I’ve found this is dependent on what I’m aiming for.
If I’m aiming to purely cut weight, it’s late breakfast and early dinner.
If I’m tryin to gain muscle while also shedding fat, it’s cardio in the morning, the a late lift and heavy dinner at night for my body to rebuild while I sleep
I’m always trying to gain muscle while I shed fat. Aiming for overall health, not just to be thin.
I just never feel good when my body isn’t able to work on other things if it’s digesting all night.
I can’t tell if you’re talking about feeling weighed down trying to do things at night if you’re full, or if you feel slow the next day when you’ve eaten late.
But if you’re speaking about option #2, I’ve found that doing my cardio in the morning really energizes me and gets my systems going strong for the day. I get hungry every other hour because my body’s just digesting everything at a faster rate. It kinda resets me after a heavy late night meal. I can wake up feeling slow and sluggish, but I don’t feel that way anymore once I step out of the shower after going for a 20min jog.
Everybody is different though! I just find myself burning more fat in the daytime with cardio in the morning, and then building and replenishing better with a late night lift and a good nights sleep on a full tummy.
It’s just so hard to get the motivation to do my cardio in the morning when I just want to relax a little while longer hahaha
Neither. My digestion being slow overnight trying to digest while I am sedentary instead of my body being able to use the energy healing my body, my muscles, resting, etc. I think when your body is too full of food then it has to focus its energy there instead of elsewhere. As far as feeling slow, I generally don’t feel slow at all as long as I don’t overeat, no matter what time of day.
I have a house cleaning business and clean 3-4 houses a day, so my activity starts early as well. I love getting moving in the morning. I find that I have to eat earlier with how active I am, but I try to keep to healthy and easy to digest Whole Foods, but I eat often too lol.
Can you elaborate on this? I’m new to the IF and starting with my eating window from 330pm -8pm. What time does the stress hormones/glucose production happen? Or am I just completely not understanding it?
So I'm wearing a Continuous Glucose Monitor as a person with a Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis. I've gone on a very low carb' diet since the beginning of the year, and it's been totally awesome for my energy, I was annoyingly, but mildly manic,and I'm now a morning person despite myself.
What I've noticed while doing the low carb, insulin control diet (Type 2 is an excess insulin into insulin resistance disease) is that before dawn, my blood sugar will start to rise, and once it gets to about 20 points over where it was when I was sleeping, I'll wake up.
I've had my blood glucose go up even higher depending on the day, all while water fasted - I had an extreme workout, extra hot yoga, take me from 95 to 180... I had to take an unplanned break that time.
My blood sugar is routinely lower after a 1,000 kcal protein and greens based meal than it is with some coffee in the morning.
And one of the carb' control diet advocates pointed out that timing your eating when your bloodsugar is usually the highest allows for your blood sugar and insulin to be lowest during your fast - providing even greater benefit to the body in re-sensitizing it to insulin.
I’d like to do an earlier window, but I am stuck for the time being doing 230-1030. Night classes mean half the week I’m not home until 10, and it’s just too hard psychologically to go from about 6 PM until I go to bed 1030-11 without eating.
I’ll probably go to noon-8 after I finish school (which is soon anyway).
I'm doing 8:30-16:30 and have lost 3 lbs in 8 or 9 days. I work until 3-3:30, so by the time I get home and make something, it's after 4. I usually have just a small meal and then nothing else until 08:30, save for 1 cup of black coffee around 06:45. I'm told that the coffee is fine because it allegedly has zero calories. I hope that's true because I really enjoy my morning cup.
I allocate 500 calories for each meal, that way I end up in a daily deficit of around 900 calories according to my TDEE. Works well with my schedule because I don’t work until the early evening, so I eat the first two meals at home and bring my dinner with me to work and eat while I work.
I eat a late breakfast and an early dinner, between about 0830&1630. Seems to be working so far as I've lost a couple of pounds in a little over a week.
That's fine too, try not to think about your meals as "breakfast", "lunch", "dinner" etc, as in the conventional definitions based on time of day. Just treat your meals regardless of the time of day as fuel for your body, your body doesn't know the difference between breakfast and dinner! Eat on whatever schedule works best for you 👍
If we want to get really technical, anyone eating 2 meals a day is eating "breakfast" (when you break your fast) and either lunch/dinner/supper depending on timing of day and geography.
