The new 5:2 diet thread

[GreenEggsAndNichts]

The continuing thread for those of us following either the 5:2 diet or the alternate-day fasting diet. Both are two versions of Intermittent Fasting, which you can read more about here.

The 5:2 diet was featured on Horizon recently, and essentially requires you to fast for 2 non-consecutive days per week. The other 5 days, you can eat what you like. Alternate-day fasting is just how it sounds; you fast every other day. By "fasting", we mean that we keep our calorie consumption very low, around 500 calories on average, on those days.

Come join us, and tell us about your experiences with this diet! :)

I'd agree with the skip pasta thing

a two egg omelette with mushrooms or veg is MUCH better for you and being high protein (see Dr Moseley's earlier programmes on the topic) will make the calorie restriction easier

Silvery don't feel bad, the others are right and I agree with what Manda said about doing a bit of low Carb first, that has really helped me find it easier.

Squishy I work out first thing in the morning before eating even on non fasting days so it doesn't affect that at all, afterwards it seems to make no difference how I feel for the rest of the day. I do either mostly weights with a small amount of intense cardio, or the Shred DVD. I would experiment to see whether that amount of cardio would make you hungrier later in the day, some people on here manage running etc no problem.

Eggs are much more filling too. I think there is this feeling you need starchy carbs to feel full, I certainly used to think like that, but actually it's not true.

Nope. It's totally not true. Starchy (well, any) carbs will make you more hungry.

Protein/fat are far more satiating and will not make you feel hungry.

Exactly. Hence the chocolate bar.
Also 200 Cals worth of pasta must be a depressingly small portion. I usually try and have a full plate at both meals, veg and protein.
BIWI do you have a permanent search on MN for the word Carb?, or did you just happen to be passing :o

I have come to the conclusion that I cannot do calorie restriction on days when I exercise...I could have gnawed my own hand off after swimming earlier!
So this is my plan...no breakfast, calorie restriction (500 cals) on mondays and wednesdays then low carb rest of the week.

No - as I've posted on this thread it popped up on 'Threads I'm On'. Although I realise I am a woman on a mission ...

Oh, yes, BIWI is a little bit like Beetlejuice - say 'carb' three times and she'll appear!

I was just saying to DF the other day that if we get good results without the struggle that other ways of 'healthy' eating seem to involve it will be difficult to not evangelise to those we care about, particularly, but in a more general way too.

I can't wait for all these: looks!

I am also pretty acclimatised to low carb, although I'm not really doing it at the mo. I think if you're used to the feeling of ketosis, plus you know you can knock the cravings with a bit of time, it is much easier to move into fasting. You have to almost switch off your brain telling you you need carbs. I agree about cutting out white carbs also. If you find it hard you could adjust down slowly - or do the Genesis diet for a couple of weeks before a stricter fast. I used their '2 pints of milk' to help in first few fasts - I headed off carb/sweet cravings with hot milk, tsp of Truvia plus a bit of cinnamon. And drank it REALLY slowly to make it last. A piece of fruit or two is better than giving up also... You could also try adding in more protein snacks for now: piece of ham, chicken, boiled egg, handfull of nuts. These will up your calories a bit but you may find doing this means you don't have to eat bread, pasta, potatoes, cereal etc. And if you get through 1 day like this, and gradually adjust a little bit for the next one it may get easier... Don't give up yet without a bit of tweaking.

Another thing the Genesis diet recommends is a hot salty drink, which really helps me with the 4-5pm cravings. Something like Marmite, Bovril, miso, bouillon/stock powder/cube is fine. I quite like the Marigold powder which has a teeny bit of dried veg so it is almost soup .

Thanks everyone.
You've all made me feel a bit better.
It was me that said I can't stand veg. I know i need to change that, easier said than done though, right?
I did take a big step (for me) on saturday and tried some salad. You know, the whole lettuce, cucumber, tomato thing, and it was nice. I threw some together today, so I reckon if i can replace sandwiches at lunch a few days a week, that'd help.
I was such a terrible eater when I was a child, in the end, I was just left to eat whatever i wanted as mum thought it better than nothing.
I'd have a box of fish fingers for dinner every night. Just that. Fish fingers.

I think my ds's eat fairly well. I try to make sure they have lots of fruit and veg available and they do actually eat most things.

Thank you all for your support. Maybe I'll just take a break from 5:2 now and try low carb. No point in continuing with 5:2 in this frame of mind.
then maybe I could try a higher low-cal day too.

I'm also a massive fan of AIR when it comes to fasting

No I'm not one of those mad people who say they only live on air, bear with me. The hot milk thing - if you don't want to drink non-stop coffee - is drawn out a bit with a milk frother. I sound like a loon now but it really got me through the first couple of weeks. Frothed milk just seems more...

