Starting 16:8 diet tomorrow... anyone fancy joining?

[Leopardpj]

I'm starting the 16:8 diet properly from tomorrow after trying it out a couple of days last week and finding it seemed to suit me OK. Would love it if anyone doing the same would like to share experiences??

My 'kitchen closed' at 6.15pm this evening so technically I think I can eat from 10.15 tomorrow but I'm going to see if I can last until midday and eat 12-8 on weekdays. I don't think I'll realistically be able to do it on weekends but am going to try to stick to the general principles of not snacking in the evening/ eating more 'mindfully'...

I have a stubborn half a stone to lose which I've never managed to shift since having my second dd (who is now 3).

I've always dismissed this diet before as I love breakfast/ brunch so much! But I'm now changing my mentality on it and saying I'm basically delaying my breakfast not ditching it. I'll have a big brunch style meal around 12 and then a decent dinner before 8.

I'm hoping it'll suit me as I am not someone who eats loads of sugar/ junk but I do love my food and hate diets - just the idea of being restricted makes me miserable but if I feel I'm just 'delaying' food I feel loads better. My big weaknesses are milky hot drinks (I'm probably going to allow myself a small splash of milk in tea in the morning that'll make it a lot more bearable for me!) also buttered toast, cheese, and snacking on the kids' tea leftovers at 5pm....

Be so lovely to have some company but if not I can always chat away to myself I guess!!

Also planning to listen to some Jason Fung podcasts which are supposedly v helpful!

Anyone else doing similar??

Me!! I feel much better when fasting! I've also eaten so much shit recently!!

I've been doing it for a while now. I normally fast between 7pm and 11am. Stops me eating a load of rubbish in the evenings. Need to cut back on sugar though so may have a re launch from tomorrow!

Hoping to start, just not sure what times to pick?

I’ve been doing it for 3 weeks and I’ve lost 3.5kg already. Combined with reducing how much processed/sugary food I’m eating and no booze unless our at a weekend.
The first few days I was v hungry- I eat midday-8pm so by 10:30am I was starving. I’m used to it now and didn’t eat until 1:30 today as things worked out and was fine!
I’ve used MyFitnessPal to track calories (aiming for 1200 a day with a few more at the weekend but always 16:8. I’m so much more mindful of what I’m eating, not hoovering up kids leftovers/odd biscuit here and there. I can totally see why I’ve slowly slowly been putting on weight.
Do it OP! I can never do cutting out carbs or high protein diet etc. I find it easier to cut out a meal but otherwise eat my usual relatively healthy meals and not snack on crap!

I'd like to join in. I've been doing a toe in the water with this, but not been consistent. I think some company will help with that. 😊

Dipping a toe!

So thrilled to see these replies! Cheered me up as I'm already craving TV snacks after a VERY early dinner for me, Gahh! Staying strong with my herbal tea!

Will be great to check in with you @Mammyloveswine - so have you done 16:8 before? How did you find it? What times did you go for and did you do it every day?

@missmapp I may go for 11-7 as well if I can't last until 12 tomorrow, highly likely!

@RollingInTheCreek 3.5 kgs is amazing, congrats! I would be so thrilled if I could say the same in a few weeks time! I'm so excited to see if this works! I completely feel you on carbs. I can totally see the logic of atkins/keto etc, and I don't eat tons of processed starch, but it just makes me so miserable to think of denying myself things like bread forever... delaying them until later in the day, and being healthier, though I can totally get on board with!

For those who have tried previously have you read or listened to anything useful on it?

I think I'll go for 11-7 also, that fits in with family routine better for me.
I will look forward to seeing if it will help me lose weight.
I've recently managed to cut back on alcohol which is a minor miracle. Have been having an almost daily glass for a while and stressful life factors made it hard to step away from that habit. But I have told myself I can have a glass anytime I want, but then when I fancy one I distract myself for a while until the craving goes (it habitually strikes while I'm doing meal prep), this sneaky system has been effective, so I'm hoping this 16/8 will be a similar strategy. Distract, deflect and ignore until the time is right. 😊

Some inspiration maybe?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000zt7d?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

I've been doing it for over a year. Apparently you should play around with eating window too much to get max benefit. This is well worth a listen:

open.spotify.com/episode/2ZdOl4cO0F2fsPjssJagbj?si=LBruYYsxR16QyWu32FUMlA

More interesting listening on the topic...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cswvwl?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile

SHOULDN'T*

It surprised me!

Also I've been having oat milk in coffee about 14.5/15 hours in and I don't think it's made a difference personally. It's made the whole thing more sustainable for me as I just cannot drink it black. I usually do 10-6ish.

