5-2 Diet

Options
caldon4523
caldon4523 Posts: 227 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm a runner. I've signed up to run 3-5Ks, 1-10K and 2 half marathons this year. I've already done one of my 5Ks this year and completed it in 27.33 minutes. I'm 55. So, my problem is I want to get down to 168lbs, I weigh 195, but I'm having problems because the work I do is extremely sedentary. I read about the 5-2 diet. Two days during the week the calorie intake for a male is 600 and 500 for a female. The rest of the week you can gorge yourself. Surprisingly most folks in this diet don't gorge themselves and average loosing about 1 lb per week. Today I started to see if I could lose weight. I ended up consuming 624 calories. Wednesday will be my second day. If you want to read more here is the website. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9480451/The-52-diet-can-it-help-you-lose-weight-and-live-longer.html
Has anyone tried this diet?

Replies

  • RunnerInVT
    RunnerInVT Posts: 226 Member
    Options
    My running partner did this and she had to quit running!! She was so weak and tired all the time. Dont do it! I lost by cutting out the junk and eating more veggies. Drink more water and add some resistance training. Shock your body with workouts and real healthy eating not a fad diet you'll hate.
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
    Options
    2! 2 fad diets! AH HA HA HA HAAAA!
  • sunsnstatheart
    sunsnstatheart Posts: 2,544 Member
    Options
    You're training to run marathons and you want to do a fad diet? Eat right and keep running. Throw in some weight training for body composition and you will see a huge difference. There is nothing wrong with running and weight training.
  • TylerJ76
    TylerJ76 Posts: 4,375 Member
    Options
    What you're doing is not healthy, and fairly stupid to try. But I wish you the best on your journey...
  • Kaidya
    Kaidya Posts: 3
    Options
    I can't speak to what is suitable or not for a runner. I am not one. The 5:2 diet is a new thing and can easily be dismissed as a fad, but watching the documentary and reading the book and paying attention to the known facts can help a lot with deciding whether it is for you or not. I would say go with what you can verify, rather than listen to opinions either way.

    There are a couple of groups here for Intermittent Fasting and 5:2 Diet as well, if you'd like to find out people's personal experiences are with it.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
    Options
    For your stated goals (focus on running) this wouldn't be advisable.

    However, I can see how this could work.

    Losing body fat is predominantly about establishing a consistent calorie deficit. Let's say for you that would be about 2,000 calorie per day. 2,000 calories x 7 days a week = 14,000 calories per week.

    Now let us say you eat a total of 1,000 calories over 2 days on this diet (500 calories per day for 2 days) and then an average of 2,600 for the other 5 days (so therefore an additional 13,000 calories.)

    What do you get? Well, the same 14,000 calories over the week and the same deficit.

    There's no magic in this diet. Whilst you can, in theory, eat whatever you like on the other 5 days it is difficult to over eat (unless you are really binging) because they very low calorie days will affect hunger cues and stomach volume. In addition, the idea that you can have freedom and eat flexibly helps psychologically.

    Will this work? Certainly if it suits your preferences.

Categories