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Suzanne Umm Ayoub

1:37 pm
4 Oct 13
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Hi everyboday, Assalamou alaykoum

My name is Suzanne. I am 43 years old. I am French Canadian. I am a political scientist and a translator. I live in Egypt right now. I a married and I have 3 children.

I convert to Islam when i was 25 years old and since then i am interested about fasting. Because of scientific evidences, I am very convince that it is good for the health, but so far, i did not feel it. I do not have any disease alhamdoulillah (glory be to Allah), but i do not have energy.

Of course i fast the entire month of Ramadan and some of the voluntary fast recommended by the religion, but it is not enough to makes me healthy, my blood work shows that my cholesterol is going higher every years and my blood sugar also, although i am still in the normal rage.

When i heard about intermittent fasting 5:2, I remembered the words of the Prophet Mohamed (SAWS) you recommended us to fast two days a week and said to us ‘Fast and you will be healthy’, that is why i decide to give a try to the fast diet, with some minor modifications to adjust it to my faith.

So, I will be fasting like everybody 36 hours, 2 time a week, eating 500 calories, but i will be also fasting completely, without water, from dawn to sunset in cha Allah. A minor adjustment to enter a muslim fast into the fast diet program.

I will keep you informed in cha Allah (If Allah wants) about the progress and i hope that my participation to this forum will be useful to everybody.
Excuse my English, i am French.

Best regards,
Ma salama
Suzanne Oum Ayoub (which means: the mother of Ayoub)

tickatape

10:37 am
6 Oct 13
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Good luck 🙂 I know a number of Muslim’s who fast and the thought of it used to horrify me! I am not a religious person but looking back over history it makes sense that we don’t need to eat as often as we do! It is a pity that the food industries also push a vast array of unknown and hidden food terrors! 🙁

Suzanne Umm Ayoub

12:58 pm
6 Oct 13
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Hi Tickatape,

Thank you very much.

The Prophet (SAWS) said also that we should restrict the food we eat, but i was never able to figure out what it’s means exactly. He said that the maximum we should eat is 1/3 of the stomach, drink another third, and leave the last third empty. Also, the Prophet (SAWS) was eating only 2 meals a day and nothing between the meals. He would only eat 7 dates in the morning.

Some muslims made research and said that one third of the stomach is actually 500 ml. This is the maximum a Muslim should eat for each meals, plus 500 ml of beverages. I am a little bit confuse because food contain water also. Food and beverages should not exceed one litre.

Yes, I agree with you, the food industries, (and also the pill industries) are pushing very hard to make us think that we always need more and more, which is a pity for sure, i agree.

Good luck to you too.

tickatape

2:59 pm
6 Oct 13
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It seems to be that we should look back in to our pasts, be it religion or life it self and learn a few things about food and what we should consume! We need to get back to basics some what! What is the reasoning behind fasting as a Muslim? (It’s something I have never thought of asking anyone before). Sharon

Suzanne Umm Ayoub

3:40 pm
6 Oct 13
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The reasoning behind fasting is, in the qur’an, to attain piety. We call piety ‘taqwa’ which means to be more conscious that God is watching us and to act accordingly.

But the Prophet mentioned the health benefits also, and made emphasis on caloric restriction in order to maintain good health.

Yes, theses recommendations are old wisdom.

How to apply it in our lives is another problem. I found that the fast diet, who join fasting and caloric restriction, is similar to this old wisdom.

But, to be a complete way of life, i think we should avoid overeating on non fasting days also. But, what that means exactly, i am not sure. Should we avoid sugars or not? Should we limit meat and fat or not? It seems to me that theses limitations are not necessary. We are all searching the best thing to do.

Suzanne Umm Ayoub

4:23 am
7 Oct 13
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What i mean is that, in the old past, people were not eating food ‘low in fat’ or ‘low in sugar’, or ‘gluten free’ or all theses things.

We should stop the illusion that we can eat whatever we want if it is ‘not fat’ or ‘vegan’ or ‘gluten free’ of ‘without carbohydrates’ etc.

