The FastDay Forum

Also see the data I included in this topic: 5-2-diet-chat-f6/1-main-meal-or-smaller-meals-t9887.html

Hi!

I am on my second week and have gone with a routine that I pretty much follow any, thus not feeling like much has changed!

I have lunch and dinner. Simply put, I have to eat mid day.

This wont be anything crazy, a "cup a soup" (equivalent) and some kimchi. And then some lean protein and vegetables in the evening.

Buckets of coffee and lots of water.

My first week resulted in a 3lb lost so feeling pretty damn good about it.

I am not getting hung up on what works for others, as I am trying to make this sustainable for me.

Good luck

Wow! Lots of good information that I really appreciate. My next fast is tomorrow; no school, no work and prepping for Thanksgiving dinner. I think that I will try some protein late morning and save most of my calories for my evening meal. Tril and error til I find what works for me.

On a more exciting note....my first weigh in showed that I was DOWN 3.5 pounds

Packerchef

Hi, Packerchef !

I started 5:2 by having breakfast ( porridge , usually ) , endless cups of tea with a splash of skimmed milk throughout the day , a Marigold Swiss Bouillon at lunchtime ( negligible calories) and the remainder of the 500 calories as an evening meal.

However I've experimented recently with no breakfast , and find like others that I'm less hungry throughout the day. ( still have the bouillon at lunchtime - it's quite salty and kids me into thinking I've eaten something!!)

With my 5:2 evening meal I pile on the steamed veg. , which I don't calorie-count . This seems to work for me .

Good luck with 5:2 - it's definitely for life !

Goldilox.

As angie points out ..1,2,or3 meals a day...none are "real fasts.."
In essence this is a way of life where 2 days a week we choose to only have 500 cals (or 600 for the guys) in order to give our bodies rest and repair time ( hopefully) tho right now we don't even know if there really ARE health benefits of this way of eating,so we're taking a bit of a leap of faith.
Most of us are seeing weight loss results,however,whichever way we cut those precious calories, and if we add keeping moving into the mix if we can,and keep to low carbs if we can,we may see even better results in pounds and inches
No right way or wrong way to do it.. If nothing else its " damage limitation" and highly unlike to harm us...makes me feel a whole lot better than i felt when overeating anywayz and this WOE certainly works for me more efficiently than going to slimming clubs ever have !

need to eat three a day due to variety of tablets that must be taken with food. But I find a weightwatchers yogurt for breakfast is all I want, then its soup or salad for lunch and the rest of the calories for dinner. BUT, and its a big but, I get cravings during the evening for things like crisps & cake. Any ideas how to deal with this? Thanks, swansing

The only sweet thing I can think of that's low in kcal is those hot chocolate sachets that are about 40kcals? Would that help?

I think Swansong that telling yourself you can have it the day after is also helpful!! It's not like WW where you have weeks without cake!!

[carorees]

Hi @swansong and welcome to the forum!

In general, the best way of avoiding hunger pangs during fasting is to make have your fast day calories coming from fat or protein with no/very little carbs. As you may know, the main benefits of fasting come from the reduction in insulin levels. Insulin is the hormone that your body releases to deal with the sugars released by eating carbohydrates/sugars. When you eat food containing carbs you get insulin release, this packs the sugars released from the carbs away into your fat stores and causes blood sugar to drop. This tends to stimulate hunger. Thus, most (but not all) people find the best way of arranging fast days is not to eat until evening. It's a tricky, therefore, if you are 'forced' to eat three times a day!

The effect of food on pharmaceuticals is pretty variable and so when the manufacturers say to take it with food, they don't really know what effect the food YOU eat will have, as it is likely that what you eat won't match the test meals used when they studied how the drug behaves when taken with food. The standard test meal used in these studies is pretty high calorie (like over 800 cal so unlikely to be replicated at breakfast lunch and dinner in most real patients!). As you can't have such a big meal, it's anyone's guess what effect the meal you do eat will have! However, in some cases the need for food is to 'cushion' the stomach from the effects of, say, aspirin, in which case high fat foods are probably more beneficial.

So, if it were me, I'd change my breakfast to a smaller portion of full fat yogurt. Then for lunch I'd have a very small portion of soup, but make sure it's not one based on lots of potato or starchy thickeners. Then in the evening have some lean protein together with as many veggies as I could manage. I'd try to keep 'breakfast' and 'lunch' down to around 50cal and save 400 for dinner. I think if the 'breakfast' and 'lunch' calories were taken in a virtually liquid form this would also help avoid waking the hunger monster, while the 400 cal dinner should be enough to keep you satisfied during the evening. Hopefully, the higher fat content of the breakfast and lunch will protect your stomach from the drug effects.

It might be worth googling the drugs you're taking to see if you can find out why it's suggested you take them with food. You might find it's not so important!

Hope that helps and good luck!

I am going to try 1 meal today as on my first fast day i ate lunch and was crazy hungry all afternoon!

Hi

This only my second fast day but on my first I had planned to have 2 meals Lunch and then tea. However I didn't feel hungry at lunch spent the morning drinking tea (using a allotted milk allowance) and water with a hint of lemon juice so I decided to see how long I could go before I ate. I ended up eating 1 meal with the family at 6.30pm that I added mushrooms to it as I hadn't eaten all day and my plate of food was the biggest at the table, it is amazing how many veggies you can have.

I haven't eaten today yet and I have been fine just having the tea and lemon water, really looking forward to my meal tonight I think it will be the biggest plate again! I did take a 50 calorie veg snack tub with me but have not used it so will be adding it to my meal tonight.

I have chosen 2 days that I am usually busy on so I don't have time to think about food plus don't have the chance to eat for parts of the day either so if I am not hungry when I am free I have to wait for the next free time. So not sure what I would be like on a day that I am not busy.