Alternate Day Fasting - 500 cals menu?

Hi! I know there are quite a lot of you out there doing the Alternate Day Fasting thing and I've been trying to get prepared to give it a go but am struggling with what I can eat on a fast day. I would love some examples from you all to give me some much-needed inspiration! Thanks in advance. :)

Replies

  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
    Any high protein/fat meal with some carbs.
    You arent stuck at 500!

    Perfect meal for me would be about 6oz-9oz of chicken breast with some type of marinade, almonds, olive oil on broccoli.

    Are you eating about 2k or more on your regular days?
  • GemskiB
    GemskiB Posts: 95 Member
    I don;t do this but a friend of mine does - she has porrige made with water for breakfast, home meade soup or salad for lunch, sometimes tuna with the salad, and then at dinner time normally something like a low cal veggie burger with some veggies. She is doing it for the health benefits rathger than for eight loss, and she doesn't count calories on non-fast days. Another lady in my office is doing it for weight loss and she is doing really well with it, but personally I need more than soup and salad all day. I have that at lunch time!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Lots of salad. Lean meats or fish. Steamed veggies. Soup.
    Low carbs.

    I do cheat a bit by eating back my exercise calories which makes it much easier.
    Food diary is open by the way (Mondays & Thursdays are my low days).
  • SomeoneSomeplace
    SomeoneSomeplace Posts: 1,094 Member
    Low Carbs BC Carbs make you hungry. Higher fat/ super high protein BC it'll help you feel full.I struggle with fat. But here's an example

    500cals-1.jpg

    Message me if you want more ideas =) I'd be happy to help.
  • adrianadciocan
    adrianadciocan Posts: 16 Member
    Yeah, I've been doing a lot of research on it for the past week (reading through posts on here and a lot of external sites etc) so have figured out that I should be eating 2070 calories on my non-fast days and I'm keeping it at approx 500 for fasting even though officially 20% would only be approx 430 or so. I'm trying to prepare myself as well as I can before I start on Monday. I think I'll be posting recipe ideas on a regular basis as I'm actually kinda looking forward to the challenge of being creative with 500 cals. :)
  • KatLifter
    KatLifter Posts: 1,314 Member
    I don;t do this but a friend of mine does - she has porrige made with water for breakfast, home meade soup or salad for lunch, sometimes tuna with the salad, and then at dinner time normally something like a low cal veggie burger with some veggies. She is doing it for the health benefits rathger than for eight loss, and she doesn't count calories on non-fast days. Another lady in my office is doing it for weight loss and she is doing really well with it, but personally I need more than soup and salad all day. I have that at lunch time!

    Ditto! I've been reading about a lot of people fasting, but I know it really isn't for me. I get seriously cranky when I don't eat enough!

    If you're interested, here is a blog post from a trainer and nutritional coach about her fasting, http://www.negharfonooni.com/2012/07/11/intermittent-fasting-why-and-how-a-food-lovin-girl-chooses-not-to-eat/
  • xidia
    xidia Posts: 606 Member
    Wholemeal toast for breakfast with a scraping of butter (I seem to NEED carbs first thing in the morning), plus a mug of decaf tea with semi-skim milk.

    No caffeine all day since it spikes and plunges my blood sugar, leaving me hungry

    A small can (130g) of tuna in brine - half around lunchtime and half mid-afternoon

    100g lean chicken with mixed frozen veg (because I'm lazy) OR prawn stirfry OR turkey stirfry (both using an oil mister and only enough to stop it sticking - high quality non-stick pans are your friend)

    I have a friend who budgets 60cal for half a glass of wine some fast days. Each to their own, but it does show small treats are possible.

    And lots and lots of water to drink, or herbal tea.

    The first day was absolute hell. Just so you're warned. Then it gets easier!
  • I used to Alternate Day Fast & on my 500 cal days I would mostly drink high protein low carb nutrition shakes like Atkins or EAS Carb Control. the EAS ones have 100 calories per shake & about 25% daily value of most of the major vitamins & minerals & 17 g protein per. So at four of those I felt like I was actually full, had a good amount of protein & didn't feel bad about missing out on the important vitamins. Of course it sucked only drinking stuff all day long. Sometimes that helped with the food thing though because a lot of tmes once I have a BITE of something I have to keep chewing & chewing & chewing!
  • cashandra
    cashandra Posts: 25 Member
    What really helps me is I start my fasting at 7pm instead of in the mornings. By that. I mean I started fasting at 7pm on 28th yesterday, and will fast until 7pm today. At that time I start my regular eating until 7pm tomorrow. It just seems to be easier for me if I can eat something everyday. While still fasting for 24hrs and eating for 24hrs. I did REALLY good this way. I was losing so much weight I would contemplate posting it I did not want anyone to think I was fibbing...lol. well I had a baby so I had stop now I'm starting back. But for the question at hand I eat soups and salad foods on my fasting days.
  • rubyjune27
    rubyjune27 Posts: 87 Member
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/9483381/52-diet-healthy-recipes-250-calories-or-less.html

    The Saturday Telepraph ran an article on the 5:2 fasting and there are recipes for 250 cals

    I do this 5:2 and I 'spend' 109 calories on skimmed milk - I can not go all day without milky decaf. The other 400 are on lots of steamed or stir fry veg with protein such as eggs or tofu or a soya product
  • I don't do 5:2, but my calories are lower than MFP recommends because of some medical issues so I have experience with VLCDs. Shirataki noodles are very filling for only 40 calories. Recently I've been lazy and putting a soy sauce packet on them but it tastes good and it's filling. I eat plain oatmeal and add a pinch of cinnamon and splenda, I usually make it with water, but sometimes unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Just about any green vegetables like spinach, lettuce, green beans, cucumbers, etc. are very low calorie and filling. For fruits, berries are lower calorie, but I eat a lotof apples because they're filling. Always use a food scale with fruits and vegetables because they vary a lot.