intermittent fasting : eating from noon to 8pm

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runlaugheatpie
runlaugheatpie Posts: 376 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
sorry if it's been asked a million times and also if it's a dumb question, but what is the deal with the 8pm cutoff. Is that just because it's logically noon to 8 as in the 8 hour window?

I am usually in the gym during part of this window so I really don't know how I could even try it. Some nights I don't get home until 9:30. Obviously I'm not eating during my spinning class. I often have something small when I get home (protein based) so likely around 9:30-10pm.

What's the ideal way to do it? doesn't it have to be 16:8? I don't know that I could last until noon. I literally have maybe skipped breakfast 3 times in my life and I'm 51!

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  • runlaugheatpie
    runlaugheatpie Posts: 376 Member
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    I can hit my calorie goal. I'm not losing weight.
    I had bloods done and I'm menopausal but do not have any irregularities with thyroid, glucose, cortisol, etc. So when I talk about this with others I keep hearing "IF" and "Keto". I don't want to do Keto. But when I read about IF everything (generalising) says stop at 8pm. How does anyone do that who actually works out in the evening?

    that's basically why I'm asking.
  • runlaugheatpie
    runlaugheatpie Posts: 376 Member
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    Thank you for responding. But I've already done the whole deficit thing. I'm not losing weight. I've adjusted TDEE, I've logged carefully, weighed, measured, underestimated burns, everything. So I'd love to find that number but no one seems to be able to tell me how to do that, unfortunately.
  • runlaugheatpie
    runlaugheatpie Posts: 376 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    runlaugheatpie wrote: »
    Thank you for responding. But I've already done the whole deficit thing. I'm not losing weight. I've adjusted TDEE, I've logged carefully, weighed, measured, underestimated burns, everything. So I'd love to find that number but no one seems to be able to tell me how to do that, unfortunately.

    If you're eating to a calorie goal for about six weeks and haven't seen a change, you've found the amount you need to maintain. What you can do is subtract from that - I would start by subtracting 250 from that.

    I've done the reduction of calories. Nothing happened. Did it a few times actually. Had the feeling I was not eating enough. So I went back up. Back down. I've done all this for well over a year. I just maintain. I gained a couple of kilos last year from being sidelined/injured, and now I'm maintaining there.

    I do understand the concept very well. I'm just saying it's not working. Nothing is working and many have suggested IF.

  • runlaugheatpie
    runlaugheatpie Posts: 376 Member
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    zamphir66 wrote: »
    runlaugheatpie wrote: »
    But I've already done the whole deficit thing. I'm not losing weight.

    Then you weren't in a deficit.

    Adding: There are things that impact your cals in number, there are things that impact your cals out number. But at the most fundamental level, it's an energy equation. You need the out side to be more than the in side.

    I do understand what you are saying but yes, I've most definitely been in deficit.
  • SlayLikeAWarrior
    SlayLikeAWarrior Posts: 89 Member
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    Just like janejellyroll said, there is nothing special about the time. 12-8 is just your eating window and that's when you want to get all your daily calories in. You can always try a different pattern of fasting if you like. I do a 17:7 fasting. My eating window is from 3pm-10pm. I am fasting during my workout. I workout mostly early morning. I chose this pattern of fasting because that's what works for me. You can still make it work if you can't skip breakfast, but that would mean keeping your eating window within 7-8 hrs starting from the time you have designated for breakfast. For example, you can set your eating window from 9am-5pm. Bottom line IF will only work if you can fit it into your schedule and stick with it. You can always change the pattern, but you have to give your body time to adjust before changing.
  • Limath
    Limath Posts: 89 Member
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    IF has worked for me when nothing else did. I am also menopausal. I've been doing it for a year now. My window is 7am to 3pm, but I typically quit eating after lunch, so closer to 1pm, so I'm usually doing 18:6. I love being able to have a nice sized breakfast and lunch. It makes it more sustainable for me. If you want to try it, you just need to find a window that works for your lifestyle.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
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    I eat at 1pm and might end as late as 11pm. Some would call that 14:10. I call it “what works for me”, I don’t care about the IF label. I just found that having no calories before 1pm (I wake up anywhere between 7 and 9 am) helps me control my appetite for the whole day. My ending time is dictated more by how many calories I have left, not by a particular window of time.

    I have tried several IF methods over the past 7 years (way before the notion of IF was popular). The more restrictive ones, Fast 5 and OMAD, just don’t work for me over the long haul. Even 16:8 can be difficult over time for women. YMMV.
  • jwoolman5
    jwoolman5 Posts: 191 Member
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    You might look into ways to get your body to accept a lower weight setpoint. If you are absolutely sure that you stay the same weight even if you are eating fewer calories, that sounds like your body deliberately keeping you at a certain weight by manipulating orders for fat storage, elimination, hormone release, etc. to counteract attempts to eat less to lose weight. You may just have an unusually clever body...

