Starting a new nutrition plan today to try and get some stubborn weight off. Has anybody had any success with this program?
A quick summary - You eat all of your meals in an 8 hour period in the day and fast for the remaining 16 hours.
I've heard lots of good things about this plan. Was hoping to get some personal stories.
I've lost probably 10-12 pounds, but I'm trying not to weigh in frequently. Focusing on how I feel, how my clothes fit, etc.
First week is tough but piece of cake since then, for me at least.
I don't do it on the weekends.
One thing that I was surprised by - getting used to black coffee wasn't bad at all. I never considered the amount of half and half I was putting in my 3-4 small cups of coffee to be significant, but I feel much better without that dairy.
Currently trying 12-8pm and once the weather is nicer I will go back to biking to work and running a few times per week.
Currently trying 12-8pm and once the weather is nicer I will go back to biking to work and running a few times per week.
My exact mindset. I have a small breakfast every day, so why not just wait to have it since it's easiest to skip. Water/Coffee can get me to noon with no problem.
Have never really tried fasting. Don't think it would work for me. Need to eat small meals throughout the day.
Eat a lot of non meat protein (quinoa, quorn, eggs, nuts, etc.), and protein power with unsweetened almond or coconut milk in a blender. Sometimes small pieces of chicken or salmon. Oatmeal and some honey most mornings. Fruit for a snack, with occasional sweets. Don't drink or smoke. Drink decaffeinated green tea. No coffee or milk, and almost no cheese.
What kind of meals are you eating? I usually have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a sandwich with 97% fat free turkey/fruit/pretzels for lunch and then dinner varies. Could I eat the same type of diet?
How does alcohol and/or dessert fit in if I want it?
Thanks
Have never really tried fasting. Don't think it would work for me. Need to eat small meals throughout the day.
Eat a lot of non meat protein (quinoa, quorn, eggs, nuts, etc.), and protein power with unsweetened almond or coconut milk in a blender. Sometimes small pieces of chicken or salmon. Oatmeal and some honey most mornings. Fruit for a snack, with occasional sweets. Don't drink or smoke. Drink decaffeinated green tea. No coffee or milk, and almost no cheese.
You can still do small meals, just in a smaller window of time.
Obviously, best results will occur when a really clean diet is what's consumed in the eating window.
For me, the amount that I eat has mostly ended up being 2 normal meals plus one snack.
I have seldom felt deprived. The last hour before lunch can be a challenge especially on days when I work out in the morning.
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about to eat lunch.
Have never really tried fasting. Don't think it would work for me. Need to eat small meals throughout the day.
Eat a lot of non meat protein (quinoa, quorn, eggs, nuts, etc.), and protein power with unsweetened almond or coconut milk in a blender. Sometimes small pieces of chicken or salmon. Oatmeal and some honey most mornings. Fruit for a snack, with occasional sweets. Don't drink or smoke. Drink decaffeinated green tea. No coffee or milk, and almost no cheese.
You can still do small meals, just in a smaller window of time.
In all fairness, I've never tried it, but I typically need to eat something every three or four hours. Longer than five or six hours without food, and I often start to lose focus.
What kind of meals are you eating? I usually have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a sandwich with 97% fat free turkey/fruit/pretzels for lunch and then dinner varies. Could I eat the same type of diet?
How does alcohol and/or dessert fit in if I want it?
Thanks
Steve - On this program, it would be Water/tea/coffee from when you wake up to when you break your fast. So no fruit. Most say that milk/creamer in coffee is the extent of caloric intake you can have during your fast period that would not break the fast. (Noon is the time I am breaking fast, but it can be any time. However your last meal of the day is 8 hours after your first meal. So breaking fast at 10am means your last meal is 6pm.
You can eat whatever you want on this plan, but have to stay under your daily caloric intake. There are plenty of weight loss calculators online that could tell you how many calories you should be eating in a day to lose weight. The day you summarized would fit well.
Alcohol and dessert is fine, as long as you stay below your caloric limit.
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I would need to eat between 12-8 however I get up at 6 most mornings. Can I have a piece of fruit before noon to carry me over?
What kind of meals are you eating? I usually have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a sandwich with 97% fat free turkey/fruit/pretzels for lunch and then dinner varies. Could I eat the same type of diet?
How does alcohol and/or dessert fit in if I want it?
Thanks
Steve - On this program, it would be Water/tea/coffee from when you wake up to when you break your fast. So no fruit. Most say that milk/creamer in coffee is the extent of caloric intake you can have during your fast period that would not break the fast. (Noon is the time I am breaking fast, but it can be any time. However your last meal of the day is 8 hours after your first meal. So breaking fast at 10am means your last meal is 6pm.
