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! :)

Erm.... water?

Celery is a pretty good veg, if you like it. I love celery, and love it braised in stock - that's pretty low calorie.

Rosy I would definitely try 2 days between fasts to recover. Look at whether you are drinking enough, or could the headaches be caffeine withdrawal maybe? Is your diet high in carbs usually this would mean you suffered more from blood sugar ups and downs.

Rosy its not just about calorie restriction, weight loss is a by product of the other other health benefits. The periods of fasting push your body out of growth mode into repair mode which can help reduce inflamation, improve your blood fat profile, may assist in reducing the build up a plaques linked to Alzheimers, it may help in reducing the hormones that can increase breast cancer risk in some women (one of the reasons I am interested in this as my Mum had BC at a young age).

I'm trying to find the right way to say this so forgive me if it sounds wrong, you sound like you are still very much in diet mode rather than looking for a long term way of eating. Like you I have been on loads of diets and I now have a BMI over 35 . I am looking for a sustainable way of eating that brings health benefits and hopefully gradually reduces my weight that I can stick to long term. I don't want to be rigidly counting calories on my eating days, exercising a bit of common sense -yes: calorie counting - no. I don't want to spend all my time thinking that some foods are not allowed or are naughty or a treat because that thinking has done nothing but expand my waistline. I can't restrict calories on a daily basis long term, it doesn't work for me I get fed up and then I have a blow out and after that well as the diet is already trashed I may as well carry on... Whereas with this approach, if a fast day goes off track turn it into a feed day and fast the next day instead. If you eat a bit too much on one feed day never mind, just eat normally on the next feed days, fast as usual and within a week everything will have sorted itself out.

Dunno about calorie free, there are lots of veggies with very low calories, lettuce and cucumber for eg. I often have homemade tsatziki on fast day: grated cucumber, garlic and a small dollop of greek yogurt. I use full fat but you could use 0 fat for fewer calories. I find this makes a good "dressing" for the rest of whatever I'm eating.

Thanks. I cant have dairy, but I do have cucumber!

I have a question.

On normal days, when does something become a binger or extreme? Im not a binger by any stretch, but this weekend Im going to a family BBQ and I was planning on drinking 4 cans of low alcohol (4%) Stella through out the afternoon and early evening.

Is that extreme with regards to a normal food day? I dont want to undo the hard work.

rosy if you are doing 5:2 you can put as many days as you like between fast days - and you really shouldn't restrict your calories on the other days to 1600 IMO - try to eat what you feel you need, allow yourself treats too.

After 4 days of meals out and last weekend, and only 2 fast days this week (I'm trying to do 4:3) I have still lost 1lb (Friday is weigh-in day). So that's 8lb ish since i started, which was the Friday after the programme first was shown.

This, to me, is like a bloody miracle diet yes I get hungry on fast days and can be a bit bleugh at the thought of yet more veggie soup, but the huge bonus is to be able to eat with other people, go out, have and be flexible about fast days to suit me.

When I'm hungry I just think about that expensive size 12 skirt in the wardrobe that's been hanging there for about 5 yrs unworn.. And the smart jacket.... One of my ways to combat hunger is to have a stack of hard boiled eggs in the fridge and to factor in that I might have up to 3 of them. I find one does take away the pangs for longer than the veggie soup. Fast days at work are easier for me, no temptations and I keep busy, lots of tea and coffee and then a decent meal when I get home.

Ah sorry I missed the dairy free part. In that case maybe just salt and balsamic vinegar on it.

(lower alcohol than regular beer anywat!)

Cross posted with chaz what she said! Yes it's about getting out of the thinking that says "go on a diet and lose weight and then eat normally" because we don't really know what normal is.

This way is "occasional fasting appears to have wide health benefits so build fasting days into your life. Adjust upwards to lose weight and downwards to stabilise" it really is that simple.

Rosy you have a base calorie maintenance rate of 1600 calories? That sounds quite low to me, if you have 5 stone to lose. I'm not good with stone (12 lbs or so per stone?) but that's not much more than I should lose and my base calories is much higher, over 2000. Usually the heavier you are, the higher that number is, as it takes more calories to maintain a heavier weight. (Sorry I know you know that, I'm sort of typing-thinking aloud) I'm tall, though, as well (5'8).

If you find you're struggling with fast days after doing several of them, and you're happy losing weight with low-calorie all the time, then that might be the best way of eating for you. We're all having different reactions to this diet, and I wouldn't recommend sticking with it if you have to struggle. :( I felt hungry my first two fast days, but since then it's been quite easy. However, I am eating more than you are on eating days, so the fasting feels more natural, IYSWIM.

I don't think anyone in this thread can say for sure if it's just about eating low calorie, or if the fasting period also plays a part in the weight loss. I've been working on the few claims that it does, and so have kept my fastday eating to late afternoon/ early evening, with a fast period achieved either side of that food. I've not counted calories on eating days at all. I've lost over 8 lbs in three weeks.