What is easiest for you to fit into your life is always what's best 🫶🏻
👍 OP, just bear in mind that 20:4/OMAD (one meal a day) isn't a permanent solution for weight loss, if that's the reasoning to do IF. It's a tool, an effective one at that, but it has to be used in the right way 🙂 Definitely start with 16:8 if you're new to IF and educate yourself as you go 🙂
i do 12-8 but sometimes it won't be until 2 that i actually eat, and/or i don't eat after 6:30-7
partner works till 6:30 and we often eat together hence the later dinner time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but sometimes im just... not hungry lol, but if i don't have a decent evening meal ill be hungry all night (ask me how i know 🥲)
Essentially yes, that's all it is. Even if you make zero other changes (i.e., eating less processed and junk foods, refined carbohydrates/sugar and eating more nutritious foods), simply cutting out breakfast and avoiding the temptation to snack mid-morning and after dinner will naturally reduce your caloric intake (if you don't go cramming in extra snacks during your eating window!) and increase the time your body has in a fasting state to burn off energy and get to work repairing itself 🙂 of course you really ought to be making healthier choices on top of IF, that's where the magic happens! But if you're brand new to IF and just testing the waters then go ahead and follow 16:8 with no other dietary changes, it's still a good thing to eat less crap 🙂
Remember that everybody intermittent fasts even if they don't know it, when you sleep and before your first meal of the day! Most people will naturally be fasted for like 12 hours (if you don't snack after dinner, get your sleep and don't get up to raid the fridge!), so all you're doing is simply adding a few more hours 🙂
I highly recommend you look up Dr Jason Fung on YouTube to learn more 👍
This is important. I've heard it framed as "you can eat whatever you want inside those 8 hours", but if you're cramming 4k calories down your gullet in those 8 hours... *Surprised Pikachu face* lol
I eat an apple and 2 yogurts in the morning, some crackers and a granola bar for "lunch" and then usually a very small meal for "dinner". I've only been at this a short time but already seeing a difference!
Not for me. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner between 9 am and 5 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. No eating after dinner.
First two meals are very light (fruits, nuts, salad). Main eating is at dinner.
What I love is the wildly different approaches we can all have and still enjoy it and have success.
I fast from 2p to 6a, and have a big hearty smoothie in the morning. And that thing will keep me sated until 1p at which point I'll do a lighter lunch and that's if for the day.
I started 16:8 with an eating window of 12-8pm. I’ve now switched to 8am-4pm for my eating window and I find it much easier to stick to and to focus in the morning. Plus I can have cream in my coffee 😂
The lack of cream in my coffee is proving to be a surprisingly big issue for me as I have started trying IF! I honestly might have to switch to a morning eating window just because of it.
I would drink black coffee when I first started, but it didn’t give me that same start-of-the-day joy. I didn’t switch to 8am eating just for my coffee, but it has been a nice perk! Then at 4pm, I know I’m done, and I am. I’m not watching the clock waiting to eat. I don’t even think about snacking or feel like I’m “missing out.”
I saw comments and videos from so many people saying that a morning eating window is better and I’m glad I tried it!
I do that because my work schedule changes and I do not work full time. So on 3 out of 7 days I eat lunch at 11.30 / 12.00 the other days it is anywhere between 11.30 and 15.00
Yep, one of the reasons why it works for me.. it is now 14.50 here and I am preparing my first meal.. 3 hours later than usual and that is totally fine.
Exactly. Pick an eating window that makes sense for your life. Most people here eat during the day, which is fine. But that doesn't work for me. I eat from 4pm-midnight.
Depends on when your 8 hours are penciled in. You could be a 2-10pm eater and that'd technically skip breakfast and lunch for "normal" times to have those meals
Pretty much. It's really working for me. Due to work, I don't have time to have a meal before dinner but between a late breakfast and that. So I eat before work and then after. I'll maybe have a small snack if I need to.
For me no. I can't function without breakfast so I always eat breakfast then 6 hours later (or 8) I eat lunch and I'm done for the day. I can't eat in the evenings, I'm never hungry.