You can eat whatever you want on this plan, but have to stay under your daily caloric intake. There are plenty of weight loss calculators online that could tell you how many calories you should be eating in a day to lose weight. The day you summarized would fit well.
Alcohol and dessert is fine, as long as you stay below your caloric limit.
This is interesting. I may give it a shot. It's the morning that will kill me.
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In comment 13407867 AcidTest said:
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about to eat lunch.
Have never really tried fasting. Don't think it would work for me. Need to eat small meals throughout the day.
Eat a lot of non meat protein (quinoa, quorn, eggs, nuts, etc.), and protein power with unsweetened almond or coconut milk in a blender. Sometimes small pieces of chicken or salmon. Oatmeal and some honey most mornings. Fruit for a snack, with occasional sweets. Don't drink or smoke. Drink decaffeinated green tea. No coffee or milk, and almost no cheese.
You can still do small meals, just in a smaller window of time.
In all fairness, I've never tried it, but I typically need to eat something every three or four hours. Longer than five or six hours without food, and I often start to lose focus.
Its essentially a calorie cutting tactic. If you are disciplined enough to stay at X calories every 24 hours then it doesn't matter when you eat them. 12-8pm helps people skip out on a morning meal that they may not need in order to save 300-400 calories. But if you overeat from 12-8pm, than its pointless.
If eating every few hours works for you I'd just stick with that.
I think this goes without saying.
"You can eat whatever you want" was meant to convey that there isn't a strict dietary meal plan.
However, on this program you can certainly eat a slice of pizza for dinner if you wanted to. The point is that it's less restrictive in what you eat but more restrictive in when you eat.
http://corner.bigblueinteractive.com/index.php?mode=2&thread=548873 - ( New Window )
I love breakfast foods so I plan on just having breakfast for lunch, but yes, you can break your fast at any time but need 16 hours in between your last meal of yesterday and first meal of today
I drink a lot of water, which makes me feel full even if I'm not.
booze kills me on any diet.
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calories a day (which is what the average adult male needs) it doesn't matter how many hours you decide to eat, you're going to gain weight. This might be a helpful tactic, but not if you're eating two or three pizzas and drinking a few six packs in that eight hours and then fasting the other 16.
I think this goes without saying.
"You can eat whatever you want" was meant to convey that there isn't a strict dietary meal plan.
However, on this program you can certainly eat a slice of pizza for dinner if you wanted to. The point is that it's less restrictive in what you eat but more restrictive in when you eat.
Giants07. I certainly didn't mean this to be negative or discouraging. Good on you for acknowledging you needed to lose weight and making the effort to do it! If it works for you that's what matters. Staying at a healthy weight remains one of the single most positive behaviors a person can make.
B. Eating small meals all day might work for some people but it has not been proven to be more effective.
C. For me it's better to eat two larger meals in your eating window (big lunch and big dinner) and feel satisfied then to try to force 3 meals into a 6-8 hour window.
I do 16/8 (eating window from 12-8) and do my workouts in the morning, 5-6 days week. Does not adversely effect me. Some people recommend 10g of BCAAs if you work out in the morning before breaking your fast. I haven't felt the need.
On the window, the times don't matter as long as you are fasting for the same period of time. For instance doing 16/8 and you would rather eat early than you could do 7am - 3pm) The thing is it seems easier for most people to cut out breakfast. Persoally I think it would be tougher to stop eating too early in the day. I still have coffee in the AM with 3 Tbs of milk.
As to the we were designed to take in many small meals, meh, I did that most of my adult life. Doing 16/8 has actually made my digestive system feel better, less bloating, etc. etc. I have less problems with grains now. The idea is you are giving your digestive system 16 hours to digest the food.
I wouldn't really call it a diet. And actually it's not really a fast. You are just shortening up your eating window. I still take in the same amount of calories as before, (and I always eat clean/healthy anyway) but I lost about an inch of stubborn fat around my waist just by eating this way.
Benefits I have seen:
1) I have lost stubborn belly fat without having to reduce my carb intake, and literally changing nothing about my diet other than the window of time I eat.
2) It's easy. I just don't eat breakfast.
3) It's much harder to take in too many calories.
4) For some reason I seem much more satisfied/not as hungry. I actually seem to be more in tune with my hunger now.
5) My intestines fell better than they have in quite some time, without going on a really restrictive diet.
6) Following on to #5, this makes it much easier to stick to.
7) My workouts have been great even working out in the morning fasted. Also, as a guitar player, a surprising advantage has been that since I'm not carb restrictive, my playing does not suffer (I like to play really fast).
Were our bodies designed to consume small meals throughout the day? No.
