5:2 Diet Thread: Part Four! Sit down, have a cuppa..

[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.

Here is a list of the links we've gathered so far about this diet. I hope I haven't left many out, but it was a 40 page thread! This is a good start for anyone, though:

First things first, here is a link to our previous thread, which we've outgrown. Lots of good support and ideas still to be found there. Here is the thread before that..

Here is the link to the BBC article regarding Michael Mosley's findings, which was featured on Horizon.

is a link to the first part of the aforementioned Horizon, subsequent parts of that episode are linked on that page.

A blog post here gives some of the scientific explanation for why this way of eating helps you to not only lose weight, but improve your all-around health.

A Telegraph article which comments on the diet and gives a brief overview.

A study discussed here gives commentary specifically addressing the effect of this diet on obese people (both men and women), with regard to both health and weight loss. ("After 8 weeks of treatment, participants had an average 12.5 lbs reduction in body weight and a 4 cm decrease in waist circumference. Total fat mass declined by about 12 lbs while lean body mass remained relatively constant.) it also mentions "Plasma adiponectin, a protein hormone that is elevated in obesity and associated with heart disease, dropped by 30%. As did LDL cholesterol (25%) and triglycerides (32%).")

Important link if you are currently your ideal BMI: this appears to suggest the benefits for women at a lower BMI might not be seeing the same health benefits that are found on men at their ideal BMI.

And for those already fasting, here is a link to 100 snacks under 100 calories. :)

Another food link, here is a link to the BBC Goof Food site, with a list of low-calorie soups.

We often mention basal metabolic rate (BMR) here. This refers to the amount of energy (calories) a person uses when at rest; so, the basic number of calories a person needs to stay the same weight. This number is often quoted as being 2000 calories for the "average" woman, but of course is different depending on how tall you are, how much you weigh, etc. Here is a calculator which will easily help you to find out what your BMR is.

A BIG THANK YOU to all who have been contributing, btw. Most of us are new to this diet. All of the links above have been posted by others in our previous thread, and they've been very helpful. Sorry if I haven't given credit where it's due, but it was just enough of a job getting them all in one post this afternoon. wink

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

Hi everybody. TalkinPeace2 has sent me over!

I'm not really trying to lose any weight, just my stubborn half a stone that yo yos up and down, and stay there.

So what's this all about then, and can someone please explain how do you count calories??

yes, when you're mentally ready for it, feeling hungry can be proof that you're taking action, something's happening! (I haven't taken that to extremes).

Thanks for the welcome y'all. I know I am not going to do a fast day 'til thursday but I am excited all the same! I'll get back to you in 48 hours and discuss how lightheaded excited I am! I'll just go to bed if I really can't cope.

When I was 17 and had a somewhat obsessive relationship with food I used to lie in bed listening to my stomach rumble and be really pleased, because I thought it meant the fat cells were being eaten up.

I do still feel a bit like that after fast days but I also take care to not monitor my food too closely on feed days, so I think on average my relationship with food is healthier than it was then. I do worry sometimes that I'm regressing to my teenage self, although I do have far more things to think about these days (2 DCs under 16mo) and so food obsession isn't as much of a priority as it once was!

It is sometimes simply nice to be a bit hungry though, because then I enjoy my meal a bit more....

My DH refers to feed days as 'feast days' btw, which I think is a far better name

I think I just want to call feast days normal days.

I mean ! I want to refer to feed days as normal days.

I think in terms of fast and non-fast days. I think I avoid the term "feast" because people who feel negatively towards this way of eating seem to enjoy making comparisons to eating disorders, which I really disagree with. Just because we have fasting days does not mean we're over-eating on the non-fast days.

Herrena Iv'e done the same thing!

Not a fast day today. Just been out for Chinese with DH and the kids. We had a set menu and did not finish anything but still all felt pleasantly replete.

inneedofbrandy
there are some FAB links in the opening post and on threads 2 and 3 ....
I calorie check on fitday.com - get into the habit of weighing stuff so you learn what size 100g of things actually looks like

there is also a 5:2 recipe thread - soup and vegetable stews are GREAT for fast days.
And yes, you have to count EVERYTHING, even the milk in that tea ;-)

Fast day tomorrow, will TRY and keep to 500 cals. I won't bother getting my halo ready... In fact I flung it far far away after Monday, coz it all went a bit wrong at 10pm . I have read all your comments and now getting excited about fasting tomorrow.

Funny thing is.... today I didn't eat until 1.30 (unheard of for me, who usually HAS to eat at 10.30am), and I ate fruit and yoghurt and packet of French Fries. Just wasn't really hungry. Tomorrow I bet I am gagging for something by noon!! It's all mind over matter... For me being on a 'diet' makes me eat, hungry, angry, p*ssed off, obsessive and annoying. So I am going to have a talk with myself tomorrow mornings and see wot happens. After all I am not on a diet am I!?

Night night. I feel this is a secret society. It's fun and I like it. Wish me luck fellow fasters and feeders.

