New to fasting anyone else confused

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lilylou

12:30 pm
26 Jan 15
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So I have just started this diet and was wondering how everyone was doing it. I have read and been told conflicting information. On fast days i was planning on having homemade egg fried rice with chicken (under 500 cal) and filling but then some are saying no carbohydrates on fast days it doesn’t aid fat burning….confused. Also on non fast days, friend who are doing this eat what they want however the reason I am in this mess is because you guessed it I ate what I wanted = put on weight. So do I watch what I eat on non fast days and not go over my TDEE which just feels like calorie counting which I have done in the past. I am a little confused what about you guys

TracyJ

1:02 pm
26 Jan 15
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The answer is – it depends.

Whether you NEED to watch your calorie intake on non-fastdays depends how bad you are at staying within the limits of what level of calories you SHOULD be consuming on those days. If you know you’re not too badly behaved and have a good grasp of how many calories you consume on a normal day, without the need for rigid calorie counting, then you don’t need to count religiously. You also don’t need to count religiously (to start with) if you are starting out on this lifestyle VERY, VERY overweight (as I was) as long as you don’t compensate for your fastdays by eating even more than you usually would on a non-fastday.

As far as fastdays are concerned, do what works for you with regards to what you eat. I had carb-rich breakfast cereal as my 1 fastday meal (each fastday evening) for more than 2 years, it worked for me and I was happy with it. I’m now switching my pattern up a bit and as my weight loss has decreased I do need to pay more attention to exactly what I eat and when in order to kick off another spurt, so I am switching to Low GI & high protein on ALL days and reintroducing breakfast on non-fastdays. Some people want to go the ‘extra mile’ and do EVERYTHING right straight off the bat but there’s no need to. Get into the lifestyle, get used to it with your own food preferences and as you feel comfortable making little changes, go ahead and make them at your own pace.

I seem to remember having homemade egg fried rice or chicken & veg stir-fry once or twice in the early days of my 5:2 journey. Those were the days of MASSIVE losses, so no it won’t make any real difference WHAT you eat to start with, just HOW MUCH.

Amazon

1:04 pm
26 Jan 15
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Hi lilylou

First of all you need to eat 500 calories or less on fast days. It doesn’t matter what you eat, but some like to follow a low carb low sugar diet as they feel it aids weight loss.
Eat what you want means that no foods are forbidden, it does not mean eat as much as you want, your TDEE is the maximum that you can eat.
When I first started I lost weight for a few weeks and then it stopped because I was eating too much on non fast days so I counted calories for a few weeks until I got the hang of portion control.

I suggest that you have your rice dish on FDs, keep an eye on your calories every day for a couple of weeks until you have an idea of how much you should be eating, and give yourself time to get used to fasting. It will become easier as time passes, and you’ll have an idea of what you want to eat and if you think you need to reduce your carb intake.