considering alternative plan: zero-calorie true 24-hr fast

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considering alternative plan: zero-calorie true 24-hr fast

This topic contains 17 replies, has 11 voices, and was last updated by  CharlotteW 10 years, 7 months ago.

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  • I recently realized that this is not a 24-hour, but a 36-hour fast. The book and this website are contradictory on this topic. No biggie. Just a realization.

    On my most recent fast day, I went w/o any calories all day and ate my ~600Kcal in one meal. It wasn’t that painful at all, which surprised me.

    It got me to thinking about an alternate plan: a calorie-free 24-hour fast. I wonder if I’d get the same benefits of fasting, lose weight, and yet have a shorter time to deal with hunger. And I think the best way for me to do this is a noon to noon (or thereabouts) fast, where the middle 3rd of it is spent sleeping, so it would not seem long to wait for my next meal.

    I’d love some feedback on this idea!

    My background on this diet:
    I’ve been on the 5:2 plan for only 2.5 weeks. I get very hungry (and sleepy) as dinner approaches and start thinking about my next days treats, even though I’m rarely hungry enough to pig out on the day after a fast. So far, I’ve lost 4 lbs total, but lost nothing over this last week.

    I’m not a fan of the calorie counting parts of a fast day. By that I mean that I don’t like adding up ingredients to create a meal. I do it – and I’m a stickler for accuracy – but I’d rather spend my time doing something else. A zero-calorie fast seems easier to me.

    I’m confused… Surely a 24 hour fast is one evening meal to the next (or one lunch to the next). How does 36 hours come into it? Unless that 500/600 cal meal is considered part of the fast and you mean one evening meal until the next non-fast day meal… Still confused!

    I’ve read that your not really supposed to count normal night time sleeping as a part of your fast anyway, which personally makes sense to me as it would mean the whole world fast 7 times a week without even knowing!

    LittleWing, the 5:2 fast is not a true “fast” in the sense that you do not eat for a 24 hr period. Women are allowed 500 cals and men 600 cals during that period.
    Michael recognised that most people would have difficulty attempting a true no food fast so came up with the 5:2 system to make it more acceptable and achievable. Basically have your last meal on a non fast day around 7 pm. Go to bed and on waking the following day you commence your fast day- 500 cals say between 7 am and 7 pm that day. Have your last part of your calorie allowance about 7 pm. Go to bed at your usual time, say 10.00pm. When you wake the next day eat as normal a healthy diet as you can. Hence the 36 hr fast.
    So do what suits you, experiment if you feel the need but remember that the 5:2 is what most posters do.
    Good luck.

    Couscous explained it right as far as the Fast Diet is described…most of the time: regular meal at dinner, fast next day, then regular meal at next day’s breakfast = 36 hours.

    Yet Michael also suggests a lunch to lunch (or a 2pm to 2pm) fast, which is a 24-hour fast. LittleWing – you are correct on this point, yet the book mostly describes the plan I outline above (the 36-hour fast).

    We do indeed fast when we sleep, hence the term “breakfast”. Michael talks about this on this site and in the book.

    My idea is a 24-hr fast in which I eat nothing…maybe some broth to stop the hunger pangs, such as I’m feeling about now 15 hours into my fast with nothing but water.

    I’m wondering if doing my modification will be as good as the 36-hour/600 calorie fast.

    I seeee… I think! I guess Michael’s 24 hour fast concept is suited to someone who could eat at 2 on a fast day and be able to struggle on til bed time. Am I right?

    Still confused actually. When you outlined the 36 hour fast and said ‘fast next day’ did you mean fast with the 500/600 cals?

    Bahh I don’t know! This is my 4th week fasting and its working brilliantly for me, 2 consecutive days, with my 500 cals eaten as an evening meal on both days. It’s just how I find it works for me… I haven’t really thought about it as a length of time fasting, more as massive cut in daily calories.

    I’d be interested to know how a whole day of actual no proper food would pan out too though, and whether it amplifies the health benefits and/or speeds up weight loss.

    Also waiting for my 5 year old to go to sleep (can hear her trying not to) so I can relax and have my lovely 500 cal meal…hungry so probably babbling!!!!

    Hi, Botany Bill – Research hasn’t so far come up with an answer to your question, so, for now, what’s best is ‘whatever you can most happily sustain’.

    LittleWing –

    To answer your questions…

    1 – Regarding Michael’s 24-hr/ 2-2 fast: you basically end your last regular meal at 2 pm and eat your next regular meal at 2pm the next day.

    2 – Regarding my outline of the 36-hr fast: yes, fast with the 500/600 cals.

    Hi Botany Bill & Little Wing
    I have been doing 5:2 since late January and am down 14.3kg, and my fast days (usually lunch/lunch) are WATER ONLY.
    I started at 91kg aiming for 65kg (4 stone roughly) and after 22 weeks have lost 14kg by fasting (water only) 2 days a week, eating and drinking normally (wine every non-fast day) and not counting calories, and swimming 5 days a week. I have found, rather to my surprise, that I am actually eating less than before. I find that not eating during the fast is easier than all the small snacks, I think because your body stops expecting food and isn’t tantalised by caffeine or other triggers. For me, the food and alcohol free days give me energy and I believe this will be for life in some form (6:1 whatever)
    I started on 22 January
    90.8kg
    Total cholesterol = 7.2
    Tryglycerides = 3.2 (scary, don’t want type 2 diabetes)
    BMI = 34.18
    After 12 weeks retested
    81.5kg (9.3kg loss)
    Total Cholesterol = 5.9
    Triglycerides = 0.8
    BMI = 30.67
    I have slowed down a bit in the last few weeks because of a frozen shoulder which stops me swimming (and much else), but the weight is still coming off. It is now very cold in Hobart but I’m still happy with fast days

