5:2 Diet Thread! Number 9, welcoming the new year...

[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. This might be a good place to catch up with us if you're feeling a bit lost!

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.

B&W has found a new link to the aforementioned Horizon programme here. If you're keen to see it, watch it soon, because BBC has been quick to find these copies and shut them down online. We're hoping they'll re-play it again soon. I know these threads are popular, maybe they'll read my request.

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!

Thanks virgin

hi again all! I've just completed my first week on this plan, and I feel I have done well, managed both fast days and stayed a little under maintenance calories the rest of the days. However, today I have really been hungry. It's a feed day, and I am already at my limit I set, but I am feeling a bit empty. I tried to get in as much good stuff as I could, i had fruit and veg, and also some treats that I had been craving to get them over before tomorrow, but, still feeling a little hungry, not horrible, but somewhat annoying.
Is that normal? A bit unnerving with a fast day tomorrow. I was hoping to not have to deal with this until then!

Re calories in milk used in tea: as aftereights said yesterday, if you?re not sure how many to count, why not have a milk allowance? When I first went on a calorie restrictive diet I measured out 100ml milk each day and only used that measured out portion to go in my tea. That way I knew I wasn?t going over 50 kcal each day for tea.

Now though I don?t bother measuring calories in tea. I take my tea with only just enough milk to make the tea opaque (because I like it that way, not because I want to reduce kcals) and no sugar. I only get a pint of milk every 10 days or so (I keep my fridge very cold so it stays fresh) so I know the kcals in my tea are so few it?s not worth counting them. Of course others may take much more milk in theirs. A previous housemate of mine takes so much milk in her tea that it?s practically a tea latte. I wouldn?t be surprised if she was drinking a whole pint of milk a day in tea alone! In her case counting the calories would definitely be necessary on this WOE.

Just wanted to thank everyone here for all the info and the support. I've been reading the list for the past 10 days or so and finally dove into the diet last week. I decided to blog about it at sunnys52diet.blogspot.com/ - mostly to keep myself honest! I live in the USA and there is not much going on here re the 5:2 diet but I imagine it's only a matter of time. So far, so good for me: after 7 days of the 5:2 plan I've lost 3 lbs. Feels great! Thank you all again for all the great information and lively conversation. :)

Sorry to but in but read about the health benefits of this in the Times yesterday after poo pooing it as another fad and am intrigued. Mainly because I hold weight around my middle and nothing other than extreme exercise seems to shift it and I'm just too old and crabby to shred every night or run 8k each night. It makes me lose my love for exercising if it feels like something I have to do.

Basically as long as I only consume 500 calories between 8pm tonight and 8pm tomorrow that would be my first fast day over right?

Oh waitrose do a lovely chunky beef and vegetable soup which is really lovely and filling and is only 188 calories.

Sorry you can see I haven't read all of the threads. I'll do that tonight to stop me eating! If I made soup, like a huge vat of it, how would I tell how many calories are in it?

My coffee's getting like that (should set up parallel "how to deal with caffeine-stained teeth thread"!)

With VP on the hunger, its totally normally to feel the pangs- i always wake up ravenous but then by the time I've had some water, pottered around and had my coffee, it feels far less urgent.
I notice it, accept it and then get busy with the day then generally find a bit later am not hungry at all any more! Doesn't always work, of course, but generally helps.

Welcome, MC, tons of info on here. Different ways to do it but typically for a woman wd be 500 calories (or 25% of your total daily energy expenditure , TDEE) on a fast day. So starting from when you wake up, this is your allowance for all today (not just till 8pm if you last ate 8pm last night, sorry!) Tomorrow would be a normal day. However, quite possible to vary it so you could do your own version or incrementally reduce yo 500calories so doing 700 today, for example.

Zelda I'm nearly always hungrier on a feed day than I am on a fast day. Once I start eating my body doesn't want to stop. As long as I don't start I'm fine.

Madame Salbertina is right, if your fast day is Monday then your 500 cals are for the whole day, you eat normally again on Tuesday morning.

Zelda fruit can make some people very hungry owing to the high sugar content and subsequent effects on blood sugar.

Vix. I agree with TiP about going veggie ( I am one anyway!). I used to be in a similar state to the one you describe and I found the first step I needed to take was to also reduce grain based foods for a week or two before starting as , for me, they were actually the cause of the overeating cycle.
I suggest this for a week: free range eggs for breakfast, a BIG veg soup or VEG something for lunch, a HUGE salad with everything in it including some nuts and seeds for dinner. No snacks. In the next week skip breakfast 2 days a week and in the third week skip breakfast AND lunch 2 days then after that check on the calories in the evening meal.
After I had got going on 5:2 for a week or two I found that the overeating thing just sorted itself out without conscious effort on my part but I really had to get off the grains first. beans and lentils are a good substitute too.
Now I can eat bread and toast on eating days without problem, in the past I would eat a slice and then the rest of the loaf like a compulsion.
Good luck

4th fast day. got to sort mmyself out. fasting one day does not mean I can pig out the rest of the time. not if I want to lose weight!

