"5:2" or "Fast" Diet; Intermittent Fasting

yes I'm doing it. Mondays and Thursdays are my fast days. That's actually how I'm losing my weight. it's worth trying!!! Check out their facebook page. Lots of people on there. today is one of my fast days.

Here's links to a couple of groups specifically for this way of eating here on MFP.

Basically, 2 days a week you eat at a very low calorie level (500 for women, 600 for men).

The other 5 days, you eat "normally" ie roughly at your TDEE or maintenance level.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/8005-5-2-fasting

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/8628-5-2-diet

i am on my 2nd week as I was struggling to lose weight I just seemed to be maintaining it, I like it, I lost 2lb my first week and hope to lose 22lb by the end of August

I've been doing it for a little over a month now. I've lost 8lb so far. If you are interested I've created a "forum", blog and a FB page devoted to this diet. Not sure if I am allowed to post links but I will try. Please stop by...lots of infor.

Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Feast-and-Famine-52-Fast-Diet/379185122195679

New Message board: http://52fastdiet.proboards.com/

Web site: http://www.fivetwofastdiet.com

I have been striving to lose weight/get healthier since February. I found out about 5:2 fasting in March from this group. There is a sub-group of 5:2 fasters here that someone invited me to, because there are a lot of people who are rather strongly against the idea. For me, it has changed my life, literally. I am THRILLED with my progress - total of 34 pounds lost from my starting weight in February, most of that since 5:2 - even though there are entire clumps of weeks where I don't lose any weight at all.

I belong to another discussion forum as well, here: http://www.52fastdiet.co.uk/ where I have found tons of research supporting the health benefits.

The thrilling bit is how GOOD I feel. And how easy it is. Two days a week, usually Monday and Thursday but flexible according to life, I simply don’t consume any calories in food or beverage until supper time. At supper with the family, I have a scrumptious veggie salad and some sort of good quality protein - usually meat or cottage cheese. Total calories consumed at this meal is 500 calories or less. All other days, I simply eat normally. Not pig-out, mind, but eat normally.

Is fasting hard? Some days yes, some days no, at least for me. Do I 'fail' at completing a fast? Some days yes! Do I stuff my face with unhealthy junk on my non-fast days? Some days yes!

But here is what fasting has done for me:

It has given me a WOE that doesn't cost me anything in time, money, or effort to improve my body and my health. No pills, no bars, no shakes, no special meals, no nothing. It's actually SAVED me grocery money because 2 days a week I don't eat anything but a salad and some cottage cheese or a chicken breast.

Fasting has taught me about my body. My eating habits. It has made me intensely aware of my 'boredom' eating and my 'emotional' eating and my 'eat it because it's there' eating. It has taught me what it feels like to be hungry and what it feels like to be satisfied. It has taught me that I don't have to eat until my gut *hurts* from being overstuffed in order to think that I've had enough! It has taught me what it feels like NOT to be riding the peaks and valleys of sugar highs and lows.

Do you *have* to change your eating patterns on non-fasting days? No - but guess what? For me, at least, I have done it slowly and naturally simply because I am finally learning what it feels like to feel healthy and GOOD. I don't crave sugary stuff anymore. I eat it, sometimes, when the mood strikes me and it's there. But I can eat one cookie or one piece of cake or one piece of chocolate and feel happy to enjoy the flavor and the treat and not crave eating the whole dang bag/cake! I can eat an actual serving size of potato chips and be happy with the yummy, salty, greasy deliciousness without having to eat the whole dang bag!

My fasting days have taught me about nutrient-dense foods, and guess what? They're yummy! I've found fun recipes for healthy veggie dishes that are delicious and learned to incorporate more and more whole fruits and vegs in my daily routine even on my non-fasting days.

Can you lose weight on the 5:2 diet eating junk on the 'feed' days? Of course. Lots of people do. But my goal was not only to lose weight but to get healthier all over, inside and out. 5:2 fasting has been a valuable tool for me to move along that process. The health benefits of fasting are too strongly, scientifically proven to be denied, no matter how healthy a person's over-all diet is. Tons of research into aging and diseases of aging have showed, again and again, that calorie-restriction improves certain hormones that actually combat those disease of aging. Other research has showed that the intermittent fasting gives the same hormone boost (or nearly so) as long-term calorie restriction. The science is there.

