Non fast days

[LuckyAugust]

Hi everyone. What is your typical days menu on a non fast day? Struggling to find a diet I can stick too....... I love the idea of being able to eat real food and not worry about counting points but does 5:2 really work? A normal eating day for me would be maybe weetabix or toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and depending on late afternoon activities may be an easy oven meal (i.e fish portions, wedges, beans) or mcdonalds . Other days it may be salmon, savoury rice or something generally healthy (ish). What spoils it for me is the amount of chocolate I eat (total chocoholic). Do you reckon a small bar might still be ok on a non fast day? I know I could do the 2 fast days easy enough - its the non fast days that worry me, especially because we do (more so during the week) rely on convinience foods.

Hi, I have been on the 5:2 since January and have now lost just over a stone - its hard I wont lie the 500 days can be a killer and you should be aware that you cant just go mad on the "normal" days. I use weight watchers ready meals on the 500 days and only eat lunch and dinner.

It works but only if you work at it - its hard and not a miracle cure.

The point of non fast days is that they are when you eat the correct amount of calories for YOUR body (hence all the reference to TDEE)

for most people with weight to lose that will be less (sometimes a LOT less) than they are used to

BUT
if you can retrain your body to be happy with the right amount of food
the fast days are the weight loss part
and the new slim you will stay that way forever

How are you finding it right now op? Are you losing weight? I think it takes a while to work out how much you can eat on those non fast days and still lose weight. I've pretty much sorted my days out now (lost a stone, came off it due to being ill, gained 3 lbs, back on it now). If it's a work day I eat porridge for breakfast, soup, humous, oat cakes for lunch, the odd biscuit of small bit of cake if it's going, pasta or something similar for dinner.

I really don't pay a huge amount of attention to it on non fast days and I still seem to lose weight. You have to sort of jiggle it about till you get the balance right. Dp has been doing it and is stricter than me and has lost more weight but she did have alot more that she wanted to lose than me in the first place.

I was worried in the same way and went through a “normal” day’s food to see if I’d usually be going over the TDEE. You could do the same based on what you think you’ll eat and that will tell you whether you’ll be ok or not. FWIW I am ok with Weetabix breakfast, apple snack, ham sandwich on bread + packet of low-fat crisps for lunch and then a normal tea, plus a choc bisc like a kitkat or something on my non-fast days. My TDEE is only 1400 cals which is not much but I can still eat what I’d like to on those days. Try predicting your calorie intake based on what you want to eat and see if you can afford a choc bar – I bet you can.

Non-fast days are when we can have treats, not all we want every day, but a few treats are essential to keep us sane

A good rule on any diet is eat healthily for at least 80% of your calories on NFDs, so at most 20% TOTAL can be added sugar, cakes, chocolate, biccies ...
People who mainline junk may still lose weight short-term if they keep to TDEE. However, they tend to regain quickly.

So, you can't have a 100g choc bar every day, but you can have a few squares daily, say 25g. Or plan your calories over the week and say on each of 2 days have 50g.

If you can get used to 90% cocoa choc, that is very healthy and satisfying even in small amounts.

It's a tricky one really isn't it because when one person says "I eat what I like on non fast days" that doesn't necessarily mean that they eat loads or that they have tons of treats. I will say that the only person I know who did this but didn't lose weight really did stuff himself on non fast days (fish and chips, coke, endless snacks). You do have to exert some control, partly I guess because you are trying to get yourself into some healthier habits in any case.