We should eat real foods like our ancestors.

tickatape

6:36 am
7 Oct 13
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Thank you for explaining fasting to me. 🙂 I totally know what you mean about looking back and eating real foods like our ancestors. Thats what I meant about getting back to basics. I prefer cooking from scratch but supermarkets only offer so much ‘fresh’ produce. We don’t have so many shops such as butchers, bakers etc and not so many accessible markets! I feel sorry for families with not much money who have cheap over processed foods aimed at them because fresh is more expensive. TV chefs are always doing programmes trying to eat fresh as cheaply as possible – I just hope people take notice!

Rashdah

2:34 pm
2 Dec 17
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H8 Everyone

I’m a London based Muslim who had a constant struggle with weightloss. I’ve been recommended to do the 5:2 Diet but also it has religious benefits (we are advised to fast twice a week too)

Any help or advice with how to manage the religious fasts as well as how to keep myself motivated through the week would be great.

Thanks

Rashdah

Merryme

2:55 am
4 Dec 17
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Hi Rashdah,

I am not Muslim, but there is no reason that you cannot do 5:2 as a Muslim as far as I am aware. I have been using 5:2 for the last 3 yrs, and started because a difficult chronic medical situation made it difficult for me to get my weight back to normal after putting it on when I was very ill. I did have a tendency to put weight on before that, but was able to keep weight to normal through exercise and keeping my diet moderate and healthy. Since becoming ill I have been unable to exercise at all. Now I am very happy that I found a healthy way to get my weight back to normal, where it is now, and to keep it in the normal range.

There is a thread on the forum called:

The Basics for newbies, your questions answered, written by simcoeluv. I suggest you read that first.

You will see that the 2 FD (fasting days or fast days) are meant to be separated by nonFDs during the week. The most popular pattern is Monday/Thursday. Some people eat 2 or 3 tiny meals on a FD. There is a significantly large group of people who have a phenomena we call ‘The Hunger Dragon’. That simply means that as soon as we start to eat our hunger wakens up and wants to very much eat normally, not tiny meals during the day. I am one of those. I find it easy to do FDs if I save all my calories for 1 meal after 6pm – the time after varies. If I eat before that it is easy for me to fail a FD.

I have wondered how people not like me would manage the daily fasting during Ramadan. Some people doing 5:2 report they don’t manage a FD as well unless they split their FD calories between a small breakfast and dinner. Some feel better if they eat breakfast. My husband is one of these.

My suggestion to you is to just get started. It’s not as hard as people think before they start. Plan what you are going to eat for your first week’s FDs. Usually after the first 2-3 FDs most people find it easy. You have already experienced fasting so you already have some knowledge. Doing 2 FDs a week would be different to the daily fasting of Ramadan, I think. One difference would be drinking during the day, but I suggest you stay with water, sparkling water, peppermint tea, i.e. with no calories.etc. for your 2 FDs. The difference would be though, that the dinner in the evening of one of your 2 weekly FDs would be less than you would eat in the evening of a day during Ramadan. When you wake up on the day after 5:2 fasting day you will find you are not as hungry as you thought you would be. As you get used to 5:2 and learning how to do that, you will find, as you read of others’ experiences that most people who do 5;2 are eating very healthily – eating more whole foods and less processed foods. Many have soup for their FD dinner in the evening, as it is more filling. Also, if you feel a little light headed take a tiny amount of salt, and it should go away.

I’m not sure if I can offer advice for the religious fasts of Ramadan. I’m presuming that your meal each evening is not feasting, as such, until Eid, and your evening meal is a healthy, normal meal. May I suggest that again, as in your 5:2 FDs, you stick to drinks that have no calories, while you are in a weight loss phase. The feasting of Eid would be different. This is a celebration that you might strategise to give yourself permission to eat foods that you wouldn’t eat during your 5:2 FDs or the normal days of Ramadan. Similarly for drinks.

There are people of varying religions on the forum Rashdah, and I hope you have others of your faith come and join you here on this thread of the forum. Fasting is a part of other faiths as well, and I also hope that others will come to give you their experience of that while on 5:2 as well.

Merry