16:8 fasting
FeliciaWinn
Posts: 44 Member
I'm restriciting my calories to lose 2 lbs a week while trying the 16:8 between 12:00-8:00. I've lost weight in the past just by calorie counting and eating multiple small meals/snacks a day, I just wanted to try a different way this time and get away from late night snacking. I'm only 7 days in but I feel like I'm hungrier then when I eat more smaller meals throughout the day. When I eat more frequently and smaller portions I feel my stomach shrink and I get fuller quicker, now I usually eat 2 snacks 2 largish meals. The snacks are usually right after my meals because I don't feel full. Do I just need to give my body more time to adjust or should I go back to the old ways? What's your experience with intermittent fasting?
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Replies
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Depends on what you can sustain and adhere to.
Do you have over 50 lbs to lose for 2 lbs weekly to even be reasonable?
That could be part of issue - making deficit bigger than body can handle without it fighting back.
Are you correctly eating more than the base calories when you do exercise and burn more in the day?
That could be a part of issue making deficit even bigger.
Yes, many small meals of the wrong macro makeup can cause a roller coaster of up and down insulin causing frequent low blood sugar drops making people feel hungry way more than they need to be fed.
Then again, a couple of bigger meals can keep a stomach in state of feeling like it has room to go and wants to be fed.
Usually if you have gotten over the morning time, and aren't too active after the last meal of the day, with again a nice macro balance so you aren't getting low blood sugar after 8 pm - it works itself out.
So either method can be tweaked, and others, to find what works for you to adhere.
But too low calories on any method is a bad idea waiting for failure to happen.5 -
My experience with IF has been positive. I've been eating approximately 16:8 for a bit over a year and have lost 74 pounds. I started with 11 am to 7 pm, then noon to 7 pm, which I find easier. Sometimes I do 1 pm to 7 pm, which is easier still. It may seem counter-intuitive, but a smaller eating window can be easier as far as appetite and cravings are concerned. (With a 6 hr window, one snack at the 3 hour point in between your two meals means you're never much hungry in the eating window. That is not as true with an 8 hr window, which entails long periods of time between meals)
You have to give it some time. I seem to recall it took me about 3 weeks to adjust to IF. During that initial time I was quite hungry at night, and sometimes in the mornings. But after around 3 weeks, everything clicked and it's been pretty easy ever since.
The cool thing for me about IF is that once I adjusted after 3-4 weeks or so, I had literally no appetite at all from when I woke up until "feeding time" at 11 am. My nighttime cravings and binges also basically went away, although those did return somewhat after around 6 months and have been a fight on and off ever since. But for six solid months, after getting past the initial 3-4 week break-in, I would not eat one damn calorie between dinner at 7 pm and lunch the next day, and it was easy, I wasn't hungry at all and lost weight. Plus, I haven't put an ounce of weight back on and am still losing, though slower now, intentionally, as I raised my calorie quota from a 2 lb/week goal to 1 lb/week.
I started IF because all of my previous diets failed due to night time snacking/binging; IF is the only thing that's ever helped with that. I do plan to do IF indefinitely - all the way to my weight loss goal, and then into maintenance. I see it as a permanent lifestyle thing in my life, not a "weight loss program".
IF is a worthy thing to try. It could turn out that it's just not for you, and you'll know one way or the other soon enough, but a week is not enough time to determine that. I'd give it a solid 3-4 weeks. In my experience, the stricter you are with it (meaning NO calories outside the eating window), the more quickly and fully you adjust to it psychologically and the more the hunger pangs go away. If you do it half-way and snack "a little" outside the window, the harder it will be, if possible at all, to really get in the swing of it, as you will be constantly hungry and thinking about food. For IF to work for you, you have to train your brain and body not to expect or even to secretly hope for food outside the window. One day your brain will accept that and then things get really easy.
