Weekly Post Update: 10/26/14 - 11/01/14
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Happy Tuesday, yall! Man, this has already felt like a long week lol!
Just wanted to share for anyone struggling to keep to their fast day calorie goals:
I have been increasing my fasting day calories and I feel a lot more "stable". I have always done more than 2 fast days...usually at least 2-3 "low" days, 2-3 "moderate" days with a calorie deficit, and then 2 TDEE "high" days. Since I like using the weekends for my high days, this means I fit all of those lower days in the week/consecutatively. This has been working for me so far because I still allow myself flexibility and can eat all the way up to my TDEE any day- 2 fast days is the minimum, anything more is bonus points lol.
Even though I'm in my 13th week, I was still struggling to stay under 500-600 calories on my low/fast days. When I did, I noticed the old feelings I struggled with that led to binge eating starting coming back. I tried to track my feelings- both physical and emotional/mental and noticed that it was too little to stay physically satisfied. I was going to bed hungry, and knew that even with the success I've had with this diet, it wasn't something that would be sustainable.
I had to remind myself that the 500-600 calorie guideline doesn't have to be strict. I know there is justification for the 500 calorie target in the Mosley documentary, but that doesn't mean it fits every BODY. Obviously, since I'm over 300 pounds I need more calories...even on fast days. But for others, who are more active, maybe they need more calories on their fast days, too.
So the past two weeks I've started "officially" bumping up my low/fast day goal to 700-850 and I have noticed a BIG change. I have more energy during the week, I feel more satisfied after meals/day to day, no more late night hunger pangs, etc.
Who knew 150 calories could be so powerful! But for me, it means another serving of carbs/fat/protein, etc. that my body was asking me for! 150 calories is just .04 of a pound...not worth making or breaking this diet! And it's definitley worth it knowing I can keep going and found something sustainable!0 -
First fasting day started with a headache, hmpf. But it got better and I hang on :-)
You can do it @neonbeige!
To help get you through the fast days- I have to keep reminding myself to add more things with more volume for lower calories- like greens, soups, etc. It can be mentally relieving to feel like you're eating more on those lower days, as well
Also, since I usually save most of my fast calories for dinner, I try to plan something that is also mentally satisfying that I can look forward to- like pasta. I weigh and measure everything so I can enjoy those "naughty" things I used to cut completely out of my diet. Yum!
Side bonus- Instead of two servings of pasta, I'm learning to become more satisfied with just one serving and bulking up the rest of the meal with veggies.0 -
Today is my first fast day this week. Should be interesting as I am under a tone of stress at work. Went to the cafeteria and walked out without food...I am at the point I usually get to where I'm doing really well and then decide to sabotage my progress!! Am trying to break the cycle
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I haven't posted much on the diet (lifestyle) side of things lately, but I've been trying some different things out. This is not strictly 5:2, but does fall under intermittent fasting...the results are interesting (from a "what if" sort of way).
I saw a # of people blowing their weekends out and still getting "OK" losses for the week. So I started opening up my weekends (Fri night, all day Sat, and Sun day). Out of the last 2 weekends I ate over my TDEE on 4 of those days, at least 2 days I was approaching double. The weekend before the last 2 I ate up-to my TDEE for the 3 days. What I'm finding is I will gain anywhere from 10 to 17 lbs on the weekend doing this...I think the reason is that most of my Thursday/Friday fasts are "severe" (>42 hours), but still I keep getting losses. The huge weight gain (from what I can tell) is from my body holding on to everything I touch on Friday night through Sunday...plus the sodium I'm sure. Last week I tried 3 fasts...Sun-Mon was ~42 hours on 600 cal, Tue(mid-day)-Thu was 48 hours on 600 cal, then Fri I did 24 hours on 0 calories. I managed to lose 2.6 lbs, but what's interesting is that when I look back at the week (mentally) it felt very satisfying eating-wise. This week I am trying something new...I started Saturday at midnight, I went to Sunday midnight (24 hours) and ate a meal of ~600 cal, then went to noon Monday (12 hours) and ate one huge meal (about 75% of my TDEE...of unhealthy food...I couldn't eat anymore). Then I went right back into the cycle...I am at hour 23 of my second 36 hours of eating this way. I'm going to see if I can fit four of these 36 hour fasts back to back (ending Saturday morning) with the 1 hour in between to eat the "huge" meal. I don't know if this is sustainable or if it will result in a higher weight loss; right now I still feel good (satisfied w/energy, no dizziness, no headaches), because of the large meal yesterday I almost feel I could go another 6 hours, but I'm going to stick to the plan to see the results.
