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This topic contains 5 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by Cookie 10 years, 7 months ago.

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Rdgallant

12:42 am
16 May 14
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I have been doing the program for a good month and I just keep yo-yoing. I love the program and I know I could keep it up, if I could see results. I am looking for help on how to make this work. When I’m not fasting I don’t feel I’m over eating. I do eat chocolate every day except for my fasting day, maybe this is the problem. I think I should count my calories on my non fasting days to see how many calories I’m actually eating. Is it true that I should only have 2000 cal a day?
Thank you Rachael

simcoeluv

1:04 am
16 May 14
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Hi R:

So many questions.

The way it works is you eat 500 cal. or less on your two diet days. Work on doing your two diet days correctly for at least two months before worrying about much else.

A diet day is go to bed, get up, eat 500 or fewer calories during your waking hours, go to bed, get up and eat normally.

‘Normally’ really means your TDEE or less. Here is what you need to know about TDEE: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/tdee-for-the-curious-or-why-dont-i-lose-weight-faster/

And here are some tips for beginners: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/warnings-to-newbies/

Good Luck!

franfit

2:22 am
16 May 14
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Rdgallant, writing down everything you eat and drink for a week and then looking up and adding up the calories can sometimes give us a lot of insight into what is going on with our weight. 2000 calories is too much for some people, too few for others, go to the TDEE calculator under the ‘how’ tab and find out how many you need — only one tip — pick one activity level lower than you think you qualify for to be on the safe side.

TracyJ

11:18 am
16 May 14
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Hiya Rdgallant, All of the info above is really good & the threads should really help but basically yes, you probably should be eating 2000 calories (or possibly a bit more or less depending on your personal TDEE) on nonfastdays. This isn’t a ‘restrictive’ calorie controlled diet but the weight loss side does mostly boil down to a numbers game. You eat 1500 calories less than you ‘need to’ on each fastday and therefore you lose 1lb (or a bit more, or a bit less) per week.

If you have a good, healthy relationship with food and can eat ‘normally’ (not silly portion sizes & loads of carbs) before you start 5:2 then you shouldn’t find it too hard to stay under your TDEE on non-fastdays but you do NEED to get it under control if you are NOT eating that ‘normal’ diet on non-fastdays naturally.

P.S. It’s not all doom & gloom & calorie couting though. I only ‘roughly’ count to make sure I’m between my BMR & TDEE numbers on non-fastdays. I’ve been doing 5:2 for about 21 months now and I’ve lost 4 stone and 3 dress sizes in that time. My weight loss has gradually slowed to a crawl but as long as I only weigh monthly it does always go down by something and I only have 1 stone or so to go until I’m around the goal I’m aiming for. I also eat chocolate on EVERY non-fastday, I just make sure I account for it on those days.

Stef.

2:48 pm
16 May 14
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Get yourself Myfitnesspal (a free app) and start logging EVERYTHING that you put into your mouth, including drinks!

I was in for a real wake up call…I completely underestimated portion sizes (so do weigh your food) and calories!

At the end of the day the whole 5:2 boils down to creating a weekly calorie deficit and it will work if you do not overeat on your non fast days, something that is very easy to do!

Look at it this way: we would not be here if we hadn’t over eaten! So it is very likely that you have to look also very honestly at your calorie intake on non fast days. The chances are high that what you consider a “normal” eating day, is in fact over eating.
Stef.

Cookie

6:15 pm
16 May 14
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I chart my weight and measurements to see a trend over time as the daily fluctuations, while normal, can be very discouraging. This helps me not to give up when I have a bad day/week/month on the scale.