Pattience, wonderful advice. Thank you. I have their dinner ready and they can heat it themselves. I won’t even have to look at it. You’re right, it’s only one day and I can eat tomorrow. The benefits of living longer are worth more than a snack.

Hi Travlea

You most certainly can have protein on a fast day. My fast days always begin with a poached egg and a black coffee. Lots of water all day. Then either vegetable soup ( with or without sliced chicken, depending on how I’m feeling and how my 400 calories are going), or I eat stir fry chicken or salmon with lots of steamed vegetables. Add flavours such as chili, ginger, lemon, lime, pepper, herbs etc.

When I am fasting I need a little protein plus lots of vegetables. By restricting my carbs, starchy foods and sugars, and fasting, and by mostly eating a small portion of fish, lean meat or chicken and lots of steamed vegetables, I lost around 15 kgs and 3 clothing sizes.

Enjoy! Cheers, Bay 🙂 this is indeed a way of life!

Hi Sitash

It’s good to realise that a fast day is really 36 hours long. Most of us begin our fast around 7 pm the day before and continue until 7 am the day after. For instance, if you decide that Monday is one of your fast days, you would have dinner on Sunday evening and try to finish eating by 7.30 pm.

Then have nothing but water until breakfast or brunch on Monday. The water, black tea or coffee, herbal teas through the day. Then eat your dinner on Monday making sure you have only had a maximum of 500 or 600 calories for the whole day. Then you only have water until Tuesday morning.

I hope this makes sense. The 5:2 does not really work for most of us if you go from say 2 pm Monday until 2 pm Tuesday. This is not long enough for the fasting effect to work.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Good advice Bay.
Travlea, have you read the fast diet books? All is revealed 🙂
All you are doing is restricting your intake to 25% of your daily needs (TDEE.Calculate using the home page). Finish eating on (say) Sunday after dinner, eat about 400-500 calories during Monday and eat normally from breakfast on Tuesday. That is a 36 hour fast.
You can eat anything up to the reduced calorie count but you would be very hungry, for example, if you chose 3/4 bottle of wine!
As Bay says, an egg (eg mushroom and parsley omolette with a tiny spray of oil) for breakfast. A small snack of carrot sticks in the late afternoon and fish and highly flavoured steamed veg (onion, garlic, chilli flakes, bok choy, carrot, fennel, shallots…) for dinner. Strawberries and blueberries are brilliant too.
Look for very low cal foods and play with them. Coles sell Slendier Kojak noodles in the health section…minimal cals.
The only limitations are 400-500 cals MAX (I go lower) and your imagination.
Many of us extended the no food period as long as possible to gain health benefits (very late breakfast) and because once you eat it is harder to stop 🙂
Good luck PVE

Hi Bayleafoz

Thanks for the pointers and yes it makes perfect sense! Now I know what to do, thank you :-).

SALT IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR WELL BEING BUT IT MUST BE THE RIGHT SORT OF SALT.
Processed salt has fillers and anti caking agents in it an should be treated as poison. Look to your health food store for Himalayan salt or some sea salts produced in Australia that do not have fillers.

Hi there

We went out to dinner with friends and I ate the Vietnamese soup Pho with rare beef, bean sprouts, rice noodles, green onions, basil and chili. Yummy and good enough for a fast day, if you watch the amount of noodles.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Hi all Southerners,
What a lot to catch up on. Go away for a few days to celebrate 30th wedding anniversary and this site has got very busy. Welcome to all the wonderful newbies, may the power of 5:2 give you strength in a great new way of life.
For all the new folk I have been doing 5:2 for 10 months, spent the past two months on a plateau and still managed to loose 20 kg. 🙂
Few days away was road trip to Southern Vic to visit places we went on honeymoon 30 years ago, along with some retail therapy. How things change in that time.
Caught up with family and friends who were blown away at my weightloss and extra energy.
IHAW, thanks for asking, cows are well and beginning to enjoy the spring flush of pasture growth, however the lack of rain for the past two months is really showing, and spring may be very short this year. On the study side I have taken this term off to get the garden and myself licked back into shape, we are about to start eating salad veggies from the garden, and we are just finishing the last of last years leeks, great in veggie soup.
Keep up the good work everyone, enjoy spring while it lasts.
Happy fasting tomorrow, Charlie 🙂

