eating window should be front loaded in the day - something about circadian rhythms and it is not good to eat in the evening before sleeping.

Sounds tough ... wondered if anyone has tried this.

I have found 16:8 easy especially as I am now able to hold off eating until after 11am ... but I think it would be harder to now swap to eating breakfast and stop eating after 3pm.

Does anyone have an early eating window?

www.health.harvard.edu/blog/intermittent-fasting-surprising-update-2018062914156

I do 14:10 or sometimes 15:9, I usually have evening meal at 5.30pm which I think is early enough, but yes have breakfast early and lunch very early too - sometimes I combine them and have brunch and dinner only.

I have been able to do this since working from home - I usually finish eating by 1-2pm, and have a 18-21 hour fast. I think it makes a difference as you stop eating a long time before sleep, and when I wake up I'm not too hungry, whereas when I eat later and fast from 6pm, I'm always starving in the morning. I think the time I would be most hungry during a fast is when I'm asleep, so I bypass the worst hunger.

I don't think it's recommended long term though, and I won't be able to sustain it once I have to go back to working in the office. But I think it definitely helps speed up weight loss.

I've been doing 18:6 since January when my total cholesterol was high and my gp wanted to put me on a statin. With a 6 hour eating window I aim to eat my first meal at 12 noon, sometimes a little earlier but then I have to eat my other meal earlier and that doesn't fit in with work as well. Sometimes I forget to eat until 2 ... I'm doing low carb but have also moved towards Ted Naiman's p:e diet so eating less fat than I was before. I started low carb 18 months ago and at first I ate fat bombs to keep me going but don't make those much now. I have a couple of coffees with double cream during the morning and haven't felt hungry since I started low carb. I used to eat breakfast and then snack through the day. Weight is now coming off steadily, almost down to my lowest weight in 23 years again, I was there in 2012 for a moment, through low fat high exercise before life got in the way. I was pre diabetic before low carb, now my Hba1c is 35. Whilst I'm still obese I'm not morbidly so anymore. I am 3 stone lighter than my top ever weight and have about 6 stone to go...

@secondchapter that’s really impressive and inspirational. Congratulations. I laughed at the “moment” you were a low weight as I recognise that yo-yo. Fleeting. But this is my last chance and is not a diet as such - but a way of eating for life for me. Loss has been slow and steady and I suppose I asked the Q to see if by squeezing the window a bit more loss would be faster.

But I should be grateful for slow and steady.

I'm happy with slow and steady, it seems more sustainable. I have noticed that if I do more weights / exercise I can speed things up, but even without trying very hard I'm losing an average of 1lb a week at the moment. I really wish I'd gone low carb in 2012! My top ever weight was in 2009 I think, that is my starting point in mfp. I am nearly at 50lb below that which was always a milestone I was aiming for and didn't quite make in 2012. I will with low carb because I eat when I'm hungry and often forget to eat and am not always stressing over eating too many calories. Way of eating is the thing, I don't feel deprived and I'm starting to trust that my body is healing and will find it's own equilibrium without too much stress on my part. The fasting window is as much for my lipid profile and blood sugars as for weight loss, I suppose I'm now much more focused on health rather than weight iyswim I think the weight loss has followed the health improvement - once I started eating local unprocessed food and cutting out grain, sugar and seed oil I just felt better and my blood tests were so much better, apart from the LDL

I'm on board with IF (need to get back to actually doing it!) but there's just no way I'm going to ditch eating dinner with my family every evening. Apart from anything else, I don't think it would send a very good message to my teen dc.

I tend to start my eating window at 12 or 12:30 ish and eat dinner at about 6:45 or 7pm. So I'm already often stretching to a fast of 17 hours. It sounds as if snacking in the evening is the real no-no, and I never ever do that, even when I'm not doing IF.

I've been doing keto 18:6 IF for about 8 weeks now. Was previously doing keto 16:8. I've not found it hard at all, but I've never really eaten breakfast and quite frequently skipped meals due to a busy work load. I love my 18:6 eating window. I normally eat lunch about 1pm and keep it as my biggest macro meal - about 1000 calories, and 70% of my macros. Then I can burn off these calories throughout my day. I keep my evening meal lighter and lower fat. Normally about 400-500 cals. I try to stop eating by 7pm, or 8 at the latest. Since starting keto I'm never hungry anymore and have had great results with this 18:6 eating plan.

I do occasional 24hr fasts as well and have done a 48hr fast as well. Normally they're unplanned and if I'm not hungry then I just see how far I can stretch it out

I can't manage 18:6. I can do 15:9 easy. However, I've been logging my calories and think my issue is that during eating hours I don't eat enough, the other day I had about 500 calories and most days average 700! So am going to eat a bit more (still low carb healthy) and think that might help.