The FastDay Forum

Good morning my lovelies, I do hope that everybody is feeling fresh this chilly Monday morning!

So, having not fasted since last Wednesday, I was planning on fasting today as usual and was very much looking forward to a cleansing repair day, following on from a weekend filled with chinese, red wine and more choc than usual. This morning I had planned to do as I usually do and just have fruit, but due to the colder than usual wake-up call, I changed my mind and decided to have a piece of wholegrain toast, peanut butter and marmite, calculating that this would come in at around 220 calories or so, leaving me with 280 calories for a big salad for lunch or a bowl of soup this eve, depending on what I fancied.

Well - I decided to quickly check the peanut butter calories on the tub, as, having seen that the average calorific value for a tbsp of peanut butter was 90 calories (google), I wanted to see if there was as much as that in mine...Well BLOW ME OVER - in one avearge scoop of my peanut butter (enough to cover a normal sized piece of toast, there were 200 calories! And the bread is different to the one we usually buy, so instead of 120 calories there was 137! This means that, including the marmite I used, my breakfast came in at a whopping 350 calories!

Thankfully this breakfast is very filling and I will attempt to make it from now until this evening just drinking water and coffee and then perhaps have a bowl of low calorie soup, however, if I do get too hungry in between now and then I will just have to cave and restart tomorrow.

Just a warning to myself and others - always check the label, no matter what calorie trackers or websites may say, or how good you might think you are getting at guessing calorie counts - the only way to really know is by checking the nutritional value of the actual product that you are using!

Best of luck everybody, and have a lovely day!

Pinchypops xx

How annoying! I can't believe there's even ninety cals in a tablespoon of peanut butter! Are there low cal options? I rarely have toast as it just makes me more hungry.
Lil

Oh dear its so easily done we have all done that at one time or another it will be a long day for you good luck

[Moogie]

I would say don't worry too much about it and just allow yourself an extra 100 cals today if you need them for dinner, that'll give you almost as much left for dinner as you originally planned. 600 cals for one fast is still alright I bet a lot of us have made mistakes over calories on fast days without even realising it and still counted it as a fast. Fret not, have a bit more if you need it and if you feel like it be a bit mindful tomorrow and try to cut out 100 cals somewhere

I'm with Moogie on this. I often went close to 600 calories on my early fasts because of poor calorie counting. It doesn't really matter, but psychologically giving up for a day and starting the next day is worse. At 600 calories you're still doing well.

I've gone over my 500 cal allowance on fast days occasionally (not counting the Big Cheese Derailment last week!). Doesn't seem to make a big difference, although I guess we wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis.

But yes, checking calories in advance is a good idea, isn't it? I come from a Weight Watchers background so have a tendency to cheerfully dismiss veggies as 0 cal because in my days of WW most of them used to be 0 points (I think the system's changed now). Came as a bit of a shock the other day when I finally weighed and counted veggies like carrots and discovered how many calories they actually pack.

The thing I found slightly bewildering was that different sources (a book, and FatSecret) seem to cite different calories for, say, 100g of carrots. I'd have thought this would be a definitive figure and not a matter of opinion!!

Anyone got any ideas for a reliable calorie counter? I see my MyFitnessPal mentioned a lot here - is that reliable?

I think it's quite difficult to calculate how many calories f.i. one slice of bread etc etc holds since most labels give out xx kcal/100gr and the package holds like 350....
But I do find it a bit disturbing that you can't trust your calorie tracker app....here I was thinking that mine was accurate...

Slightly different question, but does anyone know how many calories there actually are in a sweet potato? So many different answers!

Doh! But mmmm peanut butter mmmmmm. I'm with Moogie, I really don't think it will hurt to go over.

Pinchypops,, I googled sweet pots and wow how many answers. I guess you weigh, cook and take the average. That's what I do if there's any doubt. I also add a few cals on for good luck, that way I won't go too much over on anything else.

For my fast day allotment, I use the 600 cal that is calculated for me as more of guideline (Sometimes I go over and sometimes less). There really is no scientific evidence that exactly 25% of TDEE is where you need to be and if you go over you will turn into a pumpkin. I track my weight loss pretty closely though right now, and I have had days where I was probably closer to 800 and didn't see any fluctuations in losses from week to week.
I also have a weakness for peanut butter - Seems like the natural varieties (The ones that need to be refrigerated) have lower calories because they limit added sugar.

Thanks everyone, in the end I had a baked sweet potato and about a third of a can of baked beans, which probably came in at round 260 calories, meaning that yesterday's fast came in at around 610. Not too bad! This morning for my non-fast breakfast I'm going to have half of a part-baked baguette with grilled bacon and tomatoes and a poached egg - scrummy! Enjoy, all those who are fasting today! xx

I agree with Moogie that going over a few calories will really not make that much difference. I often use 600 and even 700 calories on a Fast Day and it all still works OK. The results will probably be a bit slower but not much.

Shachat - I use a brilliant calories counter - it is a tiny little book called "Pocket Calorie Counter" by Carolyn Humphries costs 4.99, and it gives individual quantities ie one slice of wholemeal, granary or white bread, and 1 tbsp of cream cheese etc, etc

[carieoates]

I use the barcode reader on my fitness pal. Makes my life so much easier. Have started adding my own recipes too so that I can call them up again and again.

My main quest is to find definitive calorie counts for fruit and veg (because I'm using a lot of different varieties in a salad or smoothie, so individual variations can add up and become quite significant).

I'm rather flummoxed to find this is open to interpretation. With my general incomprehension about all matters scientific, I always thought working out calories for a specific food was an exact science. Apparently not!

I struggled a bit with my fast yesterday - hormones and I was freezing cold and tired, I normally manage fine until m evening meal, but yesterday found me having a spoonful of peanut butter in desperation, I also sneaked half a bread bun and ate a slice of the hairy dieters spiced apple cake following my evening meal, so my calorie count was probably well over! But - this morning I am still down a pound, I figured that my body just needed a bit extra and I'm sure my next fast will be more doable. I don't worry about going over now and again, providing it doesn't become the norm.