Simple meal/snack for fast days

[frazzled74]

I am about to start this diet and want to do my fast days when I am working as I always take my own breakfast , lunch and teatime snack anyway (12 hour shifts). Are there any ready meals/soups/breakfasts which would come in under the 500 calories? I would need to eat 3 times a day but not necessarily a meal.

Why do you need to have 3 meals a day?

Most people find it easier not to split the 500 into more than 2 meals. Ideally breakfast and dinner with as much of a gap in between as possible to have a long fast period between meals.

Hi, frazzled Choose whatever system you think would work for you. You can always tweak it later.

Some folk save nearly all calories for say a 450-cal supper.
Others have lunch and supper, sometimes equal sizes, sometimes split into say a 350-cal meal and a 150-cal mini-meal

When at work, a microwave and ready meals are often easiest. Do you plan to use them ?

I could split it into 2, I just thought that 3 would be more healthy for energy levels, but can try 2 and see how it goes. Yes we have a microwave at work so I can use that.

I buy the covent garden soups. The wild mushroom soup, for example, is 162 cals per 600g carton. This is two servings but I usually eat 2 cartons a day. I find it filling and easy for work. I make up to 500 cals with fruit and sliced meats.

btw, If you have milk & sugar with your drinks, then the night before:
measure out your total allowance for the FD in 2 pots, so you include the calories within your 500.

Plenty of friendly advice on the main 52 thread Number51
Come join us there and post for moral support anytime

As far as I've seen, the research into 5:2 has been done with a long fasting period between meals rather than 3 meals because that way your body will begin to repair itself when it's not busy digesting food. It's worth looking at the Mosley & Spencer book as it has lots of recipe ideas too.

For me one of the big psychological benefits of 5:2 has been exactly the gap between meals as it has taught me I don't need to be eating something all the time. It helps on NFDs too, I don't snack just because I think I should etc.

Mosely preferred breakfast and dinner on FDs because it fit his lifestyle. However, the actual scientific research e.g. by Varady, was done mostly with lunch and dinner.
They did a joint paper in which they said weight loss was not affected by however many meals you spread the 500 cals, just that you managed to keep to 500.
So, whatever system works best for you.

The health benefits of fasting are believed to be in the very low total calories on FDs, also in having longer gaps between meals on NFDs, e.g. cutting out NFD snacks.

I keep harking back to our hunter/gatherer ancestors, who must perforce have had to fast for unpredictable periods.

So I like to mix it up with 24hr liquid only fasts - sometimes followed by a VLC meal, sometimes by the full 600 cals, very occasionally by turning it into a 36 hour fast.

But when I started IF I could never have imagined doing this. I even worried about missing breakfast when I had to do a fasting blood test at 9.30 in the morning!

So I started with three small meals a day - but I noticed, after a while that I wasn't hungry when I woke up. Eventually, after several months of doing this, I thought I wouldn't eat until I became hungry. To my surprise I went right through until dinner in the evening - without feeling the slightest hunger pang.

The body needs time to adjust to fasting, it's true, but it doesn't take long.

And look at all the health benefits!

BTW, BC, I regard 150 calories, if it's done properly, as a full meal, not a mini-meal!

My record is a 75cal veg curry!

Just think what you can do with the other 425 calories!