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!

Hello
I am starting tomoz for the first time and I am absolutely dreading it. I have zero willpower and have not been able to loose weight sine my second child 22years ago. I managed to give up smoking and biting my nails and yet as far as food is concerned I cave in at the slightest hurdle. It's as though I don't want it enough and yet I hide every summer because I am so ashamed of exposing my horrible body to the world in a summer dress. I get hungry so easily I am pretty scared about the hunger tomoz.

ok. my husband has decided this is a good diet plan and has bagsied my soup for lunch tomorrow! it's 105kcal for a 500mm flask. any ideas what I can replace it with? I usually have about 150kcal through the day - soup, tomatoes, bovril. I don't have ingredients to make more. could pop to shop for a ready made solution? grateful for ideas!

I found I was able to manage with thoughts of "jam tomorrow" where I could not cope with a "diet" which promised " jam never again without feeling like a failure" or " jam in such small amounts that you will never be satisfied ever again"

That is exactly how I feel Bordercollielover. I have never been successful on a diet for that reason. I said to DH that I never want to do a diet again, I don't think 'diet' food is good for you anyway, too many artificial additives. I lost a stone on alternate fasting over the summer and I hope to lose 3 1/2 stone this year.

I'm near the end of my first week, with 4 fasts and have dropped 5 lbs. I know this will slow down though and do need to address my calorie intake on non-fast days to keep weight loss up - am averaging 2800 calories on non fast days, am taking the 'feasting' too far!

Thanks GreenEggs. I had a bath to distract me from hunger and now I m in bed... upstairs away from the larder. Gosh, I may have to go to bed at 9pm on fast days just to cope!

Hi chipstick

I did my first fast yesterday. I have several stone to lose, eating is my demon, I yo yo diet and am currently at the top of the yo yo.

The fast was a bit of a challenge, but I survived it. I have learnt (for my next fast on Thursday)

Skip breakfast, leave eating as late as possible. So I have 2 raw carrots at 10.30 and a fruit tea.

Once I ate (2 oatcakes at 12) the hunger pangs really kicked in. So I will wait til I get in from work at 1.30 to eat. Have a drink and the hunger pangs do pass.

I will choose very filling food, a 2 egg mushroom omlette was very filling at 190 calories. I had this for evening meal about 7.30 so I didnt go to bed hungry. I did go to bed a bit early.

I madea veg and lentil soup the day before fasting and froze some portions.

Keep busy - I mopped the floor, sorted paperwork etc.

Have you got the book? www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fast-Diet-Intermittent-Fasting/dp/1780721676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357679000&sr=8-1

Good luck - let us know how you get on.

niki a number of the name-brand ready-made soups have low-ish calorie soups. Covent Garden's Our Best Vegetable soup, which I love, is about 120 calories for half a carton. It's a think puree-style soup with some chunks of veg and some potato in.

I also liked the Azteca soup from.. the brand with the black lids on them. I forget the name of the brand.

Basically, it's worth checking out the ready made soups in the cooler aisle. I admit I have about two a week now. I love making my own soup but I deal better if it's portioned out with calories already measured for me on fast days.

Thanks tread
I feel depressed just thinking about it but I think it's my only hope. It seems doable because its only two days a week. I keep focusing on how well they feel in I'm a celeb jungle thingy. They eat very little intact they nearly starve them in there. And young and old alike all say they feel fabulous with bags of energy just surviving on 3little bowls of rice and beans and a bit of extra meat etc in the evening.

Hiariel3112

Welcome to the thread and best of luck with your fast - sounds tough! Love the image of the baby swiping the apple out of your hand!

I wouldn't worry about the milky coffee for the moment - after all, Dr M has breakfast and dinner on his fasting days.

I went from three small meals on my fasting day - to drinking black coffee through the day followed by a >600 cal meal - to just having water (alternate drinks of hot and cold) until the evening meal.

My theory on hunger is that, first of all it comes in waves, but you can switch it on anytime by eating something - so your innocent sounding snacking isn't doing you any good.

So, you feel hungry, you drink some water, and the hunger fades; you feel hungry, you eat some raw carrot, say - and, without realising it, you've stimulated your appetite. Now, until the hunger switch resets, you'll feel hungry again.

You're better served by saving your calories for a bigger evening meal.

You can test this out when you're preparing a meal - delay tasting it for a while, and you don't feel hungry; taste it, and you'll want to keep tasting it until you serve up.

I've just commenced the 2nd 24 hour fast of the week, and straight after my meal (last bite finished at 18.35 ) I fancied some pudding. Now, three hours later that feeling's completely gone and I won't feel hungry again until tomorrow evening.

ATB, B&W

Hi all, I ve started overeating on my non fast days. Anyone else doing or done this and any tips on how not to overeat. I'm too scared to weigh myself in case I've put weight back on. I had lost a stone, put on 3 pounds over Xmas and suspect despite continuing to have 2 fast days I might have put weight back on.

Blimey, I obviously take too long to write my posts! 7 posts since I began!

Welcome to all the new posters - hope you don't all abscond to the new forum on Dr M's website when it starts!

Chipstick - best of luck, just get through tomorrow. The accepted wisdom is once you have one fast under your belt it will get easier. And remember you can have it tomorrow!

