Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Fasting / 5:2 diet

Talk about intermittent fasting and 5:2, including what’s worked for others. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

5:2 Diet Thread: Part Five! Top of the Mornin' to you!

977 replies

GreenEggsAndNichts · 07/10/2012 17:53

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 a month or two ago, 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 we've filled several threads by now. Please share if you find something particularly useful, and we'll add it for the next thread.

First things first, here are links to some of our previous threads: most recent one before that another one.

Another thread which breadandwine has just started can be found here. We'll be trying to condense some of our top tips for fasting there. Keep in mind, we all do this differently, so these are just tips, not rules.

frenchfancy has a recipe thread over here, please post any low-calorie recipes there so they don't get lost in these bigger threads!

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. We tend to favour lots of hot drinks during the day (count your milk if you use it!)

Another food link, here is a link to the BBC Good 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 learning this way of eating as we go along. All of the links above have been posted by others in our previous threads, 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!

OP posts:
dandycandyjellybean · 10/10/2012 10:01

Wow this thing has a life of it's own!

Had yet more horrible news over the weekend which in normal circs would have had me off the 'bandwagon' for a couple of weeks with a dive into medicinal gin and crisps and choccie. However, fast day yesterday, it's just a way of life now, and although we all have a wobble every now and then, this is definitely the easiest way of eating i've ever found. fast day 10, will be doing it again thursday.

Bunjies, my commiserations, that must be so frustrating for you. The only thing I can say is stick with it, and perhaps double check that you are either eating enough on fast days, or perhaps too much. I was checking my bmr yesterday and then thinking about the cals I eat on non fast days, and I was shocked really. I tend to be fairly abstemious during the day, and then feel ok about picking at night, and boy does that add up quickly, as does my lovely gin! Arrrggghhhh! Also, I think that because 500 cals is relatively little, it would be pretty easy to forget milk in a couple of drinks, a mouthful of something on the kids plate, or an extra big dollop of lite mayo on a salad etc, and before you know it the cals have upped by 150-200. Anyway, hang in there, someone else will be along with more advice no doubt.

Happy fasting/feasting all.

dandycandyjellybean · 10/10/2012 10:02

Bunjies that should be eating enough on non fast days...

MikeOxard · 10/10/2012 10:14

Bunjies - I am your height, maybe a bit less, and I would definately put loads of weight on if I had 2500 calories on my non-fast days, and I'm on 4:3. Mind you I am pretty sedentary (but I'm thinking bf makes up for that somehow?!).

If I were you, I think I would just aim to shave a few calories off the eating days (maybe have 2000 in mind?). Also keep a food diary and write down every single thing you eat so you can get a better idea of exactly how many calories you are eating. Then analyse it, so if you are maintaining a certain weight at a certain number of calories per week, then you know you need to reduce that number of calories if you want to lose weight rather than maintain.

Another thing is that apparently most people underestimate their calorie intake by at least 20%, so maybe whatever calories you are aiming for, reduce your allowance by 20% to account for this.

It's fab that you have started to maintain rather than putting on. A few more tweaks and you will be losing in no time. It is hard at first, but once you get a loss on the scales you'll have the motivation you need to do it. x

TellMeLater · 10/10/2012 10:25

Top tip - don't fry chorizo for your dcs on the morning of a fast, the smell has left me ravenous Sad

GreenEggsAndNichts · 10/10/2012 10:29

Agree with Mike. You're doing 5:2 so I would definitely not be pushing 2500 on eating days. I also very much agree with people naturally underestimating their caloric intake. Are you weighing out the nibbles you're having? Yes, I know it sounds pedantic, and it's not something you'd have to do forever, but weighing them out and seeing how much you get for how many calories will help you visualise.

And since both you and DH are on it: don't eat everything he eats. You probably aren't, but I know a lot of us fall into that habit, which is one of the reasons we put on the weight faster than they do.

OP posts:
Breadandwine · 10/10/2012 10:30

And don't forget, Bunjies, if you are on or under 500 calories on your fasting days, you're still getting the health benefits, even though you're not losing weight.

Good luck! Smile

mumofcrazynamedkids · 10/10/2012 10:38

Morning all! gorgeous sunny autumn day in london today, and I eally enjoyed my cycle into work -although I could do with wearing gloves!

