Not eating enough feast day

This topic contains 9 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by dragonforce84 9 years, 10 months ago.

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Sensoriumism

8:31 am
7 Jan 15
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Hi,

First post here and I started this plan on Monday this week. Monday was my first fast day, and as a male – my target was 600 kcal and I achieved approx 590kcal on that day so I was pleased. However, yesterday being my first 2400kcal day, I found it extremely hard to hit that target, I think I managed to eat around 1500kcal. I’m trying to be sensible and cut out all high calorific, sugary foods that I’d normally eat (chocolate, cakes, crisps etc) and I have found that I do not crave them when I put my mind to it and keep myself full. However, becoming full on fibrous veg and lean meats with the odd bit of complex carbs in the forms of brown bread, I managed to completely bloat myself and not feel hungry – however nutritionally I hadn’t consumed anywhere near the 2400 I should be achieving. Should I try and add the calories up by eating treats? I don’t want to because it feels moronic – but I feel afraid for my energy levels going forward…

Thanks.

HappyNow

9:13 am
7 Jan 15
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Hi! No! You don’t have to eat up to TDEE, and particularly not if you’re not hungry.

You should aim to not exceed it of course, but the success of the diet doesn’t depend upon you eating to TDEE. In fact the fewer calories you consume across all days, the more weight you will lose. Have you calculated what your TDEE will be at goal weight? Some people use that to guide calorie intake, rather than current TDEE.

If you find you are low on energy levels at some future point you can review your eating at that point?

Good luck.

Sensoriumism

9:22 am
7 Jan 15
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Hi,

Thanks for the reply. My TDEE at my goal weight it still approx 2100kcal. At both my weight now, and my goal weight – I am not currently eating my BMR. Although shedding weight is great, my ultimate aim has always been to become healthier. I could easily substitute brown bread for white bread, low fat dressings for normal dressings and drink my hot drinks with milk – but health advise of previous years has always been to not necessary have these eating habits.

Yesterday I had approx 200kcal for breakfast, approx 600kcal for lunch and around 400kcal (I would guess) for dinner. Add this with a yoghurt, a tangerine and my milkless hot drinks – I would say 1500 was a close estimate.

It’s really challenging to eat 2000+ calories of healthy food because it amounts to so much!

Loose Jeans

9:49 am
7 Jan 15
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Hi Sensoriumism!
Well done for your success on Monday!
I too started on Monday and all is going well so far 🙂 so we are on this journey and learning curve together! 🙂 By no means am I an expert but hopefully my tuppence worth will help.
I’ve read the books and done a fare amount of online research as well as reading all the fantastic advice and information on this site. I’m sure other people with more experience will advice as the day goes on but in the meantime I have to say I agree 100% with HappyNow.
The way I see it you should stick to 600 on fast days and try to keep comfortably below your TDEE on the feast days. So 1,500 is perfect for a feast day especially as it was a healthy menu too! Perhaps the concept that we can eat whatever we want on non fast days is confusing and in the Fast Beach diet book healthy eating below the TDEE is recommended but if you fancy the odd treat during non fast days then that’s fine but don’t fill up on empty calories.
Also on the home page there is a fast diet app which you can download and keep track of your calories and menu. There’s also a graph to track your progress & it makes a suggestion as to how many calories to aim for on non fast days but advices the lower the better. For example mine is between 1200 and 2000 so I had 1400 yesterday.
i would also suggest looking up the calorie content of your food as it can be surprising the difference size or way of cooking can make a difference in the calories!
Baring in mind that you are concerned about healthy lifestyle it would indeed seem silly to start eating unhealthy food in place of healthy so you increase your calorie intake which is unnecessary.
Good luck and keep us posted!

Sensoriumism

10:50 am
7 Jan 15
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Thanks for your information guys, I appreciate it. I looked at the most popular ‘diet’ here (which is Slimfast) and when you have two of their shakes and one 600 calorie meal per day, as well as a couple of snacks under 100kcal – you should be around 1200-1600kcal a day.

Slimfast has massive media exposure and is readily bought in supermarkets around the UK, so if they were actively advising and misinforming people to have such a massive calorie deficit, they would have been picked up and bashed by now!