Good start Baz, but why did you not eat any solids? It is not a liquid diet, just a limited calorie diet (25 % of your TDEE) This needs to be sustainable long term. Many of us who have done it a long time eat all our fast day calories in one meal at night. ie nothing from dinner to next dinner (eat fast day allowance or less) then nothing until breakfast (that’s a 36 hour period), but most beginners split their fast day food into two lots….breakfast or brunch, then a light dinner.
Look at the recipes you can do on a fast day and enjoy the wonderful flavours of tasty veg or salad and fish or egg.
You do need to drink plenty to make up for the lack of food and any sleep issues can be overcome by eating most cals at night.
All the best to both of you. PVE

dcmc, e535 doesn’t seem to be particularly harmful. Its the only other ingredient in my salt apart from sea salt. Its black and gold product. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_ferrocyanide.

“G’day Charlie.

man losing 20kgs in 10 weeks – like WOW that is awesome.”

LOL that’s close to what i thought too! But actually i thought he was on a plateau for two months and still lost 20kg. How do you do that?

Hi Miss Lizzy C, most people seem to do the ballpark figure, but I am one who does the quarter of TDEE. My daily TDEE comes in at about 1400 so I found that 500 cal on a fast day was too much. Everyone is different and has different needs. The beauty of this diet is that you can adjust it to suit you.
HB

HA HA HA – Hey Pattience,

sorry but that was actually a typo on my behalf (from a lack of sleep). It was meant to be 10 months not 10 weeks. But really 20kg in 10 months is a amazing achievement.

Speaking of sleep, I wonder if jasmine tea is high in caffeine cause i had a few cups throughout the day and not long before bed.

As far as having liquids only, i thought a true fast does mean no solids and as I don’t generally eat that much during the day (about 4000 Kj) per day, I thought I’d give it a crack. I felt good, wasn’t starving throughout the day.

I can’t see any harm as long as I provide plenty of nourishment from good food on the following non-fasting days.

any thoughts – anyone

Baz

Hi all the newbies looking for recipes.
We started the LOACA Recipe thread to keep all the great recipe ideas together without them getting lost in the middle of chatty threads.
If you have questions about specific recipes, ask there, but if you have more general questions, eg relating to Aussie products (Bay and I, who have recipes on the thread are both Aussies), please ask here. Keep the chatty conversations off the thread to make it easier to find the actual recipes.
Don’t want to sound pushy, but thought I should explain the reason it was started. Enjoy dabbling in the food ideas. Thrilling your taste buds with nutritious, filling, yet very low cal foods on fast days, is one way of ensuring continued adherence.
Happy cooking all. P 🙂

Ooops. I’ve only been here five minutes and I’m already misbehaving. Sorry everyone (PVE).You know what we newcomers are like! 🙂 Maybe we could start a thread specifically for food equivalents between countries/regions? (If only I knew how to start a thread!Haven’t figured that out yet!).

PVE, the recipe (above) sounds great. Is that just the flat-packed, vacuum-sealed salmon you use? Or maybe a chunky piece of smoked salmon? Thanks for the advice. It’s my first fast day today so this will make it a lot easier!

PVE, I edited that ^^^^ to ask about the salmon in your recipe. Could you take another look maybe??? Ta!

Hi Miss Lizzy
Either one. The flat pack 100g is very low cal and keeps for ages. Also really easy to toss in an esky for a picnic. The flavoured larger chunks are slightly more cals (I’m not getting out of bed to look, sorry…too cold), but I often use them in a stir “fry” of steamed veg, chilli, garlic, onions,shallots, grated ginger, bok choy etc and Shiritaki noodles (Slendier here) for a winter evening meal.
I also use sword fish or king fish often in stir fries (no oil) as it holds it’s shape well. See my cashew, chilli recipe…it’s a real winner.
Good luck. P 🙂
Buy dried chilli flakes, ginger root (keep in the freezer it grates well) and plenty of limes and lemons. Always have frozen berries in the freezer too.

Baz, no idea about jasmine tea, google it.

You can eat nothing if you prefer but the 5:2 fast suggests its easier to have a few calories and may reduce muscle wasting. Do whatever feels right for you. But i love being able to eat something.

