The FastDay Forum

Well done twicky - your'e nearly there! An example to us all!

Ms Motivated - are you sure that you have been drinking plenty because dehydration can give you headaches? You may be feeling hungry after your soup because eating triggered your'hungry switch', which carorees has talked about elsewhere in the forum. That is why many of us prefer not to eat at all until the evening when we splurge all 500 calories on one good meal!

To everyone else fasting today - I hope it's going well for you! I'm into the home straight now, before my 500c feast, because I think my husband, who is also fasting today, will be needing food before 7pm tonight!

Aaaaand we're off

Hubby and I are starting our first fast day (from now to 5pm tomorrow). Our next fast day is 5pm Wed to 5pm Thursday.

Has anyone else done their fast days that way? Would appreciate your thoughts/feedback if you have.

I am fasting too today, missed my fast week as had flu and just needed to eat when I could face it. Back on track today, Fasted from 6pm yesterday until 12.30 today so am happy with that. I am 4 hours behind UK so just had a bowl of Lentil Lemon and Thyme soup from Jaqueline Whithart's 5:2 recipe book and it was yummy and filling too, for 121 calories, tonight slice of pork with cauliflower, red cabbage and pumpkin, so well within my 500 cal allowance. Feel good today hope everyone else does too

[carorees]

Aaaaand we're off

Hubby and I are starting our first fast day (from now to 5pm tomorrow). Our next fast day is 5pm Wed to 5pm Thursday.

Has anyone else done their fast days that way? Would appreciate your thoughts/feedback if you have.

Yes, a lot of us do this if you mean consuming no calories between 5 and 5. However, if you mean you have 500/600 cals between 5 and 5 and then have a proper dinner, perhaps followed by dessert etc etc, you will be unlikely to lose much weight or gain many of the other health benefits as you will have reduced your calorie intake by only a very small amount. The benefit of a complete fast from 5 to 5 is thought to be perhaps slightly greater than spreading out the calories and, as long as you have only 500/600 cals in your after 5pm meal and then don't eat again until breakfast, you should lose weight too.

Well done everyone who has successfully fasted today. Although I started this morning feeling hungry some ironing distracted me & so far I have had, black coffees, one Bovril & just now coffee with a splash of milk. Just waiting for my OH to come home & then yippee supper time & I will probably have scrambled egg & smoked salmon with a low cal hot chocolate before bed. I am going on holiday in three weeks so sorted out my clothes & became thoroughly depressed because I can't yet fit into some new linen trousers I bought. I am now between sizes with existing clothes too loose & the next size too tight. So this week I will try three fasts.

Hi Carorees

Thanks for replying! Our plan is to not have anything between now and breakfast tomorrow morning. And then nothing (or very little, calorie-wise) until after 5pm tomorrow evening (realistically closer to 7pm by the time we both get home and have dinner). How does that sound?

Nearly there! today has bee my 5th and most fasting day, I had some strawberries and chicken bovril, but nothing else since dinner last night.

The smell of the chicken roasting for dinner is mouth-watering

[carorees]

Moofish, that sounds fine! Basically you need to ensure that you are getting a decrease of around 20% in your calorie intake over the week (compared with what you would eat to maintain your weight). A little time with a calculator can help you see if your proposed plan will work!

For example, if you assume you need to eat 2000 cals to maintain your weight and for ease of maths assume you have 500 at breakfast, 500 at lunch and 1000 at dinner on a normal day. Then provided you don't stoke yourself up, today you will have eaten 1000 cals (breakfast and lunch) and tomorrow you will have eaten 1500 cals (500 fast day allowance plus 1000 cal dinner). Add that up and over two days instead of 4000 cals you have eaten 2500, a 1500 reduction. Twice a week = 3000 cal reduction. That is what we are expecting someone doing the 'vanilla' version of the diet to achieve. Of course, you have to be a bit more careful about overeating on both days (4 days a week) whereas the 'vanilla' version only requires one to be careful on 2 days.

I think this version is a bit harder to make work but its up to you...

Hi everyone, i'm also fasting today (my first one). I have just had water and one cup of tea so far, Monday is always a busy day for me so no time to think about being hungry. I'm going to have poached eggs, tinned tomatoes and quorn sausage for tea. I think the later I leave it the better, when the kids have gone to bed and the tv goes on is when I start raiding the cupboards! So will have tea and an early night I think.

Hi Carorees

Thanks again! Really appreciate your feedback. We're going to see how we get on doing it at these times. We can always change the times/days if we feel we need to.

Doing my first fast ever today. Just had salmon & stir fried veg. It tasted so good. Didn't get hungry until lunchtime and had kiwi and a banana. Overall it hasn't been too bad. Wonder if the calorie charts in the book refer to cooked or uncooked food eg. fish, meat,rice etc .

And that is the beauty of it all Moofish, you can tweak it to suit, all very flexible.
My fasting day has gone quite well though I did seem a bit hungry today, probably as I've had quite an active day. Soup at lunchtime, sweet pepper omelette and salad at teatime not forgetting a tangerine. Weigh day tomorrow for me but not feeling confident this week as the weight loss must start to slow down I think. I won't let that get me down though as 5:2 is a long term project and a way of life.

hi all- we had our second anniversary today and FASTED!!!! as we are off to norway on wednesday for a week to see the northern lights!!!
For the first time we tried the 500cal meal in the evening and it was easy!!! not hungry at all all day eventhough we did 5 hours gardening- just pleanty of tea! This is just starting to get really easy and we have to see what we can do on holiday- I would really like to keep it going- has anybody got any suggestions? Have you fasted on holiday?- ursula

Hi Gillb

That's exactly the way I'm viewing it - a way of life

Fast 5... and definately the easiest.....not hungry at all today.....also not thirsty.Maybe my body delighted to rest after a social weekend. Also have loads of energy today. Maybe something to do with the beautiful sunshine we were treated to today.
Having a cup of decaf black tea at the moment, and will probably have another, and then head to bed.
Next fast Thursday or Friday, depending on a lunch-date on Thursday, which may fall through....