The FastDay Forum

[carorees]

Can I have some of that please Carol?

Both OH and I have mentioned to each other how much more energy we have on fast days - seem to get lots more done and find ourselves doing things that we've been putting off....

I feel pretty good, certainly more energy. Not sure if it's because I'm lighter and I swear I'm carrying a lot less water but finding things much easier. Struggling with the cold weather as I want to get out and do more. Pestering OH for a rowing machine.

If I'm tired or headachey, I go to bed though, I'm very kind to myself...cough...cough.

Really strange but yes! I am now beginning to a) Look forward to fasting days on Mondays....after a non guilty week-end of eating "normally!" and yes! I have masses of energy and also go ahead and get on with jobs I hate to do..However, I HATE THURSDAY FASTING DAY....really hate it..feel starving with hungriness, grumpy, generally awful..no idea why...just know I am keeping on this for ever..

I am finding the fast days more challenging than the first two weeks -I think I had beginners luck in finding the firt couple of fasts quite painless and then a great initial weight loss made me more enthusiastic. Now though I have to steel myself a bit and although I am fasting using the same method (dinner at six or seven, then no food for 22-24 hours, just hot drinks and a mug of miso bouillon at some point in the afternoonI am finding it hard going. I think I just have to organise myself to keep busy on fast days because I do feel as though I have more nervous energy.

No raised energy levels on fast days for me either. I have to make sure I don't drink too much caffeine but otherwise I feel normal on a fast day. Right after my fast day lunch (I eat lunch and supper and no breakfast) I have to be really careful to be still be sticking to my fast day plan. After that critical time is banned I feel happy that I made it, so that's something that goes on in my head and I really wouldn't call it a high. I tend to be a bit more tired in the evening and go to bed a little earlier
ad go off to sleep very easily, which is good but not exceptional.
I am glad that I don't get the nauseous feeling and that "beside myself" feeling of the earlier fasts any more. Maybe if I managed to eat a little less on my feed days, I would get a little high now and then which I really wouldn't mind

Thanks very much to everyone who has posted and please keep them coming! It's great that so many people feel good about and on their fast days, and I certainly identify with finding Mondays easier than Thursdays, but what most people are describing falls short of the real high that I had in mind. Those people getting the 'trip' seem to be (so far) B&W, Melanie Cheeks, tompan(?), wenders58(?), tarty(?).

Putting my nerdy hat on and trying to develop a hypothesis here:

• My original idea was that it might be something to do with some having higher insulin resistance, or lower insulin resistance.
• Or is there a connection with exercise on a fast day? Melanie is a runner I think? Exercise generally releases feel-good endorphins, maybe the effect is greater on an empty stomach?

Any other ideas welcome, and please more data=responses still needed!

I find exercise on a fast day hard and feel weak after about 40 mins of cardio in the gym,I also need to go to bed earlier than usual on those days. Energy levels are up the day after for me though.

No don't enjoy fast days, although it is nice not having to think about what I'm going to eat. Usually, I feel heady, tired, cross and cold.

[janeg]

First fasts wiped me and I could do very little. Twenty plus fast done and can now function ok, but no excess energy, euphoria etc. Although can do a very heavy long day work wise which is surprising. Maybe there is more energy there. And this is coming from someone who had major sugar dips previously. More monitoring required methinks.

I did feel a bit dizzy the first couple of fasts but now fine.I enjoy the cleansed feeling of an empty gut, but dont have any special energised feeling as yet, 4 weeks in.
I mostly swim laps on my fasting day with no ill effects.
not sure how I'll go in the cooler months!

[wildmissus]

Firstly I am dedicated to my fast days(Mon & Thurs), having never missed one or screwed one up and often look forward to Mondays fast day after an indulgent weekend.

But

I my energy levels have not changed.
I still get that spacey feeling.
On a fast day evening I often feel really sorry for myself and quite low.
I do Pilates on a Monday and walk loads most days but there is no difference between a fast and feast day.
The biggest thing I've noticed recently is that regardless of what day it is since 5:2ing I don't wake up tired even if I haven't slept well.

See, I'm managing Crossfit, which is a combination of weightlifting and then some metabolic conditioning (combo of circuit exercises) to exhaustion. I can come home, not eat, wait for my tea and function well.

I am having to eat better overall to cope with the increased exercise but not necessarily on the fast day.

It's very horses for courses, isn't it?

Given how strong things like a placebo effect can be, it's very hard to differentiate between actual hunger, weakness, illness and the brain trying to persuade me into eating. I tend to go with eat if I feel bad and not eat if I feel hungry.

I do. I look forward to the fast days now, largely because I feel so much better. Bit bothered by how much more positive I feel on the fast days. I'd started thinking it's because I'm using the recipes from the book itself, which basically means preparing all the food from scratch, so there's minimal processed, packaged foods. So my working hypothesis is that all packaged processed foods, and in particular those with lists of contents, preservatives etc are poison and making us feel worse on the feed days.

So perhaps this should be "Do you feel worse on the feed days" and that's an affirmative from me.

Also bothered as to why I haven't cheated at all on a fast day ever, but go to pieces on the feed days frequently. Again come to the same conclusions as above (processed food is addictive poison - or some such)...

I've noticed a real feeling of energy on fast days, but it's the morning after when I really notice a boost. I don't usually eat breakfast so don't eat until lunchtime on day 2. The morning after a fast I almost feel giddy - like an adrenaline rush. It's great, but as I work in a fairly 'stiff' professional environment I have to consciously keep it under wraps. Sometimes I take a walk around the block to shake it out of myself a bit. I've been fasting for just over 2 months and this has only really kicked in in the last 2/3 weeks. I like it though. Makes me do more exercise and it's like a Friday feeling so I'm much nicer to people. My staff have noticed a change but as I haven't told them I'm doing 5:2 I think they're finding my less critical management style a bit odd!