this is my third fast this week and I am feeling exhausted at the moment. does anyone else get very tired during the day on a fast day?
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Hello to you all – happy Friday.
Reading your posts about tea and coffee really made me think about how much these drinks can add to your daily calorie count. Cutting the milk in my tea to just a dash and going to drink more black coffee. Whilst I have managed 2 fasts this week (Tuesday and Thursday) I don’t really feel like I have lost much, if any weight – I will find out the truth when I do my weekely weigh-in tomorrow morning.
Determined to keep well within my TDEE over this weekend.
Also in the process of booking a Summer holiday in France – just the incentive I need to stay on track.
Lusherx – sorry you are feeling so exhausted, make sure you have protein and low gi foods to realese energy slowly and keep you going. Don’t forget no fast for you tomorrow!
Hi Lusherx, I do get tired on a fast day, I also get headaches (which I can’t attribute to not drinking enough) and I’m irritable (just ask my OH). I’m willing to put up with the difficult fast days while I’m still losing the weight. Everyone says that they get easier the longer you keep it up… I hope this is the case for me.
The weird thing is that if I push through and complete the fast within target, I wake up the next day, full of energy, with no burning desire to eat.
Congrats on the weight loss double trouble! Lusherx I typically have a bit more energy on fast days but today doesn’t seem to be that way, I have zero energy and a little one that’s into everything lol. So far I haven’t really indulged on my up days but I think tomorrow I’ll treat myself and hopefully not feel too guilty about it.
Hi lusherx:
If you take your TDEE and multiply by seven and divide by 3500 you will have a reasonable estimate of how much fat weight you can lose in a week if you eat no food whatsoever. Number four will explain: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/. I assume you are trying to lose water weight?
Good Luck!
Hi lusherx:
Your question is not stupid. The term water weight is not well understood. There is nothing wrong with losing water weight, but it becomes important if people think that quick water weight loss amounts at the start of the diet should continue and then quit their diets when it does not.
The body needs fat and protein to survive, but not carbs. However, carbs provide ‘quick’ energy and the body stores a small amount for immediate energy needs. In addition to standard blood sugar, the body stores carbs in the form of glycogen. Glycogen is stored in muscles and in the liver. Bodies may contain two or three pounds of glycogen. However, to store glycogen, the body needs water – up to 4 pounds of water for each pound of stored glycogen.
So when a person goes on a diet, they reduce their caloric intake and the body starts to draw on glycogen stores to supply the energy not being supplied by food intake. As the glycogen is used, its weight, plus all of the water weight associated with storing it, goes away. Quickly. After glycogen stores are reduced to a level that is stabilized by the caloric intake of the new diet, the quick weight loss stops and the fat loss takes precedence. Fat loss is much slower (the old 3500 cal from the diet to lose one pound).
The result is the initial rapid weight loss is replaced by periods of weight gain (water weight coming back) no weight loss (a plateau) or much slower weight loss. This is when many dieters quit their diets.
So enjoy your weight loss, there is nothing bad or wrong with it! Just don’t quit 5:2 when you stop losing 8 pounds a week!
Good Luck!
Hi Lusherx:
I have no idea, each body is different. It depends on how fast you get there, and what your dietary intake is along the way. A basic comment might be the faster you get there, the more likely that your rate of weight loss stops or slows significantly. Just as the faster you gain weight (like on holiday) the quicker it will come off when you go back on the diet. Same reasons in reverse.
Just stick with the diet long enough (at least a couple of months) to see how it impacts you and adjust from there. 5:2 is not a quick weight loss diet, it is a long term way of eating. If you lose weight quickly, stop 5:2 and go back to your ‘normal’ eating patterns, you will probably gain most of the weight back quickly.
Good Luck!
Hi all, actually I restarted on Friday 2nd Jan 15 when I was horrified by my weight. I did a fast day there and then. I then spent time talking to myself, checking out the forum posters and on Monday 5th Jan did a fast day. During that week I did 5:2 on Mon, Wed and Thurs. Dont ask me why, I just did. I lost 6 lb. The following week I fasted Mon, Wed and Friday (yesterday). It was quite easy actually. I have just weighed myself and have lost another 4 lb. So, since the 2nd Jan I have done 7 5:2 days and lost 10 lb in weight, most will be water and other bits and pieces but in all of that will be some horrible, nasty sticky FAT. I also know that the weight loss will naturally slow down but it will all be FAT. I have also started to look at eating healthier on non fast FEED DAYS and have re-discovered many interesting food sites on the net. I have also re-discovered an interesting magazine, Healthy Food Guide over here in the UK. I can recommend it to posters. It has some very good articles and healthy recipes and is focused on healthy eating. Some very good ideas for toast at breakfast time and the roasted fish dish is superb and simple. Expensive though at £3.20 per month. Another web sit has just caught my eye in my local rag (The Northern Echo). It celebrates breakfast, http://www.shakeupyourwakeup.com not for the 5:2 days but very interesting.
