I’m 73 and been vegan since 1990. I’m experimenting with IF not so much to lose weight though 5 pounds would be great, but to try to reduce my visceral fat. As I understand this, the point is to let the body rest from digesting so it can do healing and maybe burn up some of the visceral fat around my organs which is the most dangerous. I’m not a night-time snacker anyhow. I’d say our normal pre-IF is roughly 12/12.

I live in an intentional community and we eat together M-W-F one week and Su-Tu-Th the next week at 6:30 PM. I’ve always thought I’d do better eating roughly 10 & 5ish but that’s not an option as I want to attend community meals. Add to that the meals are not designed to my preferences (low sodium/fat, no fake meats, just plant-based whole foods). So on those days I still want to have my nutrient dense smooth and salad each day.

I came up with a strategy and wonder if it’s viable. We always skip the Thursday meals as we have a meditation group that night. That means during that week we can eat Tuesday nights meal then do our version of IF Weds-Mon, then eat “normally” for the next week (ie: 3x day) alternating. Will we still get benefits from doing it this way?

We’re in the middle of the second span of IF. We’re not being rigid about the spacing. We’re shooting for roughly 16/8. So we’ll have our green smoothie and nuts around 9:30-10ish and our large salad with a piece of bread around 4:30 or 5ish. I have a small stomach and a slow metabolism. My husband, of course, needs more calories so he eats another meal in the middle. When we eat with the community at 6:30 I find that at bedtime 4 hours later there’s still food on my stomach.

I’d love to hear your input. Thanks.