5:2 diet newbie - suppport wanted please!!!

Third day today but have been rather naughty on the in between days due to a very social week. I am struggling with the fast days a little, I'm OK until I have my evening meal and then once I've eaten I'm starving all night. I'll have to try having my main meal later in the evening.

Last year I lost a fair amount of weight by using MFP to track food and exercise, but since last autumn/winter due to injury I've not been able to exercise enough to balance out my food intake. However, with this 5/2 approach, I'm on my 5th fast day in 3 weeks, and finding it the easiest diet I've ever done, because there's no real calorie- or points-counting, I just eat 'normal' food but less of it!

With only 2 fast days in a week, there's no need for planning or buying particular foods - just look in your fridge/cupboard and see what's there. I'm not stressing about keeping to exactly 500 cals, but using 500-600 as a guide. I am also still exercising but more like only 1500 cals/week rather than the 3500 I used to be burning through running.

Examples of what I've done:

1. Breakfast - delay until lunchtime - I'm more motivated to 'be good' in the morning, especially on a Monday. Instead I drink black coffee and lots of water to keep me feeling full.
Lunch - sachet of low cal cupasoup and half a pitta bread
Dinner - one-egg omelette, without oil, with fresh steamed carrot & broccoli
Snacks - apple, satsuma, banana

2. Breakfast delayed until lunch as above
Lunch - 40g porridge oats, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, made with water (I don't like the creaminess of milk)
Dinner - massive vegetable stir fry made fresh with 75g quorn pieces, thinly sliced ginger, a bit of soy sauce, garlic - all cooked in a tbsp or two of water rather than oil
Snacks - fruit as above

Other evening meals I've had:
a. 1 tin of low cal tomato soup, with a tsp of harissa to give it a bit of spice, and 30g chickpeas for protein & bulk
b. 2 x Quorn fillets, with steamed broccoli & carrots, with a homemade 'quick tomato sauce' (2 tbsp tomato puree, garlic, dried herbs)

I think the best thing about this is that you really can fit it around 'normal life' - I'm just picking the best days in the week as I go along according to work and social commitments.

Hope that helps.

Am trying this myself and currently on second day of fasting. I've made a v low calorie spinach soup, which looks slightly radioactive, but is surprisingly tasty. It's literally just frozen spinach, onion, veg stock and sautéed onions, pepper and salt. Apparently has only about 50 calories per cup and it seems to be keeping me going today. I do suffer from hyperglycemia so I need to eat little and often to stop myself getting very light headed, so being able to have a cup of soup every few hours is helping! (Oh the girl sitting across from me is currently eating, i kid you not, Chicken Kiev, Onion Rings, Chips, beans and coleslaw! I also had a meeting this morning filled with Pret Bakery goods.....Willpower required indeed!!!)

Does this really work??? How much has everyone lost the first few weeks. I'm game to try anything if I'll drop the weight.

5:2 fasting does work, if you do it properly, you have to educate yourself and do your research first. I quickly lost 6lbs in the first two weeks, but then started binging so now I have a 18/6 eating window instead, I eat around the same amount of calories a day and the binges are starting to decrease too. I have lost 3lbs in the last two weeks, I'm fairly small anyway so this is good enough for me:) Do what works for you, we're all different what works for someone else may not work for you. I personally I couldn't see myself doing 5:2 for life, it's not sustainable for my lifestyle.

Hi, I'm brand new to the site and am loving it so far! Thinking of trying out the 5:2 diet to shed some pounds, I've not gone under 180lbs for the past 3 months which is a bit depressing so hopefully this will give me a boost! Has anyone tried doing the fast days from 2pm to 2pm? I read somewhere that that was a good way of doing it, but not sure if it would work as well!

Hoping people can recommend some great 500cal veggie recipes for me!

yes a group would be great!