The FastDay Forum

I'm a little way off maintenance, but I'm thinking of giving 16/8 a go to maintain when I get there. My first question is - is the 8 hour eating window supposed to be the same every day, or can it be switched from time to time? I can handle doing without breakfast and just having lunch and dinner say, 6 days of the week, but on Sundays we're more likely to have an egg and bacon breakfast followed by a decent lunch and no dinner. Would that do damage to the plan?

My other question is - if you're not eating breakfast, does skim milk in coffee or tea outside of the 8 hour eating window do damage?

Thanks!

Disclaimer: I'm no expert. I've only been doing 16:8 for a couple of months now for the health benefits, for which I have no measure.

My sense is that the eating window should be fairly similar from day to day. Otherwise, if there are frequent large variations, you don't get as many days with a fast of at least 16 hours. Your plan looks very reasonable to me. It may even turn out that a day or two a week of deviation has a positive effect. Why not give it a go and see how it works?

As to the question about skim milk in tea or coffee, I've always thought that any calories aside from perhaps lemon in water would break a fast, but I've seen contrary opinions. I should imagine that a couple of coffees with a splash of skim milk wouldn't make an appreciable difference to weight loss.

I am thinking about trying this, does it work for weight loss or just maintenance? 5:2 worked for the first few weeks but now I am gaining weight. I think getting that hungry on fast days leads me to overeat on other days. Maybe if I just had a daily hour restriction I wouldn't go so crazy... plus it would be easier to never have to count calories. I'd be interested to see if it works better for weight loss.

Hi Mummybunny,

I have been doing 16/8 for some time now and am not that rigid in my approach. Sometimes I have started eating at 11 a.m. and other days not til after 3 p.m. I have only once 'busted' my window but most days I find it is actually more like 4-6 hours rather than 8. So, in answer to your question, I'd say, it sounds fine to me, even if you go over 8 hours once a week it should not cause a plague, pestilence or any other national catastrophe. Try it for a few weeks, if it causes problems then have a rethink, after all, this is not a jail sentence, well, if it is at least you are he jailer!

Hi BlueDiamond,

I would give it a go for a couple of weeks and see how you get on, if it works, bingo! If it doesn't then like MummyBunny, you can always have a rethink, but I bet you will find it works,

Good luck to both of you and let us know how it goes,

Ballerina x

hi everyone- I have just started the 16/8 after about 4 months of 5:2. To be honest I couldn't handle the fasting. I lost about 3kg in the 4 months (my BMI is pretty low) and while I would loved to lose another 2kg, I am happy. I had a couple gruelling fast days where I really really struggled and the benefits just were not outweighing the difficulties. SO I am giving 16/8 a go. My plan so far is to skip breakfast (never been a big breakfast lover anyways), have midmorning coffee (no sugar) and push on until about noon. After 2 days of this I feel like I am fasting but am grateful to miss the mid-afternoon grind. My plan is to do this every weekday but not on weekends. I will take it easy on these days but need to feel like I can have some nice things. So I have one question: is it bad to skip breakfast?? We have had it drilled into us for decades that missing breakfast is bad for your health. What do we actually know about this???

Hi Toad,

When I was younger, O.K. a LOT younger and no longer under my mother's kind, but dictatorial rule, I never ate breakfast as I'm never hungry when I wake up. And do you know what? I never had a weight problem, was slim and healthy etc etc. Fast forward to husband territory, breakfast back in my life and gradually the weight crept on. I'm not putting all the blame on breakfast for my slothful ways because the calories consumed are not the problem, in thtemselves it's just that it seems to set my hunger pangs on full throttle for the rest of the day which means, yep, millions more calories eaten and this is daft when you consider that I didn't even want the original ones in the first place!

So, for me, skip breakfast and don't nibble late in the evening, easy peasy! I cannot imagine anything easier, it really is that simple. Good luck,

Ballerina x

I read the diet book 'Fit for Life'. In that diet there are three phases, taking in food, digesting and then elimination in equal parts. That gave eight hours of eating. The elimination phase could eat fruit or well cooked veges that are watery to help flush out the waste. It is a nice way as it allows the body to process before putting more food in. It also involved food combining which most people do on fast days as carbs and protien are not eaten together. The two fast days I bet most people skip the bread or potatoes. It always amazes me how lots of diets overlap which leads to people being able to adapt as they see fit.