My TDEE is 1620 and my BMR is 1350. I’m menopausal, 5ft tall with a fairly sedentary lifestyle. On my non fast days I try to stick to around 1200 calories –
am I doing this right to lose 1lb per week?
This topic contains 14 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by Nika 10 years, 5 months ago.
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Hi Theresa
Welcome! 😀
I just had a quick look at your other topic, and see that you are hoping to lose 50lbs, so I can understand you are looking for some quick results, and I think you said you did lose 1lb in your first week?
One of the premises of 5:2 is that you actually eat to your TDEE on non-fast days, and have 25% of your TDEE (ie 400 kcal for you) on fast days.
This is so that you can eat normally for most of the time, so don’t feel deprived, so are less likely to binge and so that you stick with this WOE and lose the weight you want.
So ideally I would suggest sticking with the TDEE amount of cals on non-fast days, but make it as healthy as you can – but allowing yourself some of the things you most crave, at least initially – ie, just eat as you would when you are not overindulging!!
That being said, there are a number of people doing 5:2 who do reduce their cals on non-fast days and cope v well with it. I think the secret is again to eat v healthy foods – protein, lots of veggies, good fats, and keep white carbs/sugar to a minimum. And drink lots of clear non-sweet drinks on all days. Then you can still feel full and not hungry on a relatively low-cal regime.
But I would still suggest trying 5:2 as it is designed, and see what happens. If the weight loss is not what you want, then you can reassess. Other options also worth considering then are 4:3 or 16:8.
Anyhow, all best with whatever decide, and keep us posted 🙂
Cheers
Sassy
Hey Sassy & Teecee!
I think you’re doing it very well! I read your pointers Sassy, but I can’t see how it differs in any way from 4:3. It’s all about the total calorie intake over a week right? So Teecee is just cutting them from her non-fast days instead of doing another fast day.
I do the same thing to be honest, combines with 18:4 and I feel fine! It’s all about what works best for your body and finding that out for yourself 🙂
Stick to it and if you start feeling weak or hungry you know you have to up the food a little bit!
If I have understood your answers it would mean that if 5:2 doesn’t work that well I should cut down calories on eating days? Even if I’m only 37 and eat very normal. I don’t even eat candy every weekend. I prefer 70% chocolate, nuts or fruit. Do Tabata workout 3 times per week. Still I’ve lost 1 kilo and 3 centimeters round the waist in 3,5 months. I’m a bit frustrated and loosing motivation since I’ve wanted to loose the 6 extra pregnancy kilos.
I bet you’re gonna say: exercise more and cut down on the other days. But I find exercising hard to do because I’m so busy AND have a 2 year-old son. So those 4-8 min of tabata is easy to find time for.
Losing weight is 80% of what you eat, not what you do. Exercise is a great support, but not the dealbreaker!
When on a plateau, there are many things that can work. If you have a look around the forum there’s a lot of people with the same problem that have discussed this thoroughly – but I’ll list the most important ones quickly.
– More exercise (well, already covered this 😉 )
– Re-calculating your TDEE and seeing how you’re doing on non-fast days
– Keep a food diary and count calories for a while to see how you’re doing on non-fast days
– Try 4:3 for a while
– Go lower in calories on the eating days
– Make sure you drink enough water
– Forget about the sodding diet and eat normal for a week, then start again
– Cut out carbs for a week
Hope any of these help you out, Cecilia 🙂
I found keeping the carbs out completely for an extended period of time is just not doable for me. Instead I don’t have them on fast days and tell myself I can have some in the form of fruit or if I really want it some other products on normal days – and find myself usually not wanting it anymore after I’ve had my veggies and protein!
Completely cutting them (I did it for a bit over a week) left me very unhappy. Not even being able to eat fruit, beans, tomatoes, corn… the food was very bland. Maybe I’ll try it again when I’m back home and have more stuff to choose from (being in China isn’t perfect).
Cutting all carbs is not good for you! The brain needs them and our immune system. However those fast ones (pasta, white rice, bread, sweet corn, banana etc) can deffinately be left out. You just have to find the very low carb bread (“wasa fiber plus”) and low carb beans (black beans, chick peas) etc. And choose quinoa, whole wheat bulgur and stuff like that.
I wonder if it was his own book? haha…Thanks for being a detective @iwant2bincontrol
I didn’t respond to the posts either, marketing his diet book on a forum about a different diet… yeah sure.
And hey CC, yeah well it’s a big forum but I jump all over the place so we’ll meet on lots of threads hopefully! 🙂
Cecilia, I don’t agree cutting all carbs is not good for you. The only two things that “need” carbs are your brain and red blood cells, but these can adapt to using ketones for energy (which are released when the body burns fat). I know someone who has been eating carb-free for years and she’s fit as a fiddle. It’s just not for me because I think the available foods are too boring and I like fruit.
I laugh in the face of products claiming to be “low carb”… I prefer eating whole foods without all the added poison to add flavor to some products.
The only carbs that are in my regular diet are from fruits and some vegetables (not potatoes though). Sometimes I indulge with some yoghurt, and I allow myself the occasional treat in the form of a bread something or a small chocolate pudding cup – mostly because I want this way of eating to be a long term thing and I don’t want to be too strict to myself because I have enough stress as it is!
There, a way longer post than I intended but oh well.
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