    It actually isn't as simple as calories in/calories out, although it can seem that way for many of us. Think about the fact that many people in our history were able to maintain a proper weight without counting calories. Ideally, the body just does it automatically.

    In my 20s and 30s, my body stayed at 110 lbs with no conscious effort on my part. The only exception was periods when I was dealing with undiagnosed food allergies and gradually gaining weight. Once the allergies were diagnosed and I stopped eating my major allergens - my weight zoomed down to 110 lbs again and stayed there as long as I was reasonably healthy. I was not weighing myself routinely except to do spot checks, but it didn't change. I was not trying to restrict food but just ate all the non-allergenic food I wanted.

    The body is a complex dynamic physical and chemical system, not a simple system as in the thermodynamics books. (I'm a chemist and a physicist and do know something about thermodynamics.) Individual chemical reactions obey the laws of thermodynamics, but a lot of factors are involved between the system input and the system output.

    Search for setpoint and "set point" and calories or weight to check this idea out to see if it might apply to you. Some people have stumbled upon strategies that might help you out. I've heard of other people who really struggled with not losing weight despite exercise and food restriction. Changing their eating pattern (what they ate) rather than strictly counting calories seems to be a common approach.
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    edited February 2020
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    The deal with IF or TRE (my preferred name for it: time restricted eating) is the window, and that you limit opportunities to eat outside the window. This tends to reduce hunger or cravings for some, and for some may have other positive effects (that aren't directly related to weight loss).

    The studies I've seen seem to suggest that eating earlier (i.e., more like 8 to 3) is more likely to have a positive effect on these other things (with all of this still being in the somewhat speculative realm anyway, with more studies to be done), but for appetite control it clearly seems to vary in how it works for people. Many seem to find that they are always hungry at night and not otherwise hungry in the day UNTIL they start eating, so for them pushing meals into later in the day seems a good plan.

    Personally I find limiting my eating times (no matter what pattern) makes it easier and unrestricted eating (snacking throughout the day but controlling cals) is hard, but plenty of people find the opposite too.

    If you want to try IF, just pick a window that works for you, there's nothing special about 12-8 (it's probably just because lots of people like to skip breakfast and noon is a common lunchtime). And of course, IF or no, deficit is what controls weight loss, but no harm in seeing if you like IF if you want.
  • slbbw
    slbbw Posts: 329 Member
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    Given what you have mentioned about your schedule it might be that ending you eating sooner may work, but only if it actually works for you and you want to try this approach out. Are you hungry after your spinning class? Do you eat because you are hungry or because you think you should. For me exercise is an appetite suppressant. So I workout at 5 and am not usually hungry until 10 or 11. Sometimes its sooner and then I eat whenever. For me if I worked out at night at 8pm I would likely try to eat dinner at 6 and then be done for the day. Eat starting the next day at 9 or 10. You can always just test out what your natural eating window is and work to decrease it incrementally. The concept beyond just restricting when you eat, which is hotly debated around here, is that it gives your body hormones etc time to reset regulate etc. In a similar manner sticking to 3 meals a day and allowing a full 4 hours between would have a similar benefit. So you might try that instead.

    Onto calorie counting and deficit did not work for me. Often what can happen is you body in a deficit will fidget less, or you will be a bit more sluggish and walk less, take an elevator instead stairs etc and this will sometimes dramatically decrease the calorie out part of the equation to the point where you are negating the deficit. This is the actual scientific explanation behind the setpoint or starvation mode concepts. It is also why sometimes upping your calories can result in a loss. If you have been maintaining your weight for a bit but not losing, you might try very small changes to reduce your calories in portion. 250 calories a day and be consistent for a month. You also want to make sure you are not depleting your energy stores. Often times high protein and higher fat can help with this, but some prefer carbs and do quite alright on high carb WOE.
  • joyanna2016
    joyanna2016 Posts: 323 Member
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    For me it's a 3:30pm to 10:30 pm window. I realize this wouldn't work for a lot of people but it works for me!
  • manderson27
    manderson27 Posts: 3,510 Member
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    IF is just another way to control how many calories you eat. I find it easier to miss breakfast and save my calories for later.

    I have also maintained for almost a year. That meant I was eating just enough to stay the same weight and it doesn't matter how much I wanted to tell myself I was still in a deficit my body knew that I wasn't.

    So to start the weight loss moving down again I started eating less and hey presto I am slowly losing again.

    Your bodies weight loss/gain will tell you when you are in a deficit or maintaining because ....physics :smile:

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