Hang on – I’ve just reread your post. Are you saying you actually had 848 calories on Monday and you’ve discounted the calories expended in exercise from that total?

If so, that’s not how to do it. On a fast day you should eat 600 calories or 25% of your TDEE. It doesn’t matter if you exercise or not but you don’t go over that figure (well maybe by a few calories if necessary but not by 248 calories at any rate).

If that is the way you were working it out then your Tuesday calories are fine if you’re trying for quicker weight loss, although you should be aiming to be near but not quite at your TDEE really, if you want to do this longterm and sustainably.

Hi Dave, I wouldn’t try to do these calculations – just stick to the diet (TDEE on non-fast days and 25% of that on fast days) and just regard the exercise as something that will help to speed up weight loss, tone you up, and is good for your health – otherwise I think it just becomes too complicated! Also whilst yes you need to stick to your TDEE on non-fast days, counting calories becomes a chore – as long as you eat sensibly you should be fine – and that’s the whole appeal of this diet!

I would also really recommend just weighing once a week. I know how tempting it is to do this more often – especially when you’ve been good on your fast days – but weird fluctuations do occur and you run the risk of feeling demotivated if you get a result you don’t like.

There’s such overwhelming evidence on this forum that this diet works and great tips and support available from your fellow 5:2-ers, so try for a few weeks and I am sure you’ll see steady weight loss!

Good luck 🙂

Oh good – thanks for replying Dave. Then yes, it sounds like you’re undereating all over the place then – unless those were the numbers that came out of your TDEE calculation. Try sticking to 25% of your TDEE on fastdays and don’t go mad but don’t restrict yourself to well below your TDEE on non fast days. If you’ve been undereating for a while it may take some time for 5:2 to sort out your metabolism, so don’t expect an overnight miracle.

If you find you can manage well without breakfast I’d also recommend doing your exercise, on all days, on an empty stomach, as some people seem to burn more fat that way (including myself). However, if it works you may find that you don’t actually seem to weigh any/much less, as the fat burning happens alongside muscle toning/building and muscle weighs more than fat.

Hi Dave, blimey that’s a relief – 54 calories would be a bit extreme wouldn’t it 😉

Only you can decide what is right for you with regard to calorie intake but your TDEE numbers are actually almost exactly the same as mine and all I can say is that I have the full 25% of my TDEE on fastdays and try to keep on or under 2000 calories on my ‘off days’. I usually come in at about the 1800 mark, give or take a hundred (but it’s all ‘ish’ & ‘about’ rather than dead on accurate).

I have lost a lot of weight but I’ve been doing this for 13 months, so the weekly loss would look negligable but it is part of my lifestyle now – I worked it out earlier at 0.8 lb per week, which sounds like nothing but is 42lb or 3 stone over a year and represents 2-3 dress sizes. That’s not nothing. Find a way to do this that will be comfortable for you in the long haul and wait a few weeks before you start worrying.

Dave I honestly don’t think it matters what you eat, as long as you keep to the calories. My diet is probably way more ‘carby’ than most people on this forum. I hate seafood, don’t have time to prep a lot of veg (except once a week or so, when I tend to make a batch of individual freezer portions) and have never met a kale before. I don’t own the 5:2 cookbook and don’t intend to buy it. I eat all the same stuff I used to eat – I just went through all the ingredients when I first started this and made sure my portion sizes would add up to 500 calories. Now my only meal on fastdays is a bowl of branflakes a cuppa and a piece of fruit but all that calorie counting in the first few weeks means I always know roughly what I’m taking in the rest of the time too. It’ll work for you, just stick to the calories and give it some time.