I had a good fast day yesterday, actually ended up splitting my calories into 3 small meals, I was at home and so had a boiled egg and 2 slices of wafer thin ham for breakfast, a bowl of covent garden soupergreens soup for lunch, and a sainburys chicken arrabiatta meal soup for supper at 6pm, (and I survived the temptation of taking the kids to mcdonalds.....a rare treat after an afternoon of miles of walking to get to 2 diffeent opticians!)I then felt starving at 10pm so ate one more slice of ham and went to bed, so overall 19 cals over my 500 limit.

today I've had some porridge with banana and a milky coffee, but brought in a 250 cal meal soup for lunch just because I love them so much, why go out of my way to eat a high cal meal when I've found low cal ones i love?

bunjies I am going to agree with some of the others, it sounds like the 2500 on 3 days a week is going to sabotage your plan of loss, although I agree it will probably stop you gaining, so there is success, were you gaining before starting this WOE? it's so hard for shorter people as the amount of calories you can have compares to others is much reduced and we all get used to thinking we can eat the same as those around us, I know when I was married I used to eat the same size huge plates of food as my (ex)husband and of course I gained weight at a greater rate. maybe do 4:3 to kickc start things rather than worry too much about cutting down, I do think after a while of counting calories on the fast days, your head will shift it's thinking about what's ok to eat on non fast days. I use an app on my blackberry called fat secret by calorie counter, I imagine it's like my fitness pal, but really good for finding out cals and keeping track over the day. good luck, we all want you to succeed. my weight loss has been slow, I need to lose about 2 stone to get to the middle of healthy, but have only lost 8 pounds in 9 weeks (i started the day after the horizon programme)but this WOE feels so good, it has certainly stopped my slowly upward creeping weight, and turned it into a slowly downward creeping weight!

mumofcrazynamedkids · 10/10/2012 10:46

sexbomb just wanted to say sorry to hear you had bad news, but good news that this WOE persists despite all that! Hope things improve for you soon.

ThatBintAgain · 10/10/2012 10:57

MikeOx - thank you, am just having some problems with DH at the moment which means that cooking and eating has fallen off the radar a bit. Hopefully things will sort themselves out soon.

Having a fast day today. If my BMR is 1600cals, should I be sticking to 400 cals? Would it matter if I had nothing other than soya milk in tea?

Breadandwine · 10/10/2012 11:00

Yes, well done, sexbomb for not succumbing to previous temptation. [thumbsup]

This WOE is about taking control - and keeping hold of it!

TalkinPeace2 · 10/10/2012 11:07

Thatbint
stress burns up calories - stick with the 500 and you'll be fine.

bunjies
if you are only 5'1" your AVERAGE diet should be of the order of 1900 calories a day - 2500 is for a six foot man ....
so if you are fasting two days a week, aim for 1800 on the other days (NO CRISPS, booze only 2 days a week for a start. NO CRISPS. Eat at meals NEVER in between, let alone after supper)

sexbomb
are you finding that being in control of food and therefore your physical self helps on dragging other things into control...?

GreenEggsAndNichts · 10/10/2012 11:14

Also have weighed in this morning and have lost just over 13lbs. yay :)

ThatBint just stick with 500 calories, I'm sure you'll be fine. I only brought up the 1/4 thing because someone was worried about not having made it to 500 calories on her fast day. I think it's not a big deal if you keep it between 4-500 calories, due to the 1/4 thing.

OP posts:
EnidNightshade · 10/10/2012 11:19

Hi everyone, totally new to mumsnet... Have joined partly because I'm so impressed with this thread! Truly inspirational. Watched the horizon documentary, and, wow - definitely going to give it a go. I've just started a course of antibiotics, tho, so i think it'll be wise to wait till I'm properly well again (should be about a week).

In the meantime, I'll keep following along here vicariously and perfect my plan of action. I've already picked up some great tips :) I've invested in a jar of miso for soups - any other storecupboard essentials I should stock up on?

Thanks for sharing all your stories!

hoops997 · 10/10/2012 11:31

Fast day for me today, I'm not going to eat until 5pm, I've tried splitting the 500 into 2 but found I was hungry and wanted more so going to wait and have a big meal later.

I have water and lovely lemon tea to help me through, am on week 4 now and fasting is a part of my life now.

My mother commenting on my weight loss the other day so that's spurred me on Grin

Good luck to fellow fasters/eaters

mumofcrazynamedkids · 10/10/2012 11:40

green eggs YAY! nearly a stone, great progress, so good to hear.

