The 5:2 Thread number 20! Officially a score.

[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!

Oh and NSV: I finally got round to cashing in my reward points for good work done so far. I tried on and bought 2 very lovely and unusual dresses (in size small) and honestly couldn't believe how flattering and amazingly slim I look in them. I wanted to tell the lady helping me OMG I used to be fat and now I'm asking if you have this in a smaller size! But I restrained myself but I was inside.

I haven't tried them on at home yet so hoping the shop didn't have amazing optical illusion-type slimming mirrors!

Feel like giving up. Have done two fasts this week (monday and wednesday) and yesterday a mini fast where I only late lunch ...weigh the same today as I did before the the first fast of the week.
I feel like it's just not happening for me.
Allowing myself a couple of splurge days a week but apart from that being so good.

Ooooh, lovely Betsy, do describe the dresses!

Meandmyfour, how long have you been trying this way of eating? have you much to lose?

You're absolutely right saf. I can get so much food AND chocolate in that amount of calories. I feel my mindset may be changing (slowly, don't rush now...)

slow and steady wins the race and other platitudes

i'm hulking furniture around today as i rearrange the living room. nothing other than black coffee and water so far. will be taking the dawgs and boy out for a long walk at some point too. no difficulty in not eating but might struggle not to pour a glass of wine and soda to celebrate the sunshine.

Hi melanie, thanks for replying...I started in mid April and really just wanted to lose 7 or 8 pounds. I was 10.2 and for the first couple of weeks felt like it was going well, hit a low of 9.10 about two and a half weeks ago but since then seem to be stuck at 9.13...it's not the end of the world and I don't want to get all hung up about it but this WOE just seemed perfect for me as I hate diets, often naturally skip meals etc
I'm 5'6" and know that I'm not overweight but just would have loved to feel that I could quite easily get down to 9.7 without feeling like I was on a permanent diet. I'm just a bix fluxommed as to why it's not working. Don't majorly calorie count on NFD's but don't every really eat breakfast and apart from one or two days a week am generally pretty good (though I have noticed that I feel starving and ravenous once I do start eating the day after a fast, once that hunger switch is on.)
I'm waffling... ...just wondering whether this isn't for me but don't want to give up as your'e all doing so fantastically. Just feel a bit left out!!

meandmyfour I think you've just hit a natural plateau point - don't lose heart and it will start shifting again eventually. I am currently stuck too (at 10.2 having briefly glimpsed 9.13!), it's disheartening but it's just a process. You have hardly anything to lose so it's harder. Just think of the health benefits while you're riding it out...

As saf says - slow and steady

melanie One is a tea dress style with a really unusual print and the other is more of a winter/autumn tunic knit (on sale!) but with some interesting asymmetric shape details. I can't find either of them online to show you but woo to that as they must be quite unique!

betsy i have a few gorgeous very unique dresses/tunics that i bought last time i was genuinely slim that i haven't been able to bring myself to throw out. it would be wonderful if i could fit in them again.

clothes are so much more fun when you can wear what you want rather than worry about what you can get away with. the things i really like don't lend themselves well to podge.

saf Yes. I've always liked quirky/interesting clothes but I do feel like I've been hiding in non-descript stuff for a while, it's nice to feel bolder and brighter. I'm glad you've kept your interesting things, fitting back into them is a great goal to have.

Now if I could just find some good reasons to wear the nice clothes...

Betsy that's amazing! When I got into and did up a pair of size 10 trousers recently (even though I'd already been told they were generously cut!) I wanted to run, shrieking out of the changing rooms "They're a size 10, a size 10!!!" to anyone unlucky enough to be in the vicinity. But I didn't

Weird NSV for me today - was trying on stuff to pack for holidays (did I mention I was going on holiday on Wednesday? ) and lots of my usual summer stuff is just too big! Need belts on a couple of skirts and my all time favourite skirt literally fell off.
I really want to carry on losing and get to a comfortable 10st 7 but if I do, I will literally have to buy an entire new wardrobe which I don't really want (or can afford) to have to do!

Dotty, I felt a bit like that until someone on here recommended e-bay. I've replaced my wardrobe with much nicer clothes than I had before at a fraction of their real value.

Hi All!

Need some help if possible.

I am very new to this WOE. Is the general idea that two days of the week are 500 or less calories and on the other days you stick to your TDEE Calorie amount?

I want to lose around 10lbs. This diet sounds fantastic, I cant get my head around it working, it seems to good to be true?!

Do you all stick to your TDEE counts on feast days? What typically should we be eating on feast days?

Also what is the best TDEE calculator to use?

Thanks :)

good point French, might have to do just that but for now, am not entirely trusting that it'll come off and stay off so wouldn't want to either throw things out, or buy new, smaller things!

cupcake yes, it really is that straightforward!
Don't expect quick losses, it's taken me four months to lose 13lbs though I know others have lost much more, more quickly. Guess it depends how big you are to start with.
I do stick roughly to my TDEE on week days but tend to relax and eat over it at weekends. I use the TDEE calculator linked to at the top of this thread.
Feast days, just eat "normal", healthy meals. Like any good healthy lifestyle, most of it should be plant based, with some protein and a little carb but honestly, most of us here eat more or less what we like on NFDs (non fasting days) and as long as we don't go wildly over our TDEE, it works!
Welcome

Don't forget good charity shops for those 'inbetween' sizes which you will all soon find too big

Thank you Dotty342kids Your weight loss is very good.