Am rambling. We've asked MNHQ about getting Mosley in to take some of our (many) questions. :)

oops loads of people have posted since I started my previous post. Lots of good advice between my post and your question!

Ohforducks no not extreme I would say, for me normal is just that, ie I don't worry about it, a binge to my mind is something like eating a whole packet of biscuits or whatever. Having a pizza, a dessert, a couple of glasses of wine, a meal out, etc is all totally fine I think, I've done all 4 this week and still managed to lose 1kg.
Yes, bloody miracle as far as I'm concerned!

Fasted yesterday (Wk5, fast day2)
& I found it really hard. Up to now I've not had any problems, but yesterday I was properly hungry. Mind you I think in the early days I wasn't hungry as I'm also a terrbile grazer and my body was prolly just using up stores.

Anyhoo, eating day today and will be playing sports tonight. Will eat tomorrow and fast Sunday. Will weigh myself Sunday morning as I will miss normal Monday morning weigh in as I have to be up at silly o'clock to go to the airport for work

OHforDucks
4 cans would be 600+ calories and around 7 units of alcohol. That's at around 1/3 of a normal calorie allowance for a woman for a day and half your weekly alcohol consumption.

It really depends what you are eating and whether this is a one off event. i.e. if its once in a couple of months family BBQ that's one thing, if you are doing this every week end then its another.

Hi, I've been naughty and fallen off the wagon all week. Really inspired by all the losses though so ADF starts again on Sunday and I'm going to be strict with myself. Annoyed that the 3lbs I had lost have gone back on plus some this week (altho it is TOTM so hopefully that has something to do with it!!!).

Really pleased to see mention of sugar-free jelly! Love that stuff. One sachet makes 4 portions, around 9cals per portion. Filling too

Hi all
Am feeling fine on my 3rd fast day. Looking forward to my huge salad - but with less than 200 cals.
To answer a few question, sorry can't remember who from -
I have't has any headache or sore throat or any adverse effects on fast days. But drinks tons of water & basically eat loads of veg. Was impressed that on MFP just how close I was to hitting the daily target for lots of vitamins & minerals.
The night of my fast I usually have a slightly earlier night & find I have a great sleep. The next day I feel really invigorated & seem to have a reduced appetite.
As an aside, nothing to do with diets or weight loss I can really recommend Michael Pollens book Foof Rules. A really light easy read but an objective look at modern diet & food production. With what I think I useful ideas for non fast days but without the calorie counting.
michaelpollan.com/books/

Feed day today. Just had a small toasted cheese sandwich for brunch. Yum .

Wine later. Yippeeeeee!

I suddenly remembered that I had another very nice skirt - size 12 - but with a slightly elasticised waist ... I can do it up! I wouldn't wear it (sitting down would be dangerous ) but before this it wouldn't come over my hips. Again, it's many years since it was worn but I have now put it back in the wearable section of the wardrobe as inspiration

well my first day so far has been ok one coffee feeling a bit woo but i am very tired from two consecutive late nights/early mornings weighed in yesterday on the wii fit so know my starting weight do people exercise on their fast days?

I am avoiding exercise on my fast days because I always feel really hungry after exercise. Might try a leisurely cycle ride but no more than that.

Yesterday's fast (my second) went really well. I had veg soup, a small piece of chicken and a spoon of bolognese sauce from the kids' supper. Drank loads of water. I didn't get a headache this time and I felt great!

ahh will start loading up on water am starting to feel a bit hungry now i shall not break

Hi Skinny .The milk in tea issue is worrying me too. Like you I rely on some to get me through but I'm thinking it may be stopping the health benefits by doing this(ie the effect of the fast period) and wish I could find out whether it is! otherwise I will look for an alternative. (Only have around 3 cups a day)

Can I please ask what is probably a really dumb question?

Is the theory behind this diet that calorie intake balances itself out over the week? (I haven't seen the programme) so as long as you are consuming less calories than you are expending, you will lose weight?

According to the app I am using to check calorie intake, if I was dieting in the old fashioned way of consuming less calories and doing more exercise, my daily calorie intake for my height and size, to lose 2lb per week, would be 1598 calories. That's 11,186 calories per week.

If I fast on 3 days, consuming 500 calories max on those days, does that mean that in theory I could consume 2,421 calories on non-fast days and STILL lose weight? That seems a huge amount of calories?!

I've had one fast day so far (Wednesday, I only discovered this thread on Tuesday night) and had a non-fast day yesterday when I consumed around 1,500 calories.

I'm not intending to do that, by the way, I'm just a bit confused by the science and theory behind this diet. I will try to watch the programme over the weekend.

Lula if you look back one page (to page 36 of this thread), you'll see a post from rosylarose which asks the same question, and there are several replies to that.

Short form of the answer: none of us knows for sure. Some of us are planning proper periods of fasting, only eating one meal late in the day on a fast day so there are two periods either side of that meal. Others are eating small amounts over the day. I'm not sure why it is working, but for me, it is working much better than trying to count calories every single day.