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!

I am now 1.6kg (so about 3lb) below my pre-christmas weight.

Not sure I've been this low since before DC (DD1 is now 13 - gulp)

I'm sure it is the exercise that has increased the weight loss, before I was only losing 1lb per week.

Target is now 4.2kg away - suddenly seems acheivable.

Ariel I find that fasting when working is ok- I also have a desk job in an open plan office where there are lots of treats around but strangely don't find myself too tempted. I think keeping busy helps (and I do have a lot of meetings to attend) and I also drink quite a lot of fruit tea and coffee during said meetings which fills me up.

3rd fast day yesterday was going well until dh made us tea (fish and chips!) but they were relatively healthy variants on the theme and it was really quite late so I figure that overall there was still a good calorie deficit on the day and I'll pick up the next fast after the weekend.

Finding the thread really motivating thank you everyone. Good luck all fasting today

Hi sis , yeah thanks for asking. The pounds gained are becomming pounds lost thankfully, as I felt pretty crap after Christmas and weighing myself on News Years day and feeling those extra mm cms around the waist wasn't a great feeling. But it's amazing what a difference that first succesful Fast can make to both how you feel and how much you weigh . Still about 5lb higher than my lowest but at least I'm getting those Fast days in again, doing 4:3 at the mo Sund/Tues/Thurs. As someone said in thread 8 a Fast can act as a kind of 'reset' button, or at least that's how it feels to me.

Good luck with the couple of pounds you're trying to shift and it will be harder back in the open plan office...but if anyone can do it...you can do it . I think you've got it bang on with trying to up the exercise levels. As you know cycling's great and will be an easy way to keep healthy as the Spring approaches. Good luck until then how about doing unicycle laps of the open plan office until then?????

A massive thank you to everyone who helped me stop making a pig of myself yesterday. greeneggs off to buy some chai. Will report back with my verdict!

Love it bro! actually ive often fancied giving a unicycle a go ..
i'm working at home today .. lovely and sunny out there and the temptation to get my bike out is very great .. .. Sadly boss is on phone or email every 2 min.. but if its not raining again tomorrow ill definitely be out !

Hope its nice where you are ,, ill think of you out in the Essex lanes
well done on the 7lbs

Hi everyone, I have had a shameful week, have broken every fast. I am the perfect faster until dinner time rolls around and then can't seem to resist the children's dinner but I weighed myself this morning and lost 1lb despite this so beyond delighted. I think it's because while I didn't manage a single perfect fast day I probably had 4 days with relatively low calories as they all started as fast days and when I did give into dinner it was to much smaller portions than I would have eaten if it had been a normal day. This WOE is quite frankly amazing. Still another 2lbs to get to pre Christmas weight and then another 4lbs to target but feeling good about it as it still works even with a half hearted approach so fingers crossed it will motivate me to stick with it next week.

Attempting my first 3 fast week ? having been 5:2 since autumn (today being #3 this week). I normally can?t do weekends or Wednesdays ? which has made a 3 fast week impossible before but this week Wednesday was possible ? so I thought I?d give it a go.
Weight wise I?m now back to where I was before an All Inclusive holiday at the end of November and Christmas put a spoke in regular fasting and the continuing pound a week loss ? so just 8lbs to my goal again and I'm already well into norrmal BMI.

I?ve found that I generally sleep much better when fasting (as does my DW) odd that some people are finding the reverse.
I did get ?lack of caffeine? headaches on fast days when I started, but a small reduction in coffee on ?normal? days and a sneaky diet coke on fast days seems to have sorted that out.
For me the only weird side effect is weak feeling forearms the day after a fast! I also found that when weight loss stalled for a few weeks (as it seems it inevitably does) that was the time when I lost inches from my middle ? now the weight is moving again the tape is staying the same!

Laska yes it would figure I'd do a new thread then his new website would go live! It'll be in the next OP!

aftereights yes I hope you like it. I wouldn't get the green chai, I saw that mentioned here but it doesn't sound like a good idea. Black/normal Chai all the way.

niki TDEE is covered in the OP (Original Post) of this thread. PG = pregnant, WOE = Way Of Eating (many of us consider this to be a way of eating in the long term, not just a short term 'diet'), DS = Dear Son.. Mumsnet has a whole slew of its own acronyms. DH, DW, DS, DD = husband, wife, son, daughter, respectively. I know there's a guide around here somewhere for the more esoteric ones...

Non-fast day today. I'm not sure what I'll be having, but I haven't eaten yet. Today... we complete on the house we're buying. Getting keys and everything. So a bottle of bubbly will feature at some point. (whisper it, but, I don't even like sparkling wine. It just seems appropriate )

It's great to see so many new people posting and fitting right in.

Poppy getting the hang of fasting is definitely tough, my first few felt endless. One pound is great news!

Northstar definitely yes, keeping busy is great on a fast day. And while I probably couldn't my first couple of weeks doing this, I'm now quite happy to do whatever exercise I'd normally be doing. It has the double benefit of 1) being exercise (duh) and 2) keeping me from thinking about food for a while. :)

.....For my non fast day breakfast I just ate the last mince pie!! ...

