16-8

[Beachcomber74]

Day 1 of this adventure. I’ve got a headache but will soon be going to bed.
My eating window today was 8am-4pm. I’ve got so much to shift & hope I can keep this up. Anyone else want to join?

Can I join in?

Week 4 of intermittent fasting, managing mostly 16-18 hour fasts. About a stone left to lose am 4/5lb down.

For lunch today I had cabbage and courgette pancakes and dinner was veg chilli with quinoa. Lots of evening mint tea which I know Gin Stephens would say breaks my fast!!

Welcome @Cashew1 , I also drink mint tea during fasts. It’s so good for you and it’s basically water isn’t it…

I think so.. although I am starving this evening so maybe it's actually not the best idea?

That is why I stopped drinking herbal teas during my fasting time and fully embraced the Gin Stephen's clean fast so only have black coffee, black tea or water. It made such a massive difference to my hunger levels, I can genuinely say I have not been starving hungry since despite doing some 24 hour fasts.

I think it's a case of seeing what works for you. Some people seem to drink herbal tea with no issues and others find it just makes them hungrier, so it's probably quite individual.

I had no idea drinking mint tea could make you hungry!

I've been listening to the Gin Stephens podcast and she is really against herbal teas during a fast. Tonight I will try with sparkling water as I really didn't like going to bed hungry!

It may not for you. The general thinking is that if something tastes sweet, even if it's just a herbal tea (but also Diet Coke style drinks) then your body still produces an insulin response. I seem to remember a quote of a study where they just put something sweet on the inside of people's cheeks so they didn't even ingest anything and the insulin response still happened. It's the variation in insulin that can cause hunger so the point of fasting is to try and keep insulin stable.

I think it's definitely true for me as I started fasting by having either peppermint or lemon and ginger tea during my fasts and I was hungry as hell 🤣. That stopped when I switched to black coffee/black tea. But I think insulin sensitivity is quite an individual thing and affects people differently so you may be absolutely fine with your mint tea.

It's probably a bit of trial and error for all of us to find out what works but is also sustainable.

That's really interesting, thank you for sharing!

Am double parked with a coffee with milk plus a peppermint tea this am so definitely dirty fasting.

Seem to have lost motivation for clean fasts following my break from fasting. Easing myself back in... It feels good to be back at it though I've gotta say.

Still haven't checked my weight. I still feel quite bloated post surgery so I might wait a bit longer.

Everyone is doing so well!

I hav ebeen in my usual 2 weeks post period of weird weight fluctuations and also days of just ravenous hunger. hahaha. I'm not letting it get me down as the fluctuations are still relatively small vs in the old days when on a diet, 2 days of being off and I'd gain 2 kg back and I've pretty much stuck to my eating window every day.

This week I've been getting up a bit earlier and getting lots done so I can start work a bit early. I think that level of rushing early is good and I do already feel a bit more streamlined. Will weigh myself tomorrow or Friday in hopes I'm on track to start getting back to previou slow so that in the next 2 weeks before my period I can actually lose again.

BUT... coffee. I've been fine without coffee in the morning (I can't drink it without milk and sugar so I've just cut it out - have tea with a tiny amont of milk, or black tea). But with the weather changing and with finding myself at my desk at 8:00 after having already been up running around for a couple of hours, I'm really missing coffee! I had a second cup of tea this morning and did add a splash of milk (literally, maybe 1-2 teaspoons) which helped. But I see this as a potential challenge longer term!

Re higher protein, lower carb meals - I made tacos (well, not very authentic) bowls last night which worked well. I bought soft shell tacos and I had one and a half (they're the small ones) with the mince and a tomato, avocado, corn salsa. The boys had about 4 each with more of everything! Next time I do it I might try adding beans in some form as well.

Regarding coffee.....is it worth trying a few to find out if there is any that you can tolerate black? I remember Gin Stephen's saying in one of her podcasts that if you like the taste of coffee, you can learn to like black coffee. If you don't like coffee normally then it won't be for you 🤣.

I was a proper coffee snob. I only drank freshly ground coffee and used to have a latte every morning. I tried it black and I just hated it. I tried it both from my usual espresso machine and using a french press and still no.

