I’m looking to drop 25kg.
It’s time.
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Good luck!
Remains to be seen how this holds up but I seem to go OK with a miso based soup which has chopped broccoli/cauli and other low carb veg (not spud/sweet potato) more silverbeet/zucchini/kale, plus mushrooms/dried shiitake. Chilli/ginger/garlic. Fresh herbs from the garden.
It’s got a lot of chunky bits but hardly any calories. A beaten egg drizzled in adds 100 cal or so but that’s over 3-4 serves. My guess is that it’s about 150 calories for a decent bowlful.
What I’ve noticed is that people say they end up ravenous but this hasn’t happened to me yet (only on my third low calorie day - so may change). And in fact I’ve felt full on less the day after the (only 2) completed low cal days so far.
Lots report very slight headache/hangover feeling which some claim is due to built-up crap being released from the liver (who knows?)
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IMHO. The easier and therefore best restricted eating plan is to fast every day. I mean why have 2 terrible days in your life on a 5-2. Learn to enjoy every day.
Only consume food in an 8 hour window every day. Don’t eat for 16. That’s it.
Eventually your calories in will drop as your body adjusts to your appetite.
I think 2 starvation days is madness. But power to you if you can make that your life. I reckon people give it up eventually and go back to eating the same 7 days a week.
Opinion only and just what works for me personally.
I’m using the myfitnesspal app to calorie count.
First month is hard but then as you enter more its easier to build your database of common foods.
The feature to scan a barcode though for things also makes it a breeze.
Do it slowly buddy.
Give yourself a minimum of a year, and probably more.
Don’t drop your calories too much.
Progress is progress, as long as you feel good and you’re satiated.
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Going slow. Target 0.5kg per week. So app telling me 1950 calories per day which sounds about right.
I dont feel guilty going five or ten percent over. That means no loss for a day.
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Yeah I guess I’m finding I can comfortably do the 2 days without feeling like starving at all - so far. Maybe that’ll change. I only directly know a couple of people who’ve tried this, and they’ve both stuck well for at least a couple of years and still going. I hadn’t really considered it but just want to get rid of the COVID spread and the Mosley show was on Tele last weekend.
Hehe, the covid spread. Now available in light and low salt.
What pots and pans by the way?
https://scanpan.com.au/haptiq/
This collection. Got two pots, one saucepan, one saute pan (doubles as my fry pan) and a deep saute pan.
I’ve been using Myfitnesspal for years. If you’re doing regular exercise as well, it syncs with Mapmywalk and Mapmyrun.
I set my calorie limit to be what’s required to lose half a kg per week. I think anything more than that is too difficult to maintain, except maybe for someone who’s really got a lot to lose. Just as a tip, what really makes the calories mount up is the snacks between meals, and also bread and potatoes. Restaurant meals are hard and also casserole dishes because there are lots of things in them and sometimes you don’t know what they all are or how much of them. Otherwise you’ll find that after a while you’ll be able to estimate roughly how many calories are on the plate without using the app.
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I’m one of those annoying people that can’t put on weight if my life depended on it. So take this with the appropriate grain of salt and whatnot.
The smartest weight loss strategy I’ve seen is to simply buy smaller plates. You naturally fill the plate when you serve. If you’ve less real estate, you plate less food. Combine that with eliminating snack food from the house and you’ve made the journey a lot easier.
Good luck with it.
Food for thought (pun intended) - I would recommend having a diet/weight loss process as closely akin to something you could do long-term as possible.
Because our weight isn’t reallllllly what we need to change, its our behaviour re: food and exercise. The weight itself is the product of our behaviour. Unless we change the equation of our behaviour for the long term (food/exercise/healthy lifestyle/sleep) we will end up with the same old product once old behaviour resumes (unless you can fast 2 days forever, kudos to you!)
Not as quick with results/satisfying, but the best for us long term when trying to maintain a loss in weight and new lifestyle behaviours.
All the best.
Edit - this is not the health and fitness thread, I am lost.
Good luck everyone with your endeavours. It’s so difficult hey. I have found I’ve been comfort eating all winter, I think mine is stress related from work.
Today I bought a whole bunch of different meats for the freezer so that I am ready for any impromptu bbqs.