More importantly, to me as a Registered Nurse and a 'follow-the-money-trail' cynic when it comes to scientific research, I find the independent studies to be less suspicious because no one is paying to promote their product with the outcome! There is nothing to 'sell' in this way of eating, unless you count a handful of books out there. No one gets to make a bazillion dollars on supplements or multilevel marketing stuff or anything like that. Indeed, the people with something to sell seem to be the ones claiming that 5:2 fasting 'just won't work'.

It does work. It is not for everyone. Certainly it is not for someone who is just leaping from diet to diet looking for a 'quick fix' but who doesn't really want to be healthy or make any effort. It does take a little work and a little self-awareness. For me, at least, it is completely sustainable. It fits seamlessly in with my family’s lifestyle without me having to do anything extra. It’s easier, in a lot of ways - two days a week, I don’t have to pack lunch for work or spend money on lunch! For a long time, I was doing it ‘in secret’ because I wasn’t sure if it would work and the family didn’t know I was doing it all. Now hubby has joined me.

I never have to spend a penny on anyone's snake oil. I never have to say goodbye forever to my favorite foods. I never have to beat myself up if I 'blow' a fast day because there is always tomorrow. In one tiny little eating-pattern-shift, I have taken away guilt and obsession.

I have had great success with this diet (approach to eating) having lost 10kg in 11 weeks without exercising. I would have lost more if I hadn't "toyed" with the diet to see what affected in in the early weeks.

Taken from: FROM: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9480451/The-52-diet-can-it-help-you-lose-weight-and-live-longer.html (Full cut and paste below) which provides an overview of the full doco.

Michael Mosley is a medical doctor, journalist and television presenter. The 5:2 diet: what is it and how does it work?

• With the 5:2 diet, you can eat whatever you like five days a week — so-called feeding days. On the two “fasting days” you eat 500 calories if you are a woman, or 600 calories if you are a man.
• It doesn’t matter which days are spent “feeding” and which “fasting”, as long as the fasting days are non-consecutive and you stick to the 5:2 ratio.
• On fasting days you can consume your calories in one go, or spread them through the day — there is no medical research into whether filling up at breakfast or snacking throughout the day is more effective for weight loss.
• A typical fasting-day breakfast of 300 calories might consist of two scrambled eggs with ham (good sources of protein), plenty of water, green tea or black coffee. For a typical 300-calorie lunch or dinner, try grilled fish or meat with vegetables.
• On feeding days you can eat whatever you like. Most dieters, rather than feeling a need to gorge, found that they were happy to consume around 2,000 calories — the recommended daily intake for women (2,600 for men) — and did not crave high-fat foods.
• Contrary to popular opinion, fasting can be a healthy way to lose weight. It can reduce levels of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1, which leads to accelerated ageing), switches on DNA repair genes and reduces blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels.
• According to current medical opinion, the benefits of fasting are unproven. As a diet, it is not recommended for pregnant women or diabetics on medication. Anyone considering a diet that involves fasting is advised to consult their GP first, and to do it under medical supervision

To watch his BBC Two Horizon programme on intermittent fasting, go to the BBC iPlayer (bbc.co.uk/iplayer) or visit tinyurl.com/BBCHorizonFasting

From my personal perspective: It has working well (for me) because:
• Its’ simple – just don’t eat more than 500 calories on 2 non-consecutive days a week, then eat normally (ideally not over 2000 calories) the other 5 days a week
• I don’t have to buy special food
• No preplanning necessary - can eat whatever I have in the pantry or at work, I can still enjoy eating out etc.
• I can eat what I feel like on the day - and I can still eat chocolate etc on the non-fast days
• It doesn’t rely on exercise to get results ... although after the first 11weeks I gained even better results with exercise, and an eating plan alone obviously can’t address cardio fitness etc
• If I stuff up at 500 calorie day, then I simply increase my eating to make it a feeding day (1200 to 2000 calorie day), and do the 500 day tomorrow
• Watching my scales show results of 100-300 or more grams decrease in weight each day (sometimes 500-600 grams per day) is a great super incentive to stay on track.... and it starts from almost day one.
• If the fudge comes to visit for morning tea at work and I am on a 500 day, I can simply put it in my draw until tomorrow
• To do 500 calories now, I just miss breakfast, and eat a healthy lunch/dinner. OR I spread my calories for breakfast/lunch be halving my normal intake so I can still eat 3 meals a day. Snack on grapes, strawberries or drink coffee.
• If I am going out for dinner or on the town, I can put my 500 days on another day….so I can still enjoy myself (yay!)
• It’s super easy…..

