1200 kcal + 5:2 = Good idea?

makinica

Hey guys,

I'm on 1200 kcal plan, and it's going well. I'm not hungry or anything, I eat tons of veggies and protein, all good. However, I want to speed the process and test this 5:2 thing. What are your thoughts here? How many calories are you eating on not fasting days?

I appreciate your help.

flossyruby1

IMO, 1200 cals + 5:2 seems super restrictive. Heck, I can't stay at 1200 cals on ANY day. The beauty of 5:2 is that you are only restrictive on 2 days. The other days, less so. I'm a moderately active 47 year old female and my daily intake is 1600 cals. Including 2 days of fasting to that has resulted in a total loss of over 35 lbs. I've been on a diet my whole life and I can tell you restricting calories does not last long term. However, restricting calories 2 days a week does. In the goals tab of MFP, I made my rate 1 lb per week and my activity moderate. It's worked for me!

Hope this helps!

Foamroller

What are your numbers?

flumi_f

Only a good idea, if you are very short and light...

Keep in mind for healthy weight loss a deficit of 20-25% is recommended. If you have stats similar to flossy and myself, you are almost doubling your deficit by combining the two.

Calculate your numbers...TDEE (maintaince cals incl. exercise) for 7 days. Deduct 25% from that. How you attain the deficit over the course of a week is flexible. Some people do break a plateau by switching from a daily deficit to two fast days and 5 around tdee. Before overrestricting try mixing things up. Mix low and maintenance days, do more strength, less cardio, maybe add 16:8 (8h eating window). Just a few possibilities ;-) The body gets used to a routine. Keeping it guessing a little more might help.

makinica

Thanks for your answers! Sorry for not providing numbers in the fist place, still a newbie here.

I'm neither short or light 177cm tall, 75kg, 28y. I work out 3 times a week, full body workout.
Did the math on TDEE: 1,980

Weekly stuff: 1,980 * 7= 13,860 - 25% (3,465) = 10,395

Ok, so if on 2 days I should eat 500kcal, that means that on other 5 I should eat 9,395/5 = 1879kcal.

Is this correct? This seems waaay more than I should eat to me..

EDIT: Which tool do you guys use for TDEE? I tried two and they gave me different numbers (200kcal difference).

flumi_f

Yup. That sounds good. For people on daily restriction it often seems strange to eat at maintenance. But that is the beauty of 5:2 and what makes it a sustainable tool for me.

I've been using 5:2 for almost 4y ( maintaining since mid 2014) . At the beginning my daily cals where similar to your's. If you don't lose with those numbers you can still reduce your cals on non fast days a little. It's a bit of trial and error.

Tipp for fast days - lots of veggies and lean protein make them easier for me. I avoid grain carbs because they make me hungry.

makinica

Thanks flumi! You're super helpful.

Ok, I'm in ladies!

I'll keep my non-fast days on 1700kcal. That's the result I got using second TDEE calculator. Better to be a bit conservative, just in case I don't calculate something right.

Great tip, thanks. Tomorrow will be my fast day 1, so let's see how it goes.

Foamroller

Use Orlcam's calculator and play with the numbers. You can custom tailor your energy intake according to your goals.
http://www.sailrabbit.com/bmr/

Keep in mind that ALL calorie calculators are estimates. Even measuring RMR gives a margin of up to 500 kcal range of "calories" in healthy people. Which basically means they're only a starting point, not to be taken too literally.
http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/78/6/1141.long. If someone has metabolic disturbances like hypothyroidism or insulin resistance, the "calorie out" equation often is very VARIABLE.

That being said, I fully agree with @flumi_f advice above. Start out not too aggressively and if no fat loss over 2-3 weeks, play with the foods on NFD☺ Good luck!

Edit: some meanings.

makinica

Thank you all for your help and support.