I recently received info that I have Sjogren’s disease as such I am on a different medication. The Rx numbs part of my tongue and I don’t have any appetite for eating. I went from eating four meals per day to one or two very small meals. The good news is that due to the Rx I have less pain so I began exercising last week.

I don’t count calories on fast days because I eat the same thing. I eat two eggs, two slices bacon in the morning and a lettuce salad and one fourth of a roasted skinless chicken breast in the evening.

For me, my morning meals are always 100% protein and fat. The more fat the better because I am able to go all day without feeling deprived.

I use the Spark Page to keep track of calories eaten and most days I am eating 1000 to 1200 calories. Nonetheless, the scale moves very slow for me. Therefore, it is totally untrue that eating less calories will cause weight loss. Equally untrue is that exercise will produce weight loss.

I would love a have a slice of meat pizza or a big cheese burger with chips and a shake. Yet, I can’t eat them. One meal like this will cause me to gain five pounds overnight.

It is difficult to maintain appetite control with sugars, bread, and starches.

I’m a devoted non-calorie counter, and one of the reasons I love 5:2 is that it doesn’t require that. For me, the problem with the whole concept of counting calories is that it creates this all-pervasive sense of worry about food, as well as a little dictator in my head watching every mouthful. Being a bloody-minded type I get so fed up of having to listen to that inner dictator I start to self-sabotage and eat more than I wanted to, just to ‘beat’ the system…I do appreciate that sounds a bit crazy, but it’s the best way I have to understand it – and gloriously, all that mental tension and psychodrama has completely disappeared now I’m on 5:2.

I do not count calories at all, I eat very little on a fast day and then try and be good on non fast days. I hate diets. This way of life is working for me.

I started a calorie counting diet on Sept 14th as I didn’t know about the 5:2 then. I only stumbled upon it last week as it happens and decided to amalgamate it with my calorie thing.
I did my first 2 fasts Wed and Thursday and will continue to count calories for the foreseeable future. I need to, I’m new to this and I want to lose and keep it off.
I look at the sum of my calories over the whole week, if I go over one day it doesn’t matter, especially as I’ve just started the fasting days. This way I can happily eat more over the weekend and cut back over the week.
I quite enjoy this juggling my calorie count to be honest.
It’s a personal thing for us all isn’t it? Everyone just needs to work out what works for them and then just follow through.
I’ve lost 4.3kg and 3cm off my waist so far.
I can even have pizza tonight for dinner as I’m way under my TDEE for the week.
I’m enjoying this!

Initially I counted calories carefully on my FDs and, because my TDEE is only 1400 calories I also had to count on NFDs while I adjusted to what a NFD should be. I did this for a few months but eventually I stopped counting calories on both FDs and NFDs. On FDs I just eat dinner and I cook one of 4 meals – all of which I know are under 500 cals. On NFDs I now know what my food choices and serve sizes need to be, and I am well aware when I occasionally exceed this without needing calories to tell me I’ve eaten too much.

There’s another forum thread on what we eat on a FD and I recorded a few FDs on there and then worked out the calories so I could report that too. My calories were in the 300-500 range.