Hello Pat! What is the 16:8? I’m new to this too but looking forward to seeing results

Ooh okay so this is instead of the 5:2 or on top of? I need to research this more as I’ve stumbled across this website but liked the sound of it. I’ve stayed the same weight for the last 9 days so need to change things up.

16:8 and 5:2 are two different things.

16:8 is a limited eating window of 8 hours every day.

The original 5:2 involves eating a quarter of average daily intake two days per week 500 calories for women and 600 for men) and eating normally the other five. Michael Mosley has given more recent advice that 800 calories on fast days will still give results but as the average loss for women on 5:2 is 1lb per week the extra calories would slow weight loss.

It is easy to combine the two and 16:8 is a very useful tool for improving eating habits. Giving breakfast a miss is relatively easy to achieve. I have problems eating first thing in the morning and found it easy to push back my first meal of the day until lunchtime and I follow 16:8 most of the time.
A limited eating window is also very effective for cutting out snacking ( an unnecessary habit sold to us by the food industry ) which of course cuts down the calories we consume but don’t need.

Sad2fit

I would advise anyone starting 5:2 to buy the book because while there is a wealth of advice on this forum none of us are experts, we are all people following 5:2 for weight loss and or health benefits of IF, and are giving our opinion which is influenced by personal experience and as we are all different what is good for me might not work for someone else.
The book contains much useful information.

Good luck to both of you 🙂