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 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 through our very own 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 24 - Summer's still here so skip the snack and share the meal!
BetsyBell · 22/07/2013 19:30
Not too bothered about calories as know most of what's on offer is fairly terrible in that dept, just don't want more bloat inducing carbs! The pub lunch was my own fault as no-one forced me to have nachos......... mind you, everything else there was "something + chips" so not really much in the way of an alternative 
Hiya, newb too. Had a shock at a health check last week, all my blood results have moved very close to being pre-diabetic, so time for action. 
I started at 166lbs, using MFP, and this week I am 162lbs which has helped motivate me.
I thought I would start the 5:2 as a new WOE, that I can maintain long term. I sort of planned a fast day today but have ended up at 971kcals, so I need to plan that better. Still a really good deficit for me though.
I am 5'5", and want to get to 135lbs by Xmas. Earlier would be good, but I don't want to stress about it and give up. I also have fibromyalgia so am limited with what exercise I can manage.
Really I pressed with everyone's results so far.
Woo, School's out for Summer!
I wonder if I can manage a bit of daily Jillian while trapped at home with the kids? It would be a good idea as I will fail to do any brisk walking or fast cycling with them around.
Welcome Fab41. That's a fantastic start and an achievable goal. Any loss will obliterate the risk of diabetes.
The best thing about this WOE is that it slowly but surely changes the way you eat and means maintenance is ridiculously easy as long as you keep doing it.
Weight loss tends to be slow and steady - with long 'plateaus' - I call them maintenance.
Hello bluehearted - you don't need the book to get going - there's way more info and guidance on here than in that tiny book - I only bought it at all as it was £2 for an e-copy! Jump in and get started...
Hi all,
Everyone doing OK? I feel more hungry today than I did after my first FD yesterday, is this common?
Is it best to do exercise on NFDs, what do you all do?
Mind you, I haven't exercised this fat bum, apart from pushing the buggy around in about a year!
I usually try to shred first thing everyday and C25K as well on non fast days. It's working ok at the moment.
I seem to be constantly picking on NFDs but I am trying to make them mostly fruit. I do seem to be hungrier than a FD. 
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Hello all you newbies , welcome aboard, stick around and we'll all get there together!
monster loved the goals question, thought I'd put mine down to make them more real... am 5"5 and 33...(ps: I weigh in kg as I get less hung up on the numbers although I do have a lovely spreadsheet in which I convert them and have a graph, forecasts etc - can you tell I'm an accountant?! ), oh, and have been 5:2ing around 10 weeks.
Started at 72kg - 11st4, currently 66.5kg - 10st6, 1st goal is 10st as that's the lightest I'll have been since 2004 so hoping to hit that in a month or so... Eventual goal is 8st7 as that's what I was when I met DH 11 years ago, but we'll see how I go! Will be delighted to be a comfortable size 10 again and get into my face old clothes that are keeping safe in a box for when I'm skinnier :)
Reward wise, I think the new wardrobe will be exciting, I have spent a FORTUNE on bras over the last couple of years (also due to being preg, BFing etc), but I'd also like a spa day (weekend 
) without the dd in tow - a real treat!
TIP haven't had a chance to read the articles, but I know when I slid off the wagon a few weeks ago it was because I was trying to 16:8 everyday, got hungry and ate crap mid-morning. I'm much better off having porridge on NFDs to keep my ravenous appetite at bay (plus my puny amount of willpower actually stands a chance!), but maybe that will change in time as I get more used to this woe.
Epic post over, sleep tight all xx
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