How to combine 5/2 with 16/8

spiciest1

Hi everyone,
I have been doing 16/8 for over a month now, and I find it really easy to maintain however it only really works for me in combination with working out almost every day and keeping my calories at approximately 1200-1300 on most days. Doing this I have lost about 14 pounds. I now seem to have stalled a bit and would like to know how to incorporate 5/2 in to whatever I'm already doing.

So, if my last meal was on a Sunday at 9:00 pm at the end of my 8 hour eating window, would I start eating again at Monday at 9:00 pm but then only eat 500 calories and then after I'm done eating, see what time it is and then fast till 16 hrs on Tuesday (the end of my 16 hr regular fast)? As you can see I'm a little confused with the timing.

Thanks,

Marla

flossyruby1

My understanding about 16:8 is that you fast for 16 hours, then eat your calories within an 8 hour window. Hypothetically, you would eat from 12-8 pm everyday. To incorporate 5:2, you would not eat on two of those days until dinner. So, today you eat all of your calories until 8 pm, then when you wake up tomorrow you don't eat until dinner and then you only eat 500 calories. The following day, you would resume 16:8 and start eating after 12, in this example. I think this is correct, but others may have input I didn't realize. Good luck!!

flumi_f

Not quite Flossy, sorry. You can do it that way, but you don't have to.

Combining 5:2 with 16:8 is easy as pie... If your 16:8 window is 12h-20h, then that is when you have your 500cals on a fast day. You can divide them as you wish within your normal 16:8 eating window. It is possible to eat all the cals at once or to divide them into several meals. It just depends on what you need. On normal days you eat your maintainance cals in your 8h window. If you don't lose, you can reduce your maintaince cals a little.

On my fast days I usually eat lunch at 1130-12 and then dinner between 17-18h, so on my fast days my eating window is around 7h and are consistent with 16:8. I don't do well on my fast days, if I save all of my cals for dinner. But that is my body. You experiment and choose, what is good for you.

spiciest1

Hi Flumi,

So if I understand correctly, on my fast day I just eat during my window like usual just I eat only 500 calories and then resume my regular 16 hr fast to the next day?

That seems easy enough. I was making it way too complicated.

Thanks so much

flumi_f

Yup. You got it.

Just one 'rule' to 5:2, 500cals during your fast day. You can eat whenever and whatever you want with those 500. Don't make it complicated, but do observe how you do on fast days. experiment with meals and foods. Get to know your body and what makes your fast days easy.

On fast days I stick to veggies and lean protein sources to make the most of my cals, because grain carbs tend to get me hungry. I usually do a very 'lean' veggie soup for lunch (100-150cals) and love my veggie chicken chilli (200cals) and my high protein / low fat greek style yogurt with berries and chia seeds (150cals) for dinner/dessert.

flossyruby1

Thanks for clarifying, Flumi. I think I had it in my head what you described. You just said it better Ive though about combining the two, but lately have been much hungrier. It's getting cold in my area...not sure if it's related.

flumi_f

Gladly, Flossy I have been doing this for a while

spiciest1

Is there a place that shows recipes for the 500 calories?. Soup is hard to quantify regarding portion size. I would be afraid of unknowingly going over.
Thanks

flumi_f

Don't quite understand the problem....here is how I cook, as I am a precooker. I make my own 'ready meals' on the weekend and take them with me for lunch at work.

I weigh the pot.
I weigh everything I put into the pot
I cook my meal
I weigh the pot with the meal
I divide the weight of the meal by the number of portions
I fill the correct weight of the portions into plastic boxes and know the cal count of that portion.

I log and save the whole thing as one meal. (I'm not big on the Recipe function) And add the fraction that corresponds to the portion to the name. A little more effort right after cooking, but saves time as the rest of the week, I can use the 'copy to date' or 'remember meal' functions.

Here is an example. Veggie chicken chilli 0.125. So when I log this on a fast day, I log the meal size as 0.125 and get the correct numbers for my diary.

flumi_f

Ah and there are some recipe threads in this group, but you'll have to scroll back a bit. And if you google 500 cal meals you will also find a wide range of sites and possibilities.

spiciest1

Ok thanks, I'm still not sure why you weigh the pot with the meal before cooking why don't you just weigh the pot and then when the meal is ready subtract the pot from the cooked meal to get the total weight of the meal.then divide in to portions. ?

I'll try searching for 500 cal. meals. Thank you for all your help Flumi.

flumi_f

spiciest1 wrote: »

weigh the pot with the meal before cooking - I weigh the empty pot and the individual ingredients before they go into the pot. I log ingredients in raw state. seems more accurate imo.

why don't you just weigh the pot and then when the meal is ready subtract the pot from the cooked meal to get the total weight of the meal.then divide in to portions. ? - this is exactly what I do

Foamroller

Hi spiciest/Marla, welcome There's no problem to stack protocols, 5:2 with 16:8 or other variations. In fact they build on each other, IMO. I did this 1 year ago plus low-carb macros and lost ca. 1 kg/week for 3 months. It's not for everyone's taste or lifestyle, but it certainly broke my almost 1 year stall desperately trying to lose weight. I will even claim it has repaired my hormonal balance, ie. metabolism to such an extent I can now slack more on carbs. For my body the daily fasting helps keeping everything smooth and very slowly raze from stored fat (body recomp). But the bigger deficits with 5:2 style makes the scales move too. It's my N =1. I still use the daily window in maintenance and I've been eating effortlessly. I'm quite active, though.

My advice would be to have a lose rule when stacking. Don't be too literal. It's less about how many hours you «fast», just make sure you let the body have a proper digesting window where glucagon burns from stored fat. As long as you follow the protocols 80-90% of the time, the occasional execeptions due to «life happening» are just a blip. Tailor it to your life, make it work etc, and this is very, very sustainable. I rather like the freedom of choosing when to eat, not being dictated by «hunger». YMMV!

Foamroller

...Oh, and you need to be in deficit,though. Recalc your macros and caloric intake. Sleep more (we burn most of the stored fat in the later stages of sleep), stress less. Elevated cortisol is not only bad for fat loss cause it mobilizes energy, but it can also in extreme cases, like performance anxiety ridden athletes, be catabolic.

Stress is also inducing inflammation, for those that have this problem.