Eating 6 small meals on Fast Days

This topic contains 12 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by MaybelleW 11 years, 1 month ago.

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

zumbagirl46

6:11 pm
26 Sep 13
Permalink

I am loving this eating plan and been having great success over the past 5 weeks, but I find the Fast Days to be much easier if I eat several tiny “meals” over the course of the day, rather than just one or two larger meals. For me, it’s more about the “calorie restriction” on those days (500), than it is about LONG periods of complete fasting.
Here’s a typical 500 calorie Fast Day for me:
Coffee w/cream for breakfast (15), large whole can of tuna w/1T mayo for lunch (230), 1 cup sliced strawberries at 2PM (80), chicken broth at 3PM (10), 3 egg-white omelet at 5PM (51), 12 steamed jumbo shrimp or shrimp cocktail at 7PM (100) and plum (29) at 8PM = 515 calories.

Melinda_in_NC

9:06 pm
26 Sep 13
Permalink

Hi Zumba,

Good luck with your journey. However, at the risk of sounding preachy or judgmental (not my intention!), I feel like I should pass along this article to you:

http://www.healthista.com/nutrition/fasting-diets-science-research-studies-52-diets/

Varady clearly states that the longer you go between eating, the more health benefits you will get. With your plan, you never really allow your body to go into true repair mode and allow your digestive system to take a real break.

Now, having said all that, Mosley’s book definitely does say you can work out your own plan for yourself. And congrats for losing weight (“great success”) on what you are doing. I would just say you might not be getting the most bang for your buck because you aren’t allowing your digestive system to rest.

Wishing you all the best,

Melinda

Couscous

9:08 pm
26 Sep 13
Permalink

Hi zumbagirl46, Just do what suits you. If you feel the need to experiment on fast days then do so but we are all different. What works for me might not for you. The longer you go between eating the more positive health benefits may happen. Keep checking out the posts, also click on the faq link at top right of home page. You may find some help there.
Good Luck.

dlroseberry

9:12 pm
26 Sep 13
Permalink

Very low carb, so from the point of view of blood sugar, it’s close to a water only fast however you eat it. I eat more vegetables on fast days, because I don’t like vegetables but they are better when I’m really hungry. But your system looks pretty darn good to me as far as just making it easy to fast.

wiltldnrUSA

10:43 pm
26 Sep 13
Permalink

Hi Zumba,

mimi the author she ate all day

zumbagirl46

3:24 pm
27 Sep 13
Permalink

Melinda – You make a good point, but with the way I’ve been working it, I actually stop eating the night before my Fast Day by about 8PM – then I don’t eat my first Fast Day meal until 12 Noon. That is a 16-hour fast period. But, once I eat my first meal at Noon, I find it much more manageable to have a little bit of food every few hours, or else I get light-headed. So far, so good. I’m mostly doing it for the weight loss aspect – and I feel that by ‘rotating’ higher calorie days with a low calorie days it has really worked wonders with my metabolism which used to be impossibly stuck !! I’m 62 and it’s the first time in my adult life I’ve been able to lose a pound a week.

Melinda_in_NC

3:34 pm
27 Sep 13
Permalink

Zumba–good for you!!! If you are going 16 hours, then that’s a really good fast window (as you probably know, some people do what they call a 16/8, where they fast 16 hours a day and then eat in an 8-hour window). So it sounds like it is working for you.

Regarding the light-headedness: Hopefully that will go away as your body adjusts. I can tell you from my experience that it did. My body has acclimated quite well. Yes, I still get (very) hungry, but I no longer fear the hunger. It’s all very positive.

Keep it up! We are all here to support each other.

