The 5:2 Diet Thread number 19! Cup of tea? or three?

[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 a 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. (I highly recommend this for an overview)

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!

Ooh, horlicks light. Nice.
Good idea for a treat. I usually only have a homemade broth on a FD so that would probs be ok.
Soothing.

How does 16:8 work, organisation - wise?

16:8 is eating only during a daily 8 hour window - I am eating between 9am and 5pm each day, so therefore fasting for the 16 hours between 5pm and 9am the following day! You can choose your own hours to suit. Hope that makes sense!

Completed sixth fast today, still baffled about how OK this WOE is! Have been using the Fast Diet recipe book and made a lovely aubergine curry tonight. Some great recipes in there. The red pepper soup is amazing!
Wanted to ask those who have been doing this longer, whether there is any thinking around the spacing of the 2 fasts? I do Mon/Wed and it then feels weird to have such a long gap between Wed-Mon. Feels like cheating!
Would I be better to try and space it out more?
Thanks for the thread(s) - I find it really supportive.

I always did Mon and Weds as long as it suited my schedule. Monday is a popular day after a weekend of eating more freely!

2nd fast of he week completed successfully :)

I was just thinking about my day tomorrow and it may turn into an unintentional fast. I hope not but I'm so busy at work tomorrow, I've got a stock taker coming at 8.30am, a meeting at 10.30 which is when I would normally take a break and have some breakfast, I'm also short staffed so have to work all through to 5pm with no break, then rush off to do school pick up then get home by 6pm. Aargh, what to do?

postmanpatscat, that's reassuring. I have been trying out various combinations, and this week Monday and Wednesday worked for me, and I did them successfully (in fact yesterday, Wednesday, I was still only at 300cal at 9.30pm, although it's my most active day; I had a large banana to see me through the night but I could have done without it) - but now I'm a bit worried that four days of eating normally will put me back to square one. It is easy to get competitive with oneself, isn't it?

I've been appreciating all the talk about 'the spirit of the diet' and pushing oneself. I have been noticing that we all start off with a version of 'gosh, I can fast for two days and eat anything I want for the rest!' and then the actual thread seems more like 'I will do three fast days this week, I will try zero cal, I am keeping below TDEE on the other days'. And that's fine, obviously - I'm not at all implying that it's disordered eating - but it has been making me read along and wonder whether the original diet, the pure 'eat what you want within reason/fast for two days' idea, is actually workable, or whether it just seems workable because in reality its proponents are practising a more restricted diet than MM suggests.

So. Hearing from those of you who are/have been genuinely just doing 5:2 is making me feel relieved, because I'm slipping into worrying about every calorie on NFDs and I don't want to go down that path.

This one is going to be hard. DS has a cold and can't sleep. Yaaaaawn.

Tortoise, the talk of extra fasts and low cal NFDs is putting me off tbh. I'm just doing my fast with one 500 cal meal, then eating whatever I like on the other days. I am tracking with MFP for now, simply because I've got into such a bad habit of overeating that I don't know what 1900 cals looks like. If I didn't I think I'd be putting away 50% too much.

Oh, good. It's funny, what other people do shouldn't really make a difference to what's right for me. But I know myself, I get competitive and I want to do things "the best way", but I really have to make sure this is sustainable.

In which spirit, and because it's payday, I am going to make it a rule today to have literally whatever I fancy.

I've been doing 5:2 since last September. I've never done a zero fast nor am I partucularly tempted. I've never done 2 days together or more than 2 days in a week. I don't count on NFDs (but did when I hit a plateau). I do eat what I want (including chips , pastry, cake, wine) but how much I want has changed so my portions are smaller. I'm still 29lbs lighter though.

Don't let it put you off this WOE. It is simple and it works. You can change it around if you want to but you don't have to.

