5:2 Diet Thread! Number 15! Our quinceañera!

[GreenEggsAndNichts]

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!

I think losses of about 1lb a week or 4lb in a month should be celebrated. Think what has happened to cause that loss.

For 2 days you have restricted your food intake and for 5 days you have started learning what eating normally means for you and your circumstances .

So, the weight has gone and you learn how to keep it gone no major panic when you reach your goal because you will have so much knowledge about your own relationship with food learnt along the way.

This morning someone said to me 'do you mind if I say you're looking really well ?'

Did I mind ! I'd been up working all night and that is what they noticed !

Weight loss is only part of this WOE

Stick with it, add up those lbs per week in terms of months.

Lilleth I'd say it looks like a good practice week. Was it you that said you do your shopping on a Friday and then read up on this the day after? If so then I think you've had a good go at doing some calorie restriction and getting in some fasting times. I think based on that you should be positive about doing 5:2 when you've had a chance to plan your fasting day food and get some shopping in for it!

I'm so tired! I fasted successfully yesterday, but had to get up twice in the night to wee as I'd had do much to drink!!

An annoying side effect indeed!

Thanks Nurse yes that was me who looked into this properly on Sat and I do my shopping on a Fri. I just wanted to see what I could do this week. I was aiming for 800-1000 cals monday, but I didn't realise how many calories things were, but now I can plan for that.

Sorry I got a bit arsey up there ^ I knew it wasn't strictly 5:2 this week and Im not sure if I'll get it right for a few weeks just yet (its going to take a while especially for a fussy eater like me who doesn't like the texture of most veg), but I was under the impression that if a big meal is had then its good to have a fast which is what I was really wondering.

good point and this diet definitely fits in well with my life and it feels as if I could eat like this long term, whereas usually with a diet I'm looking forward to the 'end' so that I can eat more again. Am also definitely eating in a better way on the other days. for example if I've had a big lunch out I don't eat again in the evening or until I'm really hungry whereas before I always ate at mealtimes no matter how stuffed I felt. I've got 19lbs until I reach my pre baby goal weight (smallest baby is nearly 5!!!) so I guess I should think of it as 19 or so weeks away.

This week my weight was exactly the same as last week...however I am very 'bunged up' as I didn't drink enough water during my fast days. This can make a huge difference.

I remind myself: I am doing this for health reasons and any weight loss is a bonus. (And what a bonus - I am now thinner and more healthy than I have been for most of my adult life.)

Along with not drinking enough water, I also proved to myself why I should not keep any of my old binge-foods in the house. Under stress (and there's a lot of that in my life right now) I will automatically head to the cupboard and search for crackers or nuts.

I know that 5:2 is 'eat whatever you like' 5 days'...but the better quality food you choose those days, the better the result. I have chosen to cut out: sugar (apart from that in fruit), deepfried foods, most processed food, sodas, eating between meals.

It was a shock to observe myself being attracted back to my old ways...yet reasonably easy to get back on track, too. (When I think of past binges, a few rice cakes, a handful of nuts and two cans of beer aren't actually that 'bad'!)

Fasting tomorrow. Today: a good, fast walk, stretching, nothing between meals.

Good luck to everybody today.

BMJ I don't worry about each individual weigh in, I just look at the bigger picture iyswim and the downward trend. I'm just trying to demonstrate that you can have weight gains that don't really matter as the shift is downward overall.

Shoppingbags 1lb a week is about average for this WOE and on the WOE that weight will stay off - far better than losing 5lbs in a couple of weeks and then put it straight back on (and more) as per most restrictive diets.

lilleth You don't need special food for this diet, just less of it. Ideally mostly veggies and a bit of lean protein but a tin of soup plus a couple of boiled eggs will do the job nicely. Maybe aim to start fasting on Monday when you've had a weekend to prepare yourself & shop? At the moment you're wanting to calorie restrict every day which isn't the point at all and you're setting yourself up for failure unnecessarily! Just 2 days fasting, the rest should be normal eating.

lilleth sorry, missed your next post! By the way, SwallowedAFly seems to swear by eating a tin of baked beans with a dollop of low fat cream cheese as one of her meals on her fast days so maybe that sort of food would appeal to you if you're not a big veg fan?

artemis - woohoo! glad it finally shifted well done for sticking at it.

lilleth you don't need special low calorie food - nor do you need to like lots of veg. you just need to dramatically reduce how much you eat twice a week. on fast days i tend to eat eggs, canned soup, baked beans - that sort of thing. eg. today i've had nothing yet and will save all my cals for a big bowl of baked beans with some grated cheese and shredded turkey ham stirred in. you don't need specialist food if you want to do this.

today is going more easily than yesterday when i felt really burnt out so hopefully will be a proper fast day. nearly 5 already so only a couple of hours till i get ds in bed and make my dinner and climb in bed myself. rock and roll lifestyle here.

