The 5:2 thread number 25- One year on from Dr Mosley's Horizon ep!

[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.

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.

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

oh god. Ok, I'm going to take the plunge and say hello.

My in-laws have been doing the 5:2 diet for a while and are very happy with it - more for health reasons than for weight loss, though MIL is overweight.

I am very overweight - not exactly sure what I weigh as we've moved fairly recently and the scales are in storage. But I was about 16 and a half stone and I'm only 5'4", so podgy would cover it!

I have recently joined a gym near my work and am going at lunchtime, I can fit in a 35 minute work out which is helping me feel better about myself etc, and I'm glad that I'm working on my general fitness, but it's not really enough to make a huge difference in weight. I've got My Fitness Pal on my iPhone, I used it last year when doing Slimming World - that wasn't right for me, really but I did think MFP was very good.

I bought the Fast Diet book a while ago and read some of it and was very interested, but it was not the right time. Now I think it is - or at least, it will be very shortly, when I get my head around it.

DH does most of the cooking and while he's very supportive - and in fact would like to join in at a later point - he doesn't want to do it right now, for various very good reasons that I have no intention of arguing with. We've pretty much agreed that on fast days I'll cook the evening meal and he'll also supplement what I make for us if he feels it's necessary for him. Which seems fair enough to me.

So this week I am going to read the book properly, sort out some recipes so I can shop in advance a bit - not much time for that so it's important to me to be prepared - and decide what days I'm going to fast on. Then next week it starts properly.

HEEEELLLPPP MEEEEEE....

good luck to all newcomers and oldies alike this week. Im off on my happy hols tomorrow to Kalkan in Turkey.. never been to Turkey before so I have no idea what to expect . It looks fab though , and I wont be fasting but will probably try a couple of 16: 8 s whilst away.. I expect Ill come back a few lbs heavier , but will get straight back onto the fasting horse on my return..will probably not be doing muchon here either so good luck every one !!

hey tip have a wonderful holiday in France !

wildwater good positive post but what's that thing called running for a bus? Can't remember the last time I ran

Hello everybodysang, It sounds like you are ready to start the fast diet. When I first heard about it I was very sceptical, and also thought there was no way I'd cope with being hungry (it reminds me of morning sickness because I always got nauseous when I was hungry in the first trimester). However I read the book (after an indulgent holiday overseas - the photos weren't very flattering ) and it makes a lot of sense. There is a history of diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure and cancer in my family, so I would like to avoid that and it sounds like the fast diet will make a difference. I am also very motivated by the idea of weight loss. I have 10 kgs I need to shift to get into a healthy BMI.

I have been doing this for two weeks, today is my 5th fast day. Unfortunately I am one of those who has yet to see weight loss on the scales, but at least I can say I have not put weight on and I feel good on the fast diet, especially the day of fasting and the day after. So I am going to keep going.

I think my mistake is believing (as it kind of says so in the book) that you can eat "normally" on NFD's and still lose weight, and that your appetite will be regulated by the fasting, so you won't want to overeat on the fast days. I have to say that it might not be the case for everyone. So far, I think I have given myself permission to eat a bit more on NFD's because I have fasted, which I know isn't the way to weight loss. Perhaps it will take my body a bit longer to have my appetite regulated? I know I am an emotional eater too, so I have to work on that.

But I do feel hopeful, so I am continuing on with the diet and this week I am going to try to keep track of what I am eating on non fast days.

So far, on fast days, I have had a nice low calorie soup for lunch and fish and vegies for dinner. Which I found very satisfying, but my DH has indicated that he doesn't want fish every time, so I need to find something else. I also have to cook for three kids. Does anyone have a suggestion for a nice evening meal?

This thread is so incredibly supportive, I love reading it.

Still haven't manage to weigh myself, but I finally put my last official (hospital scales) weight into the 5:2 caculator.

I am quite sure I weigh no more now...so my current max BMI is 24.6 and my TDEE is 1538.

I wonder where I should really aim/expect to be?

Welcome everybody you are in the right place.

