The FastDay Forum

Well I am at the end of my tether at the moment. Firstly a little bit about myself, I am 38 years young and my weight has been around 10 stone for the last 2 years ( I am 5 Ft 4ins) size 12 and if it wasn't for my very ample chest I actually think I would be a stone lighter lol. Anyway I have suffered from endometriosis for 20 years, in early march I had my left ovary and fallopian tube and the merina coil fitted, I also gave up a 20 a day smoking habit on the day of my operation.
4 weeks of being inactive and eating everything in sight due to the non smoking and the weight started to creep up. I am now 9 weeks on and 12lbs heavier!!!!! I have my fitness pal and I have spent the last 3 weeks sticking to it from Monday to Friday then going mad on the weekends obviously nothing is happening.

I started 5.2 diet yesterday, after reading up about it I decided to do it 12pm - 12pm, I know some people are sceptical but let me just say I am a chef and work with food all day so I think this will suit me better.

Experience so far, I ate a normal breakfast(240 Cal) a normal lunch (280 Cal) then started fasting at 12pm. I ate dinner of 240 Cal at 6pm and a cup of tea. I then had till 8am today (13 hours nothing). This morning I still had 260 Cal left to have before 12 so I had 2 cups of tea then at 10.30 an apple and a cereal bar (190 Cal). So stuck to the 500 cals from 12 to 12 with a 12 hour gap in between. I then had chicken salad at 2 and dinner at 6 but got full up really quickly, haven't felt the need to snack or eat anything unhealthy.

Anyway after inputting this into my fitness pal, over the 2 days with a 24 hour fast in between I had 795 Cal on day 1 and 880 Cal on day 2. I don't know if this is going to work as well as if I did a fast from waking to sleeping but it has already seen a massive decrease in calories so I will keep you informed:). I have found since having my coil my body is refusing to drop any weight so fingers crossed:) any advice or comments welcome.

My view of a 24 hour fast would be that your lunch on the second day is part of your allowance of 500 cals. The 24h has to encompass three normal meals or a day's normal food not just two meals.

In other words if you start your fast after lunch on day 1 you finish it after lunch on day 2 and next eat at dinner. As described above you started after lunch and finished before a (later) lunch ie you moved a meal time to just outside the fasting window.

I think there's a separate debate about whether you get the full health benefit on two consecutive days with moderate restriction, as opposed to one day with severe restriction, but that's a separate issue to the calorie deficit.

Your approach may deliver the calorie reduction you need so there's nothing "wrong" with it.

Sounds like you've had a tough time the last few months.

Phil's advice is good to get the most out of this WOE. You need to find what suits your life and what is going to work for you. It may take some time of trying different things before you find what's best.

I've been doing this for 15 weeks and have recently dropped breakfast after thinking it was impossible. As long as I'm busy and drink plenty it has been fine.
Hope your next fast day goes well.

Tjackman Well done re cigs, well worth it when you knock the habit I found. the weight does creep on after though so handy to discover this way of eating.
All the best you will get the hang of the way to go which works best for you. As you will find ups and downs but forum very supportive and feedback inspirational to keep you going

Hi tjackman welcome to the forum.
I agree with PhilT, if you are going to do a 24 hour fast instead of 36 hour, it might be better to include the second day lunch within your 500 cals.
Good luck look forward to hearing how you get on

[janeg]

Hello tjackman
you've had a really tough time of it and have done extremely well to ditch the cigs. That is the single best thing you can do to improve your health
Sounds as though you really want to take yourself on hand- the key to making this work is experimenting, trying out different approaches until it's comfortable and works.
This can take a wee bit of time so please, be kind to yourself and keep trying different 'recipes' if it doesn't do what you want.
good luck and keep us posted