Good question, Brownbag! I am also interested in that. I would like to know more about the 8 hour diet. How is your wife doing?

Regarding the eating too much food at dinner issue, I don’t know what to think… It has always been said that it’s not a good idea to eat too much at dinner, that your body stores fat if you do so. Just as it has always been said that it’s not good to eat carbs after 5 pm and you should stick to vegetables and lean protein.

However, I have also read some articles – one of them at Leangains, incidentally – that bust the myth that skipping meals is bad for your metabolism. According to those articles, what matters is your total calorie intake throughout the day, no matter how you split this intake. So you could have five 400-calorie meals, four 500-calorie meals, two 1,000-calorie meals or one 2,000 calorie-meal, that you would be burning the same amount of fat.

I think this theory makes sense and there is a science behind it to back it up but I don’t really know how to explain it. Something about a metabolic process called thermogenesis. I suggest you to go to Leangains and look it up, because maybe you’re interested.

Congratulations on your success with your fasting, by the way! 😉

Regards!

I think if you watch the show they have evidence in mice, that when both mice are fed the same amount of food-one can eat whenever it wants throughout the day and the other can only eat whatever it wants in a small time window the restricted one is skinny and the other one is fat.

Hi Brown Bag, I’ve been doing the 8 hour diet for just over a week and have lost 1kg. Prior to that I had been doing 5:2 for 11 weeks and lost 4kgs. I find the 8hr diet easier because I am completely sated by eating 2 decent sized meals within an 8hr period (sometimes with a pre or post-dinner snack) and am too full to over eat. I don’t have breakfast and don’t miss it as I went without it on my 5:2 fast days. I eat lunch around midday and dinner between 6-8. I don’t count calories but I know that I am eating significantly less than I was on some of my 5:2 feed days and I don’t have the struggle of the 500cal fast days. If I’m going out at night, I change the eating window to 2-10pm or thereabouts. I don’t use the 8hr window as an opportunity to gorge myself just as many people on the 5:2 diet don’t gorge on the 5 feed days. So it may work for your wife and I hope it does.

Hi there

I myself have adapted the 8 hour diet for quite some time now, too, but always had problems tracking the hours I was allowed to feast and fast.

Luckily, I know how to create iPhone Apps – so I built an App just for that: Tracking your 8 and 16 hour phases.

It’s for free and really easy to use so I would like to share it with you guys. You can find it by searching for “8 16 hours” in the App Store or go to http://816hoursapp.jimdo.com

I’m looking forward to your feedback – if you like it please spread the word!

Cheers
Chris

I’m doing 4 3 diet but on feed days doing 8 16. This is about health for me. Weightloss is an added bonus!

Can we drink drinks after 9 o’clock and after 5 o’clock?

Hi Gavin,

I agree with you that eating whatever you want isn’t healthy, but I owe a lot to that claim (the “eat what you want” claim) because it’s that freedom that got me started on intermittent fasting and the 8 hour diet (it made the diet seem easy to adhere to).

I wasn’t fat to begin with, but I lost 8 kgs on the 8 hour diet in about 3 weeks (eating whatever at first but have since gradually been eating healthier). I’m a pretty small built guy…I went from 73 kgs to 65kgs. I’d encourage you to give the 8 hour a go – bare in mind that eating whatever you like its NOT a requirement – just try the 8 hour diet and eat healthier while on it. I swear by it. I found it incredibly easy to stick to, seeing it’s daily you have the benefit over other intermittent fasting schedules of easy daily habit forming. Your hormones also adjust so (if you’re like me) by day 3 you wont really feel hungry before your eating window (I eat between midday to 8 at night but I’m not too rigid about it, if I’m a few minutes or even an hour off schedule here and there then that’s cool – after all, sometimes things come up in life, but in saying that I do find that life accommodates the 8 hour eating window VERY well). I really cannot fault the 8 hour diet, I’ve been on it for a few months now and can’t see any reason to stop. I do like The Fast Diet as a game-changer now and then (I’ll do it whenever I plateau if I want to cut a bit more weight for the beach or whatever).

