The FastDay Forum

So I have planned my food but I just want to make sure i've got it right so need your views on if/what I could change!

Breakfast: Porridge (1 shot glass of oats, water and milk, 1 tsp of sweetener)

Lunch: Florette salad mix with a smattering of roast chicken,

Tea: Chunky veg soup with chicken (asda carrot &swede mix and 1/2 a potato for soup mix)

Gonna have grapes and blueberries to hand to munch on in between but if that's to much then i'll replace them with water/fruit tea!

So how does that sound, any good?

much thanks and hugs in advance!

Have you worked out the calories ok? Also, do you think you'd find it easier to save up your calories until the end of the day? I experimented last week with eating at lunch time...and ending up bingeing on cereal! but that's me and obviously we all fast differently.

But, no, it sounds like a delicious fast day. Just make sure you weigh your food to get the right calorie intake. You don't wanna overdo it now!!

Bean

You'll probably get loads of suggestions, but here's what I would do:

A shotglass of porridge doesn't sound much, so could you dispense with it altogether and aim for lunch and tea?
I'd make a veg soup for lunch, but instead of half potato, I'd add 100g of celeriac instead - less cals and carbs.
This will give you more for a decent filling tea - in fact, about 300 cals, which can consist of your leaves, chicken, a tomato, cucumber etc.

But the beauty of this WOE is - you get to own it! Do you record cals, carbs etc on MY fitness pal?

@PennyForthem Celeriac is hard to come by down my way, but if i can find it, i'll get some to replace my potato! And I normally do 3 shot glasses of porridge for me and my daughter for brekkie, so 1 might be enough and little cals! I record via Nutracheck, i didn't get on with my fitness pal!

@nursebean I'm planning to add up all my cals later on today so can report back on what it all will be!

In general people find that spreading the calories out over multiple meals is less satisfying than having most of the calories in one meal, usually dinner, though some experimentation isn't a bad idea. (Personally, I start every fast day with a soft-boiled egg, and have a miso soup in the late afternoon, but that leaves about 400 for dinner). As Penny suggests, go easy on the carbs. They make you hungry.

As long as you're under 500 cals, you're fine, though.

Personnally I would find your meals to be a bit too carb heavy. Carbohydrates give you very little bulk for their calorie value. 100kcals of potato is a very small amount when compared to 100 grams of cabbage or brocolli. For the soup I would swap out the potatoes and probably the swede and use lower calorie ingredients, this will give you a much larger portion.

The carbohydrates will make you even hungrier than you were originally. They boost your blood sugar, then when the sugar is used up or grabbed by the insulin in your body, you go into a sugar slump, which triggers more hunger. Keeping your blood sugar at a low but stable level, as nature intended, will get you through the day easier. Its why most 5:2 er's save the majority of their calories for an evening meal. They can cope with the little niggles through the day, but not a carb induced hunger monster attack if they eat earlier.

Try it how you feel is best for you. Nothing is written in stone and this way of eating is very, very flexible. As long as you get in your two days of 500kcals or less and are mindful the rest of the week, you will succeed.

ok am not sure if it's right but have worked my soup out at 161 cals per serving using http://caloriecount.about.com/ hope i've got it right!


Edit: Ok I've worked out for the whole day and i seem to only be consuming 229 cals all together! Pretty sure i've gone wrong some where! lol,

[carorees]

I agree with others...ditch some carbs. They tend to boost hunger. Especially avoid those grapes...Dr M calls them "little bags of sugar". Blueberries are OK though. Remember it is the time without any food that does you all the good, so it is better to think of skipping at least one meal so that you have plenty of time when your body is forced to use its fat reserves and your insulin levels are low enough to allow it to do so. Otherwise you'll feel lethargic and unwell. It is impossible to lose weight (or rather fat) while insulin levels are high as insulin is the fat storage hormone and insulin is released whenever you eat carbs, so no carbs = more fat burnt = better weight loss!

hmm, true, i'll cut out the porridge, but I don't have any other ingredients for veg soup atm so i'll stick with my soup as is for the min until we go shopping again, will stock up on celery, carrots etc!

Try adding some pickled gherkins/ pickled jalapenos, grated carrot to your salad to get more flavour for hardly any calories, use lemon juice as dressing too (if you like it)
I love rocket for salads.
Soup is a great idea. I usually have soup on my fast days ( my only meal all day) followed by tinned peaches.
I drink loads of water, and black decaf coffee through the day and keep busy so I don't have time to think about food!

Good luck with your fast tomorrow.