The weight loss formula is pretty simple, actually -- burn more calories than you consume. Every day. Weight will come off.
There are two sides to this coin -- reducing the calories you consume (through eating AND drinking) and increasing the calories you burn (through physical activity).
If weight doesn't come off after several weeks of doing this faithfully every day (not just on "good" days), see a doctor, because something is wrong.
As for your overall health beyond mere weight loss, the calories you do consume should be as nutritional as possible, and your calorie-burning activity should include building muscular strength.
The reason why the intermittent fasting seems to work is not because of the fasting, per se, it's because you're likely consuming fewer calories overall every day by doing it. But you can consume fewer calories daily without intermittent fasting, of course.
If you increase your daily calorie-burning activity in addition to intermittent fasting, even more weight will come off. But since you're fasting for most of the day, you need to be more careful when you exercise.
(And I say all this as someone who does intermittent fasting from time to time on a whim just as a preference.)
The reason why the intermittent fasting seems to work is not because of the fasting, per se, it's because you're likely consuming fewer calories overall every day by doing it. But you can consume fewer calories daily without intermittent fasting, of course.
Bungle I agree with pretty much everything you said, however I track my calories and I am eating the same amount of calories now as before I started this 16/8 window. I am a heavy lifter and I do some hiit and moderate cardio throughout the week. Not fat nor overweight before but I want to see my abs more this year, and just by changing my eating window I have lost about 2% of my body fat. I have leveled off but I had increased my carb intake a bit, now I'm going to adjust the ratios with less carbs to get the last bit.
Also my digestive system definitely feels better. There is definitely something different going on and I feel like it's the fact that I am giving my body more time to digest the calories.
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In comment 13407931 rebel yell said:
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calories a day (which is what the average adult male needs) it doesn't matter how many hours you decide to eat, you're going to gain weight. This might be a helpful tactic, but not if you're eating two or three pizzas and drinking a few six packs in that eight hours and then fasting the other 16.
I think this goes without saying.
"You can eat whatever you want" was meant to convey that there isn't a strict dietary meal plan.
However, on this program you can certainly eat a slice of pizza for dinner if you wanted to. The point is that it's less restrictive in what you eat but more restrictive in when you eat.
Giants07. I certainly didn't mean this to be negative or discouraging. Good on you for acknowledging you needed to lose weight and making the effort to do it! If it works for you that's what matters. Staying at a healthy weight remains one of the single most positive behaviors a person can make.
Rebel, didn't take it as such! Just wanted to clarify as I did say that "you could eat what you want" which wasn't really exactly accurate.
Thanks for the kind words!
Haha, this is funny. It's the exact thing I've been worrying about all day. I usually smoke around the same time period and am fighting myself to not go into the kitchen by 11PM.
Johnny5, That's good to hear. Burning more calories than I've eaten has been my mindset for dieting during the past three years when I lost my weight. I've lost 100 pounds so far. These last 25-30 have been the hardest, and I'm hoping that fasting will be the missing link in finishing off and getting to my goal. Glad to hear that you got results without changing your diet.
However I am doing it during Lent for religious reasons as well.
Yup. Smoke at night...good luck not obliterating the fridge while watching the knicks tank. It can be done though.
I have basically been on this diet for the past 20 years. I eat brunch in the afternoon and dinner at dinnertime. With the exception of occasional binge drinking in the evening that is my normal routine. I have not lost any weight, but have maintained it.
I have basically been on this diet for the past 20 years. I eat brunch in the afternoon and dinner at dinnertime. With the exception of occasional binge drinking in the evening that is my normal routine. I have not lost any weight, but have maintained it.
Im betting you are eating late at night and gorging during your two meals. Just cutting out breakfast doesn't necessarily do anything. You have to fast for up to 18 hours and keep your caloric intake to about 2000 calories or less.
Some good info here
http://jamesclear.com/the-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting - ( New Window )
Don't forget reducing sodium intake and drinking a lot of water. I lost 45 lbs on NutriSystem a few years ago and really believe the flushing of sodium, and other toxins, out of your system makes a big difference.
I have lunch at noon and don't eat anything until 5 pm
I have dinner at 5 pm and then don't eat anything until 10 pm
I have a pre-bed snack at 10 pm.
Sometimes I get up at 3 am to maintain schedule but other times I can't maintain that level of discipline.
I haven't lost any weight but I feel great!
I have lunch at noon and don't eat anything until 5 pm
I have dinner at 5 pm and then don't eat anything until 10 pm
I have a pre-bed snack at 10 pm.
Sometimes I get up at 3 am to maintain schedule but other times I can't maintain that level of discipline.
I haven't lost any weight but I feel great!
How do you avoid having a few drinks between 5-10 pm?