I find if I eat a big bowl of veg I feel satisfied for about 60mins and then I'm starving, going veggie on fast days does not work for me as i need a good element of protein to satisfy me for longer. Often veggie food can be quite carby too, many people find carbs make them hungrier. It's whatever works for you. Bearing in mind Dr M suggested not consuming more than 60g of protein but I never get anywhere near that.
Saying that I'm on a fast day and making an egg curry tonight.

Agree, Snowkey, protein much more filling...low carb the way to go. However, volume also helps so soup great idea

Absolutely Salberta, I have lots of veg for bulking up and making the meal look big but the protein element is essential for me.

Thanks everyone for your advice and support. Im definitely going to follow the advice of starting slowly and hopefully it will get easier. I know that we are all different and many of you have been doing this a while so it has got easier but could anyone share what they eat as a plan on non-fasting days ( I can't find a lot on this- probably looking in wrong place). I think it would help me to have a plan rather than just thinking 'I can what whatever I like'. It's definitely true that once I start eating I can't stop. But it must be important to try eat enough (and balanced) on non-fast days so we get all the nutrients we need and I have to start eating at some point. Also with having a young daughter I'm conscious that I don't want her to see me skipping meals all the time.

just popping into say hello.. just at the end of another fast which went fine as I was driving and helping my DS move for most of it so didn't feel at all hungry .
....
good to see so many new posters ..

Popping in too, just not enough time to keep up but glad to see the Times article on Sunday, it's everywhere now isn't it? Thankfully mum and dad are sticking to it better while I'm visiting them than they managed to when they visited me, though they only do 5:2 and I'm craving that third day again. When I head home in 3 weeks it's back to 4:3 and getting some exercises in too.

I'm going to have to have a week off next week as I'm in London catching up with so many people, food wont be an issue but drinking will!

Sunnysideoptimist I'm normally in USA too, whereabouts are you? In LA thes not been any talk of it really, but I do know a few people there who've had a full fast day, or a juice only day, every week for a few years

Another 1.5 lbs lost this week on 5:2

Does anyone have any idea how many cals a bacon sandwhich might be ( say, 2 rashes of lean bacon, 2 slices bread, thin spread of marg)? I ve looked at MFP but there's such a variation in how people post its calorific value.

Vix I initially worried about the effect of the chilen not seeing me eat would have, so I normally fast on days when DS is at preschool, but also as I tend to have my calories spread over two meals, I'll eat with them still....and have worked out a few recipes as well which means we can eat more or less the same thing too (there's loaded with cheese and carbs!)...we usually do family dinner on Wednesday's when DH comes home early, most Wednesdays I like to fast but as DS is at preschool I just put off food til dinner (hoping baby DD doesn't take too much notice) and do something again we can all eat but keeps me under 500kcal. (fish and tons of veg for example)

You'll gradually find the ways of making it work AND showing a healthy attitude towards food for your DD

Ugh theirs, not there's....that's the iPad being thick, not me!

End of week 1 and have lost 4lb! Had a great "feast" weekend - ate sensibly(ish) but didn't feel I was depriving myself (bagels -yum!!), so quite pleased with this result. So back on a fast day today but actually feel "ready" for it if that makes sense. Hope you all have a good day, whether feasting or fasting.

MadameCastafiore, re how to count calories when making big vats of food such as soup: what I usually do is weight absolutely everything (veg included) as I?m going along and make a note. Then, as the soup/chilli/curry is cooking away I work out the total calories in the entire batch using either the nutritional information on the packets or my Collins Gem calorie guide book (you can also google most things to get their calorie content or use one of the websites for calorie counting). Lastly I portion everything up for the freezer and divide the total number of calories by the number of portions. If that last step isn?t practical, such as when I?m entertaining guests and I can?t portion the batch up then before I start cooking I weigh the pan so that once I?ve finished cooking I can easily work out the number of calories per 100g. Hope that helps.

Just found this thread. I've been thinking about trying 5:2 for a while, although I'm a little nervous about the whole idea, not least because I started a very full on new job 4 weeks ago and I'm worried I'll end up thinking about food constantly on fast days!

DH was a bit when I mentioned possibly doing this to him a few weeks back, but dc3 is 2.5 and I've still got the same 7lbs to shift that have been sitting on my middle since she was 8 months old. I'll go down 2 or 3 lbs on a good week, then straight back up again, and the new job is making it almost impossible to find exercise time.

I'm working from home today, so I think I might make this Day 1 and see how it goes. Wish me luck

Hi there . I know there are a few people here who have difficulty getting out to exercise (especially now we may have snow). Also some people here who may be new to exercise , dont want to do the jumping and twisting that things like Zumba have and want start exercising in a safe way . if so, I thought this might be useful

I've just been posted a link to a some programmes on You tube called 'Walk at home' with Leslie Sansome.. (she has a website also the vids are on you tuvbe for free)

Its a series of classes on several videos on there at all at different levels
doing cardio walks equivalent to mile upwards..(to about 5 miles i think) Not too gruelling (and probably not intensive enough for those used to doing Shred etc ) ..but another thing to add to the repertoire I think especially as you can do the more intense ones in small intervals i.e one or 2 miles at a time.

Heres link to one of the and