Thank you very much for your nice posts,

You said : ‘share w/ us ur routine nonfastfoods/fastfoods & insight please’

The Prophet (SAWS) encourage us to fast two (2) days a week, monday and thursday. Of course, we do if to get reward from Allah in the hereafter, but the Prophet said to us also : ‘Fast and you will be healthy’. So, there is also a worldly benefit in doing it, witch you all experiment.

The muslim fast is a little bit different that the fast diet, this is why i was asking some questions here.

The muslim fast start at dawn and stop at sunset. If i understand well, the fast diet start at the last meal at night,the day before, and stop with the first meal in the morning the day after. So, the fast diet is longer than the muslim fast.

The muslim fast is a complete fast. I mean, we do not drink anything and we do not eat anything from dawn to sunset. We have a small meal, called ‘sahur’ before dawn, in the middle of the night, and we have a substantial meal at sunset called ‘iftaar’.

If i understand well, with the fast diet, we can have many meals, as long as we do not exceed 500 calories for a lady. So, i thought i can have a small ‘sahour’ of 100 calories, or no calories at all, just water for example, and a iftaar of 400 or 500 calories.

I tried yesterday and i did not succeed. I had to break my fast because i had a big headache. I only had a glass of water for the sahur. Next time, i will have two or three glass of water and maybe a fruit or something. I am experiencing. I use to have a 500 calories sahur, so this is a big change for me.

Hopefully i answer the question and you are please with it. Excuse my english, i am French.

Suzanne

Hello,

Thank you Sams. Happy fasting to you too!

Maybe it is not just a matter of water but sugar also. When i broke my fast yesterday, i was not only thirsty, i was craving sugar. I ate a banana with a lot of water.

I just made some research and found out that the Prophet (SAWS) had some dates before dawn. I will try this : three dates plus a very big glass of water or two. I think i should be around 100 calories.

Hi Sams,

Of course if i can not support the complete muslim fast, i will break it, and drink some water, like i did yesterday.

In doing so, i can be, at least, successful with the fast diet, even if i failed with the muslim fast.

But, as you said, this is better to be “doing it right both your body and soul’.

Thank you Sams for your nice words.

Yes of course, theses weekly fasts are not obligatories. But if I decide to fast, I must to follow the rules.

The minimum rule is that I must abstain from water and from food from dawn to sunset. I can eat or drink whatever i want before and after.

Do you understand?

Hi Sams,

You are a nice person. Really. You are compassionate with the peoples. I really appreciate.

Do not worry, Allah rewards us for our good intentions if we are sincere. Even if we do not succeed to attain our goal, He will consider that we have tried. More it is difficult, more is the reward. Allah is the Most-Just and the Most-Merciful and He sees what is in our heart and He sees our actions.

I pray Allah that He makes all of us successful in this world and the Hereafter.

Lets go back to the subject.

I made some researches about dates and i found that this dry fruit is rich in calcium , magnesium, minerals , vitamins B (B2, B3 , B5 and B6) , provitamin A, dietary fiber and antioxidants.

Hopefully it will help to alleviate my headache.

I will keep you informed.

Suzanne

Thank you very much Tracy.

I think that the secret is to be regular, so the body get use to it. If I can not afford a muslim fast, i should fast with water only. You are right.

I use to fast on thursday once a week (muslim fast) but i found it extremely difficult to maintain. The fast is forbidden during menses, so, i was fasting 3 weeks and stop one week. After my menses, the fast was very difficult, like the first day I did it! A real pain! This is the same thing during the month of Ramadan. More you fast, more it is easy, but when you stop, this is like you come back to the start.

Hi USA, Thank you for the nice poem.

Yes, the fasts of mondays and thursday are a Prophet Mohammed tradition. The fast of every other days is a Prophet David tradition. Intermittent fasting is not new. Prophets Moses and Jesus fasted also. Actually, all Prophets fasted. All saints. I strongly believe the nobody can attain theses higher degree of spirituality without fasting.

What is new with intermittent fasting, this is the scientific evidences we discovered about the amazing health benefit of fasting. But the best of the effect is spiritual. There are spirituals benefits of fasting. Fasting has a very profound effect on the soul and character, i am sure all of you experimented this. This is why fasting is so much linked to religion.

