Here are some tips I?ve extracted from the first thread ? from 8th to 20th August. For brevity I?ve left out the posters - but this info can be found on the thread. I have edited some of them for accuracy - but if I?ve got anything wrong, I?m very happy to be corrected.
Some suggested foods are:
1 Beetroot salad with peeled apple. The peel of the apple has all the nutrients. To avoid the waste stew the rest of the apple and give to children/babies as weaning food or have it on your non fast day
- Plain omelette
- Sticks of carrot
- Wafer thin salmon and rocket salad with beetroot
- Tinned mackerel in tomato sauce with rice and green beans/veg
Remember it is not about eating nothing. You are aiming to eat no more than 500 calories on the fast days. Keeping busy really helps as well. If you are getting the rumbles put the kettle on and have hot water. I found that I didn't need tea/coffee and my body had become accustomed to hot/warm water.
On Twitter, [Dr] Mosley said that he has had to cut back to 6:1 now, as he was losing too much weight! He has 2 meals a day on his fast days, so it must still work fine.
So I had miso soup (17 calories, folks)
If any of you are interested in some of the rubbish we have been told in the last 30 tears wrt [sic?] calories, weigh control etc then I really recommend Dr John Briffas book "Escape the diet trap". It is sobering (and angering) reading.
I think part of what this 5:2 plan (and others) is getting at is we need to learn it's OK to feel hungry and in fact is an essential part of being slim. I speak as a lifelong overeater - the FULL feeling is so normal to me and I had some weird fear about feeling hungry. Well guess what - it's not the end of the world. I live in a city with stores everywhere - I can have food at any moment I want, so hunger isn't a sign I'm about to perish or get weak. The last couple of months I've been learning to embrace feeling hungry and being comfortable with that - it's a sign from my body to eat again soon (and hopefully that it is burning fat now), not a sign to be feared.
Whoever said this upthread is a genius - it will be my mantra from now on. It IS ok to feel hungry. Immediate death from starvation will not occur.
Well normal day. I just had a handful of blueberries, a chopped plum, some strawberries and 3 teaspoons of strawberry yoghurt. It came to 127cals. Definately will bear that in mind for a fast day lunch!
In fact, this whole notion of 'you must eat breakfast' is a killer for me. If I don't eat breakfast, I don't get hungry, if I do eat breakfast, I'm ravenous all day long!
Dinner was prawns, broccoli and pak choi stir fry - found a lovely low cal soy, chilli and coriander dressing in M&S today which worked great with this and I expect to use quite a lot on my fast days!
Can I just add that whether you're going ADD or 5:2, it will really be counter productive to lower your calorific intake on the up days. The whole point of this diet is to get start the gene SIRT1 into working properly, if you don't eat a sufficient calorie load on your updays then this won't happen, your body will go into starvation mode and fight to keep every last ounce of fat that you have by lowering, rather than increasing( which is what we are aiming for) your metabolic rate. Please read: The Alternate Day Diet by James B Johnson for a more complete explanation.
Oh, and waitrose Love Life hot chocolate is only 38 calories per mug (4-6 tsp) and their chunky minestrone soup is 140 for a whole tin.
Just had an M&S Fuller Longer Asian style king prawn and rice salad (255 calories)- yummy! Noticed that Pret are doing some nice stuff too - Crayfish and avocado salad for just over 200 calories. Well that's Wednesday sorted!
I can definitely recommend the Waitrose Love Life chunky minestrone soup. Huge bowlful for 140 cals, really yummy and didn't feel the need for any bread either as it had pasta shells in.
Asparagus is weirdly filling and grated (or whizzed to chips in a processor) courgette blasted for 30 secs in microwave is a great rice substitute
The people on Mosley's documentary were strongly against too much protein which is counter to most low carb diets. I think the argument was something to do with proteins creating hormonal issues in the body affecting the health effects but not really sure... Mosley recommends 60g per day max on his Twitter discussions.
I'm thinking it might be an idea to put aside some milk in a jug so I know how much I am using in coffee or tea.
I have a pot of jelly (hartleys) that is less than 10cals a pot. Hate to think what's in it, but if it helps me get through a fast day, then I don't really care
Another tip: Corsadyll(sp?) Mouthwash leaves such a strong taste in the mouth, the only thing you can put in your mouth without it tasting foul is water.