hi Barbamama!

well done on your weight loss so far, I can relate to you because I feel the same on feed days and I have to remind myself, and put the breaks on as I tend to want to eat all the treats I couldn’t have on fast days lol!!

so I have some treats, but not masses of them 🙂 and I think that statement form Michael and Mimi was a little idealised really, some people just fall into it but for others it isn’t that straight forward… but having said that, you only have been doing 5.2 for 3 weeks and I am sure in the long run your appetite will reduce, you will not want all those treats or overeat anymore, just give it time!

keep going!! you are doing great 🙂

I had the same problem at the beginning, but now after 2 1/2 months I got it under control.

I do not deny myself treats, or life would be horrible, but I have realized the power of sugar and how it makes cravings worse.

Each time I feel a craving I eat FIRST a huge plate of veggies, telling myself if I still need the ice cream I can have it AFTER my veggies. Usually they fill me up and there is not much room for ice cream left.

The other thing that helped me is to understand the difference between “good” calories with nutritional value and “bad” calories with next to no use for your body. If you eat a lot of bad calories, you might be eating tons but in effect you are starving your body and it will “scream” for food.

Take the example of a bowl of plain pasta: tons of carbs but nothing that your body can really use, so it stores it as fat and screams for more. Eat a huge bowl of veggies and your body gets nutrition and it will be satisfied, hence no hunger for hours.

There is a good book out there called The Calorie Myth that explains it very nicely.

Best of luck
Stef.

For me sugar is the devil – in all it’s forms whether in the shape of cake or biscuit or ‘disguised’ as bread or pasta etc. If I start eating it I just want to keep eating. It’s definitely ‘Sweet Poison’ and highly addictive – as additive, so scientists tell us, as tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

I try to eat as late as possible on non fast days but I know I have to eat more than on my fast days so I load my plate with veggies or have a big bowl of home made veggie soup at lunchtime then a savoury snack in the afternoon if I feel the need, then dinner.

I have learned that, on fast days, one meal is the best way for me…just black coffee and water all day and then some protein and a pile of veggies for dinner followed by a low cal yogurt or some fruit if I want it.

My husband and I are in the first week. We actually dropped weight right away, but after our second fast day we ate too many carbs and the weight went back up. So I guess on non-fast days, moderation is the method. We’ll be better next week 🙂

Snacking away AND loosing weight? Hey, I wish I was that lucky! 😉

Advice from my personal trainer at the gym regarding hunger:

The best way to deal with this is to eat another meal, and consume more calories in a disciplined way.

If you usually eat a sandwich and some fruit for lunch, do this twice, say once at 11:30am and then eat again at 3:30pm and have dinner as normal.

If you get the calories from healthy food sources, you satisfy your hunger, still lose weight and be fine. If you eat say an additional 600 calories on a day after a fast day, you are still running a 1400 calorie deficit during both days.

I have found saturated fats (from natural sources like lamp chops or chicken legs) to be an ally, sugars and refined carbs an enemy. Crisps, chocolate, cereals and biscuit munching is a definate no.

It also helps to drink a lot of water before eating, especially during the fast and after a fast day. A good way to check is to see if your pee pale yellow, almost clear? You get a lot of water from food, and people who can eat constantly, whenever they like often get the signals confused.

I would down a pint of water, wait 15 – 20 mins and then eat.

So 11:00am, large glass of water. 11:30am sandwich and fruit.
3:00pm large glass of water. 3:30pm sandwich and fruit etc.

If you spread the additional calories throughout the day, your body is much less likely to store it as fat.

Plus it makes me so tired and sluggush on a fast day. I am close to giving up.

May have a look into the fiber content on your feed days.
I read an article nearly 30 years ago .from a food researcher that I just cant reference , but ill give a shot at his message. Think of your intestines as a long hose. If you stuff it and then stave it creates a lumpy hose and can cause irritability and possibly issues with kinked twists.
So he explained. What you want is a completely stuffed hose with fiber. This makes the intestine work better as some nutrients are better accessed the full tube. Because the its not a hose that is smooth inside. Forgive my laymen description. Its inside of the intestinal tract has more than million finger shaped tissues that sample for nutrients.
Vegetables are great for both fiber and nutrition. I struggled with over eating on feed days till I cut the starchy carbs for fat soluble high fiber vegtables like cucumbers , but then turned to whole pickles for their probiotic properties.
I later learn that pineapple I great for helping with fat in the intestine. Since its so high in calorie I only eat it on feed days. And I eat a chewable fiber supplement sometimes on fast days its 30 calories and comes in fruity flavors.

Im only guessing though, a gut that has low fiber contents and poor probiotic balance may or somehow the body signals it has room for more.

Just checking in down another pound scary!

What I look for to respond to posts about feeling starved on fast day , is being starved past breakfast. So feeling staved all day, particularly for breads. One might try probiotics, try the food souce probiotics first before jumping into a bunch of pills. Like sauerkraut, and green olives. It’s an easy read on wiki.

As much as I would like to say what sustains me is my fast day. However I get most of my nutrition from feed day. When I first started 5:2 I struggled just with the 600 calories. Then with 4:3. Then i noticed strategic foods on feed days made fast days less difficult. About 12 weeks 4:3 became regular and I so I was noticing how my diet didn’t change on feed days. Basically I ad two week days to feed . I typically eat spaghetti once a week and chicken the other as econo meals. So that didn’t change when I went 4:3.
I decided to make those two meals as healthy as possible. I make only half the noodles now and the rest of the noodles are vegetables the size and texture of noodles. Still carbs , but a lot more vitamins and minerals. With mushrooms, spinach and onions, and roasted red peppers.
Thursday is my chicken challenge day. I boil it. * Hears screeching. Yes I boil all the animal fat out of it and skim it of then use salty spices to make it good again.
Woot woot g2g.