The FastDay Forum

I used to count calories and account for every morsel that I ate religiously with MyFitnessPal when i started 5:2 back in April 2013 but now having suffered the infamous Plateau i thought I better return to basics for the first time in 5 months. and yep, am a little surprised

when you add the
milked coffee (twice)
50g cottage cheese
1 cup almond milk
20g roast chicken breast meat

Not even any snacking.

it adds up to 180 calories or thereabouts. Still have dinner to go and more coffees so yeah its a good idea as you get lulled into "a little sacrifice" is probably within the limits, but often its not

anyone else ever been surprised to find out your eating more calories than you think you were on fast days.

I started using MFP primarily for non-fast days, but I log fast days as well. It definitely keeps you honest!

I always forget that almonds are higher calorie than I think. But at the end of it, I'm not that strict with the 500 - it's sometimes slightly higher, sometimes lower but it gets the job done.

I definitely agree - keeping a food diary is important in helping me. I have lactose- free milk and no longer guess but measure for each cup of coffee - fast and non-fast days.

I use calorie king as well as notebook.

Cheers maggie

[carieoates]

I agree, it's an essential tool and second nature to me as well. I'm a bit more relaxed on feast days, but I do keep an eye.

I only count calories on fast days.

When I tried to get back into 5:2 at the beginning of the year, I struggled with milk. I drink coffee any way it comes, but my instinct is to have white coffee first thing. Since doing ADF I've weaned myself off that. It does all add up!

I only count on fast days but everything except herbal tea gets added to my food diary app (easy food diary app I think it's called). When I read that people have lasagne on a fast day I wonder whether everything gets added as that sounds too high in calories to me.

I always have and i' ll probably always have to calorie count day in day out...i do it on a scrap of paper..The difference is,when i was on WW,SW,etc etc..i always had a horrible miserable feeling while endlessly calcounting..no longer bothers me,coz with IF there's so much more room for manoevre..the 2 fasting days combined with TDEE most other days keeps the weekly cal count down, and ive now finally learnt if i have a blip,i just get back to basics the next day.its working coz have lost over 2 stone despite several blips!

Once or twice I have been quite shocked with the calories on some of my homemade meals so I keep an eye on the calories without focusing on them. I use a French site for some products (specific ones like milk of a certain brand, for example) and sparkpeople to count the calories in a recipe.

One of my early rules was that, if I ate 600 calories some days instead of 500 it was no big deal as stress tends to have a huge impact on my body and my weight. As I fasted 3 days a week, one day with few calories more wouldn't destroy my efforts

I had a fast day yesterday and I'd eaten 380 calories for lunch (I was hungry and chose to make that my main meal time). At the end of the day I added a cup of milk for tea, 15 almonds and 2 ginger chews which added up to 200 calories on top! I shouldn't have been surprised but I was

I use MFP religiously and have been for some time - I'm obsessive about entering what I eat on an ongoing basis and even planning out what I'm going to eat for the day to make sure I don't go over too much. It keeps me honest and I can monitor gain/loss and link it back to what I've eaten

I'm in maintenance, doing 5:2, so I fast 2 days a week, go over my TDEE 1-2 days a week and stick to my TDEE the rest of the time. My weight seems to have settled a bit and it feels like I'm managing it well

I had a fast day yesterday and I'd eaten 380 calories for lunch (I was hungry and chose to make that my main meal time). At the end of the day I added a cup of milk for tea, 15 almonds and 2 ginger chews which added up to 200 calories on top! I shouldn't have been surprised but I was

I use MFP religiously and have been for some time - I'm obsessive about entering what I eat on an ongoing basis and even planning out what I'm going to eat for the day to make sure I don't go over too much. It keeps me honest and I can monitor gain/loss and link it back to what I've eaten

I'm in maintenance, doing 5:2, so I fast 2 days a week, go over my TDEE 1-2 days a week and stick to my TDEE the rest of the time. My weight seems to have settled a bit and it feels like I'm managing it well

You really do seem to have things under control. My hat goes off to you @jeninboston

I'm having a short break at the moment, but will be using the counter at Sparkpeople.com when I come back. I may even go for ADF for the first couple of weeks when I'm back into the swing of things.