The FastDay Forum

Hello all,
Long time lurker, finally registered
I only just started last week and so far so good. I'm not very diet/health conscious so please bare with me. I did a few of the TDEE calculators and got a number of around 2500 cal for maintenance. Using that number, my weekly calories would be 17500. What i was wondering was does TDEE work over the week or by the day. Say for instance my two fast days uses 1000 and four other days uses 8000 combined, that's only 9000 for six days. Does that mean i have 8500 left to use say on a Saturday Not that i would use them all, just wondering if that's the way it works.
I hope that all made sense
Thanks all.

[Tracieknits]

Welcome to the forums, Lunacat

I'll have to leave the question to the experts.

I DO know that to calculate the week on 5:2, you'd add five days of maintenance calories plus 500 or 600 calories for each of the two fast days (500 female / 600 male) rather than add together 7 days at maintenance TDEE.

Hi and welcome!

That is the way it works.

Enjoy!

As simcoeluv said, that is the way it works. The way I see it, the two fast days reduce your energy intake to the point where it becomes easy to get a calorie deficit for the week. A calorie deficit of 3,500 translates roughly to a one pound loss of weight, which is a slow, sustainable loss. Slow is good. There are some psychological benefits as well including breaking the habit of eating whenever you wish, and physical benefits from controlling insulin production and giving the digestive system some down time.

It's cumulative - days you eat more than you use (TDEE) you put fat on, days you eat less you take it off.

Hi Phil,

When I have said that I can eat 3,000 calories a day, never move off the sofa and yet still lose weight, nobody believes me!! Why?

Do you lie down on the sofa before or after your swim, run and uphill cycling? Tomtank, when I did Atkins I felt as though I was eating thousands of calories, simply because the bacon and eggs, steaks and garlic butter and berries with cream were so filling, but the reality was that when I calculated the number of calories I was consuming it was about 1600 most days!

Hi Dhana - I do a lot of sport, yes, but during times when I didn't, the weight would still drop off!!

Forgot to say - I'm really greedy when it comes to eating ground almonds and Camembert (not together!), which push up my calorie totals.

I am not up to date with the latest advice from the Atkins Foundation, but didn't they revise their "eat freely" mantra of things like cheese to a portion the size of a pair of dice, and reduce the size of the plate sized steak to the size of the palm of your hand?

From a gourmet or gourmand point of view walnuts go pretty well with camembert!

As has been said, when you work out your maintenance for the weight you are presently at, you get a weekly figure. To lose weight you have to reduce that by 3500kcals for a pound of fat lost. To do that you fast on 2 days with only 500kcals on each day. This will give you a defecit of approximatly 3500kcals. Hence 1lb per week lost.
Don't forget to recalculate your TDEE as you go, as it changes with your weight and exercise levels.

Sorry if I am hijacking this thread but in reply to Tomtank - you asked why nobody believes you are eating 3000cals a day and still losing weight, even if you don't exercise. You have not been specific about the exact calorie content of what you do eat so perhaps you are over estimating? Either that or perhaps you have the rare ability that a small percentage of fortunate people have, to be able to eat very large amounts of food without gaining weight?

Or she could have an overactive thyroid. OR, she could be very overweight. My TDEE was close to 3000 at my heaviest.

Actually, that is the only negative I can think of for losing weight! My TDEE is slowly creeping down