The FastDay Forum

Hi eckat, How are you fining the no food fast so far?

Redhead, do you do one 36 hour no food fast day a week and the other 500 calorie fast day or both no food fasts? Tomorrow is my next fast day and I am thinking to do another 36 hr no food fast so it will be my second for the week. Is it ok or will it be too much? I feel great today after doing no food fast Monday so it will be great to have the same feeling Thursday as well.

Hi All


Quick update ... am now at about 19 hours since last food (well, low cal hot chocolate last night).... but that's not unusual - I often manage to fast through till 7pm ish before dinner on a fast day...

My stomach is currently growling away but luckily everybody else is in meetings or has left the office so they can't hear it

It will get tougher later I am sure, as I will be at work for a couple of hours yet, then I'll go for a run before I pick my kids up from activities.... and that's when I'll be hungry..... but if I can just get through from then til bed time and manage to sleep it'll be fine....

So far today has been 1 glass of water and dash of lemon juice, about 7 or 8 mugs of black coffee and a diet coke..... caffeine levels might make sleep interesting later.... alll I can hope is that running twice today will offset it and I'll sleep cos I'll be tired... that and a herbal tea plus electric blanket to make it cosy...

[wildmissus]

eckat, sounds like your doing well, just remind yourself how little time you have left. BTW 1lb = 3500 calories.

Maltesser, I'm sure redhead does 2 a week. Michael Mosely only chose to go to 25% of TDEE because he felt he couldn't sustain it by not eating anything. He acknowledged that to get the best health benefits it is best not to eat. My own personal thought is that on fast days I'm giving my body a well earned rest, so even by putting 500 cals in it I'm stressing it, insulan spikes, etc.

I've had quite a productive day at work today, had my tea now and plan to go out for another brisk 45 min walk. I really enjoyed yesterday especially when everyone else joined in. I now know it is entirely doable and adds to the flexibility of this way of life. I know that if I don't feel like doing 36 hours I could have some calories or I could do two 36hrs. I'd recommend anyone to try it.

Update on how I did: I went to bed feeling absolutely fine even skipped my usual hot choc!
Slept fine, but woke up this morning with a headache, I used to get headaches at start of 5:2 so wonder if I need an adjustment period, also think I may not have drunk enough yesterday. Apart from headache I had a slight feeling of light headedness, but that passed quickly. Interestingly I haven't felt as hungry as I usually do the day after a fast, I often crave sugary food fix, but not feeling that way today. That is an added bonus!
Thank you for inspiring me, I think I may try to 36hr fast every Monday although a bit of me is tempted to try again thurs, might just see how I go! Incidentally I am a daily weigher and I usually find myself 2 lbs off after a fast day, this usually steadily inclines up again but this morning I was 4lbs off so will be interested in my weekly weigh in on Monday to see if this has any effect. Enjoyed it though and glad to read so many other successes on this thread! We are hardcore fasters! Ha, ha!

This is all sounding very positive. Well done all you 36-ers (for want of a better word)! It will be really interesting to see how this affects the weight loss, although it sounds as though there have been other positive results. Keep posting about them!

Great to read how everyone else did - seems it all went quite well really doesn't it My next fast day is Thursday and I'm going to do the same again and see what happens to weight loss for the week. My weight loss is very slow and so if this gives it a bit of a boost then I'll consider doing it more often - I'll see what happens on my weekly weigh & record day, which is this Saturday. Keep posting 36ers - it's really interesting.

Wow Mariposa.... 4lbs off - if ever I needed motivation!

If I see a result like that, the damage I fid last week through snacking on feed days will be gone - here's hoping

Well that's 21 hours plus done so far.... Hardest bit of the day still to come though.....

Have abandoned a second run today as my legs felt tired after this morning's effort - I did a (for me) fast 5k and I think to do more would have pushed too far so I am sat in the waiting room with my laptop looking at some documents I really should be finishing off .... And on here on my phone

Will see if I make it till the morning then decide what to do next.... Thursday will be my next fast day so I'll see if I think this is sustainable for a 2nd day especially given that that is food shopping day......

