5:2 Diet Thread! Number 8, fast away fast away fast away all!

[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 in August 2012, 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.

I know a number of people lurk on this thread, as this is currently quite popular. Please just jump in and post if you're new- we won't bite. Well, maybe on a fast day. You'll find a lot of support here.

Here is a list of links to get you started with this way of eating. Please let us know if you find a new article or some other information online:

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

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.

Here is where I would link to the aforementioned Horizon programme, but it appears as if the BBC have finally noticed it on YouTube and have taken it down. Here is a link to the programme's page on iPlayer, which features a couple of clips, and might have updates eventually. Let us know if you find another site hosting it.

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. (This is a new calculator to previous threads, this one seems to give me approximately the same results the last one did, but without the virus warnings on my browser!)

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 all the links re-copied and back into one post.

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

absolute80 stop right now no need to beat yourself up.. . ..its a WOE not a diet so you've not failed and its your first day .. Just have 'normal' day tomorrow (try and make good protein veg choices and some carbs for tomorrow so you dont go mad and then really plan your next fast for later in the week ..

Just take it slowly to start ..but id recommend you try to split your calories into two meals . and then as you get used to it you could go for the whole 500 in one meal , (I rarely do this however but others swear by it , you just have to see what works for you )

on my fast days I usually have something the same .. breakfast is 2 eggs and ham with cooked into an omelette with a tiny scrape of butter and a couple of poached sliced mushrooms at breakfast , then a I have small piece of chicken or fish or prawns and stir fry in the evening..

Just ease yourself into it... try and stick to 500 or as near as you can get .on fast days , but if you go a tad over its ok , . you'll still be eating less over the week overall and as you go on it DOES get easier.

And if, like me today, things dont go quite to plan .. there's always another fast day ! (she says having now just eaten mango and yoghurt)

Hi all I've been reading this thread with great interest. I desperately need to lose weight as have gained 4 stone in the 3 years since having my little boy. I hav given up work so am basically grazing all day - and have no self control!! I've tried WW and SW a copule of times and start of great but quickly slip back into bad habits! We'd like to try for another baby later thisb year but I'm not happy to get pregnant at my current weight - worried about increased risks to me and babe plus already can't stand looking at myself in the mirror!Was planning to rejoin WW tomorrow but wondering if this may be abetter regime for me. Was just wondering where you get your calorie calculations from for your fasting day? And do you accurately count calories on non fasting days? ( I guess I may need to given my lack of control!!).

Hi cats yes I just couldn't chuck them out , and well ,like I say its a bit glum this evening..so ended up eating after all .. but have resisted the ..and ready for tomorrows fast with my soup..

BYW thanks for the idea of beetroot and red cabbage borscht , i found a recipe twiddled with it a bit (added some smoked bacon and paprika)and its Yum! have posted it on the recipe thread , is it like yours?

Calorie checking : www.myfitnesspal.com/welcome/learn_more

Grazing : do not buy it. Either walk past that aisle in the shop or delete the snack foods from the online shop. Snacks are all about selling product at huge profits, bot about feeding us.

Meals : The digestive system needs a break - it gets one over night after all - two or three meals a day is plenty for all but athletes and labourers.

Fluids : if you feel hungry, have a big drink of water and let it pass.

Once those are on board the weight loss on 5:2 starts to fall into place

Scripsi thanks .. Ill be fine once I actually get there .. and lots of my friends think being a weekend wife is the way to go !!..though I do miss the old bggr during the week -sometimes!!

Welcome cardiffmummy I use myfitnesspal .

I'm a convert from weight watchers , and although I did lose weight with them at the start , its only by doing this that i've finally got down to a normal BMI .. I've lost over 3 & 3/4 stone altogether and 21lbs of that has been on this WOE since August after having been stuck at around 11.7 stone for for about 2 years, despite following the WW propoints plan pretty faithfully . When I worked out my TDEE ( link above) and then the average calories I was eating following WW plan points I realised why!!

I dont count calories on non fasting days any more , but did to start just to get some idea of what I was eating . just remember you are not 'feasting' on eating days.. but just 'normal' eating

Absolute80s, Laska is right you will find it MUCH easier next time if you stick to protein and veg and avoid sugary or starchy carbs as they seem to turn on the "eat the lot" mode. Fruit contains a lot of sugar.

Hi Laska42 and TalkinPeace2 and thanks for the advice. Amazing weightloss Laska42 - you must feel amazing! I'm going to give it a go so will let you know how I get on...

Fastfeeder thank you for those calorie counts, the support on this thread is brilliant :-)

I am rather anti-low-carb dieting for myself, and even I low-carb on fast days. :) I don't consciously check for carbs, but I learned early on that making veg my main food of the day really helps with filling up. In the winter it's been soups, but I do salads as well (sometimes with some ham chopped in, American mustard mixed in with a bare tablespoon of dressing). Never any bread or pasta. As others say, it would just make me more hungry.

Hi Laska my borscht is basically cabbage, onion, apple, garlic all sweated with a little olive oil and caraway seeds. We have it as a side veg then I use what's left to make the borscht by adding tinned tomatoes / passata, some veggie stock, paprika and a dash of worcester sauce to taste

I've just remembered a tip for newbies that I'd forgotten - which is when I started on this WOE and was getting used to feeling hungry I found keeping a stack of hard boiled eggs in the fridge really useful. One HB egg eaten very slowly with a cup of tea would help take the edge off it.

Hi, I''ve been hovering around this woe and am planning to start tomorrow! Slightly nervous but mainly excited until I read that it may adversely affect fertility. Sorry if this has already been covered in one of the threads but I haven't had a chance to read them all. We're ttc dc3 at the moment and wondering if I shouldn't start.? Any thoughts wise mumsnetters? I'll be gutted if there's any truth to it as I really think this woe might be the answer to my lifelong quest for some sort of food equilibrium.

