How do you organise your fast days?

This topic contains 8 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by patsykona 9 years, 9 months ago.

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)

sabulous

7:42 pm
30 Jul 14
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Hi all, I’m new to this (diet and forum) and I’m really pleased with how I’m going so far. I’ve been eating this way for a week and I have been organising my fast days around what I have planned and the food in my fridge (had some things that needed eating before a certain date etc) and I’m wondering how everyone else does it and what you feel the benefits are. Do you have set fast days every week that you keep to no matter what or do you arrange them around your plans?
I’m going to keep doing it the second way for now as I have certain things coming up in the next couple of weeks that I can’t fast for (my birthday, birthday night out, getting tattoo etc) but I’m curious to hear how everyone else is doing it.

Any input is greatly appreciated so thanks in advance!

Tiger

7:51 pm
30 Jul 14
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Hi Sabulous

I’m new here too – although this is my second time at trying the 5/2 – not becuase anything went wrong, just birthdays, anniversaries etc and I crashed spectacularly! 🙂

I’m afraid I can’t be too organised as I never know what I’m going to fancy and I feel that you have to have something you really do want and not what you have in the fridge. I’d blow the fast days pretty quickly if I did that, but that’s only me.

Best of luck

Tiger

jeffR

5:56 am
31 Jul 14
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Hi. This is my second attempt at 5:2.

I am doing 24 hours from dinner to dinner.

For instance, I have dinner at 7:30 pm. Then I do not have anything for the rest of the night (as I am sleeping!), and then have my limited calories intake during the day… till dinner time.

That is doable for me. However, this is my first week (second fasting day), and I do not know if it will work.

Does anyone have any views about dinner-to-dinner fasting?

simcoeluv

6:02 am
31 Jul 14
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Hi jeff:

You are not doing 5:2. What you are doing will work if you eat below your TDEE each week.

The way 5:2 works is you go to bed, get up, eat 5/600 or fewer calories during your waking hours, go to bed, get up and eat to your TDEE or less – twice a week. On all 7 days of the week you can eat foods you want to eat – there are no forbidden foods, or foods you have to eat. For the first month or so focus on doing your diet days correctly (5/600 calories or less) and most everything else will fall into place.

Here is what TDEE means: 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!

jeffR

7:33 am
31 Jul 14
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Thanks for your reply. I will do as I am told, but… I also want to understand what I am doing.

If I get up and start fasting in the morning, and do not eat my normal intake till the following morning, I am really fasting for 36 hours (from the time I last had dinner, till the second morning thereafter).

If I fast from dinner to dinner, I am doing 24 hours fasting.

As I am about to finish my second dinner to dinner fasting for my first week, I will reset for next week and do it the breakfast-to-breakfast way (36 hours) next week and see how it goes.

Cheers.

Jeff

jeffR

7:36 am
31 Jul 14
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Correction: I understand now. I went to the FAQ section, and your explanation was confirmed:

“In reality a fast day is 36 hours. If you finish your last full evening meal at 7.30pm on Sunday, then Monday is your fast day, you are not going to be eating normally till Tuesday morning 7.30am. That is 36 hours. If you decide instead to fast from 2pm on Monday until 2pm on Tuesday, then that will only be 24 hours. Wait till 7pm and that is 29 hours. To do 36 hours you would have to hold off till 2am on Wednesday, which would be a little inconvenient.”

Dummerchen

8:14 am
31 Jul 14
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jeffR, the book explains a 24 hour version as well but when you think about it the way you intended to fast is barely skipping a meal. It might not even be that if you spread your 500/600 kcal between breakfast and lunch; all it would be is a day of lighter breakfast and lunch and no snacking.
Just go through it in detail, let’s say you have 200 kcal for breakfast, 300 kcal for lunch and a pizza for dinner. You’ve munched three meals totalling 1800 kcal. Hardly a fast. Even if you eat a more normal dinner at 500 or 600 kcal you still had three substantial meals on a low calorie day, not a fast.

sabulous

8:22 pm
31 Jul 14
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Interesting discussion here, I had understood it to be a 36 hr fast so I’m glad I got that right.
However, I think I may have phrased my question weirdly, as what I was interested in was how people structure their week with regards to fast days. For instance, this week I fasted Monday and today, Thursday. Next week however I may do e.g. Tuesday and Saturday (just picked two random days for the sake of argument) because it would suit me better to do those days. From reading on here I see that some people do the same 2 days every week. This is actually what I was asking about but, reading back my original post, I can see that isn’t clear!

patsykona

8:51 pm
31 Jul 14
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Hi sabulous, I tend to fast the same two days each week unless i have something special planned for one of those days. Mine are usually Monday and Wednesday, but this week, because i had a friend come over for dinner on Wednesday, i’m doing tomorrow as well as the Monday. After you’ve done it for a few months, you might find as i have, that you’re not dying to eat on the day after your fast day, and sometimes i make it to midday, making it an even longer fast. Whatever way it works, you plan everything to suit your lifestyle and events happening in your week.After a while, you’ll look forward to the routine of it, well i did, anyway. Hope that helps.