Hi all! I’m brand new to IF starting tomorrow, and I’d love to know what timeframes you guys follow and really any and all tips you may have for me! Thank you in advance!
16/8 is a good place to start. Eat two meals within your eating window, and don’t snack in between them. Some people prefer to skip breakfast, others prefer to skip dinner. I personally prefer to skip breakfast so I don’t have to deal with hunger pangs while trying to sleep.
Since lunch starts at 1pm for me, that’s when I break my fast. After work is the gym, and after gym is my second meal.
That’s all there is to it.
The vast majority of folk start with 16:8 between noon and 8:00pm. Basically, skip breakfast and don’t snack after dinner. Most folks are actually not that hungry in the morning or have skipped breakfast on occasion and we tend to have more social eating obligations around dinner. So this is a natural place to start for many people.
But that certainly doesn’t need to be where you start. Find a ratio and timing that works for you and your life. It should be challenging but sustainable. Then you can always tweak it as you adjust to it.
Most difficult part for me is not eating after dinner - before bed… old lifestyle used stay up till midnight-ish having drinks and snacking on random stuff.
Now I eat dinner with the kids… usually done 6:30pm… make myself have a snack a half hour later.. and drink a bunch of water. That holds me over nicely till about 9-9:30.. then I drink another big glass of water and and go to bed. Not to sleep, just to bed.. gets me away from the fridge and the bar. Sometimes fall alseep and end up 8+hours of sleep.
I’ve always skipped breakfast on weekdays… so that part of the fast is the easy part for me… it’s how I deal with that post-dinner part that’s the challenge…. When i win.. its a 17+ hour fast. If I break (which ive done) its a 14 hr fast.. still reasonable.
My initial tip.. don’t stress too much early about what you’re eating… get comfortable with your fasting windows first…