5:2 diet

zmikeo

cyprus31 wrote: »

I had an interesting conversation with my daughter about the 5:2 way of eating.
I've lost 1 stone since the end of February, doing mostly 5:2, but sometimes 4:3. It's very slow, but I'm OK with it as I eat my treats on non fast days - cheesecake and cream based desserts are my downfall.

However, my daughter totally rules out the 5:2 plan as she says that it is not just about being careful on 2 days of the week. She said that if you are overweight, then it is because you consume too many calories for your body's needs, so even if you 'save' 3000 calories a week by fasting for 2 days, you can easily negate those calories by just going 600 calories over on each of the 5 non fast days.

I've never thought about it in that way, but she is right and it probably explains the lack of weight loss on some weeks.

What do you think?

I'd say as long as you are not overeating vastly on your non fast days, then it works.
As have said before, the fasting teaches me more self control on non fast so I don't eat for eatings sake .
Once you realise hunger pains aren't going to kill you, and they are manageable you cope better.
Not saying you can't have a splurge, as I will be tonight, but that's the beauty of it :beer:

adouglasmhor

cyprus31 wrote: »

I had an interesting conversation with my daughter about the 5:2 way of eating.
I've lost 1 stone since the end of February, doing mostly 5:2, but sometimes 4:3. It's very slow, but I'm OK with it as I eat my treats on non fast days - cheesecake and cream based desserts are my downfall.

However, my daughter totally rules out the 5:2 plan as she says that it is not just about being careful on 2 days of the week. She said that if you are overweight, then it is because you consume too many calories for your body's needs, so even if you 'save' 3000 calories a week by fasting for 2 days, you can easily negate those calories by just going 600 calories over on each of the 5 non fast days.

I've never thought about it in that way, but she is right and it probably explains the lack of weight loss on some weeks.

What do you think?

I think you and maybe your daughter would benefit from reading some of the wealth of literature about it available. Though if you are going 3000 Calories over your needs spread across the 5 non fast days you really should get a handle on it. That is a full day for a 19 stone physically active guy's needs, on top of what you should be eating.

I don’t know why your daughter discounts it – what does she think the point of it is

Lifes_Grand_Plan

cyprus31 wrote: »

I had an interesting conversation with my daughter about the 5:2 way of eating.
I've lost 1 stone since the end of February, doing mostly 5:2, but sometimes 4:3. It's very slow, but I'm OK with it as I eat my treats on non fast days - cheesecake and cream based desserts are my downfall.

However, my daughter totally rules out the 5:2 plan as she says that it is not just about being careful on 2 days of the week. She said that if you are overweight, then it is because you consume too many calories for your body's needs, so even if you 'save' 3000 calories a week by fasting for 2 days, you can easily negate those calories by just going 600 calories over on each of the 5 non fast days.

I've never thought about it in that way, but she is right and it probably explains the lack of weight loss on some weeks.

What do you think?

The key is definitely to make sure that on your non-fast days, that you only eat what you normally would, rather than say "great, a non-fast day, I can pig out on cakes because i'm starving after my fast day yesterday" (not saying you do that though cyprus )

Look at it this way at 2000 calories a day for women thats 14,000 per week respectively to just maintain your weight (other factors aside).

If pre-diet you are eating 2500 calories a day then that's 17,500 per week - basically 3,500 too many calories per week and you are going to put on a fair bit of weight each week (again ignoring other factors like exercise).

Now on the diet if you eat 5 days at 2500 calories but then 2 days at 500 calories that is 13,500 per week, only 500 less than the "ideal" 14,000 so you're not going to lose loads of weight but the key is you will be losing a little and not putting it on.

If you were eating 3000 a day (21,000 per week) pre diet then you will put loads of weight on. On the diet but still at 3000 per day on non fast days, it would still be 16,000 a week (i.e. 2000 per week too many) and you will still put on weight, but at least you will put on weight more slowly than without doing the diet.

So actually I think there is more than just the one key above being:

1. When starting out, ensure that on non-fast days you only eat 'normally' and don't pig out especially "stocking up" on pre-fast days or "re-stocking" on post fast days. DON'T DO IT!!!

2. Once you are comfortable with your two fasting days, look at your non-fasting days and see if you could be more healthy on those days too. I'm not talking starving yourself, its important to get good nutrition, just eat less fat and sugar and more fruit and veg etc.

3. If you don't already, think about introducing exercise - go for a walk you wouldn't normally go for or start running (can highly recommend NHS Couch 2 5k for people who have never run before in their life.

4. Finally to summarise the mathematical explanation from above - 5:2 doesn't guarantee weight loss if you eat too much on non-fasting days. However it does guarantee (assuming you stick to point 1 above) that you WILL consume less calories than you would if you didn't fast. So at least if you are bad on the non fast days, you aren't as bad as you would have been.

