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 - link to that 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. (Though anecdotal evidence from these long-running threads may suggest otherwise…)
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 way of life!
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 34 - New Year (title courtesy of B&W) Come and join us and take CONTROL! Of your weight, and of your lives.
BigChocFrenzyAteYourReindeer · 30/12/2013 01:10
to bigchocHi I'm new but have been thinking of trying the 5:2 diet. The plan is to start in the new year, so I might just lurk here for a few days to get some inspiration.
I am 5 foot 7 and would love to get to around 10 stone - current weight is 11 stone 10 
. The 5:2 could be a bit tricky for me as I have a very demanding they are all demanding aren't they nearly 3 year old and a 9 week old ebf baby.
I hope the fasting won't mess up my milk supply, I tend to produce loads. I really want to shift the weigh, I'm fed up of weighing more than my dh, he's 5 foot 6 and has lost weight and is now 10 stone.
So hello to everyone and hope you had a good Christmas.
Aha, here you all are!
Nice to see you after the festive break. Have to confess, done no fasting or mindful eating since having vomiting bug the week before Christmas but by some miracle have only put on approx. 2lbs. Unless it's waiting and is going to catch me out in about a week's time!
Planning a mini fast (just a normal dinner) on Thursday then back onto it all next week starting with my Monday fast 
Skippydedodah and whenshewasbad posted right at the end of the last thread ....
skippy welcome to the mad house 
whenshewas if you are bf, you NEED enough calories to keep that baby growing well
but its worth trying hard to make them "good" calories - veg, fruit, fish, complex carbs, unprocessed fats, decent quality meat
the lower sugar intake you can manage, the better in the long run
- that is why bigchoc likes her serious chocolate as its too flavoursome to eat in a non mindful way
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Hi Skippy - yes, if that's your tdee then that's around what you should eat on NFDs. Look at your calorie intake on a weekly basis rather than daily and you'll see that two 500calorie days = nearly 3000 calorie deficit over the week!
It's simple and it works.
.This has turned out to be very much a 16:8 day rather than a proper 5:2 fast day. Seem to have eaten all the home made honeycomb (including the stuff that went wrong), plas half a bar of lindt, plus I really really want to drink more wine.
Ach, it's still the festive season right? I'm not made of very stern stuff and I promise I'll be a helluva lot better in January. TBH I've done extremely well this holiday and have not have that continuous full feeling that I usually have over the festivities. And DS1 has been such a f* nightmare.
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