Evening all! Today was a feed day and was busy as a bee the whole day, so ate a Tesco's triple egg&cress sandwhich over the morning/afternoon and snatched a few of DSs mini Oreos and had his OJ on the go. Finally at 7.30 had some dinner; made a Chinese stir-fry with chicken, veggies and rice noodles and now having a nice cup of tea. Tomorrow is a fast day and planning to have Heinz tomato and sour cream soup, an egg and some miso soup and a coffee in the morning with a bit of skimmed milk.

thanks! Will check out the soup aisle first thing

Thanks Breadandwine :)

I agree with you about the hunger waves, today is the first day of just coffee till dinner, the previous fasts I had a cupasoup at about 2pm but not today. All the solids were dinner, I cut the carrot into sticks and wrapped them in bits of chicken, and dipped them in the soup, to which the broccoli was added ( grrr, should have added some spinach to it but forgot). The original plan for dinner was toast with the soup but I didn't bother when my kids were having toast since I just finished what they left (I hate waste and it worked out pretty well).

I so wish I could like black coffee. Tried hot water with a squeeze of lemon and a grating of fresh ginger but it's just not cutting it. Maybe I'll try a half oxo cube on thurs. didn't help that I was soooooo tired today. Have otherwise found - like others have mentioned - that I've had a surprising amount of energy on fast days. I had to stop myself taking a nap while my son was at nursery for fear I'd sleep too long and be late picking him up.

ooppsadaisy
weigh yourself : twice a day if needs be - just to FORCE yourself not to snack.
NO MORE SNACKS
MFP for all your meals
eat what you like but accept the reality of what you are eating
two or three healthy meals a day on food days
one or two on fast days
will set you up for the rest of your life - aim for it

oopsadaisymaisy, I use MyFitnessPal to track my calories every weekday, including fast days (Mon and Wed). I don't track at weekends, that's my "jam time", and I've found this really successful to stop the overeating.

Hi all. I've been watching the posts for a week or so and have been meaning to try the 5:2 since before Xmas. Fabulous site and so much useful information - thanks.
I am 55 in a few days, 5'1", 14 stone and have no self will whatsoever. I've dieted on and off since childhood and stick at certain weights for years. I've been this weight for four years now. I only eat breakfast when on holiday and can quite easily go without food until 6 pm for days. However, I will then eat my own bodyweight of whatever I can find in the house - mainly toast & butter.
Therefore I am sceptical that this WOE will work for me as my body is quite used to having nothing all day. Time will tell.
I fasted for the first time on Sunday, no problem. Yesterday ate nothing till 7 p.m. and then ........ 2 pieces toast/large plate of veg with 1oz butter/half plate french fries and 1 fried fishcake/2 packets crisps and 2 shredded wheat with semi skim and sugar - all within one hour!!

I have always drunk 15 plus cups of tea and coffee in a day and with any other diet I have tried, this has always been my failing.

I'm doing the 2nd fast today. It is 10.15pm now and the first thing I've eaten today was at 9 p.m. being a tin of scotch broth soup. I have however had my usual 10 brews. I am going to bed soon to avoid eating anything else.
I hope I lose weight but more importantly are the long term health benefits.

oopsa how about also keeping a food diary?

oopsadaisy yeah I started feeling the same a couple of months back. It didn't seem to affect the weightloss too much (although I do exercise quite a lot). TBH don't know why it happened and would rather not do it if I could as it makes me feel less healthy...and to be fair can't be that healthy. I think it was one of the reasons I put south weight on over Christmas as the unhealthy habits and lack of Fasting was a deadly combo. I've found the easiest way round it is to make sure I have less crap food around...it doesn't stop me grazing but at least when I do it's on healthier food like whole meal toast, porridge or soup. GL

timetogetagrip
so, you are used to a long gap and then high carb binge out.
Step one - stop buying the bread / spuds /cereal / snacks
for a week at least
Unlike most of us, you need to train your stomach back to regular small meals.
Vegetable soup - lunch and supper : whole pot of it.
or baked beans
or bean stew
Tea - swap every other cup for a pint of water and make sure there is no sugar

you need to jog your insulin system out of its comfort zone to be able to set it into the new good one

timetogetagrip get my fitness pal & scan every blessed thing you put in your mouth, it may shock you into thinking do I really need this? Secondly think exactly that before you eat it. Thirdly if that doesn't work have a bite on a carrot broccoli cauliflower (you get the idea) & see if that stops the cravings.

Timetogetagrip, Ben there, know the old toast and butter thing.
This WILL work for you and the fasts will reset something inside which turns off the carb bingeing desire.
As you can already go so long without food, I suggest that you capitalise on that and don't eat at all on your fast day. Lots of us do that, just drink plenty of low or no calorie fluids and get to bed without eating. That way your appetite won't be turned on and when you wake up next morning your fast is over. If you can do that twice a week I am sure you will soon find that your eating sorts itself out in time.
Good luck

I should add I was 14&half stone when I started this in August I'm now 11.11, so the above is working for me. That & lots of water!

Meant to say that I don't know how many calories are in your 10 brews but if you can manage a whole waking day on that and nothing else it should be under 500 cals I should think.

Laska that sounds really hard being in the office with others eating. I find it hard enough when DH has lunch on my fast day (I try to go into the gym then). Is it possible for you to leave the office and perhaps go for a walk?