Not eating at all on a fast day

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memstarina

12:43 am
19 Sep 13
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Hi there

I have just finished reading the book ( thought it was fantastic) and was wondering does anyone abstain from food for the whole 24 hours. I have found this much easier than trying to eat 500 cals (I am a girl) but I am not too sure if this is the right thing to do, sometimes I experience a little something in my belly but its not too bad.
Also I am a it confused as to the time that I am fasting is correct, If my fast day is Thursday my last meal that I eat is around 7.30pm Wednesday does this mean that I can start eating again from 7.30pm Thursday night or should I not eat until 7am Friday I am a bit confused if starting to feed on the Thursday night is that ok???, I don’t go crazy after 7.30pm I normally have a relatively healthy meal but I am not too sure if this is right??
I have increased my water intake to roughly 2L per day (this is quite an achievement as drinking water was quite a foreign thing for me to do)I have cut out nearly all diet soft drink (on feed days) that I was so accustomed to drinking.
I would love any tips advice from any others as I need to lose about 17 pounds (8kgs)but want to make sure that I am doing things correctly

DrLL

7:53 am
19 Sep 13
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Hi memstarina,
There is no right way of doing things. Do what works for you.

A recent post talks about the 24 hour fast, and I think we are at least some who find it easier to go without food for 24 hours. http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/anyone-else-do-it-like-this/#post-9568

I eat e.g. Wednesday at 7.30pm and then again 7.30pm on Thursday. I just eat ‘normally’ on when breaking the fast (whatever we are having for evening meal in the family) and not a 600 kcal meal. You can loose weight this way as well but probably on a slow pace. I lost 13 kg quite quickly and has now been on a plateau just below BMI 25 for a month. I stick to my program either I loose a couple of kilos more or this is my new long term weight.

vicki

12:15 pm
19 Sep 13
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Hi memstarina
Many people do a water only fast, it’s all there in the posts but rather more difficuly=t to find these days with literally thousands of topics.
When I started in January I was 90.8kg, BMI 34.8, cholesterol 7.2 and tryglicerieds 3.2.
New GP made threatening noises about type 2 diabetes which scared the hell out of me.
I had read about 5:2, got the book and started. I don’t eat on fast days, just 2 x 40 hour periods of water a week, gym 5 mornings a week on crosstrainer for 1 hour.
12 weeks later 80.7kg, BMI 30.1, chol 5.9, tryglicerides 0.8
So the weight loss certainly contributed to the chol and trygliceride losses (I found that on eating days I now eat less and am not hungry), but still have wine every (non-fast) day.
Weight is now 75.2, BMI 28.3, will do the blood tests again next month after 40 weeks, hopefully my cholesterol has dropped further and tryglicerides have stabilised at the low reading of 0.8ish.
Many people are obviously happy with the 500/600 calories on fast days, but auite a number also do total fasts, it really depends on how you feel and if it makes YOU feel good. I personally find that food stimulates my taste buds, so for me it is just easier not to eat at all
Good luck.

Shezzieh

12:17 pm
19 Sep 13
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Hi memstarina

I’m in the middle of week 3 and have just been reading posts on this very subject, too. I have also been uncertain about timings and whether to just fast fully and have been looking at my own pattern so far. I’ve lost 6lbs across weeks 1&2 and am due to weigh again in 4 days (once a week, same place, time, scales).

So far….

If my fast day is Thursday, then I eat normally eg at 6pm on Weds, then I fast fully (bar drinks) till about 4pm Thurs, have 100gs berries and then a below 500cal meal with family somewhere between 6-7pm. Then I fast (bar drinks) till the Fri mid-morning.

Likewise, on Monday, my other fast day, I eat normally eg at 6pm on Sun, then I fast fully (bar drinks) till about 4pm Mon, have 100gs berries and then a below 500cal meal with family somewhere between 6-7pm. Then I fast (bar drinks) till the Tues mid-morning.

So, I reckon I’m having a full 22hr fast in one go, then approx. a 15hr fast after the low cal meal. And this means 4 nights a week with no snacks/wine etc… which has been part of my downfall and why my weight had gone up gradually – drink some alcohol and the grazing begins. This leaves Tues/Fri/Sat nights for the option of ‘treats’, a meal out , wine etc.

Psychologically, if I had food/drink till late on the night before a fast day, for me, I’d be feeling like I had ‘stocked up’ and was ‘full’ and would be unsure of when I was ‘starting to fast’, so I like to have a mental ‘start time’ that’s after a sensible meal. Then I can then class my sleeping hours as fast too. But I don’t want to stop the fast at 7pm on what is my actual ‘fast’ so I carry it over (with only the low cal intake).