Why am I doing this? Well, I'm a little bored (smile), but I also want to see what I'm capable of...achieving some of these things allows me to see how my body will react as well as giving me added confidence. I now know that I can handle almost any situation (like the holidays) and I can move fasts to any day of the week, do them back-to-back, or push them to the extremes (my longest is 49 hours on 600 calories) if needed, while still feeling good and still losing weight.
I'll let everyone know how it goes.0 -
@thecarbmonster - I'm at week 9 for me, although I can't really count last week (didn't fast).
I was looking at my 'weigh-in' calendars for the past year and I am surprised at how stuck I have been basically staying at, relatively, the same weight. It was not until started fasting that I started seeing any kind of loss. I has been nice to see where I have been and where I seem to be heading.
Fast day for me tomorrow, today I was entertaining the kids, out and about, which usually means high calories for me, but I managed to do better that normal. I think what helped is that I logged what I though I might eat and ended not eating everything I thought I would. I think I will try to pre-log more often
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thecarbmonster wrote: »So the past two weeks I've started "officially" bumping up my low/fast day goal to 700-850 and I have noticed a BIG change. I have more energy during the week, I feel more satisfied after meals/day to day, no more late night hunger pangs, etc.
I have wondered about this. Should my TDEE be based on my current weight or the weight I would like to be at? Or somewhere in between? Currently I have my TDEE based on my goal weight and my fast day calories at 500 even though 1/4 of my TDEE is closer to 450.
Not sure that is the best way to implement 5:2. I think this is especially true if one is losing a lot of weight. I wonder if it would easier to succeed if one stair-stepped the TDEE and fast day calories down as one loses weight rather than set the TDEE and fast day calories at the goal weight. They say 500 calories on fast day for women but that really should be set based on how much the woman (or man) weighs. As long as one is at a 3500 calorie deficit per week they will lose 1 lb (theoretically) no matter how many calories they eat. Maybe your TDEE was just too low for your current weight? And now that you are eating more you are feeling better and more able to stick with the plan. I believe 5:2 is about intermitant fasting and not about starving ourselves.
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Fast day today for me. I'm trying something different today. I am going to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner today. Hopefully eating breakfast won't make be more hungry for the day.
Meal Plan:
Breakfast: One Toast w/ Butter and Green Tea = 130cal
Lunch: Activia Strawberry Yogurt and Apple Spice Tea = 126cal
Dinner: Maggi Chicken Noodles with Green Beans (400g) = 362 cal
Totally: 618cal
I know I'm over my cals, but we'll see how letting myself eat throughout the day differs from what I usually do...save everything for dinner.
Hope everyone has a good day.0 -
@carbmonster thanks for your suppport! :-) In the end the day got totally bearable. I also saved my calories for dinner. Because for me it´s easier. If I start eating something, I will feel more hungry and restless during the day. If I don´t eat at all it´s like my belly is sleeping :-D I drank a lot though which is a nice side effect and I think helped my headache also.
I did the same you suggest. I had a huge salad with nice toppings like feta, jam and an egg. Yummy. In my mind I already planned dinner for the next fasting day, lol. The cool thing with mfp is, you can plan your meals pretty neatly. Like logging the vegetables/salad and then fill up the calories with the good stuff, haha!
It was absolutely incredible that I could have normal breakfast today and don´t have to restrict myself much on NFD. I set my calories to 1850 which is doable and I will not be upset if I might go over a bit sometimes...Especially when i train...which I have to get back to *sigh* I am a couch potatoe.
Also interesting thing about the calories...It´s a lot of experimenting I guess to find out what fits yoour body.
@orlcam I think this is so cool about this fasting thing. You can try, adjust and see what works best for yourself.
@snaps27 good luck on the new tryout!0 -
Today is my second fast of the week and 2nd week on the program.
Breakfast - Eggbeater 1/2 cup with 1 tsp of cream cheese
Lunch - Eggbeater 1/2 cup plain. A big bowl of steamed spinach with seasoning
Total 2 main meals 266
I still have 232 for dinner.... still thinking of what to have.
I hope I can make it. It is trial by error. I have been learning from my previous mistakes.0 -
@jknight001, i think if you google 5:2, the official website has a calculator??? I'm not sure. I'm an excel nerd so I just looked up the calculation for TDEE and update it each week for my new weight.
I believe your TDEE should be based on your current weight. You definitely want to hit those higher calorie days because it shakes up your metabolism to prevent it getting used to lower calories.
