Farfelu's Journal, 24 June 2013

I want to start eating more normally - but don't want to gain weight so I am going to give the 5:2 fast diet a try. I just came off some travelling and "big time feasting" every day since last Thursday and have a gain as a result. Today as part of the 5:2 I will try to keep under 500 calories, and I will probably do it again on Wednesday. On the other days I will concentrate on eating healthy foods, but not obsessing about calories, portions and nutritional info. Right now I have a hard time believing it will work, but so many people have done very well that I might as well give it a try and if I keep gaining instead of losing I'll do something else. This seems more like a maintenance diet than a weight loss diet, so if I can lose what I gained lately, I will be really happy. If I can get even lower, I'll be shouting it from the mountaintops. Two highly restrictive days seems a small price to pay for 5 normal ones. We shall see...........
133.6 lb Lost so far: 0 lb.    Still to go: 4.6 lb.    Diet followed N/A.

Diet Calendar Entries for 24 June 2013:
466 kcal Fat: 6.14g | Prot: 64.79g | Carb: 38.71g.   Breakfast: Rojo's Fresh Cut Salsa, Egg Beaters Egg Beaters - Original, Apricots, Coffee. Lunch: Columbus Peppered Turkey Breast, Walden Farms Sugar Free Calorie Free Thick N Spicy Barbecue Sauce, Cooked Spinach (from Frozen, Fat Not Added in Cooking). Dinner: A&W Diet Root Beer (Can), Southern Home Jalapeno Slices, Lettuce, NutriSystem Flame Broiled Beef Patty, Tomatoes, Cucumber (with Peel). Snacks/Other: Proti Foods Proti Thin Hot Chocolate Drink Mix, Swiss Miss Sensible Sweets Diet Hot Cocoa Mix. more...
2049 kcal Activities & Exercise: Resting - 7 hours, Sleeping - 8 hours, Dance (fast step, aerobic) - 1 hour, Desk Work - 8 hours. more...