A final note is, the point of any diet approach is to make things easier. If IF ultimately makes things easier for you to lose weight, as it did for me, great! If it doesn't, then it might not be for you. But again, try to give it 3-4 weeks for your appetite to adjust before you make that call. And really stick to that "NO eating outside the window" thing during those few weeks because that is how you get over the cravings and "I'm so hungry" problem. Doing it half way with capitulation by snacking will likely just leave you extremely hungry and irritable.4 -
Depends on what you can sustain and adhere to.
Do you have over 50 lbs to lose for 2 lbs weekly to even be reasonable?
That could be part of issue - making deficit bigger than body can handle without it fighting back.
Are you correctly eating more than the base calories when you do exercise and burn more in the day?
That could be a part of issue making deficit even bigger.
Yes, many small meals of the wrong macro makeup can cause a roller coaster of up and down insulin causing frequent low blood sugar drops making people feel hungry way more than they need to be fed.
Then again, a couple of bigger meals can keep a stomach in state of feeling like it has room to go and wants to be fed.
Usually if you have gotten over the morning time, and aren't too active after the last meal of the day, with again a nice macro balance so you aren't getting low blood sugar after 8 pm - it works itself out.
So either method can be tweaked, and others, to find what works for you to adhere.
But too low calories on any method is a bad idea waiting for failure to happen.
Thanks for your input! I have over 100 lbs to lose, I haven't worked out since starting IF.1 -
My experience with IF has been positive. I've been eating approximately 16:8 for a bit over a year and have lost 74 pounds. I started with 11 am to 7 pm, then noon to 7 pm, which I find easier. Sometimes I do 1 pm to 7 pm, which is easier still. It may seem counter-intuitive, but a smaller eating window can be easier as far as appetite and cravings are concerned. (With a 6 hr window, one snack at the 3 hour point in between your two meals means you're never much hungry in the eating window. That is not as true with an 8 hr window, which entails long periods of time between meals)
You have to give it some time. I seem to recall it took me about 3 weeks to adjust to IF. During that initial time I was quite hungry at night, and sometimes in the mornings. But after around 3 weeks, everything clicked and it's been pretty easy ever since.
The cool thing for me about IF is that once I adjusted after 3-4 weeks or so, I had literally no appetite at all from when I woke up until "feeding time" at 11 am. My nighttime cravings and binges also basically went away, although those did return somewhat after around 6 months and have been a fight on and off ever since. But for six solid months, after getting past the initial 3-4 week break-in, I would not eat one damn calorie between dinner at 7 pm and lunch the next day, and it was easy, I wasn't hungry at all and lost weight. Plus, I haven't put an ounce of weight back on and am still losing, though slower now, intentionally, as I raised my calorie quota from a 2 lb/week goal to 1 lb/week.
I started IF because all of my previous diets failed due to night time snacking/binging; IF is the only thing that's ever helped with that. I do plan to do IF indefinitely - all the way to my weight loss goal, and then into maintenance. I see it as a permanent lifestyle thing in my life, not a "weight loss program".
IF is a worthy thing to try. It could turn out that it's just not for you, and you'll know one way or the other soon enough, but a week is not enough time to determine that. I'd give it a solid 3-4 weeks. In my experience, the stricter you are with it (meaning NO calories outside the eating window), the more quickly and fully you adjust to it psychologically and the more the hunger pangs go away. If you do it half-way and snack "a little" outside the window, the harder it will be, if possible at all, to really get in the swing of it, as you will be constantly hungry and thinking about food. For IF to work for you, you have to train your brain and body not to expect or even to secretly hope for food outside the window. One day your brain will accept that and then things get really easy.
A final note is, the point of any diet approach is to make things easier. If IF ultimately makes things easier for you to lose weight, as it did for me, great! If it doesn't, then it might not be for you. But again, try to give it 3-4 weeks for your appetite to adjust before you make that call. And really stick to that "NO eating outside the window" thing during those few weeks because that is how you get over the cravings and "I'm so hungry" problem. Doing it half way with capitulation by snacking will likely just leave you extremely hungry and irritable.
