Fast Beach Diet - are you giving it a go? Pop over here!

[AmyMumsnet]

If you've heard about the Fast Beach Diet on Mumsnet and fancy giving it a go, you've come to the right place.

Share your recipes and progress with others - or just the fact that you're feeling stabby on a fast day.

Mimi Spencer will be popping in every week to see how you're doing and pass on any pearls of wisdom that might be helpful. She'll be here at 1pm next Monday and then at the same time every Thursday from the week after that.

If you're wondering what we're on about, here's some more info about the Fast Beach Diet.

Best of luck with it!

Justine, I've seen your response, but I still don't get it. why lower yourself, mn, to stopping this low?

Marie Claire have a pretty similar endorsing article, is this MNs new alignment?

Personally I think it's totally faddish - eating 500 cals two days a week - it' calorie counting, as others have said, cut out calories, lose weight. It's a diet. It will be very popular for a while. Then it won't be. Hence a fad.

No MN should not be promoting it.

I'm a big evangelist for 5:2 and like Mimi's new book but with this thread appearing in the same week as Mimi's (about the same book) then I too am rather .

MamaMary
5:2 is not faddish : it works long term and lots of us love it
its the blerdy "beach body" stuff that is offensive

What do nutritionists say about the 5:2 diet?

Because whether you mean to or not Mumsnet, you look like you are endorsing this and if you're going to endorse anything or even look as if you're endorsing it while denying you're endorsing it, then you should probably take your lead from the qualified professionals.

I doubt if they'd approve the Fast Beach Diet. I'm slightly dubious that they'd approve 5:2 at all tbh, but perhaps some of them would, what do I know.

Of course 5:2 is faddish! It's the same as any other diet/fad..... They all work long term for as long as you do them,5:2 is no different! It's a fad.... Next summer there will be another one along.

Joules Why don't you try and educate yourself about 5:2 before proclaiming it's a fad?

Saying it's a fad is silly and short-sighted.

Southeastdweller what do nutritionists say about it?

Ask Heard of Vicki Edgson? She's an advocate for it:

www.getthegloss.com/video/vicki-edgson-s-5-2-diet-plan

Ian Marber is more hesitant:

www.thejc.com/lifestyle/food/85917/how-eat-well-is-fasting-key-a-longer-life

Fwiw, we encourage healthy eating on both fast days and on other ones. Some of us have never eaten healthier in our lives and I for one am bursting with energy providing I've slept OK.

Are you aware of the scientific evidence?

Periods of starvation are pretty natural for man kind. We ate like this for about a million years. IF (intermittent fasting) tends to be good (given most people stuff their faces most days with chips, chocolates and the like whilst mainlining sugared drinks).

However it tends to work better for men. Women seem more to need first to stablise their blood sugar by eating a healthy diet without snacks but regular meals at the same time every day - a way of eating for life so I don't think people should rush into this.

As for whether websites like this should do book promotions etc - all the mainstream press does it including the Times. They have to make a living somehow.

"Beach Diet" is particularly pernicious as a phrase for the many feminists on mumsnet of course. Healthy eating for life to make you feel good and be healthy is fine but a suggestion you do a crash diet so you please men by looking skinny on the beach is a "women as property for male view" type idea which is repellant.

Why do I need to educate myself any further? I've read enough, and I'm not alone in saying it's a fad

It hasn't worked for everyone. It's not some great new discovery, it's just this years in thing. Like the cabbage diet was once popular etc, this one is no different. 'Beach body' screams of fad to me

Sorry,meant to add, I think it would do better as advertising itself as a lifestyle change. Way of eating, or whatever

Most, in fact pretty much all, the eating threads on here talk about sustainable healthy eating and lifestyle change.

Which is why this feels so gimmicky, women's mag and ties into a that you must loathe your body on the beach in a bikini crap that gets peddled so much in tabloid media.

There are lots of posters talking about healthy mind and body which is much better. I'm including 5:2 threads in that although I don't read them very much. I go to the low carb ones, healthy eating ones.

Can't be bothered trying to explain anymore the definition of a fad.

The Fast Beach Diet is supposed to be an adjunct to 5:2, not a separate thing, by the way.

Oh lord.

What is it with the 'mankind ate like this for millions of years' argument? I've heard it all over the place.

Mankind died in large numbers for thousands of years! People still die early from malnutrition. We are very fortunate, most of us, that we can afford to do something like this as a lifestyle choice, but please let's not justify it by reference to famine, eh?

Honestly, could there be a more idiotic and offensive argument?

Think we all know the definition of the word fad

I beg to differ, Joules.

Hello MN – I’ll be here for the next half hour or so on this beautiful sunny day, answering any questions you may have on 5:2 and the Fast Diet...

Just a note for anyone who is aggravated by the idea of faddy dieting in general – me too! I was always in that camp throughout my career as a journalist, and I’ve generally been the first to complain about silly weight-loss plans. BUT. The Fast Diet has benefits that go well beyond any weight loss you might (or might not) experience. There’s good evidence that intermittent fasting is beneficial to health in a number of ways. Taking a short break from food can have all kinds of effects on the body – as Michael Mosley has written in the original book – there’s a reduction in a hormone called IGF-1, which means that you are reducing your risk of a number of age-related diseases; the switching-on of repair genes; occasional fasting also gives your pancreas a bit of a rest, boosting the effectiveness of the insulin it produces in response to elevated blood glucose (increased insulin sensitivity will reduce your risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cognitive decline). There’s also some evidence to suggest that intermittent fasting can lead to increased levels of neurotrophic factor in the brain, which should make you more cheerful…
I’ve also found, personally and anecdotally, that a brief break from food helps you in other more subtle ways: it allows you to understand your appetite a bit better, helps you to make consciously healthy decisions about what you eat, and almost ‘resets normal’. That’s been a key for me, and for lots of other people for whom 5:2 has proved successful.

The new Fast Beach Diet book, btw, is aimed at people who want a short-term booster plan to get them from A to B by undertaking a reasonable but more vigorous protocol. It’s not designed to be a ‘forever plan’ like the 5:2 – just as a slightly more intense version. There are plenty of tips and ideas in the book about getting a handle on habit, coping with temptation, how to deal with a short-term feeling of hunger. There’s also plenty on introducing exercise – the book includes a section on Michael Mosley’s Fast Exercise plan – which is a good way to up the ante if you’re keen on seeing some weight loss within a contained period of time.

are there any ways in which, or groups of people for whom, it might not be such a good idea mimi?

There are some groups for whom fasting is not advised - pregnant women, of course, and anyone on medication should certainly seek the advice of their GP. If you are generally in good health, part-time, short term fasting should be fine (remember the 5:2 plan includes some intake of calories on a Fast Day, so you're not going completely without food)