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!

Am I the only one that sleeps very badly after fasting. I started it again this week after abadoning it in the autumn after 2 weeks - no weight loss and very poor sleep. I have small children I need to sleep on the few nights they don't wake me up. Really disheartened I slept badly again last night. I feel awful today as well, really weak. I have done my exercise but I think I'm feeling awful just down to the lack of sleep.

I feel like 4 days are wiped out a week - 2 with fasting and 2 with very little sleep plus a few more additional days if the kids wake me up.

I need motivation to do it all again tomorrow.

Have done my second fast yesterday and was much easier. Today, instead of eating everything in sight, I still want to eat healthily so I don't ruin all yesterday's hard work. Think this WOE teaches you to be aware of normal eating habits so you can make a change. Was amazed how many times I had to stop myself picking yesterday - few biscuits, kids teas etc. No wonder not back to pre pregnancy weight.

Chestnut, have the same - helps me to
Eat dinner not skip and also take magnesium supplement 30 mins before bedtime. Hth.

Felt great after breakfast but then really REALLY hungry around 1130. Also headachey and light headed. Feeling better now I've had an omelette for lunch but still have a slight headache. Is this normal after a fasting day?

I struggle with sleep too, helps to not eat till the evening - have a 300kcal dinner and a 200kcal supper.

Chestnut ,over the last few months it's become pretty clear that different people react differently to this WOE...and some people may not be suited to it. BUT one of the advantages of this over a diet is this can be followed and sustained over the long term, so although the benefits are sometimes swift-they don't have to be. So if your body's having problems adapting why not start gradually and see how things go, maybe starting on 1000 cals on a Fast day doing alternate day fasting and gradually drop your cals on the Fast days and change the routine to 4:3 then 5:2 as your Fasting day calories decrease. Good luck I hope one way or other this WOE works out for you over the long term and remember that life is long and there's no need to make huge leaps forward in a week or month...as hopefully we all have many years in front of us

Chestnut

I find my sleep is more broken, but when I am asleep, I sleep far more deeply on a fast day evening. So I might only get 4 hours, but they're 4 very good quality hours, which sees me right.

My first few fasts, I didn't sleep well at all. I'd suggest sticking with it and letting your body adapt.

First lot of fasts slept badly. I know eat as late as possible on a fast day (around 8pm) & have tea around 10. I've found that helps me.

hey all, thread speeding along faster han ever with all the lovely newbies, welcome all!

to recap on my experience, in teh beginning when i started in august I found teh first few weeks the hardest, although compared to more formal diets, not that hard, the focus on eating what i liked the next day really helped, also teh boiled eggs tip is great, or actually eating eggs, fish or chicken for my meal helped fill me up, now I pretty much always do soups, my favorites are:
covent garden: souper greens, broccoli and stilton, wild mushoom, carrot and coriander
New York Big Soup: Chicken Jambalaya
Sainsburys own Meals soups: chicken balti or chicken arrabbiatta

anyway, I had two failed attempts at restarting fasting last week after 3 weeks off over xmas (only 3 pounds gained) I caved on both evenings, but going through huge amounts of stress so not beating myself up about that at all, today is first properly back on the wagon fast day, and first day where I am trying to get through without eating lunch, have just had 2 coffees with scant skimmed milk, 1 miso soup and 1 (bad bad bad) diet dr pepper. all good and soups purchased for tonight and thursdays fasting.

divorce has forced house sale, maybe relocation, forcing losing job, kids school change etc etc but i can and will be a size 10 for the summer!

onwards and upwards!

also a few pages back read very lovely inspiring posts from both border collielover and Ezzzaso wanted to say thanks

and my periods although super light as I have the mirena coil are still totally on schedule, (age 40) so haven;t noticed 5:2 fasting changing anything.

no sleeplessness and no headaches either.

enjoy this WOE to all the new people, it really is great!

as a final good news story I just heard from my formerly obese and autistic younger brother who has never had a normal weight since the age of about 7, that he has lost about 11kg since mid sept, doing 4:3 he has a hugely unhealthy carb rich diet, but is now in overweight bmi and didn't stop over xmas so I have no doubts he will be in normal weight for teh first time ever by the summer, am ecstatic for him - although he is characteristically unemotional about it, but his view is that he will hopefully avoid the dr's for many more years which is one of his greatest fears.

