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'm hungry . Dh is eating crisps, the bastard.
Might take the suggestion up thread of having two small meals instead of one. Have eaten a couple of raw carrots. But I'm still hungry...

Hi - I'm new to here and found this thread through searching for posts about the 5:2 diet. It is the most active and comprehensive one I have seen so hope it is ok to join.

I am approaching 40 and like a few people have tried all sorts of diets over the years but always lose motivation and give up. I am looking at losing over 6 stone but 3 stone would be a good start

I watched the Horizon programme and am really excited about the health benefits as well as the weight loss- and it just seems so do-able

I am doing my first fast tomorrow- so will report back. I have put today's food into myfitnesspal just to see what it came to without really restricting myself but it certainly made me think about what I was eating

I have also started couch 2 5k!

dontcallme hang in there :) You're almost done with today!

Welcome geranium! Good luck with your first fast day. The first one or two can be tough, but it gets easier.

I'll be fasting tomorrow, but will be out most of the day at the zoo with my son. :)

Hi all,
normal eating day for me. I think I am getting the hang of the fasting side of things. It actually makes me feel less frightened of being hungry and more able to work through it.
Today I had bowl of fruit and fibre at 7:30 then went out to meet someone and didn't get home until around 2:30 and didn't eat anything in between, which I would never normally do. I did then buy a bacon roll (first for years) which wasn't all that to be honest.
Came home had a stir-fry with veg and lean pork, no noodles and allowed myself a small piece of DP's birthday cake, then went beserk and had another big piece [chocolate covered face emoticon] not sure what happened there. Oh well it won't be his birthday for another year, but I'm a bit frightened of him arriving home and discovering he has no cake left!
So getting the fasting days a bit more sorted, but need to work on the normal days a bit more rigorously.

Laksa well done on getting into the ridiculously expensive skirt, you are going to be looking very posh on all this fasting. I see ridiculously expensive skirts in charity shops on a regular basis so it is clearly, quite unusual to ever get into them.

Hi Geranium good luck tomorrow! What are you planning to eat or just going ad hoc?

Started off really well decided would do a fast day today. However am on holiday soooo failed by lunchtime! Then I thought don't worry make it a normal day but don't have any dinner! What happens bumped into friends so that's out of the window too! Think I'll give it a miss this week & start next week.

Didn't fast today. Drove 75 miles to get to the holiday caravan and got hungry half way through our journey. Have drunk a bit too much today!!

Fasting tomorrow though. Nothing stopping me. Feeling positive :)

Thanks for the welcome - am planning on holding off eating until I feel I need something and then going for yogurt, making some kind of veggie soup and then chicken and veggies for tea

Hi, just catching up with this thread and glad to see lots of you doing well. DH and I are doing fine on the (three) fasting days (DH is really good even though normally he is the type to eat ice cream by the tub). We aren't getting especially hungry. Today we had planned to have some soup but then we went out so just got through the day on a few cups of tea and had a stir fry soupy ramen thing for dinner - we even had a few noodles and some prawn crackers as the calories were so low! A feel a bit despondant that I am not seeing a loss on the scales yet. I have been eating what I want on feed days - I am really reluctant to start counting calories on feed days as this diet appeals in it's simplicity. If I have to start obsessing on the other 4 days I might as well go back on WW. Ok I know it's not just about weightloss but... Will keep going though as we agreed to do it for a month to 6 weeks initially.

Fast day tomorrow , will be having boiled egg and one round of toast for breakfast, then fish for dinner with veg, fish is pangasius fillets???? From m&s, looking forward to trying it!

I will not be eating anything else, but drinking tea, coffee, water to get through the day.

Did 15 mins of free weights / crunches this evening, felt great afterwards, which is a good motivator for next session.

Plan to park at distance from work tommorow, will be 10 mins walk.

