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 thought the milk would be breaking my fast throughout the day as I drink a lot of tea and also felt that the calories would be more useful elsewhere. Starting to rethink that plan. May have proper tea on next fast day woot woot

It probably is - strictly - BUT more important surely is to get through the days without huge stress and wanting to give up.

Don't worry I'm not giving up I feel much healthier already. Just trying to figure out the best routine for me, my DP and my job but I will get there

Fasting today. Cold again and hungry tonight. Ate v little today - a apple and a cappucino during the day but ended up having sausages and beans with DS3. Reckon it was about 400 calories so might have just about kept under 550-600 calories. Not going to worry about that however; now I just need to try to get to sleep! I am often a bit knackered about 4pm, but then wide awake now. Crazy.

Hi all me again. Have had a normal day, which, as usual, started with a big bowl of muesli. I always eat breakfast, so skipping it on fast days means a bit of a lie-in.
I have been checking cals on my normal food and am amazed at how many cals are in things. One brown roll has 177 cals. I find that crazy. I like that the fasting has made me more conscious of what I am eating in a day.
I am finding that I am well hungry the day after fasting.
Good luck to those fasting tomorrow!

Hi everyone. Posted on the old thread but was off on hols for 3 weeks so didn't start until this week. Dh & I are both doing this. We could both do with losing some fat around our middles but also hoping for health benefits. My mum developed Alzheimer's in her sixties and I am terrified of going the same way. Had our 2nd fast day yesterday & we are doing one meal a day in the evening on tues and thurs for convenience as well as to give our bodies as long as possible between meals. Haven't found it too difficult so far and haven't gone mental on feed days either. Also giving alcohol a break for a while. Not weighed as i think the scales are evil but taken measurements and hoping my clothes will start loosening up.

Have a great day whether you're fasting or feeding .

I wasn't going to fast again until next week 3pm. Hmmmmm. This really exercises will power. but I might go for it today. I've got a reasonably busy day ahead which helps. Having said that DH is working tonight so I'll be alone with the DC from

Fgs this phone chewed up my post. It doesn't like big threads! Fgs this phone chewed up

Well eating again today and yesterday's fast day wasn't too bad (dons hard hat and prepares too duck). I think it made me realise that in general although our portion sizes are a bit big we eat fairly ok, but it is the snacking and biscuits. I do try to make sure that any that I buy aren't my favourite already, but even so it is tempting when I'm bored in the day. I know that before I went on the pill last year I wasn't overweight so I'm sure I can shift it. The only scales we have in the house are on the wii, probably not the most acurate and I don't know I can bear to see a podgy mii, but then again it was podgy last time I went on ages ago, and I might have lost some, and it will be nice seeing the slim mii again.

Just thought I'd check in....second fast day yesterday was MUCH easier, no headache this time around. Was planning to skip dinner as ran out of calories, but decided to have 160ml of miso soup anyway (29 cal).

I found the sachets of miso soup lurking at the back of the cupboard by the way - they were best before May 2009!!! Tasted fine though :) (really, what's going to have happened to them, they are vacuum-packed, contain bugger-all of nutritional value and the packets looked fine). I've survived 'til today anyway, so they must be alright!

Got a baby's birthday party today so looking forward to some jelly cake!

I keep having to fight the impluse to weigh myself, I'm sure I feel thinner... could be psychosomatic but it makes me feel :)

Am de-lurking as loving this thread. There really isn't much 'real' life experience if this diet on the internet compared to all the other diet / food regime.
Both DH & I are doing this, both on our 3rd fast day. Doing it especially for health reasons ( no one in my family has lived passed aged 70) but I also need to lose the 18lbs that gave crept on in the last few years. DH only wants to lose 7lbs and that is only to be at his most super fit lean weight.
He finds the fasting easier than me but I am surprising myself in that I can actually do it. I find it easier to not have breakfast, although this is my favourite meal of the day. I then have a homemade multi veg coleslaw ( only tiniest amount of dressing). Am loving having dry fried mushrooms with this. And having similar for dinner with some egg or smoked salmon.

I try and save a few of my 500 calories for a treat at the end of the day - some apple or a malteser. I drink continuously, lots of water, green tea and tea with SS milk. On non fast days I eat whatever I want & really enjoy it. But I do think my appetite has decreased on these days.

