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 26 - Bring on the Lifestyle Change Victories!
BetsyBell · 24/08/2013 11:15
Quick argh! So it's all about me. My underwire in my favourite aka only remaining well fitting bra snapped yesterday. After trying on every bra in the house, the only one that doesn't look immoral is my sports bra which gives me 50's boobs. They're so well separated that one points north and one points south! And pointy enough to send nearby folk blind!!
Can't get to bravissimo til friday 
Welcome precious. We're all on the new thread now that Betsy linked to above. Please come and join us 
.
Coming in about 650 for my FD, that's do pig, that'll do.
What did you do to come down from 13.2 to what you were when you started 5:2 MissS? I think 11lb's is brilliant after 6/7 weeks. Sorry to hear you had an accident today At least you're not hurt (I hope?)
Planning for tomorrow by buying a nice calorie controlled meal for the evening, like to make a good effort to be controlled on Friday, if I lose it on Friday, it's like a omen for the weekend! Hope the rest of the Thursday fasters are doing good
c'mon BssBossh you can do this!! What's for tea tonight anyway?
I've just put my soup on to heat up so done a 17hr fast for me from my snacking attack of last night so that's good enough!
Reading that back that sounds really rude about slowcooked food 
I'm sure yours is all lovely, mine just never tastes as good as if I do it on the hob/oven. I have lurked on many threads and tried all kinds of tips/recipes - nothing seems to help.
Anyway I hope I didn't offend anyone, sorry
Bsssh we don't get on with our slow cooker. Everything comes out with a certain kind of taste, all looks a bit bland and weird.
I prefer to stick to my normal casseroles and use the oven - I usually cook things on very low for a few hours and will happily pop out to do the school run or whatever and leave dinner in on a low heat.
I'm at home during the day with DS2 and we have the heating on all the time controlled by the thermostat. Our gas bill is about £80/90 a month which doesn't seem too bad.
I love corned beef. Thank god we don't have any in the house otherwise I might have failed today too after reading this thread! 
Yum, casserole. I do Spanish chicken quite often- chicken thighs, chopped chorizo, some haricot beans, tinned tomatoes, splash of red wine and some smoky paprika. You could also add in peppers, or some butternut squash. I'm sure it could be adapted for FDs too.
I've decided not to be too strict with dinner tonight, so after the cake it won't be 500 cals but I don't really mind if I go to 700 or 800 occasionally. Going to have rib eye steak, corn on the cob, roasted asparagus and tomatoes. I'm really craving some steak- I think the shredding is giving me protein cravings! Now I'm getting so close to target I'm having one strict fast and a bit more flexible for the second one.
Corn beef sarnies- yum. Might have to pick up some corn beef on the way back from school run .
Bssh - great idea, thank you! Since I have been poorly I really seem to struggle with trusting my instincts with what is okay to do and grating in veg is so obvious I am feeling to have not thought of it! Before when ds1 was about 3 he saw my chopping peppers to put with some pasta and he said he didn't like peppers so I blended them with milk and cheese and he ate about 3 helpings not knowing it was peppers!
I don't know about our electricity bills but I would say not as I don't use it every day and I am sure I read it is pennies to run. Yes, I go out leaving it on.
I have three slow cooker books but haven't done all the recipes. I also do desserts and the one done the most is probably rice pudding and choc rice pudding.
BsshBossh I work from home too and am also frrrrreeeeeezing! Our heating is set to come on automatically in mornings and evenings once the temperature drops below a certain level so it's not my fault if it comes on is it?
But between 9am and 5pm when it's not on, and I'm just sat at my desk, lordy, I'm cold!
Might light the woodburner tonight before the alleged heatwave the weather forecasters keep mentioning, arrives
Cannot wait till slowcooker weather, might dig mine out next week. I find adding lots of couscous or pearl barley into it, really helps to bulk it out.
Last year I used to do a thing with celery, carrots, swede, potatoes and boneless chicken thighs, just cover with chicken stock and a smidge of tomato puree and a heap of herbs and let it cook all day. Blooming lovely! If you can get through a whole day of smelling it without going insane of course..
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I do worry I am not feeding my 12 year old enough but they are also being spoilt with lovely baking several times a week and I feel if they haven't eaten enough veg and fruit saying they are full then they don't need something I have baked, they just want it! But I have food issues and - actually DID have food issues - and really don't want to mess up their natural metabolism. But wouldn't we all fancy a cake and less fruit some days 
. I don't want to give bad food = more attractive when I had given them such a good start when small but now I bake more so no wonder they like it more!
I have 2 boys aged 8 and 12 and a daughter who is 10 and none of them are over weight at all. I need to check actually to make sure they aren't underweight.
The boys love pasta but dd would happily never eat it again but will eat a bit with Bolognese but would rather just have the meat. DS2 loves lasagne, DD hates it and DS1 would rather not. DS1 loves rice and happy to eat a plain portion of it. All will eat cous cous but not their favourite. The boys will eat noodles but dd not so keen. Impossible to remember sometimes as they seem to change their minds a lot. DS1 then get annoyed as he says there are only 3 things he won't eat. Has decided he doesn't like cheese.
Many a time I have cooked 3 slightly different things.
DS1 would have ABCD
DD would only want AB and need to do EF to make sure enough to eat.
DS2 would have ABCF - both boys the least fussy out of the three but I think my youngest has stolen the crown from this older brother for being my best eater.
If I did a casserole DD would not want onions or mushroom, no idea as it changes with DS1 if he would eat the mushrooms and DS2 probably would eat it all. One of them would eat raw mushrooms but not cooked so trying to cater for all that I get a bit fed up.
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