As a side note, I’ve figured out a small modification, if you can even call it that, to the 8 hour diet that makes it essential like traditional eating, that goes something like this: Finish eating dinner around 8pm. Watch tv or do whatever you do. Sleep. Wake up. Apon waking up eat a 50 calorie or less morning “meal” (this is my modification and 50 calories or less doesn’t break the “fasted state”. 50 calories or less is sometimes recommended during the fasted state by another intermittent fasting protocol called “Leangains”, yet I think with leangains, their 50 calories is not solid, but mine is – for example, I’ll eat a carrot or something in the morning which weighs in at about 35 calories or so). Then at “lunch” time your eating window starts, and you can eat lunch, snacks, dinner (and even an entrée and dessert if you want) and be done by 8pm. the the next fast state begins, and in this way with my modification the whole diet becomes like “normal” eating (breakfast,lunch,and dinner – only difference is my morning meal is much tinier than most peoples breakfasts).

Sorry, I see I’ve rambled on a bit, but there you have it. I’d really recommend the 8 hour diet (with or without a 50 calorie meal in the fasting window). The Fast Diet’s great too but I’m sure you already know that seeing you’ve tried it. I really appreciate the immense amount or work done by Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer…The Fast Diet’s an awesome book and a valuble resource on the benefits of fasting in general – regardless of whichever fasting method you use…

Hi Massive. I think seeing the thread is so old the poster may be long gone (though I may be wrong). I can answer your question though. 16:8 is supposed to be done daily (it is just the longer fasts like Eat Stop Eat where you go for 24 hours that it’s not supposed to be done daily). I lost 8 kgs doing The 8 Hour Diet daily. The 8 Hour Diet also says you can do it just 3 days a week and see results but I have never tried it just 3 days a week so I don’t have any anecdotal evidence about weather or not it works when done 3 days a week. “Leangains” that Gavin is talking about is a 16:8 protocol that is intended to be done daily, and also requires you to workout a few days a week. Hope this is helpful, best of luck!

Hi again, I still follow intermittent fasting daily for the health benefits (longevity etc). I still fast daily minimum 16 hours (so 16:8 in other words) but now and then at will I’ll go up to maximum 20 hours (20:4 fast).I go to 20 hours fasting when it’s convenient for work and what not. My weight has plateaued to be honest (it’s a good thing). I’m the same as you when it comes to the 5:2 diet – found it very hard psychologically – something about it made my brain think that I could always squeeze in a bit more food, then a bit more, then before I knew it I went way over the 500-600 calories. Eating within timeframes (like 16:8, 19:5, 20:4 or anything inbetween) works better psychologically for me, seeing I seem to think of eating at certain times as not an option. You say you came to dread Mondays and Thursdays – I hear that! I was like that when I did 24 hour fasts twice a week – never again! How are you finding 16:8 so far? Do you find yourself adjusting and not really getting hungry? I agree with you – 16:8’s great for an active lifestyle (I’m painting houses (while I find a way to use my degree haha) which is pretty physical and 16:8’s working well still. Let me know how you get on with it all.

Nope, didn’t and still don’t follow TDEE. I mean, I know about calories but try and use intermittent fasting as a way to not think about calories too much (within reason). I’m just not really a fan of counting them, though it would be useful if I did I’m sure. To be honest I hover around 65/66 kgs now – so not still losing – might get back into exercise which I haven’t done in a while – some small change like that would help I’m sure. I actually can’t remember how long it took exactly for the 8 kgs to come off but it was to the tune of about a month and a half or so. 5 day’s a week will still work very well I’m sure. Who knows, it might even help you lose easier throwing your body slightly off schedule for 2 days a week). I reckon it’s all about not letting your body get used to a weight loss strategy – that might be why my weight loss has stalled (I also have started bingeing a bit which I need to get out of the habit of), but I want it to stop seeing im a skinnyish guy already so don’t want to get below 65 or so. Good luck, hope it goes well! I might take a page from your book and start thinking more about calories (I’ll try and do that without getting obsessive which will be the challenge haha).