Redhead, do you do one 36 hour no food fast day a week and the other 500 calorie fast day or both no food fasts? Tomorrow is my next fast day and I am thinking to do another 36 hr no food fast so it will be my second for the week. Is it ok or will it be too much? I feel great today after doing no food fast Monday so it will be great to have the same feeling Thursday as well.

Wildmisses is right, I do two 36 hour fasts each week. I plan to keep it up until I get to my target weight and then do just one per week. However, sustainability is the key. If you can do two water fasts a week easily and feel good, do it. If you prefer one water fast and one 500 cal fast, do that and don't stress about it.

I advocate water fasting, but I don't want to give the impression I think less of normal 5:2. I think it's brilliant too and the results on this forum prove that.

Here's my thinking: If we assume that we'd have eaten 2500 cals on average per day before starting 5:2, reducing by 5000 per week (two water fasts) should mean we drop about 1.5lb per week (that's been my average loss). Doing two 500cal fasts = reducing by 4000 cals so you'd drop about 1lb a week on average. I realise this should be adjusted to use maintenance tdee instead of an arbitrary 2500 cals, but even though 2500 is 500+ cals over my tdee I wasn't actually steadily gaining a pound a week over the last 10 years - more like 3 stone (4.2 lb per year) in 10 years so I'm not totally convinced about tdee anyway.

Therefore, unless you're in a rush to lose weight, losing a pound a week is fine and so if doing 500cals is sustainable, I'd say stick with it. Getting used to doing the fasts so they're sustainable is the key thing.

I do think trying the 36 hour fast once or twice is a good idea to prove you can do it. Listen to your body carefully and if you find it doable, stick with it.

Sorry for the long reply!!

That 4lbs off definitely won't stay that low, it'll sneak back up and then down again after Thursdays fast and then back up again until Mondays weigh in! I'm averaging about 1.2lbs a week and if I lose a little more through a 36hr fast once or twice a week that would be marvellous! I'll keep you all posted!

Mariposa, fair play for weighing daily and not getting demotivated. I know I go up and down as I occasionally weigh myself between 'formal' Friday weigh ins. Sometimes up by many pounds so I prefer to stick consistently to the morning after the second fast to avoid getting demotivated. It will be interesting so see your progress after the 36 hour fast and what day it shows up as extra weight lost.

[wildmissus]

Mariposa, you made me realize that I haven't eaten as much as usual an I've only just had a piece of dark chocolate just now.

redhead, suchard, mariposa, malteserr, you are so persuasive!!! I'm now considering doing 36 on Thursday. Why not? It will only (only!!!) be a mental test for me when I have to make dinner for the family. I think as redhead says it's about proving to yourself you can do it...and i can be tad stubborn. And if you guys can do it so can I.

eckat, are you still managing?

Hi wildmissus

Yes .... Still here and still on track.... Just made another black coffee and not long left - provided I can sleep after all the caffeine....

Stomach growling a little but I will keep on ignoring it and just hope the scales show it tomorrow.... I always weigh after min or Tues fast for stats (weigh most days too but use that to gauge how I'm doing and don't log it on here). Tomorrow is my 3 month weigh in so here's hoping I fixed last week's excesses !!

I know redhead, it gets a bit silly really, sometimes I weigh myself before bed to guesstimate what I might be in the morning! Luckily I just filter out the up days and hold on to the days I see results I haven't seen before as then I know at some point they'll turn up on an official weigh in day!
Think I may bonkers, but I suppose it works for me!

Thank you for your reply redhead. I decided I am going to do it again tomorrow, no food fast, anyone else would like to join me? It felt good in a way not thinking about calories and what can I eat on fast day but just drink water plus I felt proud this morning that I stuck to the no food fast on Monday.

I'm going to try for my second zero cal, 36 hour fast on Thursday. I got loads of work done that day so will also save up all my chores and errands for Thursday too.