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 sweet 16!
GreenEggsAndNichts · 22/03/2013 20:05
PaintingRainbowSkies Welcome to the threads! Sometimes I think having to have new threads as often as we do is a bit irritating, but I think it helps get new people posting. 
I think they get so large and unwieldly, people don't feel like jumping in and getting lost in it all.
I agree, it truly is a WOE for me. I have to admit, I'm probably not in losing mode at the moment. Mum is visiting (so lots of cooking at home and eating out) among other things (house move) and I think normally I'd just accept that I'd be putting on a few pounds with her visit. However, I know for a fact that I am, at the very least, not gaining right now. If I'm the same when she's left I'll consider it a success.
I'll be truly back on next week, though. I'd like to lose a bit more before meeting my dad in Paris at the end of May. :)
Pile of snow out there today! And TOTM started today, would explain a bit of mood swinging I had the other day 
. It's always a nice bonus when it falls on a non-fast day, I have to admit.
Hope everyone is doing well out there today.
Enjoy dines sounds like you have a fantastic day ahead! Don't think about the weigh in, enjoy your day and fast again next week
I'm doing a mini fast today so nothing until late afternoon, then a nice meal and wine......can't wait!
Unexpected side effect of the weight loss. My feet have shrunk
. I'd not really noticed all winter as I've been wearing thick socks. But spring has arrived here, so I tried pn my shoes I want to wear with my (size 12) dress tonight and they are too big. I had to go out and buy new shoes!
I went up a size due to 3 pregnancies but never expected them to shrink back again 13 years later.
Thanks for the new thread GreenEggs, it's almost as if you waited for me to log off before posting it! found it though!
Carried on from previous thread:
SO MANY people are successfully doing it that WW / SW / diet columnists are starting to feel a tad insecure
Got any links showing these insecure columnists?
My issue is thus:
If 'SO MANY' people are doing 'the fast diet' now, presumably this is a result of the influx of media coverage - the same media coverage which portrays the diet as 'fasting for 2 days, gorging for 5'. But alas, the diet doesn't work when you gorge on the 5 (I learnt this the hard way). So either those who are losing weight following the media representation of the diet must have been pretty obese to start with, or you're mistaken about the amount of people actually on the diet. For instance, I don't know a soul IRL following this WOE.
It's also going to be harder to lose weight as your BMI is pretty low, so 4lbs in a week is really good going!
That's true, it is harder as I try to shift these last few stubborn pounds. My body is screaming for food (even on non-fast days). This is certainly the most grueling diet I've ever been on.
The bran flake diet was the best (and most successful)
Surely, BMJ the sign of a "successful" diet / way of eating is one that is your last ever diet? If you ever need to diet after it, then it was, intrinsically, a failure?
Any way of eating that you do, to achieve weight loss, has to be long term and sustainable and many of us are saying that for the first time in our lives as dieters, this really feels as though it is.
The proof, of course, will be in the pudding eg. 2-3 years down the line how many of us are still happy with our weights and feeling good but early indicators seem positive from those over on the maintenance thread.
And I know loads of people doing this in RL too even though I often have to out myself before they'll say so! I think people are still a bit scared of being seen as trying another faddy diet - only time and results will change that
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