Tummy rumbles here, but not feeling a pull to eat, doubtless this is the fresh wave of enthusiasm helping ... I'm kicking off with seeing if a 24 hours fast is possible, just out of curiosity to see if I have the will power (not convinced I do, but it would be nice to be wrong about that)

Thanks for all the podcast recommendations! Will definitely have a listen to those this eve!
I managed 17.5 hours in the end which I’m amazed by as I woke up feeling starving and convinced I’d crack… Once I was out and about and distracted though it was way easier.
So my eating window is 11.30-7.30 today and am going to try and push to 12-8 from tomorrow.
When I was really hungry this morning I decided to try hot water with a tiny bit of marmite dissolved, as I’d heard in one of the podcasts that this was good for staving off hunger and stopping that weak feeling (which can be lack of salt). It really helped! (though not the most delicious drink ever…)
How is everyone else getting on?!

I'm on 14th hour though 8 of those don't really count on items of will power as I was asleep. 🤣
Hoping to go through to tomorrow morning which will be 36 hours. To get ketosis you need to go over 24 hours I understand. I want to get the benefits of that, not just calorie restrict by reducing my eating window.

Wow let me know how you get on with 36 hours @SoCunningYouCanStickATailOnItAndCallItAFox .. I was listening to the podcast and wondering how that was even possible...!

It sounds from other threads like people have had amazing success from just the 16:8 so I'm going to start with that!

I definitely feel better already even after just trying it a bit last week and then yesterday/ today. I think it's forcing me to reconsider what 'hunger' is. Benn listening to the Jason Fung podcasts and he is so fascinating on insulin and how ludicrous/ unhelpful to your body it is to stimulate it by eating all day long. I think I've been eating sometimes because I'm worried about getting hungry later if I don't... which when you think about it is v stupid... I mean yes I feel hungry in the fasting window but nothing terrible happens, I just eat a bit later... and probably choose better, more wholesome foods, as I'm really hungry for a proper meal!

I do think it's naturally showing me that eating carbs is quite unhelpful and they seem to just stimulate my appetite more - had porridge when I broke my fast today and was really hungry again soon after - when I break my fast tomorrow I might try to stick to more keto-type foods.

Really actually enjoying it so far. I prob ate more calories than planned in eating window - had a big dinner of meat, potatoes and veg followed by green yoghurt and fruit just before my eating window closed - but am not going to worry too much about calories and just focus on eating healthy food and sticking to doing it in my eating window.

Also I'm finding using the 'zero' app very motivational as I love to see the fasting times ticking up!

Any tips from those more experienced are welcome!

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/feel-better-live-more-with-dr-rangan-chatterjee/id1333552422?i=1000603189639

Just bought the book which is the subject of the podcast. Am really interested just need to understand a bit more about what I should be eating in the non-fasting part of the day.

On a 16-8 do you eat 3 meals or just 2?

Hi @LeopardPJS , I found myself nodding along reading your post there. I too have found myself a while back almost at the point of being nervous of feeling hunger, which is odd really and I'm not sure how I got to that point. I think maybe when the kids were small and self care was a struggle and getting hangry made it harder to parent well (which can really derail your day when they're toddlers!).
I have recalibrated since then, but your comment really resonated with me (as did all your post).
My current struggle is more that I haven't adjusted to some life style and body changes that have come along more recently so I'm still eating as a 'mid-twenties regular sports participant who loves their food', when I'm actually a 'perimenopausal mid-40's person with so many responsibilities I have little time for sport and who loves their food' 🤣🤣

I'm an hour off my 36 hour fast and honestly I'm not more hungry right now than I was at lunchtime yesterday, I could probably do another 12! Which is surprising. 🤣
I think I'll eat lightly but well today then I'll have done 2 days of low calorie fasting and will eat normally for 5 then (trying out the 5:2) but will keep my eating in a 11-7 window also.
Full disclosure, I did have milk in my tea drinks yesterday so it wasn't zero calories (I don't mind messing with my food, but I draw the line at messing with my cuppas 🤣) but I only have a small splash so I reckon it was less then 200ml altogether.
The hunger came and went through the day, but I didn't even come close to caving which I was surprised about, I think the podcasts helped as I was motivated and kept the health benefits in mind, also told my DH what I was doing to give myself some accountability. He thought I was jumping on a fad and what was the point, so I made him listen to the podcasts too and he thought it was interesting actually.
Not sure whether I'll be able to keep it up weekly, I'm sure the novelty will wear off, but I'll give it a go and keep my expectations low so the pressure is off, I think piling pressure on will be counter productive.
I kept busy to keep my mind off food, I spent the day doing DIY (off work at the moment), took the kids to swimming lessons and went for a run it was such a beautiful sunny evening. It was the first run I've done since autumn and it went well, 2.5 miles with 5 walking points of a minute for being out of breath. I was pleasantly surprised how energetic I felt, as like you I thought I might crash if I hadn't eaten. Buy actually I was trucking along nicely.
So all told in really pleased how it went and I feel happy it was successful and my will power doesn't have the breaking strain of a wet lettuce after all. 😁
I am encouraged to consider it could be a new habit for long term health. 😊

How is everyone else getting on? 😊

Hey @Iizzyb Lots of people seem to have success even when they fit three meals into the 8-hour fasting period. I'm basing my approach on Dr Jason Fung whose approach seems sensible to me - he isn't prescriptive about how many meals or calories you should eat in the eating window, but says to just 'eat normally' and eat healthy things, rather than pigging out/ snacking continuously for the whole eight hours. So eat something when you break your fast, then eat again a few hours later when you're hungry for another meal, sort of thing. Basically he is just trying to get us back to eating proper meals when we are actually hungry, with longer periods of fasting in between.

