The FastDay Forum

I love this forum and its great, keeping me very motivated.

I'm just a little confused with all the dos and don'ts and calorie counting and slowing your metabolism down.

Just for a little background info....I have STRUGGLED with my weight for 13 years now, never been able to shift the lbs. im now 30 with 2 kids. I've gymed it, lighter life, weight watchers, back street slimming pills, herbalife, slimming world and slim fast. Nothing has worked and I find it very hard. The more I think about not being allowed things the more I want them.
I heard about this WOL by accident and googled it, I'm so glad I did. I started 2 weeks ago, fasting Mondays & Thursdays, I've completed 4 fasts and I weighed myself on sat and I've lost 3.5lbs. I haven't over eaten or feasted on my feed days. I've generally been about 1500cals on feed days apart from today, we had Sunday dinner with dessert today. I didn't feel guilty at all but I didn't overeat and felt satisfied on a smaller portion.
Am I possibly sabotaging my weight loss by keeping cals slightly restricted on feed days? I have 60lbs still to lose disgusting I know. I suppose if I get to the month mark and I've lost then I'm all good? I actually don't feel like I NEED to eat more, yeah if I'm a little hungrier one day then I know I can (which I assume is the whole point of the diet). I'm worried after reading about all the people who EAT a lot on feed days and have great losses. I lost nothing wk1 and 3.5 wk 2. Wk3 starts tomorrow. I don't want to waste time doing the "wrong thing".

Sorry for the rambling....I. Just so desperate and unhappy xx

[carorees]

If you're losing weight its all good! If you restrict calories on week days you can splurge at weekends.

I think that for some people constantly restricting calories may result in a slow down in weight loss but then overeating will also do this. The overall calorie restriction averaged over the week (or longer) needs to be fairly mild for these people.

However for most people doing 5:2 being careful during the week and having some treats at the weekend combined with the two fast days seems to be enough to give a weight loss most weeks.

There are a lot of threads from people who have either not given the diet long enough to work or who are unfortunate enough to be in the small section of folk for whom some tweaks are needed, but these are not representative of the majority.

Just carry on with what you're doing!

Not sure which thread I read this on, but 'somewhere' I saw some advice saying..

2 fast days (25% of TDEE)
2 days of within 10% of TDEE - I took this to mean a 10% margin of error, but could be wrong!!
2 days aim for around TDEE
1 feast day

My TDEE worked out at 1914, so...
2 x 478 kcal,
2 x between about 1750 and 2100 (this is the one I'm uncertain of)
2 x 1914
1 day not worrying

But, I was attracted to this WOE because I don't want to count calories (apart from fast days)!!! Aghhh!

Found the thread Betty... viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1326

I'm only on my 5th fast day today. But i stopped counting calories 2 years ago and don't want to start again. Although i know by hart the calories of the things i eat, but i never weigh them anymore.
On my 2 fast days i don't eat anything till dinner, then just have a smaller portion than i normally do with a big salad to bulk it out. I eat what i want the other days but try to not go crazy, and i think im eating less overall since starting this. But im not counting anything and im still loosing weight. I only have 10lbs or so to loose and i'v lost 3lbs already in 2 weeks and i weigh in tomorrow morning after my fast day today so I'll probably be about 4lbs down in exactly to weeks tomorrow.

hi BettyB4, I think you are doing fine having dropped 3.5 lbs in 2 weeks, good work! Keep the faith and more good moments on the scales will follow...

5:2 can be (and is intended to be) very simple indeed, you know the rules already. If you want to make it more complicated or try to understand the science behind it and then start tweaking it, that's your choice. I'm the sort of person who always likes to pull things apart and feel that I understand why they work, but that's just my character defect

If you under-eat a little on your feed days I would say that is definitely not a bad thing, it can only be a good thing as long as you are not punishing yourself, because it has to be sustainable.

My only tip would be try to keep up exercise in general and especially on fast days. Whether it is just walking or something more intense (such as Dr M's HIIT), it helps keep you warm (if like many of us you tend to get cold on fast days), it keeps your metabolic rate up, and hence it raises your TDEE (calorie consumption). And of course it's good for you generally.

[wildmissus]

By 5:2ing you are on average reducing our calorie intake by about 3000 calories per week. 1lb = 3500 calories. So expected weight loss is approx 1lb per week.

Wildmissus, that is encouraging - I've been doing it for 2 weeks and have lost just under 1 kg (so that's 2lb)Reading other people's 3.5 (or more!) losses made me feel a bit glum, but little by little is good. I suppose I just need to check on what I'm eating on "feast" days (perhaps I need to rename them as "normal eating days"!) in order to keep this up!

I have to disagree with wildmissus

Everyone varies in weight, and thus the more you weigh and active you are the more of a deficit you have while on 5:2.

For example it might be true that some may be able to pull a 3000 deficit per week just by fasting, others like myself only have a deficit of around 2000 if that. That would account to a .7lb loss approx, which may or may not show on the scale given things like water retention, bloat, TOM etc.

For this reason I suggest the following:

- you should first calculate your TDEE- how many calories YOUR body requires to sustain itself.

- Count your calories for the duration of one week, to understand what that looks like. And then begin fasting on two of the days while staying within your TDEE on the other 5 ( check out MYFITNESS PAL)

- Lastly readjust/reassess your expectations (no offence), weight loss is not linear. You might have weeks where you (a) gain (b) loose or (c) remain the same. Always focus on the trend and/or average. So rather than having a weekly goal have a monthly one instead.

All in all don't loose sight. Remember you only "dieting" two days a week. Don't be hard on yourself. The easier you make it on yourself, the more sustainable this WOL will be.

Hope that helps!

Thank you for all the replies. Lots of useful information. I am using My Fitness Pal and its fab, it's showing that I'm having 500 cals x 2 on fast days, 4 days of 1500cals and one day of 1950.
I plan on sticking with this, not only for the loss but for the health benefits. I'd like to be a healthy mum for my kids growing up, just trying to get the hubby on board for health benefits too.

So now I know I'm doing this right, ill keep going as I am. I've been trying to exercise 3 x a week and I also walk my son to school which equals 40min a day return trip.

I know weigh loss isn't an overnight thing, just very much excited about finding something that could actually take me out of my misery.

Good luck everyone and thanks again xx

Found the thread Betty... viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1326

Overcomplicated and untested. Basic 5:2 is a lot simpler.

Do you think PhilT? I didn't know if it was just me being a bit lazy. So just forget about calories on non-fast days you reckon? I'm sure you can guess what I'm hoping you'll reply!! lol