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
please all "experienced posters" keep posting you're support & information is invaluable - thank you
welcome hopandegg - i started at 12 and have the same goal weight as you ideally/eventually. august is 4 and a bit months away so i reckon being in the tens then is a realistic goal
Thanks swallowed
The biggest change I've noticed is that I've entirely gone off alcohol - I used to drink half to a bottle on Friday nights - I can't manage a glass now without feeling lightheaded, hungover and generally weird.
It's not changed my eating yet - it did at the beginning but the last two weeks I've eaten loads of crap - and I really am putting it down to the extra 2 weeks of winter and the fact I'm really in a grump about it. Also work has been horribly stressful - but the stress will go next week.
Welcome hop. One thing which might help is not To think in 'diet' terms - ie with the emphasis on weight loss. All the scientific evidence points towards clear health benefits from fasting. The weight loss is an added bonus - the rate of loss will depend on how many fast days you build into your week.
Whether you lose weight or not in a particular week you will still be getting health benefits - which makes it easier to keep with it while you tweak the numbers to get the weight loss you want.
I'm currently at 30lbs lost since August - today wearing my size 10 skinny jeans 
- I love this WOE!
mummytowillow, I?ve been doing ADF or 4:3 for over 6 months now and have lost around 22 lbs. That may seem slow but I?m finding this WoL so easy to stick to that I?m quite happy now for the weight to come off as it comes off now. You really can eat normally. I didn?t monitor intake on non-fast days at all for the first six months: couldn?t I was in China eating Chinese takeaway twice a day every single non-fast day (that?s proper Chinese fare though, I?m not advocating living off the food in your local takeaway by any means!) and lost weight just fine. I?m monitoring my non-fast day intake on non-fast days for a couple of weeks at the moment to make sure I know what a ?normal? amount of UK food for my body is because I put on weight in the last two weeks (only been back in Blighty for 3 weeks) which I think is mainly down to spending the fortnight face down in a tin of celebrations (though TOTM arrived today so that may explain both choccy need and weight gain). Ooh, that was rather ramble, sorry. Aim to eat ?normally? (that is to say as much as your body needs to maintain its weight, not diet portions and not gorging) on non-fast days, the weight loss comes from the calorie deficit caused by the fast days.
Mintyy, swallowed, spiral, and others, don?t go, please keep posting. I?m preferring to ignore the silly posts and look forward to reading the posts from people like you.
New starters: please do have a look at the links and tips thread. I had a go at a quick start guide a few threads back and some found it helpful so Laska posted it on the tips thread on 25 Feb so do have a read.
woahthere, sometimes fast days go wrong. Don?t worry, if it?s too complicated to salvage just chalk it up to experience and have another go on your next planned fast day and? bingo! Back on track already.
I'm not making soup 
I'm buying soup. I think people who manage to cook meals for themselves or family on fast days are heroes - me, I avoid the kitchen and cooking as much as possible and use my energy in other areas.
I even get dh and dd to make their own dinner when I'm fasting.
I genuinely think the main reason I find fasting easy is because I avoid food. I even start eating as late in the day as I can bear because if I eat breakfast or at lunch then it kicks my hunger in.
Thanks for the replies.
Just worked out my TDDE and its 1900. So if I'm correct I can eat normal, healthy food upto 1900 calories a day. Keeping to 500 on fast days.
Sounds a lot but good to me
LaurieFairyCake, I?m buying soup too! Nice tins of ready prepared chunky veg soup. I tend to avoid spending time with ingredients on a fast day until the point they go in my mouth.
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Laurie I feel the same! I tend to time my fast days so there are leftovers for DS, or he gets something from the freezer (chicken, peas, some shape of potato). DH fasts the same days I do, generally, which makes it easy for both of us. I often have a Covent Garden soup or a Innocent veg pot (I swear, I'm not a shill for these companies but if they're out there and want to send me a free case... ). When the weather is better, I like to make a big salad with ham, mustard, lettuce etc, I quite like those.
mummy yep you've got it. :)
Mintyy, I want to hear from you. This WoE isn't just about weight loss and for many it isn't even primarily about weight loss. This thread is for everyone following this WoE whether losing weight or not so please do keep posting.
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