The 5:2 Thread number 22! Put down that biscuit - you can eat it tomorrow

[BetsyBell]

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.

NFD = Non fast day

NSV = Non scale victory

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 tips and links 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. 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.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Greeneggsandnichts for putting together all the info and resources into one concise OP text, much appreciated by so many 5:2ers!

Come join us, and tell us about your experiences with this diet!

Apologies to any fasters but...

Why on earth did I discount weetabix as a high calorie breakfast? Just looked at the pack on the off chance and am stuffed after a giant bowl of 2 weetabix, 200ml almond milk and a large handful of strawberries. And all under 200 calories.

At least I have a lazy FD dinner sorted for bad days now!

cat well done. I have been converted by tip to weighing in after a fast day. The weigh ins seem more stable then and on normal days are really effected by what I've eaten the day before, whether I've gone ahem or not, etc.

Grr WI day today and I seem to be up 2.2lbs since last week. I know I bounce up and down a lot, but still v frustrating.

Tortoise I'm also fasting today, would normally be tomorrow but I can't do that this week.

Angie, you may want to think about switching out some of that fruit for some protein. Boiled eggs make a good snack. The cereal bar and grapes will have quite a lot of sugar in them, maybe a small piece of chicken and some veg will fill you up more.

Thanks eagle. I'll change my weigh in day to the day after the first fast then - but will lower my target to 8 stone 5. That would give me a bmi of 21. Is there an optimum bmi do we know? Not that it would make much difference to me as I know I look my best at that weight - just out of interest!

cat that's seriously good! Often people whose weight is quite high to start with lose relatively quickly but you started at a weight most of us can only dream of and have still lost well - amazing

itsaboat don't be disheartened, c'mon, we know what these bounces are like by now!!
Normal day for me today but got meals planned out and should all be well within TDEE.
Then fast day tomorrow and am attempting someone's "zingy trout" recipe mentioned last week sometime. Not sure how it'll go but I like eating fish on fast days and it looks nice.
At the moment I seem to creep up by between half and a pound each NFD, and then after a fast day they all disappear again. It's mightily irritating but am holding out hope for a new "low" after Thursday's fast....

Thank you aka. It didn't occur to me to have ham instead of bread, I could make an omelette.

Hi Angie

There's a few of us here who work nights . I've just come in from my 2nd night. We all approach it differently having found what works best for us.

I now have 2 fast days away from my night shifts but also fast for 20 hours before the 1st night but eating normally through the 2 nights. If that makes sense!

For me this seems to have knocked the jet lag on the head . I know I couldn't make it through the night without food ( very demanding work ! )

Hope your fast goes well but don't give up if it's a bit hard at first

eagle yep weetabix is a staple in my diet...low calorie but filling snack food

9pm Wednesday July 10th BBC2 Michael Mosley's Horizon programme about personality.

If we watch we can all be happy fasters!
I think I need some sleep now.

dotty. That was the fish dish I had last week. It's official name is zingy-zangy fish. . Enjoy! I like eating fish on fds too.

Is it not even ten? Am struggling on my fd. Probably to do having the mother of all TOTMs and having a very poorly child who was up half the night. Normally, on fd I do the shred which always makes me feel good but ds is not in the mood to tolerate it. I also go shopping for ingredients for the evening meal but not able to today so it's leftover soup for me and maybe some guacamole with oatcakes.

*the shred makes me feel good after, not during.

There are so many posters I want to respond to but this thread moves so fast I can't.

AphraBehn well done on your first fast. You'll soon get used to hunger and realise it's nothing to fear, that you don't need to respond to it immediately.

Angie good luck!

Itsaboat don't feel down. Remember my 4 months stall last year when I bounced up down up down. Stick with it and things will get moving again.

akarucker I have different mindsets on FDs and NFDs too. That's why I needed to impose some rules on my NFDs too - no snacking at all between meals. It really helps me.

2nd NFD for me today but I skipped breakfast (not that I have it often) because I ate a bit too much ice cream after last night's dinner. I love ice cream and refuse to give it up so I just need to adjust accordingly. No guilt - it's all about balance.

Cat98 well done on the loss. My initial weightloss goal was to get from 36 BMI to 24 BMI (just inside healthy/normal) as I am medium-heavy build. Now I've reached that goal I've shifted it to 22 BMI. I'll review again when I get there. So long as I don't look scrawny...

