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!

vp I wouldn't worry too much about Laska! She's got her eye firmly on a bikini for this summer - she's not going to slip up now!

ariel3112 I used to hate black coffee and even used to have coffeemate in mine. Also used to love cappuchino for a treat. But I made a small cup of black coffee to start with (not too strong) and made myself drink it. Then the next one was not too bad and the one after that was ok then the one after that was actually good. Now I only drink black coffee and never cappuchino as I can't stand the milkyness.
You can do it if you try hard and persevere. It's kind of like when you first give up sugar in tea and coffee and it tastes awful to start with but now it tastes disgusting with.
Give it a try and surprise yourself ;)

B&W I guess you're right, kind of like trying to teach your grandmother to suck eggs lol

That's a fantastic achievement After8s, nearly 3 stones lost! You must feel great.

Thank you so much for your feedback TalkinPeace2, aftereightsaremine and Bordercollielover. Well done Bordercollielover - I feel inspired and yes if you think it will work, I will eat nothing and just stick to my drinks (splash semi and 1/4 teaspoon sugar (although trying to cut the sugar out) on my fast days. I thought I had to eat something or else my body would go into starvation mode but of course, as you point out, my drinks are calories. I feel stupid now it is so obvious.

Soz. I meant to congratulate After8's on the amazing weight loss although I am sure bordercollie has achieved loads also.

Aftereightsaremine That's amazing weight loss! Look at you go!

I'm planning to do my first fast day tomorrow, I've cut back for the last 4 days to around 1200 cals but I'm going to increase it on feed days if I manage a fast day... I'm a bit scared that I'll fail miserably. I'm planning to have 25g porridge made w/water & a sweetener for brekky (100 cals), a tin of soup (110 cals) for lunch then a salad (around 290 cals) for tea. One thing I'm a bit worried about is that when I get very hungry, I often get a very hot, flushed face (plus headache, but I reckon that's normal). Has anyone else experienced this too? Do you think it's anything to worry about (I guess I'm worried that I may be starting w/diabetes)??

I should add, it's my cheeks that get flushed & hot.

I've just been reading some posts further up the thread and I saw that some of you give up the booze for January and find that helps with weight loss. It makes sense now that I think about it: alcohol slows the metabolism and my favourite tipples (beer and wine) have upwards of 100 kcals a drink.

Hmm... I've lost 20lbs so far on 4:3 (since starting in September) but recently the loss has slowed down. I'm still losing weight and as this WOE is so easy to do I'm quite happy to let the weight come off slowly, but I think I might have a go at not drinking alcohol for a month to see if it has an affect on the rate of my weight loss. If it works maybe I'll need to teach myself to only have my little drinky (only ever one or two on any given evening) at the weekends instead of every eating day.

I'm posting this for motivation. It's always easy to make a resolution at 9am (I'm on China Standard Time at the moment), but not so easy to follow through on when 7pm rolls around!

Thanks for your congrats.

ezzza are you almost at your goal weight? May be why you're slowing down if you are. Or try mixing it up & change fasting days maybe.

I've had to move from 4:3 to 5:2 so I expect my loss will slow too. Time will tell!

For those finding it hard, keep going it does get easier.

Joey, a hot flushed face is a sign of dehydration, make sure you drink lots of water in some form to compensate for the water you are NOT getting in food. In my personal experience porridge for breakfast would be a disaster as it would up my blood sugar and then as it falls again I would be catastrophically hungry. If you can skip breakfast that is easiest; keep drinking instead.
If you can't miss breakfast yet then I should try eggs in some form.

Just eating breakfast after first fast yesterday & it tastes amazing! It was nowhere near as hard as I thought it would be & I actually had about 100 calories left over. Am fighting the urge to jump on the scales now!

I don't mean to boast, but just weighed myself after my first week, and after a non fast day and I've lost 7lbs and 1% fat.. :)

Fast day today and the scales have started to move. What I'm doing is more zig zag dieting rather than strictly 5:2 as I am deliberately restricting calories on feed days and not eating all my exercise calories. One month of this should see me in the safe zone to return to my usual 5:2 style, which gives me a very effective approach to maintenance, which can be more challenging to keep a lid on than losing weight.

