The FastDay Forum

Thanks to Moogie for adding the TDEE calculation to the tracker, it will be so helpful.

However, mine says this.......... 'you should be eating around 1467 calories on your feed days and 367 calories on your fast days in order to lose weight'

Does that sound low? I thought I was doing so well, not hungry, not counting calories and losing 1lb per week. I'm sure I've been eating more calories than that, especially on fast days and I'm really worried now about what I can eat for those caloric values. I think I will have to start using MFP again.

I would really appreciate hearing about other people's TDEE and whether it is as low as mine and indeed lower. What do you eat? How do you cope? Are weekend bacon sarnies, curries, wine and chocolate now a thing of the past?
Thanks

[janeg]

Hello Wendy. I'm shocked too. Mine are similar and I don't know if this is sustainable for me . However I think that these figures are for a sedentary lifestyle so if your move about it has to increase a bit. The fact that you are successfully shifting it and losing the average shows that you are doing something right, so I wouldn't get too hung up on it. BUT, if you begin to stall more than the 'average' it may be worthwhile cutting back a wee bit (or increasing the exercise?)

My TDEE on our progress tracker is 1546 and my fast day cals are 387. I was doing a 1650cal TDEE and 400 cals on fast day. I might give the lower TDEE a go and see how I feel/how the weight/inch loss fares.

Mine is around 1700 (I'm fairly sedentary at the moment) and my bmi is a lot higher than yours. I had cut back to 400 calories on my last fast day already (having finally calculated my TDEE) and that was ok. I only have one meal on a fast day.

I think maybe the way to look at a very low TDEE is that you need to have some days that are very low, and save the curries and bacon sarnies for only a couple of days a week. I'd also be looking to exercise more or take what you are already doing, if you do, into account.

Ultimately, I guess it comes down to how much you want to achieve and maintain your goal weight. Only you can decide whether the joy of being a certain size is outweighed by the misery of constantly counting calories or watching your food intake.

Goodness, I've just checked and mine is 1500, I thought it was around 2000. No wonder I'm having to still do 5:2 some weeks just to maintain. It is surprising how few calories you actually require - no wonder it is so easy to put on weight!

Thank you ladies, feel better already to know that I'm not alone. I will try the recommended TDEE, try to up my exercise and see what comes of it. Thanks for replying and good luck to you all too.

Mine is 1680 for a 'sedentary lifestyle' and I think that is probably about right. Many of us have previously overestimated our TDEEs IMO.

I see the suggestion in the tracker text is that we observe a 'strict' 25% of TDEE on fast days. This means 420 calories in my case. This does make it harder than 600, and the 180 calories doesn't make a great deal of difference to weight loss (about 25g). I thought the formula (aka Dr M originally) was a simple 500 for women and 600 for men regardless of their TDEE?

Thanks Dominic, yes, I thought straight 500 for women and 600 for men too.

Yes, same here, 1441 and 361!! Of course these are for "sedentary" as the default, but it leaves me wondering exactly how much sofa-lying that covers. If I manage at least a vigorous half hour of walking, does that move me up a category, and how much? To be honest, I'm not very interested in the figures. If I'm hungry on a feeding day, I'll eat a little; on a fast day I try to have as little as possible, not up to a number. After all, for this to work longterm it has to become just natural - not obsessing about food and calories all day...

[Moogie]

I was of the understanding that the 500/600 was based around a tdee of 2000. Perhaps I'll change the wording to suggest the lower fast day intake if the full amount isn't working well?

I thought the formula (aka Dr M originally) was a simple 500 for women and 600 for men regardless of their TDEE?

I believe that to be the case too. Keeping it simple.

I was of the understanding that the 500/600 was based around a tdee of 2000.

If I recall correctly he took a quarter of the recommended calorie intakes for men and women, I don't believe TDEE was mentioned. So 2000 and 2400 from somewhere, divided by 4.

There is not a one size fits all answer to TDEE. Mine is 1593 but I regularly exceed that and my fast days is always around 500 (often a little over) and I have been losing weight steadily and at a good rate. I don't do exercise other than brisk walking every other day for about 30 - 45 minutes. There must be so many variables in what people eat, high, moderate or low carb for example, same for fats and protein. I don't believe in the "a calorie is a calorie" approach any more and strongly believe that what we eat is at least as important as how much of it we consume and how we choose to do it (grazing approach of lots of little meals as opposed to a time window). Also, if you are truly sedentary or are you a bit of a fidget, not exercising per se, but a bit of a busy bee. Hormones, especially for women, surely plays an enormous role too. I hope that with so many people following this approach to eating that lots of studies will be in the pipeline to point us all in the right direction!

I didn't calculate my TDEE & have just been working with 500cals on fast days & on average 2000 ish cals on other days ( I do mix up amount of cals eaten on normal days as Carorees suggested & think it does work)
Had bit of a panic when progress tracker said my TDEE is 1565 & fast days 392!

However just looked back at my stats & in 14 weeks I've lost 19lbs which is great in my book so just going to stay with 2000:500 at the moment. Don't know if that's the right thing to do - I might lose weight quicker if I change? But could always change if/when weight loss stalls?

WOW! Mine is higher than I thought. I thought my TDEE was 1270 but now I see that my RMR is 1280 and my TDEE is 1535.

I think that I'll continue eating my 1300 though. And I stay around 500 on fast days but yesterday I ate around 400.

BTW, by sedentary we mean "no exercise", right?