I have't weighed or measured myself, but plan to give it 5 weeks £ then see how much I weigh as I know where I want to be. Before then I can by tell by the fit of my clothes how I am doing.

On a positive note the trousers I put on this morning are looser than they have been for the last 12 months!! And my bras are gaping. So I hope this will help me to keep strong my fast day today.

Aim to fast each week on Wed & Fri as these are days I don't exercise. I really can't see me being able to run or swim whilst fasting.

Sorry for long post, just wanted to get it all down in black & white to keep me going.

Really nice to hear how well everyone is doing. Am going to have to wait for next week for next fast day as easier when the children are all out and I fasted yesterday. Think will go for mondays and wed/ thur. Do you have set days which you fast on or do you change each week?

Please excuse a long post. Ive been thinking a lot this last week and I have some questions. I'd like to just put my thoughts out there and see what others' experience is. I'm a lifelong dieter who is five stone overweight (work that one out). Over the years I've lost and gained as much as six stone at a time - classic yo-yo stuff. I am pretty clued up about calories (go on, ask me anything) as, on the whole, calorie restriction has been the most effective way of losing weight for me. I also eat healthily in the sense of eating fresh, home prepared food, enough fruit and veg and very little junk. I also excersise between four and six times a week (at the moment running at least 35k). So, I've just weighed in after 1.5 weeks of 5:2 and in total I've lost 3.5lbs. Very pleased with that. But if this diet is just about calorie restriction, I'm really wondering if it's for me. I fast on Mondays and Wednesdays. Monday's seem to be OK. Not a breeze, but doable. The Wednesdays have been awful. I quickly develop a headache, I feel terrible all day. I'm tired, unable to focus at work and snappish at home. But the worst of it is that this carries on to Thursday. Yesterday I was exhausted. My headache still lingered, i was hungry all day and I felt I was slowly recovering from illness. With a base maintenance calorie rate of 1600, this way of dieting only nets me 2500 calories. It takes 3500 to lose a pound, so the deficit has to be made up by exercise AND I have to stick rigidly to 1600 calories on "feast" days, not just pig out. Obviously I've been able to make it - mostly because of the exercise. But I can't say I've enjoyed the ride and I'm thinking about returning to a standard 1200 calories a day approach. It's tedious, but it doesn't make me feel ill. So my questions are:

• does anyone else feel really ill on a fast day and the day after? Would I do better putting two days between fast days rather than one?
• is this diet just about calorie restriction? In his Twitter feed Michael M says it is. But there seems to be some unclear claims that this approach leads to a change in IGF-1 levels. Although I've been reading a lot, I can't find out how this is supposed to connect with weight loss specifically.

Again, apologies for this long ramble!

That sums up my concerns/questions exactly, Rosy! I think it would be fab if MNHQ agree to get Dr Mosely to come on and do a chat, so we can ask him.

This morning after weekly weigh-in my weight is the same as last Friday (well 0.2lb up actually). No wonder I was putting on weight so fast before 5:2! Next week will try 3 fasting days as I don't find them too bad now (have done 5 and each has been easier). It will be worth it to have the freedom on the eating days

Hi Im new to this diet, Im on a fasting day to day.

Can anyone tell me about any calorie free foods, or point me into a direction where I might find a list or suggestions?

I cant have dairy. I have found some Jelly pots that are 3 cals per pot. And sugat free fizzy drinks.

Do any other dairy free, calorie free foods exist?

Thank you.

Welcome to the newbies and delurkers :)
I have been doing Mondays and Thursdays, but the beauty of this is you can change day to suit yourself.
Tbh I can see myself doing this for life, once I reach a weight I'm happy with I'll probably go to 6:1. Hopefully this will be a way to stop it creeping back up again. Then there are the other health benefits: I had blood tests done about a year ago and my blood sugar was only just under the level to cause concern iyswim, I'm planning to have a check up in a couple of months time and see if this has improved, I hope so!

What jelly pots!!

Go to the ambient desserts section in the supermarket, and look for them - they used to be branded Rowntrees, but now they are Hartley. They are zero carbs and almost zero calories. You can buy them ready made, or you can also buy sachets of sugar-free jelly crystals which will make 3-4 portions.

On 9th fast day and week 4. Weigh in tonight

Shopping tonight so I will pick some up x

Yes, Hartleys. They're good.

No more calorie free stuff then?