Tortoise - wanted to say thank you for your post. I have been feeling a bit uncomfortable on this thread for the reasons you have said but you have put it more eloquently and tactfully than I could

I think you're less likely to hear from those of us who are "just" doing plain old 500 cals 2 days a week - it's only the variations that people have questions about/ need advice on/ want opinions on that consequently takes up the most space in message boards (here, MFFP, Facebook, fastdiet forum, its the same all over tinterwebz)

The fundamental attraction for me has always been - do whatever works for you.

Just quickly wanted to report a 2.5lb loss this morning which takes me into the new stone bracket by 0.2 of an lb. So that's 5lb in 2 weeks.

Makes the struggle of yesterday worth it.

And today I can eat

Another one here who does plain old 5:2, usually with 2 meals on fast days and doesn't count calories. I'm on my 5th month of doing this WOE and close to my target weight having lost around 17lbs. It works and it's relatively easy so see no reason to make it harder for myself.

If I want a challenge then I work what I can do to tone up via exercise rather than eat less.

Thanks littlepeas

Well done chester

I'm doing the same as you tortoise 500 cals in one meal on a fast day.
I don't check calories at all on a NFD, just try not to snack (much) and keep portions smaller than before. I had chip shop chips the other day and shared hem with ds. Yum. No guilt. (apart from giving my ds chips )

But it's interesting for me to hear about the other ways of doing IF too.
I love this thread.
I'm really not sure whether to fast today or tomorrow. That's the tricky bit for me now.

tortoise i've never calorie counted on nfds and i've lost over a stone so far so it can work. the 'within reason' is what some people seem to struggle with hence calorie counting. or for some they're so used to calorie counting they'd feel anxious if they didn't.

i haven't become a massively healthy eater - still like eating peanuts and magnums and maltesers (mmm maltesers) and the odd takeaway. so i think in my case it is only the fasting that's done it. most of the time i've been doing this i did 500cals for fast days - i think i've only done two zero fasts, maybe three.

the thing is that 5:2 and the 500cal bit is not really a diet that needs to be done in a prescribed way. the issue is that fasting has health benefits and can be a more sustainable way to lose weight than daily restriction. HOW you do that fasting, how often, how long for etc is up to the individual - drM found it sustainable for him to do it two days a week with 500cals on those days. some find eating in a small window each day without calorie restriction - think there's a fast5 site that promotes that, others do longer fasts less frequently.

i think what's happening on this thread sometimes is that people who have long been on calorie controlled diets are adding in the fasting but keeping up the calorie tracking even on non fast days which wouldn't work for me as i'd miserable counting every calorie every day and doing fasts.

sorry long waffle but yes you can lose weight just from doing the fasts. even when i long plateaued i refused to start calorie counting. perhaps things would have gone faster if i did but i wasn't prepared to and i'm a stubborn thing.

Sorry, I meant fork doh!

I love this thread BTW. Thanks everyone.

saf mini magnums are your friend (they are definitely mine )

emily yes the trouble is they come in multi packs

i should add my exercise levels haven't really changed either. i walk a lot as that's my transport and i make an effort to get up and move about regularly at work but that really hasn't changed.

Ooh, just remembered. I had a mint magnum he other day. Full size. It was lush.

Completed my second fast of the week yesterday, it is getting easier! No headaches either, think it's because I allowed myself some tea with milk after 12.30pm. Had my weigh-in this morning, and I'm 9st 7.5, so a total loss since 29th April of 5.75lb. Am happy with that.

I am sticking to 5:2 also, and just using MFP to mainly make me stop my bad snacking habits! I think that if I started trying to restrict at other times, it would make me miserable and destined to fail.

Congrats to those who have lost - I lose track of this thread so quickly!

I have a quick question (again! It seems to be all I do!). I'm really struggling with the 500 calories, although not with the fasting; I just get to dinner time and really struggle not to keep eating - I'm happy with anything up about 575/600 mark, but last night it was over 700 and I was still ravenous.

Any tips to reduce this?

I prefer mini magnums. They have a better ratio of chocolate to ice cream.