Thanks so much Igfrie, seriously this response made my night. Seems like I'm just being impatient again. I have ate a few minutes past 8 one of the nights and I totally agree I'll have to be super strict with it and train my brain. I can tell it is possible with time. I like the idea of possibly transitioning to a smaller eating window .3 -
No advice other than a more simplified can I do this ignorant thing? No it's outside my window? Ok.2
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I do 16:8 on week days because it suits me - its a great way to keep the calories in check I find. At the end of the day being in calorie deficit consistently is what leads to loss. Its about finding a way to lose that suits you and works
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I do 16:8 and found that having lemon water in the morning takes away those hunger pangs and the good thing is that it will not break your fast. As for the nighttime, depending on what I have for dinner, sometimes I'm hungry and sometimes I'm not but if I am, I usually go to bed earlier to keep my mind off it. Hope this helps. Good luck with your journey:)1
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4 days later and I haven't eaten a thing past 8. It's been awesome! So far IF has been easy and is getting easier every day.... My hunger pangs are starting to go away or my mind is getting better at ingnorinf them. I've lost about 8 lbs in 12 days of IF0
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I tried this...I lost 3lb in the first week
The second week I lost nothing and I did the same thing as the week before so I started calorie counting instead and I’ve lost a 1lb a week.The quicker you lose it, the more likely you will gain as everyone says xx
I don’t think it’s sustainable...Doing the calorie counting has made me realise lifestyle changes...where I used to eat loads of crap before like chocolate and other junk food, I’ve cut it out and just have a treat at the end of the week xx1 -
vhopkins1988 wrote: »I tried this...I lost 3lb in the first week
The second week I lost nothing and I did the same thing as the week before so I started calorie counting instead and I’ve lost a 1lb a week.The quicker you lose it, the more likely you will gain as everyone says xx
I don’t think it’s sustainable...Doing the calorie counting has made me realise lifestyle changes...where I used to eat loads of crap before like chocolate and other junk food, I’ve cut it out and just have a treat at the end of the week xx
That's exactly what I am doing except fitting all my calories within the 8 hour period. I'm eating almost exactly what MFP recommends me to eat to loose 2 lbs a week. My highest weight reached was 305ish lbs at 18-19 years old. I'm 27 now and weigh about 251. Ive been tracking off and on for 7+ years now. I've been everywhere in-between 305-244 since reaching 305. I believe since I still have 100 lbs to loose 2 lbs/wk is still a healthy amount until I reach about 200lbs... Then I'll probably go down to 1 lb a week. I'm eating the same amount as previous weight loss successes except with IF I feel it IS more sustainable for my life style, but we'll see about that, for now it's working. I'm not just freely eating 8 hrs a day, I'm calorie counting along with it considering that's where weight loss really comes from. I'm sure my loss was greater the first week because of water weight and all that stuff, I just feel overall so much better. My mental clarity alone is worth the IF. This has been my experience so far ... day 12.3 -
vhopkins1988 wrote: »I tried this...I lost 3lb in the first week
The second week I lost nothing and I did the same thing as the week before so I started calorie counting instead and I’ve lost a 1lb a week.The quicker you lose it, the more likely you will gain as everyone says xx
I don’t think it’s sustainable...Doing the calorie counting has made me realise lifestyle changes...where I used to eat loads of crap before like chocolate and other junk food, I’ve cut it out and just have a treat at the end of the week xx
Oh one thing I forgot to mention. My main problem is late night snacking, I can go all day eat healthy and count calories but 10-11 pm rolls by and I'm feeling hungry and craving junk. With IF I'm eating between 12pm and not a minute past 8pm. It's really helping control late night snacking, I haven't eaten a thing past 8 for 4 nights now and not past 830 in 12days. At first I was slipping and eating right at 8 or like 750. Now I try to have dinner completely finished by 7. By telling my brain there's absolutely no chance for food past 8 has helped tremendously with sticking with it and curbing my cravings I'm hoping to stick with this one for real this time. 😁1 -
