Now I'm confused

[SpringBee]

Hi everyone

So I would really like to start 5:2, or even 4:3. I come from a background of really restricting myself with what I "allow" myself to eat. In my 20s I was a total health nut...apart from the binging that happened once a week due to my low calorie and rabbit-food like diet!

I've tried a few thins over the years, atkins, Dukan, South Beach, but haven't been able to stay on track with any of them because I felt too restricted. 5:2 appeals because, from what I can tell, no foods are really off limits. It's all about quantity rather than what you eat, am I right?

I was on the Calorie Counting page, and one lady stated how she had gained 2lbs since sticking to her 1200 cal diet. She gave an example menu and I can't remember exactly but it was something like 2 slices of toast and fruit for breakfast, jacket potato for lunch and meat/vegetables for dinner. The post had over 80 responses and nearly all of them were telling her how carby her diet was. Considering I spent 4 years (hating life) on Atkins, I still consider toast and potato in one day heavy on the carbs, but surely for a "normal" type diet, that isn't a lot at all? Nearly everyone was suggesting she cut down her carbs and have maybe eggs for breakfast instead. Personally I always have eggs for breakfast. I find I'm hungry within 2 hours if I have a carby breakfast but eggs keep me going for at least 3-4 hours. But I like the idea that I can have (or so I thought!) something like a small jacket potato for lunch, or a soup and a slice of toast, and then have a small portion of rice/pasta for dinner on 5:2 or 4:3. But since reading over 80 replies saying that 2x toast and a jacket potato was a lot of carbs for one day, I'm a but torn!

I think most people find high good fat, medium protein and low carb with lots of veg and no processed foods tends to keep you very healthy, happy and probably also losing weight (and full so not hungry all the time). As it works people tend to support it. It works for me.

It can be a way to eat for life so does not feel like you are restricting anything - you are just eating the normal foods mankind has always eaten. So in a sense it should help with those with past eating disorders too as you are eating 3 regular meals a day and no snacks- i.e. normally so you won't even have to think too much about food.

However it sounds like you want to try 5-2 so give it a go, eat what you like on 5 days and then limit calories on 2 days. It would not work for me as a need a way of eating for life and mentally feel better when I have consistency and predictability and habit and food at the same times etc.

Sorry, but I'm not sure how a 1200 cal diet fits with 5:2. Sounds VERY low for feast days (I'm 5'2", just under 9st & even I'm allowed 1600 calories! Most average height women are allowed around 2000). Then your fast day calories are based on 1/4 of your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure-I think!) feast day allowance (so 400 for me, 500 for most women).

I regularly enjoy carbs (even on a fast day, love a jacket potato supper!) and it hasn't stopped me losing 9lbs in 2 months & getting back to my pre-pregnancy weight/size for the first time in 10 years!

I'd say follow your body's lead & it will tell you what to eat.

This doesn't sound overly carb heavy at all to me :/

Janeparker out of interest, how easy do you find low carb? I am considering it but just don't think id enjoy the food choices enough. I don't like most meats apart from fish and chickens, not keen on eggs, can give or take nuts and avocados, and am lactose intolerant! from what I can see low carb diets are basically made up of these things, and a few vegetable options

I am very overweight but I have learnt over the years that the absolute key for me is to have nothing restricted in terms of "type" of food allowed. I have so many years of dieting behind me that, the first whiff of "I'm not allowed that" in my mind sends me into binge eating.

I am doing what I call 5:(2.5). I stick to between 500-600 cals on two fast days, one day I stick to 1200 or less calories and the other four days I restrict only in terms of how much I eat not what sort of food. Given that my TDEE is around 2300cals, this means I can eat around that amount on those days. In reality I have found this way of eating has made me less hungry generally so I rarely eat that much even on my non fast days. I have found that I am actually eating around 1800-1900 cal on those days

The only reason I calorie count on non fast days is that I started this at an all time high for my weight so have had to track what I am eating as I have spent the last 4 years massively overeating so had lost all sense of an appropriate amount to eat in that time. I am hoping to drop the calorie counting on non fast days eventually but for the moment I don't feel like I can

I do not do low carb at all. I stick to the government recommended intake of 50% carb, 30% fat and 20% protein (roughly) and some weeks I eat more carbs than this. I have lost quite a bit of weight and continue to do so.

