The FastDay Forum

I was under the impression that a fast meant a period with no food. Michael Moseley says to eat in the morning and night on a fast day, therefore creating a long food-free time during the day...ie, 7am - 7pm ...12 hours.
I am noticing on your brilliant forum that lots of people are spreading out their 500 calories throughout the day. Is this correct? To my mind that is not fasting.

[Moogie]

Hi & welcome

A 'true' fast is indeed a period with no food. The idea of The Fast Diet as in the book is having two fasts of 12 hours, punctuated with minimal calories. However, the original method isn't exact about feeding times, so some people spread their calories throughout the day, thereby creating more of a 'very low calorie day', while others go 24 hours without food from dinner the night before until dinner on their fasting day and then consume their 500 calories. Some of us even do/have done liquid/0-cal fasting days.

So, whether or not there's a true fast involved really depends on how one decides to split the calories. Above all it's a way of reducing calorie intake over the week without the grind of daily calorie restriction.

I don't. All I want is to lose weight (I'm not convinced that by not eating for 12 hours I can do any additional good anyway) so I just eat whenever I'm hungry.

I think it depends on whether you are looking at it as merely a means of losing weight or if you are trying out the health benefits of fasting. If you are only interested in weight loss then, as long as you stick within your allowance it wont matter how you split it. You are really only looking at calorie restriction. If you want to try for improving your health in other ways then you need the long period without food.

Its supposed to be the stresses and chemical differences within your body when its deprived of food that produce that allow your body to repair rather than perpetually grow. A sort of make-do-and-mend effect! At the moment there are only animal tests to support the fasting effect but some of us are trying it and hoping!

I don't eat from supper the night before until supper on the fast day, but I do allow myself 50 cals for milk in teas and coffees through the day (I can stretch that to cover 4 drinks). Plus on some days I have weakened and had 50 cals of homemade soup in the early afternoon to give me energy to deal with the kids when they get home. Does that count as fasting?

I'm pretty sure this came up on another thread and someone found out that you can manage small amounts without undoing the effects of the fast. I think it was somewhere in the region of 50cals. I suspect it may turn out to be rather like insulin sensitivity in that different people have different thresholds. I would say that its actually more important not to reach the point of killing the kids! Not much point living longer if you spend the time in jail!

I can be pretty evil myself when I get past a certain point even if the actual hunger pangs have subsided. That's why I go 16:8. You have to do it more often but you only go 16 hours and I find it leaves me more even tempered. Some days I go longer but I aim for 16. Like I said before though, I fast for health but I eat low carb for weight loss. I don't think 16:8 is as effective as 5:2 for the weight.