Other thoughts
• The best tool I use to keep on track is the “My Fitness Pal” App on my phone. I log my food BEFORE you put it in your mouth. It’s easier to make a fully conscious decision about a chocolate bar if you can see that you will only be able to eat half your lunch on that day. I often put in the food I know I am going to have ahead of time (eg if you know what you are having for dinner) so that you can see what you can still eat during the day (yay!! I have 50 calories to spend… what can I have that is yummy or filling?)

• Usually I found I could do a 500 day by simply missing one meal and not snacking that day. More recently I decided to instead halve my usual breakfast and lunch intakes (instead of missing a meal). I'm not saying my normal 500 day is necessarily balanced but for example a normal 500 day for me might be EG: BREAKFAST 1 slice of toast and chutney for breakfast + instant coffee LUNCH 4 sao & vegemite for lunch + instant coffee DINNER chicken and veges or salad for dinner (or salmon & veges) SNACKS: water = 526 calories NB: grapes/strawberries/ chewing gum if needed. NB: If I had toast and vegemite for breakfast this is less than 500.

• It is not a starvation diet (so your body never tries to conserve fat for “just in case”). The 5 days that you aren’t doing 500 it is important to aim to the high limit of 2000, which has made me realise that my problem wasn’t over eating, it was actually that I wasn’t eating enough. I found that if I didn’t don’t eat at least 1200-1500 on the 5 days I would never lose as much as I could on the days I did.

• As it has actually been developed as a diet to prolong life (designed to reduce all of the major risk factors associated with ageing it is easier to stay focused on the benefits for my whole family if I am well. Research indicates that diet is likely to significantly reduce your risk of heart attack, diabetes, dementia and cancer (more info below) with tests showing significant improvement.

• I lost 10Kg in 11 weeks without exercising. I didn’t exercise for these 11 weeks as I wouldn’t have been able to tell how much the diet was achieving as a stand-alone. I could potentially have lost more weight during those 11 weeks, but as I started to lose weight I played around with “what if I eat nothing but junk”; and what if I do more than two 500 days per week or only one 500 day per week. I found the best results were with sticking to the plan. After the 11 weeks I incorporated exercise and lost even more, but this did not isolate the diet-component so I won’t go into that.

• I discovered that coming from a large family had meant that if there was a chocolate or second helping there, I had to have it immediately. The food tracking helped me to see that I could always put the portion away in a container to have tomorrow (as opposed to eat it now or miss out).

• I found I could eat things like bread again without feeling bloated. I had more energy and felt more cognitively switched on (my pre-baby-brain was back!)

• The first week or two are the hardest, but once you are in the swing of it and getting results (I got almost immediate, small daily weight reductions after the first week) it’s super simple to stick to. In fact, I would struggle to get up to 1200 the day following a 500.

• If you are really hungry and about to give into it try:
*Brushing your teeth and having a big glass of water
*Google “50 foods containing 50 calories” to snack on– eg: 12 strawberries (48 cal), 1 cup or air-popped butter free popcorn (31 cal), 2 egg white omelette (34 cal), 10 grapes (35 cal), 1 rice cake with 1tblspn sugar-free jam (45 cal), 1 small green apple
*Allow yourself to go just over the 500 if need be in the early days
*Go to bed early and sleep instead of eating
*OR simply increase your eating to the 1200 calorie mark and do the 500 day the next day instead

You will still need to weigh it up for yourself, but for me it has been excellent. I took a rest from the diet between Christmas and August this year and the weight gradually crept back on. But I don’t know why I went away from this way of eating, as I felt so much better in so many of directions while doing it (especially when I started to incorporate exercise as well). So now it’s back to the plan with some walking, and kickboxing, kick-boarding/swimming, and weight gym. Some more great links are:


BBC Knowledge – Michael Mosley’s Eat, Fast and Live Longer – Horizon


A written overview of this doco is at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/9480451/The-52-diet-can-it-help-you-lose-weight-and-live-longer.html

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/ (but note that you don't HAVE to buy the book to succeed)

http://www.yourlifechoices.com.au/news/diets-explained-the-52-fasting-diet?page=single


Other interesting Mike Mosley bits…
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet-and-fitness/michael-mosleys-five-biggest-health-myths-20130920-2u3vb.html

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