5:2 diet?

Veeedot

I've been interested in this diet a while as you don't eat the same number of calories everyday. The diet involves eating calories to maintain your weight for 5 days and a quarter of those calories for the other two 'fast' days. say a women who eats 2000 cals to maintain would have just 500 in the two 'fast' days. that's -3000 cal a week.
what do you think of this diet?

amarie210

Is that similar to carb cycling? I've had friends who carb cycle with good results but I would miss carbs too much. Also, I'm nursing and am too worried about losing my supply to drastically cut anything from my diet. What is the thought behind eating to maintain and then dramatically dropping for 2 days? Wouldn't it be easier to just eat below maintenance every day?

Veeedot

Im not sure what carb cycling is? I thinks its supposed to boost you metabolism because your body reacting to the lower calorie intake on the fast days. I heard it works more effectively but I don't think I could survive fast days

BringingSherriBack

Are the two VLC days in a row or can you do say 3 normal days then a VLC day then 2 normal days and a VLC day? You can do anything for a day, right?

amarie210

Veeedot wrote: »

Im not sure what carb cycling is? I thinks its supposed to boost you metabolism because your body reacting to the lower calorie intake on the fast days. I heard it works more effectively but I don't think I could survive fast days

Carb cycling is eating primarily low carb with a day of high carb eating mixed in. The claim is that your body burns more fat when it's in ketosis. It's what they do on the Extreme weight loss reality shows. I couldn't maintain eating that way long term so I've never tried it.

WildGing

I did 5:2 for a while and found it difficult to have 2 fast days a week. It was much more sustainable for me to do 1 fast day a week instead, and I lost about 30 pounds doing that regimen. I did not eat 500 calories on the fast day though - it was a full fast day, 0 calories (well, maybe 20 - I need a splash of milk in my coffee!)

Another form of Intermittent Fasting that I've tried is 16:8 - which is where you only eat during an 8 hour window each day. This is great for people who aren't hungry in the morning, too busy at work to eat, or like to have big filling meals. This also worked really well for me - I've never been big on breakfast, so it was easy and natural. It's much easier to stick to your calorie goal when you're only eating in a short window each day. I still practice this occasionally, on days I'm not hungry in the morning.

jsimms2127

I have been looking at Carb Cycling and now I am kinda liking the idea of intermediate fasting. I can do that on super busy days with no trouble. I also am going to try to keep my eating during a specified 8 hour block. I tend to want to eat more in the evening than during the day.

oceangirl99

I think I'd be light headed and not able to function properly on fast days. Today is the first time I heard of this way of dieting and for me it isn't sustainable. I want to do something I think I can stick with. For the 5:2, you eat at maintenance calories for 5 days..... that would make the other 2 days that much more painful for me. I'm sure there are a lot of pros for people that do the 5:2 but it just isn't for me. I aim for 1500 calories/day and most days I'm under. If I eat at 1300 3 X for week I can have a 2100 calorie day and in theory should still make my 1lb/week weight loss that the 5:2 is supposed to do.

ANSL_Mom

Google "Eat, Fast, Live Longer" for good information. I did this for about 6 months. Don't do your two fasting days in a row. I did stop because I found myself very crabby and short with people on the two fasting days. Not fair to my kids. Planning fasting days to match busy days was helpful.