The FastDay Forum

I am interested in hearing from those on the plan -- when you are feasting, do you stay within your daily calories or eat whatever you want and truly enjoy your eating / foods that day? How long have you been doing this? What kind of results are you seeing? I have read alot of information over the years and I have seen alot about the feast / fast day when I did just one fast a week. It spoke alot to the fact that you truly 'cheat' on your fast day in order to spike your leptin levels and kick up the metabolism for maximum fat loss. I am considering doing an 'all-out' feast one day preceding a fast, and consuming healthy foods to keep within reasonable calorie amounts on the other one or two days preceding the fast (depending on whether I make it to 5:2 that week or 4:3). What are your thoughts? Thank you.

Hi MGM
There are others on here better qualified to answer you, but the term "Feast" is misleading, I think in the book Mimi refers to it as eating "normally", which in this context translates as eating up to your TDEE on Feast days (there are links on here to sites where you can calculate your TDEE mine is a just over 2000 cals) and eating 25% of that on Fast days.
I tend to eat sensibly on my weekday Feast days, and not drink any alcohol (a biggy for me)then eat and drink more freely at weeknds.
Not sure if that helps at all, but it is working for me

I eat everything in moderation but I do count the calories in the end of the day so that I can write it down in my journal and see how I can change things IF I reach a time when I don't lose weight.

I record it to TML, its scary to see how many calories certain foods you take for granted contain

I've been doing 5:2 since January and steadily lost 1 lb/week not calorie counting, just eating reasonably. However I gained 1 lb last week and this week I maintained so I'm going to try calorie counting again to see where I'm going wrong. I need a little boost I think.

I'm a very unique case, actually.
Before finding 5:2, I was undereating. I didn't know it but I was. I gained weight all of a sudden (thyroid problems) and I thought that if I ate very little I would lose weight. After months of trying and seeing no results, I was desperate for a solution. It was obvious (not to me though) that my body had turned on starvation mode (I was eating less than 1000 calories for months, with very few exception) and 5:2 came as a gift from God!

Anyway, now that I eat like everybody else, I am surprised at how easily one can eat 1500 calories but also how full one can be with eating just 500. It'a really a matter of choices and determination.

Hi. My concern is not counting cals on fast days but worry about under of over eating on non fast days. I too eat only about 1200 cals normally but don't lose weight. I am going to try and aim for 1400 on non fast days.

After being on 5:2 for 11 weeks and only losing 5lbs altogether (with gains and losses along the way) I've realised that I can't eat 'normally' on my feast days if I want to lose weight. Normal for me is probably excessive for anyone else but I did think that, theoretically, it wouldn't matter because I would still be eating much less on fast days. No such luck. I refuse to count calories every day though so what I've decided to do is have a couple of days where I keep an eye on what I'm eating and try not to go over 1800, to see if that makes a difference. We'll see. I hate that this is getting complicated though - it was the simplicity that really appealed to me in the first place.

I eat whatever I like on feast days. Apparently that is not such a good idea, because my weight loss stalled weeks ago. I need to eat more responsibly, less beer, bread, nuts, cookies, and that sort of thing. Not easy. Today I am craving ice cream.

Fe55cop, see what your TDEE is and try to stay around it or play with the average of it on non-fasting days.

Rufus, theoretically, if you have proper meals (and perhaps one snack) you won't get hungry outside your meal times. I rarely do and if I do, I "weigh" my hunger. If it's just a crave, I ignore it. If it's my stomach asking to be fed or it will give me trouble, I eat something small like a couple of crackers.

Fe55cop, see what your TDEE is and try to stay around it or play with the average of it on non-fasting days.

Rufus, theoretically, if you have proper meals (and perhaps one snack) you won't get hungry outside your meal times. I rarely do and if I do, I "weigh" my hunger. If it's just a crave, I ignore it. If it's my stomach asking to be fed or it will give me trouble, I eat something small like a couple of crackers.

TML,

My eating lately has nothing to do with hunger. It's just for the pure joy and delight of putting food into my body. But you are right, I need to be more mindful of what hunger is, and learn to respond to my hunger and not angst, boredom or anger (the things that make me eat.) Alas, so much joy and distraction comes from food. Big sigh.

Rufus

Yes, you need to reverse that. Food should provide feelings, not remove them.

Oops, I just gave in completely- steak, salad and mushrooms is ok, but i also had garlic bread wine nuts chocolate... Fasted without probs yesterday, but just now have had a piggy day. Crash! So will I need to deduct the extra calories from the next couple of days?

In the beginning I watched myself fairly carefully even on my feed days, which probably explains the 17 pounds I lost the first month. Since then I am not as careful on my feed days, but the weight is still coming off...most likely cause I have a lot to lose still.

Next weigh in (I usually weight myself only every month or so) should prove interesting since I haven't been nearly as careful on my feed days and I also missed a couple of fast days...we'll see in a week or so.

So does that mean I will get away with today's excessive chomping?