Fasting during Lent

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Anna_Banana
Anna_Banana Posts: 2,939 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Okay I know that Fasting isn't good for you, but we are suppose to fast on Fridays during Lent. I think the rule (our Priest told us this once, we're Catholic) is that you can snack through out the day, but it has to be equal to less than a small meal and you can have a small at dinner. And of coarse there is no meat on Fridays so I'll be having fish.

Anyway I'm sure I'll be under calories on Fridays is doing this once a week going to hurt my metabolism?

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  • Anna_Banana
    Anna_Banana Posts: 2,939 Member
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    Okay I know that Fasting isn't good for you, but we are suppose to fast on Fridays during Lent. I think the rule (our Priest told us this once, we're Catholic) is that you can snack through out the day, but it has to be equal to less than a small meal and you can have a small at dinner. And of coarse there is no meat on Fridays so I'll be having fish.

    Anyway I'm sure I'll be under calories on Fridays is doing this once a week going to hurt my metabolism?
  • yoginimary
    yoginimary Posts: 6,786 Member
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    I think dieting is equal to that kind of fasting. You're only eating between 1200-1500 calories a day, so you've already cut out one meal's worth of calories. I would do 600 calories for dinner and 600 calories during the day. Think about what you ate normally before your diet...wouldn't now be considered a fast?
  • julie737
    julie737 Posts: 406 Member
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    Hi, I enjoy reading everyone's posts and I haven't posted much myself, but I thought I had something to say on this subject :smile: And I'm not an expert, so I can't speak to the metabolism question, but I fast once a month every month (I'm Mormon and this is part of our religion) and I can say that the spiritual benefits far outweigh any drawbacks. However, if you're concerned about your metabolism, you could think about adding extra calories the days before and after just to keep your overall calories high enough.

    Just a thought. Good luck and happy fasting!
  • sundaygirl85
    sundaygirl85 Posts: 69
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    I'm Catholic too and the rules I follow are that you can have one full meal a day on fast days (Fridays during Lent and I fasted Ash Wednesday too) and two smaller meals as long as together they don't add up to the main meal. Also no snacking outside of this and and no meat. So yes, this is basically my diet anyway, apart from the fact that I normally eat meat and have 1 or 2 snacks a day. I've also given up chocolate :sad: so I'm looking forward to Easter!

    I don't think this will do any damage to the metabolism because it doesn't restrict calories particularly severely.
  • Anna_Banana
    Anna_Banana Posts: 2,939 Member
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    Thanks for your input guys. This is all kind of what I thought.

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