Hope that makes sense and helps someone - if anyone wants to correct me or add anything then fire away.

pink_petal

Today is my first day of fully fasting til dinner! I've done the 500 cal thing for a couple of week (4 fasts) but feel like I want to try it this way. Last night my OH said his parents were coming for dinner tonight and were bringing a chinese takeaway with them so I decided at that point to fast all day today before that.

So far I'm ok, even though the rest of my team at work all get breakfast rolls on a friday!The weather is lovely so I'm going to go out at lunch and hopefully a walk in the sun will take my mind off any hunger pangs!

purple.sarah

Last night's yummy fast day dinner.
The Warburtons white square wrap is 159 calories and then it depends on the toppings you put on it, mine was about 349 calories.

Lifes_Grand_Plan

Hi guys, a little recipe that I like that seems quite low in calories:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/96608/sweet-potato-spinach-and-lentil-dahl

Each serving is 350 calories but the recipe serves two and we had leftovers when wife and I had it so maybe even less then 350. Is delicious too.

cyprus31

adouglasmhor wrote: »

I think you and maybe your daughter would benefit from reading some of the wealth of literature about it available. Though if you are going 3000 Calories over your needs spread across the 5 non fast days you really should get a handle on it. That is a full day for a 19 stone physically active guy's needs, on top of what you should be eating.

I don’t know why your daughter discounts it – what does she think the point of it is

Her reasoning is that to over eat by 600 calories per day is pretty easy if you are not being careful about everything you put in your mouth (food and alcohol).
It has worked for me, so I was hoping to encourage her to join me as she wants to lose a stone.
Neither of us are vastly overweight; I am 5' 6 and now weigh 10 stone exactly; my daughter is 5' 7 and weighs 11 stone 2.
She says that she would rather restrict herself to 1000 calories every day, so I think I've failed to convince her.

cyprus31

Lifes_Grand_Plan wrote: »

The key is definitely to make sure that on your non-fast days, that you only eat what you normally would, rather than say "great, a non-fast day, I can pig out on cakes because i'm starving after my fast day yesterday" (not saying you do that though cyprus )

Look at it this way at 2000 calories a day for women thats 14,000 per week respectively to just maintain your weight (other factors aside).

If pre-diet you are eating 2500 calories a day then that's 17,500 per week - basically 3,500 too many calories per week and you are going to put on a fair bit of weight each week (again ignoring other factors like exercise).

Now on the diet if you eat 5 days at 2500 calories but then 2 days at 500 calories that is 13,500 per week, only 500 less than the "ideal" 14,000 so you're not going to lose loads of weight but the key is you will be losing a little and not putting it on.

If you were eating 3000 a day (21,000 per week) pre diet then you will put loads of weight on. On the diet but still at 3000 per day on non fast days, it would still be 16,000 a week (i.e. 2000 per week too many) and you will still put on weight, but at least you will put on weight more slowly than without doing the diet.

So actually I think there is more than just the one key above being:

1. When starting out, ensure that on non-fast days you only eat 'normally' and don't pig out especially "stocking up" on pre-fast days or "re-stocking" on post fast days. DON'T DO IT!!!

2. Once you are comfortable with your two fasting days, look at your non-fasting days and see if you could be more healthy on those days too. I'm not talking starving yourself, its important to get good nutrition, just eat less fat and sugar and more fruit and veg etc.

3. If you don't already, think about introducing exercise - go for a walk you wouldn't normally go for or start running (can highly recommend NHS Couch 2 5k for people who have never run before in their life.

4. Finally to summarise the mathematical explanation from above - 5:2 doesn't guarantee weight loss if you eat too much on non-fasting days. However it does guarantee (assuming you stick to point 1 above) that you WILL consume less calories than you would if you didn't fast. So at least if you are bad on the non fast days, you aren't as bad as you would have been.

Hope that makes sense and helps someone - if anyone wants to correct me or add anything then fire away.

What a brilliant post, thank you for taking the time to write it in such a comprehensive way.
That is exactly what I was trying to get across to my daughter, but failed miserably.

Mado

cyprus31 wrote: »

Her reasoning is that to over eat by 600 calories per day is pretty easy if you are not being careful about everything you put in your mouth (food and alcohol).
It has worked for me, so I was hoping to encourage her to join me as she wants to lose a stone.
Neither of us are vastly overweight; I am 5' 6 and now weigh 10 stone exactly; my daughter is 5' 7 and weighs 11 stone 2.
She says that she would rather restrict herself to 1000 calories every day, so I think I've failed to convince her.

The point is that if she restricts herself everyday, her metabolism will adjust and become more economical. And it becomes a lot harder to lose anything.
And to stick to it for any length of time.
As most of us have found in the past.

I agree that with alcohol it is easy to go over the limit (in fact, is suspect a few parties at weekends recently have been the reason I'm not losing anything). If know that is a weak point, it's an easy one to watch out for.

1940sGal

Got on the scales this morning to see I've dipped back under 11stone, so I've finally lost the weight i put back on. 10stone 13lbs so very happy

Just another 1stone to lose then I'll be at my target weight and I'll see how I feel about it then.

Have a great weekend folks, enjoy the beautiful weather!