Melinda

MaybelleW

6:10 pm
3 Oct 13
Permalink

I, too, am eating three small meals and a carrot snack between 11 am and 7 pm on fast days, which means I have fasted from 7:30 the night before (15 1/2 hours) and then fast until 10am the next day–a 15 hour fast. It’s working for me and it seems the way that I can manage fast days. I am having success and feel I can stick with this indefinitely since I have tailored it to suit me. I have been sticking to this plan for 7 weeks and even got through a 10 day vacation in which I managed to include 2 fast days. I am so excited to have found a plan that I can stick with and actually enjoy and I am now optimistic that I will be able to keep losing weight. I had pretty much given up on that hope before I found this plan.
At 68, being able to lose weight is a major accomplishment. Yippppeeeee!!!

zumbagirl46

2:06 pm
4 Oct 13
Permalink

MaybelleW: I’m so happy that you, too, are having wonderful success with the plan, including eating small snacks throughout the “fast” days. And you’re right – if we stop eating by early evening and don’t eat again till mid-morning the next day, we are still giving our bodies a 15-16 hour fast. Healthy snacking during the day (even carrots, green veggies or clear soup broth) keeps me sane and makes the eating plan so much more workable for me! This is the 1st time in my “over-60” life that the pounds are dripping off ! But truth be told – on my non-fasting days, I’m sticking to about 1250 calories a day which must also be helping.
Continued success !

MaybelleW

3:41 pm
5 Oct 13
Permalink

Zumba girl: It sounds like you’re as enthusiastic as I am because it is so great to finally have something that works in our “over-60” lives. It’s the idea that I can keep doing this indefinitely that makes me so happy. But, I must say, I couldn’t do what you are doing on the non-fast days and eat so few calories. I think for me that being able to eat normally on the non-fast days, but with some care, is what makes me think I can keep going. I don’t feel like I’m depriving myself all the time. I’m willing to accept a very slow weight loss. But, I also think that this plan has changed my outlook a bit on what I want to put into my body. I’m being more careful not to pop worthless snacks when I’m bored and to aim for more healthy (and plentiful) vegetables and fruits. I have still not weighed but am trying on some clothes from the back of the closet and finding a few things fit or are close to fitting. I haven’t felt this good in a long time!!! So, good for both of us!!! Keep it going.

zumbagirl46

2:39 pm
7 Oct 13
Permalink

I’m with you on the worthless snacks – I have totally rid my house of them ! I’ve been substituting fruit for those empty carbs whenever I’m hungry – and it works like a charm. One more thing, just to explain my 1250 calorie intake on NON-fast days: I am barely 5 feet tall with my shoes on and that, coupled with my age of 62, is why I’m limiting my eating days to 1250 or so. If I were taller, that number would be higher.

Now my eating days seem like FEASTS to me ! And the pounds are literally dripping off. I am consistently losing one+ pound each week and sometimes more.

Also, my oldest daughter is getting married in June so I have extra incentive ! I’m truly giddy that I have FINALLY found something that produces results. When you actually see the results on the scale, it give you the incentive to continue with it.

Doghouse

8:15 am
8 Oct 13
Permalink

Zumba girl: I’m 59, male; been doing the 5:2 for a year or so now. I started for the health effects rather than as a diet per se (although I was way overweight, and I’ve lost 8ins on my waist along the way).

Whilst I experienced it, that slightly light-headed stage passed quite quickly; a few weeks at most. I haven’t noticed it for ages. And in my case I fast 20-24 hours, for no other reason than that it lets me eat in the evening and not go to bed feeling TOO hungry, which I hate. Non-fast days I eat my main meal at mid-day, so on pre-fast days I eat a reasonably light tea at about 5:30pm; often sneak a biscuit or a piece of fruit in mid-evening, because part of me knows what’s coming up… 8-); fast straight through until about 5:30pm again, and stock up on salad and fruit; then through until breakfast the next day.

While it lasted, mind, that light-headed feeling was real; my concentration undoubtedly wasn’t quite as sharp. One thing that I’m sure helped me is that I’m retired. If I’d still been working, I’d probably have needed to find a slightly different pattern.

MaybelleW

1:03 am
9 Oct 13
Permalink

Hi,again, Zumbagirl, The last time I was able to lose a chunk of weight was when daughter #2 got married. THAT incentive was what I needed. But, since then, several years ago, I’ve never had a strong enough incentive to lose. And then there is the problem of gaining it back, which I did when the wedding was over.
That is one of the reasons that this plan has me so excited because I’m sticking with it and losing and with no greater incentive than wanting to lose, to be healthier and being tired of being uncomfortable at the weight I’d recently reached–a new high! A scary new high. I think I may be able to do this indefinitely and to use it as a way of living/eating for the long run. By next June you will be a shadow of your former self!!!!! Congratulations on your success and on the upcoming wedding.