The FastDay Forum

Hi, I had my first fast day yesterday and i have a question. I decided to spread my 500 calories across the day so I had around 100 at breakfast, 200 at lunch and 200 in the evening. I have read lots of posts about people skipping lunch or saving everything for the evening.

I'm interested in whether my approach would be as effective. I ask as it didn't seem difficult at all (if anything too easy) so I'm wondering if I'm doing it correctly (I've ordered the book but still waiting for delivery).

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hi well done on your first fast, not sure what the answer is maybe just give it a few weeks to see if it works for you. I am doing the breakfast and evening meal fast, skipping lunch and seem to be doing fine on that but will give it a month to see how it is working out.

I cant believe how easy it seems and can see myself sticking to this now.

Angela x

Hi Caroline

If it’s just weight loss you are after, I don’t thing I makes any difference when you have your calories. As long as you consume less you should lose weight.

If its health benefits I think the jury is still out. Some people think you should leave as long a gap between meals as possible on fast days to maximize benefits, EG 1 meal on a fast day is better than 2, 2 is better than 3, etc even to the point of not eating at all for 24 hrs.

I think as long as you don’t go over (much) 25 % of your daily calorie need, (400-500 for a woman and 500-600 for a man) it does not make a lot of difference when you eat your calorie allowance.

Steve

Thanks for your replies, I'm primarily after weight loss and health benefits are a bonus. I get migraines occasionally, sometimes when I haven't eaten, so I'm trying to avoid long gaps without any food in case it triggers one.

My take on this is that the longer you can go without consuming any calories at all then the greater will be both fat burning as well as the associated health benefits.
Personally, my fast takes from around 8pm the prevs evening through to around 8am on the morning following the fast day. That's 36 hours, with just 600 cals consumed in the evening of the fast day.

There is a school of thought that men and women react differently to fasting and women may respond better to slightly shorter fasts, for various reasons I can't remember just now.

Saying that I probably follow a similar pattern but with two meals.

[carorees]

Yes, Michael Mosley says this but lots of women on the forum and facebook groups say they do all day fasts. I do, and find it no problem at all!

I must say that I find it much harder to go without food for a long time than my my husband. I did have a go yesterday just drinking black tea when I got up but I couldn't go longer than six hours without feeling sick and headachy so decided to have a banana, which kept me going till dinner. I do drink a lot of water but even so I get headachy so I am thinking it's still better to do what you can and succeed than try to do something your body doesn't like and fail. I am sure you get some benefits if not the bigger ones.

I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point the research shows we all react differently to this diet. Some may get big benefits and lots of them, others not so much.

I think I'm not eating enough protein on fast days and that's why I feel exhausted at the end of it. Is hummus protein or just fat?

[carorees]

According to my fat secret, 100 g hummus contains 177 kcal, 8.59 g fat, 4.86g protein, 20.12g carbs so most of the calories come from the fat and carbs. Dr Mosley says in the mumsnet Q&A session (see Moogie's post) that he thinks you should have a reasonable amount of protein on fast days. I usually have a piece of fish or chicken with lots of vegetables. It's usually around 35-45g protein.