The FastDay Forum

Hi, I've came back to give this another go. This time I'm not even looking at it as a diet, I'm just changing the way I eat and what happens happens. I have a serious amount of weight to lose and it seems to be shifting A LOT slower than it should but I'm feeling good and fasts aren't too difficult. I'm hoping to get to target by next Christmas or before. Slow and steady but as long as there is a downwards trend I'll be happy. Just a couple of things I wanted to cover:

1: I currently fast 8pm Sunday to 8am Tuesday. 36 hours and again Wednesday night to Friday morning. Is this ok as I read in the book it can just be 24hrs ie 2pm -2pm next day? Has anyone found that the 24hours also works? I think my Monday fast is fine but sometimes my Thursday one is a little harder to fit round things but I don't want to jeopardise weight loss.

2: I measure out 100ml of skimmed milk and it does me 3 cups of tea during the day. I count the calories. One in the morning, one at lunch time and one round about 5pm so I can hold off dinner a little longer. Is this causing me to maybe "break" the fast? If so I'm going to try and stop. Does anyone else have milk and it not effect their losses?

I think that's it for now

Good luck to you! Just a couple of comments:

1) Do you eat 500 cals in that 36-hr time frame? And if so, do you break them up or try to eat them all in one go (except for the milk in tea)?

2) 100ml of skim milk is, what, approximately 90 calories? So 3 separate times, you are ingesting about 30 cals. According to sources I've seen, there is no "on/off" switch in fasting, and some say you can ingest up to 40-50 cals without putting the digestive system to work. Others say a single calorie breaks the fast. I choose to believe the <50.

I wouldn't worry about the milk. If you do, you could always try unsweetened almond milk, which has 30 cals per 8 oz. It's not as good, but it's lower calories. I have found that the unsweetened almond milk tastes better in coffee and tea than the plain.

Good luck!

Hi Melinda,

Apart from my milk I keep all my calories for dinner so I can have some protein and veg or scrambled egg on a bit toast and a 40cal hot choc before bed. It's always round 500 or just under. One thing though is MyFitnessPal states that 100ml of skimmed milk is 35cals?? So it's possible I've been counting these all wrong?
I was having almond milk a while back but it wasn't unsweetened, I might give it another go.

Thank you

Hi LoveGrace,
Skimmed milk is approx 35cals per 100ml, don't worry!

Regarding the first question, to be honest I think it's much easier to think in terms of days. So:
Monday - normal eating
Tuesday - fast day, no more than 500 cals over the whole day, split or not
Wednesday - back to normal eating again.

But I just like to keep it simple

You all busted me and my poor conversion skills! I keep forgetting that 100 ml is close to 3 oz, not 8 oz (we Americans and our antiquated measurement systems!). D'oh! So, you should be good to go!

Good luck. I think you will do fine. It sounds like you have it under control.

I have skimmed milk in my coffee always-I prefer it and I never measure it or count the calories-life is too short. I never ration the number of cups either.

I have a coffee with a dash of skimmed milk in the morning, 200 low-carb cals at around 2pm and 300cals at around 7.30pm, which is enough for eggs and bacon (it usually involves eggs in some form, anyway).

After a few months of 36 hour fasting 500 cal twice or 3 times a week plus 16:8, I have this week experimented with 24 hour zero calorie fasting except fat ie bulletproof coffee. It appeared to bump me off a plateau this week after a month of no loss so I will try again next week to see if it is attributable or not.

Your plan seems to be well thought out for your situation. In fact it is very similar to the one I used to do.

The adaptability and ease of this eating plan is what allows us to stick to it. Its no use have a gung ho diet plan that gives a brilliant initial weight loss, if you can't stick to it, this diet you can stick to. I have never before managed to stick to a diet longer than 3 months before. I am now on my 9th month and still going strong.