TalkinPeace2 · 10/10/2012 11:49

Welcome Enid
and WELL DONE people.
That is THE most impressive thing about this system - we are ALL benefiting despite the huge disparities in our reasons / needs / ages etc etc

Laska42 · 10/10/2012 12:14

Well, well done greeneggs thats fantastic..GrinGrin .How long have you been doing it now..? 'Ive totaly forgotten.. but I know i was here on the end of thread two so ill go and look ...Glad you dont have the the scale devil ..

Laska42 · 10/10/2012 12:26

ooh..... I was on thread One!! .. started August 20th so am in week 8 now .. its seems to have flashed by . and 12lbs down . Grin

How do we ask mumsnet for a Happy bunny icon ?

Thelittlestranger · 10/10/2012 13:00

Have to agree with the others and say 2500 is too much for feed days. I'm the same height and MFP reckons I should have 1200 calories per day to lose weight. So, by having a few days of 500 calories, does not increase that to 2500. Good luck!

Well done on more loss grreeneggs...

Halfway through a fast day here and haven't eaten anything. Looking forward to dinner though! May have a tomato and some olives shortly.

bunjies · 10/10/2012 13:19

Thanks everyone.

I worked out what I ate on Sunday and yesterday (my last 2 non fast days) and as I suspected it was 2500 on Sunday and 2000 yesterday.

So, as advised by all of you I will try and keep to the 2000 on fast days. I am still going to do the extra mini fast on Weds by eating a normal dinner & nothing else and hopefully by the end of the month I will have seen some effect.

Thank you all for the metaphorical kick up the bum. I think I was burying my head in the sand by taking the "eat what you want" theme a bit too far. Must remember it's eat what you want not how much you want Blush.

MikeO (love the name) - Would you mind giving me some idea of what you eat on a non-fast day, especially portion sizes? I don't have a problem sticking to the cals on fast days as we only have one meal a day it's on the non fast days I need reining in.

LookBehindYou · 10/10/2012 13:36

Wow, did this only start in August??! In that case I only did it for 4 or so weeks before I stopped for a couple of weeks. So a 4kg loss is pretty damn good! I'm surprised I lost that much in the end because I was so dispirited with my weight fluctuating so much.

GreenEggsAndNichts · 10/10/2012 13:39

Laska I think we've been here the same amount of time. Grin I started the day after I read about the Horizon special. I'm not really sure how long ago that was (6 weeks?) but the great thing about this WOE is that I'm not sitting here looking forward to when I've reached my goal so I can finally eat cheese again. :) Or whatever.

bunjies I'm doing 4:3, so I fast 3x a week, and it's working well for me. I don't count calories on non-fast days. I'd suggest trying to make your mini-fast day a proper fast day- I think with a bit of planning, you could just make it so that Weds dinner is something you could fast with (so, grilled protein of some sort, veg, not a lot of starches. Or soup and something, the rest of the family can have bread with theirs). 500 calories, if you leave them all for supper, leaves you with a decent amount of food. It's what I do on my fast days.

(just suggestions of course! Only you know what works for you. And I'm sorry that sounds so twee but it's true in terms of this WOE)

OP posts:
LookBehindYou · 10/10/2012 13:41

Bunjes, I agree with those that suggested making a note of everything you eat. It's quite a shock when you take a good hard look at calories in butter, milk, handful of olives, walnuts, splash of olive oil etc. I couldn't believe how many calories are in a peach!

Breadandwine · 10/10/2012 14:10

As well as the ADF, 4:3, 6:1 and 5:2 fasts, there's also the teethgrinder fast, of course. Smile

This from urban_biker on the cycling ADF thread:

"In fact if you do a 600k every week then I doubt you'd need to fast. This variation is known as the teethgrinder fast and involves eating everything that stays still long enough for you to stick a fork in it while still being as thin as a rake." Grin

Laska42 · 10/10/2012 14:20

bunjes are you on Myfitnesspal..? its very good and it keeps a track of the foods you have previously entered also.. I tend to eat the same kind of stuff all the time (i'm talking eating days here) so its useful to be able to just add them in again (checking portion sizes also) on eating days .. .. I'm sure you'll find you do also ..

As you said you are small, if I were you id reduce it a little more until you have got into real weight loss and try not to go above 1900 for the next few eating days and see if that starts something shifting . Once you know you are shifting a pound or two each week you can 'tweak it up a bit if you want. If you find it hard to lose (like I did until I discovered just how big my portion sizes were), you need to find your 'lose' point..

An easier way may just be a smaller plate? but you dont want to go hungry on an eating day.. but not be stuffed either ..

I don't want to be patronising (and sorry if it sounds so ) but maybe this guide to portion size may be useful...? I used to eat far too much ..