The reason for headaches is dehydration. That’s why its important to have a salty broth at least one cup of in the day. You lose a lot of body salts as well as water when you fast like this and the salts helps rebalance your electrolytes and allow your body to retain enough water to keep you hydrated.

How did you determine your calorie allowance. Calories are going to vary for everyone depending on their weight and height, age as well as gender. So what you ate might not be right for me. No one here seems to mention their vital statistics so i don’t feel like i’m talking to people with bodies half the time.

I eat when i get hungry on fast days. On the first one i started cooking lunch at 10.30 am and probably started eating it at about 11.30. On my second day i ate lunch at 12.15. This works for me. I don’t need much in the evening. I do pretty much the opposite of you with food types. I find it hard to eat things in moderation. People seem to fall into basically two types with regard to that. Moderation or not. People who binge tend not to be able to do moderation in the long term. Although everyone is retrainable so who knows down the track i might be able to do moderation but when you are trying to break a bad habit, its best to keep temptation far away.

Salt: its probably the prawn meal if its bought it will be full of salt.

I use mfp too but not the app. I have heard its good though. I don’t have a mobile phone.

Yes exercise helps retain muscle.

I have one main meal which is lunch. I will have something in the evening but not a meal. At first i tried to have just one meal and nothing else but when i felt like something on the second day of my first fast, i had a coffee in the evening. I had thought you were supposed to only have one meal.

Then i realised it didn’t seem to matter. I put most of my calories in one meal because i’ve realised if you eat a good low GI meal, it will last you a long time anyway and you won’t need much to get you through the evening. I am often not hungry in the mornings anyway. On non-fast days i always eat breakfast of course but usually i have a coffee first off and then sometime later get around to eating breakfast but its always because i make myself do it. I like the fact that on fast days, i can just wait until i am really ready to eat.

Hi Kathy. Thanks for your motivational post. I have only just started on this program. Did my first fasting day Thurs to see if I could manage….it was really tough!!!! however fasting day 2 is tomorrow. It’s really interesting to read about what works for different people. I’ve worked out my TDEE as 1851 cals therefore fasting day cals should be 462, which doesn’t sound a lot…. I’m going to need to get imaginative! As for non-fasting days, the notion that you can eat whatever you want in any quantity has been (sadly) trampled on! It’s not magic…its science, that’s why I love the idea of this program…a more doable way of cutting weekly calories.
Pam.

Congratulationa! I’m on day 3 of fasting, so far so good 🙂

I was concerned to see you were saying you were avoiding drinking water? I did read somewhere that this could cause kidney stones. I’ve found just a swig of water every half hour or so is the way to go for me, a whole glass would definitely start swishing around!

I also think putting some raw ginger in herbal teas is a good solution to hunger, it seems to stop my hunger pangs.

I love my Calorie KIng App too! I just use it for the food diary (as I’m too embarrassed to admit how little exercise I do) but that still makes a big difference for me.

Happy fasting and keep up those fluids 🙂

Susebl, I use My fitness pal its good and when you use it more often, you find ways to be more efficient. But i don’t recommend eating the same meals all the time as a way to save time since to get the best nutrition you should eat a wide variety of foods. I am in a support group over there called 3fc pals which you can join if you wish or there is also a 5:2 group.

PAG, i haven’t read the 5:2 book so i don’t know how you worked out your fasting calories from your TDEE. I just thought it was a basic 500 per woman and 600 for guys. What’s the formula. That said, i’m quite happy to stay with 500. I”d even eat more than that if i needed too. Less food is going to help get one through it and the odd week eating a little more isn’t going to ruin all the good work.

Have a good week Kathy. Wish i was going to New York. I’ve never been and would love to go.

Hi well done!!! I am new to this ive got 2 and a half stone 2 loose the first day does it have to be a fasting day

Hi,

I’m new, first fasting day today.

morgansmummy: My target weight loss is 24lb by November 8th ( 11 weeks ) and I’ll be starting with 4:3 for the next three weeks, then on to 5:2.

If you’re looking at a similar target and routine, perhaps we could support each other?

No obligation! Good luck anyway. 🙂

Hi there I’m new to the diet and this is my first fasting day. I could do with some encouragement! I am 5’10” and weigh 12st 12. I put weight on after I gave up smoking so I am really hoping to get to 10st 7lb again. I was just planning to have a bowl of homemade lentil soup at tea time and porridge at night time. Do you think it is better to vary the meals?

Hi Pattience! I was planning on having the soup about 7pm and the porridge at about 10.30pm (to get me through the night lol!!) but I wasn’t planning on eating lunch till about 1pm tomorrow. Would that work?

Looking forward to doing this diet – it’s a lifestyle I really want to stick to. I’m not sure I could give up sugar altogether (wine on a Fri night??) but at least I’m still off the fags!!