For meal ideas don't forget to check out the recipe thread (link in OP) there are loads of ideas on there.

oh's first day today. we decided it would be better to fast on the same days, just for the sake of making nfd evening meals easier. oh quite often copes fine without an evening meal though, but is worried about how he will get on at work so he's doing his calories in brekkie and lunch then trying to go through. this does mean that he's already tortured me by eating brekkie and I'll get him back later when making dinner! oh well.

happy FD to fellow fasters. and a good day to all non fasters

Thanks JB30 I'll try that for tomorrow's fd.

I feel rubbish today after feasting yesterday - bread, pasta, pizza, hot chocolate.

Terrible weekend food wise. Sort of looking forward to fasting today, will have nothing until supper. It's going to be hard as I have all kids at home and I am feeling a bit low and miserable (TOM).

Ready to start my fourth week of fasting. Lost 3.5lbs so far but feel much lighter than that.

Got a bit of a headache already so will have to make sure I drink enough. Trying to go all the way to dinner time without any food. I do find it hard when having to feed the kids but will stick at it.

Good luck to everyone else fasting today.

tmi but finally got my period yesterday and am hoping that's the end of the weird compulsive eating malarchy and i may re-muster the will power to fast.

good luck to today's fasters.

Fasting today. Had an insomniac night so feel terrible but determined to get back into the swing of things.

everybodysang You sound like you're in totally the right head space, it's good to get organised but don't be afraid to just get going. It's really not as scary as it first seems! You can eat a relatively normal evening meal just don't give yourself the carb option! eg spag bol - instead of putting the bolognese on a big pile of pasta put it on a big pile of salad leaves instead - if you've got calories left then you can mix a few bits of pasta in there too.

I'll be having my favourite fast day dinner of skinless salmon fillet baked with leeks & celery with lots of lime juice, grated ginger, garlic and chilli. Cover with foil and bake for 20mins in the oven, serve on top of loads of salad leaves. I roasted some butternut squash and aubergine yesterday so I'll add some of that to the mix too.

Tip My DH fasts with me too (on Mondays at least) but we didn't on holiday as there was a big party of us and we over-catered somewhat! I might go for it for my next holiday... in 2 weeks . Have fun in France! Yum yum.

HellesBelles Are you just cooking for 2? If so I would go for those meal soup pots for you on fast days and something instant for him. Something you don't really like that much so it doesn't feel like you're losing out?

My kids won't eat most of the food I like so they'll have a pasta thing with salad.

Week 11

Weight lost = 0 (birthday and overseas house guest = eating my weight in food last week)

Total Loss = 19lb.

Back on the waggon this week!

Hello all, another lurker de-lurking!

I started 5:2 back in April and did it for the month, lost about 9lb. Then for various reasons I stopped and piled the 9lb back on. Plus another 3lb. I'm a teacher and my downfall was the staffroom - constant biscuits and cakes always broke fasts and good intentions.

About 3 weeks ago I decided to do something again about my weight: a bit of background to my weight journey.

In 2008 I finished university and had the waistline to show what a great time I had! I had ballooned up to 12.9 (I'm 5'4). Following weight watchers I got down to 9.7 which I maintained until about September last year. I moved into my own house and have become very lonely and have turned to food, I have also had a very stressful year at work (we didn't perform very well in our Ofsted visit, or subsequent monitoring visits) - this has led to lots of comfort eating.

At the beginning of the holidays I weighed myself: 11.1. While I haven't piled the lot back on, this is certainly a number I was not happy to see! I have joined a local weighing class (it's £1.50 a week which seems reasonable) as I need an external weigher to stop me going mad and getting rid of the 'oh well, I'll be good tomorrow' mentality.

How does this all relate to 5:2 you ask? Well, I have been following a low calorie diet and have adopted the 6:1 to give my weight loss a boost. This allows me to not be quite so tight on NFD and not feel guilty about eating out and other indulgences. Since the 6 weeks holidays began I have been swimming everyday (today will be swim number 22!) and have lost 9lb so far (so that's in 3 weeks), now weighing 10.6. Ideally I'd like to get back to about 9.7 and then use 5:2 to maintain.

Today is a fast day. I find them quite difficult in the school holidays because I'm not busy so can spend the day thinking about food! On a fast day I tend to save my calories for my evening meal, which I try to do in the 30 minute Corrie break! I'm a veggie so it's usually a low calorie Quorn thing with a load of veggies - I usually really enjoy it! I've always been amazed how I can go to bed starving and wake up with no hunger pangs. Once I tried a two day fast and went VERY light headed at about 3'o clock - while reading a book to my class! It felt very strange!