For me the 16 hour fasts / 8 hour eating periods are enough of a 'rule' for me... what attracts me to this way of eating and makes me feel it's sustainable is the idea that in my eating window, I can have whatever I like. I like to eat healthily anyway, but I hate being restricted and I really don't want to get into 'diet head' and start worrying about calories etc. As soon as I do that I won't stick to it. And excitingly, it sounds like that's not necessary in order to lose weight (we will soon find out!)

For me yesterday, I was really hungry when I broke my fast at 11.30am and ate porridge with banana and seeds/dried fruit (this is what I'd normally eat for breakfast). However I did notice I was starving again within 2.5 hours so I had a chicken salad at 2.30 (maybe which demonstrates that carbs aren't doing me as many favours as I thought!) That really filled me up, and I didn't eat again until 7pm when I had a proper dinner of meat, potatoes and veg with Greek yoghurt and berries after.

Although I had three meals and ate plenty, I naturally ate less than I probably would normally. I have a huge appetite and am up from 6am-10pm usually. Instead all my food was compressed into an 8 hour window so it was a challenge to fit in three 'meals' and there was no real space for snacking etc. Does that makes sense?!

Jason Fung also talks about it being important to think less about calories and more about the effect foods have on your blood glucose. For example your body reacts totally differently to 100g of cookies and 100g of broccoli so he says its mad to say they're the same and will have the same effect on your diet... the cookies will make your glucose shoot up, prompt your body to produce way more insulin (the fat storage hormone) than the broccoli. Same is true of eggs vs toast, the calories might be the same but your body will produce way more insulin in response to the toast. Beans/ pulses also better than bread in that regard, and so on and so on. So he advocates reducing the quantity of processed carbs and sugar, and focusing on wholefoods including healthy fats, eggs, pulses and loads of veg.

Personally I would focus on healthy food and avoiding snacking, but I wouldn't worry too much at this stage about calories. People who have been doing this a long time say that when they get used to it, they naturally end up just eating two meals a day with maybe one small snack in between, I don't think I'm there yet but I'm not going to worry about it! Good luck!

@RollingInTheCreek very impressed you've lost more or less a kg a week! Love your advice, I'm definitely taking that inspiration. Hope to see my waistline improve soon. 😊

@SoCunningYouCanStickATailOnItAndCallItAFox Thanks for your reply, I definitely know what you mean about having toddlers derailing your day and self care being a struggle - this is my life! I find it so hard not to snack on their food and end up eating with them three times a day and then eating a meal late in the evening with my husband as well. It's obviously not a good thing and I certainly don't feel full of energy when I eat like that!

I also definitely identify with still eating as if I'm in my mid twenties and can eat what I like 😭I'm hoping this is a way of recalibrating without feeling miserable. Trying to see it as a helpful tweak to how I eat, rather than a diet, you know?!

Completely fascinated to hear about your fast and how it feels. You've done amazingly so far! Keep the updates coming!

(Also I'm sorry that I seem to be Leopard PJ on my laptop and LeopardPJS on my phone, I have no idea how this happened or how to correct it 😂)

Great update @LeopardPJS (bizarrely your accidental alternative leopardpj isn't an option in the tag menu!).
I love your attitude and approach, your thinking and the things you know will sabotage you and be unsustainable are very alike to my own, so really relate to all that.
I'm just about to have brekky, I'm going for quinoa granola with whole milk and yogurt. The quinoa granola has no sugar but it's tasty as it has cocoa in it (it's my one luxury, I don't have expensive habits or lifestyle, as it isn't cheap, but it is SO effective for me - www.hollandandbarrett.ie/search/?isSearch=true&query=QNOLA), quinoa is mostly protein so I don't get the blood sugar spike and it keeps me full for soooooo long, is really satisfying and so tasty, goes really well with lemon yogurt! A bowl of this will keep me going for hours with no tummy rumbles, and I don't feel sluggish afterwards unlike I sometimes do with toast.

Oops, sorry, sight lie, it does have a bit of sugar but barely any, and very low compared to most granola

Was curious about the zero app you mentioned @LeopardPJS so I found a YouTube walk through, here if anyone is interested:

Don't think it's for me, I think I'll do better using the 'forget about it' method (hence throwing myself into DIY, I'll call it the DIY app 😁), I'm glad you find it motivating to see your success racking up but I think for me it would keep thinking aboutnot being able to eat in the forefront of my mind and I would crack. 🤣 I love how different we all are though, humans are so interesting.

P.s love this ladies eyebrow arch! 😁