The FastDay Forum

I've had no success since starting in April, and am ready to give up!
It was kindly suggested that I should post my calorie intakes, so here goes.
Yesterday...non fast day
Breakfast...2 slices home made bread with butter and ginger jam 1 cup tea with milk...450 cals, I think
Lunch....1 slice of bread with philly cheese and a slice of ham 1 cup tea.....300
Mid afternoon...nectarine....60 cals
Dinner....home made fat free chips, 1 dry fried egg and half a tin baked beans....400
Pud...whole fat yogurt...110 cals
That adds up to.....1320, then for a treat I had 2 fun size choc bars...180
Grand total....1500
Today, fast day.
2 cups tea with milk, 14 cals
0% sugar squash x 3
Dinner tonight is a hairy bikers jambalaya, all ingredients measured....350 cals
Diet yogurt 65 cals...total for today of 429
Writing this down makes pretty poor reading, I guess
Any comments would be appreciated, good or bad, I'm a big girl...literally as well as physically, I can take it
Thank you for your time

I'm not sure what you're asking for.

do you know your tdee?

I think your counting is fine, but there seems to be a lot of carbs there. Maybe change it around a bit?

My initial feeling also is that is a lot of carbs on your non fast day. I would also be adding more plant based foods eg vegetables and salad overall. Reason is that you get a bigger bang for your 500 cals with plants.

I found the 5:2 book really helped me to get my head around what to prepare and I do think if you get a good plan happening around nutritionally sound morsels on the 500cals that here is a flow effect of also doing the same on free days eg for example cutting down the sugars and carbs and having more veggies, salads and good quality proteins.

My experience since starting 5:2 is that I have really cut down on carbs on my non fast days. So now I would have only 1 slice of toast 1/2 with an egg and the other half with jam, suprisingly it is a feast to me. Lunch would be something with a good sized salad eg maybe some salmon. Dinner what everyone else is getting. After a couple of days like that I am ready for my 5:2 day again. Have a day a week where you just relax otherwise you are on a mission. The discipline is worth it

I too think it's carb heavy - and I'm afraid butter (even on home made bread!) is a no-no for me!

I'd
a) check your total daily energy expenditure against what you actually do.
b) add vegetables (not potatoes) and more pulses and leave out the rice etc (I never thought I could ever eat a curry without rice, but I can!).
c) weigh everything for a week so you can see if are 'guestimating' portions
d) Use my fitness pal for a few weeks, which will work out and record your calories.
e) send all your home made bread over here for hub to eat - he's feeling deprived as I haven't made any for a while!

Once you have a really good idea of portion sizes etc, you'll no longer have to do this, but it does help in the short term.

Good luck

It's really all a bit bread and potatoes.

Butter is fine in my world, particularly on veg as the fat makes the nutrients more available and it more palatable generally if you struggle with veg. I have a lot of calories some feed days if I'm feeling hungry as I think consistently low calories leads to me retaining weight.

You might want to start reading about paleo and low carb principles, as that day of food is pretty nutritionally poor and will have an impact on your fast days too.

It's good that the yogurt is full fat but it's still going to be pretty sugary.

Sorry, don't mean to be mean but you could be having a much easier time with a lot more food.

Sorry but have say its not very nutrionally balanced. Try lots more vegetables and salads. Good quality proteins and grains. You'll find you can eat a lot more for your calories if you do.
Hope all the suggestions help.

Thank you all...I think matbe I alredy knew I have too many carbs, but was in denial!
I'll have my jambalaya tonight as its already defrosted, but tomorrw , after thinking, I'll have
Breakfast...greek yogurt with frozen berries.
Lunch... Feta salad with a hard boiled egg, olives and vinaigrette dressing,
Dinner....pork chop with loads of vegetables
Does that sound better?

That's sounds pretty good and yummy. I personally don't think you have to give up carbs completely just make sure you have all the other good stuff too. There's a reason we were told to eat our greens

Lornameg I have found that it is a most interesting process working out a more nitritious diet and because I do 16:8 it just necessitates mostly all of my meals be great nutrition. But after a successful fast yesterday today I had a small bucket of chips at lunch no guilt. Also we are lucky there are some fabulous foods and recipes out there. By the way I love your avatar .. Very cute. All the best

I have to have a carb breakfast so I have porridge, with a little sweetener and lashings of cinnamon. If I have yoghurt and berries, it tastes lovely but I don't feel like I've eaten anything!!

I've cut out bread, potatoes, paste and rice and my stomach is now amazingly flat. I never realised how white carbs make you bloat AND feel sluggish. If you give up bread, you'll naturally stop eating butter too (as you won't have anything to spread it on!) and try alternatives for potatoes like mashed swede or celeriac. Even sweet potatoes have less carbs. You can substitute rice for cauliflower rice and spaghetti for courgettes through a julienne peeler. I much prefer the veggie version of my carbs now. M&S sell tiny wholemeal submarine rolls and mini wholemeal pittas which are great for a tiny amount of carbs to accompany something like soup. Because they are wholemeal they will take longer to digest and contain more fibre.

[carorees]

I agree with all the above re carbs. I have been doing 16:8 for the past few weeks during the holidays and so have been able to relate what I eat to my weight changes more easily. I notice that the days I have a lot of carbs I either gain or lose very little weight. The days that are relatively low carb I can lose half a pound in a day.

My research in the scientific literature suggests that carbs in the evening are the worst so maybe look at reducing the potatoes/rice/pasta/couscous etc at dinnertime as the first step and no late night mars bars! I only have half a potato or 30g (dry weight) pasta or 2 tbsp rice at dinnertime and rarely have any dessert. As I said on another thread, try reducing your carb consumption by about 50g per day from whatever it is right now as a first step.

Good luck

As others have implied, there is a big difference in the kind of carbs. Sugar of any kind (honey, brown sugar molasses, agave nector, EXCEPT lactose in milk) is not good.

Anything with lots of fiber is good. Any refined or low fiber carbs (white bread, potatoes, white rice, white pasta) not so good.

Any green stuff or other veggies - fabulous. Whole fruits are way better than juice or smoothies, because the fiber has not been removed (as in juice) or broken down (as in smoothies).

Hi Lornameg I also thought to many carbs, I am trying to reduce mine so I've found all the answers very interesting, I'm reducing visual quantities because I truly wouldn't know how to workout what 50g actually looks like so until I can work this out I suppose every little help , we do eat lean meat and loads of salad or veg daily, also plenty fruit So very interesting and now I must read up much more.
Good Luck with your reduction on carbs Sue