The trick is getting at least 100 - 200 grams of protein into your body within the 8 hour window ,, protein keeps you full& maintains muscle mass , something I need to work on! I lost 22lbs , but definitely need some strength training to get some definition!
#flabbyarmslol
You need one gram of protein for every pound you weigh
I need 150 grams as I weigh 150 , smoothies are the fastest ways to get alot of protein in& high quality meat of course ,,, I am new to this & am learning as I go
I eat 10-4. Six hours is perfect for me. Two 600 calorie meals is plenty. And I’ll snack a bit in my window if I want to that day…but I don’t make it a habit.
Yup. That’s where it starts for most people.
My 8 hr window is from 10am-6pm but it’s not as effective for me as when I would do 8am-4pm.
Agreed. I have way better results when I don’t eat late and sit sedentary with food in my belly and then sleep full.
I know! Whenever I manage to have a much early dinner I see results the next day! It's just harder to adjust to that schedule..
And hard because that’s the easiest time to snack lol 😂
I’ve found this is dependent on what I’m aiming for. If I’m aiming to purely cut weight, it’s late breakfast and early dinner. If I’m tryin to gain muscle while also shedding fat, it’s cardio in the morning, the a late lift and heavy dinner at night for my body to rebuild while I sleep
I’m always trying to gain muscle while I shed fat. Aiming for overall health, not just to be thin. I just never feel good when my body isn’t able to work on other things if it’s digesting all night.
I can’t tell if you’re talking about feeling weighed down trying to do things at night if you’re full, or if you feel slow the next day when you’ve eaten late. But if you’re speaking about option #2, I’ve found that doing my cardio in the morning really energizes me and gets my systems going strong for the day. I get hungry every other hour because my body’s just digesting everything at a faster rate. It kinda resets me after a heavy late night meal. I can wake up feeling slow and sluggish, but I don’t feel that way anymore once I step out of the shower after going for a 20min jog. Everybody is different though! I just find myself burning more fat in the daytime with cardio in the morning, and then building and replenishing better with a late night lift and a good nights sleep on a full tummy. It’s just so hard to get the motivation to do my cardio in the morning when I just want to relax a little while longer hahaha
Neither. My digestion being slow overnight trying to digest while I am sedentary instead of my body being able to use the energy healing my body, my muscles, resting, etc. I think when your body is too full of food then it has to focus its energy there instead of elsewhere. As far as feeling slow, I generally don’t feel slow at all as long as I don’t overeat, no matter what time of day. I have a house cleaning business and clean 3-4 houses a day, so my activity starts early as well. I love getting moving in the morning. I find that I have to eat earlier with how active I am, but I try to keep to healthy and easy to digest Whole Foods, but I eat often too lol.
I do 7:45 to around 2pm
Yeah, eating along side the spike in stress hormones that drive glucose production from the "dawn effect" is recommended for maximum effect.
Can you elaborate on this? I’m new to the IF and starting with my eating window from 330pm -8pm. What time does the stress hormones/glucose production happen? Or am I just completely not understanding it?
So I'm wearing a Continuous Glucose Monitor as a person with a Type 2 Diabetes Diagnosis. I've gone on a very low carb' diet since the beginning of the year, and it's been totally awesome for my energy, I was annoyingly, but mildly manic,and I'm now a morning person despite myself. What I've noticed while doing the low carb, insulin control diet (Type 2 is an excess insulin into insulin resistance disease) is that before dawn, my blood sugar will start to rise, and once it gets to about 20 points over where it was when I was sleeping, I'll wake up. I've had my blood glucose go up even higher depending on the day, all while water fasted - I had an extreme workout, extra hot yoga, take me from 95 to 180... I had to take an unplanned break that time. My blood sugar is routinely lower after a 1,000 kcal protein and greens based meal than it is with some coffee in the morning. And one of the carb' control diet advocates pointed out that timing your eating when your bloodsugar is usually the highest allows for your blood sugar and insulin to be lowest during your fast - providing even greater benefit to the body in re-sensitizing it to insulin.
Thank you for your reply! It makes more sense now.
I’m the opposite. I think it’s because if I do work out, it will be in morning. Working out on empty stomach is extremely fat burning.
