The premise of time-restricted eating (AKA “TRE” or “time-restricted feeding”, “TRF”) is to optimize the amount of time between your last meal of the day and your first food of the following day.. For the purist, it is optimizing the time when you consume nothing more than water (coffee, supplements, etc – all count!). Let’s call this time the ‘fasting window’. While the ideal fasting window is considered to be a minimum of 14 hours, results have been observed with a 12-hour window.
Personally, I found the 12-hour window both doable and effective. I’d simply note the time when I finished my last meal, say 7:30pm, and commit to not drink coffee or eat anything before 7:30am (i.e. +12 hours) the next day.
I did a LOT of traversing West to East coast and back again across November and December, and was able to stick to the 12-hour window for the most part. Back at home, I would sometimes stretch to a 14-hour fasting window, i.e. on the weekends.
There of course were some late night business dinners followed by early morning meetings, and I couldn’t adhere to the 12-hour window 100% of the time. In some cases I was able to adapt and keep the window, or settle for ‘just coffee’ in the morning – and a few times were a complete miss.
More than once I brought my own healthy breakfast to early morning meetings, in order to maintain my 12-hour window. (e.g. asparagus omelette with arugula and avocado. Gauge for yourself the appropriateness of this maneuver. I did inform attendees that I would bring my food.)
By Jan 1, I had lost 2 pounds. And they did not return.
I noticed other benefits as well, such as improved sleep quality, leading to enhanced alertness in the day. All-in-all my experience with time-restricted eating has been most positive.
That said, it would be a healthy practice for anyone to avoid late-night eating. And we can dig deeper into circadian rhythms in a future post.
Have you incorporated time-restricted eating or other forms of intermittent fasting? What did you find surprising, helpful or hard? We’d love to hear from you.
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