I’m thinking I want to try not having the low cal meal on the actual fast day, too, as on 2 out of the 5 occasions so far, it’s given me indigestion. This maybe because I’ve had low calories but a larg-ish meal (eg salad with a 2 egg omelette and some low cal ham in the omelette = it proved to be too much – had a ‘dumping’ feeling after having eaten it), after such a long break. Also I think I could just go the whole way with a full fast, better… eg 6pm Weds till morning of Fri = 38hours approx.

Don’t know if any of this helps, but it goes to show that everyone’s trying to find the best pattern for themselves within a set of guiding principles.

All the best!!

lizz

12:04 am
20 Sep 13
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Hello ev1 , just want to say this is start of week 9 for me, I’ve lost 13 lbs and very happy with it, I keep it normal on the 5 days, eat/drink as I always did but smaller portions, still have chocolate wine and odd takeaway but on my 2 fasting days I stick rigidly to 500 calories and drink lots of water,imo you must eat your 500 cals on your fasting days and keep your life as normal as possible, on fasting days I only drink water until 5pm then have a salad and that leaves me enough to have a yogurt and small Tesco mixed apple and grape snack bag at supper time , only thing I have given up is sugar in my tea and replaced it with canderell, I think when buying food we should pay more attention to low calories rather than low fat ie: yogurt, lots are big on advertising low fat but if you compare them with others you will see that low fat ones are not always lower in calories and I think that is the secret, the word fat scares us but actually on 5:2 we should concentrate more on what calories the food packaging says, just my opinion of course but it’s working for me , I have RA and am on steroids amongst other medication so to lose so much 9 weeks in is brilliant for me , I hope your way is working for you.

memstarina

12:25 am
21 Sep 13
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Hi Shezzieh,

Thanks for your reply I actually like your routine – I think I may try that, I like the fact that you are then fasting again until Tue/Fri mid morning, with no snacking 4 nights a week, as snacking at night was my down fall.

Thanks for the advice.

Pebbles

2:15 pm
23 Sep 13
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I find that after a couple of decades of on and off dieting, I really appreciate a lifestyle change with minimum fuzz. Fasting from 7pm to 7pm (no eating at all) is really fuzz free, and there is absolutely no calorie counting or diet meals to worry about. I have dinner with my family on Sunday afternoon and then I don’t eat anything in the evening and I skip breakfast and lunch the next day – and then have finner with my family again in the afternoon. And the same routine from Wednesday 7pm to Thursday 7pm. I love that I don’t have to eat differently than the test of my family and I love not having to read food labels and weigh food. I can see myself eating like this for the rest og my life.

rockyromero

2:45 pm
23 Sep 13
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@pebbles
“I really appreciate a lifestyle change with minimum fuzz. … and I love not having to read food labels and weigh food. ”

I agree.

I do like trackers that can monitor movements & health effortlessly. It keeps me aware and on track.

➰

Quimber

1:47 am
15 Oct 13
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I’ve been doing this for 6 weeks and have lost 10 lbs. However, I do things a little different than most (seems to be how I do most things:). My fast days are Tuesdays and Thursdays so my last meal is on Monday night and I don’t eat anything all day Tuesday and only start to eat Wednesday morning at breakfast. Same thing on Thursdays, no eating all day Thursday till Friday morning at breakfast. This is about 30 hours at a time without eating anything at all. It just seems easier for me to not eat anything for an entire day. Sure I get hunger pangs a few times during the fast day but it doesn’t take long for one to pass. Maybe this is too harsh for most people but at this point it seems workable for me. If I find it too hard to keep up then I will start eating a 500 cal. meal on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. It’s only been 6 weeks but I feel this is the best diet I’ve ever been on and I’ve been on a few! I agree with Pebbles: I can see myself eating like this for the rest of my life.

GreigC

11:25 am
25 Oct 13
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I have been on the Fast diet for about three months during which time I lost 7kg in the first 10 weeks and then hit a plateau. I decided to try doing a true fast this week. I ate an evening meal on Wednesday around 7.30pm. All of Thursday I ingested only water (apart from one mug of black coffee in the morning). I then ate breakfast at around 9.30 on Friday morning bringing my total fast to 38 hours. I found this very manageable and did not have any bad hunger pangs or other negative side effects. I even went for an hour long run about 22 hours into the fast. In fact, I would even go so far as to say I found it easier eating no calories than eating the 600 calories as eating anything on a fast day tends to trigger hunger for me rather than keep it at bay. My question is, is it safe for me to fast this way?

