Anyone try the 5:2 Fast Diet?

stefjc

Well, I have been up for 7 hours, been out shopping, cleaning out chickens etc. I have just eaten 330kcals of feta salad in pitta bread and feel absolutely fine - Skinny Soup for tea, 450kcals in all. I might feel a little bit empty going to bed, so I may eat that last 50kcals then.

No wobbles, no hunger waves, no grumpiness. It does get better for some of us (1 year on and off).

Good luck to everyone just starting.

mom2sons02

I have done 5:2 for about 3 weeks. I took a week off for vacation. I have lost 5 lbs so far. I am really not as hungry as I thought. I usually save most of my calories for dinner so I go to bed full. I do make sure I drink a lot and also have a bullion drink or two. The salt seems to stave off the headaches. Good luck to anyone thinking about it. It is free and doesn't require any pills, smoothies or special teas.

andiebaco

I just started it and can honestly say I feel great. I was really worried about it the day before, but it turned out to be more psychological than anything. Eat whatever you want 5 days a week, then for two non-consecutive days eat: Men=600 calories; Women=500 calories. For the five days, I stick to my normal diet of 1400 +- for maximum weight loss.

If you've tried it, I'd like to hear some feedback.

Happy losing!
Rick

Word of advice... In your non fast days you should be looking at 1500 or more calories (at least for me). The final average for the week should be 1,200 per day.. which is basically the amount of calories by MFP.

NOT LESS.

I've been doing the 5:2 for a month now.. I've lost around 4 kilos (8pounds aprox). I do exercise and I revise that unless something special happen, that my average intake of calories for the week equals (or come close) to 1,200 calories per day. Which is what the MFP recommended me for my height.

I like this because I can fit food social events on my diet without feeling deprived (for example, on this weekend I had some real mexican food, some rosti with bacon and a frappuchino) and still reached to my 1,200. It doesn't work for everybody, but it's working for me. Specially with my life style that include a lot of travelling, living in different places and social meetings.

So yeah... This is another way to create weekly deficit, I don't see a fad on that as long as you control your weekly calories allowance.

sijomial

And this is why I'm not even bothering with a silly fad. Fat loss rather than lean muscle mass should be the way forward for a healthy lifestyle. No purpose in doing two lots of work to build the muscle back up that you've lost through VLCDs when you can just maintain the muscle in the first place.
These 'drop 7lb in one week' diets don't promote healthy living at all, just perpetuate the myth that you have to eat next to nothing and burn off everything.
It's so much better, and healthier, to eat as much as your body needs to fuel everything it does.

Good luck to those who are doing it though.

Note that this is from someone who doesn't understand 5:2 fasting!
If you are following the protocol you will have only an approx. 3,000 calories deficit a week - yes less than 1lb weight loss per week.
It is not a crash diet let alone a VLCD - just a different eating pattern. Not a quick fix, it's a sustainable way of eating for the long term.

By the way as regards the reported loss of lean muscle mass in next to no time - would love to know how this was measured. Handheld bio-impedance machine is my guess... (In which case have glass of water and see your numbers change.)

acpgee

I did this for 3 months last year and was successful with losing weight. If you deal with occasional extreme deprivation better than constant low level deprivation I think it is a good eating plan. You can turn it into a life long maintenance program too. My old GP used to fast one day a week whenever he noticed his weight creeping up.

I stopped while on vacation and never re-started. For me long term, it wasn't really right because I didn't like the fact that I thought about food so much on the down days.

Glad I did it though. I now know the difference between real physical hunger and feeling peckish. It also taught me that while hunger is unpleasant, it doesn't kill you or get progressively worse.

andiebaco

And this is why I'm not even bothering with a silly fad. Fat loss rather than lean muscle mass should be the way forward for a healthy lifestyle. No purpose in doing two lots of work to build the muscle back up that you've lost through VLCDs when you can just maintain the muscle in the first place.
These 'drop 7lb in one week' diets don't promote healthy living at all, just perpetuate the myth that you have to eat next to nothing and burn off everything.
It's so much better, and healthier, to eat as much as your body needs to fuel everything it does.

Good luck to those who are doing it though.

Note that this is from someone who doesn't understand 5:2 fasting!
If you are following the protocol you will have only an approx. 3,000 calories deficit a week - yes less than 1lb weight loss per week.
It is not a crash diet let alone a VLCD - just a different eating pattern. Not a quick fix, it's a sustainable way of eating for the long term.

By the way as regards the reported loss of lean muscle mass in next to no time - would love to know how this was measured. Handheld bio-impedance machine is my guess... (In which case have glass of water and see your numbers change.)

QFT

Gianna44

I just started this last week, so I can't post any results, but I don't believe this is a "quick weight loss" strategy at all. I love the idea of not having to count and restrict every day, just 2 days a week. The 500-600 cal days don't seem awful with careful planning and choosing, although I wouldn't want to do them back to back.

Good luck with this!