5:2 diet

System

I've done 5 fasts now and lost about 1kg by my bathroom scales but nothing off my waist yet but I'm happy with that. Slow and steady. At the moment I'm splitting my 500 cals over breakfast, lunch and dinner which means lots and lots of salad leaves & veg, a boiled egg and some chicken.
I've tried cutting out sugar in tea loads of times and failed so I have 2 teas on a fast day with 1% milk and 1 tsp sugar, and the rest of my liquid is herbal teas. I don't like cold drinks.
I can't be doing with posh recipes and buying special food so I'm not bothering with a recipe book but I'm going to try miso soup next week for lunch at work as it seems too good to be true!
Well done to all those who've stuck with this for months and are seeing real benefits

ALIBOBSY

Well decided my Wii fit wasn't that accurate at weighing as the figures fluctuated up and down. Started at 16 stone 7lb and ended around 14 stone 10 on the Wii. Finally got a proper set of scales for the bathroom which seem to weigh heavier than the Wii but its all relative anyway. So restarted last week with a "new" weight of 15 stone 6lb, then today weighed in at 15 stone 3 so 3lb off this week-suspect that's from the gardening I got in when we had some dry weather-not much chance of that today lol.

Has anyone else found that they get weeks where the scale doesn't appear to move, but they are thinner?

My "spare tyre" has almost gone and I am fitting into clothes I had long abandoned.

Ali x

tesuhoha

rosyq wrote: »

I've done 5 fasts now and lost about 1kg by my bathroom scales but nothing off my waist yet but I'm happy with that. Slow and steady. At the moment I'm splitting my 500 cals over breakfast, lunch and dinner which means lots and lots of salad leaves & veg, a boiled egg and some chicken.
I've tried cutting out sugar in tea loads of times and failed so I have 2 teas on a fast day with 1% milk and 1 tsp sugar, and the rest of my liquid is herbal teas. I don't like cold drinks.
I can't be doing with posh recipes and buying special food so I'm not bothering with a recipe book but I'm going to try miso soup next week for lunch at work as it seems too good to be true!
Well done to all those who've stuck with this for months and are seeing real benefits

Try putting 3 quarters of a spoonful of sugar in your tea, then once you get used to that cut it to a half and so on. That's how I gave it up years ago

Sarahdol75

Hello, have heard a few people mentioning this diet, but I have no idea what it is, could someone please explain it to me:-

What sort of foods do you eat etc.

Many thanks.

zmikeo

Sarahdol75 wrote: »

Hello, have heard a few people mentioning this diet, but I have no idea what it is, could someone please explain it to me:-

What sort of foods do you eat etc.

Many thanks.

Hi if you haven't watched to program you ca watch it here http://www.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms#.Uc2MY8u9KK1
Basically you fast for 2 days a week having only 500 or 600kcal if your male during your fast day.
I have nothing but black tea or fruit tea till a late lunch of curried lentil soup and in the evening have a white fish curry, both of these meals I add spinach too as it makes me fuller .
But have a google and you will be able to find something to eat that will suit you, and how you split your calorie allowance its up to you.

ALIBOBSY

I believe the general suggestion is to try to maximise your cals on the fast days. So I go low carb and try to have protein at each meal to help me feel full.

So my fast days tend to be fruit teas or tea with a splash of milk and no sugar till about 2 ish-or as late as I can. I am trying to maximise the length of fast in hope of gaining the other health benefits as well as weight loss.

I then have some kind of soup, I like cup a soup minestrone as its quick and easy, but tinned veggie/minestrone can be pretty low cal for just half a can. I also do some homemade soups and will be doing more now my garden is starting to produce-had my first courgette and got plenty of spinach and chard, beans and peas pods a plenty, green toms waiting to ripen and handfuls of herbs :j, not bought a lettuce since late March yay.

My main meal is the later meal and varies. Though its usually at least accompanied by salad or plenty of veg. Love tuna salad, cheese salad, egg salad, chicken or fish with say steamed veg/small amount of steamed potatos. I tend to go for protein and plenty of salad or veggies whilst minimising carbs.

We don't buy low fat or so called diet foods at all, tbh you don't need them and low fat tends to mean high carb or high salt or just plain over processed.

We don't do sweeteners except for the fact I do have a soft spot for pepsi max lol and will have the odd bottle of that.

I don't calorie count at all on the feast days, but find I tend to eat less anyway-especially on the days just after the fast.

TBH now even of the fast days I don't obsess about counting ever cal, I know pretty much what my soups are and regular evening meals. But I do work out any new meals.

Ali x

schoolrunmum

Well, surprisingly I stayed the same this week..not bad considering we ate out (Thai) sat night, theatre in London with dinner tues nite, then weds/thurs in Mallorca eating/drinking large so I can't complain at that. I won the prize for being the biggest loser too in our villages exercise/diet class!!
6 weeks till holidays, I'd like to lose somewhere between half a stone and a stone...we'll see.....I've done about 1.5 stone so far since mid April so fingers crossed... SRM x

littlerat

I've been contemplating this. Obviously there's an argument that it's another fad diet. But with depression I can be good with calorie counting for a few days or a week, then I have a bad day or it overwhelms me and I'm back to overeating.

I'm wondering if knowing I only have to do it 2 days a week would be advantageous. I was thinking something like a basic chicken stew (kind of like soup, but I hate soup so the idea of something being a soup, even home made puts me off!) - lots of filling veg with just a bit of chicken breast for lean protein, freezable in portions. Potato, swede, carrot, parsnip, onion, peas, celery in a stock, sort of thing, my quick calculations say that say 400 cals would still give a decent portion!

Will look through the thread, just wondering if people have found it's easier than trying to be good 6/7 days a week?

Chickvic

Hi littlerat, that's exactly why 5:2 appealed to me, being good for 2 days and nothing is forbidden, if I want it and it's a fast day I can have it the next day. I have been doing this for nearly 11 weeks and am 2 stone 3.5 lb lighter. Admittedly I have a long way to go but I find this easy.
I can really recommend the Hairy Dieters cookbook! They have loads of recipes for under 500 cal including curries, lasagne and chinese sweet and sour - yum!

tesuhoha

littlerat wrote: »

I've been contemplating this. Obviously there's an argument that it's another fad diet. But with depression I can be good with calorie counting for a few days or a week, then I have a bad day or it overwhelms me and I'm back to overeating.

I'm wondering if knowing I only have to do it 2 days a week would be advantageous. I was thinking something like a basic chicken stew (kind of like soup, but I hate soup so the idea of something being a soup, even home made puts me off!) - lots of filling veg with just a bit of chicken breast for lean protein, freezable in portions. Potato, swede, carrot, parsnip, onion, peas, celery in a stock, sort of thing, my quick calculations say that say 400 cals would still give a decent portion!

Will look through the thread, just wondering if people have found it's easier than trying to be good 6/7 days a week?

Being good all the time is impossible. You just end up bingeing. The beauty of the 5:2 is that you just have to get through the day and then you know you can eat what you like. However, the fasting aspect makes you less inclined to binge on non fast days and helps cure emotional eating. I would keep the two fast days as far apart as possible i.e. Monday and Thursday, Tuesday and Friday.

This is not a fad diet. Its a way of eating for life and it actually works in many wonderful ways. Don't eat things you hate, eat what you like to eat although on fast days it is an idea to up the protein a bit.