So I bought a few different instant coffees (after looking for recommendations on here) which I would have never drunk before and tried them all. The one I settled on and now really enjoy is the Clipper Latin American instant coffee.

And weirdly now I'm used to black coffee I can happily order one out and about or have a french press coffee and enjoy it, so I guess it is really true that your tastebuds adapt!

It may not be for you but thought I'd share just in case it's helpful.

Big headache for me today, not sure if too hungry or period related.

Going to break the fast shortly with broccoli soup, have managed almost 18 hours so pretty happy with that.

@GameOfJones Yes, I've been toying with giving it a go. I managed to ditch suga r in my tea a few years ago by just holding my nose and drinking... until I got used to it. The problem is that I like strong coffee, with a decent amount ofmilk. Weak coffee is awful. But perhaps I need to do a little experimenting!

I can definitely stomach black coffee - and was getting used to it. We have a nice bean to cup machine that froths the milk and I just can't seem to resist making my fave flat white style coffee in the morning. Will see how weight trends over the next few weeks and only drop milk if I need to.

Managed another 17 hours, and made a tomato, sweetcorn, spinach and feta omelette for lunch. Added a little pinch of paprika - not bad.

Hope you're feeling better after eating something. 18 hours is impressive!

I'm feeling starving today. Been quite active doing loads of cleaning so maybe it's that.

Can I ask - those of you who are consciously choosing to go longer than 16 hours fasting, why? I thought the point about 16:8 was that it's an appropriate fasting level OR you go the whole hog and do the OMAD thing? What's the thinking between making it 17 hours or 18 hours or whatever?

I mean, I sometimes go 17 hours but that's more because I try very hard not to eat before 11:30, preferably 12 because it's not always guaranteed I can have dinner cooked and eaten by 7:30. So I might have finished dinner at 7pm the night before, but I'm always conscious tonight it might be 8pm. So it's my way of ensuring I never go under 16 hours fasting. But I don't consciously aim for it?

For me it’s because I work in school and lunch break is at 12pm. I can’t eat annything decent in a 10 minute break time or eat in class. I eat by 6pm, occasionally later. My understanding is that the longer the fast, the more autophagy occurs.

Plus if I did eat 10am, I’d still be having 3 meals so I doubt I’d lose weight.

I fast longer than 16 hours to stay in the fat burning window longer. Mostly doing 18:6 but I am flexible. Usually open window about 12. But I am only a few weeks in so still learning.

18 hr fast today.
lunch: salad with a some feta cubes and a boiled egg, an apple.
dinner: turkey steaks with homemade coleslaw and baked potato. Some blueberries.

Eaten more than normal today but a 6 hour eating window:

Soup, crackers and a nut bar
Pitta bread with jam
Smoothie with banana, cacao and protein powder
Quinoa, broccoli, feta and salad
A few chips

Will break fast tomorrow at 11, as job interview tomorrow at 12 and don't want to be starving. Don't think I'm quite adjusted to fasting yet to risk it!

I tend to do longer than 16 hours because of when I take my lunch break when I'm working. Also find that while I'm at work I'm distracted, not thinking about food and can go longer.

Also ditto greengreyblue re. the autophagy benefits. Reaching that cell renewal and clean out phase was my first motivation to start fasting, because of quite bad endometriosis.

Yesterday turned out to be OMAD as I had a terribly upset stomach in the evening 😧 It must have been something I ate, as it was awful.

Braved a quick weigh in this morning (my stomach felt so empty so was hopeful for a loss) and am at 62kg - which is my lowest yet. I think this may be a bit due to dehydration, but I'll take it. I was expecting an increase in weight after carb and booze fuelled trip to to Norfolk at the end of August! So I think I've lost any holiday gain.

Starting weight was 65kg - but I also logged 66.8kg towards the end of June. Really want to hit 60kg!

Anyone else finding fasting on their period way harder than not on period? Think I'll break fast early today.

Hope you feel better Queencam

@Cashew1 yeah it's about hormones. We shortly chatted about it back in august. This is screenshots from that. Probably it's a good idea to take it easy and listen to your body during the periods.

@Olika many thanks, super helpful