I don't eat before noon — but I worry it's a bad idea

It's 12.03pm. Great, I can eat! I trot off to the kitchen and make myself my first meal of the day: a cheese omelette with a huge Greek salad.

- Charlotte Cripps

I was one of those people who tried Ozempic and then gave it up once I'd lost the weight.

My cholesterol levels returned to normal — but then I was left wondering, “What’s next?” We've all heard about the dreaded “Ozempic rebound”, and I didn’t fancy yo-yoing back to an unhealthy weight when stress and anxiety drove me to the fridge. Reports show that nearly one in five who come off the medication will regain all, or even more, of the weight they lost. And that’s why I don't eat until after midday. Never. I'm used to it; I wake up and feed the dog and the kids their breakfast, but never myself.

Usually I do feel pangs of hunger as 12pm approaches. But I hold off from eating until I make myself a late breakfast, or is it an early lunch? I never know what to call it as my mealtimes are out of sync, and so much so that on a recent trip to Gloucestershire to stay with friends, we didn’t have one meal together.

It's dysfunctional; one mum is on high-dose Ozempic, so she grazed; the other mum was on a seven-day green juice diet. I'm doing “the 16/8”. It’s part of a method called intermittent fasting, where individuals restrict their eating to specific time windows.

In my case, I eat within an eight-hour window and fast for the remaining 16 hours (most of it while I'm asleep). For me, this involves abstaining from food after 8pm and eating my next meal around midday the next day.