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 17- ready for Spring! Any day now!
GreenEggsAndNichts · 08/04/2013 13:21
Of course we will have you mrschambers 
We are here now:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/big_slim_whatever_weight_loss_club/1738227-The-5-2-Diet-Thread-number-18-Breaking-out-the-summer-wardrobe
From experience, how long of staying off sweets does it take until you are able to have something like a pudding or chocolate bar, and stop at that?? One week obviously wasn't long enough. I think I've set myself back a bit by giving in.
aka I'm about 3 pages behind on this thread due to travelling but thought I'd give you an answer about this. I've read that it can take anything from two weeks to 3 months but that is a vast difference. I'm sure that 1 week isn't enough time to make a difference to taste buds but any time sugar free has to be good.
When I did my 4 months sugar free (due to yeast infection etc) I cut out not only the obvious but even the obscure. At first it was a struggle but by about week 2-3 it was easy and by the end of the 4 months I was really worried about letting sugar back in to my diet. The obscure were introduced first, then fruit, yoghurt, milk and eventually and very slowly (like once a week) the naughties like cakes, puddings and choc. I was worried that once I started letting them back in I'd lose control as I know how addictive sugar can be, but that was June 2012 and at Xmas I still had control even though I ate yummy things.
I've just been away for 2 weeks at my sisters, working, and managed some control the first week but the second was a disaster as once I really started on her biscuits etc etc the demon sugar had me in it's grips 
.
I've put on 3 lbs but I know that by the end of this week about 2 of those will be gone and the rest next week, that's why I love this woe. But for the next 2 weeks at least I am going to be sugar free to try to gain back my control (only the obvious sugars not the obscure ones) and then I will start to allow myself something delicious again once a week
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