5:2 diet??

Ive lost 4.5lbs in three weeks Im now into my 4th week and wont be weighing myself until Friday.

Although the weight is coming off Im also feeling highly energised, my skin is looking good and Im finding Im not very hungry on feed days.

You should watch the doco and read the book. There are a couple of 5:2 groups here some are busy some aren't. Also the fast diet website is very useful to have a look around on

Oooooh, this sounds interesting! I would love to hear some other takes on it!

I have been doing 5/2 since 4th Feb, and am down 23lbs I find it is very good if you socialize a lot its only 2 days a week so if you don!t manage one day you move to another. Just plan your low calorie days to 500 female /600 male and you do get used to your low calorie days. But be careful you are not too crazy on you eating days as the lbs won!t drop.

I have been doing 5:2 since January 2013 and have lost 25 lb so far. It's the main reason I've lost weight and i agree with others that you shouldn't over eat on eating days as you will put all the weight back on. Another nice side effect is that it makes you feel like you've got an invisible gastric band as the day after fasting yo get full quickly and it's hard to eat a lot - especially greasy junk food!

I also love the mentality of treating those 500 cals like money on fast days - you want to get as much food/substance from as little cals as possible so it forces you to mostly eat fruits or vegs as they are the most filling for very little calories. This encourages you to eat cleaner meals and cook from scratch on eating days too!

Hi I did and yes I does work the only problem I found is that its not very sociable if you have a family. You really have to plan you do over come the hunger pans. I would plan a fast day then my husband would come in and say lets go out for tea, or with our weather been so unpredictable if it was nice he would then so lets have a BBQ so on and so on. Just was no good for me but a lot of people have lost on it. X

I've just started 5:2 and I cope with this by eating all my calories in the evening. This means I get a long fast and my husband gets a normal dinner. I have what he has, just a smaller portion. You can get a big dinner for 500 calories if you have lots of vegetables. No reason at all why you can't have a BBQ, either, or go out to dinner. Just move your fast to the next day.

This seems like a real craze at the moment, all my OHs work mates are doing it.
Question: are you supposed to do the two fast days consecutively? Or just any two days within a week?

OH thought he'd try it yesterday, had nothing at all to eat at all, then a few pints and some Skyline chilli. That cant be healthy? I think I'd rather stick to my calorie counting, since it is making me eat healthily and exercise more, which is way more of a lifestyle change

This seems like a real craze at the moment, all my OHs work mates are doing it.
Question: are you supposed to do the two fast days consecutively? Or just any two days within a week?

OH thought he'd try it yesterday, had nothing at all to eat at all, then a few pints and some Skyline chilli. That cant be healthy? I think I'd rather stick to my calorie counting, since it is making me eat healthily and exercise more, which is way more of a lifestyle change

Erm, no, I would not recommend alcohol and chilli on a fast day lol I repeat, it's not an excuse to eat crap, you still need to eat healthily, it just employs the principles of calorie shifting, e.g. that we've evolved to go for periods without food; that feast and famine or more natural ways of eating. You effectively get the same number of calories, you just have 5 normal calorie days and 2 (don't have to be consecutive) low cal days. Lots of good science to back it up.

I do 5:2 for two or three weeks when I have a special occasion coming up. It certainly works for me.

It was 5 weeks not 15, but I guess I have a lot to lose so first few weeks think my body went into shock and chucked out all the retained water! On non fast days I am counting my calories, trying to keep the balance of everything. I have really reduced my carb intake but only to a normal level, was eating far too much before. Eating lots more fish, eggs, veggies and less snacks and junk food. Thats not to say it is all healthy, I still manage to fit in some wine and chocolate I am not expecting to lose 20lb every 5 weeks, realistically I would like to lose 1-2lb per week and I will be happy...slow and steady wins the race as they say. I have also started to excerise which I didnt really do much of before. Basically..I eat less and move more..the best way to lose weight

I'm on my second week of it and have lost 6lb already
I read the book before I started and it actually has amazing health benefits.

I usually have fruit or boiled egg in the morning and then something with salad in the evening or some soup.

I've been doing it since November and have lost 50lb so far. That's a little slower than when I was on a straight calorie restricted diet but then again I put most of that loss back on. I used to cheat a lot and increasingly binge. 5:2 feels more maintainable to me. In fact I'm dubious about the supposed extra health benefits, for me it's mostly about a convenient way to distribute my weekly calorie deficit in a way that means I don't tend to binge.

I do think it suits some people better than others. I've always been the kind of person that can miss a meal and hardly notice it so it's not that hard for me. Plus if I'm feeling like I need a treat I'm never more than a few hours away from a point when I can indulge. It's also really useful to be able to switch my fast days around to fit in with social engagements and so on.

When I started my non-fast days were pretty much "eat what you like" but I only lost weight like that for a while. I find pretty much any diet works well to begin with. Anyway now I have my MFP set to lose 1lb a week and I try to eat within the suggested limit (including eating back exercise calories) on non-fast days. Maybe once a week I go over by a few hundred.

I really like it, it's really working for me.

It was 5 weeks not 15, but I guess I have a lot to lose so first few weeks think my body went into shock and chucked out all the retained water! On non fast days I am counting my calories, trying to keep the balance of everything. I have really reduced my carb intake but only to a normal level, was eating far too much before. Eating lots more fish, eggs, veggies and less snacks and junk food. Thats not to say it is all healthy, I still manage to fit in some wine and chocolate I am not expecting to lose 20lb every 5 weeks, realistically I would like to lose 1-2lb per week and I will be happy...slow and steady wins the race as they say. I have also started to excerise which I didnt really do much of before. Basically..I eat less and move more..the best way to lose weight

A lot of it will have been water, because when you fast you go into ketosis after your body consumes all the glycogen available. Glycogen stores water and when it's used, it releases that water. However, I would have thought that restoring the glycogen restores the water, no?

It was 5 weeks not 15, but I guess I have a lot to lose so first few weeks think my body went into shock and chucked out all the retained water! On non fast days I am counting my calories, trying to keep the balance of everything. I have really reduced my carb intake but only to a normal level, was eating far too much before. Eating lots more fish, eggs, veggies and less snacks and junk food. Thats not to say it is all healthy, I still manage to fit in some wine and chocolate I am not expecting to lose 20lb every 5 weeks, realistically I would like to lose 1-2lb per week and I will be happy...slow and steady wins the race as they say. I have also started to excerise which I didnt really do much of before. Basically..I eat less and move more..the best way to lose weight

A lot of it will have been water, because when you fast you go into ketosis after your body consumes all the glycogen available. Glycogen stores water and when it's used, it releases that water. However, I would have thought that restoring the glycogen restores the water, no?

This seems like a real craze at the moment, all my OHs work mates are doing it.
Question: are you supposed to do the two fast days consecutively? Or just any two days within a week?

OH thought he'd try it yesterday, had nothing at all to eat at all, then a few pints and some Skyline chilli. That cant be healthy? I think I'd rather stick to my calorie counting, since it is making me eat healthily and exercise more, which is way more of a lifestyle change

I read somewhere the fast days should NOT be consecutive. The plan is 2 non consecutive fast days, 5 "normal" days.

I have looked into this and it does seem to have some great benefits. I don't think it would work for me because of my schedule/lifestyle but it is interesting.

I do wish people would get off the 'we've evolved to fast' BS. That might hold up if you also spent all day on your feet, tracking wildlife and running with spears but if you did that much exercise, diet wouldn't really be a big concern.