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!

Hello again everyone! Soooo many new posts here again and so much inspiration!

I have been down with a horrid cold, so despite having been on "feed days" over the weekend I didn't enjoy it much, as I can't taste anything at the moment:(.. On the upside, as I've now started my second week on the 4:3, I'm noticing that the fast days are a lot easier and I can easily go the whole day on just my cup of coffee with some semi-skimmed milk and miso or broth until around 6pm at which point I usually have some veggie soup.

So far I've lost around 3 pounds, which is ok. Onwards and downwards, eh folks !

Oh laska clotted cream & strawberry jam is so hard to resist.

chestnut are you calculating what you eat on your non fasting days? Could you be weighing more because of the increased exercise?

Uuh, so there's going to be a MINUTE chat with Dr Mosley??

Uups, I don't know where the Minute came from .. I meant a mumsnet chat with Dr Mosley..

At last I have finally managed to catch up you guys talk a lot!! Great to see so many new posters, returners and of course regulars adding their thoughts to the thread.

Have had to change my fasting routine this week due to free lunches my work schedule so fasted on Sunday and will fast tomorrow, my only other available fast day is Friday but I can't bring myself to fast on a Friday so will probably do a 5:2 week. Psychologically it just feels plain wrong - I can't explain it other than Friday is for treats and . When I started this WOE I didn't do any weekend fasting but after weight loss stalled I changed to 4:3 and actually came to enjoy a Sunday fast. Even with this in mind I can't face the thought of a Friday fast and will go back to 4:3 next week.

Hang in there Tuesday fasters you're almost there

Laska I quite agree with you about the value and attraction of broccoli. I have in the past substituted this esteemed veg for rice or potato - with a chilli non carne - and very nice it was too!

I'm absolutely certain you could make a batch of stir-fried prawns for less than 376 cals! A pack of jumbo prawns, containing 180g, comes to 123 cals, leaving you 253 calories for the rest of the meal.

Veg - less than 100 cals
Soya sauce - not a lot
50g - 43 calories

Simples!

(I might post this on the recipe thread! [Except I'm a vegan! ])

B&W I totally love that you have wine on fast days Me? I stick to because I'm far to greedy to substitute food for wine. I can only aspire to your dedication to wine

B&W oh yes I do make it for lots less ! Im just ranting. ( anyway but tonight after the clotted cream fest its a bit of a moot point eh? ) ..

Non fast day & I had done really well finished eating at 8 so 24hr fast would have taken me to 8 tomorrow. But in the last 15 minutes I've eaten: heaps & heaps of nuts stacks of chocolate & gluten free almond cake! Guess 24 hours will take me to 9.15!

& I now feel sick!

Evening all!

Today is a feed day, a good fast day yesterday and I think I'm going to give fasting a go tomorrow, even though I usually go to the gym. I'm going to see how the exercising on no breakfast goes. I always used to do that but then many of the instructors kept on about how you should have breakfast in case you get faint that I thought it must be true. So I'll see how it goes and take it easier if I do feel faint at all.

Fingers crossed I won't get the munchies afterwards. I figure I can have a yummy chilli in the evening with dh if I manage to resist the call of food during the day. If I don't manage it there's always Thursday.

[chestnut] something sounds a bit strange there- possibly it would be worth figuring out how many calories "normal" is on a feed day not forgetting drinks? I was surprised how quickly they add up when I started monitoring it on mfp and how much my portion sizes have crept up- I'm making an effort to measure things more to get more used to what a certain amount of calories looks like? Good luck

Just been out this evening and sqeen a bunch of friends we haven't seen for a few months. I was a bit when the men said to me "hasn't your DH lost a lot of weight" - no mention of my weight loss. :( and I thought I was looking good in my new tight black trousers.

chestnut keep at it, it will work but give it time. I highly recommend logging your food for a couple of weeks, and be completely honest, if you finish the kids tea for them you have to count it. Having a spoonful of pesto whilst you are stiring it in the pasta you have to count it. And you need to weigh the pasta too. Not forever, just for a couple of weeks to get a true picture of what normal is.

For anyone else wondering try watching the secret eaters program. Whilst they may be extreme cases it really shows that what somepeople see as a "normal portion" is not in anyway normal.

Hi I've been reading with great interest over the last few days.
I'm everso tempted to go for this but my first fear was about sleeplessness as a result of hunger which I asked about yesterday - and thankyou for the replies. I'd love to hear about others experience of sleep after a day of fasting?

My second concern is exercise. I regularly run and my planned fasting days would be days that I normally run on. These runs are always for an hour or more and keep me happy and sane therefore I don't want to give these up. Surely I can't run whilst fasting? What level of exercise are others doing whilst living the 5:2 life?