    Hi all,
    New to this fasting, and a little confused – thought this topic would help but it hasn’t. I understand the whole “have evening meal, get up next day and only eat 500 cals for that day, then sleep and wake up to a normal day”.. BUT, if someone chose to do the 2-2 fast would this be as follows: Have last meal at 1.30/2pm.. Then you ave 500 cals to use until 2pm the next day, at which point you can then start eating normally again? If this is correct, and I’ve understood this properly, then I know this is the correct approach for me as I can fit it in around my current (manic travelling) lifestyle.. Could someone confirm this for me please? Thanks,

    Hi smdger,
    I had last meal yesterday 1.30 pm. My next meal will be tomorrow morning 8am. In the meantime just water (a lot of) and a couple of italian expresso. That happens twice a week.
    This is working for me, no stress. I’m 48 and 115 Kg today.

    Hi Steve1865, you’re doing a 36hr fast effectively then. Which makes sense completely.. I think I’ve just confused myself with the 2pm – 2pm approach which is referenced in the book but not explained brilliantly.. I was hoping that the 2 – 2 approach was as I thought, as I regularly travel and have time difference issues, and felt I could probably work around them if I’d understood it properly and still maintain the diet plan while working away.. Hey ho.. Thanks for the info though….

    smdger – I believe your description is pretty accurate. The only way I would change is that your fast-breaking meal should begin no sooner than 24 hours after you completed your pre-fast meal. So if you finish eating at 2pm, then your next “normal” full meal would start no sooner than 2pm the next day.

    I just started doing this. I find I can get through the fast day much better even though I eat less than my 600 cal. I do find that small snacks is better for me than 2 separate meals. I have yet to enjoy fasting and find it tedious. Even knowing my fast has begun makes me hungry.

    Reading the testimonials in the book, it seems people are playing will all variations and are making progress. I’m sure I’ll keep tweaking mine until I can find a good schedule for me.

    I am a little confused over this 24hr 36hr fasting.
    If I start my fast at say 6pm until 6pm the following day is that acceptable and will this diet still work for me ? I ask this because of my work commitments ,these time would be much easier for me.HELP please
    Confused !!

    Maryscott – this is what I do. At 6 pm on the fast day, I eat the 500 calories allotted for the day.

    Hi Botany Bill and others,

    I have also switched to a 24-hour fast a couple of weeks ago and it works very well for me. I prefer it to the day fast because I like having a proper lunch at work during the day and don’t mind not eating once I get home in the evening. By the time I’m home for work it’s approaching bedtime (well, not really, but it’s only a few hours which I find easy to get through). The next day I find that I don’t wake up particularly hungry and once I start getting hungry at work it’s not that long till lunch!

    So effectively I do a 24-hour fast, but it feels to me as a ‘proper fast’ in the sense of not eating anything at all. I have to admit that I sometimes cheat a little by fasting from 3pm-11am, having a piece of fruit just after lunch on the first day and just before lunch on the second day.

    I do try to make sure I match the calories of the regular fast day i.e. if you’d usually cut 1500 kcals (2000 for a woman minus 500 for fast meals) over one day, I now try to eat 1250 kcals on both day 1 and day 2 (or at least totalling around 2500 kcals, as you might want to save some more calories for the second day when you have dinner instead of breakfast). I don’t usually count them very accurately though.

    It works really well for me; I feel healthy and seem to be losing weight. I recently tried the ‘regular’ fast day again and found it much harder, which has only made me feel more certain about preferring the lunch-lunch approach!

    @maryscott: I guess 6pm-6pm would be just as effective! If that works best for you there is no reason not to do it like that 🙂

    Hi everyone:

    The reason a weight loss diet works is it creates calorie restriction – you eat fewer calories than you otherwise would have eaten.

    5:2 creates calorie restriction by limiting the number of calories you eat during two days each week to 5/600.

    My question is if you don’t eat for 24 hours – say 2 pm to 2 pm – how much calorie restriction is involved? It would seem you could eat as much as you want before 2 pm and as much as you want after 2 pm the next day, with no calorie restriction at all. That would mean you have to count calories to insure you are eating under your TDEE every day to make sure you have a chance to lose weight. The program does not, on its face, seem to include any calorie restriction. The person, not the ‘diet’, has to create the calorie deficit. There aren’t even required recipes or ‘eat/don’t eat’ foods.

    I guess what ever works. But I like the idea of the eating program creating the deficit rather than my having to figure it out.

    Hi @simcoeluv, yes you are right in stating that you need to make sure that you cut calories on both days to ensure weight loss. And I agree that counting calories over four meals (breakfast+lunch on day one and lunch+dinner on day two) is more of an effort than counting your 500/600 calories on one ‘regular’ fast day. However after a while you know approximately how much you can eat for that amount of calories so it’s not that much of an effort really. At least for me it works fine, of course it’s different for everyone.

    Secondly, let’s not forget that the fast diet has other benefits besides weight loss. Another important motivation for me to fast are the health benefits that fasting provides. If losing weight is not your main goal then the lunch-lunch fast is a great way to benefit in terms of general health and you won’t even have to be so strict about your calorie intake on both the fast days!

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