How many hours to fast too...

[yellowroses7]

Hi I'm 36 I want to lose 2-3 stone for a healthy BMI. I am wanting to also try to have a baby next year and I've heard some severe fasting can affect fertility in women?
I'm not wanting to go too drastic maybe start with 16:8. Can anyone give any advise on how many hours would help me lose the weight and not affect my fertility? Thanks xx

Fasting is a way to reduce calories intake without counting them. The window you select to eat your food will affect your food differently depending when you eat, earlier in the day vs later in the day.
Ideally, you should have an early window and finish eating by 4pm.

The early window is more protective towards reproductive hormones.

I'd suggest starting out very gently. Aim for 14:10 and ease yourself into that. Maybe even fast less than that right before/during your period. The evidence for fasting for women, especially in terms of the impact on our hormonal fluctuations, is far from conclusive. If you are hoping to get pregnant in the next year, I'd either take it very, very easy with fasting. The best way I've ever lost weight is by cutting out processed sugar and being conscious to increase my protein/reduce simple carbs. So maybe even consider something like that first, it could be more than enough for you.

Once you cut out processed sugar and simple carbs, your relationship with your appetite readjusts and it becomes much easier to feel in touch with the needs of your body and eat accordingly. I only fast to see if it will help with my post-Covid insomnia and I wouldn't have attempted it if I wasn't already very in touch with my dietary needs and able to make very minor adjustments to ensure a fasting period.