Good luck with the house completion greeneggs when do you move ?

Laska this will sound like sacrilege, but we didn't eat any of our mince pies this year. I still have three boxes: one box DH bought, one which came with a fruit basket, and one I bought from M&S. I'm still pondering the M&S ones, but when I've been mentally weighing up calories, I've been opting for the other treats we've had around instead. (and the homemade Bailey's, cough)

Not sure when we'll finish moving. We're renting at the moment and technically have this house until almost the end of Feb. If our landlady lets us out earlier (I think she might, as she's trying to sell this place) we could be moving by the end of Jan. eep. It's literally just two streets over, though it still features all the cleaning/packing hassle of a long move.

greeneggs didn't you also have some £10 Fortnums ones? or was that a joke?. Mine were h/m so dont know how much they were in calories but very small, 2 bites max.. But I have a feeling I might be inveigled into making more this w/end as DS is over but if so ill get him to take back what's left!

oh look I really should work .. see y'all

JJk6 welcome .. didn't i see you on the fastdiet site?

But before I go .. here's another 5:2 community bulletin board which I think is intended to be a replacement for the facebook group .

Ill be staying here though .. I like it here ..and I like you lot ..though might look at it and post sometimes if its ok..

Laska hah no, they weren't a joke, but I didn't buy them in the end. I tried them at a tasting event they had, and they truly were amazing. I think sense prevailed in the end. :) (also it wasn't really commentary on their calories, just that if I had a sweet tooth this Christmas, I was going for different things. Fudge, for example!)

Laska42, yes that was me, I made a similar post there, then realising other people are doing this, google brought me here.

As for the mince pies, I made some at Christmas, but since I don't really care about calories on non-fast days, I enjoyed them immensely.

Laska42, thanks for the link, I'll go check that out too. May as well post the same thing there, since I'm interested if anyone else has tried these boxes and had the same results, though I wouldn't want people to think I'm trying to sell em!

I did have Graze boxes for a month or so, but they're quite expensive when you compare the contents to the same amount of the same items you could get in the shops. I know that isn't the point, of course- it's all about having them portioned out into snack sizes. :) There were a few items I loved and then several I felt very 'meh' about. They're a nice alternative to snack foods found in vending machines in offices, though, and I knew one or two people who would get them and keep them at their desks.

I got a free Graze box - it wasn't for me - is it meant to be healthy? over packaged and expensive. You'd be better off with a bag of dried fruit and nuts divided into portions.

Looking at the graze website isn't it just snack rather than main meals? So you are still eating calories, just nuts instead of chocolate? Surely a vegetable curry, or a nice soup is more satisfying (and cheaper!)

On the sleep loss topic, as a long time 5:2er, I haven't had any sleepless nights whilst on a fast day. I do keep all my calories for my evening meal and eat at about 7pm which gives enough time for it to digest and stops me being hungry at bedtime. I do tend to go to sleep late 12.30 ish even on fast days.
Fast day today and so far just real black coffee and peppermint teas - will try the chai once I get some.
I have had lovely comments about my weight loss this week and now have 2 people who are giving it a go. Soon we will be taking over the world!

GreenEggsAndNichts, Snowkey Yes, you're right that they seem expensive for what they are, and it could be done much cheaper, but essentially I'm too lazy to go out and source the same things, and split them up especially if I have to work out the calories.

The way I look at it is I would spend more than £4 on food for a day when I'm not fasting, so it is cheaper than eating normally.

frenchfancy, they market them as snacks, but since I find they are filling enough and tell me what the calories are, it works for me.

I know it's not for everyone, I'm just saying this is how I do it and it works for me.

Today's box is 420 calories, so that leaves me enough to have a small cup of soup today as well.

JK66 oh I wasn't being judgy- I do pre-packaged Covent Garden soups quite often now on fast days. It'd be cheaper for me to do a big soup myself, but I quite like theirs. After we move, I'm going to look into some containers for portioning out meals for fast days.

hi JK66 I think that having a controlled portion of food (of any type)delivered could work brilliantly if you commute or work long hours and dont have access to other foods.

I'm fortunate that I dont have a long commute , and although I get very hungry for my dinner and like to eat early , I can usually get home by 5.30 and have eaten by 6.30 ..(as usually have prepared what I'm having beforehand)

My (overweight) boss gets these boxes though (was intended as his diet food for the day though he doesn't do 5:2) but i've noticed that he just treats them as extra snacks( and still eats lunch!!) but justifies it because he thinks they are healthier than the snacks he would have had i.e choc bars (though he still eats those too! and often wonders why diets dont work for him.. duh!)

I think I would struggle with this type of thing too also especially the salty crispy things id be a total snack fiend if I wasn't careful ...

But Its different strokes of course and its great that you have found that they are working for you and supporting your fasting lifestyle .