alternate day fasting

I've been juice-fasting 4-5 days a week for the last 4+ weeks (less than 500 calories a day) and it is working great for me! I will probably include a 3-day juice-fast every week if I'm going to feel this good!

I'm just starting today - my first 'Down' day. I'm gonna keep at it for as long as poss. Kind of doing it as an experiment, it seems too good to be true! I've worked out my reccommended calorie intake on the 'Down' days, on the website, and it's 465. But then it does say that my RDA normally is about 2000 cals, which I know it isn't according to my BMR (it's about 1600). So basically, I'm doing to do 2 days on 465 cals, 5 days on 1200-1600 cals.

Also, the diet itself doesn't really mention exercise, and I go to the gym abotu 5 days a week, so hopefully it should make the results a bit more obvious! Finger crossed, anyway Don't worry, I'll be sure not to exercise too much on my 'Down' days - don't want to get that lightheadedness that is apparent with this diet.

Watch this space

I think the trick is to fast for at least 18 hrs straight. Zero cal. So I do it 10 pm to 4 pm. Get most of my fasting while sleeping!!

I am in the midst of my first fast. 60 hours - I'm at 36 hours so far. In the future I will only go 48 hours. I'm really not eatting many calories - broth, 4 oz of OJ to put in my water and cream for coffee. For a total of about 200 calories a day. I plan on fasting for two consecutive days each week. The first 30 hours were not too bad. This last six has been more psychological - food, food, food.

Can anyone let me know if this is a 'lifestyle' change of diet, or should it only be done for a few weeks at a time?? Me and my husband have been doing the 5:2 diet for 3 weeks now - haven't found it to be as arduous as I thought it would be.

I disagree. Use fitness pal to assist you to eat comfortably and regularly. By understanding the calorific values in each meal / snack you should be able to compensate on a day to day basis should you go over or under your dietary level. Do not worry about the odd special day ..... enjoy life. Just make sure you correct the discrepancy sometime in the near future. There is no special tick to this!

It’s working for me nicely.

I believe this is lifestyle, with the results of fasting being better overall blood labs and reduced risk of heart/cancer disease. You should look at the BBC documentary on you tube

I've done fads for years. Can't stick to them, so I don't even consider trying them. I'm here to change how I EAT, to not feel hungry, and to lose weight. Can't do all those 3 while fasting!

IMO, being hungry all day = being cranky all day = pigging out to feel normal = feeling like a failure = giving up.

No thanks, but good luck to those who are trying this on for size..

anxious to hear how you all are doing on this. Keep us posted

I personally don't think you should fast consecutive days, that in my opinion is NOT alternate day fasting. Alternate day fasting is exactly what it implies, fast one day, feast the next. Fasting also means different things to different people. Some fast completely (no calories what so ever) others eat 500 calories. The diet in itself also means different things to different people. Are you doing it for health benefits or weight loss? There is quite the buzz about fasting. Do yourself a favor and take the time to research it.

I did the standard calorie counting, eating back about 50% of exercise calories for about 6 months and lost 34lbs in that time. Then I heard about the Horizon documentary (Eat, Fast and Live Longer) about the 5:2 diet and watched it online. After a week or so's thought I decided to give it a try and have now been doing it for about 2 months and have lost 12lbs. So, weight-loss wise the results are about the same.

I did find that when I started the 5:2 diet it helped break a plateau I'd been on for a few weeks. I don't find it that hard to limit my calories to 500 per day on two non-consecutive days per week. Not eating breakfast is easy for me anyway. Then sometimes I skip lunch - if I'm busy anyway I hardly notice. On other "fast" days I eat a "leaves only" type salad or have a low cal cup a soup. A low-ish dinner wraps up the day. Some people complain of headaches on low days - I haven't had any. I used to be very aware of the "rumbly-tum syndrome" but I find that happens less as I've got used to fasting. I also found that in the early days I was wanting meals promptly at slightly earlier times than usual on the day after a fast, but this has worn off now and I just feel normal.

In my opinion, you do need to be aware that you need a bit more to eat on non-fast days than if you were sticking to a regular diet that didn't include fast days. You want the average calorie intake over the week to be roughly what it would be if you were just calorie counting and eating the same every day.

I like the flexibility you have with this diet. Going out for a special meal? Just fit it into a feast day. You can swop the days around to suit yourself as long as you have at least one eating day between fast days.

I looked at Alternate Day Fasting and it seems like a slightly more drastic version of 5:2, or rather. the other way round!

I'm 39, 5ft 8" and weighed 171lbs with body fat of 23% (not visibly drastically overweight but fatter than i've ever been around the middle) have been following the 5:2 fasting diet for about 10 week. I usually fast on mondays and wednesdays and i stick to 550-600 calories on the fast days. On the non fast days i generally eat what i want which amounts on average to 2500 cals a day. I drink at the weekends (20-30 units) and which probably brings my calories for those days up to 3000-3500 calls. I exercise on non fast days, mountain biking in the surrey hills for about 3 hours each session (14- 21 miles depending on terrain) and occasional games of tennis.

The results so far are that i've lost 11lbs, and i'm down to 160lbs and body fat is down to 21.8%. However i reached these figures about 3 weeks ago and since then my weight has plateaued.

Losing weight was not my sole motivation, because i was interested in the other possible health benefits, but i was hoping to get my body fat under 20% and weight down to 160ish lbs.

This is also the first diet i have ever tried, and i did this because it looks like something i could sustain over the longterm, but as i say i would be interested to hear any suggestions as to what i could do to encourage more weigh loss and if anyone has found more info on:

- should the fast days be consecutive (this would make it harder to sustain)
- what impact does exercise have
- should you eat protein on fast days, as the horizon programme implied you shouldn't
- what effect does alcohol have, even if you dont go over the 2500 cals for a man on, on non fast days.

Any other info would be great

cheers

Rob

Would there be any problem with fasting from noon meal to noon meal instead of evening meal to evening meal. I don't think I would be successful if I didn't eat during the day at work.

So day one of my fasting day and I have had -

2 weetabix and Semi Skimmed milk for breakfast at 9am
A slimfast shake for Lunch at 1pm
A slimfast shake for Dinner at 7pm

Lots of water, which means I am peeing loads :laugh:

I am not feeling very hungry so all good, I only have till tomorrow morning to go and then I will eat normal. I am going to cut out choc, sugar, and crisp etc and stick with healthy foods