16:8 I need to lose at least 5 stone

[Whichcatthatcat]

Please help me. I've done this diet before, lost a stone or so but gradually put most of it back on.

I'm starting today and need company/ motivation etc.

Anyone want to join me?

Sorry, lengthy great dissertation on ADF was probably not necessary 😂

Why use 10 words when I can use 100? 🙄😁

@ZaraElizabethIsMyNewSpyName

What I love is that IF makes it relatively easy to maintain the weight loss so far! Especially when factoring in holidays and other circumstances that would usually throw us "off plan" and cause us to regain a bunch of weight.

Just came across this thread. What is 16/8 and is it any good for peri-menopause women? So fed up with my weight and need to lose 4-5 stone but it is more difficult at this age. Also the encouragement online can be great and I need that. My OH brings chocolate in every night and it's hard to say no when he's eating it beside me and offers me some. Thanks,

joewe41 yes - I lost my 7 stone at age 44-45 and in peri (started hrt after losing the weight). To actually use the weight I did 18:6 and 20:4 - at our age 16:8 works at the very beginning if you've previously grazed all evening, and for maintenance as long as you stick to it as a lifestyle fairly much permanently.

The numbers are fasted hours: hours during which you eat (but obviously you don't eat constantly during those hours! Common sense obviously).

So 16:8 means fast for 16 consecutive hours out of 24, which is pretty easy as it includes the hours you're asleep at night! You pick the hours which suit you but it's best for most people to avoid evening snacking and start fasting after finishing your evening meal. So you might fast 8pm to 12 noon and eat lunch at 12 noon, sensible snacks like fruit, veg, a very small handful of nuts or whatever in the afternoon and a normal dinner at 7, then fast again from 8pm.

Or eat dinner earlier if you want to break your fast earlier in the morning.

It's actually useful to fast for any length of time over 12 hours - if you usually graze in the evening you might see benefits even from beginning with a 14 hour fasted period (say 7pm to 9am) initially and increase to 16:8 later.

@ZaraElizabethIsMyNewSpyName Sounds interesting. Might be a good idea to start now while I'm not at university as I'm not sure how skipping breakfast will go and I like my dinner - the uni hours might be difficult to fit around but as you say could play around with the times and see what works. Definitely worth a try as I really need to do something. 14 hours might work well around it.

joewe41 I fit it around shift work (variable shifts including all options, nights, earlies, lates, days) - its incredibly flexible.

Needing breakfast is IMO a complete urban myth - I was brought up believing it was "the most important meal of the day" and that missing breakfast was absolutely not an option, and it took me decades to realise that's absolute nonsense. I used to force one of my kids to eat breakfast against her will and only stopped when ahe pointed out at secondary age that DH never eats breakfast - he never has, since he himself was about 10 and his mum stopped forcing him, and he's got a master's degree (as have I to be fair despite determined breakfast eating then 😂🤣) so I accepted that she could make her own decision about when to break her fast (for the last six years she's taken a sandwich or leftovers to eat at about 11am and has done extremely well at school).

You can play around with the hours and find what works for you - obviously if breakfast is important to you eat it, but I think it's largely socialisation that makes us think that it's important to eat as soon as we get up - actually whenever you break your fast is breakfast, even if it's at 2pm or 4pm.

Traditional "quick" breakfast foods like cereal, toast, croissant etc are also terrible for raising and crashing blood sugar and IMO (though in some cases delicious) they're as bad as starting your day with a bowl of haribo or a chocolate bar and not actually"setting up for the day" at all 😂

I ate breakfast on holiday recently for the first time in years and was starving hungry by mid day for the first time in years - as I ate delicious pan au Chocolat and croissant it was obviously the blood sugar raise and crash making me think I was hungry, when if I don't have breakfast I'm not ever hungry until around 1pm or 2pm these days.

Dive in @joewe41 and give it a try! I know that going 16 hours without eating can sound absolutely crazy at first, when you're used to eating early breakfast and snacking late at night.

I remember the first day I "only" made it to 15 hours and fell headfirst into a bag of doughnuts at 11am feeling like I was a superhero for going that long without food 😁😁😁 But it amazed me how quickly I adjusted to not eating breakfast. Your body can and will get used to it quicker than you think.

Tips for getting started -

• download an app to track your fasts on, as there's something psychologically helpful about pressing a button to say you've finished eating for the day
• stay busy! It's a lot harder not to eat if you're mooching around at home with nothing to distract you.
• read "Fast Feast Repeat" by Gin Stephens, and check out her podcast too (Intermittent Fasting Stories). Lots of motivation really helps when you're getting into it.

I've lost around 55lbs doing fasting - still have more to lose, but am maintaining my original loss which is something I've never managed to do with other diets!! And fasting is now a part of my life. Sometimes I only hit 14 hours, some days I get up to 22 - and sometimes I do full 36-hour fasts. I love that I can adjust it to suit whatever the day throws at me.

Stupid broadband 🙄🙄 jammed and then double-posted...

@mumlikeaboss @ZaraElizabethIsMyNewSpyName Thanks for the advice. I'm going to find an app and start from tomorrow. I wasn't awake that early this morning but unintentionally didn't have anything to eat until 11 am. Will try to aim for 11 am tomorrow again but getting up earlier to see how that's going to work when I'm back to routine.

Hi there 👋🏻

Am also after a little help on this please! Baby two has meant weight has piled on!

I've tried to Google 16:8 fasting and got the basic principles of 16 hours of no eating and suggested missing breakfast

I get that and actually don't usually eat breakfast. But then I'm a little unclear about what I can eat as lots of articles suggest you can eat what you like broadly which can't be right?

I am in no doubt I'm overweight and eat absolute rubbish...if I still eat absolute rubbish for 8 hours then I definitely won't lose weight?

I've tried looking at suggested plans but they all just show plans with times of the day, not actually what you can eat.

Does anyone have any good app recommendations or websites that might make this a little clearer for me

Thanks so much and well done to those who have lost weight-some of these posts are super inspiring!

Great start, @joewe41 🤗 let us know how it goes x

@milesmachine in a way that's the beauty of this way of eating - there's no prescriptive foods or amounts.

I do however try and cut down on any processed carbs, fill up on veg & protein. Also, try and stick to either two meals or a meal and a 'snack' in your eating window, and not use the time to eat with abandon!

I vary a bit with times, aim for at least 18 hours fasting a day, yesterday I was 23 hours fasting (build up to this!) and had a large dinner.

I recommend the gin Stephen's books "/podcasts on intermittent fasting as an easy and informative read!

@milesmachine agree Gin Stephens is worth listening to and reading.

Jason Fung is an excellent source of information too... Any of his stuff online is worth a browse, and his book The Obesity Code is brilliant.

There are lots of fasting apps - I have a very basic one called "Fasting Tracker" - most of them do the same sort of thing i.e. tracking the length of your fast or eating window.

As to what you eat - the idea is to eat what you feel best eating! There is no prescriptive eating plan because everyone's bodies and digestive systems vary wildly - so different foods suit different people.

You will likely get better / faster results if you cut back on processed foods and/or carbs and focus on real, fresh foods as much as possible... But you also want it to be a sustainable way of eating so being super strict will probably backfire in the long run. If that makes sense.