The FastDay Forum

I'm pretty new to this - this is only my second week, and today I'm doing my 4th fast day ever. Generally I would say it's going fine, but I'm noticing a real pattern where I start to struggle around 3.30pm and have to fight off the rather loud messages in my head to go and eat something. On Tuesday (my other fast day this week) I struggled enormously with it and despite eating a good dinner, by about 8pm I was all for giving it up for a bad job, because bedtime just seemed like forever away.

My pattern for eating on fast days has generally been:
- no food until around 12.30/1pm, when I have a bowl of homemade soup or some sort of salad amounting to around 100 calories
- if I need it (which I have mostly felt I do) then small snacks of celery/cucumber/raw carrot which I munch on slowly to satisfy cravings.
- Dinner around 5.30 - 6.30pm of around 200 - 300 cals
- Snack to make up the extra calories sometime in the evening to get me through till bedtime.

My husband is coping just fine going right through till dinner and then eating his whole allowance at once. I just don't feel that is manageable for me - by lunchtime I always feel I have to eat something.

I'm not trying to lose weight - I have a healthy bmi and am very active. After a couple of cancer scares earlier this year (thankfully amounting to nothing but enough to suddenly make me more aware of my own mortality), I want to do this for the other health benefits so I want to make it work for me....

Anyone got any tips to help get through the afternoon and evening? I am drinking plenty (thank goodness for hot drinks), and after a particularly tough evening on Tuesday I got myself a couple of low cal jellies just in case.

My experience has been the moment I eat something then my hunger switch is on for the day. I do have milk in my coffee & perhaps a couple of those in the day then Bovril for "lunch" & I eat nearly all my calories for supper. I have sometimes saved some calories for a small glass of milk or an apple for before going to bed. Prairiechicken have you tried trying to get through lunchtime with some consommé or Bovril & drink water when you feel hungry? early on it is easy to mistake thirst for hunger. I guess it is really a matter of trial & error to test out what feels most manageable for you & perhaps just hang on to the thought that you can eat next day. If it gets too much you could turn your fast day into 16:8 opening your eating window at lunchtime for the next eight hours & then fast on another day?
Anyway whatever you choose welcome to 5:2ing & I'm sure others will be along to offer good advice.

I don't know whether this will help, as I am only in my 7th week, but I have found my appetite changing. I wanted to lose about 5kg total and am now past half way - hurrah.
I started out having an approx 150 is cal breakfast then holding out for an early supper at around 5pm. The longer I have been doing this I have managed to swap the breakfast for lunch, and this week I can now have only supper - which seems enormous ! Unbelievably I didn't need a cup of tea as soon as I got up - unheard of ! So hold on in there, we're all different and it takes time to adjust. Lots of water, fizzy water and green tea too.

[Betsysgr8]

If you don't eat from the previous nights dinner to lunch the next day, you should be acheiving approx 18 hours no food fast. Since you aren't trying to lose weight you could either have some protein with your lunch upping your cals to 200-300 then dinner of 300 - 500 cals. Or just go ahead and have a snack at 3:30pm.

[Tracieknits]

I definitely agree with Isis in that the moment I eat, it just makes hunger that much harder for me to control. It's really weird how eating makes me hungrier, but I guarantee that if I ate 100 calories of soup at lunch, I'd be ravenous and miserable by 3pm

I don't eat until 6pm dinner. If it's a particularly rough afternoon, and I don't want to be evil to my offspring, I might have a cup of chicken boullion or a bowl of salad greens with a tablespoon of diet dressing. but that's rare when I need to do that.

Since you are already a healthy BMI, and you are just trying to get the benefits of fasting, you might be fine with doing two or three 16 hour fasts in a week for the benefits to your blood chemistry. So perhaps just go to bed the night before as usual, then when you wake up have only zero calorie beverages (black coffee, water etc) until you break your fast. Try to aim for 6pm if possible, but since you're a healthy weight, you could also trying just aiming for mid-afternoon.

I would also think that you don't need to restrict your calories on fast days. If you were maintaining a healthy weight without fasting, my guess is you eat well and appropriately. So as long as you are remaining at a healthy weight, and not gaining, I don't see any reason for you to not just eat what you want one you break your fast.

But then I'm not a doctor!

If you are aiming for a 16 hour fast, and have dinner at 6.00pm, wouldn't that take you to 10.00am, so you could have a late breakfast?

I'm like your husband, I only get hungrier if I eat a small amount, so I save my total calories for 1 meal, usually in the evening. Since you are struggling, experiment with different ways. You are not trying to lose weight, so maybe you could up your calories a little...just try to keep the 'fasts' as long as possible between meals without killing yourself.

Well I am so different to these posters. I had a major breakthrough this week after about 40 fasts. On fast days I used to have veg soup for bfst & then dinner with coffee in between and I was fine, tho hungry by 3pm - 8 cal hot choc and dinner about 5.30. Then I read about going longer and having food later or just 1 meal - gave it a go. I was so sh*t all day - I was as the Scots say 'wandered' - my IQ was down 50 points, couldn't think clearly, I was so mentally tired. I was hearing from people (my bro in particular) about the energy on fast days...I couldn't believe it. Then this week I thought I'd go back to my early fast pattern plus add an apple or 2. So veg soup in a flask drunk between 5.30am and 8am...black coffee during the day...then 10am an apple, then 3pm 8 cal hot choc, then dinner 5.30/6pm, an extra apple if hungry during the day. Never had so much energy on fast day EVER! Not hungry...well not the usual tummy rumbling incessantly. I felt sooo good. Have done this for 2 fasts this week and will continue. So my thoughts are: Try nothing all day or try an apple and see if any of it helps

Why dont you try my trick for your 3.30 hungry time. 3 boiled egg whites = 51 calories. I have it for breakfast and it fills me up for hours. I prepare them the night before 3 for me and 2 for hubby as a snack on his fast day. Sprinkle of salt snd pop in a zip lock bag. Some people don't like the texture but I like them. Good luck!

GMH is there a brand name for that low cal chocolate please

. Also for the thread question I get over that hump with a home brewed coffee with 1/4cup soy and no cal stevia 2drps as it is very strong.