The FastDay Forum

That's great news! Perhaps I shall start to be less of a wimp! Has is affected your weight loss positively by exercising on fast days?

My weight hasn't shifted for the last two weeks but my body fat percentage has dropped by 2%. I tell myself when I'm cycling home after the gym on a fast day that I have to be burning fat by now...

I wanted to comment on Keema's post about having flu symptoms the day after a fast. This has been happening to me as well. This is my third week and each week the day after my first fast, so Tuesday, I feel awful. I feel like I am getting a cold or flu. Horrible stuffiness and headache and cough! Also tiredness and lack of motivation. It seems to get better later in the week, and I don't remember noticing it on Fridays following my Thursday fasts. I read somewhere that burning fat can release toxins causing this type of reaction. I wonder if it will continue like this or if it will ever get better? I am losing weight, which is great, but I don't know if it's worth getting the flu every week!

[Betsysgr8]

It won't be stopping me though, this fitting into my clothes thing is marvellous.And on that note another negative effect might be cost,because if I keep going at this rate I'll be needing new clothes in a couple of months!

Absolutely! Scale has not been kind but whooohoooo the fitting of clothes!

I've had really bad sinus at the end of 2 or 3 of my fast days, one lot so bad that I had to drive to a chemist to get painkillers (don't have any in the house because normally none of us need them). It's not lack of fluids, because I drink heaps of water and green tea. The first time it happened I wondered if it was caffeine withdrawal, because I drink a lot of tea normally, but only green tea on fast days, but have since discovered that green tea also has caffeine. So not sure what's causing it, which makes me a little nervous before fast days now.

Luckily I have not had any bad reactions to fast days (Tues/Thurs). I drink a few black coffees as I know from my long fasts from the past that caffeine withdrawal is hideously sickening. I have a huge bowl of veg soup (70-100 cals)to start my day @ 5am, I do heaps of exercise as I am a professional dog walker. In fact I find the fast so good that I do an extra day on a Sunday - this day I am not so strict - if I fancy an extra 100 cals I have it - if I have social eating stuff I don't do it. I put the extra day in cos I'm cynical that with all the wine/cakes/non diet food I eat the other days, along with the fact I only had 5kg to lose that I won't lose without it. I only weigh once a week - old WW habit plus a few years ago I lost 20kg with Dr Phil & that's one of his suggestions too.

Hello, I've just signed up after lurking for a while. Like a few recent posters, I've also had flu-like symptoms recently, and yesterday it was immediately after a fast day. I gave up processed sugar about three weeks ago and am still recovering - I'd put yesterdays 'flu' down to that because it's exactly the way I felt for the first two weeks of sugar withdrawal, minus the splitting headache.

Interestingly I stopped eating processed sugar because I found fasting easier on a low GI zero sugar diet, while I lost my taste for sugar - it just seemed to overpower everything else. I also realised that the headaches I got during my first few fasts were just like sugar withdrawal - and they went after a glass of - high fructose, low fibre - orange juice.

I've been in a strange but liberating place. I can't tolerate sugar, just don't like it any more, even the coating on a bit tablet tastes sickening, but I'm tender and sometimes I'll from withdrawal.

Anyone else felt 5 2 has altered their eating this way.

I'm only on my 7th fast, so this response is likely to change...

Other than the 6th fast being hell, it hasn't been too bad so far. I do find exercise hard. I run 6-12k 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes on fast days, sometimes on feast days. I feel really low energy when running on the fast days.

Inability to concentrate was a big problem on my 6th fast. The advice here was to have miso soup, so I will try that in the future.

Things like occasional constipation and light-headedness are something I experience when not dieting; I haven't noticed an increase since starting IF.

edit to add: I forgot a funny one: my garbage really stinks. I live in a subtropical climate--vegetable waste goes funky pretty quickly. I should be composting anyway... (I'm not expecting any sympathy from those of you in UK suffering through a very cold winter)

I have been fasting for two months now. Some of the negative side effects for me have been:

Cramps esp. Leg cramps at night. I found that Gastrolyte Rehydration Formula worked for me as I was drinking so much I was flushing out too much and needed electrolytes.

Nausea if I take supplements e.g. Calcium on an empty stomach then I can get nauseous shortly after. My solution is to take my supplements with m 500cal meal in the evening. If I can't take a particular supplement at night then I just skip a day.

Please do not change your supplement regimen with out seeing your physician. I am just posting my experiences FYI your needs may be different to mine so please be careful.

Irritable I remind myself that fasting is my penance not someone elses problem. Fasting for me is part weight loss, part other health benefits and part spiritual.

Blurred vision I have a history of low blood sugar. If I get blurred vision when fasting I have a snack of some vegetable sticks and hoummus totalling approx 100-150 cal and then eat a main meal of 350-400 calmfor dinner. Before starting fasting I was most worried about my blood sugar dropping, surprisingly it has only been a problem maybe a couple of times in two months of fasting.

Feeling cold I have no solution except to rug up, drink something hot, have a hot shower, wear two sets of p.j's or my pj's and a spencer underneath.

Here's one- does anyone else find that the second fast day of the week is harder than the first one? My two days are Wednesdays and Fridays as those two work best with my schedule. But my Friday one seems SO MUCH harder to do than my Wednesday one. Anyone have any ideas? Could it be that I don't have enough time in between my two fast days????

I would say its because as you say not much between fast days, I do Mondays and Thursday

I agree. I started off with mondays and wednesdays, but changed to mondays and thursdays because i found it easier with 2 days in between.

Thanks Chris7376 and Carol- you confirmed my suspicions. I'm going to have to re-examine my schedule to see if I can spread my fast days further apart.

Carol, I do Friday and find it a little harder than the others... I actually put it down to the anticipation of the weekend more than anything. I have always viewed the weekend as being "diet downtime" so to speak and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Whereas Friday night fish and chips used to start my weekend off, that has now changed.
But I think I will anticipate the freedom of my weekend forever!

My only side effect is *whispers* constipation

Really glad I found this page - makes me feel normal! I am doing fast number 5 today.
Negatives:
Dizzy spells - usually on fast days, but I had a really bad dizzy spell the morning after a fast day, after breakfast etc, where I went all clammy and hot and had to sit down.
Irritable - yes!
Exercise - I find I do much better on the fast dyas that I don't exercise than when I do. On the days where I do exercise, my energy the rest of the day is through the floor, and I feel really really physically tired. And grumpy!
Still waiting for that reduced appetite on non-fast days!