FeliciaWinn wrote: »vhopkins1988 wrote: »I tried this...I lost 3lb in the first week
The second week I lost nothing and I did the same thing as the week before so I started calorie counting instead and I’ve lost a 1lb a week.The quicker you lose it, the more likely you will gain as everyone says xx
I don’t think it’s sustainable...Doing the calorie counting has made me realise lifestyle changes...where I used to eat loads of crap before like chocolate and other junk food, I’ve cut it out and just have a treat at the end of the week xx
That's exactly what I am doing except fitting all my calories within the 8 hour period. I'm eating almost exactly what MFP recommends me to eat to loose 2 lbs a week. My highest weight reached was 305ish lbs at 18-19 years old. I'm 27 now and weigh about 251. Ive been tracking off and on for 7+ years now. I've been everywhere in-between 305-244 since reaching 305. I believe since I still have 100 lbs to loose 2 lbs/wk is still a healthy amount until I reach about 200lbs... Then I'll probably go down to 1 lb a week. I'm eating the same amount as previous weight loss successes except with IF I feel it IS more sustainable for my life style, but we'll see about that, for now it's working. I'm not just freely eating 8 hrs a day, I'm calorie counting along with it considering that's where weight loss really comes from. I'm sure my loss was greater the first week because of water weight and all that stuff, I just feel overall so much better. My mental clarity alone is worth the IF. This has been my experience so far ... day 12.
Just wanted to say lots of good luck, and I hope you'll keep updating on your progress.2 -
FeliciaWinn wrote: »4 days later and I haven't eaten a thing past 8. It's been awesome! So far IF has been easy and is getting easier every day.... My hunger pangs are starting to go away or my mind is getting better at ingnorinf them. I've lost about 8 lbs in 12 days of IF
Wow, you're doing great! And now you are in on the little secret of 16:8, that the hunger pangs, cravings, and fixation on food just sort of evaporate after a month. This is what I found and find amazing about IF - that I was So. Much. Less. Hungry. Really drawing that line in the sand at 8 pm will continue to help you later as it is doing now; you're training your brain not to secretly hope for handouts and to just submit to your authority LOL. Keep us posted on your progress.2 -
That’s weird!
When I did the IF I felt hungry after 8pm and wanted to snack with a film with some crisps or peanuts but doing the calorie counting I don’t feel like snacking.I fancied an ice cream last night due to the hot weather but then after a bit I didn’t fancy it.
Isn’t that funny how we are opposite! I guess what works for one, doesn’t work or fit with another person xx wishing you lots of luck on your weight loss journey xxx
FeliciaWinn wrote: »vhopkins1988 wrote: »I tried this...I lost 3lb in the first week
The second week I lost nothing and I did the same thing as the week before so I started calorie counting instead and I’ve lost a 1lb a week.The quicker you lose it, the more likely you will gain as everyone says xx
I don’t think it’s sustainable...Doing the calorie counting has made me realise lifestyle changes...where I used to eat loads of crap before like chocolate and other junk food, I’ve cut it out and just have a treat at the end of the week xx
Oh one thing I forgot to mention. My main problem is late night snacking, I can go all day eat healthy and count calories but 10-11 pm rolls by and I'm feeling hungry and craving junk. With IF I'm eating between 12pm and not a minute past 8pm. It's really helping control late night snacking, I haven't eaten a thing past 8 for 4 nights now and not past 830 in 12days. At first I was slipping and eating right at 8 or like 750. Now I try to have dinner completely finished by 7. By telling my brain there's absolutely no chance for food past 8 has helped tremendously with sticking with it and curbing my cravings I'm hoping to stick with this one for real this time. 😁
2
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