This seems so do able for me! Only thing I worry about is at the weekend I do like a takeaway and treats and worry I will go way over.

I have used various calculators for my TDEE, each calculator has varied. Some say 1600 or less some say 1800 so I am very confused as to which is best?

So when I find out my TDEE I should just eat that on my feast days?

I posted before on this thread asking about the 3500 deficit equalling a lb loss, find it great that on this people still lose a pound and even more, even when there is less deficit than 3500 calories per week.

Thanks :)

cupcake yes, the idea is to eat your TDEE five days a week, and about 1/4 of your TDEE cals twice a week. This results in approximately 3000 cal deficit for the week, which should equal approximately a 1lb loss per week. Neither the TDEE or the FD cals are an exact science, so I would just try it at the figures you have, and see what happens. Bear in mind that weight loss is not terribly fast on this WOE, but it is very doable.

Some people prefer to eat a bit under their TDEE during the week day NFD, in order to eat a bit over their TDEE during weekend NFD. Think of it as trying to get an overall weekly deficit, rather than anything shorter term.

Hope that helps.

Had a good day today. My sister and her dc are staying for the weekend, our dd's were invited to a party this afternoon and we had planned to go for lunch while they were there. Instead after we dropped them off we decided we weren't actually hungry and went for a walk instead; for 3 hours. So instead of going for a calorific lunch we were burning calories instead :)

thanks betsybell - appreciate your thoughts. Have kind of given up today but will no doubt regroup and give it another go in a couple of days! xx

Had a little bit of an emotional day today. It must have been about 25 degrees in west London this afternoon but there was I shopping in Westfield with three layers - a t-shirt, sweatshirt and a jacket, the jacket I eventually had to carry and felt hot and bothered and self-conscious, probably more so than had I been wearing just a t-shirt and shorts. Even though I've lost a fair bit of flab and my confidence has increased I still feel the need to overdress sometimes in lovely weather, does anyone know what I mean? There were people there today much bigger than me wearing next to nothing for god's sake! It's ludicrous really.

Hi me. You may be not eating enough on your NFD's. You need to have a consistent contrast between your NFD's and FD's. Please don't give up.

cupcake I don't know my T.D.E.E. I can't be bothered to find out which has worked out fine for me so far but from what I've read about it, the advice from Betsy is great.

Thanks for your replies!

I am planning on doing a mon and tues as fast days as it is most do able for me and easily maintainable.

I suppose if I weighed myself after those days I would lose, but then put on again in the week.

Has any one else on the 5:2 fasted on a monday and tuesday? Or a double day block and then not for the rest of the week. If so When do you weigh yourself and how much have you lost?

Thanks all,

Keep up the hard work, it keeps me going knowing people are losing!

:)

Good morning all.

I weighed myself just now, am exactly the same as I was when I last weighed myself 2 weeks ago. I am going to fast today and Wednesday, this week. I have upped my exercise A LOT. I am a bit pissed off to be honest. . I did have a bit of a bender on Sat night though - not loads of food but gallons of wine, I suppose that didn't help much.

Anyhoo, cupcakexprincessx I fasted 2 days in a row last week, it was fine but as you can see I've not lost an oz.

Off now to catch up with the rest of the thread.

Cupcake, the general idea is to avoid consecutive day fasts if at all possible - mixing it up is what prevents the body going into famine mode and hanging onto calories. I do Monday and Wednesday, and tbh even that isn't as successful for me as Mon/Thurs was. Is there any other day you can manage except Tuesday?

Crystal, booooo! But you are small to start with, and a lot of people have a slow beginning. I posted about DH last week only losing 1-2lb in three weeks - well, he weighed again two days later and is now down 5lb, so clearly the scale is not king.

Fasting today. I realised I was falling into the diet trap of trying to eat less than TDEE on NFDs (my fitbit is set to weight loss, I need to re-adjust it because clearly I keep trying to please the mercurial little thing), so I made a conscious effort to just eat whatever I wanted yesterday, and I think I probably ended up around 2,500 cals. I'm hoping that helps.

Idk why I gained back my weight from my fast days. I'm doing insanity as well And had to fast consecutively for 2 days eating about 600-700 each day. But also on nfd I'm eating at a deficit. My tdee is avg 2700 so on nfd I eat 2400. Could this be hindering progress? I've gained all but 0.2 lbs back but my bf% has decreased a merely .3% with lbm increasing .8 lb and bf decreasing 1lb.

Was also thinking maybe my deficit is too large for only wanting to lose 15lbs. ?? I already get a 2000 cal deficit on each fast day I think maybe I will try eating full tdee on nfd instead of creating an additional deficit?? What do you all think?