Hi Lucy, Generally aim for 500 calories. You might as well go for the max.

What i do is still drink coffee with full cream milk. I hate skim milk.
I have two meals a day. My main meal being the first one which is usually around midday – but its when ever i am ready to eat. I try not to have coffee before that i think because it ignites my appetite.
My second meal is late afternoon early evening or whenever i feel i need to eat.

You can see what i eat by looking at my fitness pal diary. my name is the same but with 3 ts in it.

Dishes i have done and enjoyed so far are: spanish few stew which has vegetables and seafood, spices and enough oil to make it good; steamed then sautéed vegetables in about 3tsp olive oil This is very filling and satisfying too. A lighter evening meal has been cold cucumber soup which is made with cucumber yoghurt and milk.

Basically if you choose your ingredients wisely (i.e. for maximum nutrition – protein and vegies for the most part – you can really minimise hunger.

I’d say the main problem is breaking the eating habit – which does not take long, and coping with boredom. In the evening i would cope by going to bed at about 9pm with a book which sends me off to sleep soon after.

In the daytime, do engaging things. Avoid sitting around at home with nothing much to do.

Also drink plenty of water. Headaches are the result of dehydration which can also arise from loss of salts. You are effectively going low carb for a day or two and this can wash away you salts so you need to replace them in order to retain the water you need. The headaches pass quickly if you take on more water and a bit of salt.

likewise night cramps are due to the same reason.

I have recently started drinking a good quality black tea on fast days such twinings. I have a nice little teapot and small chinese tea cup. I love it. Tea is a quite a dietetic so you need to remember that. and drink some water as well.

Another thing i do which i wasn’t ready for at the beginning was on non-fast days to eat mainly two meals in an 8 hour eating window. Then i can have about 16 hours of fasting overnight. This has the benefit of curbing your appetite as well.

Low carb foods curb your appetite.

I like counting calories. But will stop when i hit goal because i think i’ve begun to have a pretty good feel for what i can eat, so long as i keep weighing regularly. And i will continue to keep a food diary.

Your friend probably hates dieting because the diets she’s followed have required too much calorie restriction and deprivation. Basically this diet is also a diet in that eventually you have to restrict calories on other days too and you also have to start eating more healthy but its something you should do as go along.

Basically any ongoing weightloss is only going to come about with significant improvements in the food choices and quantities that people make. If people are not willing to do that, they will quit sooner or later and get fat again.

This diet sucks people in though because they think its easy because of the way they way its been sold – and perhaps that’s a fairly smart move though ultimately it depends on whether people make then right changes and stick with them. But in fact, i’ve been dieting all year and its all been easy really.

Hi, and Welcome. I’ve been at it for a year and am still committed to this way of eating. I am not losing quickly but the 23 pounds that I’ve lost in a year feel like a real victory to me. Dieting is so hard and staying on a diet and then not yo-yo-ing back up when you stop dieting is discouraging. THIS is a wonderful answer to all of that as it’s completely sustainable and it also makes you more healthy as you go.

I think another advantage is that you can eat your 500 calories in a way that best suits you. I know that I need to eat regularly so I divide my allotment into three small meals, at 11:30am, 2:30pm and 7pm with a carrot and cut of tea at 4pm. I can easily get through a fast day on this schedule

I’m a vegetarian but have decided to add some fish in order to have enough protein. My breakfast is a small bowl of oatmeal made with 100 calories of oatmeal (1/3 cup) and a 1/4 c of frozen raspberries for flavor and a cup of tea.

Lunch is a packet of tuna fish (80 or 110 calories) and a half an apple or pear. Or a small bowl of homemade cabbage soup or other veg. soup.

Dinner is a small piece of fish like salmon or tilapia baked with a spray of oil and a teaspoon of flavored crumbs sprinkled on top and a big bowl of broccoli sprinkled with parmesan cheese. I rely on Altoids minds once or twice a day and a piece of gum after dinner.

All of this in a space of eight hours and the only time I feel even mildly uncomfortable is at 4 in the afternoon but the carrot and tea help. And that’s when I start to remind myself that I can eat tomorrow!!!!

So, good luck with your experience with this wonderful plan. You sound young and enthusiastic and you have a good goal–the wedding–so I’m guessing you’ll lose quite a bit quickly. But, don’t give it all back when the wedding is over. If you don’t need to lose more try the maintenance plan of fasting once a week as this is also such a healthy way to eat.

@og my understanding is that on non Fast Days (FDs) you would eat between your BMR and TDEE (see the item at the top right hand side of this page to work these out). Basically the BMR is the amount of calories you’d burn (based on weight/height etc) without doing anything, ie your Resting burn and TDEE is the amount of calories you burn in your normal day. On FDs you need to eat 1/4 of your TDEE calories but again I’d suggest 500 even if your TDEE suggests less at least to start with. You can adjust if/when needed once you’re into the swing of things if you know what I mean. I’m sure others will tell you similar but not necessarily the same. Hope this helps 🙂

Edited to say, I only say this is my understanding as I’ve only started this week as well so I may well be off the mark 🙂

Thanks for the replies!
@dummerchen, yes. I got 1200 from MyFitnessPal. But I did loose about 15 pounds using it. And I eat enough food for me (I make sure I get all my protein and watch carbs as I loooooove chocolate :))