Newbie!

This topic contains 12 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by sylvestra 10 years, 4 months ago.

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crunchy

11:40 am
17 Jan 14
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Hi, I’m new to this forum, so apologise now if I post in the wrong section.
I’m a busy mum, run my own business, and do quite a bit of exercise, but I have been finding my waist-line expanding, especially over Christmas! I’m about 5’9 and weigh, urgh wait for it around 10 stone. I used to be about 9 and a half and a few years ago I was only 8! I know I’ll never be as slim as I was back then, but I’d like to get back to at least 9 and a half. I’m a size 10/12, so getting that half a stone off would mean I could get into 10 all the time. Anyway, I read about this diet and also a few of my friends are on it, so I thought I’d try too.
I started this week and my fast days have been Tuesday and Thursday (I am not fasting on my gym days). I have found them ok actually, but I think this is because I did a 9 day detox last summer and I had to fast for 2 consecutive days not eating anything! Now that was hard! I lost around 5lbs, but put it all back on :(((
So the thing is I am eating 500 cals on my fast days, and restrict myself to 1200 on the other days. Does that sound about right? I track all of my foods via My Fitness Pal and I try not to eat my ‘exercise’ calories. When I complete my entry though it keeps saying I am eating too few calories and my body will go into starvation mode. So I’m just wondering if I should increase the cals to say 1300, 1400 and then have to 500 cals on fast day. Would I still lose weight do you think? From just doing the fasting 2 days this week, it has really made me realise that even eating 1200 cals this seems too much food. Anyway, your thoughts would be welcome, Thanks :))

sylvestra

12:00 pm
17 Jan 14
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@crunchy I use My Fitness pal and it tells me every day that I am eating too few calories. I ignore that part. It is a good site for counting calories but it is really hung up on the ‘starvation mode’ myth.

However – what is your BMR and TDEE…the ideal is to eat an amount between these amounts and definitely ABOVE your BMR on non fast days. At 5’9″ I would guess your BMR to be at least 1300 -1400 and that is what your body needs just to survive without moving. You say you are a busy mum who does quite a bit of exercise so I’d think you use a lot more than that. I am just 5′ and my BMR is 1190 and you are much taller and younger than me.

So, in my opinion, yes – you do need to increase your calories on non fast days and have 500 on fast days. There is a link at the right hand side of this page ‘helpful site links’ where you can calculate your BMR and TDEE and an explanation of why you need this.

Hope this helps

kfausten86

1:22 pm
17 Jan 14
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OMG Crunchy.. you sound just like me apart from the weight…Im alot heavier than you! I am fasting on Tues and Thurs as I too go to the gym and I use MFP to count calories. I am hitting 1500Gross Cals on a normal day bringing me down to around 1200net Cals after the gym and then 500 on a fast day. Im not running on fast days however am doing Yoga and callanetics as they are quite low energy.

When I record my food on a normal day MFP looks at the Net cals and says that I’m fine. Good luck…

crunchy

6:02 pm
17 Jan 14
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Thank you both for your replies. I’ll have a look at the link kfausten86, thanks. I think I might increase the cals on my non fast day just by 100 and see how I fare. If the weight isn’t budging, then I’ll drop back down again, or perhaps go a bit lower. I’m a bit impatient when it comes to weight loss normally, but am going to try not to be on the 5:2. 🙂

dethrock

9:24 pm
17 Jan 14
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I also use myfitnesspal (I’m dethrock88 there if anyone wants to add me) and I use it as just a guide for tracking calories and seeing what other people are doing, I have had it tell me I wasn’t eating enough before but I didn’t give it any thought. The starvation mode thing is just a theory anyway I believe, but I think the fast diet proves that limited starvation has its benefits. You have to play with it and see what works for you, from all the reading I have done the last few months it seems to effect each person differently.

Angie090465

10:22 am
19 Jan 14
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hi Crunchy and welcome form me too!

already good advice given so i’ll just add please be patient, this way of eating can be a lsow process, especially when you dont have lots to use!

so good luck and hang in there 🙂

crunchy

2:57 pm
20 Jan 14
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Thanks again everyone for the great advice.

