5-2 Diet - Your opinions

I think this way of eating is more than just a gimmick. It's a proven and tested method of maintaining health, one that has been around for centuries before calorie controlled diets were the norm. We shouldn't just dismiss time-tested methods just because they're different from ours. We have people even on this thread saying they've either tried it themself or know someone for whom it's worked. Why are others so quick to dismiss it then?

The 5:2 diet stems from the BBC documentary Horizon: Eat, Fast and Live Longer by Dr Michael Moseley.

Here is a link to information about the programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lxyzc (although, not available on the BBC iPlayer to watch I recently found it on Daily Motion).

Since then he's written a book with references to papers and started a website called http://thefastdiet.co.uk which I suspect has most of the information you are looking for (I saw the programme so haven't explored the site yet).

In a nutshell, he advocates restricting calorie intake to 25% of normal intake for two non-consecutive days a week. This is supposed to have the effect of taking your body out of "growth mode" and into "repair mode".

Hope that helps.

If you can fast without binging the day before or day after, I don't see any issue with it.

Supposedly decreasing overall caloric consumption is good even in overall healthy people.

I tried it for a few weeks (fast days were Tuesday and Thursday) but by the end of Thursday I was cranky and just ate way too much. Now I've taken the plunge to straight IF (www.leangains.com). I eat now between 1 pm and 10 pm, everyday. This is how I was eating before, naturally, only my food choices are healthy now, instead of mainly Doritos and Snickers.

Good luck!

The 5:2 diet stems from the BBC documentary Horizon: Eat, Fast and Live Longer by Dr Michael Moseley.

Here is a link to information about the programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01lxyzc (although, not available on the BBC iPlayer to watch I recently found it on Daily Motion).

Since then he's written a book with references to papers and started a website called http://thefastdiet.co.uk which I suspect has most of the information you are looking for (I saw the programme so haven't explored the site yet).

In a nutshell, he advocates restricting calorie intake to 25% of normal intake for two non-consecutive days a week. This is supposed to have the effect of taking your body out of "growth mode" and into "repair mode".

Hope that helps.

No. Brad Pilon wrote "Eat, Stop, Eat," which is the concept of 5:2 intermittent fasting back in 2007. This is not a new diet at all, this guy is just trying to claim credit for other people's work, and cash in.

By using the money I'm forced to pay by the BBC or go without a TV or computer. The guy is a tool.

I can't see it ever being recommended by the NHS or a reputable doctor, due to the likelihood of it encouraging binge eating disorders (which should be fully investigated).

Don't get me wrong, it can be fine and healthy, all I'm saying is that is unlikely to be a suitable approach for the majority.

Cashing in on other's ideas? Using BBC funding to promote it with little detail, then release a book on it in January? Does he think we're stupid?

What sort of meals do you eat on the fasting days?

I've watched the Michael Mosley documentary on this recently and it definitely is very interesting and a lot of it made sense to me.

It's not for me though, I have a fulltime job and a family (we always eat as a family and I don't want to eat separate meals from the children), I just wouldn't have the energy.

I dont think Mosley ever claimed to have invented it - the original documentary had him examining various forms of restricted eating and IF.


Aside from one not very expensive book, I'm not aware of any associated products. And even the book isn't essential. There's no supplements, no fancy shakes or replacement meal bars. If he's making any money out of it (other than his name as a TV presenter is now more widely known) I can't see where.

What do I eat? Typically an egg white and half a banana pancake for breakfast, maybe with a few berries, a miso soup with a large salad for lunch, and a slice of ham with some sauteed leeks and mushrooms for dinner. That even allows for the odd snack of laughing cow light on crackerbread.

Others spreading the 500 cals over 2 meals might have cottage cheese with fruit for breakfast, and some fish with green beans for dinner. Portion size is self-evidently crucial here - on non-fasting days I will eyeball most of my food, on fasting days I weigh everything.

What sort of meals do you eat on the fasting days?

Dinner. Basically you eat normally 5 days a week, and your fasting days you skip breakfast, lunch, and any snacks. So you "Eat" on a regular day, "Stop" after dinner on a regular day, then "Eat" starting at dinner on the fasting day, where you resume your regular eating schedule.

