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!

another one here who is doing plain 5:2 .Never done a zero fast and I go as long as I can without eating ( ie lots of fruit/ herbal tea and black coffee) until my 500 cal dinner. This is my 4 th month of this WOE and Ive lost 10 lbs. My waist is 5 inches smaller and ive gone down a dress size.
the only thing Ive done recently is change my fast days from Mon/thur to Tues / Thurs to try and speed up the weight loss. And Ill report on that ina few weeks time.

Well done moomin

Indon't know dorisshutt
Maybe just over is ok?
I have a low cal drink and remind myself I can eat tomorrow.

I'm glad it's way to early for me to even fancy a magnum emily and saf!

It's a fast day, the kids have been waking in the night and they've been pissing around since much too early. They are too old for all that nonsense - I'm not used to it anymore!

Today is going to be gruelling I reckon.

Sorry betsy
Good luck for today.

Thanks emily, I'll be thinking about magnums later I expect. Almond's my fave, I'm a sucker for anything nutty (ie high calorie!)

oh betsy i want to say i'll join you but i'm so crap at this of late! my son climbed into bed with me at some crazy hour in the night but fortunately we both just fell straight back to sleep. it's a killer dealing with night stuff when you're not used to it anymore.

meant to say thanks to those who responded to my Q about having time off and getting back into it again.

Betsy, DS has been thrashing around all night with a snotty, stuffy nose. Starting the day knackered is not a good feeling.

Doris, are you planning your 500 cals? I do, and also avoid too many carbs. I'm only on my second fast, but last time I had a cheesy omelette and salad followed by a Muller Light. I wasn't full, but satisfied. Do you drink with your meal?

right! sorry to post so much but...

i've just weighed myself and i'm 10.11.2 which is pretty close to my lowest which i glimpsed earlier in the week. so clearly my body is doing ok without the fasts. i also realised that whilst i'm not restricting calories i have essentially been doing fast5 in that i've only been eating between 4pm and 9pm and it seems that is working for my weight loss at the minute and presumably i'm still getting the fasting health benefits from long breaks between eating?

so maybe i will not think oh i've failed for a couple of weeks but instead think i've been doing fast5 to mix things up a bit. bit of a reframe for self esteems sake

also wanted to say to aka i've lost 17lbs in 15 weeks. we've been doing it the same amount of time and have lost about the same amount of weight (bearing in mind with my weirdo body i could be two pounds heavier tomorrow for no reason). so if you're not doing well enough than nor am i - or are we both doing fine????

saf we're both awesome!!

Tortoise good post. Just to reassure you - I've lost the bulk of the 22 lbs lost on 5:2 doing it plain old vanilla style: 2 non-consecutive days at 500 cals a week and 5 days eating normally to TDEE (averaged over the week as I tend to eat less during the week and more at the weekend). No calorie counting.

Only as neared goal weight did I think about trying a zero calorie 36 hour fast as I wanted to amplify the perceived health benefits.

But for the majority of my fasting journey has been basic 5:2 all the way. You can lose weight doing it by the book.

I do plan my meals, but it's the "I've eaten my meal, but I'm still starving" thing that I just can't cope with.

Last night I planned and ate a lovely stirfry with lots of protein (prawns and chicken), veg and a bit of rice (I need carbs to keep going), all for about 540 calories. However, 10 minutes later, it was like my body was yelling at me for more, rather than the usual thinking that it was nice and I could do with more, but choosing to leave it. It was full on hunger pangs so I ended up having wholemeal toast to try to kill the almost physical pain.

I'll not panic just now, I'm weighing in again Friday (and fasting so I have a clear conscience for a binge on Saturday while watching Eurovision) so I'll see what's happening - it may just be that's what my body needs.

Tortoise forgot to say that the majority of the maintainers on the maintainers thread have done, and still do, 5:2 basic only too.

Tortoise I'm half and half. I do 24hr no food fasts (though not zero fasts as I have to have some agave in my coffee and occasionally hit the diet drinks to stave off hunger) and I often come in under 500 calories. This isn't by design, its just I'm happy with some chicken broth and some sweet potato chips or a bit of bread in the evening of fast days. I find the fast days more sustainable this way as I'm not awaking the hunger beast. However I can't see myself getting to the point I wont have that evening meal. I calorie count on nfd as I am an anal-statistics bird and I like seeing how much I'm consuming. I certainly know I wasn't eating normally before. I am treating this as a diet for now, but this is making me very happy as I can see how sustainable this will be for me. I'm not really denying myself anything but just training myself to see junk like food as a treat rather than a necessity . This is the only diet system I've been on where I felt I could continue it happily indefinitely.

Thanks for all the congrats on the NSV btw. As betsy said, they are the best types of victory!

