I have been asked by a special friend of Club Forty to share some of my 5.2 eating plans… Right now, I am not following this diet as I am hoping that my current exercise plan keeps my weight in-check and allows me to eat relatively guilt-free!!! I do often go back to 5.2 however, as I find that a couple of weeks adhering to the fasting diet works wonders for me.
When I am fasting, I always keep track of my food in the My Fitness Plan app, as it’s a super easy way to count calories and pull up previous recipes or meals you’ve had. I now know what works and doesn’t work for me in terms of what to eat on a fast day, so I usually go back to tried-and-tested, daily meal plans. I certainly don’t want to spend too much time thinking about what to eat on a fasting day!!
Below are four examples of meal plans which you could try over a couple of weeks on the 5.2 diet. You should fast (i.e. restrict your calorie intake to 500) on 2 days out of 5, ideally not back-to-back days as this is really tough to achieve! Ont he non-fasting days, you eat your usual diet and even treats are allowed!
Some days I can happily go until mid afternoon without needing to eat (I drink lots and lots of water), other days I am hungry much earlier. So the my examples demonstrate different eating patterns. As you can see, I rarely forego my mid-morning cappuccino-style coffee – on a fast day, I absolutely savour it!!!
Please also refer to my previous post 10 Tips for surviving a Fast Day.
If you follow this diet, I’d love to know – as I am sure other friends of Club Forty would too – how you survive the day and any low-calorie meals you can recommend. Please leave your comments at the end of the post.
Meal plan 1: total calories – 478
Mid-morning: cappuccino-style coffee with 100ml semi-skimmed milk….. 49 cals
80g tub of pomegranates….. 42 cals
Dinner: Prawn, pepper, tomato & feta omelette (2 eggs), with a salad of rocket & cucumber….. 320 cals (see image below)
x2 cups of tea, each with 25ml semi-skimmed milk….. 25 cals
1 pack of snack raisins….. 42 cals
Meal plan 2: total calories – 469
Breakfast: Smoothie made with 150ml of unsweetened almond milk, ½ banana, 30g spinach, 50g pear….. 109 cals
Lunch: Poached egg on a portobello mushroom (as per image above) with 5 roasted cherry tomatoes….. 118 cals
Dinner: Roasted red pepper with tomatoes & anchovies, served with broccoli….. 217 cals (see image below)
Evening: x2 cups of tea made with 25ml semi-skimmed milk each….. 25 cals
Meal plan 3: total calories – 499
Mid-morning: cappuccino-style coffee with 100ml semi-skimmed milk….. 49 cals
Lunch: Homemade mushroom soup….. 153 cals
Dinner: Cod (150g) wrapped in 2 slices parma ham, roasted with tomatoes & fennel, served with green beans….. 284 cals
1 cup of tea with 25ml semi-skimmed milk….. 13 cals
Meal plan 4: total calories – 479
Mid-morning: cappuccino-style coffee with 100ml semi-skimmed milk….. 49 cals
Lunch: M&S Vietnamese-style Marinated Pork Salad Bites….. 154 cals (I absolutely recommend these if you are on the go)
Dinner: Salmon (100g) roasted with cherry tomatoes, red peppers & green beans, with a baby leaf salad, cucumber & soya beans….. 251 cals
x2 cups of tea, each with 25ml semi-skimmed milk….. 25 cals
Prawn, pepper, tomato & feta omelette
Roasted red pepper with tomatoes & anchovies
10 comments
Thank you! Have always thought I wouldn’t be able to fast but these plans sound very do-able, will let you know!
Keep me posted Jane – I’ll be interested to hear how you get on if you do follow this diet. It’s really not that hard once you get into it… your appetite weirdly adapts on the fast days.
Thanks for supporting my blog! X
Thanks for the ideas Claire, they all look/sound very tasty! Any chance you could post your mushroom soup recipe on here please? Also, what coffee do you use?
Hi Julia,
My recipe for mushroom soup is really simple!
500g mushrooms, 2 leeks, 50g butter, 500g chicken stock, 2 cloves garlic, fresh parsley, salt & pepper to taste.
Sweat the mushrooms and leeks in butter for 5 mins, then add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes. Then add the chicken stock and simmer for about 15mins before adding the parsley and salt & pepper. Then wizz up in a food processor. A quarter serving comes to 153 cals.
If you wanted to make a lower-calorie mushroom soup, then replacing the butter with low-cal frying oil would shave off lots of calories!!! It would come to around 80 cals per portion!
With regards to coffee, there isn’t any calories as I use fresh coffee! It’s just the milk that I count. I froth up my milk to make a cappuccino style coffee.
Thanks for reading my blog! X
Lovely, thanks Club Forty, I’ll be giving these a go! xxx
Yay fantastic ideas thanks Club Forty! I like plan 4 and I will be starting this on Tuesday and will keep you posted on my progress!! Thanks also for the mushroom soup recipe as the winter months arrive soups will be welcome on a fast day. Perhaps you can showcase a few other great low cal soups for when the thought of salad on a cold day no longer hits the spot!!!!
Just had your mushroom soup recipe for lunch today and it was delicious, very filling too! Looking forward to some more low-call soup recipes Club Forty!!
Excellent! I’ll be posting up more soup recipes soon! x
Tried my first 5:2 day today, smoothie, low cal mushroom soup and roasted peppers with anchovies – delicious!!! Thank you Club Forty for pointing me in the right direction!
Well done Julia! Glad you liked the recipes. The roasted peppers is actually a starter my Mum used to make, served with crusty bread to mop up all the lovely juice!!?