5:2 diet success stories

TimeToReduceFat

Please share 5:2 diet success stories.
Thank you.

sijomial

Worked for me!
Lost the excess fat that had hung around for 20 years at a steady 1lb a week.
My personality is more suited to short bursts of high motivation so just dieting twice a week helped my adherence. Conversely long periods of daily restriction bore and frustrate me.

Note that I did it "properly" - eating at maintenance on the 5 non-fasting days as per the plan.
Secondary benefits for me:

• Supported a high training workload well as most of my exercise and recovery was while fully fuelled.
• The switch to maintenance was easy as I was already accustomed to eating at the correct level.
• I learned to prepare really tasty but low calorie meals.
• I learned to understand my hunger signals better.

Pitfalls:

• Some people hate it and it makes their adherence harder.
• Don't be tempted to restrict on the 5 days, I saw a huge drop out rate and a disproportionate number of those failures only followed a 7 day a week plan 2 days a week. (Don't blame the plan if you don't follow it.....)
• You will be very hungry twice a week.
• There are some people who shouldn't do this diet - see the website for details.
• Exercise on a fast day take a lot of getting used to, probably best to avoid at first.
• The benefits outside of calorie management are vastly over-stated, beware cherry picked snippets or out of context research. (You aren't a mouse, not all fasting regimes are the same, weight loss alone accounts for many health improvements etc. etc.)

GetFitFix

TimeToReduceFat wrote: »

Please share 5:2 diet success stories.
Thank you.

I have never heard of this type of diet.

sijomial

GetFitFix wrote: »

TimeToReduceFat wrote: »

Please share 5:2 diet success stories.
Thank you.

I have never heard of this type of diet.

@GetFitFix

It was briefly very fashionable about 5 years ago.
Like all fashionable diets (as keto and 16:8 style intermittent fasting are now...) there was a load of exaggeration around about the benefits combined with a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon without doing any sensible research, or even thinking it through. Mercifully it seemed to avoid attracting the evangelist crowd trying to convert everyone to their method.

Also like all diets it suits some people and doesn't suit others, has pros and has cons.....

See https://thefastdiet.co.uk/ for more info.