A guilt-free eating plan that says you can eat whatever you want.
Wellness has been on our minds more than ever this year. And while diet culture can be incredibly toxic and harmful, we at GLAMOUR don't promote wellness plans for their weight loss benefits, but for their potential to make us feel our healthiest, strongest, most energised and supported selves. Not to mention the skincare benefits (we all know that enviable glow starts from within).
While diets like Noom, keto, FODMAP and 5-2 have all been doing the rounds in our search history of late, it's the 16:8 diet that's proving one of the most popular over the past couple of months. But what on earth is it?
The 16:8 diet is a type of intermittent fasting in which you only consume drinks – water, coffee, tea and other unsweetened beverages – for 16 hours every day, then eat during the remaining eight hours.
Based on the book 8 Hour Diet: 8-Hour Diet: Watch the Pounds Disappear Without Watching What You Eat! by David Zinczenko and Peter Moore, the idea is that the longer fasting time allows your body plenty of time to digest food, process its nutrients and burning away calories, without leaving you sluggish or bloated.
You set the eight-hour time frame and – the best part – there are no restrictive rules on what you can and can't eat (which we know can be extremely reductive and take a considerable toll on our mental health). Eat whatever you like in that eight-hour window, of course ensuring it's as balanced as possible to help you feel your best self.
Plus, because you'll be sleeping through most of the 16-hour fasting window, it's way more achievable than other wellness plans.
"The most common hours adopted for the eating period is 12 till 8pm," Tom Jenane, nutrition and fitness expert, told Good To Know. "The reason for this is because people aren’t normally that hungry in the morning, you don’t want to be consuming too many calories during the evening and this allows us to eat our lunch and dinner as well as a snack."
Remember that the right wellness plan for you will depend on factors including your level of activity, health concerns and dietary requirements. Always speak to your GP for advice.
This originally appeared on GLAMOUR UK | Aly Pantony
