The FastDay Forum

So this Wednesday will be fast day round 2 for me, and as I did the "small lunch, small dinner" technique the first time round, I'm going to attempt the "spending it all on a bigger evening meal" approach to see which suits me better. So I'm going through my notebook where I've written down various recipes, and I'm working out the calories in them with caloriecount.com... but I'm actually struggling to find ones that use up most of my calories (614-ish) without a carby element like rice or pasta! I've heard people say that carbs make them much hungrier on a fast day, but does this apply more to eating earlier in the day, or will it keep my tummy growling into the early hours if I have a bit of rice with my mushroom stew? I know most people go for a hunk of lean meat or fish for their evening fast meal, but as a student, meat's a bit of a treat for me so it's mostly veg-based meals. I suppose I could always make an enormous serving of whatever I've got going... or smother it with cheese

First of all you don't have to use up all your calories. There are a fair few of us that try to only have drinks for the full 36 hour fast. So for me, my fast day total is usually about 60kcals as I like a splash of skimmed milk in my cups of tea (its the only day I have skimmed milk).
A decent percentage of people on 5:2 go are as carb free as possible especially on fast days.

As you have already thought out, a pile of veg is good enough. have a big stir fry, waste some of your calories on a different sauce each time (single portion size) or just go for traditional soy sauce.

So this Wednesday will be fast day round 2 for me, and as I did the "small lunch, small dinner" technique the first time round, I'm going to attempt the "spending it all on a bigger evening meal" approach to see which suits me better. So I'm going through my notebook where I've written down various recipes, and I'm working out the calories in them with caloriecount.com... but I'm actually struggling to find ones that use up most of my calories (614-ish) without a carby element like rice or pasta! I've heard people say that carbs make them much hungrier on a fast day, but does this apply more to eating earlier in the day, or will it keep my tummy growling into the early hours if I have a bit of rice with my mushroom stew? I know most people go for a hunk of lean meat or fish for their evening fast meal, but as a student, meat's a bit of a treat for me so it's mostly veg-based meals. I suppose I could always make an enormous serving of whatever I've got going... or smother it with cheese

I've just done ONE fast so I don't have much experience in this. I had one apple and one cup of milk as carbs, the rest was veg, eggs and meat. It all adds up fast sooooo fast. try egg drop soup? mix eg through a soup? and an apple as a snack helped me through a painful hunger. I think stay away from rice and pasta on fast days, they do make you hungry. But then again i just started so not really sure. keep it up good luck
Jo

Hi @Klipspringer Carbs do make me hungrier and bring on the cravings on fastdays I only have evening meal of 2 courses = veg based soup thickened with cauliflower
Chicken breast and a massive salad with absolutely everything on it and by the time I've crunched my way through that I'm really full up, I don't count my carbs but am reducing them on all days and better for it

I'm going to attempt the "spending it all on a bigger evening meal"

Good move @klipspringer - the "one evening meal" works for the vast majority of us, but it's not for everyone.

Veggies, particularly broccoli and cauliflower, are your best bet to fill you up - but tatties are generally regarded as off the menu by most low-carbers. As a rule of thumb, the sweeter the food is, the higher the carb grams are likely to be.

If you're trying to keep the carbs low, cheese and (to a slightly lesser extent) nuts and seeds are your friends.

And if you're only going for low-ish carb, then legumes (lentils, chickpeas and the likes) will fill you good and proper and are *exceedingly cheap* if you buy them in bulk.

I think that there are a few 500 calorie recipes on my thread... All the best, FatDog

I don't have any problem with eating carbs at an evening meal on a fast day and feeling hungry, though I did with carbs at lunch when I tried to eat twice on a fast day.

I nearly always have some kind of carb with my dinner, tonight I had rice noodles with a stir fry, I had potatoes and beans the last time, the trick is to not have too many carbs and fill up on protein and vegetables as much as possible.

Thanks for the tips, folks!

After a bit more browsing, I've found a couple that fall into the 400-and-something range, which is perfect: enough for lots of veg on the side and some hot drinks in the day. As for the lesser ones, I guess I could make them 2-course and eat some leftover soup or a salad with a boiled egg or something (while I'm cooking if I'm really desperate!). In fact, knowing that I might need a small serving of something in the freezer for stuff like this has helped me with portion control on feast days so far: I hate waste, but it's difficult to get portions exactly right when you're cooking for one. So when I've made meals recently where there's too much for one but not enough leftovers for an entire meal the next day, rather than eating all of it, I'm sticking it in the freezer for a fast day