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!
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
The 5:2 Thread number 20! Officially a score.
GreenEggsAndNichts · 20/05/2013 08:27
It's my birthday on Wednesday and I'm planning to bake some cherry bakewell muffins with DD. I imagine my DGM will make a birthday cake. We're planning a creamy chicken casserole for tea and there will also be wine and nibbles. Don't think I'll bother with MFP that day 
Welcome all new 5:2 ers .Re: Mimi and her sodding 21lbs off in 12 weeks[ 
I agree with dotty we all lose weight differently which is so evident on reading these threads. I seem to be in a constant plateau..
Have been doing this since Beginning of Feb and still only 10 lbs loss after 17 weeks !
Started at 11 st 2 ,now 10 st 6. My pattern of weight loss seems to be stay the same for 3 weeks ,lose half a pound ...stay the same for 3 ..lose a half.. I don't know what I'm doing wrong.Im rigid with it , I stay within TDEE ,I eat 500 in 1 evening meal on fast days and I DON'T snack TIP.
I don't particularly want it to be another 17 weeks before I lose another 10 pounds but I may just have to accept that.Anyone else as slow as me?
How's it going saf? Hope you're staying away from the peanuts 
I had my soup earlier but it wasn't a very nice one so just had half of it. Kettle on for a cup of tea with milk, that'll be me done for the day then at about 300 cals.
I'm planning a run for the morning, not been for a couple of weeks so it'll be a tough one. Then 100 squats to do for 30 day challenge!!!
For those not snacking another fabulous link (PDF):
www.quickanddirtytips.com/static/nutrition-diva-snacks.pdf
"Feeling hungry is not a medical emergency" 
.
We're fasters, we know this right? So surely we can apply it to NFDs too!
had two bowls of my stew, half a glass of wine and am resisting raiding the cupboards for more food. thanks for asking 
going to sleep now.
Evening! I'm finally having my dinner, after a very busy evening, being out and about with school-related things with the DDs. I am really happy with how my fast day went today, it's definitely getting easier. I think it helped that I felt in a really positive mood- I was actually looking forward to my fast (I think because I had four NFDs in a row). I threw myself into the housework, and was dancing around to Bruno Mars as I did so . I kept myself going on peppermint and nettle tea, and the odd black coffee. I did hit a low point at around 2.30ish, and felt real tired, but half an hour later had to do the school run, and then didn't have time to think about it. I even took the DDs to Subway to get them something to eat, as we didn't have time to go home between appointments. I had a cup of tea, with milk in it, about an hour ago when I got in, and now have a spicy prawn linguine ready meal (425kcal). I'll go to bed soon.
I definitely need to join the no-snacking club. This is my downfall. I find it relatively easy to say no to food all day when fasting, but on a NFD, I tend to justify snacking as being ok. It's silly though, as it's never satisfying, and I only end up feeling rubbish for doing it. I've been and bought some bovril, and as well as having this on my FDs, I will have a cup on my NFDs when I get the urge to snack (or at least that's the plan!).
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