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:
All our previous threads can be found by browsing back through the fasting section of the site.
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 Greeneggsandnicht for putting together all this 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!
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 23: Summer's really here - time to melt off those extra pounds!
BetsyBell · 08/07/2013 22:49
On the subject of having a snack directly after a meal, I've just remembered a conversation I had with my dentist about 18 months ago. I was asking her if it was OK to eat chocolate. She replied that it was, as long as I had it as part of a meal!
At the time, I dismissed the idea out of hand - but now, it makes perfect sense. Once a day, have a meal, finish off with a couple of squares of dark chocolate - and then don't snack again!
On an unrelated topic, I thought you guys might like thus quote I came across recently:
"It is an economic fact that no one begrudges a new wardrobe so long as it is made of less fabric than the previous one."
Oh no, erd, don't say that! I couldn't bear it if I could never have another Indian or Chinese takeaway. I did get one estimate off MFP that a full Indian takeaway including starter is 2000 cals. Don't know how accurate that is (obviously depends what's in the meal, I suppose) but for me that's doable now and then even if I have to pull in an extra fast day...
I've decided to try 5:2. I have been slowly gaining weight over the past two years and am starting to worry that I will eat myself into type 2 diabetes as my mum did.
I used the calculator on the fast diet website and my tdee is 2157. Today was a splurge day (because I had both mcdonalds and a slice of cake) but I only just hit 2000 calories thanks to fish, rice noodles and steamed veg for tea 
.
My fast days will probably be tuesday and thursday because they are the least hectic so I can enjoy the food I have.
I'm relatively new to this Mintyy so I don't have a proper routine down, but good luck at the doctor's. I have a chronic pain condition and know there's nothing worse than doing everything right and not seeing the results.
That's great Dotty I hope you have a good kip tonight.
Itsaboat that is some great willpower.
Welcome Helles Belles. Tuesday and Thursday are my usual fast days, so I'll see you here!
Fast day nearly over for me. Today I had stirfry with noodles, which I never do, as usually I would've snacked on something and would only have enough calories for the veg and prawns.
I actually prefer it without the noodles so I'm going to add some fresh fruit as a dessert.
I'm on an nfd today and I've been eating rings around myself 
I'm v worried I'll undo my good work as scales is up 2.5 since lowest weight (that was 1st thing post poo, tmi forgive me!) 2 more fd's this week so that'll get me back on track. Awful stench of déjà vu around mine - self sabotage has come a calling! But I won't break, well any further than I broke today.
Alarm set to get me up for a run before work. Can't believe the number of messages on this thread gals/guys - love reading them all, learning so much!
breadandwine I eat 2 or 3 squares of dark chocolate everyday too.
Had another healthy day until I had strawberries and cream, followed by 2 big white chocolate cookies. Still within my TDEE
But I have a massive headache now though. I seem to get them now whenever I have something really sweet eg cake or cookies or pastry. Does anyone else have this?
bshh. You are right when you say that not needing or eating snacks between meals is so liberating. Before 5:2 I was eating snacks worth in total about 400 calories - that's a meal in itself!
Thanks Betsy for the kind words. I changed mfp to maintain which is 1900, it was prev 1500 and now the 1900 seems like a target which I've exceeded that a few times over the last few nfd's AND done no exercise, I reckon when I keep to my running schedule, I'm more disciplined. The 4:3 this week will get me back on track, I have a friend in work starting - I must be a good example! Can't let the side down 
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Marking my place.
Weighed myself yesterday and the holiday extra pounds have gone, down to 10st 8 again. I guess when they go on quickly they come off easily. Had my 3rd fast day yesterday. Went ok, had dinner later than previous fast days as DH is back at work. Felt a bit grumpy around boys tea time but managed to stop myself picking at their food .
NFD today with KFC for lunch- didn't actually finish it though amazingly. I just stopped when I felt full- unheard of before.
Another fast day tomorrow, doing Monday and Wednesday ATM as on Thursday I go to a wonderful toddle group with amazing cakes! Will do Thursday over holidays though. Next Monday is my birthday, so thinking of doing 16:8 Friday and Monday instead of a fast day on Monday, just makes it fit in a bit better and no way will I do s full fast on my birthday.
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