The FastDay Forum

May be a bit late to start a journal 6 weeks in but I've just started using the progress tracker (though have input some earlier weight data) and would be fun to back this up with journal data of what I ate.

My boyfriend calls this the Brian Butterfield diet (watch the youtube clip and you'll see what he means, it is very funny. Bonbonbonbons!). I suppose fasting can seem quite extreme but having done low calorie dieting before it's funny that not eating for a day can be much easier than restricting calories every day.

I don't currently track calories on feed days, generally eat quite healthily during the week and more liberally at weekends. I try to eat real, whole foods, avoiding sugar and processed foods. I do make exceptions in order to eat cake and ice cream every now and then but try to make these from scratch.

Yesterday I did my first liquids-only fast day, replacing usual dinner with a cup of miso broth with seaweed and a hot chocolate made with milk + cocoa + a bit of sugar before bedtime. (The latter probably isn't ideal because of the sugar but I don't seem to suffer any ill effects from it today.)

Today is a feed day.
Breakfast - Two boiled eggs, two slices of rye bread with a bit of butter, greek yogurt, milky coffee.
Lunch - Salad of new potatoes, iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes and sardines in olive oil.
Dinner - Not sure yet what to make, will decide when I go food shopping after work.

Post fast weigh in this morning - 59.9 kg which is a number I like to see!

I adore the Butterfield diet (that's exactly what we call it too. I want ham and cheese deltoids with some hoi sin crispy owl)
today is feed day for me and although anything goes I will try to be sensible.
Well done on doing a liquid fast...that's beyond me at present.

That Butterfield Diet is hilarious! I don't think I'll look at my eating habits on the weekends the same way again.

Okay, mixed success this week so far.

Monday would normally have been a fast day but as I had been invited for dinner to BF's house I just skipped breakfast and lunch and had a big dinner as well as quite a lot of chilli and lemon potato snacks while helping with cooking (should not have started on those!).

So had a fast day yesterday instead. Didn't eat throughout the day, after work went for a run and did a strength workout. First half of 4-mile run felt really good and I went quite fast but then seemed to run out of energy. Still not really used to working out on a fast day. Maybe that means I'm not quite adapted to burning fat for energy yet? Had a glass of milk and 20g of 85% chocolate afterwards as recovery food. After that I very nearly got to bedtime without further food but felt hunger pangs at 10pm and didn't want to go to bed hungry so had a potato and a couple of rye crackers with thin slices of cheese. This may well have put me over 500kcal (didn't calculate) but I slept well.

The mornings after fast days have been of two kinds: ones when I'm really hungry and can't eat enough to feel full, and ones where I feel like I've eaten too much as soon as I eat. This morning was both. I did eat a weird combo of foods (2 boiled eggs, milky coffee, some cherry tomatoes, a little bit of tahini, greek yoghurt with jam, and finally a meringue ) really no wonder I didn't feel great afterwards. Lesson to learn: keep it simple at breakfast and stay away from the sweets!

Weight this morning back down to 60.00kg after weekend's eating had bumped it up. Trend line is still creeping steadily down even though the daily weight jumps up and down so that's good to see.

Weigh in this morning at 59.4 after the week's second fast, so that's good! A bit disappointed in no centimetres lost. At waistline I don't have much to lose but carry most of my excess weight in my thighs and would like to see a reduction there. Oh well, be patient, pineneedles.

Looking forward to a weekend's sunshine and good eating. BF has exciting plans for the barbecue! I think we'll do that tomorrow. Tonight I think I fancy a nice burger.

This week's not been so great and I haven't managed to fit in a proper fast yet. On Monday I did happily skip breakfast and lunch but was baking for a colleague's birthday and ended up sampling my own goodies as well as eating dinner. Also had a driving test yesterday so was stress-eating beforehand and consolation-eating afterwards! (Didn't pass. )

Was going to fast today but I've managed to buy too much fresh food that needs eating before it goes off. Will eat sensibly today though and go for a liquid fast tomorrow. Also doesn't really matter if weight loss stalls for a week. Trend line still creeping down.

The hot weather we've had recently definitely makes me less hungry which is nice! And less cold on fast days. Although my office is so air-conditioned a hot drink is needed pretty much at all times.

