It’s time to crunch the numbers and let you know the results after one week of following the ADF, intermittent fasting diet. (To find out more, you may like to read the blog post which kicked it all off)

Shall I let you know the 1st week all important numbers… or keep you guessing by telling you a bit more about my week, and how I coped?

I’ll reveal the numbers at the end of this blog post…

What did I get up to this week – eating and entertainment-wise?

I chose to do my fasting days on wednesday last week and monday this week. At the weekend I had my sister-in-law and her boyfriend over, so I cooked up a massive mexican feast on the saturday, and then a gammon roast (with all the trimmings) for Sunday lunch. Add into the mix, a children’s party on the saturday, where my host (and very good friend) had kindly provided gluten free scones, cupcakes and made sure that the adults crisps and dips I could all eat. I could hardly refuse the fare that was being offered to me. Very nice it was too… It’s safe to assume that on my non-fasting days I did eat what I liked without much restraint.

Both Mary and I found the first fasting day very very tough. However, we both found the fasting, second time around, so easier and simpler. It helps that you know you can do it!

I did find that the day after the fasting day I didn’t feel like splurging and I was slightly more focused on reducing my calorie intake, knowing I had a heavy eating weekend planned.

So, what did I eat on my fasting days?

Wednesday:

Breakfast

• Half a galia Melon – 25 calories
• 100g of peeled, cooked prawns – 80 calories

Lunch

• 100g of blueberries (which I actually grazed on throughout the day) – 74 calories
• 2 raw carrots – 84 calories
• cucumber sticks – 11g

Dinner

• Half a galia Melon – 25 calories
• 100g of peeled, cooked prawns – 80 calories

Monday:

Breakfast

• 2 poached eggs and a slice of thick ham – 221 calories

Lunch

• Carrots – 40 calories
• slice of ham – 106 calories
• stewed rhubarb (no sugar) – 15 calories

Dinner 

• 2 slices of thick ham – 212 calories

So, I had a bit more than the 500 calories yesterday, but all in all, keeping to my 500 calorie limit(ish). If you are wondering what your calorie limit needs to be, then find out how many calories you need per day to maintain your weight. (For me this is 1500-1750 per day). Your fasting day limit will be 25-35% of this figure.

Some tips for doing fasting days:

• plan out what you will eat – I found the Calorie Counter App very useful for both identifying low calorie foods and then computing how large or small a portion I could indulge in
• weight everything you eat (this way you know exactly how many calories you have or haven’t eaten)
• always have some lean protein in each of your meals as this helps to lower the GI index of your meals and keep you fuller for longer
• dispense with carbs and junk food for fasting days
• if you are weak-willed, remove temptations from your house or office for fasting days
• don’t plan lots of exercise on this day
• blueberries, carrots, asparagus is all very low calorie and still reasonably nutrious

So, how did I do?

I weighed myself this morning, and the scales said 8 stone 11.4 lb – a loss of just over 1.5lb, and 29.4%, a loss of 0.3%. I’m pretty pleased with this, and hope to replicate my success over the next week.