Trying 16:8 for first time

[namechangedyetagain]

I am horrible. I need to lose weight. Im peri menopausal, on hrt, constantly exhausted. Life has broken me in one way and another and I'm the heaviest I've ever been. I don't even think I eat too badly (maybe too many carbs) but I do like wine.

Anyway I need to lose a significant amount of weight so I thought I'd give 16:8 a go in the first instance as I wouldn't be able to go to a SW group, nor do I have time (or money) to cook from scratch.

I'm here really to check in and to make myself accountable. Am going to eat between 12 and 8 so 2 meals a day. Need something to snack on for that afternoon 4pm hump.

I don't know if it will work but if I could feel a little better by xmas that would be nice

Any tips?

Learning to like plain coffee and tea are very helpful. I used to like my coffee with flavored creamer AND sugar or sweetener, I never would have thought I could drink it black. But I started trying it because it's so hard to drink nothing but water in the morning. And now I will sometimes choose to have it black when I'm NOT fasting! It's a taste you can learn to like. And there are many kinds of tea that will not break a fast, such as black, oolong, and green. I've heard you can add stevia if you really like a little sweetness and it will not break your fast. The liquid kind they have is great since it dissolves instantly. If you find you're eating too much at night, you might want to change your fast from 11 AM to 7 PM or even earlier. I try to have a cookie or a sweet after dinner and then just stop eating. I have a little phrase I say to myself: "That was good. That was enough." I repeat that to myself when I want to go back and nibble. Intermittent fasting finally gave me control over my eating and I hope it will help you as well! You've got this!

Thank you! Luckily I don't have sugar in tea but I do have milk. I need the caffeine from builders tea so I'll try and cut down the amount of milk to start. Haven't been very good food wise today, had a cheese sandwich for lunch and making a bolognese risotto for dinner. Should be finished by 8pm though.

Hoping I can keep it going tomorrow!

Even if your meals are not traditional "diet meals," you should still lose weight if you are eating two meals instead of three (if you did in the past), and limiting the time you're snacking. I found that once I started to see progress, it was a big incentive to eat more veggies, and keep portions of snacks smaller. I saw very steady weight loss when I started the fasting, and now I'm maintaining. There's an app called "Zero" that you can use to track your fasting hours if you would like to see your progress in days, weeks, and months. It's free and I found it helpful for the first year or so of fasting (after that it was just part of my life and I didn't feel the need to track it anymore). I really hope this works for you. The hunger pangs DO get less and less the more your body gets used to it, and your stomach will shrink a little so you can't eat as much as you used to. I wish I knew about the fasting lifestyle years ago, it's been a lifesaver for me. Hope you will get good results too!

Well I've mostly stuck to it save for a night out on Friday which was planned ages ago. Today is another day. I'll have a look at that app thank you.

@namechangedyetagain are you doing 16:8 every day?

I thought I'd start with that. Is that wrong?

I love the 16:8! I started it earlier this year and its given me such positive new habits. I've stopped snacking altogether. For the most part I have breakfast and lunch only so its more often 19:5. I don't get raging hunger and I know I can wait until the next day. As a result I've even done a couple of whole day fasts just out of curiosity. It wasn't hard, just a little odd. I've put my scales away for the last few months. I'm older and weight is harder to shift, but i know on the long run i will reach my goal, and then i will still keep to the 16:8, its a new lifestyle for me.

I'm 3 weeks in. I did it ten years ago and got it completely wrong (milk in tea, stuffing my face during windows) but this time I feel I've got it right. I'm peri too and have just gained 2 stone. I now feel so hopeful.

What I've done over the last week is read everything: gin Stephen's book, all the forums and listen to IF stories podcast. It's really interesting and inspiring to hear of people who have struggled all their lives finally gain control over their eating.

I love it so far. During my window I don't overeat and make sure that I eat good food (I need to keep protein up as I lift weights) but also feel that if I want to eat something crappy it will be ok. It really is a whole lifestyle change rather than a diet though.

Hi welcome to the fasting way of life!
It's early days for me, around two months but I'm converted. I've a thread running here with my weekly updates and other people have joined in. There's plenty of tips on there too.
As of yet I still have a mug of tea with a little milk first thing. I don't like coffee and can't adjust to liking black tea. I also have another mug in the evening outside my eating window. It doesn't seem to affect me so far.

Once I got the first few days over and my body adjusted to much less sugar fasting became relatively easy to do.
I am not low carb but I've radically reduced my sugar intake. I've gone from constantly hungry, always snacking and feeling out of control around food to having usually two lovely satisfying meals, occasional snack and feeling very content with that.
Read the books recommended above, give yourself time to find what works for you and pretty soon you'll find your own groove. Good luck!