5:2 people, please could I ask you a question over here without having to look through the whole thread please....

[sweetheart]

I'm thinking of giving the 5:2 thing a go, my question is that I do quite a lot of exercise and I wondered what you do with the calories from this and if you refrain from exercising on your low calorie days?

I'm thinking of doing 2 days @ 500 cals and 5 days at 1480 cals - is that about right?

So on the 500 cal days would you exercise? And if you did would you allow yourself to delve into the exercise calories earnt or would you stick firmly to the 500 cals? I can burn that in 1 workout!

Again on the non fast days do you allow yourself to use exercise calories?

Thanks

bump

My non-expert opinion would be that on the 5 days you don't count calories at all. 1480 seems a tiny amount if you're a regular exerciser.

Instead of counting calories on the five days, can you just eat according to your hunger? It seems like the 5:2 diet reconnects you with your natural energy needs.

Disclaimer: I'm on day one so not the best person to advise!

1480 would be calories without including any exercise - so with exercise probably closer to 2000 a day.

I'm currently on 1200 basic a day + exercise calories so I worked out the 1480 on my weekly allowance but perhaps this is wrong. Do other 5:2's monitor their non fast day calories?

I'd be worried that I'd go off the rails otherwise and eat a stupid amount of calories because I was "aloud to eat whatever I want"

sweetheart, naturelover is right, 1480 kcal on non-fast fast days is too low for you.

The guidelines are 500 kcal on fast days and normal eating on non-fast days. The 500 kcal figure is arrived at from taking 25% of the 'average' woman's daily calorie needs. 'Normal' eating is really meant to mean eating the number of calories your body needs to maintain the same weight, so not dieting and not bingeing. I suspect 1480 kcal in your case is a diet ration so not enough for your non-fast days.

Personally, I have never counted calories on a non-fast day. Yes, I did end up stuffing my face on non-fast days for the first week or so, but after that it felt like someone had pushed a reset button in my head. Now I naturally want to eat the right amount of healthy food (I still enjoy a treat or two sometimes though, I'm not a total robot! ).

If you want a calorie guideline though you could work out your daily calorie needs by following the TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) link in the OP on the latest 5:2 thread. This factors in your height, age, weight and level of exercise over the week to give you a daily calorie needs figure. Aim to eat roughly this amount on your fast days, you can go a little below it some days and a little above it others, the point is to average this amount over all of your non-fast days. Because your TDEE factors in your exercise you don't eat extra calories for doing extra exercise.

Some people prefer to say they are sedentary when working out their TDEE and then eat that plus their exercise calories on non-fast days. If you choose to do this you still don't eat your exercise calories on fast days because the principle is to eat 25% of your energy needs on fast days. If you want to use exercise calories to 'earn' more calories on fast days then at most you should eat 25% of your sedentary TDEE plus 25% of your exercise calories. Most people find it less hassle to just stick to the 500 kcal guidleine though.

I've been doing 5:2 for 5 months and only just took up runnning a week ago so I avoid exercising on my fast days, but as you're a regular exerciser your body is used to it. Many 5:2ers do exercise on fast days and don't have any problem doing so.

I hope this helps you.

Please do come and join in on the main thread as it's a good source of encouragement and information.

I exercise a lot and am doing 5:2. I calculated my TDEE (total number of calories needed to maintain my current weight) on a TDEE calculator making sure I put the correct amount of exercise in (in my case it was "moderate"). This gave me the total amount of calories I need to consume to stay the same weight I am. So this is how I eat on 5:2:

Monday - Fast (500 cals)
Tuesday - Eat at or as close as possible to TDEE cals
Wedensday - Fast
Thursday - TDEE
Friday - TDEE
Saturday - TDEE (often much more! but I adjust over the week)
Sunday - TDEE (ditto Saturday!)

If you know your magic TDEE number then you'll never need to hnk about exercise calories as they're included.

For got to add, I exercise five times a week - two of those on my fast days. No problems so far.

