To think the 5:2 diet is just dangerous nonsense?

[MrsMattBomer]

A girl I teach in sixth form was telling me about it today. I was a bit baffled by it, brought it up to a colleague who said it was amazing and really works.

Am I right in thinking it's basically just eating what you want and then starving yourself for two days? Is this not incredibly dangerous? Surely it's an eating disorder of some kind, not a diet!

When people told me what it was I realised I already did it, or to be more accurate, I have always intermittently fasted. Not because of any diet or philosophy mainly because I never seem to understand how people have time for three meals a day and after decades of never quite having time, one meal a day for a few days a week was a pretty natural pattern for me.

I've always been healthy and I've never been more than a few pounds overweight....

You only have to look at the Atkins diet to see that people can print any old rubbish with no scientific basis and nobody bats an eyelid.

Surely you still need willpower? I'm so sugar addicted I wouldn't get to lunchtime.

It's late & I'm too lazy to read every link.
Almost none of that was gold standard research.
Asthma? As in 10 patients, of whom only 9 followed the diet, for only 8 weeks.
Waffle articles (why don't I get to write those?, it's not fair!)
Or 54 pts following diet for 12 weeks...
The best quality study I followed was Harvie et al (OP called it a breast cancer link but the outcomes are a huge range of things). 107 pts over 6 months in 2 diets). They conclude that daily calorie-control & intermittant calorie restriction were equally good at yielding the desirable outcomes. But there were more adverse events reported for the intermittant group. Which tbf, kind of fit with what OP suspects: 5:2 isn't going to work well for everyone.

tinabacon
Of course you need will power.
You have to choose lean and healthy over cake.
Its a choice.

medschool
Define gold standard research on any way of eating
with a link .....
the NHS advice is not backed up by any research after all

tina sadly there is no way to lose weigh that doesn't require will power! If there was then nobody would be overweight.

I have lost 7 stone (not via IF) and maintained it for nearly a year but even now it still requires will power to keep it up - on a different, easier, level than when I first started but it will always be needed.

But surely if we can just 'make the choice' to eat only healthy food then nobody would need any form of dietary plan.

I hated WW because I constantly thought about food, and the point system made me feel constantly deprived. Would 5:2 be easier to manage, so you think?

do you think, doh!

there is only one way to find out

X post Sirzy.

Wow, that's a lot of weight, what did you do?

I lost three stone on it after having DD. Being on mat leave my days were my own so it was really easy and I like the fact that you eat normally five days as it helped me feel normal rather than constantly deprived and my weight didn't shoot up if I had a big meal or a bad day like it would on a low cal diet. Haven't regained the weight and since lost more but I am struggling to pick it up again now I'm back at work as I can't do fast days in the office (no willpower and use food as a treat to get through the day).

Oh OP, what have you started.

not place marking at all

puppymouse
fasting in the office is easy - look at the shared food and ask yourself how often your colleagues wash their hands during the day

Its not dangerous but i dont think it really gets people who are overweight to start eating sensibly. If anything it adds to the binge purge cycle. In people who arent really that overweight or dont have other eating disorders i think its probably fine to keep weight stable. Your calories and nutritional intake should be fine across the whole week. Eating 500 cals one or two days is not going to have a negative effect. (as long as on other days you are eating a nutritionally balanced diet)

Talkin - who said anything about sharing or shared

Tina, it's largely about finding a way of eating that works for you. It may be low carb or intermittent fasting or looking at portion control or making smaller lifestyle changes over a longer period of time.

The only thing I would suggest is that if you are doing the blood sugar diet, you should seek professional advice first.

MrsBlenner
3 meals a day is a modern, western, affluent concept
other societies cope extremely well with different patterns of eating

Ramadan does not seem to have killed of Islam after all

tina for me it was SW that worked as it was easy to follow and the weekly weigh in helps to keep me motivated!

Bluntness, I feel you (collective you) can't really comment on the effectiveness of a diet unless you (collective) have stayed at target weight and not regained it for many years.

When I look around my friendship group, on FB, Mumsnet and in ye olde real life, I see women (and a very few men) who have lost hundreds of stones between them over the past 20/30 years. But not a huge number who have lost weight and not regained it.

A dear friend has lost 4 stone three times! She is an absolutely brilliant hugely intelligent woman (with medical degree and job). She isn't depressed and is blisfully happy with her husband, her children are all doing just fine, she has plenty of money and plenty of time as she only works part time. She just likes food, wine and cooking . And she has a super-sensitive metabolism now, I guess.

bibbity
I lost 3 stone with WW in 2001
I regained 1 stone of that over the next 11 years
I lost 1 stone with 5:2 in 2012
and have kept it off since

if you look on the "maintainers" thread on the 5:2 board you will find quite a few of us who are happily staying at safe weights year in year out

because 5:2 has taught us that hunger is nothing to be scared of
so we do not revert to the old bad habits after hitting happy weight

I eat two meals a day.

Brunch (something like scrambled eggs or avocado on toast) at 11/11.30am ish.

And dinner at about 9pm.

I don't really snack as I have quite a small appetite. I hardly eat anything sweet as I just don't have a sweet tooth. So no cakes, biscuits or puddings for me except occasionally on a Sunday if I make an apple crumble. Or if we go out for dinner at someone's house and they've made a pudding. I would never order one in a restaurant. I don't care for chocolate.

Still a porker! And 5:2 just didn't make a dent in my weight issue, not even after 9 months.

what do you drink ?

This is the one of the only 'diet' that I think holds its value and credit. The science behind it makes sense to me. You should definitely do your research on it.

I started it at the beginning of the year bit stopped when we decided to TTC and I got pregnant. I might revert back to it if I have trouble losing the weight after baby is born.

Ah yes, the record of pregnancies on the 5:2 threads is rather amusing ......

Tina, genuinely I have no chocolate or carb cravings , I don't even think about it any more and I've a house full of the stuff. The only time I do get a craving is if I have a very bad hangover and am very tired.😳

Bibbity, I think this is the same for all diets, if you go back to your old way of eating, you will gain the weight back. You do really need to make a lifestyle change. Falling off the wagon, having occasional treats once you're at your target weight, is fine, but it's about being able to pull it back. I think a lot of people just get to their target weight and then just think yay and eat like they used to, they don't know how to maintain. And of course then they gain it all back again...