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
It's about the only positive thing I've done today! Eaten my body weight in chocolate, it twice as annoying as usual as I'm not even a chocolate person! Grrr 
mickportly been on this woe for about 8 months and lost 21 lbs (and two dress sizes) so far with just 2 lbs to go to target. It gets easier and easier as time passes and I feel more energised than ever. I'm now looking forwards to continuing some form of fasting to maintain this healthy lifestyle 
Hi greeneggs have you noticed how much weight this thread has put on 
EllenBrody
Don't worry about the chocolate. Have a faff play with text instead
shopping poor you
It's mis when everyone is getting results but it sounds like you know you need to find a better balance re the take aways
katie v interseted in your feat sald Taste as good as it sounds?
bvb thanks for that, I think I'll give it a go. You know it's working when it's agony to sit on the loo & your legs almost give way under you as you go down stairs
To the samphire question, steamed or briefly blanched to cook. Lovely with fish/crab & lemon.or lashings of butter
Postman pat congrats on ofsted!
peplum I can identify with the baggy knickers! No more vpl just creases & crumples! (I do likegiant comfy ones)
French You should be proud & pleased with your body! It's the only one we get & the greatest gadget we own! It's a good feeling to not feel disappointed/ashamed of what's in the mirror & our bodies deserve for us to take care of them.
That said I'm planning on camembert in puff pastry with lashings of wine for my feast day today. Hope you all have a lovely w/e.
Hi Peplum, thanks for asking about the job. Going through the dreaded consultation process at the moment .
However your comment about 'baggy knickers' did make me laugh
Slight glimmer of hope on the horizion with potential job share and then a bit of consultancy work elsewhere - so fingers crossed. Have to say being on 5:2 actually helps as I feel in control of something and it gives me a different focus. Weight's not falling off, more like dripping off but at least it's off.
Well done Skinidin fab progress.
May well be joining you tomorrow Swallowed need a bit of a boost
TIP inspiring stuff but so envious 
shoppingbagsundereyes, are you teeny weenie? If not, it may be that you aren?t eating enough. A 3000 calorie weekly deficit based on 1500 a day TDEE means around 1300 kcals on normal eating days. For most people that?s a diet portion not a normal portion. Many people have found that increasing their normal day calories to around TDEE has actually helped to shift the weight. Aim to maintain your weight on your normal eating days and leave the weight loss bit to the fast days only. I?ve long since given up trying to explain that kind of thing logically and have satisfied myself with ?the human body is a much more complex machine than a calculator?. Maybe worth a try.
MickPortly, I?ve been doing this since 4 September 2013, so over 6 months. I started off on ADF then went to 4:3 somewhere around the 3 month mark. I started the day after my plane landed in China, didn?t monitor my normal day eating at all and found that after a week or two I naturally started eating a sensible amount of food on non-fast days. My first weigh in when I got back to the UK 26 weeks later showed I?d lost 23 lbs. I?ve put on a pound in the last fortnight due to excessive consumption of chocolate (if you ever go to China, don?t eat their chocolate, it?s yucky) but the fast days are such a habit now I?ve found carrying on with the fasting just fine while adjusting to being back in the UK. Once the need to stuff myself with choccy dies down (it will, novelty will wear off just as novelty of being able to eat whatever I want on a normal day did) I?ll lose that pound and carry on toward my goal.
I even managed a fast day the day I caught two of my three flights back to the UK, which included lugging around 40kg of luggage across a huge Chinese city on public transport and a 24 hour fast which I broke with the teeny tiny ham roll they gave us on the first flight at 6pm. That fast day was easy peasy. I have the odd tough fast day and have abandoned about 5 altogether, but I don?t think of them as failures I just think of those weeks as being 5:2 weeks instead.
The best thing about the fasting for me is how easy it is to fit into my life. The only other weight loss method that has worked for me in the past is daily calorie restriction, but I find that takes a lot of willpower and a lot of effort. It also leads to a feeling of deprivation. I find the fasting only requires willpower for a day at a time. It does take effort and planning, but nowhere near as much as daily calorie restriction. Best of all, I don?t feel any deprivation. If I see something I want on a fast day I know I can have it tomorrow. Whenever someone gives me a cake or a sweet on a fast day I just wrap it up, put it in my bag and enjoy it the next day. So I would say this is definitely sustainable. I?m even more enthusiastic about fasting that I was when I started over 6 months ago. For the first time I actually believe I can lose the excess weight and actually keep it off for good.
I have had plateaus. I had one end of November through to beginning of January where in 8 weeks I lost about 3 lbs. But because this WoE is so easy to stick to I just kept on going and then the weight started to come off again. I?ve never been able to stick to a diet before once the weight loss slowed down. My weight loss to start with was quite quick. I?m not exactly sure how much as the scales I had in China weighed only in kilos and I suspect weighed somewhere around 5-7 lbs lighter than my UK ones, but I reckon in the first month I lost 7-9 lbs but the loss soon slowed to an average of 1lb or less per week. Less than a pound a week would be really disappointing on daily calorie restriction as I would feel I wasn?t being rewarded enough for my effort, but as this WoE isn?t that much effort I?m quite happy to let the weight come off at its own rate now.
As for health and nutrition, I'm quite happy I'm getting enough nutrition. Before starting I had bad skin, problems sleeping, a permanent feeling of tiredness throughout the day and quite bad anxiety. When I started I noticed pretty quickly that I was sleeping easily, had a lot more energy during the day and my skin cleared up. I still get a bit of anxiety (caused by stuff I won?t bore you with) but it?s much less than before even though the situation that aggravates it hasn?t improved. Some days I feel positively bouncy, which was unheard of before this WoE.
piemashandliquer, have a scroll down to frenchfancy?s post on Mon 18-Mar-13 at 06:56:06. There she reposted a previous post of mine which might help you to clear up your 16-hour fasting question. You?re not the only one who?s asked and you?re not being stupid.
Ooh excited!! wildwater is up! Never mind the 5:2, give us some weather porn to drool over, I'm frickin freezin here! 
at dh for not ordering oil3 times in a row this winter
shopping I tried out my scales all over the house when I first got some! On a carpeted floor I weighed 7 stone whereas at the time I was more like 12! Checked them everywhere to make sure where they finally ended up would give me a proper reading. Though I was tempted to leave them on the carpet of course .
shoppingbags, sounds like you're a similar shape and height to me. I'm 5'3.5" and started off at 12st7 
but am now around 10st12 or so . I look pretty good at 10st4 too, even though my BMI at that weight puts me technically overweight by about a pound. That's probably how I let myself get to 12st7, because although technically obese I only looked a little overweight.
I agree, scales are best on hard surfaces. I even make sure I put the scales on the same square of lino in the bathroom as our bathroom floor is a bit uneven and the scales fluctuate a bit depending on where I put them.
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morning anyone else knee deep in snow today? i heard it was spring you know.
well scales say 11.2 today after an eating day which i was fully expecting and am doing an extra fast today. hopefully will surpass the 11.0.8 i was at after my last fast day.
last night i kind of tried to pig out and failed well maybe it was pigging out by normal people's standards but nothing compared to before starting fasting. i did eat the food i fancied yesterday though and didn't restrict myself on the wine.
i am another who has a specific tile in the kitchen i put the scales on for a consistent reading.
today i am going to attempt to make myself tackle the laundry mountain and do ironing - it will at least keep me standing up and moving. must do the yoga as well - confess i haven't done it at all in a while possibly because i had such long days at work this week and did a lot of walking everyday. no excuse today though.
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