13 hour fasting?

[yesiatethesweets]

Morning everyone. Just a quick question, if I eat dinner before 7pm and fast until breakfast at 8am is that enough of a fast or do I need to stretch it out to reach 16 hours? Thanks

13 isn't really going to do anything tbh, but a couple of days of 14 to get you used to 16/17 can definitely be helpful if you're new to it.

I could maybe push breakfast back to 10.30, dinner is pretty much fixed as we eat as a family around 7ish and I don't want to change that. So 15 and 9 would maybe work better?

I think they're was a reason for the 16 hr fast, but you could work up to it. So if you finish dinner at 8pm, you could have lunch at noon.

I like the 16:8, i haven't lost much but i no longer have blood sugar crashes or experience intense hunger.

I think most people doing 16:8 just skip breakfast totally, black coffee or black tea no sugar etc. then eat 12pm to 8pm

There are biological reasons for the length of 16 hrs

Try 18:6 so you could eat between 2-8pm for example

Any fast over 10-12 hours is beneficial. After a few hours sugar from last meal is used. After 10-12 hours all the glycogen from liver and muscles is used, so after that you burn fat.

There isn't many scientific studies that longer fasts beyond 14 hours are beneficial.

I guess the only benefit is less time to eat calories. Downside is over hunger =binge eat= more calories anyway

I've been calorie counting and so far have lost over 2 stone but it's so slow! Was thinking of adding in fasting as well but probably need to just be patient!

The 16 hours length was explained in one of the zoe podcasts, it was actually down to the schedule of one of the researchers who needed to get home on time so couldn't administer the food to the test mice more frequently!

Any improvement in fasting length on what you are currently doing is worthwhile. Your body will burn glucose initially before switching to fat but fat burning usually starts at about 12 hours. It is also good for other health reasons to give your body a rest from digestion etc.

Thanks for the info Bubbles- that's a great explanation 😊

Thanks everyone for the replies. Might just give it a go and see how it works out.

@yesiatethesweets how is it going?

I can't say it's made much of a difference to be honest. I had plateaued for a while but things have started to shift again. 37 pounds down now and another 42 to go!

Wow fantastic! That's amazing and almost halfway to your goal.

According to the fasting zoe podcast the reason for the 16 hour fast was so the lab assistant who was feeding the rats could get home on time. There is no specific scientic reason for that duration.

Anything you can manage will be beneficial although if you can gradually push the fasting window out a little it will have more benefits in terms of autophagy and weight loss.