Back to work today after 10 days off.Have managed to do my fasting days,last one was yesterday and made tomato & garlic soup (recipe on lavender & lovage website) and ate fruit and stirfry veg & falafel for tea. Am struggling with the sugar in my hot drinks (don't drink many but can't get a sweetener I actually like!, any suggestions?). Did wake in the night hungry this time, praps again due to no or very low carbs? but lasted until this morning. Like you fruitpastille I don't want to have to calorie count on the other 5 days otherwise it's just as complicated so am eating how I want and will assess after 6 weeks. Have lost 2 & 1/2 pounds in two weeks which I am fine with as I have about a stone to lose

Fast day today for me....I have had:
Coffees x 2 with skim milk
3 egg Omelette with spring onions
Will have WW tomato soup for dinner and poss an apple later.
Next fast day will be thurs this week as cocked it up yesterday!
Still having...ahem...bowel issues. Took a laxative yesterday so feel better today.
Any tips on what I can do re: constipation?

I'm on fast day number 6, i.e. week 3. If weighed myself yesterday on the scales I used on day one I've gone from 10st3lb8oz to 10st2lbs, however when I weighed myself at my parents house I weight under 10 stone - those scales are my new best friend!

I'm doing my 2 days together as I find it easier - 2 days of pain then 5 days of happiness. Disappointed that the weight loss is slow but I always knew it would be I guess, I eat a pretty healthy diet with no booze AND exercise and yet I'm still a good stone overweight I blame the genetics. Also, my birthday 2 weeks ago so there was rather a lot of cake involved... don't judge me!

I am planning to go to the week before Christmas - that's 16 weeks after today's fast day. If I reach 9st we are going to take a trip to New York. That's my motivation!

Oh, just a tip to anyone about to start - after 2 days of fasting it isn't wise to go for a big fancy meal and drink coffee... oh dear I was very ill!!

badvoc did you see mypost earlier about senna pod tea? Its really quite nice - if you like herb teas.. and works .. zero cals too!

I was so hungry during the night, hadn't found that on my previous fast days.. perhaps its because i've upped the exercise as well.. Didnt sleep very well, growling tum kept waking me up but so far this morning (eating day) I havent gone too mad (although I have already eaten my lunch ). i'm planning on eating well, but healthily on feed days if I can ..

The riculously expensive skirt is hanging up in my bedroom where I can see it.. Thanks for reminding me about charity shop mistakes rowingboat im determined that it wont be going that way ! or ebay..

BIWI , yes i know, i know , but love em! ,

Good luck fasters today ..

OK so today is going to be Fast day 1 of Week 4.
Was going to do M/W/F this week as I thought we were going away over the weekend, but we went Sunday - Monday. Only really ate brekkie and a snack yesterday, but had plenty of calories. Ate out Sat night and Sunday night.
Weighed myself today and in spite of my piglet tendencies of the past few days am 2½lb lighter than last week.

Def feel slimmer, so finally am seeing some results. Will keep going for the full 5 weeks and see how I get on.

Happy fasting

No I hadn't laksa will check out.
Feel ok today.
Not really hungry but nt doing any exercise today...only cleaning!

second fast day today - decided to skip breakfast completely, and have just had M&S salad for lunch. Soup + bread roll will be for tea - i will allow myself 1 coffee + milk later (black for the rest of the day), and that should be my 500 cals.

today seems easier than last week, which is because I've skipped breakfast and kept myself busy - that seems to be the key. I haven't weighted myself, but my jeans belt is 1 notch smaller today!

Have started my first fast day

Finished eating yesterday at about 7.30pm and then had a yogurt at 11.30 today and then homemade tomato and red pepper soup (which I have worked out to about 85 cals a bowl) - this tasted lovely and has really filled me up

I am planning scallops with chilli and lime, baby sweetcorn and a rocket and tomato salad for tea about 6pm, followed by some strawberries

This all comes in at just under 500 cals

I've been drinking plenty of water, and had a black coffee - feeling surprisingly fine - and I have definitely noticed that I am tasting the food I am eating much more - anyone else noticed that?

