Horizon Eat, fast and live longer

I read this in papers at weekend,as am struggling with every other way I too have decided to give it a try, - there is quite a lot on the net about alternative fasting diets too . Be interesting to see how we go. Firstl;y have got to make myself only weigh once a week , and only after fasting days! Good luck

Hi,

I read your post and have just watched Horizon on iplayer. WOW! It was very interesting. I am going to do some more reading on the subject and maybe try it a couple of times a week. Alzheimers, cancer and heart disease have touched my family, so I do try to eat plenty of fresh, unprocessed foods. Hopefully this occasional 'fast' may help my weight loss plan.

I'm going to give it a bash too, i'm going for the 2 day fasting and 5 day on, am i right in thinking i can fast today (tue) eat wed and fast thursday and eat fri-sun and fast monday & wed of next week, they don't need to be together do they as i think i would struggle 2 days in a row.

thanks

trevoraston

Hi, the trick is to have a decent evening meal and then fast until the following evening. Having a good night's sleep takes up at least half of the 24 hour cycle.

Hello ladies I just watched this on catch up and was really intrigued also googled it and found this

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1317856/Strict-diet-days-week-cuts-risk-breast-cancer-40-cent.html

Although I have lost 31lbs by eating 7 days a week, I am now going to switch to fasting 2 and eating 5. My reasons are that I hope for the health benefits, I still have high bollod pressure even though my BMI is now just normal, my eldest brother was diabetic but after following the Newcastle VLCD for 6 weeks reversed the problem and I have had one type of cancer, so seriously want to avoid another. Also I have never liked eating breakfast and often wish I could have one huge filling meal at night, so this should suit me better.

Like a previous poster I am going to split this up and do Tuesday and Thursdaynthis week and the from then on Monday and Thursday as that will suit my life.

It's 15.00 in afternoon and hunger is fine although bored with blac tea.

Good luck to all the rest of you who start IF ing

Hi, the trick is to have a decent evening meal and then fast until the following evening. Having a good night's sleep takes up at least half of the 24 hour cycle.

This isn't quite what Michael Moseley did. What you described is called Intermittent Fasting. On the TV programme Dr Mosley semi-starved from one evening meal to breakfast of the next day but one, only eating 600 calories in the intevening day (500 calories is the allowance for "fasting" days for women). They were the "rules" for the last section of the programme & what he did for 5 weeks. It's called 5:2 - 5 days per week normal eating, 2 days much reduced eating. It's modified Alternate Day fasting where you have one day eating normally, followed by a fast day, then normal, then fasting - and so on, so in one week you fast for 3 days & in the next week you fast for 4 days.

Hi, I am new to my fitness pal and joined after watching the horizon program last night.
Im going to try the 5:2 fasting. It is 7.30pm, I had a boiled egg and some tea do far today and plan some fish and salad,
To bring me to my 500 calories tonight. It really hasn't been as bad as I thought, but really hard to find any info on the does and don'ts. I plan on having my two fast days together this week but probably then separating them. Not sure if that's ok or not. Again not sure if can separate calories through day. Or need to have a longer period of complete fast. Anyone else know?

According to the article about this programme on the Beeb's website Dr Mosley ate a breakfast of scrambled eggs, then fish and steamed veg for dinner on fasting days. And I think the fasting days were not consecutive - that's asking a lot to keep it up for 5 weeks, or possibly for life!

HI, advice please! I am going to try the 5:2 as discussed on the programme. Does anyone know whether the calories allowence for the fasting period differs according to weight and so on? For example, if I am currently having 1200 calories per day, would my fasting limit still be 500 calories? Also, what sort of things are you eating when fasting? Carbs will fill up, but currently have a relavelty low carb diet!
I think I will find it difficult to then eat anything like on the other 5 days having restriced my diet for several years now...anyone got any advice on this?

I'm trying this. Fasted yesterday and eating normally today. I'm sticking to 500 calories on fasting days as frankly I don't think I could manage nothing (unless I locked myself in a room all day!). Yesterday I had sliced raw vegetables at what would normally be meal times, I tried a slim fast shake but scrapping that now as I've realised the motion of eating something is just as satisfying as having something on my stomach.