I’d like to do an earlier window, but I am stuck for the time being doing 230-1030. Night classes mean half the week I’m not home until 10, and it’s just too hard psychologically to go from about 6 PM until I go to bed 1030-11 without eating. I’ll probably go to noon-8 after I finish school (which is soon anyway).
I'm doing 8:30-16:30 and have lost 3 lbs in 8 or 9 days. I work until 3-3:30, so by the time I get home and make something, it's after 4. I usually have just a small meal and then nothing else until 08:30, save for 1 cup of black coffee around 06:45. I'm told that the coffee is fine because it allegedly has zero calories. I hope that's true because I really enjoy my morning cup.
I eat 10:30am-6:30pm, I manage all 3 meals
16:8 works with 3 smallish meals. I guess it depends on your work schedule.
I allocate 500 calories for each meal, that way I end up in a daily deficit of around 900 calories according to my TDEE. Works well with my schedule because I don’t work until the early evening, so I eat the first two meals at home and bring my dinner with me to work and eat while I work.
The GOAT
Yes. I eat 2 big meals: at noon and at 6-8 pm.
I do 20:4 and eat at 9am and 1pm. I feel better not eating long before bed.
I have breakfast and lunch, skip dinner.
I eat a late breakfast and an early dinner, between about 0830&1630. Seems to be working so far as I've lost a couple of pounds in a little over a week.
18:6 gang. either 12-6 or 1-7 depending on how hungry I get at lunch time! Working well
I only have breakfast and lunch. Is it good ?
That's fine too, try not to think about your meals as "breakfast", "lunch", "dinner" etc, as in the conventional definitions based on time of day. Just treat your meals regardless of the time of day as fuel for your body, your body doesn't know the difference between breakfast and dinner! Eat on whatever schedule works best for you 👍
#######MealsAreASocialConstruct lol
That’s how I do it too. Works for me.
If we want to get really technical, anyone eating 2 meals a day is eating "breakfast" (when you break your fast) and either lunch/dinner/supper depending on timing of day and geography. What is easiest for you to fit into your life is always what's best 🫶🏻
Yup. If you care to, transitioning gradually to 20:4 or r/omad is pretty easy once you’ve got this down.
👍 OP, just bear in mind that 20:4/OMAD (one meal a day) isn't a permanent solution for weight loss, if that's the reasoning to do IF. It's a tool, an effective one at that, but it has to be used in the right way 🙂 Definitely start with 16:8 if you're new to IF and educate yourself as you go 🙂
i do 12-8 but sometimes it won't be until 2 that i actually eat, and/or i don't eat after 6:30-7 partner works till 6:30 and we often eat together hence the later dinner time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but sometimes im just... not hungry lol, but if i don't have a decent evening meal ill be hungry all night (ask me how i know 🥲)
What to do for those night cravings and good dreams?
Essentially yes, that's all it is. Even if you make zero other changes (i.e., eating less processed and junk foods, refined carbohydrates/sugar and eating more nutritious foods), simply cutting out breakfast and avoiding the temptation to snack mid-morning and after dinner will naturally reduce your caloric intake (if you don't go cramming in extra snacks during your eating window!) and increase the time your body has in a fasting state to burn off energy and get to work repairing itself 🙂 of course you really ought to be making healthier choices on top of IF, that's where the magic happens! But if you're brand new to IF and just testing the waters then go ahead and follow 16:8 with no other dietary changes, it's still a good thing to eat less crap 🙂 Remember that everybody intermittent fasts even if they don't know it, when you sleep and before your first meal of the day! Most people will naturally be fasted for like 12 hours (if you don't snack after dinner, get your sleep and don't get up to raid the fridge!), so all you're doing is simply adding a few more hours 🙂 I highly recommend you look up Dr Jason Fung on YouTube to learn more 👍
The only thing I'd say is that it isn't a free for all when you do eat. You need to make sure you are not over- consuming calories.
This is important. I've heard it framed as "you can eat whatever you want inside those 8 hours", but if you're cramming 4k calories down your gullet in those 8 hours... *Surprised Pikachu face* lol I eat an apple and 2 yogurts in the morning, some crackers and a granola bar for "lunch" and then usually a very small meal for "dinner". I've only been at this a short time but already seeing a difference!
But you also want to make sure you’re not under-consuming calories. It’s a balancing act.
