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Fasting / 5:2 diet

Talk about intermittent fasting and 5:2, including what’s worked for others. Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.

5:2 Diet Thread! 13! Now, the baker's dozen!

991 replies

GreenEggsAndNichts · 19/02/2013 10:09

The continuing thread for those of us following either the 5:2 diet or the alternate-day fasting diet.

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, or approximately your TDEE (see explanation below). 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 for a woman, 600 for a man, on those days.

You'll find on these threads we use a number of acronyms. If you're new to the threads, or Mumsnet in general, they might not make much sense.

WOE/WOL = Way Of Eating/Way Of Life. We use this term instead of "diet" as many of us see this as something to do in the long term.

MFP = My Fitness Pal, a website many use for keeping track of the number of calories they're eating.

TDEE = Total Daily Energy Expenditure, 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.

ADF = Alternate-day Fasting, as it says on the tin, fasting every other day rather than 5:2.

Michael Mosley has recently unveiled a new website to accompany his new book on the subject. Please go check them out, as he's the whole reason most of us are here!

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. Wink 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!

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!

If you've been at this a while and are moving on to maintaining your goal weight, there is a thread here to discuss that.

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. Wink

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%).")

Something to consider 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.

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!

OP posts:
swallowedAfly · 23/02/2013 11:01

not for me this week dines! Grin logically it is of course as you're having another day with very low calorie intake so consuming less calories overall plus having another fasting period where magic is meant to happen.

swallowedAfly · 23/02/2013 11:03

sorry that sounded negative. even though the scales haven't moved this week for me i have felt fantastic most of the time - loads of energy, sharp minded and very inclined towards that sort of joyous flowing rather than stuttering, dragging along mode. itms to anyone at all.

Mandy312 · 23/02/2013 11:28

Fasting today but horribly hung over. I am having a really lovely soup so
Rome posted on here, butternut squash and coconut milk(reduced fat) I have added some chilli flake to it mmmmm. Thanks whoever that was!!

Mandy312 · 23/02/2013 11:29

*someone!

ellenbrody · 23/02/2013 12:01

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I will have a normal day today and tomorrow and start afresh week by fasting on Monday. I will try to focus on the bigger picture.

dines · 23/02/2013 12:02

Ino this has nothing to do with this topic but does anyone know how I can fit 3 seprate blinds to one window lol Ino it is way off the subject.

FastFeeder · 23/02/2013 12:43

Hi everyone - I can't keep away from these threads because the success stories are so heart-warming.

I'm reading the sequel to the French women don't get fat book at the moment (it's called French women for all seasons ) and there was an interesting comment in there about Lent which I wanted to share. In the Middle Ages, people were only allowed one meal - in the evening - during every one of the forty days of Lent. I find it interesting that a lot of us have come around to that approach on our fasting days, too. Not sure I'd want to do it for forty days, though...

tracedw · 23/02/2013 13:01

Hi, just to add that my weight loss has stalled this week too, so 4 lbs lost in 5 weeks,despite adding an extra fast in i ,normally only fast 2 days/wk but did a 4:3 this week.
BUT....... i have started shreding since Monday and have just done day 6, i have read on MFP that when you start an intensive exercise programme such as the 30ds, your body can retain water for a week or two which helps to repair the micro tears in the newly exercised muscles, so hang on all you new shredders, im sure the results will come given time.

Can i say that my dh has been on the 5 :2 for 3 weeks and has lost .......one and a half stone!!!
He was 18 1/2 st to start with though and has been really strict with himself, low carbing and only eating 1500 max on his non fasting days, plus gym every day.
He stopped smoking in the New Year and joined a gym , they measured his BP 147/97.... whoops.
He had a bit of a wake up call and decided to join me on the 5;2.
Will report back when he gets is BP rechecked this week.

Aftereightsarenolongermine · 23/02/2013 13:01

dines I certainly lost weight slightly more effectively doing 4:3. You will still lose weight on 5:2 but it may take a little longer. I've switched to 5:2 as I found 4:3 too restricting (medication wise).

BlackMaryJanes · 23/02/2013 13:10

Guys, help me. I don't know what else I can do.

I still haven't lost anything. Not a single pound. This is despite drastically changing my calorie intake last week. I'm now consuming 1800 cals on non-fast days. Yet I've lost zero weight. This is despite my period coming and going. I don';t know what else I can do :(

Question:

Could it be, that fasting encourages your body to hold onto fat?

dines · 23/02/2013 13:22

blackmaryjanes have you tried measuring? Sometime u lose inches and the scales stay the same

BlackMaryJanes · 23/02/2013 14:08

How would that work dines?

orangeandlemons · 23/02/2013 14:50

Black Mary, I didn't lose for ages, but it started to move this week. I found adding in a day of 1000 calories helped as well as the 2 fast days. Also, I now realise I was overeating before, despite being convinced I wasn't ( the odd biscuit, flapjack etc) I would tell myself I could have them because I wasn't on a fast day.

This week I have really tried to be a bit more mindful about what I have eten and sure enough it has started to move.

