Gad. NO. What gave you that idea? Horrible. The ‘average daily Western diet’ projects 2000 calories/day as ‘normal’ for a grown woman. I’m sure you are not average, and neither am I. [as for ‘normal’, well…] 2400 is for men. Both are rather bogus numbers.

On this page, at the top you will see RESOURCES. Go to that drop-down and see BMI Calculator. Go there and in the right-hand sidebar you will see some places to enter data. For “weight” put the weight you would like to be. This will then tell you how many calories, give or take, to eat on a Slow Day. That calorie intake, plus what you eat on Fast Days, will get you to the weight you want. Stick with those and you will do just fine.

As for 16:8, you can do that if you wish, but it is not mandatory. Some people try that instead of actually doing the Fast/5:2 diet. Not eating for 16 hours may indeed promote weight loss, but it depends on what you ate in the 8 hours and how much. See what I mean?

Don’t get hung up on the extras. Just do the 5:2 as written for a month and see how it works for you. Rather than counting calories on Slow Days [unless you are experienced at that], just eat sensibly and avoid binging on empty calories. If after a month [8 – 9 Fasts], if you are not losing 1 pound+ per week, then we’ll look at what to do differently.

Just curious — how did eating a late breakfast ‘screw up’ your schedule? I know lots of women who do not eat at ‘breakfast time’ but start eating at lunch. Then they have a dinner at the normal time.

Keep posting your progress, Jodi.