The FastDay Forum

It depends what eating normally means for you as eating normally for me is WAY TOO MUCH as I wouldn't be fat in the first place otherwise! This way of eating is great and has a lot of benefits and changes the way you think about food, but its still a weigh loss programme and one that you can do for life, but there is still an element of a diet.

Yes, I think that's what I need to get my head around. Normal to me is far too much, I need to be completely restrictive but just not as much on days off. I have read everywhere you can eat what you want on days off and it's just not true...in my case at least!

So i am going to go to 3 fast days for a couple of weeks to see how I do and then take it from there x

Sounds like a plan, I really wouldn't beat yourself up too much, try mixing things up abit, so have 1300 cals on day, then 1600 another day to keep your body guessing...

Will do...thanks very much x

[Betsysgr8]

My BMI I think is 29 and my TDEE is 1900 calories so I think I should be looking at consuming no more than 1400 to lose weight? I took measurements,..no change there.

The 5:2 way of eating is to have the calorie restriction on just 2 days of the week, hence the 500 calories. When you further reduce your calories everyday of the week, then you run the risk of slowing your metabolism down.
(1400 x 5 = 7000) + (500 x 2 = 1000) = 8000 per week
(1900 x 5 = 9500) + (500 x 2 = 1000) = 10500 per week
(1900 x 7 = 13300) per week
8000 calories per week seems pretty low to me, other people on the forum maybe have more information than I about this.

How about fast 2 days (500 x 2 = 1000) then 3 days (1500 x 3 = 4500) and let the weekend take care of it's self? (2000 x 2 = 4000) totaling 1000+4500+4000 = 9500 calorie. This would mean 3800 deficit for the week.

I entered everything into My Fitness Pal all week. It says I consumed 4480 Mon to Fri. Then 5130 Sat and Sun which makes a total of 9610 calories consumed over the entire week! So I am prettymuch doing as you suggest...no weight loss and my waist is the same measurement

I've just worked out that taking out the 2 x 500 calorie days from calculations means on average I consumed just over 1700 calories per day for 5 days. My TDEE thingy said I need to stick to 1400 calories to lose weight...that's 300 over for 5 whole days = 1500 calories over!

I use MFP as well, and find its goal thing and calorie tracker to be a bit more confusing than it needs to be.

Go to scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/ and put in the numbers to get your BMR, TDEE and the calories to consume 20% less to lose weight. Ignore the rest of the info it gives about meal planning.

Once you have these numbers, what I do is aim for the 20% reduction calorie goal, but I don't really count calories(Clear as mud right) on my feed days. I just ballpark it, so I have a little bit of a pad. The key though is to not calorie restrict too much on the feed days or the whole thing doesn't work, as it messes up your metabolism and then just become a calorie restricted diet. I think the benefit of the fast days is too shock your system on those days from the rest, but it doesn't do so if you are resticting too much every day.

I am losing about 2.5 lbs a week on the plan I am doing but YMMV.

I've just been on it and it agrees with my figures above..
Just under 1900 calories to maintain and so 1400 a day to lose
I think I just need to be far more careful on the weekends

[Betsysgr8]

Maybe I'm not explaining it right. You should eat close to your maintenance TDEE(on average) and restrict 2 days with fasting. It seems that the contrast of calories in keeps the metabolism jumping. If you calorie restrict everyday, it can slow down.

You can eat less than maintenance TDEE but then balance it with a higher calorie day.

[Betsysgr8]

Check this thread viewtopic.php?f=27&t=1006 I think this can explain far better than I'm doing.