Intermittent Fasting / 5:2 - Diet

[Null]

For the past few weeks I've been trying to eat according to my macros, which included counting calories for everything I ate and feeling guilty about eating way too many carbohydrates and too little protein. Honestly, it started messing with my head. Then I found out about intermittent fasting, in particular the 5:2-Diet and got curious. Got my first fasting day (Wednesday) behind me and my next one (Sunday) ahead. The first day has been frustrating, but I'm determined to push through this. I think I could manage eating ~450 calories on my fasting days and ~1800 (depends on how much I've worked out) on the other ones, but I'll have to see how my body reacts to these amounts of calories.

Have any of you (or someone you know) ever tried Intermittent Fasting or the 5:2-Diet? What are your experiences with this?
If you're still fasting, what / how much do you usually eat on your fasting days? How much do you eat on the other days?

Tomorrow I'l try eating only fish, meat and vegetables. Gonna miss my carbs.

 

[SiegfriedSchtauffen]

In my opinion forcing yourself to eating patterns and calorie counting *unnecessarily* takes away a lot of joy from your life. What is your goal? Do you want six packs and minimum body fat percentage to be able to attend a body-building competition? If not then you shouldn't torture yourself with routines and rules you described.

Not all calories are equal. Not all carb sources are equal. Instead of limiting food, measuring calories, and carefully controlling carb/protein, you should find foods from which you can eat without limits. (example: sliced carrot as snack, eat a kilo or two per day if you want...). Eat when you are hungry and eating from the set of healthy foods and always choose what you desire, trust your body.

Intermittent fasting: About every 3rd-4th day I wake up without hunger. In this case I usually skip breakfast and I eat first only at lunchtime or in the evening (depending on when I get hungry). I'm very energetic this way, no negative effects at all. If you force yourself to fast with a schedule then you can end up with really bad mood and head-aches in worst case. Don't piss against the wind.

It may sound a bit strange but there is physical hunger and "mental". The two are inter-related and its really difficult to tell the difference but I would call "mental" hunger when you are eating just for the sake of fun, or out of habit. Having your morning coffee or smoothie or whatever, even if you are not really hungry. This is something that one has to get rid of in order to eat in a healthy way. Hedonist eating habits have a lot of negative consequences. If you choose clean foods and you have low calorie snacking options then its really to easy to fight against such habits. On the other hand doing a short fast makes it much easier to prefer simple foods (peeper, cucumber, ...) in place of unhealthy but addictive ones (most fast foods that have very addictive fat/salt/sugar ratio).