deedeehug….. I know that My Fitness Pal lists a 100g salmon fillet from Asda as being 108 cals BUT it lists a 100g salmon fillet from Tesco at 196 cals, Morrisons 100g fillet at 215 cals and Marks and Spencer 100g at 220 cals….

so obviously the Asda one is wrong, I’m afraid and your daily calorie total is 100 cals out.

I agree about the potato, I also avoid carbs on fast days. I have ‘courgetti’ or cauliflower rice when I have veggie bolognese or a chicken curry.

Hi all,

actuall I do not care about carbohydrates on fast days and it works totally well. I also do not see the problem with the sweet potato as long as it fits in, it fits in. This whole thing about the fast diet is that you yourself find a way to keep up this lifestyle for the rest of your life.

For me that means: no carbohydrates on two days/week, no, thanks, I could live up to that for maybe 4 weeks but then I’d turn out to be too inconvenient for me. Saying, if you feel more comfortable having carbs on fast days, do it and try out, if it works for you. If not, there’s always time to change.

Don’t get too hooked about about the opinion of others concerning what you eat on your fast days. Well, of course, there could always be a healthier option but as Michael writes in his book: diets should be more about how people ACTUALLY behave and not about how they should behave.

Hope you don’t mind my frank words.

Whoops! I’ve just realised I’ve used “should” myself. Slapped wrist! Maybe it should read something like “It would be good if the words, etc, etc…

I guess if a person is going to fall apart if they are unable to have a certain type of food, be it carbs, fats or whatever, the only possible solution is to make allowance for it in their eating plan, although it may well mean restricting things that could be termed healthier. Until my early 40s I couldn’t stand tea without sugar, so each cup would run up something like 30-35 calories. Not a great idea on a fast day. Now I find tea with sugar very unappealing. And using semi-skimmed – sorry can’t be doing with totally skimmed – counts for 7 cals, or perhaps a tad more if someone else pours the milk in.

Sadly, with the exception of mint tea, which I love and always drink in lieu of coffee after a meal out, I don’t like milkless herbal stuff. But on one occasion I could well have done without the milk. On a trip to Prague ordered a cup of tea with milk, not realising what I was going to get was a fruit tea which with milk looked like Windowlene. Also beware of asking for “te con leche” – tea with milk – in rather less sophisticated bars and cafes in Spain, that is unless you fancy a cup of hot milk with a teabag dangling in it.

On the subject of carbs, I do eat them in moderation within the framework of the Fast Diet. However, if feeling really unwell, I tend to go right off food altogether, but if I do feel like eating the only things I don’t find nauseating are mashed spuds and toast and Marmite. There’s probably a good physiological – and maybe psychological – reason for it.

Hi deedeehug, well done on getting your fasting days under way- I promise it gets easier with time, I’ve been following this way of eating for16 months now and find it becomes second nature. One idea to bear in mind though, 500 calories goes much further if you eat lots of salads and vegetables, especially those that grow above the ground (root vegetables tend to be more starchy). On fast days I often have a big bowl of asparagus, courgettes, mange tout, red peppers, shredded baby gem lettuce and spring onions with 80 grams lean cooked chicken or prawns, stir steamed in a wok with a dash of water plus garlic, fresh ginger, fresh chilli and a dash of soy for flavour, and served with 1/3 of a nest of noodles (20g dry weight) cooked separately. This comes in at 250 calories, and really looks and feels like a full meal. I also enjoy big bowls veg and bean soup, or spicy lentil and veg soup.

Another thing I found useful in the first month or so was to write down everything I ate on fast days, carefully weighing and measuring every ingredient and checking the calorific value online. This sounds a pain, but really is a help to stay under 500 cals, and after a while I had a handful of recipes and meal plans which I knew would be tasty and satisfying

Best of luck!

Hi deedeehug, well done on getting your fasting days under way- I promise it gets easier with time, I’ve been following this way of eating for16 months now and find it becomes second nature. One idea to bear in mind though, 500 calories goes much further if you eat lots of salads and vegetables, especially those that grow above the ground (root vegetables tend to be more starchy). On fast days I often have a big bowl of asparagus, courgettes, mange tout, red peppers, shredded baby gem lettuce and spring onions with 80 grams lean cooked chicken or prawns, stir steamed in a wok with a dash of water plus garlic, fresh ginger, fresh chilli and a dash of soy for flavour, and served with 1/3 of a nest of noodles (20g dry weight) cooked separately. This comes in at 250 calories, and really looks and feels like a full meal. I also enjoy big bowls veg and bean soup, or spicy lentil and veg soup.

I also found it useful in the first month or so was to write down everything I ate on fast days, carefully weighing and measuring every ingredient and checking the calorific value online. This sounds a pain, but really is a help to stay under 500 cals, and after a while I had a handful of recipes and meal plans which I knew would be tasty and satisfying

Well done on the exercise too, as I have read elsewhere On this site that exercise on fasting days is more effective at burning off fat than on eating days.

Best of luck!