The continuing thread for those of us following the 5:2 fast or other forms of fasting such as 4:3, ADF, or daily 16:8.
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 normally - or approximately your Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE - see explanation below). 4:3 is the same except you fast on 3 days in the week. Alternate-day fasting (ADF) is just how it sounds; you fast every other day. 16:8 is another form where you stick to only eating in an 8 hour window each day, therefore fasting for 16 hours each 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.
NFD = Non fast day
NSV = Non scale victory
Michael Mosley has a website to accompany his book on the subject. Please go check it out, as he's the whole reason these threads started!
Lurkers and new starters: please just jump in and post - you'll find a lot of support here and we’re a friendly bunch.
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:
Our previous threads can be found by browsing through the 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 28 - Come and join us! The threads may be getting on a bit but the new starters keep us young and fresh!
BetsyBell · 10/10/2013 10:49
Ooh eat I'm sorry you're having a bad day but the diet White Russian sounds amazing! Is that all that's in it? I sometimes mix Baileys with Frangelico (which is hazelnut) so that's sounding good to me 
Unplanned mini-fast on my NFD today with very high protein / low carb which made me really full and avoided pigout after FD
:
260 cal Breakfast: a protein pud, shake and veg juice, total 35g protein, 8g carbs
500 cal lunch: lots of lean chicken & 4 veg, oat bran with 10g Lindt
150 cal tea: different shake,15g protein, 2g carbs
Way under 2250 TDEE, so will have duck soup supper.
I'll try doing this one day per week.
Oh eat what a horrendous day for you !
Medicate yourself with Lindt, none for the little monsters as they don't deserve it
Moon- see how you feel tomorrow. You can always listen to your body and eat if you need to. If you don't fast then you can add one in later, or just have one FD this week. It's a marathon not a sprint .
Amazing to see so many new people. 5:2 is really taking off!
TheMoon I would just see how you feel tomorrow as others have said but if you don't fast then try to eat as well as you can anyway.
So I weighed in yesterday morning having lost 2lbs but as I've been maintaining a BMI of 21 for three months I shouldn't have lost - I was unusually busy and not eating properly. Lesson learned for next time. So I'm not fasting this week (usually it's Tuesdays) but may do a mini-fast on Saturday. I'm thrilled that, consciously and otherwise, I'm not been tempted the past two days to gorge to 'compensate' - just eating my usual NFD food in the same small amounts and perfectly fine with that.
eat That White Russian drink sounds nice and FYI Bailey's is going to be reduced in Morrisons to £9 from Thursday for a week .
MissStrawberry
Stuff MFP.
You are now eating with your stomach not your negative emotions, and still losing weight.
I very rarely bother to log my meals on there - only when patterns do not go as planned.
southeast
anything over 18.5 BMI is within the normal range. Have some cheese
Been out for lovely cuddles with baby niece today so just been catching up. Well done all today's faster's! 
Betsy - Stealth boast!
Alfiemama - Call it a mini fast. That's what they were invented for eh!
Not2b - IT'S A BLIP
Dotty - Just doing wee one for tests. Trying Dippy Dog plus doing pilates moves for toning. Not to mention recently applied cling film 
.
LucySky - If you 4:3, I will. Quite enjoyed it last week.
EatRisky - 
at 10st. Not at your day with dcs today! Drink some wine woman!
Gripping arms - Massive well done!
Kabuki, Hollolew2, Moonwings Hi (waves)
BreadandWine - aaahh! Your love and pride always shines through and warms the cockles.
MissStrawb 1. I too am 
at 2lb gain (did sneaky peak at scales this a.m against own rules, that'll learn me!) AND I did run yesterday plus 4:3 last week!! 2. How to remember all posts?? With memory clenches of course!
Thanks for the support and kind words everyone. A nice meal and a glass of wine later and I'm feeling a lot more cheery, if not knackered. At least tomorrow DD is going with her GM (a date that even the plague would probably fail to stop).
Diet white russian - low in calories (for a creamy cocktail) and also based on the components of my fridge! It doesn't taste alcoholic though, and goes down far too easily.
MissS its not compulsory to log, don't worry about it unless it stops working for you. I'm sure the idea of this woe is to not have to worry about that. However logging suits nutters like me so what do I know ?
Ha cuckoo - I have been doing this more than 10 months now so I ought to have something to show for it!
If anyone told me 2 years ago I'd be bemoaning my bony bits I'd have thought they were tripping 
MissS I thought the same as Tip - you don't need to log now, you've got your eating under control and you know what you're doing. I don't log anything.
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I'm the same as Betsy. Sorry eat 
. But thanks for the White Russian drink idea!
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