The FastDay Forum

Hello all!
I am new here. Just joined up this week. Today is my first fast day. There is one thing that I am not sure about. The TDEE for my non-fast days seems high. Usually when I am trying to lose I try to stick to 1500 cal. The TDEE says I should have 700-800 more. That seems like a lot. Should I just try it that way and see how it goes?
Thank You.
Anne

Hallo, good evening and welcome to a happy forum of fasting friends!
If you've put your data into our tracker it will suggest how much to eat on 5:2 fast days and feed days, and it's a very good place to start. Trust the numbers and use its recommendations for a month or two before looking to change things around, and measure your body e.g. Waist, arms width, legs etc as these can slim down before a weight loss registers on the scales too.
We've proved it works so jump in and keep chatting and good luck :0)

Hi Annie,x hope you enjoy yr journey here x its a great place to meet ...plenty of info,support and laughs along the way!
Over 2000 cals TDEE sounds a lot,unless youre about six foot and very active..i imagine anyway,but am no expert ...but to me 1500 ish sounds much more likely a TDEE
Maybe take AzureBlue's advice and see from there?
Anyway just wanted to say welcome,congrats on getting started,and good luck! There's a Fasting Today thread every day and peep sort of register there to commit to that day....so when youre fasting,look it up ..it helps to know youre not alone!

Hi welcome. How much do you need to lose? If you have alot to lose or if you are tall, your number will be higher. I'm pretty active yet and I have the TDEE on the 'sedentary' setting. This brings my number down to 1350. If I eat any more than that on non fast days I gain. However don't undereat as it will be counter productive. Good luck!

Hi Anniem

Welcome to the site!

My TDEE is 2500 because I'm tall, have a lot of weight to lose and am fairly active. Having said that, I don't eat anything like my TDEE but that's just my choice. I think you've been given some good advice here. Give it a whirl for a couple of weeks to get into the swing of things, get used to the fasting and then see how things go.

Good luck

If you are in your 20s or early 30s and weigh over 175 lbs, a 2200 calorie TDEE would be quite normal.

The point of these fasting diets is that you don't have to stint and deprive yourself on non-fast days. So I would suggest you try just fasting on fast days and not eat over your TDEE the rest of the time. If you have slowed your metabolism with crash dieting in the past, doing this could help it recover and burn fat better.

Hi and welcome to the forum. I'm 5ft 1" (so short) and my TDEE is over 2000. I do a lot of activity (cycling) about 1.5 hr per day and I'm losing weight (slowly). I say go with it and adjust it over time if you find you need to. Good luck

Hi ladies.
My iPad keeps freezing up mid-post. So here goes again. Thanks for ur advice. My fast fizzled late afternoon. Did hold to 1500 cal. though. I'm gonna try again Monday because it's a work day. Not much success on the weekend. All is not lost though since I learned that I need to have work as a distraction from food. Onward and upward! Not in weight, of course.

Great positive attitude Annie
Alot of us find it very difficult to fast on the weekends. I have 2 fast rays, 3 careful days then ' wey hey' weekends . I fast monday and Thursdays usually.. It is SO much easier at work. Good luck for tomorrow. I'll be celebrating my youngest sons sweet 16 on Monday with a dinner out so will fast Tuesday instead.

[Tracieknits]

53 pounds ago, my TDEE was 2400 at light activity.

Then I dropped 40 pounds and upped my activity a lot, and was being told my TDEE was 2600 on some days (fitbit calculates your TDEE based on how much activity it's registering, your weight, your age, your gender etc etc)

A young person will have a higher TDEE than an older person of the same size and activity level. And then, for even more variation, it's still only an estimate because people's metabolisms can and do vary.

The beauty of this diet is that for five days a week, you learn how to eat like a normal person, eating the calories you need to maintain your body without gaining. THIS IS A CRUCIAL PART OF THE DIET - with crash diets and daily calorie restriction, you don't learn how to eat properly to keep the weight off. Many people find maintenance is harder than losing weight. I firmly believe that this diet teaches you how to eat properly during those five days, so that you won't blow up as soon as you stop. I've been losing slowly but steadily since I started nearly two years ago -- and even when I'm taking a break from fasting, I HAVEN"T GAINED WEIGHT BACK. I'm so incredibly impressed by this, and this never happened with standard BS calorie restriction diets like Weight Watchers.

Then all of the pain, calorie restriction and deprivation happens on two short days. If your TDEE is 2000 and you eat only 500 calories in one day, that's 1500 calorie deficit, almost half a pound of fat!! Two fast days gives you a 3000 calorie deficit in the week, which is close to a pound of fat. And certainly there have been a number of people who have exactly those results for extended periods.

But we're all different. Plateaus are normal. metabolisms are different - even within the same person it may fluctuate month my month or day by day.

The best thing to do is try it the way it's intended. IF it's not working, tweak.

Good luck!

I agree with the others. Try doing 5:2, just as it's intended. Two days of 500 calorie eating (I and many others have our 500 calories in one meal at the end of the day) and the rest of the time try to eat up to your TDEE. That doesn't mean that you have to eat all the calories - don't force yourself to stuff down high calorie, nutritionally empty foods just to reach your TDEE! Just listen to your body and you will learn the difference between real hunger and habit. Remember that on non-fast days (I don't really like the term 'feast' days) you can eat whatever you want but not necessarily as much as you want! Your weight loss may be slower than on traditional calorie-restricting diets but you will be educating your body on how to eat like a slim person, which will be needed when you reach your goal weight. Good luck and keep visiting the forum. It's a great support!