The FastDay Forum

My current BMI is around 20 (Male: 1.61m & 52kg, age 48). Even though I defined myself not at all active, my body fat somehow is 11.5; athletic which I’m not. In fact I have skinny legs but with a little fat around the stomach.

I am considering doing the 5:2 Fast Diet but rather not lose too much weight in the process as I’m afraid I might become underweight. Saying that I would like to gain the other benefits, like lower my cholesterol, IGF-1, etc.

Any suggestion, should I just go for 1 day/week fast so I can maintain my weight?

Also my BMR is 1250, TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) works out around 1500. Does this mean on fast day, my calories intake should be 1500/4=375? The book suggests 600 calories for a man but I’m not within the average population.

It's got to be up to you, I would say try it at 500 a day on fast days, but focus on having that in the evening and getting a good fast, for 24 hours. Do it once a week to start with, and see if you loose weight, if you do, then up your evening meal calories?

You should get the benefits but not the weight issues.

You might want to then get fit to change your shape and eat a bit more to cover this, but that's another set of choices which are yours.

Hope that helps, I absolutely have no idea what I am taking about, so please feel free to ignore this post, and let the nice Mods sort you out!

[carorees]

Hi and welcome!

Yes I definitely think you should avoid losing weight, but there are still ways to include fasting into your life.

I get your TDEE higher than that at nearer 1900! I think for a start you should assume it is higher than you got it just for safety. So I would allow yourself 500-600 cal on fast days.

You can try a few different ways of fasting that will hopefully not result in weight loss. You could have one day a week where you eat only 500-600 cal (aiming to get some long periods without food...at least one 12 hour stretch). You could try a 22-24 hour fast on just no cal liquids followed by a normal dinner (means no calorie counting required), which we think might give better results with respect to the health benefits you want I which you could try twice a week. You could try the 8 hour eating window approach in which you basically skip breakfast but eat what you like in the 8 hours from say 12 till 8 pm. You would need to do this a few days a week though. All of these allow some time for your body to do some repair work. To lower IGF1, however, you also need to restrict your protein intake to around 45g per day in your case, according to the experts Dr M spoke to in the documentary. (That's not 45g of meat, it's 45g of protein content).

So it depends which of these appeals to you and would fit in with your life? You can be very flexible and change things around to fit your week once you have got to grips with the general principles.

Hope that helps!