P.s. I do hope in 8 weeks time I wake up and get on the scales and all the weight has dropped off in the night, coz at the moment it's clinging on for dear life.

Thina
If you start wanting to snack, plan the FOLLOWING day's menu. Pointedly and deliberately think about food you WILL eat the next day. It will remind you NOT to eat then and there.

Normal day for me.i had some soup for lunch and stew for dinner, and just realised over the course of the day i have had 5 slices if bread, oops! Oh well, it is allowed, i just try to limit my bread intake.

Fast day tomorrow and got left over stew, that should be yummy as it always tastes even nicer the next day.

Hello to all the newbies (waves). Looks like you have been getting some great advice today. I'm on week 7 of doing 4:3 and have lost over 12 lbs (already healthy bmi) so just stick with it and in a couple of weeks you'll feel like a different person,i did anyway. My top tip would be to plan ahead what you are eating on fast days, as when i end up winging it, i do tend to struggle more.

world i don't know if anyone mentioned this to you, but on the 30 day shred DVD, you will also need some hand weights, around 1kg each (x2).

Ok, night all x

Cheers TP2 x

Hi, can I join you?

I am just trying this out at the moment and seeing if it works for me - mainly for weightloss more than for health benefits I admit!

So far I haven't managed to do more than 1 fast day a week, as I find it hard to find days when I can easily do it without either having to eat (well, or not eat...) around the DCs which I prefer not to do, or have too many temptations around. But I have managed 2 fasts so far which have gone surprisingly well! Haven't noticed any weight loss yet, but a) it's early days (and only doing 6:1 so far), and b) it was my birthday not long ago, so we've had a big cake and plenty of extra treats which probably cancelled out the fasts!

I have decided my personal rules will be: Milk in coffee allowed and not counted, within reason (I prefer skimmed anyway so not too many cals, and no lattes allowed, but I NEED my coffee!), and I will try to stick to 500 cals but not beat myself up if I go over slightly, as long as I stay under 600. And on eating days I don't calorie count or restrict myself particularly.

Oddly enough, it seems that if I skip breakfast, I can go quite a long time without feeling hungry - but as soon as I have eaten something, I start to get hungry more and have to work a bit harder to resist temptation! But so far I have had a small, late lunch and then a slightly bigger evening meal and no snacks, and not really felt particularly deprived.

I have also "cheated" a bit, rather than cooking so far I have been hunting out low-cal options from supermarket ranges (salads & ready meals). Some of the M&S "simply fuller longer" things are only just over 300 cals and are quite tasty and surprisingly filling as an evening meal, and various places seem to do nice salads with beans and tuna or prawns that I quite like for lunch. (Tesco do one with black rice, veg and prawns that's under 200 cals!). If/when I start managing 2 fast days though I'll have to get organised with some recipes and start making my own at least some of the time. But the bought options are good if I haven't had time to look up recipes and shop for the right stuff.

I also had a couple of questions for the more experienced fasters:

Firstly, if you have small children, how do you manage fast days around them? We usually all eat together in the evening, and I have lunch and breakfast with at least one DC about half the week too, and would rather not have to "obviously" skip meals or eat differently around them (and would rather not be tempted by their food either!). That's one reason I've only managed one fast a week so far, as that's the only day in the week I often don't eat with them at all.

Second, what about exercise on fast days? The same day that's easiest for me to fast is also one of my best chances to exercise, but I worry about crashing if I do it after fasting. (I'm not that good at making myself exercise, but when I do it tends to be fairly energetic! - shredding or a good workout). Do you find it a problem?

PS the thing I do love about this is that if you really want something on a fast day, you can just go "oh, I'll have it tomorrow" which doesn't feel like a big sacrifice at all! Much better than going "oh, I can't have that till I've finished losing weight in 6 months or more - and then still shouldn't really have it or I'll put it all back on again"!

Montoya
My kids are older. I've told them what I am doing and that this is a diet aimed at over 40s so they are not on it.
I skip breakfast - with the excuse that I am sorting packed lunches and stuff like that rather than eating breakfast.
Lunch - they are at school so its easy
Supper - on your fast day get the kids to eat something you find utterly dull (pasta and effing pesto for example) and you have steamed veg that they will laugh at but you can high horse healthy :-)
Lateral thinking is all ....

I think I'm going to give this a go. Seems like the kind of thing I might actually be able to stick with, having to think about what I eat every day just makes me depressed. And I really need to get rid of some weight.I will do fast days on mondays and thursdays.
Does anybody know if two days a week would have a massive impact on breastfeeding?( DD is 2 so its not like its necessary for her survival).

I've been doing this for four weeks now; started on 5:2, now doing ADF, and have lost 8lbs.

My new party trick is taking off my jeans without undoing the button and zip

mumblechum1, I do that too. Silly but fun.