In the last two months I have eaten out at least 4-5 times, I have had two Indian takeaways (proper takeaways not just ordering plain rice and chicken tikka which is all I ever did on other diets) and two fish and chip takeaways, I eat ice cream at least twice a week and chocolate 3-4 times a week a couple and have still lost around 16lbs in that time. The key is that I eat much less often even on non fast days (2 meals or one meal and a small snack each day is common for me even on non fast days). This allows me to eat what I like for a takeaway occasionally as it is pretty much all I will eat that day. For the ice cream and chocolate, I eat smaller portions than I used to because I don't feel like it is restricted and I know I can have some more on another day if I want it.

This for me really does feel sustainable in the long term. No other "diet" ever has . It really doesn't work for everyone though. As JaneParker says we are all different. For me sticking to the same cal count each day does not work as I need to be able to "overeat" on some days. This is a really good way for me to manage that and to still lose wweight

Sorry didn't mean to put the sad face in. I mean to say I stick to 5:2.5, where I do one day as a sort of half fast (approx 1000cals)

5:2 allows all foods within your TDEE to lose weight.
For better health, we recommend limiting sweet junk to 10- 20% of total cals, but not everyone does so.

Low carb or low fat are NOT necessary to lose weight or to maintain health, unless you have a metabolic / endocrine condition etc and are dieting under medical supervision.

Low carb can be a useful short-term tool to reduce sweet junk addiction, but you can lose weight and be healthy without longterm carb deprivation.

I low carbed for several years, but I always had to watch the calories too, or I would gain weight. I was miserable and hungry after the first few years
After 50, I could never regain my ideal weight on LC.

Once I switched to 5:2, I lost weight and inches.
I'm not hungry anymore, except on FDs, which are no problem, because I know I can eat properly the next days.
I improved my gym performance, because I'm now eating a lot of complex carbs, which provide that extra energy boost I had lacked for years.

I didn't realise until 5:2 how deprived I had been on LC and I suspect after so many years that I had nutritional deficiencies. I feel so much healthier now and it is great to eat normally.

I eat masses of veg plus potato, quinoa, red Camargue rice, some wholegrain bread, occasionally pasta.
I can enjoy fruit properly, not just berries.

btw: For NFDs, calculate your TDEE on mfp, set NOT to lose weight. Calorie deficit comes from the FDs, not the NFDs.
TDEE is 1600-2000 cals for most women. The contrast FD / NFD is important, so do NOT try to go too low on NFDs, definitely not as low as 1200

I find complex carbs, especially potatoes, very filling with a bit of fat.
On low carb, even when I ate huge amounts of fatty food, I was always hungry (and the excess cals put on weight).
Probably a sign that I had nutritional deficiencies on low carb.

Ice, I started with radiantrecovery.com (slightly naff American website but a good programme for ridding sugar slowly from your life), was also paleo/primal (which makes me feel very good - no processed foods etc). At that stage I had a very small handful of brown and wild rice with 3 meals including my bacon and eggs and baked potato. I also sometimes ate a lot of nuts and raisins.

However I wanted to lose some weight last year and I found giving up fruit, nuts, baked potatoes/sweet potatoes and brown rice helped with that. I don't actually think those foods are bad for you at all and if you can eat those and your calories are lower than you use then you'll be healthy happy and lose weight. For me the more good fat I eat the less hungry I am which is "keto" in effect. I would hope I will be keto/paleo for the rest of my life.

I certainly agree that getting correct nutrition is sensible. Our ancestors ate all the animal (I hate liver) and I am taking gelatin in water at the moment every few days and have some bone broth on order as there is a lot in bones etc which we seem to miss these days when we eat as we just eat the muscle meat of the animal. I eat a lot of sea food and salmon and skin of fish and meat. I discovered sometimes my local Waitrose has some lovely prepared seaweed by the fresh prawns in their shells - I have always like sucking prawn heads and I bet that's because my body likes the nutrition in the brains of those prawns.