Any chance you could learn how to talk in calories. Apart from PVE above, yours is the first post in a year of being on forums where i’ve read someone talk about kilojoules.

The thing is protein is not stored in the body unlike carbs and fats. So you can only get the benefit of protein when you eat it. So the days you go without protein, you may lose a bit of muscle which you will only regain if your activity level demands it. Muscle mass is generally dictated by the needs of the body. So i was interested to learn that obese people actually carry quite a bit of muscle. They lose most of it whilst losing weight because its no longer needed or demanded by extra exercise.

I don’t bother posting recipes in recipe forums very much because i tend to think people don’t read them. I got disillusioned with such threads because there was no conversation. Also i prefer to get my recipes from recipes books. I just like to share some of my food ideas here because its more fun and i like talking about food in terms beyond just nutrition. And it has paid off too because now i have discovered the ricotta strawberry combination which is going to become a regular of mine in strawberry season. I actually have a recipe for grapes and ricotta which haven’t tried yet because they are still too expensive. Normally i eat fruit with Pauls original natural yoghurt or my own home made yoghurt which is nowhere near as delicious as Pauls but its cheaper and i still like it.

I would point out that natural yoghurt is an incredibly wonderful alternative to ice-cream and cream if that’s what you are used to eating.

Hi Pattience
I have followed the on line doctor, Dr Mercola, for many years now and I try to follow his advice.
I have included a link on his site regarding sat for your information.
all the best
David

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/04/04/high-salt-consumption.aspx

Pattience, as a guide i try get to the gym 3 times a week – my non fasting week days being Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. This is where I do my HIT and resistance (weight) work.

On these days I eat properly making sure my meals consist of protein and nutrients with minimal carbs and fats.

It’s definitely a balancing act trying to lose weight and maintain muscle.

I just find it much easier not to eat anything at all on my fasting days, this way I know from the outset I don’t have to think about my next meal for the day and just get busy. When we think about food, anticipate it and start looking forward to it – we get hungry.

Anyway – that’s just me. We are are all different and need to find what works for yourself.

This is why communities like this are so valuable as they provide great a place to learn what others are doing and how.

anyway time to go off to get busy 🙂

Baz

Morning.
I began yesterday!!!
I fasted.
It was hard.
Stupidly I chose to fast on the same day I had to make my son’s birthday cake. However, I didn’t lick a single spoon or bowl – have to be happy with that!!! Even the cake shavings I was cutting off to be able to make a number 9 didn’t make it into my mouth. Nor did the icing spoon or the smarties and jelly babies I used for decorations.
Still I made it through my first day and just had a cup of steamed veges for dinner besides green tea and water throughout the day.
I can do this!

Hi Everyone,
I started my first fast day today, so was thrilled when I realised one of our routine meals was actually really low calorie! It’ll be dinner tonight! 🙂 Thought I’d share it for those who’d like to give it a try.

WARM BALSAMIC FISH SALAD – recipe by Sally James, The Heart Foundation Cookbook (Australia)
CALORIES = 269 PER SERVE

This is really yum, and (I was pleasantly surprised!) is one of our regular meals! Has been for nearly a decade! Just happens to be low cal! I calculated the calories as per individual serve, which totals about 269 calories, based on a 100 gm piece of Atlantic salmon being used. I usually serve it with steamed chats, but for fast days would probably substitute the carbohydrate with the zero calorie noodles (in Australia look for Slendier, other places shiritaki).

Serves 4. Easy to make.

Oil spray (low calorie if available – otherwise add the cal’s in)
400 gm fish fillets cut into 3 cm cubes – tuna/blue eye/Spanish mackerel/ocean trout/Atlantic salmon/swordfish/mahi mahi
8 fresh asparagus spears, halved.
200 gm fresh green beans, halved
200 gm (4 cups) mixed lettuce leaves (baby mesclun mix/rocket/arugla/whatever)
200 gm punnet of cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 long Lebanese cucumber, sliced

Dressing:
1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon/lime juice
2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

1. Using a non-stick frying pan or griddle, spray the pan and wait for temp to come up.
2. Cook fish over high heat until browned on both sides and flesh just flakes when tested with fork. Turn heat off.
3. Steam asparagus and beans until tender, but not faded. Rinse under cold water and drain well.
4. Arrange lettuce mix, tomatoes, cucumber and asparagus and beans over a serving platter/in a bowl.
5. Top with hot fish and drizzle with balsamic dressing.

