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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.

5:2 Diet Thread Part Six! Now's the time to de-lurk and chat with us..

984 replies

GreenEggsAndNichts · 25/10/2012 12:49

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 in August, 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 started is a good resource for some of the links and tips that get lost in these big threads. In addition to sharing links, we try 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 mentioned BMR and TDEE often. Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) quantifies the number of calories you burn in a day. This measure is best estimated by scaling your Basal Metabolic Rate to your level of activity. TDEE is critical in tailoring your nutrition plan to desired fitness goals. Here is a link to a calculator to help you figure out how many calories you should be eating in a day.

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:
Bordercollielover · 15/11/2012 20:32

heals, just wondering if perhaps you have either an underlying medical condition and/ or medication which might be interfering and causing the nausea you mentioned in a previous post?

healstorturepeople · 15/11/2012 20:41

No, nothing that would cause nausea or would be interfering with weight loss. I only felt sick that one morning.
I have been looking up dates for residential boot camps. I can not go to my docs in January and not have lost this weight. Unfortunately the price is prohibitive for the camps. Around £1000 for the 1 or 2 I've found for the right dates.

BuntCadger · 15/11/2012 22:36

Weigh day today and dh and I have both lost 0 :( we've been doing really well and my ideal is about 8lb lighter and dh needs to lose 21lb. We are both feeling a bit gutted. Been doing this for over 3 months now. Don't want to plateau yet.

virginposter · 15/11/2012 23:08

bunt
Don't get disheartened as you have done so well. We all know that the weight loss slows down as we get lighter. As so many have previously posted, try to jolt your body into losing again either by changing your fast days or, if you are doing 5:2, change to 4:3 for a couple of weeks. This worked for me and I've been doing some weeks of 5:2 followed by some of 4:3 and I'm still losing.
I only need to lose another 7lbs or so too. Just keep going and I'm sure you will soon see progress.Hope this helps.
Smile

Size10tobe · 15/11/2012 23:24

Thanks for your post welshmill , it is really helpful to hear your experience. I am surprised that it would be possible to eat a jacket potato on a fast day but I need to get the hang of the calories in various foods.
Fasting tomorrow- hope I can stick to it.

Size10tobe · 15/11/2012 23:37

Forgot to say - congratulations on your fantastic weight loss welshmill - you must be feeling fantastic!

Breadandwine · 16/11/2012 01:04

"I hope you are getting "extra" health benefits for making bread and teaching on your fasting days, my self will would be sorely tested smelling fresh bread baking."

skippy It's really not an issue - as long as I don't take that first nibble (and thereby flick the appetite switch) I'm fine. The extra health benefits - well, I've got 3 passions (after my family); breadmaking, teaching and kids. And when I'm indulging all three in one session, I never feel more alive! Smile

To all those who are feeling cold when they're fasting - and I'm starting to find myself in that company - you can take heart from research which says that the colder your inner body temperature, the longer you are probably likely to live!

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/225148.php

literarygeek · 16/11/2012 01:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Piebaldrider · 16/11/2012 06:53

Another week done and interesting results.

Firstly i still think scales should be banned but try telling my brain that now i have started weighing myself.

Wednesday i went to the gym and weighed myself a day early , i had lost a pound and a bit , i was little disappointed but it was going in the right direction. Thursday i managed an extra gym visit that was unplanned so i thought as its my weighing day lets do it. In 24 hours i had gained around 3 and a half pounds . I am 100% sure you do not gain that much fat in 24 hours so it must be fluid ( i hope).

So what was different about this week-

Did i drop from 4.3 to 5.2 - NO

Did i decrease my exercise - NO i probably increased it.

Did i eat more on my feed days - NO in truth i probably ate less than normal

Was i ill - yes i i did have a stomach upset 1 day but that should have worked in my favor if you get my meaning.

Did i eat more than 500 calories on a fast day - yes i ate 600 but i always do.

I don't have a complete calorie diary as i don't want to be worrying about being on a diet because I'm not but i do know i had decreased appetite this week and i know i didn't meet my calorie requirements on each feed day let alone exceed them . On calorie deficit alone i should have lost and not gained weight.

So i am not going to be concerned about the scales to much this week especially as my clothes and the mirror say different.

What i have done just to see what happens is-

I dropped to 5.2 this week , i have eaten slightly more on feed days and feel that a more normal appetite has returned, overall i feel quite well and better than i did last week. My exercise will remain the same as normal and i have bought a pair of Jeggings in a smaller size to cheer myself up.

I am also drinking much more fluid incase my body was hanging onto water .

