The continuing thread for those of us following the 5:2 fast or other forms of fasting such as 4:3, ADF, or daily 16:8.
The 5:2 diet was featured on Horizon in August 2012 and essentially requires you to fast for 2 non-consecutive days per week. The other 5 days, you can eat normally - or approximately your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE - see explanation below). 4:3 is the same except you fast on 3 days in the week. Alternate-day fasting (ADF) is just how it sounds; you fast every other day. 16:8 is another form where you stick to only eating in an 8 hour window each day, therefore fasting for 16 hours each day.
By "fasting", we mean that we keep our calorie consumption very low, around 500 calories on average for a woman, 600 for a man, on those days.
You'll find on these threads we use a number of acronyms. If you're new to the threads, or Mumsnet in general, they might not make much sense.
WOE/WOL = Way Of Eating/Way Of Life. We use this term instead of "diet" as many of us see this as something to do in the long term.
MFP = My Fitness Pal, a website or app many use for keeping track of the number of calories they're eating.
TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure, quantifies the number of calories you burn in a day. This measure is best estimated by scaling your Basal Metabolic Rate to your level of activity. TDEE is critical in tailoring your nutrition plan to desired fitness goals. Here is a link to a calculator to help you figure out how many calories you should be eating in a day.
NFD = Non fast day
NSV = Non scale victory
Michael Mosley has a website to accompany his book on the subject. Please go check it out, as he's the whole reason most of us are here!
Lurkers and new starters: please just jump in and post - you'll find a lot of support here and we’re a friendly bunch.
Here is a list of links to get you started with this way of eating. Please let us know if you find a new article or some other information online:
All our previous threads can be found by browsing through the fasting section of the site.
Another thread which breadandwine has started is a good resource for some of the tips and links that get lost in these big threads. In addition to sharing links, we try to condense some of our top tips for fasting there. Keep in mind, we all do this differently, so these are just tips, not rules. This might be a good place to catch up with us if you're feeling a bit lost!
eatriskier’s thread has some lovely inspiring stories which are worth checking out if you want some motivation to get started or keep going through a plateau. Please add your own too.
frenchfancy has a recipe thread over here, please post any low-calorie recipes there so they don't get lost in these bigger threads!
If you've been at this a while and are moving on to maintaining your goal weight, there is a thread here to discuss that.
Here is the link to the BBC article regarding Michael Mosley's findings, which was featured on Horizon.
There's a link to the aforementioned Horizon programme here.
A blog post here gives some of the scientific explanation for why this way of eating helps you to not only lose weight, but improve your all-around health.
This link nicely demonstrates that there are many body ‘right’ body shapes and types, because what we are actually aiming for is low body fat for fitness and health.
A Telegraph article which comments on the diet and gives a brief overview by Dr Mosley himself, very informative if you're just starting. (I highly recommend this for an overview)
A study discussed here gives commentary specifically addressing the effect of this diet on obese people (both men and women), with regard to both health and weight loss. ("After 8 weeks of treatment, participants had an average 12.5 lbs reduction in body weight and a 4 cm decrease in waist circumference. Total fat mass declined by about 12 lbs while lean body mass remained relatively constant.) it also mentions "Plasma adiponectin, a protein hormone that is elevated in obesity and associated with heart disease, dropped by 30%. As did LDL cholesterol (25%) and triglycerides (32%).")
Something to consider if you are currently your ideal BMI: this appears to suggest the benefits for women at a lower BMI might not be seeing the same health benefits that are found on men at their ideal BMI.
A BIG THANK YOU to all who have been contributing. Most of us are learning this way of eating as we go along. All of the links above have been posted by others in our previous threads, and they've been very helpful.
A HUGE THANK YOU to Greeneggsandnicht for putting together all this info and resources into one concise OP text, much appreciated by so many 5:2ers!
Come join us, and tell us about your experiences with this diet!
Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.
Fasting / 5:2 diet
The 5:2 thread number 33 - Counting down to Christmas (and NOT thinking about the impending chocapocolaypse. Yet)
BetsyJingleBells · 16/12/2013 08:21
for betsyThanks Betsy 
Chocapocalypse! I do hope it doesn't happen. I will be forced to frenzy on cheese only. Sob.
Place marking for later.
Hi pandarific 
Welcome - this thread might be a bit slow for a while as we're busy using up the tail end of thread 32. We've got some PCOS sufferers on here somewhere (I forget who, sorry…) who've lost with 5:2.
Yoga's great for toning, smaller hand weights are good too - I'm no expert but I think it's quite easy to do yourself a bit of an injury with the kettlebell. I'll defer to resident gym experts bigchocfrenzy, bsshbossh and TiP for more advice in that area.
I didn't realise I was the last post on the previous thread. Quite fitting really 
.
As I was saying, does anyone else get dizzy on FD? I feel it at the moment and can't tell if it is due to tiredness or lack of food.
Helloooooooooooooooooooo Festive thread!
Thank you to the yummy mummy that is our BetsyBell for lovely new thread and great title!
Just love that word! 
FunnyFestive was this one. Can't really vouch for it yet as I only received today and have yet to make it go round without the aid of my hand!
How does anyone do a zero calorie fast? Honestly, I don't think I could do it. I was so looking forward to my dinner! I will have done 24 hours at 7pm and be at 400 cals. If I can get to bed tonight on 5-600 cals I will be ecstatic!
My experiences were that for the first month at least, I was the same. I found it harder to get to evening meal time (mine has only been once a day from start because I knew I would prefer it that way), without snacking. The few times I did snack, I regretted it as soon as I got to meal time and had fewer cals to play with. Not to mention it waking the hunger beast. I would then also spend so much time trying to get as much of a meal as poss for my allowance. Was a lot of effort and a lot of time. But I did feel very proud each day I succeeded.
I did find though, that as time went on, my appetite reduced gradually and now, I have reached a point where I can go the whole day on a few blk coffees, green tea, hot stock drink and by evening I'm satisfied with a milky hot drink, square of choc/apple. Totalling 250 cals.
And I find this EASY!
So stick with it. It may just be an early days thing. But I think most would tend to agree that the longer they're on this woe/wol, the more their appetite shrinks anyway.
As weird as I am, I can't help with your weird symptom though unfortunately!
Peplum for birdy! ahhh! and for pre mating ritual lol!
Do you have to call him ambassador? 
Marking my spot, thanks Betsy for lovely fresh thread.
Oh yeah and I made today tomorrow 
In order words, I lost the plot and ate rings about myself, or in keeping with Turkeys new toy, I hula hooped about myself
Figured it out though! Time of month approaching so my resolve just isn't there, I can't be blamed...
Yoohoo everyone .
to Betsy.
LOF complete, managed 20 hrs and broke fast with sub 250 cal grapes and soup. Two NFDs now but am going to try and keep them clean.
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Zero cal FDs
I don't think what I'm going to eat, because I know the answer is "nothing".
I like to do zero-cal Sat or Sun, so that I don't get tempted by work canteen or colleagues waving food around. If I train hard though, I may only be zero-cal for 18 hrs, then have a shake.
On an FD, once I start eating I feel hungrier (500 cals is a small course within a BigChoc meal, never a meal)
So, on non-zero FDs, I usually have 2 protein shakes and a cocoa, i.e. LOF.
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