The FastDay Forum

Hi

I was wondering, is it possible that I eat e.g. 800 on a fast day, but make sure I burn off 300 kcal?

[carorees]

Hi Jessica Lucy

Welcome to the forum!

I'm afraid that Dr M says no, you can't use your exercise calories to increase your fast day allowance. It's the lack of food entering your body that does all the good things

... but although you can't deduct the calories burned, you can exercise on your fast days, even quite intensively, a/c to Dr M (he draws the line at running a marathon...)

Thanks for getting back to me.

Just wondering, what about when you go on holiday...if you break the fast for 1 or 2 weeks, do you pile on the pounds? Is it ok or devastating to break it?
also, how do you guys fast - do you do afternoon to afternoon?

It's not a disaster to break the diet for a few weeks, though I put on a few pounds over December!

I (like most here I think) fast for 1 calendar day: I have normal dinner (etc...) and then next calendar day I stick below 600 cals, then the next calendar day I have breakfast (a little more than normal, usually). Then I do another day the same but not the next day - I tried two days in a row once and found it too hard!

So it is kind of 33 hour fast, including two nights.

There is talk of a 16:8 fast where you eat for 16 hours and then fast for 8 hours. But that sounds to me a bit like normal life?

[carorees]

Dominic, the 16:8 fast is where you fast for 16 hours and are allowed to eat only during an 8 hour period! Not quite like normal life but not far off!

I did wonder if this method could be adapted to holiday life. Often we get up later on holiday so I thought I could skip breakfast and then be allowed to eat between 1 pm and 9 pm which would allow for reasonable socializing!

I find that if I can exercise on a fast day then I notice more of a weight loss - though I do struggle with headaches on fast days, so it's not always easy to exercise. As for the holiday - well that's what it is! I agree with Dominic - it's no disaster to have a break for a week or two. I put on a few pounds over Christmas but they're off already - so for me a holiday is a holiday. Don't go crazy - but enjoy yourself. You know the weight will come off when you return home and to your normal routine. Good luck!

Re 16:8 - sorry Caroline thanks for explaining that, I see I was being dense. Maybe they should stop calling it 16:8 and call it 8:16? Can we have a little naming consistency in IF diets perleeze?

Suchard007, interesting that you find you lose more weight if you exercise on a fast day, it makes sense intuitively to me because apart from the obvious direct calorie burn it may speed up the metabolism for a longer period - have you noticed if exercising on a fast day stops you getting cold later in the day?