If the scales have not improved next week i may re think but for now i will just forget the scales and keep moving forward. Smile

Bordercollielover · 16/11/2012 07:23

That's interesting Piebald ( mines a liver chestnut), I also don't count calories and rarely weigh myself. However today I have weighed because I have become aware that the tantalising size 14s are still not decent to wear though will just about do up if I don't breathe. I am definitely heavier than last time I weighed a couple of weeks ago.
I started in August with 4 stones to lose and have most definitely lost 1stone, but still have 3 to go.
I will also make some changes this week to see what happens: instead of 4:3 with 1 meal I will try 5:2 with each fast being 36 hours without food, just low calorie hot drinks. I will try to drink more water and on my eating days will eat a lot of vegetables before eating the stuff I really want to eat in an effort to make sure I get all the nutrition required.

literarygeek · 16/11/2012 07:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TellMeLater · 16/11/2012 08:12

I had a massive eating day yesterday, I just felt very hungry, ended up nibbling on some bread I baked earlier, which I never do! Like B&W I bake/cook a lot, as I hate processed food....and it's funny because it just occurred to me this week that I could avoid temptation if I avoided tasting and nibbling - once I know how good it tastes....the flavours haunt me until the baked goods are consumed. No tasting-no haunting. Wish I'd realised how easy it was to avoid temptation a while back.

Thanks skippy for uncovering the mystery around Michael Mosley's lack of update on the 6:1 diet....I suspected the silence said a lot. We'll continue to up our intake of hopefully nutritionally rich foods on feed days (have been known to fall face first into the odd pudding or two) because it strikes me that long term reduction in food consumption could easily lead to deficiencies and while it was suggested that it didn't matter what you ate on your feed days for the health markers they tested for, ultimately it does matter and if you are eating a lower quanitity of food on a long term basis your body's store of nutrients will be depleting if you are not eating nutritionally rich foods.

Feed day today, skipping breakfast, exercise class in the park and then we have a family lunch at a Lebonese Restaurant and then onto the Harry Potter Studio Experience and then I'll be collapsing on the sofa with a bottle glass of wine.

Have a great day feeders and fasters!

TellMeLater · 16/11/2012 08:17

Piebald I can gain 2kg overnight! Caused by water retention. I'm trying to weigh myself once a week now - was previously a daily weigher and I know my weight fluctuates enormously. Even the tape measure isn't consistent from morning to evening not to mention positioning of tape and the amount of tension the the tape....it's hard to get a proper indication of size if you measure frequently too.

rachelblythe · 16/11/2012 11:54

Fast day for me, just make a lasagne for the family and got a honey glazed gammon in the slow cooker (that's for tomorrow). House smells amazing and non of it is for me (or at least not today) i have got fish in parsley sauce with veggies for dinner.

With the talk of nutrients, i have been taking a vitamin supplement on my fast days, just to ensure I'm getting a decent quota, as i don't always even eat veg on fast or eating days, so for me i think it's quite important. of course it would be optimum if nutrients came from food, but not always going to happen with me, so it is my fail safe.

I'm babysitting for my niece and nephew later this afternoon and expect it may involve baking some mini muffins. Wish me luck!

I don't get to post to often, but thanks to everyones continued support on here, it is really inspiring

GreenEggsAndNichts · 16/11/2012 12:13

literary I agree we shouldn't weigh in frequently, but (for me) 3 months would be too long. I weigh in weekly, mostly because I like to chart my progress. If I didn't have some progress over several weeks, for example, I'd want to change things up a bit.

OP posts:
Liberty132 · 16/11/2012 12:31

Afternoon everyone.

I have now done 3 weeks on this WOE. Lost 3lb first week - over the moon, put 2lb on last week, really couldnt understand it. This week I fasted Mon and Wed and will weigh myself tomorrow morning. I really hope I have lost weight.

I have had a cold since I started this WOE. I hope it is that that is effecting my ability to exercise. I am reasonably fit and usually do 2 high tempo circuit classes a week; but I am really struggling with exercise at the moment.

I am not exercising on fast days either.

Maybe its the cold?

Lets hope I have lost a bit of weight tomorrow - I could do with some motivation. Hard week work wise and it could be so easily to give in - I wont though!

Latersx

ToffeeChops · 16/11/2012 12:36

literary and piebald, I'm with you - weighing too often is really not helpful for me. I've dropped down to once every 4 - 6 weeks and it keeps me sane. Being perimenopausal I never know when my totm is these days, so I generally hang on until it's finished and weigh then. And I'm trying to take the long view, that this is a WOE not a diet so I don't have to beat myself up if it takes a while to shift the weight (I've been carrying it long enough, after all)

That said, I understand GreenEggs about needing to know how you're progressing. I guess it's all about knowing what works best for us and sticking with that. I think one of the reasons I was able to gain alot of weight in the past was because I neglected to weigh at all. But even if I'm not losing pounds and pounds with 5:2 I do at least feel reassured I'm not going to put lots on either. Mons and Thurs are a regular corrective to my occasional binges!

Difficult week fasting-wise, for some reason. Really tempted to bend / break the rules but have managed to stick with it all the same. Today's an eating day, meeting friends at our local tonight - plenty red wine and bar nibbles, I can't wait!

DontGoThereDaisy · 16/11/2012 13:15

For what it?s worth to anyone else I?ve gone the other way ? I now weigh myself every (week) day, record it, graph it and analyse it - as opposed to every few months before.

