I'm new to 3FC (late December), and am currently just trying to get myself under control after having gained 30 pounds in December over a 2 week period. Yes, it's possible when one does just about everything wrong.

Right now I'm doing 2 slim fast meals and one sensible meal a day, but don't want to continue that for long. I just want to get my mind mentally back into eating correctly.

Saw a news story on 8 Hour Diet and downloaded the book. Basic concept is that our bodies are geared for "fasting" which means not eating for 16 hours out of the day. The news story said that you could eat anything you wanted during the 8 hour window, but in reading the book, it really does focus on eating correctly.

As always, there are great success stories, but I wondered if anyone in the group has actually tried this and can share results, challenges, pros/cons, etc. I'm still trying to figure out what will work for me and would appreciate the feedback.

This approach may not be for everyone, but it's working for me. I've scheduled my 8 hours for noon to 8 PM. And while the diet plan says that you can have anything you want to eat during the 8 hour period, I basically get in two small meals and one snack. Also, again while the diet focuses on the "when you eat" component as opposed to the "what you eat" side of things, the requirement to eat out of the 8 power foods pretty much means that you'll be eating correctly.

The thing that seems to be working for me is that I'm focused on the "when" part instead of the "what" part. That seems to be important for me because I'm an emotional eater. Like I said, it may not work for everyone, but I'm encouraged at this point. Of course, I'm so new that we'll see how I feel a month from now!

Yes, I have experimented off & on for years with IF & love the 8-Hour Diet take on, although I am not doing it faithfully. It is more that I have incorporated it into my experiments. My ideal window would be noon to 8 p.m. three days a week. I am not there yet.

I started on this 3 days ago, I am attempting to eat quality healthy food during the 8 hours 1pm to 9 pm. I actually am starting to enjoy the morning with out food. Black coffee is actually great if you try different gourmet ones. I also find light exercise suprisingly easy. I am jogging 20 minutes on treadmill and actually feel as if the fat is melting

Maybe it's just finally getting rid of a lingering cough, but I feel so much better. Considering I still weigh 386 pounds, that's saying a lot! This approach seems to fit in much better with my natural eating patterns of not wanting breakfast when I get up. The routine of having coffee and getting in some exercise first thing really seems to be helping. For me, the mental part of losing weight is as hard as the physical part.

I started the 8-hour diet on January 4th and have gained weight each day. Ugh! I've been eating as much as or a little less than what I ate before and only during the 8 hours. Has anyone else gained instead of lost on following this? It's been easy to follow and I've even been eating the Powerfoods, but numbers on the scale are going in the wrong direction.

I had to give up on intermittent fasting. I have a strong belief in its health benefits but this year I seemed to be eating too much when breaking the fast & also not feeling well when fasting.

I just found and joined 3FC today, so this is my first post. I have been trying to eat during an 8 hour window off and on for a couple of months and basically like it. I feel like I am less hungry, so it is easier to eat less food. I also started a pretty intense workout routine 2 weeks ago, and am afraid to go to the 60 minute workout without food, so have kind of broken my 8 hour plan. I am 60+, had both knees replaced less than 2 years ago, am about 100 lbs overweight, but would be happy losing about 70 lbs. Any suggestions for which forums would fit me best. (I also like paleo/primal/protein type eating.)

Hi, Sassafras, there are so many different forums here, my only suggestion is just jump in all over the place & see what interests you.

Have a great time exploring. It is quite friendly here!

I registered to this site because I wanted to respond to your post, I did a google search about gaining weight while doing this diet and this topic came up.

I did this diet for about a week and a half, and gained weight every day as well. I didn't really have a lot of weight to lose in the first place, but reading about the benefits from IF, I wanted to give it a try. While after a few days I definitely think I felt much, much better; more alert and just kind of good. I gained about 5 pounds total i would say, so I quit after a week and a half.

If I wouldn't have gained weight, and even just stayed steady at what I was weighing, I would have kept on doing it for the fact of feeling better, but constantly gaining weight every day, just had to stop.

So now I have still gained about a pound and half since going back to eating normally. I am hoping that it is just my body trying to readjust to things, and that once it gets used to eating normally i can at least lose the weight I gained from doing the 8 hour diet.

So glad I found this thread! Is anyone still doing this plan? I've had some success with another form of intermittent fasting (5:2), but for many reasons I feel the 8 hour diet is a better fit. So I'm starting it today.

I discovered 40 years ago that I can easily eat less and feel better if I skip breakfast. I read somewhere, long ago, that the whole idea of breakfast was that, for instance, farmers got up at 4 AM and started working, then came in for breakfast at 7 or 8 after working several hours -- kind of like our lunch. Even given all that, I succumbed to the pressure of all the "health" gurus that we needed to start the day with a good breakfast. I went back to eating breakfast, then was hungrier and ate more all day and gained lots of weight over the years. I have been trying to pretty much adhere to the intermittent fasting idea for several months. I don't always pay strict attention to the times, but put off breakfast until I feel I need food. (I get up around 6AM and usually eat around 11 or 12.) I rarely eat anything after 6 PM, although I sometimes have wine after that. If something comes up with friends or family, I go ahead and eat earlier, but some of the IF info says 3 days a week still provides benefit. I also avoid eating any type of grain, sugar, potato, etc., as much as possible, so eat mostly protein, vegetables and "good" fats. I have lost about 20 lbs the past couple of months, but I have also been "helped" along by a cancer surgery last month and a renewed desire for optimal health.

Sass, thanks for answering. Congratulations on your weight loss, and I hope you're doing well after your surgery.

I totally agree about breakfast. I used to think eating breakfast was the holy grail, but now I'm finding I feel less sluggish if I just have black coffee until about 11 a.m.. I was shocked. I thought I'd starve, but I actually feel better. I was reading in the 8 hour diet book that coffee can act as an appetite suppressant, and that's certainly true for me.

I think we've all been brainwashed by cereal manufacturers and the egg industry that we need a hearty breakfast to feel well and keep weight down. Certainly wasn't true in my case!

Funny, but I prefer to skip breakfast too, and feel so much better if I do1

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to chime in. I have historically been a breakfast-skipper, until a few years ago when I started trying to lose weight and heard all the "most important meal of the day" stuff about breakfast. Now I eat a piece of toast with peanut butter, but it's more out of habit than being hungry.

In the past when I didn't eat breakfast, I didn't get hungry until lunchtime. But now that I eat breakfast, it seems to wake up my stomach and makes me want to eat during the morning between breakfast and lunch. Maybe I'll go back to my old breakfast-skipping ways and see if that helps. I like the idea of having an 8-hour period during which I can eat.....I might give that a try.