Wildwater In agreement about changing the quality of my diet - being healthier makes me want to keep being healthier and I've also found my body objects to a lot of foods that would have once been fine! I've also noticed that when I felt like I've 'binged' that, compared to my old eating habits, could barely be classed as more than a bit of a fairly healthy snack! :)

much x posting occurring there! ha at being known for baked beans. when i started eating this way i was obsessed with boiled eggs in my handbag now i've moved onto the saving grace of baked beans

others are really adventurous with recipes and variety - personally if i started fannying around cooking complex stuff or handling loads of ingredients it would make me hungry. i just keep it simple.

plus i'm about as domesticated as a ferral cat and can't stand cooking.

In fact, fasting with a partner can be wonderful. My DH has been fasting with me for nearly three months now and it has been nothing but mutually supportive. It's so much better doing it together; not having to worry about cooking something different for him...

Saf Ha! I forgot about the shredded turkey - knew there was something else in there! I'm the opposite, I would not be able to stick to this if I knew I had to eat the same foods each time... again there's that wonderful versatility of this WOL. Also, I love hearing about what other people are eating and I guess that's why I remember your baked bean and boiled egg habit .

i'm finding on non fast days i am being a bit more adventurous with my eating and cooking because i want to make the most of eating without going mad on calories. i am definitely cooking more meals and eating more veg and variety on non fast days than i was doing previously.

tomorrow is already set though as i have remaining creme fraiche and smoked salmon to use up from the last time i had spaghetti - it will be my yummy carb fest of the week but i will do some veg with it which before i would have skipped so i could fit more pasta on my plate

I agree that this has a beneficial effect on your overall eating habits.
On fast days we either have a vegetarian (pulse / veg based) dinner, or a chicken based dinner. Either way, it's usually super healthy and yummy. Weekends we just eat what we like but I often find, if busy, that I miss either breakfast or lunch so even though what I do eat isn't necessarily very healthy, I'm probably not going too madly over my TDEE either.
And on the other weekdays I'm trying to do one mini fast plus two "normal" days, and again, am less inclined to eat junk.
Though have by no means given up my chocolate habit!!

shoppinbagsundereyes, I know what you mean about the "looking forward to the 'end'". I feel like I've finally been freed of that so now I'm fairly content to just keep going and think about my weight in terms of months and years rather than how many more weeks I have to deprive myself before I can resume eating 'normally', because now this is normal.

Another negative keytone stick. What gives?

what is a keytone stick?

I guess its a wee stick for checking to see if you are in ketosis, didnt know such products existed

Yay I've almost completed my second fast day. I fasted completely for 23.5 hours and managed quite easily. Probably from 4pm I felt a bit uncomfortable and nauseous, however I still managed a supermarket shop without buying junk food (I did buy a pack of chocolate fingers at my daughter's request but told her we weren't opening them tonight).

I've just had my meal. Cauliflower and pea curry with a spoonful of low fat natural yoghurt and a pitta bread. There was a dinner plate full of food so I didn't feel deprived and I really enjoyed it.

My next fast will be Thursday or Friday, need to have a look at my recipes
for something tasty for my 500 calories.

trace wonders why on earth somebody would want to spend money on something that tells you something so irrelevant?

katiegirl well done

Well another fast completed. That's my 5th, breezed through it for 23 hours, could have gone other but DP and DS were hungry and I like us to still eat together. I've drunk more water today as I know I've been forgetting and I had salad and omelette for tea. I'm pretty sure that was on or around 500 cals, I find MFP is often very inaccurate

I had to do loads of pee samples for ketones when I had HG, aren't ketones a bad thing?

To my knowledge, ketones are evidence of fat burning. But these sticks don't show jot! Even though I've got stinky breath.

Got these sticks off my DH cause he's type 1 diabetic.

I just committed the cardinal diet sin and bound to jinx it all now. I bought a skirt in a size too small. I was 24hrs into a fast and think I must have been on some kind of high. I could have bought the size that fitted but figured it would be too big in a couple of months. Oh well, I'll hang it up somewhere and try to us it as motivation.

lilleth, I didn't mean to upset you earlier. I think I misunderstood your question.

BMJ as far as I understood it it takes a few days to go into keytosis. If you low carbing on eating days then you may get some keytones, otherwise I wouldn't expect to on this woe.