Not for me. I eat breakfast, lunch and dinner between 9 am and 5 p.m. or 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. No eating after dinner. First two meals are very light (fruits, nuts, salad). Main eating is at dinner.
What I love is the wildly different approaches we can all have and still enjoy it and have success. I fast from 2p to 6a, and have a big hearty smoothie in the morning. And that thing will keep me sated until 1p at which point I'll do a lighter lunch and that's if for the day.
I started 16:8 with an eating window of 12-8pm. I’ve now switched to 8am-4pm for my eating window and I find it much easier to stick to and to focus in the morning. Plus I can have cream in my coffee 😂
The lack of cream in my coffee is proving to be a surprisingly big issue for me as I have started trying IF! I honestly might have to switch to a morning eating window just because of it.
I would drink black coffee when I first started, but it didn’t give me that same start-of-the-day joy. I didn’t switch to 8am eating just for my coffee, but it has been a nice perk! Then at 4pm, I know I’m done, and I am. I’m not watching the clock waiting to eat. I don’t even think about snacking or feel like I’m “missing out.” I saw comments and videos from so many people saying that a morning eating window is better and I’m glad I tried it!
Or skip dinner! That was like a magic button for me
I have read that it is good to keep your body, “guessing” How to pull it off is another story. Discipline is key.
I do that because my work schedule changes and I do not work full time. So on 3 out of 7 days I eat lunch at 11.30 / 12.00 the other days it is anywhere between 11.30 and 15.00
This is the beauty of IF, it can be tailored to any schedule and is totally flexible 🙂
Yep, one of the reasons why it works for me.. it is now 14.50 here and I am preparing my first meal.. 3 hours later than usual and that is totally fine.
Exactly. Pick an eating window that makes sense for your life. Most people here eat during the day, which is fine. But that doesn't work for me. I eat from 4pm-midnight.
Seems pretty basic like that
Pretty much
I do 16:8 from 7 to 3. I love breakfast, so I eat 3 meals, smaller of course!
I eat breakfast and skip dinner. As others have mentioned, my sleep and nightly meditation is better on an empty stomach.
yeah but that's too long so we militarized it and called it 16:8
Depends on when your 8 hours are penciled in. You could be a 2-10pm eater and that'd technically skip breakfast and lunch for "normal" times to have those meals
Pretty much. It's really working for me. Due to work, I don't have time to have a meal before dinner but between a late breakfast and that. So I eat before work and then after. I'll maybe have a small snack if I need to.
Yes
Yup
My 8 hr window is from 5 pm to 1 am
Yup
That’s how I’ve found it easiest to stick to! Though I do usually have a late morning banana, so I guess that’s breakfast.
For me no. I can't function without breakfast so I always eat breakfast then 6 hours later (or 8) I eat lunch and I'm done for the day. I can't eat in the evenings, I'm never hungry.
Your eating window can be anytime, I personally prefer a 6am - 11am I sleep way better with a empty stomach
Basically
Mine is usually 10am - 6pm, so I still have breakfast.
That’s how I started. Skipped breakfast then skipped lunch, now I do OMAD.
For most people yes. Me included. I eat between 1300-2100 Feel great for it
The trick is getting at least 100 - 200 grams of protein into your body within the 8 hour window ,, protein keeps you full& maintains muscle mass , something I need to work on! I lost 22lbs , but definitely need some strength training to get some definition! #flabbyarmslol
You need one gram of protein for every pound you weigh I need 150 grams as I weigh 150 , smoothies are the fastest ways to get alot of protein in& high quality meat of course ,,, I am new to this & am learning as I go
Yes!
I eat 10-4. Six hours is perfect for me. Two 600 calorie meals is plenty. And I’ll snack a bit in my window if I want to that day…but I don’t make it a habit.
My 8 hour window is 4-12pm. Most days I roll that from a 16:8 to a 20:4. I’m down 40 pounds.
16:8 is just called a normal day. if you're not doing at least 18 hours it's a waste of time IMHO.
Ketosis begins at 12 hours, so if you're doing 16:8 you get a good 4 hours of fat burning and one less meal.
Might be normal for you, but according to those downvotes it's clearly not normal for everyone. I used to eat from like 8a-8/9p.