Does fasting get any easier?

[Orangeradiorabbit]

Inspired by a recent thread where people shared easy ways to lose weight, recently I've tried to only eat within an 8 hour period. But I'm struggling and really hungry by the time I have my first food, which leads to me not making the best food choices.

I don't know if this is because I often work late: many times dinner isn't on the table until 8.30pm. So I'm having my first food at 12.30-1pm, and I'm really hungry. Instead of having the salad I planned, I'll have a fried egg sandwich and then eat what I missed for breakfast straight afterwards. This feels counterproductive.

Does it get easier with time? Is this just my body adjusting? Am I doomed to fail if I don't eat until 1pm? Would love to turn this into something that works for me, if I can - and value any advice, words of wisdom, encouragement, stories of success or failure etc.

It does. I've been doing it for a year and id say about 90% of the time Im fine. Some days (like yesterday) im absolutely ravenous. I eat about the same time as you and try to ensure I eat protein and not many carbs. So today I'm having a boiled egg and a bowl of steamed broccoli with an Asian dressing and then probably a piece of fruit. That keeps me going till dinner around 6pm. I always try and eat something with plenty protein at the end of the day, so quark with a little protein powder and berries and that keeps me going till the next day. I also drink a whole load of water.

I’ve been doing it since new year and finding it incredibly easy. I think a lot of that is down to doing keto also, so I’m just not hungry.

I only initially wanted to lose 7lbs, but I’ve lost 2 stone!

Can you start with 12 hours and cut it down?

To combat hunger you can try to drink some hot herbal tea (ginger and lemon or alike). When I feel like eating when I shouldn't it does the trick (I'm not fasting but trying not to eat too late). Maybe you can try a cuppa in the morning and see if reduces appetite later on?

Thank you everyone for these replies! I'm going to keep going and try these suggestions: more protein, drinking herbal tea, a shorter 'fast' period to begin with. I'll also look into keto - @DillDanding sounds like you've had great success with that in a really short time!

Yes it definitely does but doesn't suit everyone. My DH tried it but just couldn't stick to it.

I have done 15:9 for 3 years now. I just eat between 1300 and 2200hrs and it helps me keep my weight stable along with twice daily short exercise.

I do find though that allowing myself a "Normal" day every so often and every day when I'm on holiday really helps kickstart my metabolism for some strange reason.

I used to do 5:2 diet and it did get much easier!

I'm doing a daily 20hr fast and feel great. I was doing keto before that for nearly 2 months and actually felt hungrier/ less energetic / fed up of feeling deprived. I found it actually easier and more beneficial to fast longer and eat in the evening than eat keto food's regularly throughout the day.

But everyone is different so just do what works for you.

Start with a shorter time and try to eat low carb outside the 8 hours to keep the insulin level down- couple of boiled eggs or whatever mid morning so you’re less hungry at lunchtime.

I mostly eat low carb and find it easy to fast. A couple of times when I indulged in cake/wine in the evening (special events) I was ravenous the following morning! So eating enough protein and healthy fat for dinner, with just green veggies instead of pasta/rice, helps me feel full until midday.

Thanks for this. Sounds like I need to do lower carb too to help. I'll try this- when I'm hungry I always reach for carbs, so I'm probably in a bad cycle now of feeling hungry -> eating cabs -> feeling hungry. I'll try to up my protein and lower carbon from today.

If you fast, you'll probably notice it, at least in the beginning. However, the appetite normally subsides after a few days.