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! :)

teaandthorazine - I'm not familiar with low carb at all. Do you have any links to good websites that outline the basics, or any recipes that are low carb? Also, if you eat low carb do you tend to therefor eat higher protein, which isn't suggested on this diet due to cell reproduction...? I'm interested in giving this a try. I'm a bit fed up of salads at the moment and while i enjoy vegies, they tend to be smothered in some sort of sauce or gravy usually. Thanks

Hi all,
normal eating day for me and had a big bowl of muesli for breakfast with added oatbran and trail mix - get those carbs in!
Banana sandwich and a couple of biscuits an apple and an orange for lunch and pasta with salad for dins plus 3 fudges and a cup of tea - 5 million calories kerching!
My head is absolutely pounding, but I think it was driving with no sunnies on into the direct sun. It is at a killer angle this time of year where it is blinding in the morning. Shouldn't complain in case it goes away. (looks around, in case sun is listening or on MN -strange)
Fasting tomorrow and still haven't done a 500 cal day only doing 600 , back in a minute....

Hi all, hope it's going well for all of you. I'm on a fast day and munching on raw carrots, which is a staple of fast days for me (even though they really hurt my teeth!)

I seem to have lost 10 pounds so far :) Am within the healthy BMI range, but want to continue with this for vanity and health reasons. It is so easy to follow compared with other things I've tried. I don't obsess so much about food either, as nothing is resticted. And, on an eating day - I don't always finish everything on my plate. If I'm not hungry I stop eating. I have never been able to do this before! I have never recognised that full feeling. So I think this is a really positive change.

I really do feel energised and healthy too.

rachelblythe here is Dr John Briffa's website - probably a good place to start

Essentially, if you eat a low carb diet you are aiming to reverse the diet that is conventionally recommended, i.e. carbs:protein:fat. So a low carb diet would be fat:protein:carbs

So although you eat more protein when you are low carbing, actually it's the fat that you are after - so you eat cuts of meat that are fattier, which makes them lower in protein. A skinless chicken breast has much more protein in it than a fatty pork chop, for example.

You are supposed to eat carbs - it isn't no carbs - but your carbs should come from vegetables and salads, rather than potatoes, rice, pasta, bread, flour, fruit and sugar.

And here's a particularly interesting post about the health benefits of eating low carb

Another one weighing in (ho ho) on the low Carb thing, I eat low Carb on fast days, and lowish Carb other days, I find fast days pretty easy in that I don't really get too hungry (I do admit to getting a bit irritable though).
So a fast day meal for me (I have 2 meals) would usually be a large salad or a plate of cooked veg with some fish or eggs.

Just marking my place. Am only about 1/4 of the way through this thread.

I think this way of eating might work for me...

Thanks ladies, will definitely have a read through these. On a fast day tomorrow and not prepared what I'm going to have. I'm at work but only get 30 mins lunch break on a Wednesday as i finish a bit earlier at 4:30pm to collect my boy from nursery, so not got a clue what I'm going to do, as it's not long enough to go out and pick anything up. Might take some soup but i never feel satisfied from soup unless I've had half a loaf of bread...to many cals and no nutrients, plus loaded with carbs...hum!

rachel i'm fasting tomorrow and will have egg for breakfast but will have to have a late lunch at work instead of dinner because I have to be somewhere in the evening.

Ill be taking a tin of tuna in brine and a whole load of salad leaves plus a few almonds in my bag in case I get really hungry later on in the evening . Can you eat at your desk?

Ok, I've read through as much of this as I could without confusing myself and I'm going to give this a go.

What follows is really a self-indulgent message to myself. Apologies, but I need to see this on screen.

I don't know how much I weigh and won't be weighing myself. At least, not yet... too scared! For me it is about how I look and feel and right now I feel fat and old!

Over the years I have done many, many fad diets/ starvation diets/ used diet pills (which shot my metabolism to shit)... I have a very messed up relationship with food and eating in general.

I know the calorie content of pretty much everything, so that bit shouldn;t be hard although I've got My Fitness Pal and Nutracheck on my iPhone.

I am currently a size 18. I've always been big - I was born fat! (a hefty 9lb 11oz). I think I weigh about 95kg right now but it could be more.

I want to be a size 14. I tried and tried and tried for years to be skinny, but it just doesn't work. I look, objectively, ok at a size 14. I'm 5'7" with big boobs and hips, but at a healthy and toned 14 I am in proportion. My main goal is to fit into a really funky and sexy pair of black needle cord trousers from French Connection

So, I am going to start with 5:2 and try to exercise on at least 3 of the non-fasting days. I will combine the fasting with a low GI diet, which has worked for me previously.

I will also try to eat as little processed food as possible (which annoyingly makes calorie counting harder as you have to weight portions etc). My one concession might be Ainsley Harriott soups on fast days as they're v low calorie.

I don't want to get heart disease or cancer.

I want to be healthy, both physically and mentally.

I'm going to do this.

Thanks for listening, if you got this far x

End of my fast day here and have eaten well, not very much. :) Had my veg this evening and two coffees earlier. I've been ridiculously busy (trying to secure a new house now that landlord wants to sell this one, plus a appt with the GP, plus odds and ends) so haven't noticed much.

I need to go back into town again tomorrow to get to the bank (see: house things) so might treat myself and DS when we go.

Good to see all these new posters. :)

Hi All finally finished reading all the posts and I'm done lurking :) Found your thread while researching IF. I Started my 5:2 experience yesterday (Monday) with a fast surprisingly easy and I'm not very hungry today. I left food on a plate (twice) for the first time in years! Fasting again Thursday so will have to eat more tomorrow! What a topsy-turvy world I'm living in but it feels kinda nice!

