I was wondering whether anyone’s experienced something similar and has tips to manage it?
I’m doing 16:8 and have been for a week and a half. I eat from 12pm to 8pm. When I wake up in the morning, I’m not hungry and often feel I could fast for longer than the 16 hours. However, at about 8.30pm each night, I’m ravenous and can only think about food. So far I haven’t caved.
I was wondering whether this is common with intermittent fasting and whether it gets better with time? If not, does anyone have any tips to manage it?
Exact same thing happens to me. Hardest part of my fast (regardless of if I’m doing 16:8, 20:4, OMAD) is between dinner and when I go to sleep. I don’t have any tips to manage it other than knowing it exists and just powering through.
So a couple of things are happening.
When you are sleeping your body does something called “Metabolic Switching” and you start to burn off fat stores as glycogen gets low. You can stay in the space all day without incident. Once you consume anything that elevates blood sugar your body will switch back to looking for glucose/glycogen. The body has an energy preference of glucose, then glycogen, then fat in that order.
The 2nd thing that is happening is that your body is on a rhythm where you feed near 8pm routinely, this habit will in and of itself trigger your hunger. Eating is very much a zeitgerber for your circadian rhythm. You can ignore it, drink water, or eat foods that have lots of cellulose to stave it off without carrying the burden of excess calories.
If you change your eating window, your hunger signalling will also change eventually. There is evidence that pushing your last meal up in the day is better for overall health, but I think it is more important to meet your social needs, as that too isa zeitgerber, maybe even the most important!
I hope this helps.
Why don’t you start by moving your window to 1 till 9? I struggle with evening snacking so I started 2 till 10 and then cleaned my teeth and sat down for an hour with a book or a show. I also hate going to bed hungry so that was another reason to have a later window. I am currently 3 or 4 till 8 and it seems to have really helped with all that grazing I used to do.
Happens to me. I’d suggest drinking water or green tea to curb those hunger pangs. Remind yourself that sleep makes them go away.
I also start reading an article or two about healthy living (e.g. on working out, running, lifting, fat/carbs, etc) and it helps me mentally to avoid caving.
From what I’ve read foods higher in fiber will make you feel fuller longer. I really enjoy cauliflower rice. I can flavor it as I like, it is low calorie and high in fiber. It is a great rice substitute.I drink a lot of water after supper as well which I find helps.I also get hungry in the evening but I find it isn’t until later… usually just shortly before bedtime which I can handle.
The hardest part is making it through the morning time right before my eating window too. I just drink a lot of water and power through by distracting myself as best I can. I eventually reach a point where the hunger isn’t as overwhelming. Good luck. 🙌