Awesome @neonbeige!!! I do the same 0 -
thecarbmonster wrote: »
So the past two weeks I've started "officially" bumping up my low/fast day goal to 700-850 and I have noticed a BIG change. I have more energy during the week, I feel more satisfied after meals/day to day, no more late night hunger pangs, etc.
Who knew 150 calories could be so powerful! But for me, it means another serving of carbs/fat/protein, etc. that my body was asking me for! 150 calories is just .04 of a pound...not worth making or breaking this diet! And it's definitley worth it knowing I can keep going and found something sustainable!
I think that's the key to this program - we need to figure out what works best for us. I'm typically fine with 500 or 550 calories per day but my husband needs closer to 1,000 or else he feels really sick and headachy. As you can see for yourself this adjustment is working for you!!
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http://thefastdiet.co.uk/
the calculator is under how. The above link is posted on the first page of this group at the top of the page.0 -
That's the way to do it! I'm fasting today as well:Christine_1085 wrote: »Today is my second fast of the week and 2nd week on the program.
Breakfast - Eggbeater 1/2 cup with 1 tsp of cream cheese
Lunch - Eggbeater 1/2 cup plain. A big bowl of steamed spinach with seasoning
Total 2 main meals 266
I still have 232 for dinner.... still thinking of what to have.
I hope I can make it. It is trial by error. I have been learning from my previous mistakes.
Breakfast: cream in coffees (60 calories)
Lunch: Progresso light soup (140 calories)
Dinner: 300 calories of something wonderful like a big ole' salad with lots of chicken
Good luck today!!!
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thecarbmonster wrote: »
I believe your TDEE should be based on your current weight. You definitely want to hit those higher calorie days because it shakes up your metabolism to prevent it getting used to lower calories.
Hmmm..I've been doing TDEE at my goal weight. I think I'll try a few weeks at my current weight and see if things start moving in a better direction
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@carbmonster thanks for your suppport! :-) In the end the day got totally bearable. I also saved my calories for dinner. Because for me it´s easier. If I start eating something, I will feel more hungry and restless during the day. If I don´t eat at all it´s like my belly is sleeping :-D I drank a lot though which is a nice side effect and I think helped my headache also.
Isn't that fun to find out..that the day is bearable. I was so scared the first time I started fasting and for a few weeks had anxiety the night before but in the end, just like you stated, the day is bearable. It's really not that bad
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mwhite61451 wrote: »Today is my first fast day this week. Should be interesting as I am under a tone of stress at work. Went to the cafeteria and walked out without food...I am at the point I usually get to where I'm doing really well and then decide to sabotage my progress!! Am trying to break the cycle
How did your first fast day go? Great job walking away without any food from the caf!!
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Ok...just finished dinner (i feel so much better
). Today was tough! Defiantly more difficult for me eating throughout the day! Ended up having an extra tea with sugar and milk, as well as...oh no...my first Halloween sweet, a mini box of chocolate smarties...granted was only 45cals, but that was significant for a fast day. So at the end of the day I added another 72cals to my total, making 691 (my highest fast yet). Although considering my apprehensions about this week with the kids being off I am very pleased that I managed both fast days.
So for me...lesson learned...I will stick to liquids until dinner on fast days...works better for me.0 -
Good job @snaps27! I have definitely felt that lesson, even before this diet started. I always knew that if I ate breakfast I would feel hungrier for lunch earlier. However, if I didn't eat breakfast, I would forget to eat lunch until 1! Even when I bingeing and eating more than I could possibly fit in my mouth, I would start thinking about what I'm going to eat for lunch before I even finished my breakfast. The mental part is obviously for when I was bingeing, but I couldn't figure out when I was just eating normally/without emotions tied to it, why I was physically feeling hungrier earlier. I wonder if it has something to do with the way food affects our blood sugar and makes us peak and then fall and feel hungry again. Dunno.0
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I don't remember where I read it, but they said if you ate breakfast before then you should probably have breakfast on fast days...albeit small. At least to get started. Breakfast was rare for me, now it's extremely rare.
Congratulations to everyone on your progress.
Here's something interesting from Mosley's 5:2 diet site...Several small meals or a couple of larger ones?0 -
thecarbmonster wrote: »Good job @snaps27! I have definitely felt that lesson, even before this diet started. I always knew that if I ate breakfast I would feel hungrier for lunch earlier. However, if I didn't eat breakfast, I would forget to eat lunch until 1! Even when I bingeing and eating more than I could possibly fit in my mouth, I would start thinking about what I'm going to eat for lunch before I even finished my breakfast.
Same here, exactly. It's like the breakfast gets your mind & body into "feed me" mode
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