5:2 Fast Diet with Fitness Pal

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maryannepulivogels56
maryannepulivogels56 Posts: 1 Member
in Introduce Yourself
I am new to FitnessPal and wanted to know if it tracks the 5:2 diet?

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  • furrina
    furrina Posts: 148 Member
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    Hi, not sure what you mean exactly, but you absolutely use it to track calories if you are doing 5:2 fast. It tracks your calories every day, on fast days just put in any calories you eat just like any other days, and any exercise calories you burn, and they'll be recorded when you look at reports, etc. The only problem is if you go below the "recommended" 1200 calorie level for women it won't give you a "prediction" of how much you'd weigh if you ate that many calories everyday and it gives you this big warning about your calories being too low. Just ignore that :D
    I do something like a 5:2 fast each week and track fast days on mfp. Good luck.
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    I've used it in the past with 5:2 (no longer on 5:2 - I now use IF 8:16) but the problem that you will have is that MFP will throw a warning that you are eating too little on your fasting days. This can prevent phone based users from completing their diaries, but is not an issue with the PC/computer based version.

    I set my calories and P/C/F %s to my eating day values and then just ignored the warning on my fast days but I think that premium (paid) version allow you to set different calories per day, so that may be something that you could investigate if the free version doesn't work the way you want it to.
  • Mnaminal
    Mnaminal Posts: 90 Member
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    A trick I used if finishing your day is important to you is to quick add calories to get to 1200, complete your day, then go back and erase the quick add entry.
  • islandpiper
    islandpiper Posts: 19 Member
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    Just noticed your original post here. I've done the 5-2 in the past, without MFP, and lost weight quite comfortably. For me the key is to be BUSY with something on the fasting days. If I'm in the house, doing my regular things it is very tempting to grab a cracker, or worse. If I'm out in the yard, or volunteering someplace then the day passes quickly. good luck, hope it works for you !!
  • luv2eat222
    luv2eat222 Posts: 7 Member
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    I have dabbled a bit with the 5:2 as well and was considering trying it again. I thought I might just put in a certain number of calories for breakfast on my fasting days and call is "fasting" (like 500 calories) so that I can still keep track of how many calories I need to eat that evening and it won't throw off my total calories and make MFP say I'm not eating enough. I saw someone else put "fasting" on their diary but they put it as 0 calories but then we'll get that notice. Just a thought. Good luck.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
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    luv2eat222 wrote: »
    I have dabbled a bit with the 5:2 as well and was considering trying it again. I thought I might just put in a certain number of calories for breakfast on my fasting days and call is "fasting" (like 500 calories) so that I can still keep track of how many calories I need to eat that evening and it won't throw off my total calories and make MFP say I'm not eating enough. I saw someone else put "fasting" on their diary but they put it as 0 calories but then we'll get that notice. Just a thought. Good luck.

    You don't have to "complete" your diary. Just log however many calories you actually eat and keep going
  • HitenL
    HitenL Posts: 38 Member
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    I'd be interested to know more about the 5:2 diet please as I wanted to try it. Any advice for a beginner? Thanks.
  • islandpiper
    islandpiper Posts: 19 Member
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    HitenL, patience.....and timing. This works for me: on fast days I don't eat anything till nearly noon. Coffee and water till then. No sweets, at all, on any fast day, as they will make me hungry. And, staying busy at some project really helps.

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