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!

Morning all

Thank you so much for all the great advice! breadandwine and ezzza you have got some great tips there. Just listening to your experience has helped me no end.
I actually have a 'Xmas day' with my family today.....they were away in Australia for Xmas so today is the day we are doing the whole thing! And we have snow for it, so I guess it's officially a white Christmas for me! :). We have to walk there since transport is limited due to the weather and we will walk back after as well, which is a nice 2 hour round trip. Might help walk off those half price mince pies I'll be eating later :)
Needless to say today is not a fast day for me, but I will be practicing some of the great info you all have sent in response to my first message. I'm not going to do too many changes at a time since that most likely means I will never to any of them again (!) but I will hold off having anything to eat until lunchtime to give myself a mini fast, and also keep an eye on those pesky carbs that seem to be my main downfall.
If I don't have too many glasses of wine today, I am planning another fast day tomorrow, otherwise it's Monday for me, so expect I will be reading your great recipe thread and the hints and tips thread avidly to prepare a delicious low cal meal on sun/mon night....then let those vivid dreams commence! :)

pookey, sorry, I don't know about making spelt bread in a breadmaker, I have a fab organic health store locally to me where I have bought my loaves before. They are delicious. But I'm not sure about the ingredients when you make it yourself. Have you tried googling for variations for different consistencies?

Better, Happy Christmas , sounds such fun!

I ( hand) make flaxseed foccacia- much much easier and nicer than it sounds! And v low carb, use it for toasts/dipping bread. Much easier to make than regular bread, just mix:
ground flaxseed/linseed w xylitol, baking powder, water & olive oil, pinch of salt and bung in oven for about 25 mins. Super-easy!
Will try to find exact recipe if anyone interested

Well I did it! My first fast day completed yesterday and it wasn't too bad. I ended up having 590 calories - 2 bowls of homemade vegetable and lentil soup, then a pepper stuffed with brown rice, veg, chilli and garlic with a little cheese on top - very nice!

The hardest part of the day was in the evening. DS was hungry after playing out in the snow with his friends so I got him some supper. At that point I felt so hungry I very nearly grabbed something to eat myself but managed with a cup of herbal tea instead. What will-power! Amazingly the hunger soon passed and I felt ok. Last night I slept really well too.

Breadandwine and virginposter I haven't had a diet coke since yesterday morning! Very pleased about that, though I have been a bit headachey.

I often make spelt bread for the dcs - the brand I get is finely milled and just looks a few shades darker than white bread. The flour is more expensive - almost 3 times as much and it doesn't rise as easily. You can make bread Quite easily without a bread machine - a food mixer does a good job of kneading. Often I mix it with some very strong Canadian white. I use spelt for pancakes too.

the fast diet is getting everywhere!

salbertina ....and yes please to the focaccia recipe, that sounds delicious....perhaps you could add it to the recipe thread above? That's where I go for choices of what to cook on a fast day ( although I notice someone has put a lovely chocolate cake on there! :)

Have a good day everyone...feasters and fasters, and stay safe in that snow ( if you have any!)

Thank you, Better (big, sloppy kiss for my first MN flowers!)
Shall dig it out.

matilda well done. Two achievements for you, your first fast day and the first step to being coke free - that's really great, keep going and soon it all will be easy.

Can't find recipe thread (thick, iphone emotcion) so here goes

Linseed/Flaxseed focaccia bread:

2 cups ground linseed/flaxseed or flour
5 large beaten eggs
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 cup of water
1/3-1/2 cup of olive oil
(Optional Herbs/garlic/pepper to taste)
1 tbsp xylitol
Pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 180c
Mix all dried ingredients well
Add beaten egg, oil and water and mix well.
Grease and line a baking tray.
Spoon mixture onto tray and mould into desired shape.
Put in oven for around 25 mins (may need to cover with foil for final 5-10 mins to prevent burning)

Thats it! Makes great toast/dipping bread

Not in Uk but i pay around £2 for 500g. Buy online??
It is more expensive than wholemeal/rue flour etc but i find it so filling that a loaf lasts me over a week and each flaxseed packet makes several loaves.

Lg- wonder if theres an almond-flour based bread you cd make with flaxseed as egg substitute and extra oil? Trial and error to find right combination, i think.

Hello, newbie here! This week I've taken up the 5:2 - I watched the Horizon doc way back in August and had the idea of intermittent fasting sitting at the back of my mind for a while. I've been paying a lot of attention to what I eat since September 2011 when I realised I'd really put on a lot of weight without quite noticing and my first weigh in for a couple of years revealed I was heavier than I had been when 9months pregnant. So I took control, started a food diary, got more active and did well reprogramming my way of eating/exercising over the months. By April 2012 I'd lost 2 stone and since then have lost a further half a stone (give or take depending on Christmas or holidays - I always bump up by 6 or 7 pounds in these periods). My current BMI is 26 - so close to the threshold of 'normal' but finding this last stone so hard to shift. I am pleased to say that I think 5:2 might well be the answer. Looking back at my food diary, my last period of decent weightloss was in December and I was making huge efforts and honestly I think just denying myself for a couple of days a week seems to be a whole lot easier than being 'good' everyday.

My main issue with the fasting is that I'm cooking for 2 DSs and A DH everyday! How do others cope with that? At the moment I'm eating my calorie allowance as breakfast and lunch as I could not cope with a working day on nothing but then I'm making an evening meal for everyone else! Not easy but so far I manage by cooking things I'm not that keen on anyway and think about what delights I'll be conjuring up the next day.

