Hi Lardilass, well done for gtting through the first day – the first few are the toughest and it does get easier – honestly!

I think I felt the same nervousness on non-fast days as you at the start – but remember what you are aiming for is a net calorie deficit at the end of the week (or any other period you are measuring over)- but as it is the 5:2 diet I think of it in weekly chunks. So if you eat the calories as calculated for yourself in the TDEE on non fast days (which is the number you need to eat to maintain current weight) and restrict on your 2 fast days, then your body has to use fat reserves to make up the difference – hence weight loss.

I must confess that I was horrified that my TDEE worked out around 1760 – as at the moment I am sedentary (desk job + no exercise as awaiting a hip replacement) – but at least if you have it in mind you can try to keep a rough count of what you eat on a non-fast day. If you just go mad I’m sure you’d be at risk of undoing the good work, at least regarding weight loss.

I’ve been on this since 19th August, and apart from a blip of a 2lb gain whilst on 2 weeks holiday, I have lost weight every week and last week got to my first stone off. I am absolutely delighted as (by my reckoning) that has been achieved simply by sticking to 500 calories on just 19 days, and being reasonably careful about not going above TDEE on the days in between.

It is really tough when you have heavy weekends planned – but just think about small things you can do to help yourself. For example I try to swap beer for wine or vodka and slimline; avoid salty snacks with drinks and order as sensibly as I can in restaurants. And the biggie for me is try to stop eating when I am full. Sounds simple but I honestly never used to, and portions are often massive and people put you under pressure to clear the plate.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

Cath x

Hi Lass, it IS scarey the day after because you just cant believe that its that simple. I tended to blow out on kj/calories for the first couple of weeks, but thats okay you know, once my body got into the swing of it then I started to keep an eye on my daily intake, then I started to tweek that. By the time I had lost a number of kilos my appetite had changed, my awareness of what I was eating grew and I had so much more control.
Freedom to eat and freedom to not eat. Wonderful stuff!
You will soon get the hang of it well and truely.
Cheers.

Good job Lardilass, well done 🙂

Hey lass, it’s 4 days later – done another fast day? 🙂 How’d it go?

Sounds good! Doing fastdays back to back isn’t always something that makes me very happy, but then again I always make it through knowing I can have a nice meal of whatever the next day!

I think I’ll go for fish, veggies and dumplings tonight. (See, I’ve done two fast days in a row of eating almost nothing and all I think about is food).

Go you!! ^^