5:2 Fasting Diet Burger & Salad

For the last 10 months or so I’ve been saving all my fasting day calories for a nice big dinner of up to 500 calories. As you can imagine, you can have some pretty nice, big meals for 500kcal and this is one I had last week and has been put on the menu again this week! It tastes like real summer BBQ food but lower cal, so filling and good enough to eat on a feed day too! Yes, I did that a few days later, but added a few homemade potato wedges as hubby dearest wanted some.

Fasting dinners don’t have to be complicated or time consuming to prepare. They don’t have to look like restaurant food to be tasty, filling and most importantly nutritious.

Fasting day burger for 5:2 diet
Tasty fasting day burger for 5:2 dieters

I found a pack of reduced Warburton’s Sandwich Thins at my local Co-op and decided they might come in handy for my fasting days at just 100kcal per sandwich thin. They’re available in white or brown, but my local shop only had white. Since having a burger in a sandwich thin I’ve decided they work much better than a typical burger bap or bun, not only in terms of calories but also to reduce bloating and allow you to enjoy the meat more. I for one will make sure these are always in my cupboard from now on!

 

Anyway, this is what the meal consisted of:

Fasting Day Burger (355kcal)

1 Warburtons Sandwich Thin (100kcal)

1 Grilled Tesco Tomato & Herb Beef Burger (205kcal)

10g Cheddar Cheese (approx. 40kcal)

10g Burger Relish (approx. 10kcal)

The cheese was delicious with the tomato in the burger (I probably didn’t even need the relish it was so tasty), I melted it on under the grill after giving the burger a good squeeze to reduce the fat. The sandwich thin was all the nicer for going under the grill for a short spell too, a slightly crispy burger bun, yum!

Of course with such a small amount of bread this wasn’t going to be very filling, hence…

 

Giant Low Calorie Fasting Day Salad  (139kcal)

I like a nice salad dressing, and with the basic vegetables being so low calorie I don’t see the harm in making them even tastier with a nice rich dressing! I also like to throw in a bit of extra protein to help fill me up. Oh, and also because I love ham 🙂

100g iceburg lettuce (15kcal)

100g cucumber (12kcal)

80g baby plum tomatoes (16kcal)

1.5tbsp Tesco garlic & herb salad dressing (57kcal)

3 slices Tesco Lean Sweetcure Pork Loin (39kcal)

Salt & pepper

What should I eat on my feed days? What is TDEE?

The fasting diet books would have us believe that we need only eat ‘as normal’ on our feed/feast days, however for many of us this doesn’t really say enough. A great deal of us have become overweight for the very reason that we have lost touch with what normal eating is.

So, what is a normal daily intake?

Nutrition labels would have us believe that a normal intake is around 2000 calories for a woman and 2500 calories for a man. That’s quite a broad generalisation though and is akin to taking a shoe and saying that it will fit anyone. In the case of calorific intake one size sadly does not fit all! If you live a mostly inactive lifestyle your needs may be considerably lower – although with a higher body mass you may find your needs are actually higher just to keep your body going at its current size.

If you were maintaining weight prior to starting the 5:2 diet then your daily intake was just right for your body’s daily needs and this is how you should continue to eat on your feed days.

If you were gaining weight or losing weight prior to starting the 5:2 diet then your daily intake was not ‘normal’, but was above or below your daily needs. You may need to calculate your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) to get an idea of how much you should be eating as a ‘normal daily intake’ for your body’s needs. TDEE varies based on your height, weight, gender, age and activity level so it’s important you calculate it based on your own figures & circumstances. There are various TDEE calculators available online which are simple to complete. Alternatively you an sign up for free to use the 5:2 Diet Progress Tracker at the forum and this will calculate your TDEE for you, with the added benefit of updating the figure as you lose weight (remember, the more weight you lose, the less calories your body needs to function). Wherever you calculate your TDEE, be sure to set the calculator to maintenance rather than a figure for weight loss – you need to eat to a maintenance level on your feed days as your weekly calorie deficit comes from your fasting days.

So, although the 5:2 method isn’t about calorie counting every single day, you may find in the early days you will need to keep track of your feed day intake as well as your fast days, to ensure you are not overeating compared with your body’s needs. Some of us have found that the weight loss is improved by mixing things up a bit on our feed days, for example rather than sticking strictly to our TDEE every feed day we have a couple of days over TDEE (for example, a slightly more indulgent weekend!) and stay similarly under TDEE on the other days. This seems to keep the metabolism guessing somewhat – as well as allowing us to have a bit of a foodie splurge from time to time.

As for the sorts of foods you can eat, well as has been previously covered, no foods are off limit. It’s all about eating a normal amount rather than cutting out entire food groups. Some 5:2ers choose to combine this way of eating with other methods such as Paleo or Low-carbing on their feed days. Some even mix in a bit of Atkins! But, that’s down to individual desires and you certainly don’t need to do anything more than 5:2 to shift those pounds. Many of us Fast Dieters find ourselves making more healthy choices naturally as a result of this way of eating and even reducing portion sizes as we learn to listen to our bodies and realise just how much we used to eat unnecessarily. We don’t feel the same desperate urge to feed hunger the moment it strikes as we’ve learned we’re not going to die of starvation if we wait until the next meal. That’s not to say we don’t still have snacks and ‘treats’, but a more sensible relationship with food seems to be a natural progression from the 5:2 diet and many of those feelings of guilt we used to experience when eating so called ‘forbidden foods’ are no longer part of our lives, we can eat those things and not feel bad about it because it’s part of an overall more healthy way of eating.

 

Can I really eat whatever I want?

Yes, but possibly not in the way you think.

This is a common misconception about the 5:2 diet. It is not an excuse to enter a cycle of binging and starving, which is of course not healthy or advisable.

You can eat whatever you want on your feed days in the sense that no foods are forbidden. This doesn’t mean that you can eat as much as you want. If you over eat you will of course undo the calorie reduction obtained through your fasting days.

While the books, TV documentary etc tell you to eat ‘as normal’ on your feed days, it’s clear that many of us who have (or have had) weight problems do not really know what ‘normal’ is when it comes to eating. That’s probably what gave many of us these weight problems in the first place! Those of us who are out of touch with what a normal food intake is may need to count calories or at least be a bit more aware of what we are eating on our feed days. But the issue of daily calorie requirements is another topic altogether, you can read more about it here.