The FastDay Forum

Good thread. Glad to hear others with a similar approach to me. I worry about the people averaging less than a 1000 cals per day over a week.

But people have different wishes, mine is to lose sustainably & then maintain my new shape happily. I like fast days, einatbl has been on this forum for a long-time & always been thoughtful about fasting.

For me, UN2NET summed it up pretty much 100% I love this WOL - it's completely re-educated me and my way of eating and has given me a whole new lease of life too... and one that I, personally, can easily sustain onwards

I too have a slow but steady weight loss doing 5:2. I wouldn't say I particularly 'love' my fast days either. But........what I do love is having the freedom to plan this 'diet' (or WOE) around my lifestyle & not the other way around. I don't count calories on non fast days but I have what I want, when I want but I do think more about eating more healthily and listening to my body. I am a staff nurse and when I hear of senior Drs & consultants follow this way of life too, that fills me with that little bit more confidence with the health benefits.

And finally, I'm Know we are all different and I admit I do this plan to loose weight too ......... I'm averaging a lb weight loss a week. I've tried WW & SW but failed miserably to loose weight even though i stuck to it religiously (whereas my mum thrived). I feel I have slowly but surely kicked started my metabolism doing a strict maximum 500 cal twice a week. This is working for me, but more importantly, my 'Fat' loss for the first time ever is coming from my waist & tummy (where i desperately need to loose it!!) first rather than my face/shoulders (which has made me look ill in the past!!!)

So yes, easy WOL to sustain, benefitting health, loosing 'dangerous fat' and feeling great! For me anyway

It's up to people to make up their own minds but I don't think many people would eat 1200-1300 Cals 5 days a week then two fast days. What most people do is two or three fast days then add Cals saved to their TDEE for the other 5days thus being able to have a treat or three on the 5days and still loose weight. Yes if you only eat a few Cals on feed days and next to nothing on fast days then you are falling into the old dieters trap of overdoing it, it is not necessary

[carorees]

Apart from people with certain medical reasons (e.g. thyroid dysfunction, fibromyalgia, polycystic ovary syndrome) or who are very small as well as sedentary, it should not be necessary to eat below 1300 cals on a feed day. However, many people who do have these problems are members of the forum (most likely our forum attracts more such folk because they are in need of advice so have actively sought us out). Further, there are likely to be more posts from people struggling to lose weight for the aforementioned reasons than from those who are going swimmingly, so I think that you are getting a skewed idea of how most people are approaching this WOE. For many (most) of those who are restricting on feed days, it is the only way to lose weight. Of course, this does not get away from the fact that it might not be sustainable when living in a society surrounded by desirable foods, but that is something each person has to decide...whether to commit to a lifetime of restriction or to resign themselves to continual weight gain.

For me, like most of us I think, I am not restricting on feed days apart from the natural reduction in appetite that has occurred with fasting.

A "it's going swimmingly" thread would be good but I'm not starting another one!

What I find amazing with 5:2 is the improved relationship one can have with food on non-fast days. That is ruined if calories are carefully counted on those days. Counting calories every day of your life AS WELL AS fasting, for me, would mean having a difficult relationship with food all over again. I do have thyroid dysfunction but refuse to eat like a bird for the rest of my life.

I do struggle sometimes on fast days, but equally they are quite satisfying. I find that after a weekend of eating, I look forwards to my Monday fast. However once I am in that fast (e.g. currently 2pm on my Monday fast now) I struggle a bit. I am in my 6th week of 5:2

Initially on my feed days I went a bit mental. I'd eat a whole pack of oreos in about half an hour I think that was due to the release from other diets. Went to my head being able to 'eat what I want' on feed days. I lost 6lbs initially and now currently I am plateaued at 9stone 8pounds. I have 8 lbs. to lose.

I will aim for 1800 calories, ish, on my feed days. So I will have to calorie count a degree for this, but not anywhere near as much as when I was aiming for 1200 calories a day. I also won't worry too much if I have a bad day!