Morning all - second fd of the week for me.

Have been up for yonks so it feels like lunchtime already for me.

Planning to have skinny soup for as late a lunch as possible and spicy aubergine stew for dinner. I'll post a link on the recipe thread as the stew is only 150 cal and so filling and tasty. I have it with a spoonful of couscous. The recipe is for 4 portions but they are pretty substantial.

One thing I've noticed that I'm doing on nfd's is when I feel hungry I automatically have a glass of water and it definitely helps to limit snacking. I'm certainly consciously making more healthy choices.

I'm tempted to ditch the scales and maybe just weigh monthly - I do find that if I weigh myself every couple of days it helps to stop me going too far off plan, but I think that this way of eating automatically does that by putting a couple of stop days in and it helps you refocus how you look at food so you don't have the urge to overdo it.

ah yes sotired it was indeed you! Thank you... though I don't have a steamer so was thinking of putting the foil parcels on a rack above deep baking tray filled with water, in the oven. Do you think that'll work?

Thanks Dotty and BsshBossh. I'm really trying to not focus too much on what the scales say. I'm comfortably enough in the healthy bmi range now that any bounce up wont push me out of it. I'm just getting impatient as my holiday creeps ever nearer I'd ideally like to lose an inch off my hips so my bikini doesn't have that bulgy bit iykwim.

cat I've dieted years ago down to 10.5 stone and I look at the photos and think I don't look all that good. However that would just have me inside the normal BMI range. Pregnancies have altered my shape somewhat so I'm hoping that I may look better at a lower weight.

Wow, had a bad month fasting-wise in June. Missed a couple of weeks, had an abandoned fast 1 week and then only 6:1'd the other, and have only gained 3 lb (I didn't weigh myself during June either). Pretty pleased with that - haven't been eating healthy at all, so to only gain that much is great!!

Now back on the wagon in July!!

morning all, 2nd FD of the week, I think ordinarily I won't do weds, as it's the day my ex has the kids, therefore an evening I can go out/meet friends etc, but this week i'm trying to fit in 2.5 fasts and going away for weekend tomorrow after work, so today will have to be a fast day and I will take myself shopping tonight rather than meet a friend or drink wine!

also picked up some knorr stock pots from supermarket on way into work only 10 cals each, so can sip on those (aircon in my office is fierce and fasting also makes me colder) but not til midday as I need to make sure I leave 16 hours since last eating.....bar a smidge of skimmed milk in my coffee this morning!

feeling impatient for results already, but trying to focus on not going overboard on food this weekend, that would be the main reason for not having good results, did the no snacking rule on my NFD yesterday for the first time, worked really well, but even if I do no snacking during the week, but allow myself a couple at the weekend, maybe that will work, I struggle with making too many rules for NFD as the reason that I do this WOE is to be able to be free to eat what I like more of the time, but finding the balance is the key.

aphra being prepared is definitely key, and the hunger pangs are really interesting, they go in waves, so once you know that if you ignore it'll disappear it's easier to control, when you think they will get stronger then you might cave in.

angel feeling sick and tired may just be a coincidence, i.e. you could be coming down with something or TOTM, when people start doing the fasting we often put down any physical symptoms to the fasting, but they can just be totally unrelated.

queenb the spicy aubergine stew sounds lovely.

angie I totally agree with itsaboat boiled eggs, ham, much better to fill you up and not give you a sugar spike than fruit.

have a good day all.

babysaurus great news, hope you get FD back on track despite fuzzy head!

dotty. Yes I think that would work.

Actually, when I was making it the last time, I thought it does not need to be steamed, it can be baked in the oven i.e. if its in foil, it just needs a heat source because it will steam in the foil anyway.

that's what my husband said sotired but I was adamant that it would need steaming! haha, oh well!

queenb, I am not going on the scales until the end of July. Too much angst and disappointment by jumping on and off all the time, and anyway my goal is not so much to lose weight (although I could do with that as well!) as to lose inches from the waist.

Don't know if I will measure inches every week yet, but at least I know the tape measure is more reliable than the scales.

Afternoon, awful fast day yesterday - stuck to 500 calls but in the afternoon at work was so desperate for some chocolate. All became clear this morning when AF arrived, I'd completely forgotten where I was in my cycle but its never been that bad before. Wierd thing is to day is a NFD and don't have any desire for chocolate at all!