I’m new and was just wanting to know has anyone used diet shakes on their fasting days?
This topic contains 12 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by knittinghippiemom 9 years, 8 months ago.
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Hunger pains?
Hunger does not cause pain. Get that idea out of your head immediaetly.
If you want to use shakes “throughout the day” you are not fasting, you are on a calorie restricted formula diet. In that case you might be better of looking for a slimfast, optifast, lighter life or whatever brand you prefer support site.
For fasting you will have to experience hunger from tie to time. Keep busy, drink water and find out that it is something you can cope with. Learning to recognise hunger is part of the fasting and it will help eating more sensibly on the non fast days.
I’m glad you’re not scaring yourself off by talking yourself into believing that fasting is painful. There is enough unnecessary scaremongering about fasting already.
So, you don’t want to use these shakes “throughout the day”, but only once? Why don’t you eat some real food instead?
A large apple with skin and all has about 110 kcals but less chemicals, more flavour and about 5.5 g of fibre. A bottle of slimfast (other shakes are available) as an example has 230 kcal, a lot of artificial flavour and only 3.6 g of fibre.
For the same calories as the shake I can have two large apples with 10g of fibre … or a large apple and a hardboiled egg … or a two egg omelette with some onion and mushrooms … or if I really wanted something quick and ready made, there is a whole range of ready meals for 220 kcal or less. I’m not a fan of ready meals but if I don’t have time to prepare food, I’d prefer one over a slimfast/optifast/whatevershake.
So ditch the shake and eat something. You have 500/600 kcal per day to play with, there is plenty of flavour and fibre to be had.
You can actually get a lot out of 500-600 calories. For my lunches on fast days I’ve been making a big salad with lemon juice dressing (2 cloves crushed garlic, 3 tbsp. lemon juice, 1/2-1 tsp olive oil, salt and pepper – whisk it up, it will generously dress about 5-6 cups of shredded lettuce). Toss in some red onions, cucumbers, that’s less than 100 calories and the amount of fiber will help you feel full. Add a tablespoon of good quality shredded parmesan or an oz of cooked chicken breast, not many more calories, but a little more filling.
Look at your hot soup options. You can probably bring a thermos to work filled with a hot soup or broth (my favorite is an organic creamy tomato that’s easy to find in my neck of the woods).
Mostly, fasting days are about mind over matter. Yes, you’re going to feel those hunger pangs. You’re used to eating a lot more than 500 calories in a day. But after a few tries, you’ll probably not just get used to it, you might even start to look forward to your fast days. You can do it! 🙂
I can say with certainty that i am not looking forward tomorrow 😉 – my fast day. But i think it will be fine anyway. For the first time i will be going out to be active – pottery class – so i’m interested to see how this affects my appetite. I’ll eat before and after no doubt.
The spanish fish stew was great last week. I found a different recipe which i will try tomorrow for lunch and have lentil soup in the evening.
I haven’t heard of the high fibre shakes. i’m curious. Please let me know a brand i can look into. I need to buy some psyllium this afternoon.
Sometimes before i start a diet, i am in such a bad place mood wise, and around food that i don’t want to cook at all. And then something like a shake could seem helpful for people who feel like that too. i remember on many occasions i would say, if I won lotto, i’d hire myself a full time cook (and housekeeper of course). Now as i’m feeling good, i’d just go with the housekeeper cause I’m enjoying cooking a lot.
My sister who has a busy life, likes cooking her evening dinner. She says she finds it relaxing.
Yes i keep a calorie count otherwise how do you know you are not going over your TDEE. The only other way would be to keep a food log and if you were not losing, you’d have to cut back on what you eat. For that to be easy, you still need to know where most of the calories are hiding.
I’ve lost weight just food logging before so it can be done but i’ve got into the habit of calorie counting and at the moment i don’t mind. Next year i might try to go back to food logging to make more free time.
I’m going to always watch what i eat from now on. I want to maximise nutrition which if you are eating restricted calories, its essential to get all the nutrition you can.
Its been a while since i bought a lotto ticket but maybe i can experience some other sort of winning luck. 🙂
I think to really get the weightloss benefit of the 5:2 fast, you might as well reduce your calories a little on non-fast days. I only reduce mine about 50 calories from my TDEE which is 1500.
I’ve just looked this “smoothie” up online and the ingredients list reads like one for protein powder for body builders. Whey powder, soy proteine, added vitamins and minerals, fruit flavouring (NO fruit!), some added fibre. When you compare the amount of fibre in one portion with an apple, the apple wins.
They are basically trying to find a new market for the protein powder because MaxiMuscle does not appeal to people who are not into weight lifting. So how do you get the women in their pink jogging pants to use protein powder? Call it a super smoothie and claim it aids weight loss.
There is no fruit in this stuff, it has fruit flavouring. The “LuraLean fibre” is konjak, the stuff that zero noodles (shirataki) are made of. The amount of fibre is not that much higher than the amount of fibre in our body builder protein powder. Looking at the price … there is only ten servings in the container and I bet I can make better tasting food for less money using real food.
Chopping up some lettuce, tomato, peppers, cracking an egg or two, or preparing a soup the evening before work does not take that much time. I would opt for that and use the money I safe to buy some nice new pants if the current ones start to slip off while walking. 😉
Trishypoo – I’m about finished with my second full week of 5:2 and so far I am finding it helpful to still keep track of calories on normal days. Just because I have a history of overeating, it’s a way for me to recalibrate my internal “healthy portion” meter. I think in a few weeks I might be able to take off the training wheels for normal days, but for now it helps me stay motivated to refrain from binging or overcompensating.
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27 Aug 14