To answer your questions about Sahur and Iftaar :

The sahur is a small meal before dawn. This is like a breakfast. Some peoples eat fruits with yogurt, some peoples eat eggs with bread, some others eat cereals, etc. I saw some people have meat and vegetable. There is no rules, but it a small meal. A little bit more than a snack. About 500 calories or less. With plenty of water or hot beverages.

After Sahur, we stop to eat and drink completely until sunset.

At Sunset, we break the fast with one date and a glass of milk, or a glass of water. After that, we pray the sunset prayer. After the prayer, we have a light meal, like a vegetable soup or some beverages like juice, the, coffee, etc. After that, we go pray the night prayer and we have a complete diner with meat, vegetable, rice, bread etc, but we should not stuff ourselves, because we are going to bed.

So, the iftaar is actually 3 meals: the first, at sunset, one date and a glass of milk, the second, 15 min after, one soup or beverages, and the third, 1 or 2 hours after that, a complete meal.

Some peoples are very hungry and do not follow these steps. They jump with the big meal as soon as they are allowed to eat and they stuff themselves so much that they actually gain weight while fasting!

Concerning Ramadan, it is one lunar month, so 29 or 30 days. This is the same fast. The fast start at dawn and stop at sunset. This is a little bit like the fast 8 or the fast 5. We fast every single day for one month. We have a limited period of time to eat. We have sahur before dawn and iftaar after sunset. The difference is that we pray very long prayers at night and, at the end of Ramadan, the last 10 days, we pray all the night and we sleep during the day.

Thank you for your encouragements. I am keep going, God,s willing. Wish you happy meals also.

Bonjour USA,

Comment allez-vous aujourd’hui? Vous allez bien? Contente d’apprendre que vous parlez le français.

Yes, the fast diet lifestyle is actually longer than the Muslim fast. The muslim fast is around 16 or 18 hours, and the fast diet lifestyle is 36 hours.

And there is another difference: the fast diet is a hypocaloric diet, while the Muslim fast is not. If we eat a good sahur at night and a good iftaar after sunset, we maintain our weight.

This is the reason why i want to try the fast diet along with the Muslim fast. As the science show us, there are some health benefit in reducing dramasticly the amount of food we eat few days a week. It is proven to extend the life expectancy also.

Have a nice day fasting 😉
Suzanne

I would like to know if anybody has the same problem than me, I mean, not able to stick to the 2 day fast in the long term.

If so, how do you resolve this problem ?

Is the fast of everyday a little bit, I mean the 16:8 can help ? Anybody adopted this strategy ? I mean, fast each day, 16 hours, ( which is skipping breakfast) and fast the complete day Monday and Thursday (skipping breakfast and lunch).

It seems to be the habit of the Prophet (SAWS), but I am not sure, some say he was eating only once a day. This is confusing…

I need advice form people who have lot of experience in fasting.

Thank you for your advices

Best regards,
Suzanne

Hi Barbarita,

Thank you so much for your reply.

I am happy to hear that you find it more easy. I was doing 5:2 and I could not get use to it.

Now, I gradually delay the breakfast, and my body is adjusting to the new timing. I find it more easy.

I do not lose weight, but I am still at the beginning of the process. At least, I fast a little bit everyday, and I get some health benefits in cha Allah.

Will see how it works and how I can manage it.

Congratulation for your weight loss. I think it is more difficult to loose when you are in the healthy BMI range isn’t it?

Best regards,
Suzanne

Hi Barbarita,

During Ramadan or outside Ramadan, the Muslim fast is exactly the same : abstain from food and drink from dawn to sunset. A small meal before dawn (sahur) and a complete meal after sunset (iftar).

The Prophet (SAWS) recommended to fast outside of Ramadan, Mondays and Thursday. The problem is that I am not able to stick to these 2 fasts… Ramadan is another story. This is obligatory.

Why i am not able? Why the Prophet and the Companions where able to fast every weeks and not me?

I made some research on their way of life and discovered that, when they where not fasting, they where eating only once or twice a day.

I wonder if my difficulties are related to our American way of life (I am Canadian) of eating all the time.

So i thought that if I schedule my eating to remove breakfast, at least, it may help me to stick to the recommended Muslim fast of Mondays and Thursdays, Allah knows best.

My real objective is to go back to 5:2 and to stick to it in cha Allah.

Sincerely,
Suzanne