Sounds like a good plan to me. Basically whatever you take with you to work, you WILL be tempted to eat/drink before you planned to, so just don’t take anything that contains any significant calories and load up on water & other no/low calorie drinks. I didn’t go straight for the 1 meal option but I got there eventually and it is a million times easier to get through the rest of the day if you haven’t already hobbled yourself by eating something early on. Basically nothing but water passes my lips until my 500 calorie late meal now but if you need miso soup or whatever to get you through the day then do it (at least to start with). It takes a while for your body to adjust, so expect the odd headache/ side-effect to start with. You’ll soon get a handle on the lie that is ‘hunger’ and move past that.

Yes, you can exercise on fastdays but you shouldn’t up your calorie intake to off-set the extra useage, so it might be worth being kind to yourself for a while until you’re used to the lifestyle and your body has become accustomed to managing normally with less on fastdays. Eventually you will get to the point where you can do any high-impact exercise, just as well as you would usually, on a totally empty stomach but it might take a while to build up to that. If you overdo it before you’re ready expect headaches and ravenous hunger.

No worries, hope it helps. If you’re already able to go for long periods without food then that will definitely help your chances of cracking the 1 meal plan. I think I just didn’t really think of it as an option to do that at first. I probably finally twigged and moved to 1 meal after about 4-5 months. It took another few months (after an earlier disasterous go at it) to introduce a heavy workout schedule onto my fastdays (I only really do any ‘real’ exercise on fastdays now – on non-fastdays it’s probably just a walk and even that is not every day).

It might be hard to get used to for your body, so be patient with it but you will get there and it honestly gets easier and easier – to the point where you’ll enjoy fastdays and find non-fastdays more of a problem 😉

Hmmm that’s a pain for you Nika, I’m sorry you’re finding cardio a problem. It may just be my personal situation that’s conducive to this? Don’t know but I’ll give you my info and I hope it helps you figure out how to get something similar out of your situation.

I initially fasted with 2 small meals during the day, poridge at about 1pm and soup/something similar at about 6pm. Eventually moved on to 1 meal of 500 calories at about 6pm. Then moved on to exactly the same fastday meal every fastday (bowl of branflakes, cup of tea with soya milk & 2 sugars & a piece of fruit – plum or similar). Took me about 8-9 months to get to that point and I’ve been on the ‘bran flakes’ plan for about 5-6 months at this point.

Exercise wise, I initially avoided anything but a bit of a walk on fastdays – although I always felt pretty energised & powerful (for want of a better word) on fast days. I did try to do my normal weekly swim (2.6Ks in 1 hour or less) on a fastday once early on (just at the beginning of the transition from 2 small meals to 1 500 calorie meal I think – so about 2-3 month in). I ate my meal 2 hours before I went swimming (the session is 8-9pm, so I thought I wouldn’t be able to get through the swim & eat after). The swim was fine but I have never in my life experienced hunger like that AFTER a swim, I was beside myself and absolutely HAD TO have a tiny sliver of cheese to abate the hunger and then just went to bed to avoid the fridge. I was totally fine the next morning and as usual, wasn’t hungry the morning after a fastday.

I was so put off by that experience that I never tried to do anything too ‘full on’ on a fastday again until about 3 months ago. I was having no problem making it to 6pm, on just water, with zero hunger and no weakness, so I thought it might be worth seeing if I could make it through a swim too (I was inspired to try this after doing last year’s Marie Curie 5K Swimathon on no fuel at all because the timing was bad to actually be able to eat anything prior to the swim).

Since then I have shifted my regular fastdays to coincide with my swim night and my second (night) job as a Sports Massage Therapist at my works gym (this is also pretty physical – not cardio but quite a muscle workout). Since 3 months ago I have allowed nothing but water to pass my lips on those fastdays until I’m back home after the swim or work. I usually eat at about 9:30pm on the swim day and somewhere between 8-9pm on the Sports Massage night, so it just makes the ‘1 tiny meal’ fasting really easy for me (no time to get hungry between breaking my fast & bed). I do feel slightly naughty because often I’m not actually hungry after swimming but I never have branflakes at any time other than fastdays so I eat them anyway because it’s kind of a psychological ‘treat’ at this point.

I don’t know if it has a bearing at all but just in case it matters, I also fast pretty much every day these days (since about the same time as the exercise change – about 3 months ago) for at least 16 hours (never eat before 12-1pm) and more usually for 20+ hours. I usually just have 1 big meal on non fastdays and maybe a little ‘supper’ later on, all within an 8 hour (ish) ‘eating window’.

I don’t know much about the science/biology behind any of this stuff – the fasting or the exercise side – but this works for me. I never feel weaker on fastdays than non-fastdays. I never ‘run out’ of energy when I’m exercising but then the weekly swim is probably my biggest regular workout. I’ve done some decent 6+ mile walks in the peaks and West Yorkshire in the past 3 months, while fasting too and never had any problems with them either but I’m not a gym bunny and I don’t run or anything, so my experience may not be your experience.

I hope that helps – good luck

Thanks for all that info Tracy! I guess it just tells me to keep trying, and hope my body adjusts. I’m doing HIIT though, so maybe in the beginning the cardio will still be bad but at least I’ll be able to do the strength exercises which will increase my cardio power. Here’s to hoping.

And good going JJ! Just keep on listening to your body!