Did 5:2 work for you? If not post here and tell me why...

[BetsyBell]

I'm a huge advocate for 5:2 but I often wonder about the people who drift away from the main threads and if it's because in the long run they didn't get on with it.

I understand all the positives about intermittent fasting but in the interest of balance I'd like to know why it doesn't work out for some people.

If you didn't get on with 5:2 for whatever reason I'd love to hear from you, mainly so I can dish out better advice to people on the main threads!

I've been doing 5:2 for a year and a half. I love it.
I had 3 quarters of a stone to lose. It went up and down for a while but eventually I lost it. However since Xmas I thought I'd do 6:1 to maintain and found I've put on half the weight! So I'm starting 5:2 again now. Next time I have to maintain I'll be trying alternate weeks (of 6:1 then 5:2) or 5:2 but with slightly more cals.
I feel healthier on this woe though and find it very sustainable.

I ate far too much on non fast days.

Had a huge temper on fast days, thought of nothing but food and ended up lying in bed because I had no energy to study or work.

I started to dread days where I fasted and when the day came I'd want to go to bed early to get the nightmare over with :o

I tried it for 2/3 weeks.

I really couldn't get on with 5:2. I gave it a good go last year - did it for about a month. I did lose weight but I was utterly miserable. I found I was dreading fast days, trying to put them off. No matter what I ate on fast days I had a constant feeling of depriving myself, and found myself gorging on nfd's.
I don't think any extra advice could have helped me, it just really didn't suit me.

I've been doing 16:8 since January and tbh I wonder why more people don't do it, especially those who like the idea of fasting but couldn't get on with 5:2.

I do 16:8 every day. I eat between 1pm and 9pm and fast between 9pm and 1pm. I've not changed what I eat particularly (maybe subconsciously make healthier choices...who knows) but I've lost 1st 8lbs since January. Slow and steady, i'm in no rush and have about the same to go again before i'm at my target weight. I don't exercise...i'm starting to now, more for health reasons than weight though as the weight is coming down anyway.

On 16:8 you don't need to calorie count, there are no 'deprived' days, no banned foods, you can eat what you want pretty much as long as you only eat for 8 hours out of 24 and stick to just water and black coffee/tea during fast hours. I'm a huge 16:8 fan.

Some people lose no weight on 16:8 or even gain.
Some find they automatically eat less in the shorter time period, or have cut down junk. Hence they lose weight.

A few people find that fasting itself will correct their metabolism / endocrine system, so that they don't have to eat below TDEE to lose weight.
Similarly, a few low carbers find they have cut out trigger foods, or just cutting junk enables them to lose on the same calories as before.

However, the vast majority of people, especially women, will only lose weight if they eat & drink fewer calories, with a 1lb weekly loss requiring about a 3,000 calorie weekly deficit.

Some folk can become evangelical about a system that worked for them, but we all have different metabolisms / exercise routines / lifestyles / preferences / age / body frame / health issues etc.

The identical diet & exercise can have completely different effects on 2 people of similar size and age.

Even with the same calorie deficit, different diets work better for different people 5:2 / ADF / low carb / low fat / Mediteranean .....

I did 5:2 for 9 months, in that time I had more colds and fevers than at any other time in my life. I often felt angry through hunger and I lost a total of 1-2lbs despite being very active.
I now do the 16:8 for health reasons combined with low carb and if I'm really hungry I just eat something...No big deal!

Dh still does 5:2 and he seems fine with it.

I'm trying to do it and not always suceeding to be honest! My main problem is I do a lot of exercise (a lot of spin classes and walking around pushing two toddlers in a pram) and I find days that I fast and exercise I'm desperate for more food in the evenings.

The post fast days are hard too because I feel like pants the morning after and my energy levels for exercise (and patience with the kids!) drop a lot.

I don't know what the balance is, drop the exercise for 4 days (2 fast days and the 2 days afterwards) OR drop the fast days and go mental at the gym? Neither appeal.

Varady experimented with FD cals and the 25% TDEE was for the quickest weight loss that still retained muscle.
So, higher cal FDs still work, just more slowly. Try that ?

I'm a strenuous exerciser with 2400 TDEE. My FDs were around the 900 cal mark for the first few months. I wasn't officially overweight, just wanted to trim down, so I ate enough to fuel my training.
After several months, I could manage 500-600 FDs quite easily, but I was already near my target shape.

Now I'm on maintenance and I do 600-900 FDs, plus daily 16:8, because that suits me.

My health and energy on IF / 5:2 are much better than any time during my 10 miserable low carb years.
My cardio fitness and muscles have improved a lot too, at age 58 !
I feel great.

It really did help – especially because after a while your body starts to become adjusted to it. The only issue that I did run into was that during fasting periods, my energy levels would be relatively low. I might have planned to go to the gym for example only to find that I was just not interested at all.

It didn't suit me because fast days were hard and then I binged on non fast days. Slimming World seems to be working for me at the minute because I am cooking lovely meals and not feeling like I am on a diet at all.

5:2 didn't suit me at all because it made me completely obsessed with food which usually I'm not at all!

I tried 5:2 hoping it would sort out my food/eating issues for once and for all by helping me adjust my appetite. I've been yo-yo dieting since childhood (my first diet as a child was more than 40 years ago) and the brutal truth is that, left to eat what I want, my daily calorie intake is about 4000 calories which at 5' 3" is a problem! I spent about four months on 5:2 and got completely fixated on food and eating - the amount of energy I had to put into controlling my eating was exhausting, I thought about food all the time, and it triggered binges the like of which even I haven't known before, eating until I was physically sick. So my body never adjusted, which was what brought me to IF in the first place.

However, as I've just posted on the main thread, I still learned some helpful things from 5:2, like drinking lots of water (and other drinks) and not snacking. I'm back on the only thing that ever works for me, which is keeping calorie intake down and consistent, and reminding myself to drink lots and not snack is helping.