The FastDay Forum

I have followed the fast on 3 days now and feeling good - but still worried that eating "normally" on other days will undo all the good work. Should I just relax and trust that it will be fine?

I have followed the fast on 3 days now and feeling good - but still worried that eating "normally" on other days will undo all the good work. Should I just relax and trust that it will be fine?

That's the idea, restrict some days and normal the rest, produces a modest overall restriction.

As long as normal eating isn't over eating, then it works.

As long as normal eating isn't over eating, then it works.

This is important - or has been for me! I have still managed to lose weight on 4:3 while over eating on "normal" days but the weight loss slowed down to almost nothing which was frustrating.

I'm more careful now on "normal" days and the weight loss has been better since then.

You have to be a believer...

Play with the tracker, look at people's charts under their user names, if you want to keep some control, keep a food diary.

You'll probably have stages where you want to eat a lot or very little, go with the flow, so long as you are actually hungry. The brain starts to panic a bit and plays games when it's under stress and feeling hunger is a stress signal.

Hi, this is one of the things I'm trying to learn....what is normal eating ???
I have spent this last few weeks experimenting, finding things that are comfortable for me. I have concluded that for me I need to make a note of the cal content of non fast days (but not become obsessed by cal counting as that is so counter productive), after all this is going to be a "rest of my life" thing, so once I get a rough idea it should be alot easier.

As a serial dieter of 20 years, I too struggle with the concept of 'normal' eating.

I spent a long time reading through how other people on this forum have managed, or not, and formulated my plans from that. Basically, I haven't been counting calories on non-fast days, but am trying to keep the sensible eating habits formed after years of doing SW. For example, my husband and I almost always sit down to a big bowl of homemade vegetable soup at lunchtime. We also have a fruit plate on the go, and this may be supplemented by crispbreads (me) or toast (him) with maybe some ham or cheese on the side. This is both 'normal' and also sensible. On fast days when he is here, I have simply sat with a cup of something hot I'm also not about to start cooking with loads of fat when I can make the same meal without - for example I will make a ragu sauce later and drain the fat from the mince as I always do.

One thing that I do on fasting days is have a square of dark chocolate as part of my 500 calories. It stops me feeling deprived, and it bridges the gap between fasting and non fasting days.

I have always had issues with sliced/supermarket bread, and I wonder whether a lot of my success to date has been down to me cutting it out completely. I plan to start making my own again, and will enjoy good hand-made bread when I can buy it. I also intend to open all the cookery books I normally just drool over and enjoy making nice meals not just healthy meals.

What I DON'T intend don't is pigging out on processed rubbish on non-fast days. I feel incredibly happy that I can get out my baking tins without guilt. I don't need rubbish if I can eat something beautiful and delicious that I've made myself.

I'm not sure what normal eating is either. I've always been apt to binge eat and I'm not keen on counting calories...hence my interest in this diet. So I decided to just jump into the fasting part of the diet with roughly counted calories and tweak my feed days as I find what works and what doesn't. After 4 weeks, I find that I'm eating less on my feed days and losing weight and feel healthier. So the "eating normally" on feed days seems to be resolving itself.

This might not work for everyone, but a more relaxed approach is working for me. If I try to control too many aspects of this WoE too quickly, I know I'll tire of it.

I actually started with a 4:3 in March, and was controlling my carbs as well as calories. It was not much fun. I have now switched to the 5:2 on the first of April.

I track every day, but am not using it to control calories on my non-fasting days.

I find I am sort of working into something that feels normal (I have been dieting for 40 years, so there is no normal for me, yet). Noticing hunger but not afraid of it.

I am like Winsome, in that I will not be adding any processed stuff, I have become pickier about what I will eat and I like to cook, so the combination should get me and my family to some pretty nice meals.

I am trying to figure out what normal eating is for me at the moment. Its made me realise I eat a lot of sweets on normal days. And when I do try and eat well, it's likely I massively under eat, which I believe defeats the object completely.

I think that until your are comfortable with "normal" eating, use your TDEE on your non-fast days as a baseline. I log everything I eat on MyFitnessPal just to keep myself honest. All those handfuls of nuts really add up...lol.

I also am a serial dieter and have a completely skewed and warped view of 'normal' eating. Left to my own devices I'd set up my work computer in the kitchen and eat rounds of honey and butter on toast all day.

I have been counting calories on my non fast days. My sedentry TDEE was roughly 1800. I exercise about 400 calories per non-fast day. As a rule I have been eating 1800-2000 per day. Occasionally it might come out a bit less. Occasionally it comes out a bit more.

This still generally gives me a weekly calorie count of either equal to what I would have achieved by cutting down to the mfp recommended 1250 per day (for 1pd per week weight loss), or more.

So far it seems to be working, losing more than 1 lb per week (I think - I work in kg).

If you can't trust yourself, maybe just count calories on non-fast days initially. It really isn't arduous, and 1800-2000 calories feels like SO much food compared to 1300 per day!!

I was terified that years of low calorie eating had left my metabolism in the gutter, and that eating up to 2000 on non-fast days would lead to massive weight gain. But it hasn't. I even had a binge last week, eating around 4000 calories in 1 day, and not that I am advocating binging, but I had lost another kilo 6 days later! I think this diet really allows you to increase your metabolism by eating more on non-fast days, while not gaining weight by keeping your overall calories down through fasting. Best of both worlds!!

I've not yet 'officially' started 5:2 (tomorrow is my first day) and I've been trying SW for years, normally on the pattern of Monday morning full of enthusiasm and determination, somewhere around Wednesday evening, feeling like a failure because I've had something I've trained myself to think of as bad which inevitably leads to a bad week and even worse weekend. Today I was preparing soup for tomorrow and looked in my cupboards and saw a few things from past shopping trips that I've bought thinking 'oh sod it, I'll start again on Monday' and automatically thought 'oh no I won't be able to have that after today', THEN thought, 'wait, I CAN have it, I just need to be sensible on my feast days!' Today, even though I had'nt 'officially' started 5:2 I felt free and better than I've felt about myself in ages. Myfitnesspal.com is a good website I use to track my calories - you'll get shouted at on fast days because it will be telling you you're not eating enough but I have used and will use it purely to track my calorie intake. Read Kate Harrisons book on the 5:2 diet - its honest and insightful. Good luck and let us know how you get on. xx