After a few hectic and yo-yo diet weeks I am finally back on track. DS has his first communion on 8 June and I have a dress for it that is just a bit too small. And it's a wrap dress so I could do with it being a bit too big if anything! I am finding that this is concentrating my mind wonderfully in non-fast days. I find the actual fasts fairly easy now - the trick lies in not pigging out on the others! That's always been my downfall.

Today's fast day is looking better than I thought - kids have been unusually charming, the sun is shining and I remembered to do day 2 of the squat challenge. I love the squat thing as I can do it while I'm getting dressed and doesn't require me finding my sports bra!

Have all the kids in the land decided to be snotty and nightmare-ridden overnight night? Seems to be a lot of it about on here - thanks for making me feel better about it folks :)

saf and aka You ARE both awesome (as am I - same loss in roughly same time )

Amazing how much lots of the people on here have lost. Well done. It's inspiring me to keep my nose out of the cupboards (though talk of mini magnums not helping - drool!)! NFD here but trying not to snack just for the sake of it.

Only thing that helps me is not keeping 'junk' in the house. I tell myself if I really NEED chocolate or similar, then I can go out to the shop and get it (and walk off some of it in the process!)

Exercise is what I am really lacking - other than lugging a 6 month old round wherever I go. Any other mums on ML got ideas to get me moving which are baby care friendly??

LTS I don't know - I used to walk miles with the pushchair which seemed to keep the weight in check when mine were infants - pick a baby friendly destination a couple of miles away and walk there.

I piled on the weight after I stopped pushing them round and had to start walking less far at toddler speed so it must do something! nothing to do with biscuit consumption

i'm SO glad to hear we're all awesome. i did wonder when aka was implying we're all failures

the thing i bear in mind is that whilst it may not seem a lot to lose in 15 weeks it hasn't FELT like 15 weeks. if i'd have been daily calorie counting or depriving myself of carbs or something it would have felt like ten years.

doris i have to leave it as late as possible and then have a really bulky filling meal just before i sleep - i'm like you in that once i eat i don't want to stop. so for me it's often been all day on nothing, get ds in bed, heat a can of beans with some added low fat grated cheese or philly and some shredded turkey ham and some chilli, scoff it and assume sleeping position quick. in some ways i found doing zero fasts easier because i never had to wake that damned beast just looked forward to my nightime cup of marmite drink instead.

Betsy me too - lost all my pregnancy weight pushing the buggy around for a few hours a day (used to get DD to nap in buggy so I could walk). Piled on weight when I returned to work.

Thanks Betsy. Yes, walking is the one thing i am managing. I use a baby carrier at the moment as living in Asia (terrible pavements!) but returning to UK soon, so back to buggy then.

It's getting pretty hot and humid here now. Maybe I can YouTube some kind of free exercise DVD and try and force myself to do it while the little one naps (with air con on full blast!)

Any recommendations?

All these terrifying tales of weight piling on after stopping BFing or return to work - eek. Thank god i I discovered 5:2 - hopefully will be able to avoid!! It is early days but finding the pace of it really suits me.

LTS Jillian Michaels does some good intense cardio & weights stuff - if you can find her Shred on youtube they're 20 minute workouts.

Another one here who just does plain old 5:2. I usually wait 16-18 hours before I eat the I have a small lunch and a small dinner and a few cups of tea. I do se my fitness pal but that's because I like it! I always eat up to or slightly over my tdee. I fast Monday and Thursday and I've lost 12lb in 12 weeks.

For anyone doing the squat challenge what are you doing? I found one that started at 20 and goes up by 5 each day then rest on day 10 then all way up to 100 squats then back to 50 squats and then going up in 5's till 100 again then another rest on day 27 then 80 squats ten up in 5s till 100 again. Does this sound right as someone was doing 130 the other day.
www.fit4lifesisters.net/squat-challenge.html this is the website it has other challenges on too

ELR I'm doing this one, day 2. In fact I've just done another 50 side squats because I'm highly caffeinated.

the thing i bear in mind is that whilst it may not seem a lot to lose in 15 weeks it hasn't FELT like 15 weeks. if i'd have been daily calorie counting or depriving myself of carbs or something it would have felt like ten years. (saf)

I completely agree! And, I no longer have that 'I can't wait until this diet is done, so that I can eat again' mentality.

Ok, so no one must misinterpret what I meant to say about 15lb loss. I am thrilled with that, and anyone else should be. My only point in saying that was that because I am doing ADF, and not 5:2, 'one' would EXPECT the loss to be greater than for a similar time on 5:2. Just that it shows I'm probably eating more on NFD than a 5:2-er is! That's all. Personally, I'm happy with it, it's working out well for my lifestyle, as I feel very comfortable sitting here with my milky tea and slice of cake, knowing that my weekly weigh in will probably still show a loss!