The FastDay Forum

I think I have overloaded myself with info after hours of reading through this forum and books.

Can anyone offer an example of exactly what they eat on a fast day please? I am confused over what levels of carbs and protein I should be aiming for etc

Any help would be much appreciated I will keep reading through the threads as I am sure this will have been asked before!

I can tell you what I have had today!

Breakfast: one soft boiled egg (80 cals) with two Nairns fine milled oatcakes (72 cals), one small gala apple (45 cals)

Dinner: Niçoise salad made with 1 fresh tuna steak, (oven baked), green beans (handful), 1 tomato, 1/2 pepper, 3cm cucumber, 5 olives, 1 little gem lettuce, very small amount of fat based dressing (1tsp olive oil mixed with 1tsp balsamic) (285 cals)

Hope this helps!

I can tell you what I eat - right or wrong, it works for me.
On fast days, I am mainly vegetarian; obviously lots of veg, baked beans for protein and fibre, maybe some quorn and a salad, about 500 - 550 cals. Also shirataki noodles for bulk.
Non fast days I eat lots of veg, chicken or fish, with some cheese or prawns. I record it all on my fitness pal. I've lost 17lbs since January.
You'll need to find what works for you. I'm in the 'if it goes in your mouth, record it' band. Usually on non fast days I eat around 1400/1500 calories.

I even think I've lost weight over Easter, but weigh day is tomorrow.... fingers crossed.
You'll soon find what works for you.
Good luck!

You don't need to worry about levels of carbs or proteins on a fast day - the 500 cals is the only thing that matters.

That being said, I personally find that carbs (bread, rice, pasta) is all very high in calories, so I avoid those on fast days.

Breakfast will be eggs or smoked salmon. Lunch will be a light cuppa soup or miso soup (under 50 cals).. Dinner will be heavy on the veg - maybe a stew or stir fry, ratatouille is good. A small piece of poached chicken, slice of ham, or some prawns or scallops - these give a bit of protein but not too much.

Today is a fast day and I didn't eat until my evening meal. I've had homemade fish cake (I estimate about 250 calls) and stir fired green veg, red pepper and carrot. Lots of black tea, coffee during the day. I find it easier only to eat 1 meal. I normally have some protein and lots of beg on a fast day. How this helps.

Hi RoomOnTheBroom (love the name). I wouldn't stress too much about what levels of protein/carbs you should be eating on fast days - unless you are not seeing any weight loss after several weeks and something may need to be tweaked (in which case some of the 'wise ones' on this forum will be able to offer lots of help). I don't cook fancy things on fast days. I personally stick to simple protein/ veg based meals as I find I can overeat on carbs as they make me more hungry. Protein is supposed to take longer to digest in the stomach so it keeps you fuller for longer. A typical fast day for me would be to skip breakfast, have some soup around lunchtime (say 200cals) and then have an evening meal of around 300 cals eg. a piece of fish/lean meat with some green salad. Eggs are also great for filling you up so I sometimes have a couple of scrambled eggs instead. If you want to eat carbs or eat something sweet that's fine as long as you're within 500 cals. It's what works best for you that matters. It's the simplicity and flexibility of this diet that is the key to its sustainability.

Just eat 500 cals of anything.
I have found that protein works, so perhaps 125g of lean chicken or 300g of eggs or fish read the can.
100 cals of yoghurt can also satisfy a hunger pang.
I would go mad with hunger pangs on carbs - I think that's just me?
Keep it simple and know what you eat.

I think I have found something that works for me, to skip breakfast and at lunch time I just have 100 calories of chashew nuts (10 nuts) with a cup of orange spice tea sweetened with splenda. I feel satisfied until dinner, then I can have a 400 cal dinner. Last night was a 3 egg omelette with lots of red and green bell peppers, a bit of shredded cheese, with a dollop of greek yogurt and salsa on top. Yummy! Other 400 cal dinners we have had include steamed veggies and turkey breast, taco salad (a bunch of romaine lettuce with black beans, greek yogurt, salsa, shredded cheese, and half of a tortilla toasted and crumbled on top).

My husband made a handy spreadsheet where we can enter in the number of calories we want and it tells us how many grams and we just use a food scale as we add the ingredients. We are in our third week and seem to be getting the hang of it, but experiment to find what works for you!

I use my fitness pal to ack my calories on a fast day. If I'm doing 2 meals then I usually have a Heinz big chunky veg soup 180 cal for lunch then maybe quorn sausage, omlette and beans for tea, or pasta with a tomato sauce. Quorn cottage pies got me through the first few fast as they are only 300 ish and easy and filling.

I have gradually moved over to having all my calories in the evening and as late as I can so I sleep better. Tonight I'm having 2 sausages (70 cals each) and an innocent veg chill ( 324 cals) I think.

It just shows - we're all different!
Same goal, different ways to achieve it.

[Moogie]

I don't worry about that sort of stuff, the important thing to me I'd that the food fills me up, tastes good and doesn't feel like diet food I tend to fill up on plenty of veg with whatever I eat for my 500 cal dinner.

Don't stress over it, keep it simple. You'll only need to think about what's in the food if you struggle to lose weight or have side effects that can be rectified by changing what you eat.

"Can anyone offer an example of exactly what they eat on a fast day please?"

My wife and I just follow the recipes in the "Fast diet" book. There's ten sets of breakfast/diners. However, if you check the 'Resources' forum, there's a bunch of 5:2/'Fast diet' type books with recipes that are Free to download from Amazon.

But as an example, today for me breakfast was two poached eggs on toast with a bowl of raspberries and diner was salmon, green beans and vine cherry tomatoes...

I have one meal at lunchtime and always have Soup and Salad it's the only thing that seems to fill me up and let me last until the next lunch..

I find cous cous or anything too carby just makes me hungry.

But everyone is very different experimentation seems to be the best way too see what works - took me a few weeks to sort it out.

Thank you all very much You've all given me some brilliant ideas and I now feel much more confident about embarking on this plan! Thanks for taking the time and having the patience to reply to me

Of course!!!
Breakfast: coffee with a splash of low fat milk with one or two digestives (low fat/low sugar ones) or a couple of crackers or a couple of rice crackers.
Lunch: porridge made of 40grms oatmeal boiled in water with salt and pepper.
Dinner: same as lunch

Snacks: usually a couple of bowls of jelly (the one with 9 calories per portion), sometimes some fruit, if I die for a real sweet a have a small piece of chocolate.