The FastDay Forum

Welcome! I'm a 16:8 and 5:2 too. Having no breakfast means my appetite does not get stimulated too early in the day and it's a push to over eat in an 8 hour feeding window. Good luck

[carieoates]

Welcome. I have also slipped into 16.8 on my non fast days. As like many others, I want more when I eat early. But if there's the occasional cake or something at break time I now allow myself a bit as I know I haven't had breakfast. Good luck to you and your family with whatever you all settle into.

Hi and welcome:

16:8 is not fasting. Under it you can eat as much of anything you want 8 hours each day. At best, you skip breakfast, and, if you don't compensate by eating it later in the day, you find yourself on a reduced calorie diet.

Good Luck!

I have to disagree. 16 hours is fasting. There are studies showing the increase in ketones occurring after just a few hours without food. How long depends on glycogen stores. For a woman, 16 hours should be enough to get lower insulin and increased fat burning. But as you say, it's important not to overeat in the 8 hours. I think attention to carbs is important as it helps keep insulin down.

I have to disagree.

I guess if you want to define fasting as not eating for a long enough period so ketones occur, a person with low glycogen stores is fasting if they don't eat between meals.

But that is not my point. My point is that 16:8 is not inherently helpful for weight loss or better health.

If you follow 16:8 to the letter, you can eat as much food as you want (or can) of any kind (from celery to pure sugar) every day.

16:8 is fun to talk about, and sells books. I mean, really, a diet that allows you to eat as much of anything you want every day? Skip the book, and just eat less than your TDEE every day, and over time you will lose weight. If you skip breakfast, or lunch, fine. If you skip breakfast, lunch and dinner, then you are fasting (and probably losing weight).

It is the concept of fasting for 16 hours that is important.

Whatever 'diet'you follow if you continue to eat more than you expend you will not lose weight. If you choose to eat unhealthy foods during the 8 hour window or overindulge, your health will be affected.

Most people on 5:2 are following a healthy eating pattern most if not all the time as they want to do something about their health.

[carorees]

But then the same thing regarding weightloss applies to 5:2 - if you feast too much on the 5 days you don't lose weight (many forum members have found this). Further you could snack all day on celery on the fast days and would that be fasting if you don't go without food for more than 5 hours?

I'm not sure we've ever managed to define what fasting is! Technically (i.e. scientists) fasting is the postabsorptive state and starts about 5 hours after eating. Fasting in terms of gaining health benefits would be defined by what? when insulin levels fall (low insulin is behind most of the health benefits)?when autophagy begins? maybe when brain derived neurotrophic factor increases?

I'm not sure we've ever managed to define what fasting is! Technically (i.e. scientists) fasting is the postabsorptive state and starts about 5 hours after eating. Fasting in terms of gaining health benefits would be defined by what? when insulin levels fall (low insulin is behind most of the health benefits)?when autophagy begins? maybe when brain derived neuropeptide increases?

I think these questions underpin a lot of the debate and discussion we have on this forum. On top of that, I know I sometimes get in a muddle about the effects (on both health and weight loss) of:

- the length of a fast (how long I don't eat),
- when and how many times I eat, and
- what (quality and quantity) I eat.

I have to keep reminding myself that this is very much work in progress and we don't necessarily have all the answers yet. Be nice to think, as we debate and discuss and experiment on ourselves, that we are adding to the body of knowledge!

There are so many variations of fasting that it is difficult to see the outcome in terms of health benefits unless a clinical trial is undertaken. Even on this forum there are so many different ways of doing the fast day let alone what people do on the other days of the week.