When I wake up the first thing I look forward to is eating and shoving something sweet in my mouth and drinking my coffee. I feel like this is so bad! Then I can go a while until lunch happens and then maybe a light dinner…but then I get hungry at night and want to eat.
So I’m trying to do 16:8 but it’s getting pretty hard. I tried not eating four hours after waking up, and then four hours before bed to get the fast and then just eat once or twice within the eating periods but I seem to always encounter opportunities to just eat.
How do you just avoid eating and the cravings to want to eat?
There’s a reason so many people do low carb/keto alongside fasting. It is by no means mandatory, just makes it much easier to fast when your blood sugar and insulin aren’t spiking and crashing all the time.
>How do you just avoid eating and the cravings to want to eat?
Look at the clock to see how much longer I have to go, chug some water, and find something to do to keep my mind off thinking about food
Usually cardiovascular activity like a walk/hike/jog curbs my appetite for a few hours so I do that when I start to get those initial hunger pings. Also chugging water helps fill my stomach up and satisfies me for a time. If you absolutely can’t get over it, don’t fast. Just try avoiding sugary foods and drinks instead.
How long have you been fasting for? It will get easier as your body adjusts, but also try to fill yourself up with black coffee, tea, and water. It can be a shock at first if you’re used to milk but you will adjust and come to like it.
Practice just sitting with the hunger as well. Most of them just come in waves of 10-15 mins and then pass, and then suddenly you’re not hungry again. Your body has fat to burn if it’s hungry!
I’ll be honest and say a reality no one wants to hear, it does take a lot of discipline. There’s a few tricks, but ultimately it’s discipline that’ll keep you on track.
I love breakfast too and like you, I wake up with food on my mind absolutely ready to shove food into my body. I tried fasting in the mornings and just didn’t see the need to torture myself like that, so now I eat first thing in the morning. I do OMAD and finish eating by 8am. Of course, you don’t have to be this drastic. You can eat between 8am-4pm or 9am-5pm instead. That’s my suggestion.
In terms of getting the urge to eat, I usually get that only a couple hours after eating, mostly if I’m stressed due to my job (I am/was a huge stress eater). What smooths over that feeling is tea (plain) and chewing gum. I recommend trying that at night if needed.
Not gonna lie, I do get a bit hungry towards the end of my day, but at that point I’ve already fasted like 12 hours and just suck it up for the rest; it’d be a completely waste to eat at that point, which keeps me going.