Curious – Can you lose weight without cutting a fast day to 500 cals

This topic contains 4 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by Apricot 8 years, 9 months ago.

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Kazd

5:56 pm
9 Mar 16
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I am doing a mixture of 5:2 and Michael’s new blood sugar diet. So essentially I am trying to eat within my TDEE (although on MFP I have to set it lower cos if I set it at maintain it allows me more calories than the calculator on this site). I am also trying to avoid high GI foods therefore on a fast day, I don’t eat breakfast or lunch but have a good evening meal. For e.g. on Monday dinner was grilled chicken with piri piri spices, Sweet Potato fries (oven baked), loads of salad with red onion and a tsp or so of balsamic and 60g of Tesco finest coleslaw. It was so delicious I had it the next night (mainly because I had salad and coleslaw to use up).

I also wear a fitbit and whilst not getting in my 10k steps I do earn enough to get me extra calories although rarely eat them. I would say on a TDEE of 1933 calories per day I am averaging 1510 calories a day based on the last six days. That does include a very high cal day where I gave in to fish finger butties for dinner and half a bag of salted cashews and about 150g of ice cream.

So my question is do you really have to cut to 500 cals on a fast day to keep losing weight?

And… exhale

7:02 pm
9 Mar 16
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I guess it depends – 5:2 is defined by eating up to your TDEE for 5 days a week, then eating 500 kcals per day (for a woman) for two non-consecutive days a week. As you can see from the comments on this site, this way of eating offers lots of benefits, including sustainable weight-loss.

A major part of its success for me is that I get to eat up to my TDEE for most of the week, and can easily tolerate eating only 500 cals on my fasting days. I’ve previously ‘failed’ at calorie-restriction diets like WW where you cut your daily intake by a fair amount, and I know I wouldn’t be happy eating only 1,500 on non-fasting days. But we’re different people and if it works for you, go for it.

In response to your question, if your baseline TDEE, without allowances for exercise, is 1,933 kcals per day, then five days of this, plus two days of 500 kcals gives you 10,665 kcals for a week. As long as you eat within this over a week, then you’ll lose a steady amount of weight. It won’t be 5:2 (in fact it sounds a lot like 16:8 – lots of info on that here, also on web) but if it works, then great. If you find it doesn’t work over time, then you can always go back to ‘classic’ 5:2 and mark it down to experience.

Good luck!

simcoeluv

7:10 pm
9 Mar 16
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Hi kazd:

People have been losing weight for decades without eating 500 cal. in a day. But this is a 5:2 site, so that is what most do. I believe there is an 800 cal. a day site, so you might want to join that site to get tips and share your experiences.

Good Luck!

QuietOne

10:41 pm
9 Mar 16
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On 5:2 if your daily TDEE is 2800 calories you could have 700 Calories on FD so until your TDEE hits 2000 Calories you would be eating over 500 Calories on FD.

The less energy you consume the more weight you lose.

If your TDEE is 2450 and you only eat 1800 per day you will lose weight. You have a calorie deficit of 650 per day in a week you’d have a deficit of 4550 calories so about a 1 1/4 pounds(?) roughly. You wouldn’t be doing 5:2 though you’d just be on a diet.

Apricot

12:28 am
10 Mar 16
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On the Blood Sugar Diet, you have 800 cals per day for eight weeks, on a low carb diet, so not anywhere near your TDEE. Or you can do a slower form of that diet by eating 800 on two or three days per week but for the rest you have a Mediterranean style diet without flour, sugar or potatoes. Or alcohol. So basically you aren’t doing the BSD either, but as Simcoeluv says, you can still diet without these ones. The Blood Sugar Diet has its own website and chat room.