Hi I can see you have tried this so called 'diet'
But everyone is different for me it's been easy from day one!!!
Very enjoyable, believe me I wouldn't do it if was painful.
I started as morbidly obese so needed to get going, so 5:2 first week only
moved to 4:3 simply because I personally found it so easy and enjoyable.
I also now sometimes do 1or2days some weeks fasting 24hrs then eating anything I want to how ever many calories, that leaves me 2days where I have normal eating ( ie 3 meals) Misery NO at least for me definitely NOT!!!
Why do i do this ? you asked because I Can its my choice my business and As important its bloody working for life if necessary couldn't say that about any slimming club not for those of us who have a long way to go especially Sue

It's not sustainable. I restrict my calories every day right now because I am trying to LOSE weight. Once I am maintaining, I can stick to just 5:2 and not be so strict with my calories the rest of the time. And that WILL be sustainable.

There are a couple of reasons why I do 5:2 instead of a more traditional calorie restrictive diet:

1. While I do count and restrict calories on "feast" days, I can eat more on those days than I was before. Prior to beginning 5:2, I was restricted to 1400-1700 calories a day and I can now eat 1800-2100 on my feast days.

2. 5:2 seems to help me avoid plateaus. Fasting twice a week seems to keep my metabolism on its toes and prevent it from slowing down as much as it did when I was on a traditional calorie restrictive diet.

3. Maintenance. I know that when I reach my goal weight, 5:2 will allow me to maintain it without having to continue counting calories every single day.

I completely agree with Caroline. It's mostly been going swimmingly for me and I don't tend to post updates about that but rather reply to threads where someone is struggling. I simply couldn't sustain a 7 day a week diet and it appears I don't need to. I quite enjoy Monday fasts but tolerate Thursdays (guess which one's going if I ever get to that stage?). It's definitely changed my eating habits for the better but I wouldn't consider that a diet, it's simply a way of eating that's healthier and which I wish to maintain forever. I've never counted feed day calories.

I've just started and I'm doing alternate day fasting of feed days 1200 cals and fast days 500 cals!
I know for a fact im quite capable of pigging out beyond repair on my feast days, i LOVE chocolate and cheese however im trying to do a month without either just to retrain myself!
I'm an all or nothing kind of person so have to be quite strict! but tbh i've fluctuated with my weight so much im just ready to get serious and get healthier!
im currently on day 6 and to be honest on some of my fast days iv gone slightly over the 500 no more than 700 though, so i feel like the 1200 cal days instead of 2000cal makes up for the occasional slip up on a fast day

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I understand that whatever everyone does is their own business, and I'm happy to hear from Caroline that most people in the forum do not restrict their food intake during feed days since if this was the case this would become similar to regular diets where most people are successful in losing weight but gain it back within a year or less after with some interest. I'm getting to the end of my Monday fast which was not so bad, but I am a bit disappointed as over the last 4-5 weeks I had to do 5:2 for maintenance and eventhough I eat at my TDEE ( 1800 cals- I excercise a lot) on feed days. I can barely maintain my weight, I thought that I will be able to maintain on 6:1 but it is not working for me at this point, although I like this WOL much more than my prior 8 years of calorie restriction/excercise which I was able to sustain but I know that most people can't ( that is part of the reason why over 72% of the adult population in the US is either overweight or obese).

Einatbl,
I wasn't able to maintain weight using just 6:1 either. I have to skip a few other meals in the week too. I don't count calories but am very aware of what I'm eating. I still can't quite believe how little food I actually need - and I'm very active too. I was looking forward to maintaining just with 6:1 and am as disappointed as you that it isn't enough.

Hi Franglaise, yea I think we are alike... The weird thing is that at first I lost weight and now I eat the same as before, excercise the same and do 5:2 and barely maintaining and it's not that I lost a lot that my TDEE has changed significantly... However, I still like it because of the feeling of relative freedom on feed days and mostly because I don't feel anxious anymore about eating out and dinner invitations.