The FastDay Forum

Ok here's my situation: I made a veg and lentil casserole in my small slow cooker. It's 1.5litres of root veg and lentils, needless to say it did me for both dinner and tea. I've calculated the cals in the casserole, and believe the cals to be around 250 for both meals.

All I've drank so far today has been water. So that's me with 350 spare cals from my fast day allowance, and a full enough tummy to last tonight. So what's the recommended thing with the daily allowance? Use as many cals of the allowance as possible, or keep it as low as possible?

Essentially what I'm musing over here is I've got 350 spare cals on today's fast, so is it better to eat something to make up the difference, or be good and feel happy that I've got by on a really low calorie intake today.

[Betsysgr8]

Essentially what I'm musing over here is I've got 350 spare cals on today's fast, so is it better to eat something to make up the difference, or be good and feel happy that I've got by on a really low calorie intake today.

Feel happy that you got by on a really low calorie intake today.

Hi Splat,
In the early days I ate exactly 500 calories, before realising that 500 was an arbitrary figure. If you are full, and feel OK, I now wouldn't eat any more.
How are you calculating your meal calories? I say that because I had a similar meal to you, and it had alot more calories than that! Have you come across caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php? There are others too.
Perhaps I had more lentils than you!

If you feel full & satisfied, I would sick at what you have eaten

Sometimes my fasts come in between 300-400 and I don't eat anything else because I have some cals left

Today I will be around 290 in total and I had a bowl of home made ratatouille for lunch, and got veg curry & cauli rice tonight. I like to mix it up a bit, so next one might be 400-500. Gives the system a kick

Calorie counting comes from the stated figure on the backs of the packets.

The pack of veg for example is a 600g pack of pre-prepped veg, 28 cals per 100g gives a total of 168 cals.
The pack of a great scot split red lentils are 105 cals per 100g, I used 50g which is 53 cals.
A knorr chicken stock cube is 30 cals, which so far is 251 cals.
The water I s calorie free, while the ground pepper, Worcester sauce and some mixed herbs probably adds another 10-15 cals. Call it 270 cals.

That lot covers two meals.

It still leaves me with a over half of my 600 cals left over. If my numerical skills are off when it comes to adding up, then it'd be interested where I'm going wrong?

Most veg casseroles, curries etc work out very low in cals, bonus !

Are the red lentils dry ?

My dry spilt red lentils come in at 335 for 100 grms raw ?

I eat under my 500 calories if that's how it works out. I always look at what I eat as much as anything. A combination of healthy and low calorie can't be bad! The casserole sounds yummy

Yes the lentils are dried.

My way of cooking it is devised to be as simple as possible. All i do is I plop half the veg in my slow cooker (it's only 1.5l, so it's ideal for this diet) add any fillers in this case lentils, herbs, stock cubes etc. then put the rest of the veg on top of the slow cooker pot. The veg fills the pot at this point. I fill water until it's just visible at the surface of the veg.

It's set to auto, and left on a timer to come on at 6am. Come mid day when I come in to eat, it's ready to go. The timer switches off at 12:30 and comes back on at 4, so my veg casseroles ready for the evening meal.

I'd stick and not eat any more if you are not hungry. My recommended range for fast days is 350 to 500, so I try to stay at the low end. Today I have had 443, but on Sunday I had 557. The aim is to have a quarter of your normal daily intake.

An anyone tell me if its ok to have as much veg and salad as I can eat......I believe it has minimum calories....

Hi Happy on fast days you still need to count the calories of veg and salad but you do get a lot for 500.

@Splat,
Nothing wrong with your calculation skills, more that I prepared my casserole differently. It didn't occur to me you could do it without fat, so I shall try it your way next time!

I'd never thought of using fat in a casserole like that.

If it's not a silly question, what do you do with the fat?

Tbh even if I pop sausages in a mix like that on a non fasting day, I just pop the sausages straight in the pot, the heat from the cooker cooks them off over a few hours. You've just got to get used to the sausages not looking brown.

But if you think of hotdogs, they don't get grilled or fried, they're boiled sausages. It's all just context really.

If you're not hungry then don't eat would be my opinion! Result .... a fast day with only 350 cals

I fried the onion before adding spices and briefly frying them. Then added lentils, vegetables and liquid, and the liquid was a tin of tomatoes rather than water and a stockcube, so it is easy to see why mine was more calorific!
I'll remember your sausage tip; again, I've always fried them first.