Just wondering though, do you think it would be ok to eat half of my ‘exercise’ calories on a fast day? The reason I am asking is cause I was due to gym today and tomorrow and fast Wednesday and Friday, but I am unable to on Friday as going out. So I thought I’d switch it to tomorrow and Thursday instead. But tomorrow I am at the gym (cannot change this). There is no way I can survive on 500 cals when I burn that much at the gym. So was wondering if I could eat half of them and the diet will still be ok?

sylvestra

3:09 pm
20 Jan 14
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@crunchy … you can survive. But why burn the calories if you are going to eat them back? Just make sure you have the full 500.

I don’t eat at all for 24 hours on my fast days but still burn around 300 cals. It is, of course, entirely up to you as we are all different but many people exercise on their fast days with no problems.

crunchy

3:16 pm
20 Jan 14
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@ sylvestra…..sorry did you say you don’t eat anything at all on your fast days and still exercise? How do you not pass out? The class I am doing is an hour of Spin, and I am always ravenous when I come out of it. I think perhaps then eating a cup a soup for lunch is not going to satisfy my hunger. So I just wondered if I ate some of the exercise ones, ok perhaps not half but say 100, I guess that’s not going to stop me losing weight??

sylvestra

3:31 pm
20 Jan 14
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@crunchy – I drink plenty water. What feels like hunger is more often thirst and exercise can dehydrate you. My goal is to lose weight so exercising on my fast days helps my body burn fat – it doesn’t have food for fuel so has to use its own resources – i.e. stored fat. This is what works for me…..BUT….

As I said previously it’s how YOU feel about it. If you feel you need the extra calories on any particular day then have them. There are no hard and fast rules about it. You make this way of eating work for your particular lifestyle.

Looking back to your earlier post you don’t have much weight to lose and you say you need to change one day this week so an extra 200 calories on one day isn’t really going to make any difference in the long term.

xx

pippa154

6:23 pm
20 Jan 14
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Hi all, I too am new to this, today is my first ‘fast’ day. It has gone well and I have had just eaten dinner so am much happier now! I weigh in at 12 stone 8 and I am 5ft 6″ and am aiming to lose two stone. I have counted calories religiously today but am not planning on counting on my non-fast days, I think that will make it feel like a conventional diet.
I’ve tried to eat as late as I can, bearing in mind I just had scrambled egg for breakfast (this was as late as I could wait), as I don’t think I could stand being hungry in the evening – hopefully I’ll be okay now. Next fast day is Thursday, definitely couldn’t do it at the weekend.

crunchy

1:04 pm
21 Jan 14
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@ Sylvestra – Do you know what, I’ve been to the gym and done my class and drank a whole bottle of water during and some more when I came home, and guess what I think you might actually be right, so thank you. 🙂 I’ve just had some soup for lunch and I don’t feel as hungry as I thought I would. Perhaps also some of it is mind over matter. You know, you think you’ll feel hungry so you do….But I don’t feel sick or dizzy or ravenous as I thought I would. It makes me now wonder when I do the gym on my non-fast days, if I am actually as hungry as I feel, probably not and going back to the water thing, I do agree with that too as I drink loads of green tea on my fast days to fill me up and it definitely works, and I read somewhere that green tea helps with slimming, so I’m on a win win situation.

@pippa, hiya and welcome. I don’t think I could not eat in the evenings either, so I choose to miss breakfast as I feel this works for me. So are you missing lunch? I don’t fast at the weekends either, as we spend quite a bit of them visiting people or people visit us and I don’t want to be restricted on what I can eat and drink on those days. But I guess some people find it easier fasting on the weekend then during the week.

sylvestra

2:14 pm
21 Jan 14
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@crunchy …well done!! Keep on keeping on!!! 😀

I agree that it is often mind over matter. In our society we are ‘conditioned’ to eat regular meals whether we need them or not, We are told we ‘must’ clear our plates; that we ‘should’ have breakfast; that if we go without food for a day or eat less we will go into ‘starvation mode’.

I did a fast day yesterday…last meal Sunday 6pm ish then nothing except black coffee and water until 6pm Monday when I had a 300 cal meal then no more until 12.30 today when I had a bowl of soup for lunch and to be honest it was because it was there, I wasn’t really hungry. I also did a 45 minute ‘power walk’ yesterday and today.

I agree your ‘hunger’ after exercising was most likely because your head was telling you that you had been exercising so needed to ‘refuel’ and not actually because you were hungry. Another part of the ‘conditioning’?

I think 5:2 just proves that these things are complete myths but until we see that for ourselves we just accept them. We need to start retraining our brains and listening to our bodies and accept that this is a much better way of eating.

Fast and lose!! It’s the way to go

xx