And I haven't yet perfected a low cal meringue but I keep trying. I'm gonna have another go tomorrow with some Truvia (have not had good results with Splenda). If anyone has any tips, please let me know. Last time I tried, it came out more like chemically light chewy french bread. Not inedible when you're desperate but I think lots of air in food is probably a good thing.

Ooooh, and I forgot... I've also had good help in the past taking chromium supplements (seem to really help sweet/carb cravings) and drinking green tea - helps limit appetite a bit.

I agree. Silvery dont do pasta on your fast day .its just gointo give you a sugar insulin low soon after .

Ithink it has to be veg mostly and a bit of protein .. I had omlette this morning and my dinner was two fillets of white fish steamed in microwave , some cous cous salad (,homemade) tiny bit of cous cous , a few pumpkin seeds and cucumber tomato and spring onion grated carrot mixed in and all served o na pile of watercress and rocket leaves and splashed with lemon juice and chili sauce (i do like my chilli). Was a huge plateful..
Also i tend to eat early (had that at 4.30 )

Yes I am a bit hungry again now (but not utterly ravenous ) and ive been working inthe garden all day .. .

One thing ive found is (what DR M said inthe programme i think), yes you do get hungry but it doesnt build , and i find after a while it just goes off .Ive only done 4 fast days now but have been surprised that when ive woken up in the morning ive not been ravenous. Ive been able to go out for my bike ride and not eat until ive got back .

But if you want some carbs you could have 2 egg omlette in the morning and and a baked potato in the evening ,no butter, but with lots of chopped up salad and low cal dressing.. Then you wont feel so bereft..

Also rightbugger4it has a good point, why not try for mainly LC most days and up to 700 cals on your fast days and see how its going after a couple of weeks then try and reduce ? Youll still be getting a lot of the health benefits and i bet youll still lose weight, .betterthan giving up now. your body needs to get used to it ..

You're starting to sound like whatshername from Fat Fighters now, Wilf.

You'll be recommending dust next!

^"Marjorie Dawes [Fat Fighters are discussing foods]: Dust. Anybody? No? High in fat, low in fat? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. Anybody? No? Dust. It's actually very low in fat. You can have as much dust as you like.
Little Britain"^

Thanks for your replies everyone :)

I don't normally eat breakfast anyway (just copious amounts of coffee!) and either do a zumba class or my normal workout, have just started running too so not eating prior to exercising shouldn't be too much of a problem, it's just afterwards I'm starving. Maybe I could keep my main cardio work to non-fast days.

I'm intent on doing my own version of low carb too, cutting out all refined carbs but still having small portions of brown rice, quinoa, bulgar wheat etc and plenty of fruit and veg.

Marjorie Dawes?! I look a little like her too perhaps [aargh emoticon]

I know. It's also a wee bit too 'anorexic' this kind of eating, which so far is the only thing I'm really uncomfortable with - ways of 'not eating' etc.. I don't think I'm quite at that stage yet since there is NO danger of me ever overcoming my addiction to food, or being dangerously thing, but I see enough people discussing eating non-food things at work to think we perhaps need a 'healthy' way of talking about fasting...

I know havng read what others have just posted ,thats you'll all say NO about the baked potato.. but you know ive found that potato (being part of the vegetable family, oh yes, it is!!) doesnt seem to affect me in the same way (nor do carrots etc) as refined carbs do (or sugar for that matter).
BTW ive tried sweet potatoe yuk!! ...sweet veg ....just YUk .. (just an aside)

thing haha. Excellent self-loathing Freudian slip.

'thin'

Glad you haven't given up silvery, just doing it another way. :-) x

Starving now though. Repeat after me: 'Eat it tomorrow'

Think I may have to go to bed early to stave off cravings...

Wilfy: I think I understand you. I have HUGE issues, I mean really enormous, with any kind of talk of diets or food restrictions due to a terrible eating disorder in my youth. I never want to diet again (am almost phobic about it) and yet, and yet ... need to do something about unignorable levels of size 16 fatness on my 5'2" body.

But, given the choice, I would rather be this size for the rest of my life than go back to the torture that was being obsessed with food, weight, measurements, exercise, dieting. It is so exhausting and such a mind-fuck.

But still will dip my toe in this thread and see what happens .

Well done for not giving up Silvery, maybe you can look at soups as an easier way to consume vegetables, without them being too vegetablish iyswim.

But Laska - the potato will be affecting you, as it is turned by your body into sugar ...

Mintyy you are very welcome to dip a toe in, I think if you've suffered from eating disorders you'd have to think long and hard before trying this, maybe a good approach would be to focus on the health benefits, and treat the weightloss as a side effect. Plus you don't have to weigh or measure at all if you don't want to.
One advantage of this though is that you only need to focus on your 2 days a week, you might have to calorie count at first but I've found I already have a feel for more or less what I can eat. Other 5 days you treat as normal.