Advice about the 5/2 diet please!

AhlaWahda
AhlaWahda Posts: 189 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hello fasters!

My mom watched a documentary about the 5/2 diet so she called me up and was really interested in trying it. She also made me interested in it. I know a lot of people here use the method so what advice can you give me? Did you have positive/negative experience? Was it manageable to eat only about 500 cals for 2 days? Did you stuff your face for 5 days and still lose weight?

Replies

  • Change_is_Good_
    Change_is_Good_ Posts: 272 Member
    My friend got really bad head aches and gave up cos she binged. 500 for 2 days and 1200 the other 5 I'm not surprised.

    Not much help but the only experience I have with it
  • Microfiber
    Microfiber Posts: 956 Member
    My friend got really bad head aches

    Initial headaches are common when you fast. It's mainly due to caffeine withdrawal or something. And no, I'm not doing the 5:2
  • AhlaWahda
    AhlaWahda Posts: 189 Member
    My friend got really bad head aches and gave up cos she binged. 500 for 2 days and 1200 the other 5 I'm not surprised.

    Not much help but the only experience I have with it

    Hmm, doesn't sound good. 1,500 the other days? Wow. It's not worth it. If I was only eating 500 for 2 days, I'd want to INDULGE a lot the remaining days hehe :bigsmile: Otherwise, what's the point?
  • camperchick64
    camperchick64 Posts: 146 Member
    I'm doing it and loving it so far - two weeks in. The fast days are not that difficult. There is a 5:2 group with lots of good info. Do your research and read up on it and see if it is for you. There is also a website
    http://www.52fastdiet.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=246#faq2 with good information.

    Oh and you can still have caffine - you can have coffee. And actually I find that I don't crave to eat more on the non-fast days - quite the contrary - I feel more in control and normal with my eating.
  • padipaddy
    padipaddy Posts: 12
    the 5/2 diet is an excellent idea. Grab the book by Dr Mosselly (sp) and read it. You dont binge on it at all on your free days, why would you?

    ITS NOT THAT HARD !!!!!!! However always remember if there was one diet that worked WE WOULD ALL BE ON IT!!!!

    Regards

    Rab
  • wswing
    wswing Posts: 39 Member
    My friend got really bad head aches and gave up cos she binged. 500 for 2 days and 1200 the other 5 I'm not surprised.

    Not much help but the only experience I have with it


    Maybe because you are not supposed to restrict the other 5 days.
  • kjoy_
    kjoy_ Posts: 316 Member
    after a week of 5:2 and i am down a pound after a 3-week weight plateau on a 1,300 calorie diet. i eat 500 the two days of fresh fruit and veg, which is a surprisingly large amount. on my "feed" days i eat 1,500-1,600 during the week and 1,700-1,800 during the weekends, plus eating back my exercise calories. if you exercise on your "feed" days, and i do for about 300 calories burned, i get to eat 2,000-2,100 calories. i don't know about you but i would consider that a feast and "eating whatever i want" for being on a diet and continually losing! the first fast day was hard, but black coffee, green tea and lots of lemon water really helped me.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/forums/show/7953-5-2-fasting

    ^here's the link to the 5:2 fast group i am a part of on my fitness pal, you can ask any questions you want about it here and everyone is so nice. i figure this won't hurt to try for a month considering i was at a plateau for three weeks, and i finally broke it with 5:2, so definitely loving it, and loving not having to track every bite/lick/taste of food on my feed days.
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,081 Member
    I'm going to start today but I'm doing my own variation based on my TDEE -3500 calories which should allow me to lose 1 lb per week. I also decided on numbers which I think are doable for me ie. on my fast days I'll eat 700 calories (200 cal breakfast, 350 cal lunch and 150 cal snack for dinner more or less). On the other days I'll then be able to eat 2000 calories so I think that way I'll be able to get through the fast days knowing I can eat a lot more on the other days.

    I work out 6 days a week so this will be better for me as I'll do my training in the morning of my first fast day so I still have the energy from dinner the night before as the day before will be a high calorie day. The same on the second fast day.

    I think this will work well for me as I've tried other eating patterns (also using TDEE -20% and then TDEE -3500 cals) but I don't find it possibe to eat the same every day as I eat out every weekend and when I gave myself more calories at weekends only and less the other 5 days I found I went over on calories during the week as I was starving.

    On my 2 days of 700 calories I'm planning to keep it simple by having protein shakes and fruit for breakfast, a salad or protein/veg based lunch and another protein shake in the evening.
  • Baileys83
    Baileys83 Posts: 152 Member
    I do this and find it really great. I dont mind my low days as I find food with a real low calorie content - I ate a tin of pineapple throughout the day yesterday snacking which was only just over 100 calories (pineapple also has a huge amount of health benefits including fibre!) but I did hit my 500 throughout the day with other foods too.

    I dont binge on my other days but do enjoy them more. Drink lots of water :)

    PS I lost my goal 7lb in the past month doing this :)
  • JAT74
    JAT74 Posts: 1,081 Member
    Sounds good but I don't want to lose out on protein during my fast days as I'm trying to keep my protein above 100g the majority of the time, usually 110-120g. I figured if I have 2 protein shakes on my fast days plus a little fruit in the morning and a protein based meal like chicken salad or chicken/fish with some veg during the day and another protein shake in the evening my protein will still be quite high.

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