I run on fasting days - in the morning anyway you still have your glycogen stores. Unless you low carb too and then once you are fat adapted and efficent at burning fat rather than carbs you could run forever!

Helgi
I am fasting tomorrow. So I'll wake up, have a cup of tea, go to the gym and swim 100 metres, do yoga, do bodypump, go home and have a cup of tea and then do errands till I eat 500 calories at 6.30pm. Then I won't eat again till Thursday lunch.
Exercising while fasting is great - just remember to drink extra water.

hi all have been lurking the last few days trying to catch up on the thread. OMG how busy??? But it's great to see so many peeps posting. Laska you've made me and not worry about being 'fast' perfect. You'll live to survive another fast! Piebald your post was fab too as well as sooooo many others.

I'm managing 4:3 way easier than I thought I would and have moved to eating one meal in an evening...more luck than judgement, work has been incredibly busy so have been totally distracted and then by the time I've been for a run it's time for dinner. Weight loss so far is 7.75lbs in 2 weeks and am generally feeling so much better.

Keep posting everyone because I'm sure there will be loads of peeps reading this thread for encouragement but just can't get to post and join in as much as they'd like (me) or maybe too shy to join in (if that's you, you're more than welcome to join in... go on give it a try everyone on here's lovely )

piebald loved your post and would love to see a photo of you with your new red hair please? Reading all the posts on here has reminded me of how wonderful it is to be able to share in this life-changing woe. I am sure that without all the support, help, encouragement and pure entertainment value (remember TOTM - where is manonboard??) I would be finding it all very much harder.
And I agree, it's good to have newbies questioning and reminding all us oldies just how far we've come.
Well done to everyone and thanks a bunch

Touching base again with everyone in the new year. Hope it's going well! 22lb lost since September when I joined this thread for inspiration. Got a new hair cut and thinking of new clothes to go with the thinner me. Piebald - you inspire me. stickygingerbread - thanks for the tip on restricting calories further on fast days to restart fat loss - please keep them coming! On a plateau for a month now, so need to get moving as still very much in overweight category. Greeneggs - are you off your plateau and if yes, what works?

scoobybaby I know what you mean about not wanting to sit down with a calculator before you can eat your dinner when you?re starving. When I cook I always batch cook: curry, chilli, goulash etc. I invested in quite a few single portion sized clippy pots (I found the ones with 400ml capacity were plenty big enough) and portioned up all my huge batches into them and put them in the freezer. That way I only had to count the calories once. On the days I came home and just wanted to bung something in the microwave I had some healthy home-made additive free ready meals to eat which were pre-calorie counted.

One thing I learned the hard way was that sticky labels don?t stick very well in the freezer and fall off, so now I stretch a bit of clingfilm over the top of the pot and put the sticky label (with what's in the pot and how many calories written on it) on the clingfilm and then put the lid on afterwards. No mystery meals now!

Why have I only just chanced on Options hot choc drinks at 38-40 cals each! So yummy and definitely fills that gap for a touch of something sweet

Ok feed day yesterday and suddenly got extraordinarily hungry from about lunchtime and ate...a lot. Still feel uncomfortably full and may do 3rd fast day today or just skip lunch also...

salbertina snap! Think will fast today though I'm feeling a bit rough so might not make it all day but will give it a go! Otherwise there's always tomorrow

Just finished my 2nd week and after losing 7lbs in the first week, I've lost the grand total of "0". I am gutted, I haven't done anything different at all. I obviously wasn't expecting the same loss, but would hope for at least a 1lb. I will do another week and see what happens.
Has this happened to anyone else?

Ilovegoodfoodandwine don't be discouraged if you dont lose weight every week. In my experience, the week after I have a huge weight loss I always either stay the same or regain a little weight. Looking at it over the fortnight you've lost 7lb over two weeks which is fantastic!

On this WOE I have so far lost 22lbs in 19 weeks, but some weeks I stayed the same weight and one week I gained weight even though I was being good. I found during those times it was helpful to remember how much weight I've lost so far and to focus on the health benefits in addition to weight loss that this WOE brings.

Keep going! I'm sure you'll see the same effect on your weight as me: a steady downward trend.

Totm? Natural plateau? Happens to us all. Don't lose heart

goodfood I'm in almost the same boat as you, and also found the lack of weight loss this week frustrating, especially since I have tried really hard on fast days.

I think there are a number of possible reasons- I just have less food in my system, but the loss from that showed up last week and won't be repeated, also I think my feed days are probably a bit over my TDEE- not much but enough to stop weight loss. I have read that it takes others a few weeks to sustain weight loss so I'm sticking with it and for the wider potential health benefits.

I'm also having a dry January which I was hoping would help but I'm finding that harder than fasting especially as that doesn't seem to be doing anything to help the weight come off!