IF - how do you choose your eating window?

jelleigh · September 2017

I see people do 16:8, 20:4 (that sounds hard) 14:10. How do you choose what window to do? Do you start with a larger window and 'ease I to it'? Does having a smaller window impact how effective it is?

Nony_Mouse · September 2017

IF is simply a means of achieving a calorie deficit, because some people find it easier to control their calorie intake if they have a set window to eat within. Beyond that, it has no magical weight loss properties. So, find what works for you

kommodevaran · September 2017

You can choose whatever fits your lifestyle, appetite, schedule. Effective as in "how much weight is lost" is down to calorie deficit, effective as in "how easy to stick to calorie deficit" is down to how well your meal plan fits your lifestyle, appetite, schedule.

I ate 6-7 meals when I lost weight, then I settled for 4, then I just couldn't fit in the fourth meal, and eating 3 meals 3-4 hours apart just felt right, natural, easy, to me. This is how we ate when we were effortlessly normal weight. I'm effortlessly normal weight. "Intermittent fasting" is a silly name for not eating all the time, but if that is what it takes to make kids not eat all the time, I'm very much for.

hesn92 · September 2017

It doesn't make any difference... just eat how it works for you. I don't eat breakfast so I guess I eat between noon and 8 or so. Sometimes I will have a night time snack later than that. Sometimes I don't eat past 6.

jjpptt2 · September 2017

As others have said... it doesn't matter all that much, so start with whatever best lines up with your normal habits/preferences.

okohjacinda · September 2017

I started out 14:10 going from 12-10 or 1-11 the first couple of weeks.
Then 16:8 going from 1-9 or 2-10 or 3-11 sometimes even up to 5-1 (mostly weekends).
I have attempted doing 20:4 a couple of times and really want to start doing 5:2 where I fast for 24 hours twice a week but I am not there yet.

I notice the longer I go without eating, the more my appetite decreases so I think to a certain extent, the shorter frame is better (in my case), but any of the frames are fine in my opinion.

What is the most beneficial thing to me about IF is that it brings a great awareness to how much we eat and how dysfunctional eating can become if we allow it to. IF kind of takes that away because you don't have to focus so much on food. I prefer eating later in the day because I can really focus on my job throughout the day and not on food until lunch or right before its time to go home and I am more snackish at night so having dinner later keeps me from wanting to snack at night.

cmriverside · September 2017

What do you mean by "effective?" That is the word to which everyone is replying. "Effective" is eating the correct number of calories for your weight-loss. I do IF, but only because that's how I normally eat anyway. Late breakfast, early dinner, a midday small snack. I like to be full when I eat and that means 500-700 calories per meal. Little meals frustrate me, so I do best with two larger meals and either a snack or a dessert.

H_Ock12 · September 2017

I went from a "natural" 16:8, to a 18:6, to a 20:4, and now a 24 hours fast once a week with a 20:4 split most other days. I chose the hours for my window (afternoon/evening) based on my workout schedule and enjoying a large dinner.

jelleigh · September 2017

Thanks for the responses everyone! By effective I guess I was wondering if people felt that one time frame was easier, more sustainable, that they had more energy or whatever. I guess it's a silly phrase. I had read on one of the threads that when people plateaued , IF helped them break through it. It didn't sound like it was a change in calorie intake - just a change in habits enough to help the body break through? I don't know - just wanted to see if that was a thing. Has anyone noticed IF helping during plateaus?

kommodevaran · September 2017

jelleigh wrote: »

Thanks for the responses everyone! By effective I guess I was wondering if people felt that one time frame was easier, more sustainable, that they had more energy or whatever. I guess it's a silly phrase.

I haven't eaten more "extreme" than 18:6, so I can only compare with what I did before: spreading out my meals for 12 hours, and I'm in maintenance, so it's difficult to compare with doing something else while losing - I think it's easy to stick to my planned meals when I have a cutoff, but it was also easy when eating all through the day. The difference for me lies in having planned meals, and sticking to them, I think, not the exact timing. Spacing of meals just happen to coincide with a couple of common IF protocols (lol to "protocol", too).

IF does nothing directly for energy, just indirectly, through the confidence I build from experiencing that I can wait for a meal, and the flexibility I get from not having to make sure I eat at certain times or intervals, and I'm less preoccupied with food, so I have more mental energy for other things.

I think this above all shows how adaptable we humans are, and how easily and seductively - paradoxically both random and specific, and often contradictory - "sciency"-sounding advice and myths can catch on, like "don't skip breakfast or you'll binge later" and "eat every three hours or your metabolism will become sluggish", and "give your digestive system a break by fasting for 24 hours".