MumOfaPickle I'm not a medical professional, but I'll tell you what I think about it. I have been doing this since August, and my periods (which have always been regular as clockwork) have changed. At one point, I think I had 3 of them over the course of two months. So this could affect things for me (we're considering TTC) as I won't be able to plan as well.

However, I think the less-fertility thing is from women who are already at the low end of a normal BMI and are doing this way of eating. I feel as if I've read that somewhere but I can't come up with a link at the moment.

As a few of us have commented, though, if women in famine areas are still getting pregnant, fasting twice a week and overall maintaining a decent amount of calories is unlikely to make you infertile. It very well could affect your cycle, though, and if you're relying on knowing your cycle for TTC, you might want to put off trying this.

I, myself, have already switched from 4:3 to 5:2 in an attempt to get regular again. I think I will also be changing my fast days to get a slightly higher number of calories in, perhaps 700 or so. I will happily go back to this when it's healthy for me to do so, though, as it's worked so well and it is easy to maintain.

I say "healthy for me to do so" btw because I mean once I'm done being pregnant, should it happen. Obviously this way of eating is healthy, the blood tests prove that! It's just not ideal for pregnant women who are trying to grow a new human. :)

Don't ask me how I ended up on saga's website but Judith Wills' is 5:2 ing Judith Wills

Bit off the wagon at mo

On fasting when trying to conceive, everything Greeneggs said makes sense. The section on legacy in this article on the Dutch famine would make me hesitate about doing this when ttc. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_famine_of_1944. However if you are overweight and only consuming low calories 2 days a week it is not really the same as becoming pregnant when underweight during a sustained famine.

possibly adf with less radical variations between daily calories would be a possible way of losing weight cautiously, maybe 900/2100 on alternate days?

Laska 21lbs? That's amazing!! Really wish I could do the same...
TalkinPeace I like your way of thinking, def not buying snacks is the best policy... I'm terrible at nicking my OH's food, like peanut butter, bread, biscuits etc... I know its a bad & selfish thing to do but sometimes I can't help it. I did read a book about willpower which showed evidence that the more you exercise self-control, even if it's in a totally unrelated part of your life, the stronger your willpower becomes for other parts of your life. If anyone is interested, the book is called "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength" by R.F. Baumeister & J. Tierney. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009QSK1WY. It's a very interesting read.
Good luck everyone fasting today!! xx

mum my periods disappeared and I thought I was going through the menopause, they are back now - was it caused by fasting - maybe, who knows. Maybe fasting reduces you fertility by a small percentage - who would know - no proper studies have been conducted, lots of anecdotes though. For some woman a small drop in chances of conceiving wouldn't be significant but for others it would....you could give both fasting and ttc a go at the same time and if it doesn't work out, then drop fasting. Good luck in both,

Poo! so here I am back in the office (though of course at least I have a job to go to) ..

Ah well .. just popped in to mark place and to commit to todays fast .. . Better go check me email now .. see you later.. Have a good day fasters and eaters
(oh i did book my holiday flights for Greece in late June last night so thats cheery .. also have new bikini arriving today ..bought in HoF sale ..

Wot?? a BIKINI??? This old trout? Yup!! .. So if I really dont want to look like one I'd better keep to it .. Planning on getting back to C25k (only on 2nd week!) tonight also .. and starting using my arm weights also.. Its good that i've lost weight but I do need toning up ..

laska am sure you will look fab! My aim is also to be able to wear a bikini & doing this WOE may make it possible!

Weighed myself today & back to pre-Xmas weight so very happy! Some if you may remember that I'm having to do 5:2 as opposed to 4:3 so I hope the weight will still shift. Will let you know.

I would say if you are ttc not to worry too much as baby takes all nutrients it needs from the mother, but I'm not sure what affect this WOE has on periods, mine have been erratic for the last few years.

Finally delurking after following this thread on and off since the v start. Have been 5:2ing and have shifted 7kg which is great. Ideally would like to lose another 3 kgs but seems near impossible. Obviously Christmas didn't help much although I tried not to go mad but still not the best.

Have now got rid of most of the festive food in the house and need to get back on it.

Well done to everyone for the amazing losses. It's def what keeps me motivated.

Morning all - last day of my holiday and it's a normal day for me. Yesterdays fast went well although I went to bed hungry which was unusual for me. I'm blaming all the snacking I did over Christmas as I had gotten into the habit of eating in the evenings - a habit I have broken now . Feeling so much better now I am back on the wagon and determined to at least get back to where I was.

Good luck to all the fasters today - especially the first timers

I'm new to both this site and 5:2. i am on my second fasting day. have tried every diet going pretty much and am able to say most have been successful, but as soon as I stop it all goes back on. this seems like something I could do indefinitely
I lost 4lb on first fast day and put 2 lb back on over weekend. still a net loss of 2lb so looks positive. obviously won't always weigh every day but intrigued by what happens.

2nd fast day today. lifesaver on day 1 was a mid afternoon cup of bovril!
target is 3 stone. a long way to go!

First day of term and back to the gym. Not fasting as still jetlagged. Hopped on the scales. 5 pounds heavier than at the end of last term. Not bad considering I paid NO attention to my meals while on holiday. Waist noticeably thicker because not been exercising.

So, time to get back on track. Fast on Wednesday and LOTS of exercise. No booze on week nights, no snacking.

niki
the yoyo is perfectly normal.
last year I'd gain 2 pounds on the weekend and lose three in the week - a nice steady loss of 1 lb a week - while enjoying my weekends. Perfick.