Hi all just back from a week all inclusive in Zante!!! Heaven but have now just finished my second day fasting. Lucky for me I had a bug so that was easier than expected. Have loved reading thru all the posts to re inspire me again, bring on the next six months to lose at least two stone preferably before Christmas, my mum has been doing it for 4 weeks and has lost 9lbs and she didn't really have anything to lose so keep at it everyone it really does work! Xx

Morning all :)

Monday's fast day went really well for me so I'm good to go again today. I'm working but have no rice cakes or Ryvita in for a packed lunch. I won't have access top a fridge either. I'm pondering taking a couple of boiled eggs maybe. DH is roasting a chicken today so I can have that for dinner.

I'm going to try and make it to lunch time without eating today (tea excepted!), although because of my commitments today that will be around noon.

Fortunately I have a horrible sinus and chest infection going on so I'm not feeling that hungry anyway!

Another newbie to the thread here. I am just starting my second day fasting, am going to do fasting days Monday, Weds and Friday. Already down 3cm on my waist!
I have a five month old and need to lose the 1 stone baby weight I am still carrying and the 4 stone cake and chocolate weight i had before I fell pregnant!
Not sure how much I weigh as have no scales at home and there is nowhere here you can weigh your self in a shop like Boots (not in UK at the moment) but am more concerned with how my clothes fit and feeling healthier. I don't want my little girl to have a mum that cannot run round and play with her. I will be watching others results with great interest.

Woken up after my first fast day at not feeling hungry as I'd anticipated. Arrived in the office 40mins ago and have now had a coffee and a granola bar. Not sure what my food plans are today but not really tempted to go crazy. Got a 400mile drive later so that'll keep my hands busy ;)

Hi - (hope i can join in here as I am neither female nor a mum) Just done 1st Fast day yesterday - Was pretty tough for me as i am constantly hungry anyway.
Have put on loads of weight since I gave up smoking and nothing seems to be shifting it so giving this a go.

Tristan

Had a stonking great headache at the end of my fast day yesterday and went to bed at 8.15pm. Headache persisted through the night, woke up several times and took some more tablets at 5am.

Think next time I will try saving some calories for tea with milk, instead of swapping to green tea for the whole of the day (I'm usually a tea addict!). Will also look at adding in some more carbs as maybe my brain needed some glucose.

Yesterday's food was:
2 tbsp oat brain, skimmed milk, blueberries
banana & Activia 0% yogurt
Omlette with two large eggs, red kidney beans, little onion & green beans

Felt ok most of the day, had a headache in afternoon which paracetamol dealt with. But it got bad after my evening omlette.

This was my 4th fast day.

It could be caffeine withdrawal from your tea? The worst withdrawal symptoms I ever had were when I gave up coffee. The other thing, of course, is to make sure you are drinking enough water to substitute for the lack of tea intake.

Tristan we'll look forward to hearing about your progress- all of our articles seem to suggest that the diet works very well for males. Female physiology leads to mixed results at times.

That having been said, I just wanted to chime in and say I've lost another pound or two this week. I'm not being precious when I'm vague- I'm weighing myself in kilos so my conversion to pounds isn't precise. But I did convert starting weight and current weight, and the current total loss is 8 pounds. Which I'm very pleased with. :)

For those who are curious but overwhelmed by thread length etc, I'm doing 4:3, and on my fast days am just eating veg and drinking coffee with milk. On my eating days, I'm not counting calories and am indeed indulging when I feel like it.

Shortlass it'll definitely be worth reserving some calories for milk with proper tea. :) It is to me, anyway. It takes me ages to have a cuppa (tea or coffee) and I find it calories well spent.

BIWI - good thought on the caffeine. I once tried to give up tea and was so ill, I went home from work, threw up at a bus stop on the way home, then went to bed.

Having said that, 3 other fast days I was on the green tea and headache wasn't a problem.

I try to drink lots of water. Had a glass after going for a walk in the morning, had two pints of water at work, then a pint with my evening omlette. Also had 2 pots of weak earl grey tea and 3 mugs of green tea at work. If I'm still dehydrated after that, I'd be surprised!

Certainly feel better after tea with milk and toast this morning.

As I say, going to experiment a bit with food and tea combinations on my next fast day. The best one I did so far was last Saturday where I had no problems (and I ate exactly the same!!), but then I was on an early shift and fell asleep for four hours in the afternoon!

shortlass, like BIWI said it is quite like caffeine withdrawal.

Fast day for me too yesterday - 2x white coffee, slice of toast & marmite, egg salad with balsamic dressing. I was out with the kids all day & apart from the coffee/water didn't have anything until dinner time. I find it so much easier to fast when I am not in all day (dreadful grazing habit) & when I only eat once. I'm back to being realllly busy next week which will help I hope.

89.9(!)kg this morning; I'm hoping it will stay at 89 after a whole week of ADF - that would be 12kg lost since mid July. 88kg will put me at just obese rather than morbidly obese so that's my next goal. We have a going back to school pizza/ice cream party tonight

Hope everyone has a good day :)

Hi all,

Checking back in. Went on holiday for the last week of August and failed to fast at all . I just didn't feel like it. But I did 4:3 the week before, and did a fast day on Monday to start getting back on track.

I'm still finding it reasonably easy to fast (unless I'm on holiday) but I do find that the following day I have massive carb cravings - especially for toast. So my non-fast days seem to be quite carb-heavy, although I'm trying to eat only protein and vegetables in the evening.

No noticeable weight-loss yet, but as I say I have been pretty bad

Well done phlebas - you are very inspiring!