I just completed my second fast day yesterday and have found I feel fine while fasting but a bit awful after the first meal. I'm assuming it gets easier and reading this thread it seems to be sustainable for a lot of people so I'm hoping it works out for me too.

Someone was asking earlier in this thread about tasty dressings for salad and I find lime juice and grated ginger go an awfully long way in terms of taste, zing & pep! Ginger is a great way to spice things up without the burn of chillies.

Morning all, well was totally knocked side ways by carbs yesterday despite valiant attempt. Even though not fasting today I'm just going to stick with 2 sensible meals. Thanks for the advice B&W on recovering from excess on non-fast days.

franny I too would say you were successful with your fast day so don't beat yourself up. I asked MM on twitter about women having 600 and said there should be no real difference to getting the results you want.

Welcome BetsyVanBell, I hope you have the success most of us on here have had. And well done on the weight loss so far.

Well, after an horrendously difficult fast on Thursday (no idea why, I can normally hang a 'closed except for essential access' sign on my stomach on fast days, unless it really was the plateau breaking [looks hopeful emoticon]) it's all back to normal for today's fast day. I haven't been hungry all day and have forgotten to eat my lunch, so I have plenty of calories left for dinner now. How funny!

You guys are great, thank you for all your help & advice so far.

I started this plan on Tuesday and have had 2 fast days. I have lost 5.4lbs!!

I am delighted!

In my lifelong battle with the bulge I have found it so frustrating to stick to a diet for a week and not see the scales budge, so I always give up, but I can imagine that I could stick to this long term, because even on the fast days, you only have to go a few hours without food and be conscious of what you eat for that day and then the next day you dont have to worry as much. That said, I am being pretty good on the feed days too and have stayed under the TDEE even when I went out for dinner one night.

I can do this.....and I think I can do this for the long haul! There is light at the end of the tunnell!

Impressive Franny

Weigh in yesterday for me and at last the holiday excess is continuing to shift doing 4:3, but still a way to go to get back to where I was at the start of December. The weight gain is almost worth the valuable lesson I have learned on this WOE.

I still have unhealthy a fat person's attitudes to food when I'm not in the fasting zone
It takes more than twice as long to take it off as it did to get it on
I will be 5:2ing for life

Back on track and feeling good fasting Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday this week and stepping up the exercise. Cycling tomorrow and starting C25K this week.

Non fast day today and not hungry at all yet, looks like brunch will be lunch lol
Good luck to all today's fasters

virginposter I must admit I've just had a diet coke. However, just having one can yesterday was a huge achievement for me. I've been feeling headachey, but amazingly the headache stopped as soon as I'd had a diet coke. Must be addicted! Anyway, I've decided not to do it all at once but to limit it to two cans a day at the most, though try to just have one and eventually stop altogether. I keep thinking (obviously as well as the health benefits) how much lighter my supermarket shop will be not carting heavy cans around and how much money I'll save.

Betsyvanbell - "I think just denying myself for a couple of days a week seems to be a whole lot easier than being 'good' everyday" - I completely agree with what you said. I find it difficult to watch what I eat every day, so I'm hoping this is the answer. About cooking for others, it's hard! I nearly broke my first fast last night when getting some food ready for my DS (had already had my calorie allowance) but somehow the will-power kicked in and I made do with a cup of herbal tea. I kept telling myself that tomorrow I could have whatever I wanted.

Frannyfeet 5.4 lbs in less than a week! That's so encouraging!

BetsyVanBell hi, I'm new too (2 wks in) and also cooking for 3 x DCs, the littlest of whom is also with me at home on one of my fast days (I have to take myself to a faraway place in my head when I'm making him cheese toasties for lunch!!)... To be honest, I find the greatest challenge not cooking for them but having to stop myself snaffling any leftovers.
(After a cake-batter-covered whisk accidentally fell into my mouth last week I have at least learnt not to do any baking with them on a fast day.)

I have been skipping breakfast and splitting my cals between a light lunch and big veg/salad dinner, which seems to work for me; as for the rest, I'm still working it out. Am intending to do something I've been meaning to do for years: a proper food plan for each week, so I will be cooking stuff for them on my fast days that I can enjoy too (by skipping the carb element and adding extra chilli sauce), e.g. lentil/veg curries, stir fries, tomato/chickpea stews. Delia has a delicious recipe for Chilli Eggs, which works out at about 130cals per portion if you substitute an oil spray for the olive oil and don't put cheese on - you could just put cheese on DCs and DH portions if they want it. I will put that on the recipe thread...

Good luck with it all + to all those fasting today... I haven't been brave enough to attempt a weekend fast yet! (DCs planning to make 'Hot Ice Cream for a Cold Day' from the Roald Dahl cookbook today. Wouldn't want to offend them by turning it down... )

(Also FWIW I found this week that using some of my milk allowance and having a proper cup of tea while they were eating magically suppressed my desire to pick at their food.)

Hi! I was directed here from the other thread, and without going through the whole thread could you give your opinion as to whether one can fast intermittently rather than doing the 5:2 and then eat as much as you like on non-fast days?

I don't really struggle with the fast days knowing I can eat the next day but I dislike the feeling of "being on a diet" so if I have to watch what I eat on non-fast days too it may feel quite tough.

Started on Monday so three fast days gone but I ate probably about 2500 calories on one of the non-fast days. Do you think the diet works even if you eat more than your TDEE amount on non-fast days?

P.S. What's wrong with diet coke?