5-2 Diet - Your opinions

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.

I did the Alternate Day Diet (which is similar) and lost 2 stone. It is similar but you do 500 cals each alternate day and eat what you like on the other days. I did it during the week but not at weekends and even though I get shaky and feel sick if I don't eat for long periods of time it never happened to me on this diet. I liked the fact that you were only on a strict diet for one day and then if there was someting you really wanted you knew you could have it tomorrow. I did find my energy was good too, I thought at the time it was my thyroid tablets but I have stopped the diet and am still on the tablets but feel way less energetic!

I researched it a lot on the internet and at the time of doing it I couldn't find anything bad about it at all, which is very unusual. Just people saying they didn't like it but not anyone with actual proof it was bad. There was proof that it had health benefits but I think these tests at the time had only been carried out on rats.

I think the only reason I don't do it anymore is that I am very close to goal so don't have the same motivation for the down days.

Good luck if you decide to give it a go

Also he personally has a lot of hormone markers for various issues (eg heart disease, diabetes I think) and a lot of his programmes have been investigating health from his perspective (his previous programme looked at exercise, and he ended up trying out HIIT for example).

I've just done week 2 and as far as I can see there are no restrictions on when you 'fast' just as long as they are non-consecutive days. I tried Sundays as they are less busy for me, but I found that work days when i am busy, are more manageable. I was very tired yesterday evening after 'fasting' but feel ok this morning! I like the flexibility of this plan.

It's my first day on the 5.2 diet. So far so good:

Actually, it's the very livability which makes it attractive.

I went out for dinner last night with my cousin and ordered whatever I like, with no thought to calories, as it was an Up day. Having to only watch calories 2 days a week - and you can switch those days round as need be - makes it much easier to have a social life.

What does the DSAH diet entail?

I forgot, I have a question.

If you exercise on 'down days' do you eat 500 net calories taking into account what you burn off during exercise or just eat 500 calories and that's it?

Hi...The DASH diet is built on a ratio of serving sizes of all your healthy stuff...it does really well with controlling your blood sugar level so you will burn more fat and calories easier...There is a fourteen day initiating period which is tough..(im on day 6) but the after that the diet is very doable...and you can adjust it according to where you are and what your doing and still be on schedule. Google it...it is very popular actually!

Im just starting this...but im excited as i have seen a huge change already...espically around the tummy area!
Good luck with what ever works for you~


Actually, it's the very livability which makes it attractive.

I went out for dinner last night with my cousin and ordered whatever I like, with no thought to calories, as it was an Up day. Having to only watch calories 2 days a week - and you can switch those days round as need be - makes it much easier to have a social life.

What does the DSAH diet entail?
[/quote]

I am a nurse, and people who have colonoscopies do this all the time. They stop eating about 5 pm. Only clear liquids the next day, all night again with no food, test done they get to eat. It is well over 36 hours AND they have a colon cleanse. Talk about being empty.

I did this two weeks ago. I was hungry but not starving. And by the time I could eat I could only eat half of what I normally would and had to make myself eat the rest of the day.

As far as calories, sugar free jello has only 10 calories and has protein. Broth gives you sodium which will keep you from feeling weak. Add some juice to bring your calories up to 500.

It really wasn't hard. And I can see how it would work. No one has died from it that I am aware of. And most pt's say its not that bad.