For 30 days I ate only between noon and 8 PM. Standard 16:8 protocol. Black coffee in the morning was allowed. Water all day. No calorie tracking — eating the same kinds of food I normally eat, just in a different window.
Here's what happened.
The setup
I picked 16:8 because it's the most common protocol and the easiest to start with. Other fasting windows exist but I wanted to test the one most people actually try.
Starting numbers:
- Body weight: 182.1 lb
- Average sleep: 7.0 hrs
- Energy notes: pretty average
- Eating habits: three meals + snacks, breakfast usually around 7 AM
Week 1: rough
The first three days were genuinely hard. I wake up hungry. Skipping breakfast meant counting hours until noon.
By day 5, mornings got easier. Black coffee became more important than I expected. Without coffee, I think I would have quit by day 4.
Weight by day 7: 180.8 lb. Down 1.3 lb. Almost certainly water.
Week 2: adjustment
Hunger window shifted. By 10 AM most days, no hunger. Then sudden, intense hunger right around noon when the window opened.
The first meal got bigger than my old breakfast + lunch combined. Probably ate the same total calories most days.
Energy: morning energy was noticeably better than expected. I had assumed I'd be drained without breakfast. Opposite happened.
Week 3: pretty easy
The protocol felt automatic by week 3. Stopped thinking about food in mornings entirely.
Sleep: started slightly better. Average ticked up to 7.3 hrs. Possibly because I wasn't eating right before bed.
Weight by day 21: 178.9 lb. Down 3.2 lb total. Some of that was probably actual weight loss now.
Week 4: settled
This was the easiest week. Protocol became automatic. Social eating got slightly awkward — couldn't do early breakfast meetings, occasionally had to skip late dinners.
Final numbers (Day 30):
- Body weight: 178.4 lb (-3.7)
- Average sleep: 7.3 hrs (+0.3)
- Energy: morning energy meaningfully better, afternoon energy slightly worse on workout days
- Workout performance: dropped a bit on lifting days, fine on cardio days
What surprised me
Three things I didn't expect:
1. Morning energy was better, not worse. I assumed I'd feel sluggish. Actually felt sharper for the first 4 hours of the day.
2. Sleep improved a small but real amount. Probably from not eating after 8 PM.
3. Lifting performance dropped. Strength workouts done in a fasted state (or close to it) felt notably worse. I rescheduled to do them right after the eating window opened, which helped.
The annoying parts
- Social eating restrictions are real
- Coworker breakfasts were awkward
- Hard to combine with intense lifting if you train mornings
- Vacation completely breaks the protocol — I gave up on day 23 for a weekend trip and it was hard to restart
Did I keep doing it?
Partially. I now eat in roughly an 18:6 window most weekdays (10 AM to 4 PM-ish, with a snack in the evening if hungry). The strict 16:8 was harder to maintain than the loose version. Same general benefit, less rigidity.
This isn't advice
One experiment on one person. Fasting protocols affect different people very differently. Some people genuinely do worse on fasting. Some have medical conditions that make it dangerous. Talk to a doctor before trying it.
This is just my log of what happened.