I?ve found it very useful to see the (downward) trend over 12 weeks and the fact that I can see a whole lot of data on my weight daily,weekly and now monthly means I don?t sweat over a couple of pounds between weigh ins ? which lets face it is just a few pints of retained water or an indulgent weekend!

With fasts on Tuesday & Thursday I?ve found my weight goes something like (13 stone &) 9,7,6,7,5 during a week ? then 8,6,5,6,4 the next week. My ?spread? is still around 4lbs over the week, but I?m dropping about half a pound to a pound a week (with 'my weight' the average over the 5 days) ? but I?m about a stone lighter and still dropping.

Like all this its whatever works best for you!

TalkinPeace2 · 16/11/2012 13:15

Another week.
Another weigh in - I do not own a set of scales so use the ones at the gym
Another pound down (having been stuck for two weeks)

I would heartily suggest weighing no more than once a week, always at the same time of day, always in the same clothes
(I do on a Friday morning, after my swim, before Yoga)

If you own a set of scales, put them in the loft, or in the boot of the car and only get them out very deliberately.
If they are in the bathroom and you check all the time, every half pound lost (actually because you just had a wee) is taken as a trigger to eat a bit more and relax.

There is no relax till your body fat is nice and low
(went to see Skyfall yesterday, most of the women were too thin but Daniel Craig's body fat level is just perfect)

Jobyloo · 16/11/2012 14:04

Hi all, weighed this morning and lost 0.5lb am going to stick with 5:2 for the mo, might up it to 4:3 at the beginning of Dec. Not too worried about how much I've lost as I've been ill & not eaten as much as I would on a feed day. More than happy to stick with it because of the benefits to my insides.

Must admit at the mo I weigh every day. DontGoThereDaisy it's interesting to see your stats through the week, might start to keep a note myself.

Jobyloo · 16/11/2012 14:05

TiP2 Daniel Craig....yum! really enjoyed Skyfall and 10 year old son thought it was awesome

catsrus · 16/11/2012 14:16

I weigh every day because then I can't fool myself into thinking that clothes have shrunk in the wash Blush the evidence is there for me to see and I can see that there are (often) wild fluctuations - which don't bother me on a daily basis so long as the general trend is down.

This morning I was about 1/2 lb above 10st - it's tantalisingly close Smile but it's a non fast day and I am being sensible about eating more. I even had [gasp] rice with my lentil curry for lunch plus some pickles and chutney [yum]. So the curry was healthy and low cal - will freeze some for a fast day - but having it with all the 'bits' turned it into a 'normal' cal meal.

dandycandyjellybean · 16/11/2012 14:43

Hi everyone, long time since I posted last, well done everyone there is such a positive vibe on this thread.

It's been about 10 days since I have done a proper 500 cal 36 hour fast. However, I have done a couple of 20 or 22 hour fasts, and will be doing 20 hours today and tomorrow. After that I will be doing my normal 500 on Sunday, and hopefully 5 more times up until I go on holiday on 2 December. I will weigh myself just before I go and report back the results.

Bizarrely, my Dad has had a really bad bout of depression following his cancer all clear; I don't think he really 'processed' all the emotion at the time, just dealt with the practicalities of the treatment, and now it's hit him. Plus they are facing having to move or take equity out of the house as he can't work again. Between dealing with that, having interviews with dh and processing forms for disability benefits (harrowing), and finally the slow decline of my much loved 19yr old cat I haven't felt that I can fully commit to the process. I know that life will always throw us curve balls and that if this is a wol then I need to deal, but I feel positive that I've been able to keep up with it in some way, and am eager to get back on the 'wagon' on Sunday.

Why Sunday? After much agonizing and crying, I am taking my beloved puss to be put to sleep in the morning, and feel that I may need a fortifying stiff drink and or chocolate afterwards. Then I am drawing a line under the last couple of weeks and 'picking up the reins'.

Keep up the good work guys and as alway thanks for being there. Smile

TalkinPeace2 · 16/11/2012 15:01

((((SBBC))))
Old cat was 19 when I had to make that decision. It hurts but its SO quick and its the right thing.
Your Dad is in shock, so yes the stress will be showing.
The main thing you need to be at the moment is strong for others, and the best way to do that is to be strong in yourself.
Bollocks to the fasting days, try not to overeat and get plenty of nutrients.
Put some fizzy in the fridge NOW to crack open when you get back from the vet in remembrance of a good companion (and its only 300 calories for half a bottle).

pookey · 16/11/2012 15:07

Oh sexbombikerchick well done for keeping going to an extent with so much going on and feeling positive about restarting on sun xx

Piebald one week not to gain weight isn't so bad fingers crossed for next week.

I weigh myself once my period has started and will do so a few times over a couple of days but then put the scales away. Got to 11.13 so they are put away till next month!

Why are people fasting for 36 hours?

I have managed to more or less ditch milk in hot drinks today. Have had a couple of yerba mattes and chalmomile tea nothing else at all and feel ok! been been about 19 hours.

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