The FastDay Forum

I have woken up this morning feeling a bit rough after having a few beers last night, and I also feel a bit burnt out after my recent gym and fitness activities. Thankfully, today is a rest day where I don't need to go to the gym, but it is also one of my fasting days.

Since I finished consuming my last beer at 11pm last night and since beer contains calories, it is not possible for me to do the type of 24 hour fast that I normally do on a Friday where I consume nothing but green tea and water from the time that I finish my evening meal on the Thursday, to the time that I have my evening meal on the Friday when all of my 600 calories for that day are consumed (doing a complete 24 hour fast would require me to not eat until after 11pm tonight and that is when I will be going to bed for the night).

However, I have thought of another solution. A fasting day requires us to consume no more than 500 calories for a woman and 600 calories for a man during that day. If we consume less than that requirement, that will still comply with a proper 5:2 fasting day and that means that having zero calories during such a day also falls into that mould.

What I could therefore do is eat nothing today and consume only green tea and water, meaning that I would not be consuming any calories. That might make it difficult for sleeping as I would then go to bed hungry tonight. However, I could then skip breakfast tomorrow morning despite that being a feeding day, and then break that fast at lunchtime.

By that time, a full 36 hours would have past since I last consumed any calories (it would actually be 37 hours if I have my lunch at 12 noon on tomorrow) and so, this would end up being a complete 36 hour fast. It would therefore be interesting to hear your thoughts on that. I will also being going to the gym tomorrow morning and am aware that this would mean that I would be doing so on an empty stomach. However, I have heard from people on this forum that doing so probably wouldn't impact on my performance there as much as I feared and so, this might be something worth experimenting with.

That all sounds far too obsessional to me! Just get on with your normal fasting routine and next time; don't drink beer or eat after 9pm. I'm new to 5:2 but i have been on many a diet over the years. The whole point about this one is it is easy, it is not "think about food all day-every day" You may be going down a slippery slope there. Mind you, I could just be speaking a load of old tripe - (Talking about food again!!) Good luck!

I have done it only once. My other liquid fasts involve bulletproof coffee (coconut oil and butter). I'm part of the 'try anything once' brigade, but I'm worried about your blood sugar dropping given you hit the beer last night which might trip you into a carbfest later today. I personally could not do that after a boozy night out without feeling ghastly. One way around it is to have some glutamine powder in a glass of water to stabilise your blood sugar, but its not the sort of thing that is normally hanging around the house unless you know about it. Also good for alcohol cravings too http://www.l-glutaminebenefits.com/

The 36 hour fast was only a passing thought, but I will now just be doing a normal fasting day with the usual 600 calories. I have been having a few beers every Monday night since I started this diet which for me, has been my means of celebrating the good results that I'm getting at my weigh-ins. However, I'm now realising that doing so on the night before a fasting day is not such a good idea. My stomach is shrinking as a result of all of my fasting, and isn't able to handle the same high number of calories on a feasting day which it once could.

I do full 36 hour or more zero calorie fasts routinely, and find it easier than normal fasts. It's probably more difficult if you're less adapted for fat burning. If you eat a lot of carbs as a part of your normal diet you might experience the effects of low blood sugar.

You might consider switching from beer to wine or liquor, beer is roughly twice as fattening in itself, and should increase your appetite more, unless you manage to find low carb beer.

John, I just remembered that coconut water is great for the morning after. Maybe stock up so its in the fridge for your next celebration

here in Scotland, we have what is known as Tennent's Lager which has always been my favourite tipple. However, I have since discovered that four cans of that stuff adds up to more than 600 calories which is more than the upper limit of what I can consume on a fasting day.

However, I am aware that there are better alternatives out there which I will look into. I am also trying to reduce the amount of carbs that I consume on and as part of that, I have replaced the cereals that I used to eat at breakfast time with something more protein based like scrambled eggs (I could probably reduce the carbs even further by replacing the toast with something else although I am at least, using wholemeal bread which isn't as bad as white bread) on my non-fasting days.

However, I believe in taking small steps at a time and as part of that, I am now eating brown rice or sweet potatoes instead of normal white potatoes.

Yep, small steps are usually the best, you can evaluate the effect of a small change and get used to it, instead of taking a whole package of changes and not knowing for sure what part of it was great and what part was awful.

You could always check out my experiment from this morning,

http://www.52fastdiet.co.uk/5-2-cookery-f29/low-carb-flax-seed-bread-experiment-t8819.html

[wildmissus]

I also do 36 hour liquid fasts. If you were ever considering this then you need to plan it probably in the same way you planned your first 'normal' fasting day. Definitely not a good idea to do it on the back of a few too many TL's .

Yeah, I will probably hold off from the 36 fast idea until I have my tipples sorted out for the night beforehand. However, that is something which I might revisit in the future. I agree that this is something which needs to be planned and that is why I have posted on that subject to gauge the views of others on that subject, as part of that planning process. That for me, is much better than just jumping straight into it and facing some possible consequences as a result.

[Moogie]

While there should be no harm in a 36 hour zero calorie fast (at least not if you're healthy), I wouldn't stress too much about the fact that you consumed calories after dinner yesterday. It's only one fast out of a lifetime. I'm sure we've all had times where we've done it a bit differently than usual, in the long run it won't matter. I've had times where I've eaten after dinner the night before or had a really late dinner and not done my usual full 24 hours with nothing, but I always remind myself that this method has to fit around my life and not the other way around. We don't have to be super strict with ourselves, it's that kind of control and forcing ourselves which can make it more difficult to stick with. It mustn't be a chore with fixed rules, it has to stay flexible

I see you've chosen to do a normal fast today after all, good on you!

[wildmissus]

If you do fancy 36 hour liquids in the future then we have a weekly topic. Please feel free to come on board and ask questions, here is a link to this weeks -

http://www.52fastdiet.co.uk/fasting-today-f8/36-hour-liquid-fasting-week-beginning-6th-october-2013-t8791.html

Also if you go to the home page and look at the bottom of the page at the most replied to topics, you'll see the 36 hour liquid fast topic that I started in April when I was thinking about it - needless to say it caught peoples attention! There is so much information in that.

Actually, I have just thought of another idea which is based on the fact that I have already been doing complete 24 hour zero-calorie fasts over the last couple of weeks for my second fasting day on a Friday. Those fasts consist of me eating nothing from 7pm on a Thursday night until the same time on a Friday night and until now, that has been when I would consume all of my 600 calories for that day. I have therefore worked out that if I don't consume those 600 calories and instead, wait until I have my breakfast until sometime after 7am on the Saturday morning, that would make up up a 36 hour fast.

Since I don't consume alcohol on a Thursday night, a 36 hour fast after that would be less likely to have such a massive impact on my blood sugar levels and because my body has already become used to those 24 hour fasts anyway, this would probably be a better way of introducing the 36 hour fast which would also mean that I could start that this week.

I uzually drink wine till around 10 on a Sunday night, then liquid fast till Tuesday morning. I'd find it too restrictive to curtail my food/drinking time on a feast day, but find it easy to forego food on a fast day.

That's how I started doing 36 hour liquid fasts John - just didn't have dinner on a fast day.