https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Read through this and then take a good look at the website. There are numerous recipes, and lots of threads with success stories.
You could look at the Maintenance thread 😛

I’ve no idea why you think healthy food is expensive, especially if you are a vegetarian. Fresh veggies are inexpensive in most shops and on market stalls. A tin of pulses is not expensive, but you could always buy them dried and soak and cook them yourself. It just needs a little planning.
Good luck 🙂

Hi Courtney Rose 🙂 Welcome to the 5:2 family!

I’m vegetarian and at uni too. Once you get into a routine and planning ahead, you’ll be able to save quite a bit of money (and time) by buying in bulk and cooking and freezing meals for the week(s) ahead.

On a fast day I have one evening meal, consisting of a heap of veggies (surprise!), very often bought frozen and thrown in a stir fry with glass noodles and some naughty sweet chilli sauce 😀 But lately the wintery weather has been getting me in the mood for stuff like lasagna and proper pasta, so have made low cal lasagna this week for my FDs using soy protein (eg soy4you or another brand), carrots, a tin of chopped tomatoes and squash instead of pasta plates. It is delish and fills you right up – couldn’t even finish my serving today :p – and is really low cal (my giant portion was like 350!) Oh, and a tiny sprinkling of goat’s cheese on top is in order – the only thing I have trouble giving up in order to become vegan… Sigh…

But honestly, living on a budget doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It can just be mental exercise for you as you will probably have to get creative! 😀 (I should know…)

As Amazon says, fruit and veg bought at markets can be very inexpensive and they’re just a joy to visit 🙂

Just ask if you have any more questions. Oh, and have fun with thinking up meals and things!

Alex X

Hi CourtneyRose, I’m not a student but I’ve always eaten like one on fastdays. I can never be bothered to cook properly on a fastday (even though most of my ‘cooking’ during the week is just reheating frozen portions of whatever I cook large-scale at weekends anyway) and I’m always in late, as I do my big weekly swim or have my extra long workday on my fastdays.

So…. soup is your friend, the cheap ones in places like HomeBargains etc. are usually veggie anyway and are very low cal. I only usually have 1 meal on a fastday, so I’d have an entire 400g can of soup and a small (par baked) roll, with a little smidge of olivio spread.

Alternatively, there’s scrambled eggs (with or without veg/cheese etc to make it an omlette) on 1 (or 2 if you have the allowance left and haven’t spent too much calories on the egg mixture) slices of toast or a pitta bread.

You can also have an entire 400g can of Heinz beans on 1 slice of toast or 1 small pitta bread (split it down the middle and you have more surface area for your beans to sit on).

Or – you could do what I’ve been doing since about 6 months into 5:2 and just have cerial for your fastday. I’ve cut breakfast out of my life pretty much completely these days, so I kind of missed my bran flakes and used them as something to look forward to on fastdays (along with a nice mug of ‘milk-&-2-sugars’ tea). I’m now onto Aldi’s ‘Alpen’ substitute but you get the picture.

If you REALLY want to be all studenty about it you can even just do a big ‘pop-it-yourself bag of popcorn for your main meal of the day. As long as you leave it pretty late in the day to start munching through it and take your time snacking through it while hanging out with your mates or studying or whatever then it’ll be pretty satisfying and keep you happy enough til bedtime. It’ll also be pretty short of the full 500kcal, so you could have something else (maybe 1 light beer) with it. There you go – how studenty is that!!!

Sounds like you’re experimenting and checking the backs of your packets & tins & that’s the main thing about the early days of fasting. It doesn’t really matter if you make a few little miscalculations early on but all that ‘packet checking’ gives you a really good grasp of what’s in your food longterm. Not just on fastdays but on every other day too. It really helps you to be mindful of what you can and should be getting away with on and off your fastdays and helps you make food choices you’ll be happy to stick with longterm. Good on you.

Re: your re-heated pasta. Did you see Michael’s post a few days ago about how re-heated pasta is actually LESS like a carb than it’s fresh counterpart? Apparently re-heated pasta behaves more like fiber than carbs, so your reheated pasta leftovers (although not exactly ‘health food’) were probably better for you than you thought they were – Bonus!

Hello, I am a student and doing 4:3 fast diet. I have noticed that it is just easier for me to eat fruit and vegetable since you can eat a lot of it(vegetable) and actually feel full enough, yet eating low on calories…so I usually have two pieces of fruit and for dinner some salad with a slice of bread, sometimes cous cous instead of it but I seem to enjoy it. Let me know how you doing! I have been on this diet for two and a half weeks and already lost 5 lbs 🙂