The FastDay Forum

Hello,

I've been doing this about 2 weeks, haven't lost anything! I do think I need to be more diligent on non-fast days, I'll admit that. Also, if one typically consumes about 1600 cal on non-fast days, and the book says to cut your intake to 25% on fast days, should I fast at 400 calories?
Sorry if this has been asked before, I am new here and haven't poked around this site much.

Thanks for any help!
Sarah

Hi Sarah, welcome to the forum! I suggest you click on the two roundels at the top to get all the basics: and .

If you haven't lost after two weeks it is quite likely to be overeating on the feed days, although it could be other things - see this topic: Why do the scales show an increase when I've been so good?

My TDEE is also around 1600 and my 25% is 400 or a little higher if I workout (like I told the calculator I do). Anyway 500 is the max for women, so you could do none to 500. Even though mine is 400 I've been losing eating between 450 and 500. And I don't have much to lose. But again everyone is different.
While you are trying to lose try not to go over your TDEE. Remember to lose a lb. you still need an average calorie deficit of 500 calories, so for us normally(without added exercise), we would eat 1100 calories (1600 - 500) a day or 7700 calories a week, so realistically on non-fast days we should be eating 1340 calories. 1340 + 500 + 1340 + 500 + 1340 + 1340 + 1340 = 7700
Of course that changes if you workout. I prefer to eat like I'm not working out and consider calories burned via workout a bonus.

Thanks Madridgirl! Is the TDEE number you use the one for Maintenance, Fat Loss or Extreme Fat loss?

I have about 10lbs to lose. I think part of my problem is I have been doing the 2pm-2pm fast, eating my last meal before the fast at 2pm, having my 500 calls throughout the day, and marking the last 2pm with a regular meal. I guess they don't look at that as the best way to do this, so I'll try the other way (ugh).

Let me know about the TDEE. Thanks!

For me personally, I found it took a lot of time to figure out HOW I needed to eat on feast days. What I mean by this is it took me a long time to change my eating habits. I cannot stress enough how important vegetables are. They have few calories and a lot of bulk, so they fill you up. You can not over eat on veggies. Fill your plate with them. I now eat a lots of roasted vegies and huge salads full of sliced raw veggies. I snack on low cal foods like carrots and celery. Don't let bad foods in the house and you will not be tempted.

Hey Sarahbuz, question may be how much you are eating before 2pm and after 2pm e.g if on fast day 1 you eat 1000 cals before 2pm, then consume 250 cals before bed, then on day 2 you eat 250 cals to 2pm and then 1000 cals from 2pm, then u are eating 1250 per day rather than 500 per day....or did I misunderstand you? I think it's best to do 500 cals from waking to the following day, that is how I am losing. Good luck!

Let me know about the TDEE. Thanks!

I am no Nerd.

TDEE : TOTAL Daily, Energy Expended.. TDCU Total Daily Calories Used.(I made that second one up, as it's easier to understand)



So it's what you actually burn in a day, it's not a set number it changes based on how much you do, and conversely as you loose weight you burn less carrying you around.


So if you want to loose 1lb a week then you take of 20% off of this number, on 5:2 you do that by over a week eating 500 cals on 2 days and your TDEE on all the others.

If you are big, then your TDEE can be 2500, so you could probably do 30% and loose more quickly, so you would target 1750 cals.

Check out the numerous and various and well documented web sites that Carol posts to get an accurate number for you.

All very confusing, and you need to do a bit of homework to get to grips with it, the Road Map posts on MFP have some links to Spreadsheets which I think are good.