Fasting Diets (thoughts?)

Let's just start with the fact that it "recommends" 500 calories for everyone - regardless of age, height, activity, weight, medical concerns, etc... Such extreme restriction is simply unnecessary. For most people, fad diets will get cause them to lose lots of water weight, and encourage disordered eating.

Just another way to control your calories and eat at a deficit. Wouldn't work for me - I would never survive the 500 calorie days but if it works for you then great. A lot of people are very successful with it.

@Dr_Girlfriend a 3000 calorie deficit is hardly extreme. It's less than a pound a week. And with regards to sedentary vs active, that's what the other 5 days are for. If a person is that concerned about their workouts, add 100 calories to the fast days, not a big deal. Doesn't matter what calorie restriction method one uses strength training and higher protein intake is always the recommendation to minimize muscle loss. 5:2 done properly isn't going to increase muscle loss more than other diets. It doesn't have to make sense to you for it to still be effective.

VintageFeline wrote: »

jennifer907 wrote: »

I think the idea that a 3000 cal deficit is extreme is because usually when people talk about calorie deficits, they mean per day.

Totally curious guys, if you eat 1600 a day using IF, or 1600 a day not on an IF schedule, would there be any difference in weight-loss? I understand what IF is, but I'm not sure if would make much of a difference.

Yes, you'd have a larger deficit because you're eating 1100 fewer calories twice a week. The idea is that you only eat lower on two days a week and that's where your weekly deficit comes from, the other days are maintenance.

Yes. Just to clarify, because I think some might be assuming IF means the eating window form of fasting and not understanding that 5:2 is a different method of IF:

5:2 is a kind of IF where you eat at maintenance (or whatever you want without tracking, if that works for you -- this is what my friend does when at maintenance) for 5 days per week, and then around 25% of maintenance calories (500 as an easy close-enough goal for many women) on 2 days. That means you get to eat 2000 on 5 days per week, even when dieting, have a 1500 cal deficit on 2 days, and -- in this hypothetical -- a weekly deficit of about 3000 calories (less than a lb a week, so not extreme). Some find it easier to just eat very light on two days and have much more flexibility on 5.

The eating window IF means you eat for a specific number of hours per day (18:6 is a common one), but within the window would eat your planned calories -- here let's say you aim for 1 lb/week loss so eat about 1500. You have the same deficit with or without IF, it's just a matter of when you eat the calories.

The people saying it's extreme are referring to the low days in a 5:2 plan, but over the course of the week it really is not at all. My only issue with 5:2 is that some do it incorrectly and eat, say, 1200 on the 5 days and 500 on the 2, and of course that's a terrible idea. OP doesn't seem to be doing that, and for some it's an easier way to lose and the low days aren't that much of a hardship.

Sorry to everyone who knows all this -- I could be wrong, but there seemed to be some confusion upthread.