Thank you Kathy – you eat the foods I love! I eat poached egg on toast most days even before I started this diet. I do 45 mins of aerobics/step most mornings so I have breakfast about 11 am when I get back. I’ve also started zumba which is great fun and I burn about 500 cals in that class. Enjoy your swim! xx

Hi Pattience! My book has just arrived so guess what I will be doing this afternoon??? I’m going to fast on Friday so if hubby brings home wine he can bloomin well drink it himself – ha ha I shall stand firm.

Reading some of the other posts I have just ordered myself a kettlebell and dvd. I couldn’t order “The Swing” because the dvd isn’t compatible with the UK but at least I’m giving it a go. Good advice about the naughties like cheese etc. I’m not into desserts really but great idea about cheese. I shall sprinkle on food rather than lumps on crackers. I love cottage cheese also so will probably stick to that for a while. How much weight have you lost so far? V xx

I was 80kg around the time i started. And today i’m 63kg. My goal is 60kg.
that’s about 176 pounds to about 140 pounds to about 132 pounds.

I lost most of that in the first three months. And have been taking it fairly easy since then just playing about trying different diets – low carb and now 5:2 and even just being stable.

I got down to 63 on low carb too but that was a lot of water weight i know and when i went of it i put some of it back on. I did it for 6 weeks. A good experience to go through though.

And now 5:2. I decided to fast to help get back on the straight and narrow after the low carb thing.

And now i’m working hard at increasing my fibre intake also and cooking lots of yummy healthy things including sugar free desserts.

Kathy, yes i could never eat a tiny bit of a mars bar and i don’t trust myself to do it now either.

I think the whole low fat notion was a bit dietary mistake for the whole world. And the sooner people get over it the better for everyone. There’s a book called Good Calorie Bad Calorie by Gary Taubes. Its a well researched investigation into the whole fear of fat thing. I didn’t read it all but with my low carb experience, i’ve learnt enough to realise that low fat is wrong.

Luckily i never seriously followed the low fat milk thing for very long. It just seemed wrong to my mind to take the pleasure that is normally in a food, out of it. And of course now we hear how they all replaced the fat with just more sugar and more salt.

One day have a read of the End of Overeating or take a look at a you tube show from BBC The Men who Made us Fat and the Men who Made us thin.

They show you how industry has been manipulating people for all these years and we could say basically created this obesity epidemic we are witness. It would surprise me one day if there’s a class action over it.

You didn’t tell me your height. I was 5’5″ so my daily calorie count in the beginning was 1650, then to 1600 which i followed for the three months. And i’m 50 (going on 51)

You can do it. Three months flies by.

You can afford to eat a lot more then. I’m going to plug in your TDEE and come up with a better number for you.

I think you are making this much harder for yourself than necessary.

later:

I put in your age as 40 (cause i don’t know) your height as 5 10 and your weight as 176pounds and that you do moderate exercise which is conservative.

Your BMI is: 25.3
Your BMR is: 1549
Your TDEE is: 2400 calories

This means that you can eat 2400 calories a day and not gain weight and that under no circumstances should you eat less than 1549 most days.

Basically you are currently on a formula that will lead to plateaus very soon.
If i was you i would eat 2000 calories a day minimum on non-fast days. You will lose weight easily and if you don’t you need to get thorough testing done at your gp for insulin resistance.

Look under HOW abveo to find these calculators so you can work out your TDEE properly yourself. Don’t reduce your calories anymore than 500 below your TDEE. You won’t be able to keep it up for long if you do. It will all catch up with you and throw you off the diet. Be patient. Do things sensibly. Eat healthy food.

I find your hours of eating on fast days a bit weird. Do you get up late? Is that why you can go all day without food until 7.30pm.

Basically i suggest whatever time you get up, eat when you get hungry and then a few hours later maybe. But eat the biggest meal you can get in for 500 calories.

Well done.

now tell me, how do you work out what your muscle weight should be?

I got a referral for a bone scan today.

If its any consolation my fat percentage was close to 30 when i weighed less than 150 pounds and i’m only one inch shorter than you and a little bit older at almost 51.

Today its 27.4% and i’m 63kg which is about 140 pounds.

or don’t eat very much on your non fast days naturally.

Pattience.

I’m hardly over weight at all. I’m all but 6″ and did weigh 15st+.
I do eat a lot and drink a lot, so fasting twice a week probably cuts down my calorie intake by a few thousand, and of course my beer intake.
I’ve lost 2 inches off my beer belly, taken a link out my watches and lost a stone.
This diet works because it cuts down your calories over a week, so the more you eat the more calories you cut out.
I believe if your already on a diet you wont lose so much.
although these forums are very informative for those who want to delve deeper into the whole BMI, TDEE etc. if I had read some of these posts I would not have started it. All I really want to know is what not to eat and what to eat on fasting days and the rest, to me is carry on as normal.
So any one out there wants to lose weight and get healthier just fast for 2 days and enjoy your non fasting days. get healthier and lose weight.

I’m a guts too but don’t eat 8000 calories a day although some days I might.
I do like my real ale though so for me its good not to drink 2 days a week.
Hope your bone scan goes well and you sugar problem goes away or has gone.