As I have mentioned elsewhere (somewhere) on here, (I think) I am very in tune with my body. When I need to eat, I NEED to eat right away! It is no good me thinking I will prepare something at that stage that may take a half hour or more. It is no good me waiting for a set eating time. (Happily I don't have to fit around anyone else on this, which I do appreciate makes it easy for me).
Throwing a smoothie or a salad together does not take that long, soups takes a bit more forethought but not a lot. I like to keep my life and food simple.
So given this MUST EAT NOW! admission, it may surprise you to learn that I usually have a gap of 15 - 16 hours between meals from early evening (18.30) until mid morning (10.30) I don't find this troublesome at all. Only occasionally do I wake feeling hungry.
This falls under the category of intermittent fasting, although there are various ways to do this I find the every night overnight version the easiest. We have all fallen prey to the late night snacking at some point in our lives - possibly for decades
(naming no names Helen) but much as it sounds boring to continually hear this - once new habits are formed the old ones seem unbelievable.
Do you feel the need to eat breakfast or do you do this out of habit, or thinking you must as certain dietary advice says it is essential? I've wrangled with this over the years and experimented on myself and conclude I really do not want to eat early as I just don't feel hungry. I'm all for following my body's natural signals - the trick is knowing which are false.
I don't follow a hard set ruling over the timing of my eating/fasting but aim for 14 - 16 hours gap. This usually falls nearer the 16 hours but I am not going to force myself to hang on another hour if I suddenly MUST EAT NOW! at 15 or 14 and a half hours.
Please do note that if you are drinking any liquids in the time of the fasting it must be water or black/green tea or coffee, none that can be classed as food ( IE hot chocolate, juices, smoothies). To go without any liquids is known as a dry fast which I have done on a fully raw diet, and which technically I could push myself to do now despite not being 100% raw, but I usually have a glass of water and a coffee about 13 hours along.
Resting the digestion and allowing the organs to go about their business without an extra workload aids overall long term health as well as the one we are usually interested in: weight loss - or inch loss. You can go down a dress size in a month of doing this if you need to. **
**That is assuming you eat sensibly during the hours of non fast - I normally only eat 2 meals in a day but will snack if I need to.
If your personality requires you to set rigid rules about this you can, but my days of doing that are long gone. If it isn't fun and enjoyable, frankly I'm not interested ; ) I want to enjoy the process not just the results. Self love rather than self punishment!