Friday morning weigh in after liquid fast yesterday. So hungry this morning that my hunger woke me up. Had doenjang broth for dinner and a hot chocolate (made with milk and dark chocolate) at bedtime to stop tummy rumbles. Getting through to the evening no problems but don't like being hungry at night. Maybe a small meal at night would be good. I used to read about this thing called potato at bedtime which was meant to help increase serotonin levels; might give that a try again.

Anyway weight this morning 58.9kg - great! - and even better, the trend line has just dipped to under 60, too!

Sadly, the measurement that has decreased the most is chest where there is very little indeed to lose. Nothing from thighs or calves. A tiny bit from hips. Possibly lost centimetres from top of hips which I don't measure though.

When I managed to follow a Primal diet I lost from the thighs so maybe need to look at what I'm eating on feed days and try to stay away from sugar and processed foods a bit harder.

Booked a camping trip for next weekend. Looking forward to being by the seaside, walking, and yes, cooking on the campfire and eating. Campsite has an organic farmshop with grass-fed organic beef, lamb, locally smoked pork products, milk and cream, cheesecake, bread, pastries, ale and wine. Normally my hobby is looking for the farm shops but this time don't even need to leave the site. Yum yum.

Friday again! Weigh in at 59.5 which isn't my lowest but what I'm happy to see is 1cm lost in each thigh, finally!

2 x attempts at 1st fast this week Mon and Tue ate too much after dinner as posted in another thread. Successful 2nd fast yesterday, just liquids through the day and a late supper of wilted parsley, two poached eggs and a little potato. Still woke up feeling hungry during the night though.

Off on a camping trip today so expect to eat a lot but also move around a lot. Nothing makes me hungrier than swimming, though!

Expect next fast day to be either Tuesday which is the day we're coming back or Wednesday as first day back at work.

Today's my official weigh day I guess as fasted Monday and Wednesday this week. Monday successful liquid fast except half a banana at bedtime to quell hunger - slept fine. Wednesday fasted through breakfast and lunch, had a M&S chicken and butterbean salad (255 kcal) for early dinner/snack before going out to a promenade theatre show and half a banana, passionfruit and a bit of yoghurt before bed (estimate 150kcal). Slept really well again. Good!

Weigh in this morning 58.9 which is higher than last Saturday's all-time low 58.8 but lower than anything earlier this week. Have struggled with sugar cravings and general peckishness this week; that is to say, on Tuesday, which has been the only feast day of the week so far. Sometimes hard to tell which comes first, a bad mood or eating badly; it's a vicious circle in any case.

So I think as well as continuing 5:2 I need to take care to eat real, whole foods. Will go back to the Primal (as in Mark's Daily Apple) principles of no refined sugars, no seed oils, minimal grains (I don't think I actually have a problem with grains but don't plan to have them as a staple ingredient; don't want to give up my homemade sourdough now that I've learned to make it, though!), plenty of veg & fruit, meat, fish, eggs, nuts in moderation, focus on fermented dairy like yogurt and cheese as a treat. Everything as nutrient rich as possible.

Another hot day today so will get a bit of sunshine at lunchtime.

Woohoo! New low weight this morning at 58.6kg. Pretty good so soon after the weekend.

Awesome! Congrats on hitting a new "low"

doing a party dance for you new low!!! Congrats.

Bonbonbonbons... love them!!!

Bit of a blip on the scale this morning ... in a good way. Weight had been jumping up and down around 59kg for over a week so it was almost a shock this morning when I saw the scale had 57.5kg! I had to get on it twice to check. Don't quite trust it to be right and definitely don't expect it to stay, but a nice number to see.

I've been tracking nutrient intake throughout August as accurately as I can, and can now put together some interesting figures:
Average feast day intake 2065kcal (just over TDEE suggested at 59kg weight by progress tracker)
Average fast day 514kcal (again a tiny bit over)
Average day overall 1657kcal which should add up to a deficit of 7890kcal

In the meantime trendline has moved from 59.3kg to 58.7kg.

At new low weight TDEE is suggested as 1950 and I need to make an effort to make sure I get my 3-5 moderate exercise sessions in a week, otherwise actual energy expenditure will be less than that.

congrats on the happy blip.