I have been stopping eating early but still might drink something after dinner
Do you find you lose more weight if you stop eating after 8 pm?

Not really. I often fast during the day so if I cut it short at night I run the risk of not eating enough to get me through the next day.

I usually aim to stop eating by 8pm, but it's not a hard and fast rule for me. 8pm generally works as it gives me a comfortable amount of time to finish dinner while still giving me a good couple of hours before bed.

I generally don't eat the next day until midday, but it sometimes gets a little earlier on weekends.

To me, the "stop eating after x:00 pm" rule is to help people avoid mindless snacking in front of the TV between dinner and bedtime - a bad habit for many of us. If that's a problem for you, a time cut-off is certainly a good idea. It can also help you get in a longer overnight fasting time.

I suppose success in more weight loss depends on the timing and choices of your other food during the day. I've worked different shifts and tinkered with my meal timing. Do what works for you right now, and keeps you compliant.

I eat only 2 meals a day, breakfast and lunch and stop eating by 2-4. I used to stop eating by 6 and having that as a hard and fast rule really helped to control any mindless nighttime eating. Slowly the stop time crept up to where it now is. This leaves me about an 8 hour eating window. I find it easy to do and very helpful for both weight control and digestion.

Just a dumb question:

Does black coffee interrupt a fast?

Say, you ate last at 6 pm and planned to eat again at 10 or 11 am, but you have coffee when you got up in the morning. Whatever time that is.

Is that OK? Or a no-no?

I don't count that single cup of black coffee in the morning as breaking my fast. Other people may view it differently but it seems to work for me. Anyway, I am a creature of habit and really like a cup of coffee when I get up.

Only a few say black coffee breaks a fast. Sachan Panda was one, so I stopped reading his articles. Most allow black coffee, tea, broth, water, fizzy or plain. Dr Fung use to write adding 1-2 teaspoons of cream was OK too if really can’t tolerate black...but once you start adding significant calories like Tablespoons of cream or butter)...then you broke the fast.

Thanks - I really thought it might be a dumb question but apparently it was not.

Secondly, how many hours constitute an overnight fast between the last meal in the evening the the next meal the next day?
It can't be 8 since that is a normal sleep period.

Would 12 hours be a minimum time span between meals? Or more?

I have read the threads and the url/links - but just wanted to clarify.

I try to wrap up my eating window by 7pm, with my last meal usually around 6pm, followed by one last cup of coffee with HWC. For my active weight loss phase, back in 2012, I did an intermittent fast protocol and not eating at night is one of the things that's stuck with me from that, even though I don't activiely do IF anymore. I think it's just good practice to give your body a rest from eating, to let things digest and settle down

As for the night time eating/weight loss thing, I'm in maintenance and it doesn't matter when I eat. I do know that if I eat later at night though the scale will reflect that in the morning, since I'm still digesting the food. That's one of the reasons why weekly and monthly weigh-in trends give a better picture than daily ones.

Just depends what protocol you're following, intermittent fasting is an umbrella term for several different fasting methods, and eating windows are a sub-set of that. The most common one is 16:8IF, where you fast 16 hours, eat within an 8 hour window. The eating window can be any time though-you could start it when you wake up, or start it in the afternoon etc. Some people like eating in the morning and some people prefer eating late at night. Lifestyle, work schedules etc all affect what window will work best for someone. For example-someone who works 2nd shift may have a very different schedule than me, who likes to get up early/ be in bed by 10pm etc. If you exercise, then that's also something to factor in and work around.

Currently I'm doing another n=1.

BPC at 5am containing 2 tbsp. butter, 2 tbsp. collagen peptides, 2 scoops MCT oil powder. Since that is substantial nutrition, I count it as breaking my fast.

Depending upon what's going on, I'll then eat one gigantic salad sometime before or around noon, then nothing but non-caloric beverages until the next day. The salad contains a protein, flaked almonds and full-fat dressing along with the fodder.

I try to stop eating by 8:30. My family eats around 7. Whatever time dinner is finished, if i want a snack I have to get it before 8:30 or wait till tomorrow. Usually if I’ve done a good job of a rich and satisfying dinner, it’s not a problem.

My first year low carb I still snacked in the evenings. Then as weight loss slowed, I decided I wanted to not eat at night. It was a bit difficult, from habit mostly. I sort of trained myself to drink a hot cup of herbal tea if I wanted something and by the time that was done, i usually course resist. I also sent myself to bed if things were too difficult. It took a few months (I think?) but now feels normal.

The only time I eat late now if I had an evening out and drank too much—lowered inhibitions, the desire for bready carbs to “soak up” the alcohol before sleep? That’s maybe twice a year.

“Breakfast” is a couple large mugs of strong tea with cream at 6. Sometimes I put a teaspoon of coconut oil in my midday coffee if I’m hungry.
“Lunch” is anywhere from 12-2 pm and quite substantial.
“Dinner” around 7, and substantial.

I don’t purposely track calories but fitday does and what I find interesting is the ratio for my meals.
Morning is about 200-300 in fat.
Lunch and dinner split about 800 each.
Carbs are between 20-50 unless I’m focusing on trying to lose those last ten.

I’ve been pretty “complacent” about weight for 6 months or so...this month cracking down since I’ve started bouncing around 175 instead of 170.

It’s intersting to read people’s whole day...

I find it really interesting too, especially other people like me who don't work office hours.

I work in food service and it's fast-paced and involves a fair amount of lifting. My shift right now is 3:30 am - 12:00 pm. I find I have the most energy if I wait until the last hour of my shift before I eat. For a while, my parter-in-crime and I took our lunch and ate at around 8:00 am, but now we just have our coffee on a 10-min break. We both noticed feeling too sluggish to get the rest of our work done.

If I was single, I'd probably have a second meal at around 4:00 pm and call it a day - but I want my DH to have something decent to eat, so as long as I'm not exhausted, I'll make us some dinner for around 6:00 pm. If I don't feed him, he'll just eat chips or something. I still like him, so I'd rather him not. Sleep is a major priority for me, so if I'm too tired, he's on his own.

Night Owl or Morning Lark? This could affect many answers. I've always been a ML - and breakfast sometimes results in an OMAD.