Thanks to all posters out there, new and old who have unknowingly help re kindle my desire to get healthy and sart again on the 5:2 way of life.
Good luck to you all.
Hi guys, have you tried unsweetened almond milk for your tea and coffee? I have used this for years as unlike soy or rice milk, almond milk tastes the same as cows milk but is much much healthier. On fast days I measure out 200ml of milk which is 26 calories and this is plenty for my porridge and drinks all day. It has slightly more calcium than cows milk too but is sugar free so great for diabetics like me. I’ve really enjoyed reading about everyone’s experiences. I had my 4th fast day yesterday and felt really hungry and cold but stuck with it and I’ve weighed in this morning to find another 3lb off (9 in total now). One thing that has been bothering me though is that everyone talks about sticking to their TDEE on non fast days but in the book I’m reading (the fast diet by Michael Mosley) it doesn’t mention TDEE? my book says you can eat literally anything you like on non fast days, chips, cheese, chocolate, wine etc and that’s what I’ve been doing!. I haven’t gorged myself by any means but I don’t think about calories at all on the 5 days. Am I doing this wrong?? Thanks everyone x
Hi JulieJaffa,
I think “eating normally” is misleading because (even if we only admit it to ourselves)we all have weight to lose and if we hadn’t overeaten at some point we wouldn’t be overweight. What might seem normal to us could be more than our bodies need to sustain us.
I’m a writer and blogger so I spend a lot of time on my laptop, so I set up a daily spreadsheet to track the number of calories I consume per day. I now know that if I eat “normally” i.e. breakfast-lunch-dinner, snacks and share a bottle of wine with my husband I am over my TDEE.
I think the fact that you can eat whatever you like on FEED days is ok as long as you don’t go over your TDEE. I think in the book Mr Mosley is asssuming that normal = TDEE.
Hi Mamie muse, thanks for your reply. What you say makes sense – I am a ‘Constant craver’ and a glutton by nature but over the years I have tried lots of diets and have spent more time than i care to remember being obsessed with food, counting calories, syns etc and thinking about food 24 hours a day. In consequence, once ‘off the wagon’ I have stuffed my self silly and piled on all the weight I lost and more. The reason this plan appeals to me is the fact that I can forget all about food for most of the time and on my 2 fast days I have 2 meals, two snacks and lots of drinks – pretty much the same things each week, so I dont really need to spend too much time obsessing about it then either. I think if I had to calorie count every day I would struggle to maintain it. As it is, I have found that I dont gorge on feed days and I am fairly health conscious as I am diabetic and vegetarian and mealtimes are always healthy for the sake of my family . When it comes to snacking though, I pretty much eat what I like and have been really pleased to find that I have lost 9lb in 2 weeks! In the book I have Michael says “on the 5 days when we’re not restricting calories, we eat freely – chips, biscuits, cake” which I must admit was a big part of the appeal!! I may well find that my weight loss stops at some point at which time I may well have to be more restrictive but for now I am really enjoying it. However we tackle it though good luck to everyone x
Hello everyone hope you are all having a good weekend 🙂 i think after reading some of the posts above TDEE, normal eating on feast days and snacking that eveyone on this plan is going to do it their way which i think is why it appealed to us all in the first place. If you are losing weight then you are doing what is right for you so if its not broke dont fix it. Keep soing it your way and when the time comes when the weight lose stops which i think we all know will happen to us at some point then thats the time to modify it and maybe cut back a bit more. I think my point is if your losing weight you are doing it right everyone will have a different approach 🙂
I agree Jan i feel terribly guilty aswell if i have something naughty which we shouldnt because thats what this is all about i just remind myself that the readon i fast is so i can indulge every once in a while and that its fine 🙂 you are doing great and a little bit of what you fancy is good it will stop you bingeing just rem u are allowed anything you want 🙂 it will prob take time to realise that it still works if you have a cheeky piece of cake or takeaway but we will get there. I prob overindulged yesterday so im fasting today i didnt plan on 3 fasts this week but feel great now and its took the guilt away
Hi all, I’m very new to dieting. After being a smoker for 37 years I quit in October and suddenly ballooned from a BMI of 22 to over 26 in three months and that is why I am here.