I had read on one of the threads that when people plateaued , IF helped them break through it. It didn't sound like it was a change in calorie intake - just a change in habits enough to help the body break through? I don't know - just wanted to see if that was a thing. Has anyone noticed IF helping during plateaus?

Pure coincidence, and we are better at paying attention to the unusual than to the ordinary, and we tend to see what we expect to see - or as above, better adherence, so in reality, decrease in calorie intake. I really dislike the whole idea of plateaus - it's just a misunderstanding about how weight loss works - you may be losing weight without realizing it, because of water weight fluctuations; but if you're really not losing weight, you're eating at maintenance; and if you think you are eating at a deficit, your logging is off.

natasor1 · September 2017

All depends on your schedule of the day. If I have to wake up at 5:30am and drive to work, I have no apetite for breakfast at all, and actually no time for food prep. When I am at work I'm so busy that I have no time to think about food and have also no breaks. All this preocuppation going till 3-4pm and then, when I'm back in the car to go home, here I am geting hungry. For that I have all my veggies cut and berries prepped in my lunch bag. Then I have time to make dinner by 6pm and this is last meal of the day. This becomse a 20/4 or 22/2 IF. It's going very naturally and no hunger feeling at all.
Just choose what works for you

SCoil123 · September 2017

When I did IF I chose mine based on my natural hunger and eating patterns. I tend to be most hungry after 2pm until bedtime and rarely have an appetite earlier unless I've worked out. 16:8 with an eating window of 2-10pm was easy for me.

I still eat that way sometimes but I'm training harder now and at different times during the day so I've had to become more flexible

kimny72 · September 2017

So when I decided to try IF, the first thing I did was to see how long after I wake up I could comfortably wait to eat. I found over a couple of weeks that I couldn't push it later than noon. So I figured I'd start with 16-8 and make my window 12PM - 8PM. Ultimately I discovered that skipping my late night snack was making me feel deprived, so I stopped trying to IF, but I did decide to continue skipping breakfast, as it doesn't make me hungrier during the day and it makes it easier for me to fit that late night snack into my calories. But if 16-8 had worked, I probably wouldn't have gone shorter than that, as most of my family and friends who I often have dinner with like to eat later, so stopping earlier than 8PM wouldn't have been practical. So you just have to play around with it and find what works for you

Kst76 · September 2017

what the hell are you guys talking about..lol. Obvously i missed the newest diet trend.
it sounds interesting though. How does it work?

TimothyFish · September 2017

I would think one would start the window at whatever time they usually eat breakfast and end it at the the end of supper. Essentially, it is just a way to make not snacking at night seem special.

RedSierra · September 2017

jelleigh wrote: »

Thanks for the responses everyone! By effective I guess I was wondering if people felt that one time frame was easier, more sustainable, that they had more energy or whatever. I guess it's a silly phrase. I had read on one of the threads that when people plateaued , IF helped them break through it. It didn't sound like it was a change in calorie intake - just a change in habits enough to help the body break through? I don't know - just wanted to see if that was a thing. Has anyone noticed IF helping during plateaus?

I did IF for a couple of weeks when I stalled losing weight. I did the 8 hour window from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The benefit was IF reduced my appetite by making me wait until 11 a.m. to eat and then not snack after 7 p.m. My weight loss stall ended and I began losing again. I was not in a real plateau -- I had simply been eating too much before.

I forgot to answer the OP's question, which was how did I choose my window. I get up about 5 a.m. When I started doing IF, I felt 11 a.m. was as long as I could go without eating anything, so I chose 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

rybo · September 2017

Schedule & convenience. How else would you choose it? Any other way would make adherence difficult to impossible.

jjpptt2 · September 2017

karintalley wrote: »

what the hell are you guys talking about..lol. Obvously i missed the newest diet trend.
it sounds interesting though. How does it work?

Pssst... google.

jelleigh · September 2017

Ya I've seen on here that most choose based on what is convenient and from just a straight calorie restriction perspective that makes total sense. But from my research of Intermittent Fasting , the point of extended fasting times had other health implications including positive effects to insulin levels, hormone balances, cell repair, brain function etc. I think those things don't kick in unless the fasting window is fairly long though? But I suppose in my instance it doesn't matter since I AM more interested in having a way to break a plateau.

Jpoirier17 · September 2017

I eat when i am hungry and often but i am burning out an average of 3000 to 4000 calories a day.
I mostly eat at 0600 Train - 0930 Train 1230 -1500 and 1700 nothing after dinner. But everybody is different i feel good with a 30% carb/30% fat/40% proteins diet. No processed food at all.

IF - how do you choose your eating window?

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