Dressing: Combine all ingredients in a screw top jar and shake to combine.

(Might also be nice to add a Spanish onion into this, finely sliced wedges).

David, Dr Mercola is not my kinda guy.

Baz i just did my resistance and leg work by brush cutting the long grass my front garden for a good 30 minutes.

Hi Minnie. How much fibre do you and hubby eat? I don’t think it will resolve his coeliac issues but if you watch catalyst – gut reaction you will learn about how much help fibre does for our health, or you can read the wikipedia entry called gut flora which is less entertaining and a bit more detailed.

When i log my calories in my fitness pal, i choose to count fibre as well. On low fibre days, i take a spoonful of psyllium to boost it up. chia and oat bran will also help with relatively low calories. But fibre is said to be excellent for all the inflammatory diseases, i.e. diabetes.

Since paleo is low carb, you will notice the similarities re fasting and water/headaches etc.

Like you i want an easy to sustain exercise routine so…

Recommend look at getting a pedometer. What MM basically is advocating is walking and increased general activity and short intensive bursts of exercise 3 times a week. Its seems to be inspired by the hunter gatherer lifestyle because i think its believed that’s our bodies have been best adapted for these types of activities. The latter will increase cardiac fitness and the other will give you all the other benefits of exercise. Doesn’t seem much emphasis on muscle mass. I guess just being active will will give you the mass you need. Anyway its a lot cheaper, more productive and efficient and easier i think. Though i haven’t got around to trying out the HIIT yet. Oh i was at the bone density clinic last week and the guy there told me he sees a lot of injuries from cross fit training. The thing is most people dive right in to intensive exercise (lots and lots of squats and pushing their bodies to the max without sufficient building up of technique and mushcle strength).

Anyway with the pedometer. about a week in i have found a way to make sure i am walking more. Every day i write down five jobs that need doing and try to do them instead of spending so much time on my computer. if i had to work 9-5 in an office, i’d have to find other little ways of getting more steps in like taking the long way around to the toilet etc. But i’m hoping that i can keep doing my 5 jobs for a long time. yesterday i got up to over 12000 steps without difficulty. The thing about a pedometer is that its inherently motivating.

Fasting food can be a lot more interesting than boiled eggs and lettuce but if you want a break from cooking, its probably a good choice.

Here’s a question, the website says I need 2200 cals a day to sustain my weight, obviously I don’t want to sustain it but lose it, how many calories should I drop that to?
1800 hasn’t been working, how much more should I drop it?

When your TDEE is over 2000 calories a day, your fasting days should be 500 calories. If yoga re counting calories, non fast days should be either 2200 or less. I recommend reducing them a bit but not too much. You can recalculate as you go along. Start by eating at 2100 and when you notice the scale stops going down, reduce it a bit more. Its more sustainable to have a smaller calorie deficit, than a larger one. and i think its more sustainable to lose it a little more slowly and a little more steadily.

Are you going to keep doing Paleo? Do you follow it strictly? Why do you think you haven’t reached your goal? have you stopped calorie counting or watching what you eat? Obviousy it always comes down to calories in versus calories out.

Miss Lizzie, thanks for sharing your recipe. Also Try cooking salmon under the griller. Its delicious and needs no oil. I do recommend just rubbing a little salt into it first though. At least on one side. Stick it on a piece of aluminium foil skin side down and then you won’t have to worry about anything sticking to the tray. I don’t east the skin but the dog loves it.

The low fat tradition of advice is currently being turn on its head. I’ve read numerous things about it. Perhaps the most in-depth version is Good Calorie Bad Calorie by GAry Taubes. you may not want to read the book but you can read about the book. But here’s a good article posted by another member from this site.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/health/low-carb-vs-low-fat-diet.html?ref=health&_r=3

So when i make a salad or any dish, i tend to put in 1-3 tsp of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil (which is a very healthy oil) per serve which improves the flavour of any recipe by leaps and bounds.

but i’m going to try to your dressing and see how i like it.