So far so good, had 2 cups of tea (counted calories in milk), and a bottle of water. Am really starting to think about food now but not particularly hungry. Have a nice calorie counted dinner organised!

Hi - looking for a wee bit of help\advice.... started the 5:2 yesterday mainly for the health benefits and maybe to lose a few pounds - had my last meal at 6:30pm last night and have only had two boiled eggs and a small baked potato(320 cals in total) since - am I now right in thinking that at 6:30pm tonight I will have completed my first fast day and can now eat a normal meal - Or should I only have another 600 calorie meal tonight?

hi jamfiveone no usually you only have 500 (woman) 600 (men) cals all day today, so you have 150 left today until you break fast tomorrow morning.

there are some other forms of fasting that is the dinner to dinner you are suggesting, but the usual fast is not ordinarily 24 hours, but more like 36.

If you think about it, if you had normal eating yesterday then your fast day only starts today, and then normal eating tomorrow.

I hope that helps.

Ahhh - I thought that my Fast started as soon as I finished my meal last night then finished after 24 hours with only 600 cals as this will mean 600 calories for roughly 40 hours (time I get a chance to eat next).....

mumofcrazynamekids
that is fantastic about your brother.
avoiding going into old age having to pop pills is the main reason I'm on this way of eating.
DH is 48 today so we are not fasting, but both looking forward to tomorrow's fast - bought a big pot of minestrone soup for the occasion that we will share followed by half a tin of beans each - neither of us eat during the day on fast days.

jamfiveone for the purposes of calculating a full 16 hours of no food we count the time from when you last ate (i.e. your meal at 6 yesterday) then ideally to get the best health benefits no eating any food at all until 16 hours later, so 10.30am, then whatever you eat today should total no more than 600 cals if you are a man, and then you can eat from whenevr you want tomorrow, if you don't ordinarily eat breakfast then yes it could be a 40 hour period where you have only consumed 600 cals, do you usually have your evening meal at 6.30?

to be honest, in the beginning it is all a bit of trial and error as to what works best for you, everyone is different, and choose to adapt the basic rules to suit them.

good luck, once you get past the first few weeks it gets really easy!

nanosecond, if you've eover followed a low calorie diet, think of it like that. for instance you May have allowed yourself 1200 cals a day... well on this diet you are allowing yourself 500 only on 2 days we call these fast days due to the very low cal restriction. you can either save these all up for one meal in the evening or split the calls up during the day, therefore only having 500 in that waking day. you then eat normally if you wish the next day. hope that makes sense.

First day of fasting - ever. I'm hungry. I keep drinking water in the hopes of it filling me up. So far today, this is what I've had:

1 boiled egg
Home-made squash and celeriac chilli soup for lunch (half a bowl)
A satsuma
1 tea with semi skimmed milk
1 coffee with soy milk
2 small squares of pineapple and two olives.

I need to have dinner though I havent a clue how many cals I've so far used up out of 500. Anyone any idea approximately?

I'd love something warm. In the fridge I have smoked salmon, olives, salad, tin of tuna, some vegs, cheese, chorizo, hummous

Larder = heinz beans, couscous, bread (prefer to stay off bread as get addicted), Carr's water bics, pesto

Huh had my 3rd FAST day yesterday-seemed ok and quite easy but went to work this morning not feeling at all hungry (not a breakfast eater normally) and passed out......
Hasn't put me off tho --it will be worth it if l have lost weight when l do my first weight in tomorrow.

Lottie . Id reckon you've had around 300 cals though difficult to tell ..depends on how you made your soup .

