The FastDay Forum

Just to explain my way of fasting using a Monday fast as an example:

On Sunday my last meal of the day will be early evening, say around 8pm. I then don't eat anything until 8pm on Monday. It's usually a normal meal - I don't count calories, but I know it's never going to be more than 700 calories anyway, usually less. The next time I'll eat is breakfast the next day, at around 8am. I feel it's important (for me anyway) to have a full 24hrs without eating. I consider eating my evening meal to be breaking the fast, and then I'm back to 'normal' eating.

However, 'normal' eating isn't eating like I used to eat (loads of chocolate and sugary snacks between meals), it's eating like a normal healthy person would, i.e. three meals a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner, proper platefuls and certainly not calorie counted.

[carorees]

That's what I do except the single meal is around 500 cals.

Caldini, the 24 hour fast, 8PM -8PM sounds interesting to me. I will have my 2nd fast tomorrow and will report on how that went for me. On Tues I had scrambled egg and grilled tomato for bkfst and veg soup with salad, red beans, a few for supper. I felt exhilerated and happy. Alot of tea and water. Next day was hungry but except for some chocolate, kept it reasonable.Love reading the posts
Peace,
Lillirose

Is there a reason there isn't an option for lunch only? Is this not advisable?

I am in my 3rd week and so far its working well 7lbs down but I am only eating lunch as I rarely have time for a proper evening meal fast day or not.

Was just wondering...

[carorees]

Oh no! I added the lunch only option in response to the above post and it's wiped out all the votes! . I'm sure I added a new one before without zeroing the votes!?

Moogie...can they be retrieved?

So sorry folks...can you re-vote?

I'm sorry I should have kept quiet and carried on lurking!!

Revoted!

Hi, i have found it easier to save my fasting days calories until dinner time.Tried lunch once but found it a bit of a struggle to keep within my calories i had left.So now i find my meal is like a reward.

Have been pendling back and forth with 2 meals and no meals whatsoever.

Like a lot of others here, I eat only dinner on fast days. It seems easier to skip breakfast and lunch and then have a dinner to look forward to.

I had noticed lots of people just have dinner I guess that's why this diet is so good it's flexible for anyone's lifestyle. I very rarely ate dinner before I'd heard of 5:2 just due to my lifestyle and I think I have just got used to not eating a meal in the evening.

So far it's great - wish I had found this place sooner!!

I've recorded evening meal and a snack, but on reflection I realised that the yoghurt which is the snack will be eaten at lunchtime! So is it lunch and evening meal?? X

Hi Dharako

1lb a week (i.e. half a pound per fast day) is the average weight loss of all the people tracking progress on the progress tracker (have a look yourself!), so you are doing just fine.

I have to say though that if 1200 cals on feast days represents your TDEE you should only be having 300 on a fast day. I would be amazed if 1200 is really your TDEE, especially if you are exercising, so I think you should eat more on a feast day. At 1200 you are likely to be slowing your metabolism and that will slow the weight loss. It is recommended not to go down below 1200 on a calorie restricted diet and on feast days you are not supposed to be restricting. You are only meant to be dieting two days a week not 7!

There are links to TDEE calculators in the FAQ (link to FAQ in my signature below). Work out yours and then make sure to eat to within about 20% of TDEE (+ or -) on feast days and a quarter of that on fast days.

First, thank you for being such a wonderful source of information and support!

I have been trying to find a post I read on here (but can't!) from someone who said she was eating about 1200 on her feast days so had gone to around 300 on her fast days. She posted to say that Dr M had actually replied to tell that she should still eat 500 on her fast days although that was much higher than 1/4 of her normal intake. Have I got that wrong?

The TDEE equation shows I should be eating 1950 but my plan was to use the 5:2 to support my current diet not to replace it and then, when I reach my goal weight, to do a 6:1 IF, eating to TDEE on 6 days. There are specific reason why I need to lose weight a bit faster than one pound a week at the moment (not vanity!).

Is this in some way negating any benefits of IF?

At the moment I am eating absolutely nothing on fast days. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. In fact, I found eating small amounts just got my whole system going and made me hungrier through the day.

I think I'm going to change between 3 meals and 2, I did both and found them equally easy although it was much easier to miss breakfast.