Over the past few months, fitness gurus and nutrition professionals have been raving about the benefits of the ‘eight hour diet‘ – a favourite in Hollywood.
The program, otherwise known as 16:8, sees people eating for eight hours per day and fasting for 16 hours in a bid to kick their body into fat burning mode and is reportedly favoured by the likes of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.
Those who follow it likely eat breakfast at 10am, lunch at 2pm and dinner at 6pm and then have breakfast at 10am the next day, leaving a 16 hour gap.
So does it really work? Australian holistic nutritionist and wellness guru, Lee Holmes, spoke to FEMAIL about the pros and cons of the eight hour diet and revealed whether it truly works.
Over the past few months, fitness gurus and nutrition professionals have been raving about the benefits of the ‘eight hour diet’ – a favourite in Hollywood
So does it really work? Australian holistic nutritionist and wellness guru, Lee Holmes, spoke to FEMAIL about the pros and cons of the eight hour diet and revealed whether it truly works
‘The idea of intermittent fasting may seem foreign, impossible and even scary to some but, I’ve got a secret for you! It’s something you do every. Single. Day,’ Lee said.
‘As soon as you drift off to sleep at night until the moment you open your eyes in the morning, you’ve been doing intermittent fasting. They don’t call it break-fast for nothing because essentially you’re breaking the fast when you eat your first meal in the morning.
‘That’s right, you’ve been following one of the hottest diets around at the moment and you didn’t even know it.’
Lee said one of the most common ways of intermittent fasting is by increasing the time after your last meal at night and breakfast in the morning.
‘The idea of intermittent fasting may seem foreign, impossible and even scary to some but, I’ve got a secret for you! It’s something you do every. Single. Day,’ Lee said
‘If you eat satiating, delicious whole foods, you won’t be hungry throughout the day – think good fats and protein sources instead of low calorie junk food,’ she said
‘If you delay your fasting time for just a few more hours, you can easily fit right into the very trendy and extremely sustainable ‘8 Hour Diet’,’ Lee said, adding that the ‘con’ list is very short.
‘By practicing fasting, you allow your body and gut time to digest, rest and heal. Fasting actually lightens the load on the gut, allowing it to work at its optimum. It also improves the cleansing process,’ Lee explained.
‘New Research is beginning to demonstrate that intermittent fasting can increase the speed of cell recycling and regeneration which reduces inflammation in the body. This means we can get sick less, experience less pain and become less susceptible to diseases.’
Lee said fasting also lowers levels of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) which is linked to ageing, tumour progression and cancer risk.
‘By practicing fasting, you allow your body and gut time to digest, rest and heal. Fasting actually lightens the load on the gut, allowing it to work at its optimum. It also improves the cleansing process,’ Lee explained
</ div>’As the 8 hour diet requires you to eat within a limited window, it gives you less time to eat and more time to shed a few kilos!’ the Fast Your Way to Wellness author said.
‘Intermittent fasting helps kick-start weight loss and additionally, repairs the body, reducing blood pressure, increasing energy and normalising hunger hormones for better appetite control.
‘But don’t be fooled! Just because you’re fasting, it doesn’t mean you’ll go hungry! If you eat satiating, delicious whole foods, you won’t be hungry throughout the day – think good fats and protein sources instead of low calorie junk food.’
In terms of the cons, Lee said it can be a challenge.
‘Intermittent fasting helps kick-start weight loss and additionally, repairs the body, reducing blood pressure, increasing energy and normalising hunger hormones for better appetite control,’ Lee said
‘I must admit that fasting doesn’t come easily at first. We live in a world obsessed with snacks and overindulgence so, it can be hard to go against the grain,’ Lee explained.
‘Once you get over the hump of the two week mark and it becomes an integrated part of your lifestyle, it actually becomes enjoyable. You can really start to feel and enjoy the differences!’
The diet can also have a negative impact on the body if you do it the wrong way.
‘Some traditional fasting methods can have a negative effect on female hormones, sending a signal to the body that it’s experiencing famine and triggers the body to shut down fertility,’ she said.
Melbourne mum-of-two Joanne Peters , 41, is a huge believer in intermittent fasting – she previously suffered from anxiety and depression before she decided to change her life and now sticks to intermittent fasting religiously
‘Before you trip out, if you satisfy your body with quality saturated fats throughout the day, like eggs and good fats (which are only around 40 calories for a tablespoon), the body will know it’s in a safe environment and will continue with proper hormone synthesis.’
Lee concluded by saying the only people she recommended did not follow this program are those who have a past history of or currently suffer from an eating disorder.
Lee isn’t the only one who has backed the eight hour diet, with Dr Joseph Mercola, a leading physician, said there are three rules to follow; you must skip one meal a day, avoid late-night meals and eat and drink normally during the ‘eating’ time block.
‘It likely doesn’t matter which meal you skip – breakfast or dinner – as long as you skip one of them,’ Dr Mercola told New Idea previously.
‘Intermittent fasting is much easier to do every day as a lifestyle rather than sporadically. I find that when I eat late at night, I wake up starving the next morning but if I stop eating at around 8pm I don’t get hungry till around 12ish the next day,’ she said
Why is intermittent fasting twice per week beneficial?
* It helps the body transform from ‘sugar-burning’ into ‘fat-burning’ mode
* It balances your hormones – particularly those that balance hunger and satiety (insulin and leptin)
* It ensures the body uses the food we consume more efficiently as energy
* It ensures the body burns fat stores for energy, with cells deriving most of their energy from fat
*It boosts your metabolism and energy levels
He said it’s important to eat a few hours before bed time so that your body isn’t trying to digest a full stomach when it is least active.
Other than that fasters can just eat normally throughout the eight hour period.
Melbourne mum-of-two Joanne Peters, 41, is a huge believer in intermittent fasting.
She began her weight loss journey at 62 kilos and has since lost five kilos by fasting for 16 hours a day and then eating during an eight hour block.
‘It becomes easy and you really don’t feel hungry,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Intermittent fasting is much easier to do every day as a lifestyle rather than sporadically. I find that when I eat late at night, I wake up starving the next morning but if I stop eating at around 8pm I don’t get hungry till around 12ish the next day.
‘I don’t count calories or macros and just prefer to eat as many whole foods as I can with a variety of healthy protein, carbs and fats.’
Joanne said the best thing about intermittent fasting is the reduction in cravings she has
Joanne said the best thing about intermittent fasting is the reduction in cravings she has.
‘What I love best about intermittent fasting is that I just don’t think about food like I used to.
‘I used to wake up thinking about breakfast and would then workout while thinking about my post workout meal and half the time the food I would have consumed in this period would have already cancelled out my workout.
‘When I’m thinking about food from the get go and start eating early the trend continues for the day, much like breaking the seal after a few alcoholic beverages,’ she joked in a caption on Instagram.
‘It’s not important to get hung up on looking at the clock when fasting and you can have your eating window whenever it suits but I believe that in order to make the most of the fasted state you should aim to eat between 4-6 hrs after waking up.
‘Your body doesn’t know what time it is, it just knows it hasn’t had food in a while and switches over to using stored fat for fuel,’ she said.
There is no set structure on when you take your eight hours; depending on your day-to-day life it might be 11-7pm or 9-5pm.
