Intermittent fasting

So about 1 month ago i fasted for about 5 days. It was quite easy. The hardest part was being surrounded by people who wanted to eat and i also really just like preparing food and making it. I missed making food.... All of the sudden i had an extra 2 hours to my day to fill!


Ever since the 5 day fast i am trying to do the 16-8. I am finding this challenging as i am not always home from 11am-7pm Or i am home in the afternoon but left the house before 11am. My life calls for me to be outside most of the time during the day. I can try eating at 9AM and than its super hard to eat at 5pm. I am usually still doing things and most people are not hungry around 5pm. I mean it is now light out until 8:30pm!

How do people do this? 95% of what i eat is home cooked food. Most of what i eat has been prepared and i prefer to eat it when it is warm. I mean i can boil eggs and eat them later.

What are some other options?


How do you cope with only eating during certain times?

On days I do IF, I usually do 23-1, just eating one meal a day.  Maybe that would work for you, if you just eat the one meal whenever it is convenient for you.  The number of hours between meals could change then, but the overall result shouldn't be significantly different.  You will actually have longer times in ketosis that way if you did something like eat breakfast one day, and then not eat until dinner the next.  I find it relatively easy to eat like this as long as I stay busy.  If I get bored, then being hungry is more noticeable for me.

If your body is adapted to eating when you are both hungry and it is convenient you don't have to worry about the clock, You don't need the training wheels any longer.

I don’t do time restricted eating or intermittent fasting as I’m underweight and struggle to gain weight due to Crohn’s disease. However, I am very familiar with keto and carnivore. I know you said you like the food to be warm, so maybe my advice won’t be too helpful. I’ve done carnivore out of necessity at times. Feeling like you have no choice can make it a lot easier to do the thing that used to seem hard. So anyway, that’s where I’m coming from with the following information…

I like a good summer sausage with some cheese in it. Emphasis on the word good. I had some venison summer sausage made out of the deer I took last September. I wish I had more made. That stuff was addictive. And cheese makes it much more satisfying to me. Maybe it’s the calcium. I have been calcium deficient in the past. I’ve often made a meal out of a summer sausage and coffee. Man, that sounds great right now but it’s nearly 2am.

While I also prefer hot and freshly cooked meat, it’s hard to complain about a room temperature(or even cold) ribeye. A ribeye is hard to screw up. It may not be cheap, but when it’s mostly all you eat it really doesn’t seem that expensive. They are filling and satisfying.

And speaking of satiety, getting enough fat is crucial for me to prevent weight loss. Fat will keep me satiated for many more hours longer than carbs will. So if you are looking to stay satiated I recommend more fat. If you are doing keto, some mct oil capsules can help maintain energy and satiety. Tallow capsules(or just bringing a jar of tallow, coconut oil, etc with you) can also add some extra energy and calories between meals. Having fat alone won’t raise insulin and therefore won’t interfere with the majority of the benefits to fasting.

I would try having bulletproof coffee with the fat of your choice throughout the day, or at least in the morning. Then continue with fat or fat supplements, boiled eggs, cured meats while you are out and about until your preferred dinner time. So it would be like one meal and some snacks instead of two meals.  I just realized you never mentioned keto and for all I know you could be vegetarian. Maybe this advice was way off. Oh well, good luck!

I eat between 12:30 and 8:30 PM. I drink black coffee in the morning before I eat any calories and we cook almost everything I eat otherwise. I do tend to start with a nutrient dense smoothie at 12:30 and then eat cooked food for the evening meal (it makes the social aspect of IF easier since it is the least disruptive to my life and family). I do find eggs to be a convenient food for the day time when I don't have a smoothie since they are quick and easy to make and are very satisfying for me.

If being in the kitchen during the day is hard for your schedule, doing some kind of meal prep that works well at room temp might be worth trying (grain bowl, burritos, hearty salads, etc) or a thermos of soup.

Although my schedule works for me, I think the nice thing about IF is its flexibility, depending on your goals for it and your own preferences and priorities. Something to consider would be to do it day on/day off or 5:2 or One Meal a Day or just trying other timing patterns. My sister fasted around her chemo treatments (for benefits other than what you seek i assume) so she was fasting for 72 hours twice a month and I joined her a couple of times for moral support. There are also hormonal cycles that can benefit from different fasting timing, so it's good to get a feel for your schedule and tolerance and then work around that.