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Comments 
Wow, I cant imagine keeping it under 500 a day! I guess it would just be filling up on low calorie veggies and lots of water. I hope it works and please let me know what you think after you have tried it. I might have to add that to my routine if it seems to work.  
24 Jun 13 by member: Vegas4866
I will definitely keep you posted! 
24 Jun 13 by member: Farfelu
Thanks, Glen...... I keep reading what people say who are doing it and they say it's not hard because (1) every time they are doing a fast day they know they next day they can eat "normally" (2) Somehow hunger is less of a factor than it was through normal calorie restriction. We'll see. I will be honest with my feedback. As I said, I am skeptical! 
24 Jun 13 by member: Farfelu
Yikes! 500 calories... I hope it doesn't lead you to binge eat later. That kind of deprivation really affects one's emotions, wishes for food, etc. You must also to drink lots more water to compensate the water not ingested with food. It's almost impossibly hard to maintain motivation-wise since you'll be craving food really hard. That aside, may the motivation stay with you! :) Natural healthy foods all the way! Remember that, easy long aerobic exercise (1 hour soft indoor cycling while watching TV for example) works just as well at burning calories as short ultra hard workouts. A soft daily exercise session will easily allow you to eat like 500+ more calories a day while maintaining the same calorie deficit, less suffering, less muscle tissue loss and also while allowing you to keep your metabolism high and feeling better overall :) Keep at it! 
25 Jun 13 by member: euheide
euhide- you have it all wrong. It's 500 calories for 2 days a week, not consecutive. I've been doing for awhile now - it's not bad. And, surprisingly enough- you don't binge the next day. I ate a little more at first, but now my appetite seems to be less than before I started this. I've lost about 6 pounds since the 16th of last month. I feel great. I'm not even very hungry on my 'fast' days. You can check out my menu for tomorrow if you like. You might look at Mosley's documentary, it's on Vimeo. Eye opening.  
25 Jun 13 by member: Katred12
That's surprising Katred12! I did not realize that it was only 2 days a week (I thought it would be like 50/50, day on day off), now I get the "5:2" expression ;) But also, I would never have guessed that doing it non consecutively makes it, not only bearable but even ok. That's definitely surprising! I remember having tried a similar amount of calories for some time (consecutively) and that was very hard. After some time, my brain wasn't working properly anymore and the most important thing in my life was food lol. 6 lbs is definitely a lot of weight for one month! I will definitely keep that information in my database for future reference :) I don't feel like I need to try it yet though. I'm trying to adopt an absolute-zero-suffering policy for the time being heheh. Thank you very much for the info! 
25 Jun 13 by member: euheide
I don't mean to imply that it has an unacceptable level of suffering, only that very low levels are still too much for me right now ;) 
25 Jun 13 by member: euheide
Yesterday I did the 500 calorie day. Today I really didn't go crazy. I ate fruit, veggies and lean portion-controlled foods and so far I am liking the 5:2. It helps to read what all the successful people are saying about how they are planning their "fast" day. tomorrow is my second "fast" day and then I will have until next Monday to pretty much eat whatever I want! Small price to pay for the freedom of not counting calories. I plan to eat very healthy on the 5 days of freedom - just without the pressure of counting. I'll still try to journal because it will be useful in analyzing my gain or loss. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the feedback!!!! 
25 Jun 13 by member: Farfelu
Hello Farfelu! Thank you very much for the feedback! I'm glad that it really isn't difficult and that it's working! May this be thing that thrusts you towards your goals! :) 
26 Jun 13 by member: euheide
Way to go Farfelu. Euheide the diet you mentioned above is Alternate Day Diet where you fast every other day. I do that and the 5:2. The fast days are not bad. It's good to find your favorite fast day foods if you decide to follow this diet. 
28 Jun 13 by member: Sherota
Hello Sherota! :) Thank you very much for that info! It's good to know that I still have that ace up my sleeve. Regarding the 5:2 diet, it is much older than I thought, and it has lots of knowledgeable supporters. Even a celebrity doctor from BBC backs it up. He says the average person looses around 1 lb per week on that diet, so it definitely has to work. I just don't feel that it fits my specific needs right now since I'm trying to bulk up in muscle so I can look more manly to the female world lol. And I need a steady supply of proteins all days of the week for that to happen, since most days of the week are spent in recovery from weight training. But if I give up on building more muscle mass, I will be sure to try it. I have three aspects I'm trying to respect simultaneously and, with equal importance. Loosing weight, bulking up in muscle and eating healthy (all natural). One problem (in my case) with consuming 500 calories (even if most were protein) even for just one day, is that, in the absence of other types of calories, the body turns proteins into energy, nullifying their intended function. I would, likely, unknowingly get myself into a protein deficit during those days and hurt my recovery by braking down muscle . And I've been having a very slow progress and recovery as it is (with my present calorie restriction), unlike the progress I used to have when I wasn't restricting calories. But, at least, it seems to be working at lowering fat simultaneously, at a very slow pace but still (I think my inconsistency is more to blame than the theory behind what I'm trying to do. It is proving difficult to try to bulk up and loose weight at the same time since I can't really rely on my scale for telling me what's going on under the skin. On one hand, I'm trying to gain weight in muscle and, on the other hand, I'm trying to loose my belly. Overall, that should make me gain weight since I don't think I have a lot of fat left to loose (maybe 1 kg or 2). But my only reliable indicator right now, is looking at the mirror, at my belly (or measuring my waist but I can't seem to get that straight...). I have to say, I feel I'm going in the right direction but very very slowly, at turtle-pace. My main priority (bulking up VS loosing fat) always seems to be shifting in my mind. There are times when I think about ignoring the diet all together for a while, bulk up to a significant level and, only then, cutting down on fat with the so called "cutting phase" (with more muscle mass it would be easier to burn fat) but, I'm trying, for the time being, to keep the fat in check from the get-go as that helps me a lot, motivation-wise (nothing like seeing your six-pack to get your motivation going heheh. I also don't want to throw all the sacrifices made so far out the window. For as long as I can still build muscle, I will try to keep the calories somewhat restricted. And I have to admit there is still space for optimizing my diet a little more although I seem to be at my mental limit as far as eating healthy goes. I'm still eating some junk food although I've abandoned most of it already. Less than a year ago, I would be eating some 2800 calories in junk every day of the week so there have definitely been improvements lol. Slowly but surely! ;) 
28 Jun 13 by member: euheide
You seem to be on the right track. You need to find what works for you to acheive your goals. I'm finding a combination of things that work for me but it's taken a whole year to understand my balance and probably will take a life time to implement it fully in my life. 
30 Jun 13 by member: Sherota
Thank you very much and, regarding the understanding of our own bodies, very wise words! I totally agree. As much external information as one gathers, it takes a whole lot of time to know the specific effects on our own bodies. I'm still to understand minimally the effects of what I'm doing. So far, surprises are much more common than expected results, especially when it comes to gaining muscle. Thanks! 
30 Jun 13 by member: euheide

     
 

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