The FastDay Forum

Hi everyone,

Another newbie here! Apologies if this question has been discussed in detail elsewhere on this site but... does anyone fast from dinner til dinner? ie. normal dinner, then fast until the next day's normal dinner?

I am keen to try 5:2 but my husband won't be doing it, so it would be useful for us to cook normal meals in the evenings.

[carorees]

Hi Ripley and welcome!

My husband does dinner to dinner (complete fast) because he doesn't need to lose weight. I don't know if he will end up losing weight or not. I join him in dinner but have a much reduced dinner of 500 cals and then don't eat again until the next breakfast. I don't think I would lose much weight if I only did the 24 hours.

Some people have tried having 500 cals within the time from dinner to dinner (so, I presume, 500 cals for breakfast and lunch) but if you do that your overall calorie intake will be hardly reduced at all and I can't see how you would lose weight.

So, it depends on your circumstances. If you fast completely and then have a 500 cal dinner you do get quite a lot of food for dinner so it fits in with family life quite well.

[Moogie]

I fast from dinner the night before my fast until my 400-500cal dinner on my fast day as it means I get a more normal sized meal and I don't tend to feel hungry in the day (unless I have something to eat!).

Ok thanks Moogie and Caroline. I have been doing the 6:1 program for a few months, fasting for the entire day between dinner on one day til the next (zero calories during that time). I haven't found this to be difficult.

I've lost a bit of weight but want to step it up a little. I assume that doing this for 2 (non-consecutive) days would be harder but haven't given it a try yet!

[Moogie]

Do you eat a 'normal' dinner when you break your fast at dinnertime or do you just have 500 cals? x

I eat a normal dinner - perhaps that is where I am going wrong...

[Moogie]

The 'vanilla' style 5:2 as done by Dr M in the documentary is basically to wake up on your fast day, consume no more than 500 cals and then wake up the next day and feed normally. In most cases this means around 36 hours in which you consume only 500 cals, as you're going pretty much from dinner one day until breakfast 2 days later. Many of us like to fast from dinner until dinner, and then have our 500 cals in one meal, but then nothing more until breakfast. Some prefer to split their cals. No evidence as to if this makes a difference to the results yet, though I know I cope better not eating until dinner

You can actually have quite a good dinner for 500 cals, so you might not find it too hard to adapt to this. For example, a small chicken breast at around 120g (or a pair of quorn sausages) with steamed 250g carrot/broccoli, 100g mashed carrot/swede, 200g of baby potatoes roasted in their skins (tiny bit of olive oil) and some gravy (half chicken oxo + 10g bisto powder) comes in at under 500 cals... and I can't usually finish off that big plateful!