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- 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.
There's a link to the aforementioned Horizon programme here.
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 by Dr Mosley himself, very informative if you're just starting.
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! Number 15! Our quinceañera!
GreenEggsAndNichts · 11/03/2013 15:33
Fasting today, but found it really hard and I'm so bloody cold and miserable. When are we going to get some spring like weather?
for the new thread Greeneggsandnichts as efficient as always.
Welcome to all the newbies
Ooh shiny new busy thread already!
Today is a fast day, aside from still being full of cold and it being bloomin' freezing today it's gone ok, plus as my last meal yesterday was lunch I'm guessing I had a nice 22 hours of zero consumption.
Just found myself foraging round the kitchen for something, had a few nuts and dried fruits, which has probably taken me over my calorie count but I'm not too strict about it, and realised it was the anticipated sugar cravings post-chocolate infused weekend. Now I know that I've stopped desperately scratching through the cupboards and settled myself with an aspartame laden low cal hot chocolate. I try to avoid the (aspartame) stuff completely but sometimes it's the lesser of two evils.
And there's actual cake and biscuits and chocolate in the house so I've done ok actually 
Good lord, the 15th thread!!
I'm 22 hours into my fast. Going to try and hang in for another hour before breaking. Fasting has gone really well today - no impulses to eat, no major hunger pangs. Even managed quite an intense cardio session at the gym. I think it's because I ate so much over Mother's Day weekend - my body is still fuelling itself from the food .
Anyone else more productive on fast days? Because I'm no longer breaking to get breakfast, lunch, snacks (I try and eat nothing until dinner) I'm getting loads done. It's a terrific bonus.
dines oh good, sorry I must have mis-read. And well done
Good idea Brambles I like to have my fast day food fairly easily accessible, too. :)
Oh just realised it was 11lbs lost barrier 
. Must read more carefully!
well done dotty - not sure you believed you could do it but you did 
glad the non fast days are going well rushka. some non fast days i overeat but then previously i was overeating pretty much every day so in context it's all good.
Thanks swallowedafly. Looking forward to eating normally tomorrow I have to say
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