I won't lie by last night I was feeling pretty crabby but after 'tea' (carrot sticks, sliced pepper, olives and cherry tomatoes) I was surprised at how satisfied I felt. This morning I actually woke up feeling quite refreshed! It doesn't feel too bad fasting for a day or two as you know a 'normal' day is not far.

So tomorrow I'm back on it. Going to try fasting from tonights evening meal till tomorrow evening, have a small meal and then start again on Friday so I can have two days off at the weekend.

I know what to expect now so will be making sure I have water near me at all times and to distract myself, my productivity at work is definitely increasing!

I'm trying this. Fasted yesterday and eating normally today. I'm sticking to 500 calories on fasting days as frankly I don't think I could manage nothing (unless I locked myself in a room all day!). Yesterday I had sliced raw vegetables at what would normally be meal times, I tried a slim fast shake but scrapping that now as I've realised the motion of eating something is just as satisfying as having something on my stomach.

I won't lie by last night I was feeling pretty crabby but after 'tea' (carrot sticks, sliced pepper, olives and cherry tomatoes) I was surprised at how satisfied I felt. This morning I actually woke up feeling quite refreshed! It doesn't feel too bad fasting for a day or two as you know a 'normal' day is not far.

So tomorrow I'm back on it. Going to try fasting from tonights evening meal till tomorrow evening, have a small meal and then start again on Friday so I can have two days off at the weekend.

I know what to expect now so will be making sure I have water near me at all times and to distract myself, my productivity at work is definitely increasing!

That's interesting, thank you. I'm trying to psych myself up to trying this - maybe next week

I'm going to give it a bash too, i'm going for the 2 day fasting and 5 day on, am i right in thinking i can fast today (tue) eat wed and fast thursday and eat fri-sun and fast monday & wed of next week, they don't need to be together do they as i think i would struggle 2 days in a row.

thanks

trevoraston

My understanding is that you can get the benefits in the way that you described, non-consecutive days.

That is similar to what Brad Pilon, the author of 'Eat-Stop-Eat' wrote about, having two 24 hour fast twice per week.

I'm afraid you may be getting confused with the earlier part of the programme which looked at alternate day day fasting ( the part where Mosely fasted and then was eating burgers at the drive in) Molsley then said he was going to try a pattern of 5 days eating and 2 days fasting which is what he then focused on. What he did was restrict himself to 600 cals on his two fasting days and then eat a balnced healthy diet for five days. Check it out on BBC I Player. He did make the point that fasting should only be undertaken with medical agree. Conditions like Diabetes would obviously restrict the application of the programme. The MFP programme focusing on lowering your carbs to say about 45 per main meal with say 15 carbs for snacks would give a slower but controlled weight loss if done honestly which means writing down EVERYTHING you eat and then logging it. The programme was interesting but the difference is that MFP is a change of lifestyle while dieting is only effective as long as it is maintained. This is why people often regain weight once they flag with their diet.

The aims are similar to Dr Johnson's "up day down day diet", I tried this in January and did loose weight, then went back onto a low carb diet which is hard to keep up long term so after watching the Horizon programme I am going to try fasting every other day again, as I have already lost 5kgs on a lower calorie diet in the past 6 weeks.

Here is a sample day's menu: B/fast 20g museli, with a handfull of blueberries and milk to cover. Lunch: 1 pkt Tomato Slimma Soup + 2 rice cakes, then 100g fresh fruit or berries + 2 dessert spoons fat free yoghurt. Only drinking herbal tea and large glasses of water with a slice of lemon during the day, Then evening meal will be a Weight Watchers meal of less than 250 cals or 50g chicken breast or 100g fresh fish with fresh veg and one disk of Aunt Bessies mash potato. On the normal days sticking to a low calorie count of 1440 cals per day. See what happens after 2 x weeks .......

Yeah I was wondering the same thing as I thought you just had one meal on the fasting days and that is it, otherwise if you spread the calories through the day then your not really fasting.....right???