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There’s also a Weight Loss / Diet thread where most of this, and heaps of other good advice etc has already been given and discussed that is worth a read.
(And perhaps also posting weight loss / diet stuff in. 
)
Yeah. I probably don’t need to do this forever - I’m about 5 kegs north of where I would like, and I’m normally pretty active on weekends - surfing, fly fishing, beach launching a tinny, snorkelling, occasional XC ski, hiking. Not on all weekends but fairly regularly. Doing none of that right now, but fully intend to resume despite bad knee and shoulder and 58 years.
But, two things: The fast days are nowhere as bad as I had assumed. Yesterday I made a (for me) really enjoyable soup (this is why I justify leaving in cooking thread - there are some really good low cal meals), and then we had a Thai salad (no beef), which I really enjoyed - and didn’t feel hungry. Maybe if I was exercising more I might, dunno. So it’s not like I’m dreading the 2 of 7 days (yet). And to be honest the reach for a beer or bottle of wine all the time was just habit. I can easily do without. Mosley revised his recommendation up to 800 calories, but I’m trying to stick around 500-600 because it’s not hard so far and I’m not big. But for context if you ate only eggs, you could eat about 8 x 65 g eggs for 800 calories. Now you wouldn’t do that but it’s not really starving! That’s on your ‘fasting’ day. You could eat 2 eggs and a metric tonne of salad and non-starchy veg. You could probably add another small meal/snack if you were going to 800 calls.
The second thing is to the extent that it DOES back off the calories markedly and periodically (as I say without really starving), it’s supposed to be extremely good for your liver and brain, and IGF which leads to cancer risk among other things. My father and his brother both died of liver cancer, younger than I am now. So I figure it’s a win-win (weight-health) and I’m not finding it hard or bland on the cost side. Yes you could go 16-8, but I reckon I’d break that routinely. With 5-2 if I want to splurge on a particular day I just shuffle the days and it’s not a miss. With 16-8 a fail can’t be won back, the way I see it.
I reckon if you took the view that you would eat things like say milky coffee, steak, sausage, spuds/chips, chicken nuggets, toast, ham, cheese, cereal, chocolate and sweet fruit but just drop quantities to match target calories, then yeah it would be terribly daunting - cos they are so energy-dense it wouldn’t be much volume of food! Luckily I love veggies/mushrooms and clear soups like miso with ginger, garlic, spices and herbs - so I can eat quite a lot of that kind of thing. And then I can sensibly eat all of those other things 5 days a week. Actually I’d never eat a nugget!
Yeah fair enough - I was hoping to keep some of the cooking stuff in, but will limit to comments on that from here on - cheers!
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Some protein bars are good, but you need to use them as a substitute for a meal rather than a snack. I like Quest bars. They’re 200 calories, about 20g protein and about 12-15g of fibre depending on the flavour. The fibre means you don’t feel hungry afterwards, and it’s good to drink a fair bit of water after eating one. I eat them instead of breakfast or lunch occasionally.
Ok for cooking lite:
1.5 L water.
Huge squeeze miso paste.
Minced garlic and ginger.
Light soy until salty enough
Chilli flakes or squeeze sriracha.
4 pre soaked dried shiitake sliced. Some fresh mushrooms
Broccoli, cauli, zucchini, asparagus.
Kale/silverbeet from garden.
Simmer for 5 mins or so, drizzle in a beaten egg while stirring. Serve up and sit the pot in a sink with cold water to stop the leftovers overcooking.
Coriander on top!
I really enjoyed this and seriously it’s 100 or so calories a bowl - maybe 150 but doubt it.
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And another:
Rice vermicelli soaked and drained, place on platter.
Layer on whatever: blanched asparagus, tomato, cucumber, capsicum, sliced spring onion, ginger minced, snow peas, lettuce, kale. Avoid sweet/starchy which pump up the carbs.
Dressing from fish sauce/soy, chilli, garlic, a little sugar (but not so much as they might in Thailand to keep the cals down), a little sesame oil (pungent so don’t need much). Sprinkle over.
A few chopped toasted nuts.
Metric tonne of coriander and mint on top (garden going crazy with this!)
5 nights a week add sliced rare beef strips. Two nights a week, don’t add the beef. Can sub in mushroom or tofu, or not bother with either.
Really enjoyable, if not authentic.
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