After reading a bit here and there on the forum about so many gaining a lot, dieting it off and then gaining again I feel I must ask you: How do you regard carbs like pasta, potatoes, bread and rice? I wouldn’t touch any of them except for a small amount on Sundays and only if have a glass of wine or two as this helps with keep my blood glucose normal.
And do you eat biscuits? Or cakes? The reason I ask is that I have found the carby stuff a sure way to put on weight and as a diabetic I can’t have it anyway as it will make my bg go way too high.
I go for cheese instead. And walnuts.
9lbs Kirsty!!! well done! Know exactly what you mean janpartly, I love carbs too, but I have drastically cut back. We used to have a sandwich every day for dinner, then bread with the evening meal, often to make chip butties, very naughty, but nice. I have not touched bread since I started the 5 2. We now have delicious homemade soup for dinner, without bread. I did have a packet of cheese and onion crisps the other night as a treat, hmmm, I really enjoyed them. well worth the 130 calories. Weigh day tomorrow for me.
I totally agree with you both Applepie and Janpartly i could not and would not cope without carbs but have totally cut down i have bread once a week which is a brown roll that i have with a chicken breast kind of a healthy chicken burger. And i have chips once a week not homemade tho oven chips are much healthier and i have potatoes every sunday i swapped creamy mash for baby new potatoes. I aso have noodles when i make a stirfry but my portions of carbs are more than half of what i used to eat
My weigh in day is Monday, just because I started the 5 2 on a Monday, but it also helps me to stay good through the weekend. Anyway, I lost another 3lbs, that’s 7lbs in 2 weeks! Yes I am delighted, and yes I know the weight loss will slow down. I made ratatouille yesterday, we had it for tea with a small grilled chicken breast fillet and corn on the cob (no butter) a delicious and filling low calorie meal.
Good luck to everyone fasting today, my fasting days are Tuesday and Friday.
Ah Applepie, I admire your determiation to stay good over the weekend by weighing on a Monday. I’m going to stick with weighing afte a fast because I need the impetus of seeing that this WOE is working for me, that and weekends are the only real time I get to eat proper meals with my husband.
Good luck!
Hi all fast buddies,
How are you all coping today? I am counting down to my lunch now (in 30 mins).
Only have a cup of coffee with 30ml of milk until now. 🙂
Are you all very strict with the 500kcal ceiling? I must admit that I plan my meal plus my daily milk portion out so that it is within 500kcal. But, if I needed that extra cup of tea/coffee with milk to hold myself off from eating something, then I allow myself. So, so far it is 500 – 550 kcal. I hope this is not too bad but, otherwise, I am very good at keeping my TDEE (at least in last week). 🙂
Hi Gerry star, I’m quite strict with the 500 kcal but I agree with you on the extra cuppa. Some days I’ll do quite well and not feel hungry even though I only have tea all day but others (like today)when I’m tired, cold and HUNGRY I might go 10-20 kcals over, it all evens out over the two fast days (one fast I might only get 400 another 520). My sedentary TDEE is 2100 at the moment anyway so I don’t feel guilty. I know I’ll have to be more strict as the diet goes on but as long as I’m still losing I know it’s working for me.
Hi everyone.
I haven’t been overly strict with my counting on fast or non-fast days. In the last two weeks I still have managed to lose 6.5lb which I am very pleased about. However, starting this week I am going to be more accurate and only eat to my TDEE of 1560 on non-fast days and see how I go.
Good luck to everyone fasting today.
Hi everyone! Sounds like a lot of good losses! Good job!
I still haven’t weighed. I’m scared of the scale and the constant disappointment. I have been measuring. Which I have lost about an inch-inch and 1/2 off my waist so that feels good.
I am fasting today and am in need of one!! I over did it a bit this weekend. I counted my calories but need to do some damage control now.
Planning on fasting today, tomorrow and Thursday! Lots of hard work ahead of me but I’m ready for the challenge!
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