Doing 16/8 for a month, I am SO hungry in the morning, for the first five hours of the day, grumpy. It’s bad enough when I go to work and can be distracted. On the weekends when I’m home with my family and they’re cooking and eating breakfast I don’t want to be around them. I have zero motivation to leave the house and do anything before noon when I can eat. Once I eat I feel human again.
I am also so hungry at night before bed I can barely enjoy watching TV shows all I can think about is eating. Same if I have to stay up and work late. It’s all very depressing.
Is this supposed to get easier to the point where I won’t be constantly hungry?
Hey make sure you aren’t eating anything with flavorings (unsweetened seltzers, diet sodas, cream in coffee, chewing gum) during the fast. Drink plenty of water or PLAIN sparkling water. The flavored stuff can make the fasts soooo much harder even if you aren’t consuming calories per se. also, be mindful that it does take time to adjust and poor sleep and stress can make your grehlin (hunger hormone) increase and your leptin (fullness hormone) decrease. Good luck!
It should get easier. It took me 4 to 6 weeks to finally not be starving. Some of us just take longer to adjust.
It could also be something else? Like not drinking enough water. Please drink more water then before you started! Another thing, could be what you’re eating for last meal. I had to switch to more veggies, more longer lasting meals. Even after being on Omad for a few months I am starving if I don’t eat some kind of salad or veggie with my meals.
Have you tried timing your eating window for earlier in the day (10-6 instead of 12-8)? What are you eating? Are you sure you are eating enough? What does your last meal of the day look like? Enough protein and fat to keep you full until bedtime? What are you drinking during the fast and in your eating window?
I am another one voting for dropping the diet sodas. I discovered “clean fasting” actually wound up being easier on me. It sounds daunting, and like you’re depriving yourself, but once I did a couple clean days and tried a “dirty” one, the difference was incredible. I was able to easily move to longer fasts, and I have plans to switch to OMAD soon because it’s that much better.
I’m brand new to this (going on 23 days now) but my hunger issues disappeared after a couple weeks. I started with a week of 14:10 and it was a mess. Hungry all the time, poorly timed meals, etc. finally got it under control and extended to 16:8 and after a week of that I’m totally fine! I drink water, sparkling water, and iced black coffee unsweetened during my fasts in the morning to hold me over til 11am. I really only get hungry about an hour before my fasting ends and a small drink of black iced coffee usually kicks that for me. I don’t own a scale but my clothes are looser. My energy levels are great and my cravings are almost gone!
So I’m very much like you. I LOVE food and love snacking. I do have a couple tips that have helped me although my discipline isn’t the greatest.
Are you clean fasting? Some people call clean fasters “purists” but many people who have struggled with hunger during their fasting period feel relief after transitioning to clean fasting.
The idea is that artificial sweeteners and flavours (even zero calorie bubbly waters etc) cause insulin release which triggers hunger. On a clean fast you can have doctor prescribed medications, water, sparkling water (as long as no flavour) and black unflavoured coffee. There’s a proper list of what you can have in your fasting window including grey area items (i.e. supplements) in Gin Stephens’ Fast Feast Repeat. There are also a lot of stories of people who struggled with hunger and weight loss until transitioning to clean fast.
If I’m putting in the effort to fast I’d rather err on the side of caution and so far it’s working well for me.
Edit: I see I should have checked the comments before replying lol
I recently (as in, just like a week ago) started intermittent fasting. I stop eating at 6 pm and start eating again at 10 am. In just this past week I have lost 4 pounds. That’s the only thing I changed so far. I did join the gym but so far only went the first day (yeah lol) . The hardest part for me has been not eating when I’m watching netflix or whatever at night because that’s when I used to eat the most. When I feel hungry I just drink more water. I’m not sure if I’m going about it the wrong way or not but that’s what I’ve been doing and so far it’s working.
I have some tips that may help you:
Another vote for no sweeteners. Fixes me right up when I switch to purely water and black coffee, just down it like a shot when you’re hungry lol. Not everyone needs to do this but you’re probably one of theunfortunate people that do.