Boast away ilovefoodandwine that's an impressive loss, well done!!

Joey I meant to say that you will not go into "starvation mode" if you eat nothing for 36 hours. I can't remember how long it takes but someone on here will remember from previous discussion how many hours of fasting would be needed for that to happen.
Good luck with it.

Hey Guys,

Have you seen this:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20943509

Even more reasons to stay away from diet drinks.

Well done ilovefoodandwine that's a great start.

Thanks for your tips Aftereightsaremine. I'm about half way towards my goal weight. I've just plotted my weight loss on a graph and noticed a pattern right from the start of my following this WOE: 4 weeks of consistent weight loss followed by 2 weeks of slow loss, gain or plateau. These last two weeks fit the pattern so that's made me feel a bit better. Am also having a good look at what I'm eating on non-fast days to see if I can improve my choices to get things going again. Hopefully laying of the booze for a bit will help with that!

Huge congrats Ilovegoodfoodandwine 7lbs is fantastic! It's always great to hear about other people's successes.

I totally agree with Snowkey that maintenance can be more challenging than losing weight. If it weren't I wouldn't have any weight to lose (again)! I'm really pleased with how easy this WOE is to stick to as I think it might be realistic to imagine using it to maintain weight once I reach my goal.

Thanks virginposter. I will give it a try again, perhaps I would do better with real coffee rather than instant? For today I am enjoying my regular coffee with impunity .

literarygeek thank you, is that brand available in most supermarkets? I am not generally a lover of flavoured tea, though I guzzled red raspberry leaf tea when pregnant. Actually, IIRC, I used to make it up in a big jug and chill it, perhaps that's something I could try now.

goodfoodandwine woohoo! What a fab start.

I weighed this am too, and am down 4.5lb since 7 days ago. So that's the Christmas weight gone...

Haven't posted for a week or so because I've been ill yet again - this time the severe cold/cough virus. Haven't weighed since New Year, I had put on 4lbs over the festive period, but feel I have lost that now.

I am fasting today which is unusual for me as I usually do Mondays and Thursdays, but I've got my first 'over-60' health check tomorrow and know it includes weighing! Last time I was weighed at the surgery (over-50 check?) I was 10st 3lbs, and I'm hoping for at least a stone less this time. Will have to find some light clothes to wear!

Have had a couple of 'you don't need to lose any more' comments the last few days (I do actually, my BMI is still over 24) - why are they so much more irritating than the 'you've lost weight' comments?

morning all, well yesterday was the first day I didn't eat lunch, felt fine, not particularly hungry, although I did get a bit of that ising acid feeling some people had mentioned, but then by time I got to nursery to collect the children at 6.15 I nearly passed out, major dizzy spell, and I had nursery staff thrusting orange squash at me to drink.....couldn't very well say no i'm fasting, so i had a couple of sips and then tipped down sink when they weren't looking.

good thing was that I had a chicken and veg and soy sauce stir fry (330) folowed by a small choc biscuit (95 cals) and then a nice pot of earl grey with milk, so I felt totally stuffed, but I think I'll stick to eating soup for lunch, although I may just do half a pot rather than a whole, i cycle through city fo london and don;t want to risk fainting again!

eating today and i've had pineapple and melon and an actimel yogurt drink, time for a milky coffee!

I know what you mean about the 'you don't need to lose anymore weight' comments sometimes being annoying mollysfolly. I've had them too and I'm squarely in the overweight category. Because I wear weight evenly and dress to hide my weight people often think I'm not fat and tell me not to lose weight, but they don't know what I see in the bathroom mirror or on the scales.

I do like the 'you've lost weight' comments though. Funnily enough, during my Mandarin oral exam yesterday, which was supposed to be an improvised dialogue about the kind of foods we like to eat, we somehow got onto the subject of gaining and losing weight. The examiner chimed in then and said she'd really noticed I've lost weight since September.

mumofcrazynamedkids - thanks for your help and advice - managed a 2 egg omelette with mushrooms, carrots and chillis, really filled me up!! - can't believe how easy it was...
I am travelling to work at the moment having only had and feel like I will easy make this my second fast day on the trot (not hungry in theslightets) - will then enjoy the rest of the week eating normally....This seems to easy!!haha