Quimber

1:00 pm
25 Oct 13
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Wow, GreigC! 7 kg lost in 10 weeks is excellent progress! I’ve been doing this for about 8 weeks now and have lost 18 lbs. (8 kg). I’ve been total fasting entire days for about 1 month, since after the first month I hit a plateau. I think there will be weeks where you will hit plateau’s until you reach your goal weight. If you keep at it though week after week you should see continued weight loss. Just more sometimes than others. I definitely find the total fasting (except for black coffee)for entire days, easier than having a 600 calorie meal. My big struggle is not to overeat during the days I’m not fasting (the reason I got overweight in the first place). However, even though I over ate on a couple of days I still lost weight. I am working on having normal meals during non fast days. I think total fasting is not going to hurt you for a couple of days throughout the week. However, I’m not a physician and these are only “my” findings after some research into the matter. Good luck with your continued weight loss.

GreigC

1:06 pm
25 Oct 13
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Thanks Quimber. What I didn’t mention is that I do run 2 or 3 times per week. So that probably helped with my initial weight loss.

tntoast

1:22 pm
13 Jan 14
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im doing this approach as well, it seems easier for me to just say ‘no’ than have a little bit, im not pigging out on non fast days either.

i have a meal at say 7pm then eat again the same time the following day, i do that twice a week, sometimes i skip lunch as well on the non fast days.

its probably worth thinking, it takes about 2500 calories to burn 1lb of fat. (the 2500 cals figure could do with being confirming, anyone out there can confirm?) so you can work out roughly what you should be loosing.

etherial

7:27 pm
14 Jan 14
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When I’m in school, I don’t think about eating even though I’m surrounded by food of every shape, flavor and color everyday. I’m a culinary arts major and I find myself so busy from the time I walk into the kitchen until it’s time to go home and study. You’d be surprised at how much you don’t eat in the kitchen.

This program teaches me a little bit more about my body everyday. When my stomach growls, I’ll drink water and/or coffee. I’ll even have a couple of grapes and it calms down right away. Not sure if I should be doing that, but I figure since I hadn’t eaten anything all day, why not? It usually happens right before dinner and by the time dinner is ready, I’m not hungry anymore, but eat anyway since it’s 500 or less calories.

Tntoast, you mean 3500, not 2500. 3500 calories= 1 lb. of fat

henny

6:44 pm
11 Feb 14
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I, too, find it much easier simply to abstain from all food on my fast days. I probably eat only 1200-1500 calories on the days that I do eat, so trying to figure out 25% of that is too hard. Also, it seems that my stomach doesn’t “wake up” and start wanting food until the middle of the day, and once I get past the initial “hump” of hunger, I do just fine abstaining from everything except water. On the other hand, if I eat even a little bit, then I just want to eat more, so it’s much easier for me if I just don’t eat anything on my fast days.

susan jay

6:07 pm
24 Feb 14
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Hi, I find by far the easiest way to manage my fast days is to go from 2pm one day to 2pm the next with only decaf tea and coffee. I have dropped a dress size in the last year, but weight loss wasn’t my main reason for starting nearly a year ago. I have stage 4 incurable cancer (diagnosed in2010) and am just hoping that the 5:2 will continue to inhibit growth in remaining cancer cells. Post chemo and radical radiotherapy I find that I have a sweet tooth, but eating whatever I please on normal days doesn’t increase my size. I do think that I feel full up earlier so I may limit food simply by having a smaller appetite. I feel that a fast should be just that, and having 2 food- free days definitely works best for me.

etherial

5:56 am
25 Feb 14
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Glad you taking good care of yourself and dropping a whole dress size is fun, isn’t it? I alternate on some fast days, like today, I had a bowl of raisin bran with unsweetened almond milk. Last week, I waited until 7 p.m. to eat my dinner. I just drank coffee and water during the day and was so busy, I barely noticed I hadn’t eaten at all during the day.

I’ve lost a couple of dress sizes, too and am not wearing my size 10 jeans. Good luck to you and let us know what your test results are on your next visit.

Happy 5:2!

Windy

2:41 pm
20 Aug 14
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I have been on the 5:2 diet for two years. I lost two stone over ten months and found that the only way to maintain that loss was to remain on the diet. I was happy to do that. One of the benefits of the diet was that my blood pressure came down to the point that I came off my medication for HBP as suggested by my doctor. Now i have found that while my weight has been stable at 10 stone, my blood pressure crept up to the point that I may have to resume my medication. Before this happens I am experimenting with having two zero calorie fast days instead of 600 calories. Has anyone had a similar experience with respect to blood pressure? I am male, 64, jog for 40 mins a day six days a week and stay within recommended alcohol limits and have minimal salt in my diet.

jojo58

2:55 pm
20 Aug 14
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I can recommend retirement and yoga for lowering blood pressure