Good afternoon, another fast day for me. Had a fantastic but very naughty weekend - wedding on Saturday (not mine!) and friends staying that we've not seen for ages, so Sunday's fast day didn't happen.

I love the flexibility of this diet and back to the fast today. This week will be 3 fasts and 4 feeds. So far I've had 2 coffees, a boiled egg and some soup and feeling great!

Have a good day, all :)

As there are limits on how many posts we can make does anyone think setting up a facebook page would be a good idea to keep this going well?
I would offer but I work fulltime so wouldn't be able to commit the time to administrate it. (I'm new to Mumsnet so not sure how exactly it works longterm) I really find everyone's support fantastic and check in as often as I can to get tips etc and wouldn't like not to be able to access it in the future :-(

Ooh Powkin a trip to NY would motivate anyone!! How exciting.

I've been on and off with this 5:2 thing - I've also been doing mfp and trying to stick to that with the odd low cal/fast day thrown in. But DS starts school next week and I'll be back at work (2 days a week) then too so am hoping it'll be easier to get into a rhythm with it, and to fit in some extra exercise classes on my days off.

Went way over my mfp calories Fri-Mon but have now decided to cut out booze altogether (initially for a month but maybe long-term) and I'm sure this will help keep me on track. Am also throwing in a fast day tomorrow to get me going with it again and to decide if I can incorporate fast days in on a regular basis. I'm still finding my way with it all really and seeing what works for me.

louise so long as there are people who want to talk about 5:2 there will be a thread! As the last one reaches its upper limt of 1000 posts, someone will start a new one and link to it...

Of course, if a facebook page exists too then that would be good! I wouldn't post there as I only use fb rarely but yeah!

Fast day here for me. Easy peasy so far but then as I said before I think being LC in the weeks before starting really nixed my appetite/stablised my blood sugar. Hopped on the scales out of interest and was 61.6 so .1 up... and really ate quite badly on my normal days (by that, I mean poor choices nutritionally rather than lots and lots of it - mcdonalds and the like). It could be that 5:2 would be my 'maintenance' level - but I'm really not far from where I want/should be weight wise (bmi 21.5, body fat % 23.7) so I think for now I'm happy to stay like this rather than up it to a 4:3 - not least because I'm ebf DS3 and not entirely sure it's not affecting my milk - he's had a few fractious days this week whereas he's usually very placid. Now 14 weeks and at 12 he was nudging 8kg so I'm sure my milk was very fat rich/satisfying. Could be coincidence, I guess; other factors like teething starting, illness, or something else might be a part of it but his nappies do seem a little less 'seedy' than before. If he continues to seem 'less satisfied' I think I might actually drop to a 6:1 (and less McDonalds in the 6!) to see what that does.

Oh, and I've only ever drunk black coffee (and tea!) so I don't need to worry about allowing calories for milk in it but I WILL NOT give up my 1 and 1/2 sugars as I too have never found a sweetner I can bare. So I have to allow for those calories but it's fine. The stevia/sugar mix was the best I found but was bloming expensive and for what it 'saves' in calories, sooooo not worth it.

Hi Ladies, can I join.

I've decided to start the 5:2 for the next month. I've about a stone to loose and I'm no good at diets, but quite often skip meals due to work commitments so I'm hoping it will be easy to stick to.

First fast day planned for Thursday as we have a family picnic tomorrow.

Geranium - tomato and red pepper soup sounds great, do you have a recipe?

Hello,

I lurked on the other thread, but I'm going for it tomorrow. The only thing I'm still wondering about is that we always eat as a family (DH, and I and DS 4yo and DD 15mo) at lunchtime. DH isn't doing 5:2 and if I'm eating something different at lunchtime on fast days DS and DD (partic DS) will start carrying on and saying they want the same. I'm trying to think of what meals I could do that I could just eat a small portion of the veg component, or maybe something with salad and I only eat the salad?
Also, is it better to eat the 500 cals in one sitting or is it ok to slit it into 2 meals?

split into 2 meals