Been doing this since the programme was on (or my version, the dinner to dinner fast) and lost loads of weight initially, completely stalled for a few weeks and losing weight again now. No idea what caused the blip but I'm now within 4-5 lbs of ultimate dream target and have lost 10-12 lbs depending on day of weighing. I eat nothing at all for 22-24 hours, just loads of fluids, then eat what I like for dinner, and do that about 3-4 days a week. Other days as normal but now usually miss breakfast despite being a never-miss-breakfast person before.

The most interesting exercise aspect for me, as a daily runner, is that I find I can run faster and for longer as a 'faster' than I can after breakfast. It doesn't make me more tired for the rest of the day. It seems counter-intuitive but I assume it's a fat-burning thing and fat is an efficient energy store.

I was thinking that 14 ryvitas would probably seem like a few too many, but with lots of water, would fill you I think. I may do that instead of porridge. Will have to check their salt content though.

I woke up this morning, not in the slightest bit hungry and had a large bowl of all bran like I usually do. It'll be interesting tomorrow to see when hunger kicks in. I've been heeding the 'don't skip breakfast' lesson for son long.

Montoya i have a 4.5 yr old and a 16mo and eat with them every lunch, when we have the main meal of the day. Then they have "tea" in the afternoon, which I've never eaten with them.
What I do on fast days is to organise a lunch that I can have a slightly amended version of or a smaller quantity, bulked out with veg. So, for example yesterday I was fasting....they have cereal for brekkie at about 7 but I don't eat with them then, never have. I skipped breakfast anyway as I was fasting. When they came in from pre school and nursery for lunch we had chicken fajitas, which was flour tortillas, grilled chicken strips and salad with lettuce, tomato, avocado, black olives and soft white cheese (queso fresco). I had one tortilla and about 3 thumb sized bits of chicken ad loads of salad, but avoided the avocado and cheese as much as poss. Then I had an apple in the evening. They don't seem to notice that I'm eating a bit differently.
frumperina I'm bfing the 16mo (admittedly only mornings) and it doesn't seem to have any effect doing 5:2 or even 4:3.
Yesterday's fast went fine, so I'm back on the wagon after my 10 day hiatus.

HI all, well thanks to emergency 'kick up bum' last night fromTIP and TML I made it!.. Don't know why this particular fast was so hard when the others haven't been.

Ate too early? Less protein? Cold weather? Anyway , mint tea and putting all my summer clothes away and getting the winter ones out did the trick..

Was sad to see just how many of my summer clothes I hadn't worn this year .. just too cold for the dresses I found. I bought a fab 50s style sun dress from Fat Face as well at the beginning of the season and I only wore it once! ( it will probably be too big next year if i carry on like this ..)

Woke up ravenous this morning have had some scrambled eggs (with cheese!)and tomatoes.. Have a lamb steak out of the freezer for dinner ..ill probably have some couscous with it also.

Good luck all fasters today
GirlWTMH put that choc down!! its not yours until tomorrow.. !

So many new people joining us..

Do read the stuff and links above .. and watch the programme if you've not seen it .. its still on YouTube.. Get onto something like myfitnesspal to count calories .. and Jump In!!

Its easy!
Stick to 500 cals 2 days a week (or 3 days ,or every other day whatever you are doing .. 5:2 or 4:3 seems about the most popular here ) in one or two meals ..with plenty of non or very low cal liquids (diet drinks are not really the best idea because they can make you hungry amongst other things ) liquids like water or green tea or recommended, coffee is fine (I couldn't do without it!) but do count milk calories if you have it.

Try to have a period of 16 hours when you don't eat at all but do have liquids - l (for optimum cell repair) - most of us do most of this at night!

And on non-fast days eat somewhere around your normal calorie needs (check this out for your weight activity level on the BMR link above ) .Eat what you want but don't go mad ..you are aiming for an overall calorie deficit not making up for your fast days .

Good luck , we are a friendly group and I can honestly say that this WOE (way of eating) has been great for me doesn't feel like a diet at all..

.....Now where's that chocolate I wanted so much last night? Hmmm ..Later perhaps ..

Lizlemon have I missed something? Why would you want to eat 14 Ryvitas?..

Thank you TP2 I've been googling all last night and am a convert!

Thank you laskara you summed it up nicely for me.

One more question before I do the first fast do I need to of ate normally the day before. Thinking of starting tomorrow as won't have child care to think of, so does that mean today I can eat cheese LOL.

I was joking about the 14 ryvitas! but i noticed that each has 34 calories, and i divided 500 by 34.

It wouldn't be a bad way of staying full. 3 ryvitas every two hours? with lots of water. They'd expand in your tummy.

For me, the boredom of eating 14 ryvitas wouldn't bother me. I am not a 'foodie'. I don't have to love every mouthful that passes my lips. But the hunger will be more of a challenge.

Second fast day of the week for me. feeling pretty rough; shivery, fluey, headachey,yes I know it's back to school time when all the germs are around but I haven't got kids at home anymore! To top it all my colleague isn't in work today due to cold so I'm on my own with all the work
However I WILL stick to the fasting but will have some carbs instead of my usual fruit,salad veg to stop me passing out! At least when today is over that's me done for the week. Good summary btw Laska It says it all really