I dont know what veg you have (but if its not potatoes ) but how about a pile of steamed veg with half a tin of beans and some chilli sauce? a sort of vegge chilli?)

I 'e had another day on the cabbage abd beet borscht . This makes two 500 fast days back to back ( following on from the failed Sunday one where i ate about 850 cals) ..

But have (unusually for me) had three small meals today .. this is because its my first day back in my 'old' office and I caved into eating soup at lunch as couldnt stand the smell of food all around me and now have just had a little more.. still in my 500 cals though for today

I've been seconded away since starting this WOE and had an office to myself
and It was MUCH harder trying to fast in the big shared office today as everyone was eating all around me .

I need to work on some strategies here as they are all grazers so i wont be able to avoid the smell of food .but now im wondering if I would have managed to fast at all if I had been there these last 4 months ..

Thanks Laska. I was hoping it was less than that ... I made it with water, veg stock cube and a tiny bit of veg oil when I roasted the squash. You dont get much for your 500 cals do you? Perhaps I should just have two crackers and a bit of cheese and olives then. I ve drank about 2.5 litres of water today as well

you'll probably find the beans and veggies more filling
you should try Myfitnesspal , fo r calories but here's how i estimated what you had

1 satsuma 25
Pineapple, 25
egg 85 calories
milks 50
soup 100 (but could be less)

Heinz - 1/2 large Can Baked Beans 164 (low sugar I assumed )

Lottie I'd also suggest weighing or measuring out the soup with a a measuring cup. (weighing is better) Because "half a bowl" is a tough thing to guess the calories on. I have huge bowls I use because I like the look of them, but about 1/4 of the bowl is more than a serving of cereal, for example. I use my digital scale daily now. It makes it easier to check calories online, because most sites will ask you for the weight of the item you're checking. So the next time you make soup, you can weigh everything and divide the total calories by the number of portions. (or, just make a recipe which has already had the total calories counted!)

Just guessing- your soup was 150, satsuma was 25, milk was 50, egg was 65-80 calories, depends on the size of the egg. :) Your soup might have been less.

oops, xposted with Laska- that's what I get for leaving the window open too long! :)

Hi everyone, can I join in? :)

Just done my - I think - 4th fast day since starting this just after Christmas. I had never heard of MM or the Horizon doc till the other week when I noticed the other 5:2 book heading the best seller list at amazon. Have watched the doc now and am underway...

I haven't a huge amount to lose, am at BMI of 24.something, would prefer to be 21-22 as I don't have a big frame. Haven't been as low as that since before I was pregnant with my older child, and he is now almost 3.5. My younger boy is 14 months and I lost a chunk of baby weight a year ago on WW but I was hospitalised with viral meningitis after a couple of months of that and though this was not at all related to dieting I just never got back on the wagon. Somehow I didn't actually gain anything back till Christmas, I was 10 3 before Xmas (after getting down from over 11st) but 10 9.25 on New Year's Day so first step is undoing the Christmas damage.

So ... The first fasts went ok, but today's been tough. My little boy is back to nursery today after the hols so I have the school run, walking 3/4 mile 4 times a day... it was something of a challenge! am sure ill get used to it. Yesterday was my husbands birthday so we had cake and a bit too much of it, but am trying to stay quite moderate on eating days, in general. Am doing 4:3 to start, we'll see how January goes on that. Have had a few coffees with semi skimmed milk, about 100-150 worth. I just cannot abide black coffee and I seem to need it for now. And a raw carrot, some broccoli, a tin of baxters minestrone, some wafer thin chicken, half a slice of wholemeal toast (toddler detritus), and one bite of an apple (baby swiped it out of my hand). All the solid food was dinner and it added up to 484, per MFP. Will be going to bed with baby soon, and feel like I could chew a piece of furniture but I won't have anything else. I do have a lot of willpower when my mind is set in the right way. :D

Next fast is Thursday and then Sun.

It's good to be among like-minded folks!