Wow, an essay here! The purpose was to de-lurk, and thank you all for your comments, although I did fall of the wagon for a while, during April and the last 3 weeks your comments have been very helpful. Plus the photos are very inspiring!

(I don't have children, but stumbled upon mumsnet through google when researching 5:2 back in April. During September-July though I have contact with children, I just luckily get to hand them back at the end of the day!).

I shall hopefully become a regular contributor and will hopefully be able to share my own success story :)

I need some help:( I've done 4 weeks now and lost nothing! I lost 2 pounds in the first week and have put it back on the last 3 weeks, I'm seeing a loss the day after a fast, but seem to be putting it back on again each time. I am fasting Mondays and Fridays, so I'm fasting today and going to try to do it bit differently, I might even try and do 4:3 this week and see if that kick starts it, if not I'll have to go back to normal calorie counting to try and lose some pounds before my holiday.

Could someone check my TDEE for me? Maybe that's where I'm going wrong? I'm 5ft 3, 9st 2 (I only want to lose a few pounds). I'm just not sure of my activity level, I walk to work and back Mon-Fri which is 4 miles a day, I walk quite fast but I'm not sure if I'd call it cardio or not. I also go to the gym but lately that's just been once a week so I'm not sure whether to count that at all.

PS forgot to say my age: I'm 27!

shell I know its not ladylike to ask age, but it is important for TDEE. Its generally best for the weighloss side to set yourself as sedentary or no exercise and just keep the calories burned through exercise as a bonus. However, if you haven't much to lose you probably won't lose very quickly.

Welcome lazy and good luck for fast day 1. It gets easier I promise

Hi ERD, I forgot to add that, I'm 34, thanks for your help:)
Hi to Lazy! can I ask how many calories you are eating, have you worked them out according to your TDEE or some other method?

shell according to the suggested calculator your TDEE is 1610
The calorie loss from FD to NFD isn't going to be as high as it is for people with higher TDEE, so that will keep losing a little slower for you too. However one of the lovely maintainers who pop on these threads may be better able to let you know what speed they shifted the last few lbs

Right, so I'm watching The People Who Made Us Thin. They keep going on about how diets make you fatter, you lose the weight but then when you stop you put the weight back on. Am I just being obtuse here or does that not distinguish between dieting and maintaining? I consider it to be a diet in the weight loss phase, once you hit goal its maintenance/return to bad ways and gain weight. I've never assumed that a diet keeps the weight off you, just that it gets you to losing the weight.

Thanks very much ERD, I have definitely been having more than that on non-fast days, so I'll try and cut down and see if that helps. I love my food and was hoping this WOL would mean I could feast on non-fast days!

morning all, fasting for me after 4 consecutive NFD's with fish and chips, pizza, cider, supermarket curry and sides, and cheese and chocolate.

not even sure ifI want to look at the scales tomorow after todays Fast day, but i will force myself.

also worried about when next I will fast, I am out tues/weds/thurs evenings as the chidlren are away with their dad in Spain for 9 days, so it's my chance to catch up with people which therefore involves booze, lunches and food. Stressful time, trying to find somewhere to live 250 miles away, organise removals and possibly storage if we don't find anywhere before the tenants move into our place, and once teh kids are back I will be looking after them for 2 weeks while I pack up the house and somehow need to not completely fall off the wagon.

I am determined therefore to start Shredding tonight, if I can't do proper full fasts this week, then I can at least do some exercise, also I think on Friday (only day off work this week) I will cook some very low cal meals to freeze and eat on most days when the kids are back, that way even if I don't manage fasting i will do 16:8 and lower my TDEE, I know this is more like calorie control than a fasting WOE, but if it keeps things in check while I am off and busy for a couple of weeks then that's better than me gaining 7 pounds in a fortnight!

welcome everybodysand sounds like you're ready to star this week, don't put it off til next week, you can actually make some significant progress before then and you only need to spend an hour ina supermarket browsing the shelves for calorie counts and you can be organised for later in the week!

sorry, haven't fully caught up on thread, welcome to all newbies, good luck to all Monday fasters, and everyone enjoy their holidays.