Brilliant thanks for the information. I've done a VLCD before and was told not to exercise on it which is the reason for asking but I guess the difference is the calorie restriction is only temporary with this whereas it's ongoing with a VLCD.

I'm quite tempted to have a go but I have to say the idea of fasting terrifies me AND I just can't get my head around eating 1700 - 2000 cals a day AND loosing weight!

I guess the only way to find out is to give it a try - just gotta psyche myself up first!

Yes, give it a go. I lost 46lbs eating at 10-20% reduction of my TDEE last year which averaged out to 1800 cals a day. A big chunk of that time was before I started exercising regularly. It was nice losing weight eating well :) I've lost a further 5lbs (in 2 weeks) on 5:2 eating around 2200 cals on my non-fasting days (whilst exercising moderately) and I'm close to my target weight. So it can be done. Start on Monday (if weekends are social/eating times for you) and report in on the main 5:2 thread for support. See you there :)

I'm currently using my fitness pal and using 1200 cals per day + exercise calories. As I've got nearer to my target my weekends have got more and more indulgent to the point now where I still have about 5Ibs to loose but I'm stuck maintaining because I just can't be motivated enough to be good at weekends. I dread to think what my calorie consumption is over a weekend, probably at least 2500 a day with no exercise at all!

I find it fairly easy to be good during the week which is why I though perhaps 5:2 would be the way to go for me to shift these last few Ib's.

The size of the thread scares me to be honest

We aren't cliquey there, sweetheart, just post and people will respond. :) It also helps to just skim, sometimes people bring up things you were wondering but didn't want to ask, or just things you hadn't thought about. The threads move quickly at the moment but will probably settle down naturally with time.

Do you want to lose weight? Not everybody on the 5:2 diet does. If you do then eat according to your hunger on non-fast days, try to keep it healthy. On fast days stick to no more than 500 calories. No more. You will be absolutely fine to exercise, if you want to lose weight it will burn the fat off quicker. If you don't want to lose weight then follow the above but only fast on one day per week.

I wasn't suggesting you were cliquey it's just the size and speed of the thread

I do want to loose weight yes, about 5 Ibs more. I've already lost about 22Ibs following a restricted calorie diet.

Some weekends I can eat 3000 calories if I eat out (that's over the course of a day) but I adjust on my other days accordingly (I use MFP's weekly tab to ensure I don't go over calories and off course I never go over 500 cals on fast days).

Don't be put off by the size of the thread. I leapt in on thread 11. Just lurk if you don't fancy posting but give 5:2 a trial for a few weeks.

Can I ask how many cals you eat over a week in that case?

Over a week it should be (for me, based on my own TDEE - so don't use my numbers):

(500 x 2) + (2240 x 5) = my total calories for the week that I shouldn't go over if I'm trying to lose weight.

Looking at my stats I tend to be around 3500 cals under for the week when I'm losing.

Sorry can I just ask, do you mean your 3500 cals under the totals you've posted for the week or those totals ARE what you eat? Does that make sense?

No. MFP takes my weekly total to be TDEE x 7 so 3500 under that total.

So your weekly tdee is 15700 but you use 12200 as shown below?

I think so...

So if I was calorie counting my old way I'd be eating average 1740 cals a day...

Hi guys :)

I'm new to 5:2 and a bit lost by it all . I've calculated my TDEE at 2080 calories. With 5:2 do I eat this on feast days and then 520 calories on two consecutive fast days?

This would put my weekly intake at 14560 (to maintain) and 11400 (if doing 5:2). However, looking at a healthy weight loss of 1.5lbs a week, I reckon I would have to reduce my total intake to 9310.

Am I confusing the 5:2 principal with calorie reduced dieting? Is the TDEE just a tool to calcuate what you ahould be aiming for on a fast day?

I was happy enough with the principal until I read the TDEE calculator page!

Advice would be greatful, thanks :)

oops, I meant to post this on the main thread didn't mean to hijack!