The FastDay Forum

Hi everyone, this is my first post but I have been here daily reading for a few weeks now.

I'm coming to the end of my fourth week of 5:2 now and so far dropped 12lb, although I seem to have gained 1lb back this week but not too worried as I think it's just my monthly cycle.

I've read MM's book and also watched the documentary a couple of times, and it all seemed to make sense. This week though I bought the new 2 day diet book and now I'm confused as it seems she is advocating low carb high protein on the two diet days, everything I have read up to this point suggested limiting protein was the way to go. any thoughts?

[carorees]

Dr M was tweeted about this the other day. He replied more protein on fast days less on feed days.

As long as you have around 40-45g on fast days that's enough for your body to use for repair. On feed days try to keep to under 60g per day on average.

Thank you Caroline, I'll check out MM on twitter.

I would re-ask him the question and ask why - Varady's studies have <30g protein on fast days.

Good point, its very confusing the more people I read on the subject the more confusing it gets. I was just thinking i would take another look to see if Michelle Harvie has stated an amount in her plan.

Harvie uses more, and in her earlier work a lot of it was milk protein. She's a bit of an outlier when it comes to protein.

[carorees]

At the moment, unless some research comes to light, I would aim to keep protein above the recommended intake for adults (i.e. enough for repair) and below 0.85g/kg body weight. So an average of 50-60g/day probably.

At the moment, unless some research comes to light, I would aim to keep protein above the recommended intake for adults (i.e. enough for repair) and below 0.85g/kg body weight. So an average of 50-60g/day probably.

This for fast or feed days ?

[carorees]

Any day I reckon. I know there's all this worry about the body not storing protein but it's hardly going to fall apart if it doesn't get enough on one day, nor is IGF1 going to shoot up if you eat a lot of protein on one day so I'd try to work to an average of about 50g for an average woman.

Can someone please clarify protein amounts? I'm assuming the amounts of 30%, 40%, 45% and so on, is the actual protein "content" of meat, fish, dairy, etc. and not the actual weight of the piece of meat, fish, etc. This may be why people are getting confused, thinking they should eat less overall weight on a fast day. For example, 120g of beef has something like 23% protein content. I could be slightly out there as I cannot find my cal/vit/min book at the moment but I know its quite a lot less than the overall weight.

[carorees]

I use the www.fatsecret.co.uk site to calorie count and it gives protein content as well.

Can someone please clarify protein amounts? I'm assuming the amounts of 30%, 40%, 45% and so on, is the actual protein "content" of meat, fish, dairy, etc.

Correct.

A gram of protein is a gram of protein, a gram of beef isn't.

Thanks to you all for clarifying that - for a moment I nearly went in to panic mode when I saw the original thread ! I'm definitely not scientifically minded, in fact sometimes I wonder if there's a brain there at all. When it's spelt out it sounds so bloomin' obvious, but believe me it wasn't until you put it in black and white. Hope others spot this thread too as I'm sure I'm not the only daft one thinking a gram of beef is a gram of protein - er der