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. 
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.
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!
Mumsnet hasn't checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. You may wish to speak to a medical professional before starting any diet.
Fasting / 5:2 diet
5:2 Diet Thread! 14 threads in a stone?
GreenEggsAndNichts · 28/02/2013 10:18
One word for chocolate : Montezumas... but dont go there or look at their website .. I didn't eat chocolate for years when doing WW ... trouble is on 5:2 I seem to have started to.. but only the very good stuff occasionally and only v dark choc. .. I love their Sea Dog dark choc- Lime and sea salt - and also their dark lime and chilli truffles (94cals each!!
but now I know that I only have one) ..
BadbadbadbadbadMe ..
Sorry TIP 
:-)
I do not eat chocolate so I can feel REALLY smug at you all about that one 
hi all,
I know I posted this a while ago, but didn't really get that much of a response, and am really interested, so am having another go! 
I've been fasting since September, with a break (well going down to 6:1) for Christmas and, for various reasons, the fist 2 weeks in February. I fast Mondays and Wednesdays, then eat to MPF recommended (1590 cal) Tuesdays and Thursdays. I probably eat MFP+100 on Fridays (track brekkie and lunch, not dinner) then don't track at weekends and probably eat and drink around 2000-2500 each day. I reckon that gives me a weekly deficit of 2676, call it 2500 to allow for overs.
Just wondering how this compares to others patters?
I appreciate chocolate but it's not my downfall- I only crave it once a month.
But, I recommend checking out the chocolate at Aldi. Very high cocoa content in the milk chocolate as well as dark, certainly higher than Cadburys. I use their dark chocolate when I bake.
Slight move on the scales to 11.1.2 from 11.2 which I have been stuck at for a few weeks. But I won't count it as an official shift until I've stayed there for a few days! But it was a good feeling to see it on the scales especially as yesterday was an eating day
Tip thanks for that...had the soup last night but ate nothing between lunch and soup at 8pm. Had to guess my lunchtime cals, but still think i was way off my TDEE, so it was a semi-fast day...more of a Very Low Calorie day...but I'm happy to have those (instead of a full-on fast) from time to time. I'm still way off my TDEE on eating days too, despite eating plenty, and compared to how I was eating before I started this, massively down on calories per week, as long as I can stay in control this weekend . I've cut down on alcohol since the beginning of Jan so now drinking very occasionally instead of every day . And today I'll have a smoothie for breakfast (almond milk, frozen fruit, spinach) and a chicken avocado rye bread sandwich for lunch (leftover roast chicken) and then nothing until this evening when I will splurge on a huge curry.
Hi pieceofjustice i've been following this thread for a couple of weeks, I think everyone tailors the whole 5:2 thing to fit their WOL, I have certainly read of others posting here who are under their TDEE on some eating days but way over on others. Also some who try to maximise their fasting period whereas others just try to stick within 500 cals on their fasting day and not worry about how long between meals. I'm certainly in the latter camp at the moment, if it helps me stick to 500 cals on a fasting day to spread the cals out across the day then I'll do it. If I can last until lunchtime or mid afternoon then I'll do that. I'm taking each one as it comes. I'm sure I'll go over TDEE some days if we're socialising or drinking heavily more than usual. The main thing for me though is that I've managed to get back on to a much healthier way of eating, nothing processed, all fresh, homemade, whole grains, no artificial or packaged food...so I'm sure that even if I go over TDEE sometimes I'm going to lose...and to be in control of my eating even when eating out (something i've struggled to control lately, and we eat out quite a lot).
Tip you are preaching to the converted - I don't eat processed food, the quality and taste of the food we eat is all important in this household, even on fast days everything has to be cooked from scratch BUT in the past I have had a sugar weak spot - I am now in control of my sugar intake - affirmations....I won't even post something suggesting otherwise.
I have now done 4 full weeks of this eating regime plus the fasts of the 5th week already. I have not lost anything for 2 and a half weeks which is not making me disheartened because I have lost 8lbs overall.
I think if I average a pound a week weight loss and the trajectory is down then I am happy.
According to MFP:
week 1 - 4692 under weekly goal (calories)
week 2 - 4075 under weekly goal
week 3 - 1941 under weekly goal
week 4 - 3262 under weekly goal
week 5 - 3460 under weekly goal
Now we all know that roughly -3000 calories is a pound of weightloss so the stats make sense - actually they're better than a pound a week, meaning that there is something particular about fasting that makes you lose more weight. The first 2 weeks I did 4:3 but the last 3 I've done 5:2.
I find the fasts days easy and I can easily imagine doing this for a very long time.
I don't understand the 'NO SNACKING' 
- is that on fast days? or just in general? Is that a personal thing? One of the things I love about eating days is having tea and cake in the afternoon which is an extra meal/snacking.
Hello all, glad I found you!
Evenings for me are the worst as I am at work and there are always lovely things being handed around (like chocolate and cake) but I am starting my second fast today and already done 12 hours - 16 will take me to 1.30pm and I will have some fridge raiders and a cup a soup I think.
Finding the actual fasting easier than I thought I would - yesterday I ate quite a bit out of boredom as I had to hang around waiting for my other half to come out of an interview.
What can I eat for fibre on a fast day? Have been having issues with digestion... Too much fruit/veg I think.
Hello all
Fast day yesterday, have just done a silly workout and am mustering up the energy to get up again and break my fast with an egg & bacon butty!
Fab weigh in this morning - now lost 11lbs since starting 5:2 6 weeks ago and that makes exactly 3 stone lost in all since I started the getting healthy lark! Whoop!
Good luck today fasters, it's worth the effort and remember you can eat tomorrow .
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LaurieFairy I take "no snacking" to mean people need to move away from the idea that they should never feel hungry. When TIP goes on a snack food industry rant, she's right; they have everyone convinced that at the first sign of a bit of hunger between meals, we should be eating their granola bar/yogurt (some with as much sugar per serving as a bowl of sugary cereal)/crisps to tide ourselves over to the next meal. This simply didn't exist before the 70s or 80s.
I'm not saying I don't eat between meals some days, but I find myself replacing more of that snacking with cups of tea or coffee. Fast days have shown me that a lot of my eating is boredom, anyway.
I suspect TIP has her own answer for that, but that's mine.
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