I now have confidence that my calorie intake should not lead to any problems.

Thank you, and good luck!

Couscous

12:32 pm
7 Jan 15
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Hi sensoriumism, interesting thoughts you are having. Funnily enough I was looking at the Slimfast meals in Tesco today. I thought that I would be healthier and better off financially by making a home made veg soup. If you make a basic soup you can add whatever protein you want to it. Keep it pure veg and add various pulses or quinoa High Protein) to it. Meat eaters add ham or chicken or what ever takes your fancy. Some research shows that if you blitz your soup to a puree then it can take longer to pass through your stomach and so make you feel fuller longer I some times have the WW CABBAGE SOUP, 21 cals aprox before my Fast Day meal. I agree with loose jeans about healthy eating and not trying to reach your 2400 cal target on non fast days. By the way I think we should say “FEED DAY” AND NOT “feast” as the latter could make you feel as though you can pig out. Look for low G.I. foods and research portion control but do not go overboard with this. Let the info and desire to eat healthier on “FEED DAYS” build slowly over time and that way your mental approach could have a better chance of adjusting in a positive way. Now, after all of that I am having home made soup for lunch as this is my fast day and “BUTTERBEAN and CHORIZO Hotpot” (249 cals) for dinner. Remember also that the inner health of all of us is vital especially as we age so as we grow older eating healthier is probably the most important self help thing we can do for a longer healthier old age.
Good luck.

Loose Jeans

3:35 pm
7 Jan 15
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I made up a big saucepan of soup too and plan on eating it tomorrow on my fast day as well. I much prefer homemade soup to shop bought but I imagine it’s a useful option on occasions when you’re too busy to cook. I’ll have to look up the casserole you mention- sounds interesting!
Good luck Sensoriumism!

Couscous

6:20 pm
7 Jan 15
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Hi Loose Jeans. I agree re the soup. The Butterbean and Chorizo Hotpot is a Fast Diet recipe. The Daily Mail is running a 5:2 diet feature this week and the recipe was in the paper on Monday, 5th Jan. Try looking it up in the online version or it may be in one of the official cookbooks. It is really filling and lends itself to adding a variety of veg to it, ie red/yellow pepper mushrooms quinoa etc. OK for a Feed Day also. If you have no luck post again and I will put the recipe on the forum.
Good Luck.

NancyDrew

12:30 pm
12 Jan 15
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I also started last week. I found my 2 fast days quite different. The first one and i did at work and found it fine, the second one i did at home but found more of a challenge.
I agree about soup it fills you up and i had that for my dinner on one fast day. I find fruit like bananas and apples fill me up more than any other fruit. I also drink plenty of water and luckily only take my coffee black so this is also calorie free.

I’m logging my cals even on my feast days, not because i’m counting them as such but becuase i am interested what i’m having. Like Sensoriumism i’ve foudn that i’m way below my TDEE, which i guess is good. I’m not making a conscious effort to eat carefully on my feast days, just normally but i am being sensible not to snack just for the sake of it.

Anyway so far so good i have real faith in this ‘diet’ (though i hate calling it that), and i think it is going to suit me!
Love coming on here to read all your stories too, keeps me inspired.

dragonforce84

10:53 am
27 Jan 15
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I’ve had two fast days so far. I sleep most of my fast days, and then the next day I could barely eat because my stomach has shrunken and feels very fragile.

Also today I tried to force my food in take back up and could not even compete with my skinny friends who don’t eat too much.

The results are fantastic, I could immediately see a physical change in my rib cage area and slightly more prominent cheek bones.

How do you guys do it? Do you build up your appetite over a couple of days? Or should I just force myself to eat my normal 1400 cals?

I’m on school holidays at the moment, but worry about how sustainable this fasting is as the next day I’m really slow and groggy and I felt quite weak and sick once I ate.

The alternative to this is to only do a 500 cal fast on Friday night to Saturday night, then start feeding Saturday night so I’m not completely useless on Sunday.

And then split one of my fasts over two days, by taking in 1000 cal on Tuesday and then 1000 cal on Thursday