Hi Noddydog,

You are not alone in how you feel. I felt exactly the same when I started fasting, but over the course of a few weeks it settled, and now I dont go mad on non-fast days. I have the occasional relapse, but we all do from time to time. Give it a little longer and your mind will stop obsessing about food, especially when you see the results.

Best of luck!

you are defo not alone – see my post on post-fast hunger!! I am guilty of a late night Nigella-style raid on the treat size dairy milk bars last night on a non-fast day. Feel guilty today but better for the confession!

ha me too! I’ve only done 4 fast days so far but have been compelled to stuff my face like a git on the feed days – subconsciously storing it up for famine I expect 😀 I’m not worrying too much at this stage though… as others have said, it will probabl;y calm down once my brain gets the point that I’m not actually in danger of starving to death 😀

You could try doing what my personal trainer recommended. I lost weight eating this way, and its currently the standard recommended advice given by nutritionists.

The general principle is to satiate the hunger but gradually, eating meals spread throughout the day.

The first step is to make sure you aren’t dehydrated. Its easy for dehydration to make itself felt as hunger as the body absorbs a great deal of liquid from food. Meals can be made up of 50% to 70% water. I find dehydration to be common the day after a fast day, especially if the fast day itself was really busy. On a fast day I usually try to drink double or triple the amount compared to a non fast day to make up for the liquid usually taken on board with food.

So, drink a large glass of water first, wait 5 – 10 mins before eating.

Then eat 1 portion of low GI food (I split 50% meat, 50% vegetables and fruits), enough to stop the hunger pang, but not nearly enough to feel full. I find here that eating fatty meat, like a lamb chop really helps. Hugely satiating on small portions. My Personal Trainer is for eating sensible amounts of naturally sourced saturated fats, eg. from a lamb chop, but not from processed sources such as pastry shortenings. He suggested I go for fist sized portions in the beginning and increase / decrease from there. I found a fist and a half size portion to be optimal eventually.

Then repeat throughout the day, as you start to feel hungry. It needs to be real hunger as opposed to psychological hunger. My PT said real hunger can be felt in your stomach, your whole body, a sort of all over yearning for something to eat. If just from the mind, its emotional hunger used to cover something else going on in the day.

Generally I found I’d take in 4 – 6 meals a day doing this. I always drank a large glass of water first, before the meal.

I found it easier to batch cook 5 meals in the morning or night before, stash them in 5 small tupperware / locktight containers and then zap in the microwave to eat when required, rather than go out looking for food, or cook 5 small meals (this is a total nightmare).

So, by all meals EAT MORE after a fast day, but make sure its healthy food taken in small portions. In terms of hunger, I found processed sugar to be the enemy, and saturated fats from meats (lamb chop, steaks etc) to be an ally.

Hope this helps.

Hi Angela ( from another Angela lol )

I know it may not seem like a lot, but 5.2 can be a very slow process, please don’t give up!! I am fasting today and its a struggle but I am sticking with it!!
come on, you can do this 🙂

Thank you Ya’ll I feel much better now!! Thanks a million x