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
Great results mypavlova!
Last year I was enrolled in a study which involved getting a bunch of stats so I thought I'd look them up and compare - unfortunately the units involved are different so can't check against the desirable ranges you've put up.
As part of that study I got a DEXA scan, which accurately measures body fat percentage via low level xray type scanning, at the time putting me at a shameful 45.9% fat. (Interestingly, they also weighed me with those scales that measure fat which inaccurately placed me at 35.8% fat.)
Since then, I've lost a further 11.5 kg so I thought I could try and calculate a relative current fat percentage. I'm still 35% fat at best.
At my age I should be 21 and 33%.
I suppose that in theory I could have lost more fat than that over the last year and gained some as muscle. But I doubt it, I'm not weight training.
I know I always say not to focus on the stats but it's a bit depressing to realise I'm still in fact over-bloody-weight.
Just made a quick trip into town to save my son a taxi fare. He's down on a flying visit and has had a night on the lash with a mate of his.
He's come home absolutely starving and got stuck right into the leftover Thai curry that I had on the stove?
Well I couldn't let him demolish it all himself, could I? So I had to join in and have a bowl myself - with a large glass of wine.
Now he's gone to bed and I'm still nibbling (and imbibing!)
Ah, well! No breakfast or lunch for me tomorrow! 
Hi.
NFD today. Love toast with marmalade and a big bowl of mocha vino.
I'd really like to stop snacking on NFDs. Seems odd that it's tough when I can do two FD a week, one of which is virtually zero cals.
Must try harder
Bumpity bump
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Bonbonbonbons . Brian Butterfield pops up on CBBC, there's some good comedy on that channel!
Swimming in cold water is one thing, and I love it. I quite like a quick flash of cold water after a hot shower but I couldn't and wouldn't want to ditch the hot water entirely, not unless I moved somewhere decidedly more tropical!
It's given me bad memories of boilers not firing up on cold wintery mornings. Brrr.
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