I also had a long conversation with myself, about what were my options if I gve this up. I cannot diet, I just binge whenever I try. This way of eating has drastically reduced my approach to food and my appetite. It has been a bit like a watershed moment tbh. I just could not go back to the gorging and pigging out. So I told myself, even if I wasn't losing weight at the moment, at least my eating was under control for about the first time and 25 years, and that alone was so liberating. Chin up! It will work!

ellenbrody · 23/02/2013 14:52

Oranges and lemons - can I ask how long before you saw the scales shifting?

orangeandlemons · 23/02/2013 14:54

I lost a bit in the first week. Then the scales stuck solid until the the start of the fifth week. So about 3 and a half weeks

Itsaboatjack · 23/02/2013 15:10

Hi all, another fast day for me. Lunch was lovely yesterday but after 3 courses and cocktails and then sharing a pizza late last night with dh while watching a film I was definitely well over my TDEE. But I guess that's one of the plus sides of this woe, every now and then you can have those days and then just get back to it the next day.

So I've been quite active today, walked about 3 miles taking dd's to various activities and then went for a run of about 6.5miles. So now I've just had a big bowl of veg soup and now going to have a nap before omelette later.

Welcome back TIP

countryhousehotel · 23/02/2013 15:11

blackmaryjanes how long have you been following the diet for? What's your TDEE? I don't think the fasting could be the problem if you're only doing it 2 days a week. Maybe if you're not eating enough on the feast-days then you won't lose a lot (body goes in to starvation mode). Same as bingeing on choc and fast food on feast-days.

countryhousehotel · 23/02/2013 15:20

sorry that doesn't make sense...i didn't mean you go in to starvation mode if you binge eat, but not eating enough is probably as bad as over-eating on non-fast days.

GreenEggsAndNichts · 23/02/2013 15:23

BMJ fasting for one day doesn't encourage your body to hold onto fat. You would have to be below 10% body fat before your body would even consider trying to keep its fat, and that would be fasting in the long term, and even then fat loss only slows by about 1/4. If you are consuming fewer calories than your body burns, you will lose weight, despite the "starvation mode" myth.

So, you might need to re-visit what you're eating on your normal days. Is your TDEE 1800? Are you as active as you claim to be when you are filling out the calculator? Or should you be eating a bit more or less than that?

OP posts:
GreenEggsAndNichts · 23/02/2013 15:28

In fact, since I see others talking about starvation mode, here is just one of many articles you can find online about it. Here is a short quote "Overnight fasting is what every one of us does during our sleeping hours. So it is not true that going below recommended calories for one day is going to slow down your metabolism -- quite the contrary, it may speed it up just a little."

Short periods, such as 24 hours, of fasting, will not kill your metabolism. Your body is not going to think it's starving. Unless you are, in fact, starving (below an extremely low body fat % as well as depriving yourself of food in the long term). In which case, your body will slightly slow down the rate of weight loss, but indeed you would still be losing weight.

OP posts:
swallowedAfly · 23/02/2013 15:34

bmj iirc you are in the ideal weight range anyway and quite petite? i'm 5ft7 and 11st8 and my tdee isn't much more than 1800 so maybe you're a bit off with that.

also tbh you seem very up and down - one minute it's all disastrous, next minute everything is fine now. one minute you're a binge eater then when that's addressed apparently in the space of 24hrs it's not a problem anymore and you're eating under your tdee on non fast days 'now'.

i think maybe you need to calm down about the weight thing and step back and observe yourself and your eating and your weight over a period of time to get a realistic view of things rather than just reactionary on a day to day basis?

BlackMaryJanes · 23/02/2013 15:58

Is your TDEE 1800?

Yes, someone on here calculated it for me. I'm 5ft1 and currently 8st10. Do HIIT and step aerobics 3 x per week. Breastfeed 3 x per day.

swallowedAfly You're right, I do feel very reactionary at the moment. I'm trying very hard to lose weight and not receiving any positive feedback. I'm starting to get worried that I'll never shift this weight. Fast days are brutal for me (doing one today). I really don't enjoy them, but I do it. Yet no positive feedback for my efforts :( Very disheartening.

swallowedAfly · 23/02/2013 16:18

just chill a bit bmj. you are so not fat ffs. you have a baby, you're breastfeeding and in a physical flux stage of your life and yet a good weight and active and taking care of yourself. seriously, all is well. why the obsession about this weight you perceive yourself as having to lose? is everything else ok in your life?

amidaiwish · 23/02/2013 16:33

Maybe you're the lightest weight you should be BMJ.8st10 and 5ft1 sounds like a good healthy and low weight. Do you really want to be much lighter? Remember you are breast feeding.

Talkinpeace · 23/02/2013 16:47

amidai
I have to disagree. 8st 10 and 5 foot - unless the person has very wide bones is NOT a low weight.
I'm 5'5 and before half term was settled at 8st12
On the up side it is a perfectly healthy weight.
And wrist circumference gives a guide to bone size and alters ideal BMI by 10% up or down (will find the links)

BMJ
a lot of weight fluctuation is definitely fluid. I hit target before Christmas, put on 7 pounds while on holiday and lost the lot in three weeks of fasting on my return. Its bulk undigested blech in your bowel, fat cells pumped up with water and other short term stores. I've currently got a (mini) muffin top again because half term has been a sit by the fire eat fest.
BUT its not proper laid down fat and I'll lose it in two weeks of fasting, back at the gym and restricting alcohol.