How healthy should the 500 calories be?

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

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lowrijos13

7:36 pm
22 May 14
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Hello! I’m new to intermittent fasting (on my second fast today) although I have attempted it a couple of times before. I’m planning on doing 4:3 and 16:8 in the middle to keep me on track.

I was just wondering how healthy should the fast days’ food be. I planned my first fast out in advance and was well prepared, but today, I’d planned on doing a liquid fast originally. I ended up feeling weak and light-headed so I decided that maybe I should still to 500 calories for a while. So, since I hadn’t planned to eat, I didn’t really have anything suitable in the house. I had 250 calories worth of leftover stirfry, 100 calories of pom bears, 50 of diet fizzy drinks/squash/jelly and I’ll probably have a Freddo to finish the day off. Is that acceptable? Will the health benefits still happen if my fasting food isn’t actually that healthy?

Thanks in advance!

Dummerchen

8:04 pm
22 May 14
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You will most likely find that this sort of food does not satisfy you and you might feel hungry very quickly. Pom bears, chocolate bars and fizzy drinks are high in sugar; that stuff is quickly absorbed, raises blood sugar quickly and insulin. When blood sugar crashed, hunger is back with a vengeance.
A reasonable amount of protein is better as it does not lead to the same blood sugar response and makes you feel full for longer.

Are you sure you have nothing better in the cupboard? No eggs in the house?

lowrijos13

8:50 pm
22 May 14
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I didn’t actually feel any hungrier than I did on my last fast when I ate healthier, but I know what you mean. I do have a couple of eggs, but I only like scrambled eggs with something else – which makes the calories add up. What could I put them with?

Purple Vegie Eater

9:51 pm
22 May 14
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The Fast Diet and 5:2 recipe books are full of ideas. Don’t use milk or cream to make your scrambled eggs. Add a dash of water before you beat the eggs. Lightly spray the base of a nonstick saucepan and top the egg/s with chopped parsley, a thin piece of ham or smoked salmon, or a few flakes of Parmesan cheese and black pepper.
Use small eggs too. Amazing how the cals add up.
Enjoy
PVE

franfit

9:54 pm
22 May 14
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lowrijos, for the purposes of weight loss, a calorie is a calorie, you don’t have to go over 500 calories to add healthy food back in, you were just a victim of insufficient planning today, don’t worry about it, just plan better next time. Obviously we would all prefer to eat more nutritious food when calories are so restricted, but sometimes life gets in the way. (P.S. eggs are good with spinach, scallions, asparagus, tomatoes, fresh herbs, 10 grams of parmesan, 15 grams of cream cheese, a bit of leftover tomato sauce… )

TracyJ

9:11 am
23 May 14
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If that’s all you had in the house and you didn’t feel too deprived on it and managed to complete your fastday regardless then well done you. It’s not a fail – it’s the length of fasting time that brings the health benefits, not necessarily what you eat on those days. Ovbiously it’s good to eat a decent balanced diet on every day and a lot of 5:2ers advocate a plant & protein heavy approach on fastdays but that’s mostly just to be able to get through the day comfortably rather than anything else.

I fast all day and have my 500 WAY late in the evening when I finally get home from work & swimming, so I never cook and have experimented and done the different soup/salad/egg/stir fry options in the past but I’ve fallen back to my bowl of bran flakes and a cup of tea again. Works for me.

lowrijos13

7:48 pm
24 May 14
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Thanks for the great ideas of things to go with eggs. Will have to experiment with different things until I find what satisfies me the most!

Your answer made me feel much better, Tracy! I’ll try to plan better next time but I won’t feel as guilty if I don’t manage to eat healthy!

Dummerchen

8:58 pm
31 May 14
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Some more egg ideas: http://www.eggrecipes.co.uk/recipe-category/low-calorie