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!
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 25- One year on from Dr Mosley's Horizon ep!
GreenEggsAndNichts · 05/08/2013 16:28
Hi all, vintage52er here (aka virginposter)
To celebrate the MM prog one year tomorrow, I've decided on a new name change - I was a virgin poster back in 2012 (and still have only posted on here). I didn't join these threads until number 6 but I was lurking from the beginning and was encouraged to join. I watched the original Horizon and started my life changing journey on 21st August 2012 and so will have my own personal celebration then too. I've lost a total of 30lbs and maintaining well.
Tomorrow I will mark the occasion with a full day fast and indulge myself by re-reading the first few threads to remind myself of where and when it all started and how far we have all come.
I'd like to say a HUGE 
to all who have ever posted and especially to those of you who have been there all the way and have helped me in so many ways.
There has been blood, sweat and tears on the 5:2/4:3 forums but mostly a wealth of information, inspiration, encouragement and a lot of fun (Top Of The Morning still stands out for me) 
So here's to the next year 
GreenEggs Thanks for the new thread.
MissS you will lose weight and gain huge health benefits due to the fasting. After approx 12 hours of fasting your body not only burns fat stores but also goes into 'repair' mode as it's having a break from digesting food. You have made a good start by joining this group and starting a new woe/wol and will soon get the hang of it. Well done 
vintage52er - very inspirational for those of us only doing this for a short time! Congratulations 
Oh no. I've been up since 4a.m and couldn't get back to sleep 
. Experience has proven that extreme tiredness makes my FD's hard work so I think I'll have a couple of mugs of coffee this morning (already had a cup of tea) and will try to get as many things done at work as I can so the day goes faster.
Purpleshoes I allow for 60 cals in my milky tea without sugar so maybe your cup is about 80? Do you think you could eventually cut the sugar out? I went from two tsps to one then half then nothing. Good luck today and let us know how you went on. Your food for today sounds lovely, btw.
vintage52er I remember how helpful you've been on other threads so thanks to you too . It's always inspiring to read from folks who've been maintaining for a while at a nice weight.
Morning all and thank you for all the well dones' . Feels good to get them. I don't do a lot right!
My problem is going to be counting how long I have fasted for or doesn't it really matter? I think I ate a piece of fudge about 7-8pm last night and haven't had anything since though going to get some cold water in a minute. The fudge was a gift, too sweet for us so has gone in the bin. You won't believe how much of a huge progress that is for me and I am really proud of myself for resisting food last night when DS1 had really stressed me out with being naughty and worried me by doing something daft.
I am still making it up as I go along to be honest as haven't set into a routine yet with when to eat and how long to fast. I could fast today and later thought I might make a big vegetable soup with all the veg in the freezer since annoying son number 1 appears to have left the freezer door open on Sunday and we only discovered it yesterday 
. Unsure as to how long it was open for and not sure what to do about the chicken and fish that was in there.
Morning all. FD here and badly needed. 2 nights of v little sleep plus 1 shocking hangover and 1 mild hangover made for serious 2 day binge. My trousers (a very unforgiving 14) are biting me, but I don't care, they'll keep me in check. Feeling seriously miserable this morning and dreading going to work. The only thing is on FD's, I just put the head down and work like a Trojan - doesn't give me time to think about it. But for now, feel like crying into my tea
45 mins to go...sigh. Eggs & ham for lunch, then roast chicken & ton of veg for tea. Might have a skinny cappuccino later this morning to get me through. Tiny bit tempted to see can I make it through til tea time, do a true 24 hour FD. Hmm, it's a thought - might suit my pity party mood. Anyone else fasting today?
unofficial wi this morning. I am now 11.5 stone, just 10lb off normal bmi (started at just under 15st, bmi nearing 37) and 1 stone off initial target weight.
oh bought me some daisy dukes. still not sure if I should be happy he's liking the new figure or worried... got into them fine and they look OK though so there too.
don't think I'm going to fit another fast in this week though. looks like a meal out on Thursday (mini fast ahoy), my birthday on Saturday and another meal out on Sunday (16:8 days). will see how I feel weds and Fri for fasting, but I'm not going to push myself into them.
have a planned holiday from 5:2 at the end of the month too, just one or two fasts. this woe is so nice, I don't feel like I'm going to ruin anything by skipping a couple of fasts. I'll stick to under Tdee and use 16:8 and mini fasts to keep on top where needed.
vintage52er that's a great acheivement - an inspiration!
missstrawb the fabled "starvation mode" doesn't kick in that quickly - cycling calories up and down from day to day is a good way to remind your body that food IS available.
And thanks for new thread, Green Eggs! I might break out the champers to celebrate 5:2s anniversary
Well done ERD you're a star!
Good luck JB sounds like you've a lot to deal with!
Miss strawb you've made a great start, I couldn't resist fudge so you're doing a better job than me in fact I've even been known to buy homemade fudge on Ebay 
doitnow re settling at a lower weight than initially expected or hoped for...my goal was 8st 10 to give me room to gain without going back over 9st. I reached that in early May and have now settled around 8st 4 without too much effort. My lightest in recent years was 8st 8 but I couldn't sustain it, whereas 5:2 (or 6:1 or 13:1 or whatever combination I actually do each week) is easy .
Good luck to today's fasters. The sun is out again, hooray!
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