I'm doing 3 meals a day, albeit with a very light breakfast (my least favorite meal of the day). I've been putting all my meals here: http://5and2er.blogspot.co.uk/

That's not how it works. The point of fasting is to go an extended period of time without eating, not to eat smaller calorie counts for your meals. The purpose is to give your body a 20-24 hour break from food so that it can digest what you've eaten, and then use the energy it would normally use for digestion on other bodily functions, allowing for repair, maintenance, and hormonal resets. If you're still eating 3 meals throughout the day, that's not happening, you're just doing a VLCD, not intermittent fasting.

Yes, and that's what Mosley does at the beginning of the documentary he used to publicise his book.
He then, seemingly on a whim, started the 2 days a week eating 500-600kcal per day. It's not copying precisely Pilon, it's actually from someone else. I'll post if I can find it.


Edit to add: http://www.johnsonupdaydowndaydiet.com/html/how-to-do-the-diet.html Is much more likely where the original idea came from. I'm a sceptic, so I assume he's already plotting a range of supplements and snacks to help follow his diet, in an Atkins stylee

Having completed my second day of fasting yesterday I find it very interesting to read some of the dismissive comments from people who haven't actually tried it.

I decide to try IF for four weeks rather than dismiss it without trying it. Having read quite a lot about it, and about fasting in general (journals and academic books rather than newspapers and strangers on theweb) I couldn't find any disadvantages or issues regarding health that where of a concern to me (I amnow healthy, 21% body fat, in the middle of my BMI zone, eat correctly, don't have any issues with binging or self-control, exercise regularly etc). No reason not to give it a go.

I actually noticed that I have one day a week where I am just not hungry anyway. I eat because I "should" but at least once a week I'll skip breakfast, often lunch, and not eat until mid-afternoon. This is listening to my body and not the rubbish about "breakfast kickstarting your metabolism" and other such myths. I would not do this if I was lacking energy, irritable, hungry. I'm not so I choose to delay eating until I feel like I need something.

So on Sunday I woke and felt just like that. I wasn't hungry so didn't eat. Then by late-lunch I had a small meal of about 300Cals. Didn't eat again until teh evening when I had 250Cals. The occassions where I felt a little hungry I had a cup of green tea.

I did the same yesterday. Had a light lunch and a light meal at dinner. 580Cals for the day including tea/coffee etc.

I am not stupid, I know this will result in weight loss as I haven't adjusted my other calories on feeding days. I don't need to do it for weight loss though as I've already got my weight loss sorted and maintaining a steady loss.

What I was surprised at was the fact I didn't feel like I had less energy through either of the days. I couldn't have trained hard on these days I don't think, but that's fine by me, two rest days per week suits me anyway.

I did feel more alert during the day and my body fat % and weight have dropped twice as quickly as they have done in the past. This is despite the same weekly calorie total.

Another thing, which sounds odd to notice for a guy I guess, my skin definiately looks brighter and smoother in the morning after fasting, and my hair looks better also. Also when I weigh-in the day after my stomach looks flat. It has never looked flat!

I also didn't feel the need to eat this-morning, but I did. The pont is it's not making me want to eat any differently on my feeding days.


So for those who haven't tried it, that's fine, you don't have to. But don't dismiss it with "facts" that aren't facts.

You may not feel hungry all day
You may not have the lack of energy that you think you would
You may not binge teh day before or after (if you do that is another, underlying problem that you have)
Don't dismiss it as a fad diet. It is far more than that. It doesn't have to result in weight loss if you use it as part of a maintenance plan.

Even if you have no intention of ever sticking to IF, it would be simple for you to try it (like I have), even for one day, to see if your fears of binging, poor energy etc are real.



A lot of people I know have made a lot of critiscisms about my diet and calorie counting. Apparantly they could never do that either. You knwo what, after 18 months and loosing 40lbs I'm glad I had that yoguart and granola instead of the sausage sandwich every morning. The 5:2 diet doesn't suite evryone I'm sure, not sure it will suit me in the long-term, but I could find a lot of folk who don't think that your diet plan is very good either.


If someone would like to give some actual evidence of why the 5:2 or IF is a poor choice I'd be interested to read it. All I have found so far is fears and in-ground beliefs from people who haven't tried it.

I am not advocating the diet one way or the other, but I am wanting to try and but a balanced argument together, hence why I am trying it.