5:2 and NHS diet

I thought it was the fasting on the 5:2 diet that was why it seems to be so successful rather than the calorie intake.

Oh I actually know nothing about it having never read anything about the diet, but what do you do when you reach that glorious correct weight?

A lot of people happily continue with the fasting on 2days a week as they find it so easy which allows them to occasionally over indulge but still control their weight.

It is the fasting for 2 days a week (not consecutively) that makes the difference. It reduces your total intake over the week but doesn't let your body get into starvation mode, which stops it losing weight. Some people go down to 500 calories on those days but others make it 800 or 1000, depending on your activities or size or just what you can cope with. Other benefits are that you don't have to worry about a balanced diet on low-calorie days and you eat normally on the other days so that you don't get obsessed with food. I think that when you reach your target you can go on to 1 day a week or just go back to normal but more carefully!

Strictly speaking the 5:2 diet is 500 calories for two days a week; eat normally but not excessively) for five days a week.
thefastdiet.co.uk/

Just investigated the web site and discovered The Fast Beach Diet which is a six week programme and I think I am going to try it. It's about six weeks until I have to get into a swimsuit.

Yes I am understanding where it is coming from now. I do remember about 20 or so years ago reading a book entitled the ultimate diet, the author was describing the sorts and quantities of food you should eat for a really good diet. He argued that our bodies are still adapted to a stone age diet i.e. lots of roughage - seeds, fibre rich foods like brown rice and veg and supplimented with the occasional piece of meat fat etc. he also suggested that the odd day of complete fasting is beneficial. So I guess this sort of builds on that theory

I've been doing the 5:2 since mid March. I was 13 stones 8 pounds when I started. I'm not sure how much weight exactly that I have lost as I don't have any scales. The next time I will weigh myself will be in 3 weeks time when I go to visit my daughter in England exactly 6 months after starting the diet.

I have dropped two dress sizes from 18 to 14. I can now get into clothes that I thought would never fit me again.

I have always LOVED my food. If I had a carton of Pringles I would quite happily eat the whole lot in one go (no wonder I got to over 13 stones!) But doing the 5:2 has totally altered my attitude towards food and I feel fantastic. I would recommend this way of eating to anyone.

When I get to my target weight I will switch to 6:1 (6 days of eating normally and 1 fast day per week) to maintain it.

I am absolutely with kalexie. DH and I have been doing the 5:2 diet since the end of May. In that time I have lost 21lbs and he has lost even more. I have finally lost all the extra weight I had put on since the menopause and which had refused to disappear when I tried more conventional diets.

I restrict my calories to 500 a day on the two fast days, which I space evenly across the week. On the non-diet days I eat conservatively trying to keep my calorie consumption down to 1000 - 1200. When high days and holidays come, I just eat as I please. Today is my birthday, I had lunch with friends and we are out for a birthday meal this evening and the last thing I am going to do is think about the dietary impact of my eating, I will just resume my diet pattern tomorrow.

One of the joys of following the 5:2 diet is that nothing is forbidden. If your idea of the perfect 500 calorie day is 2 Mars bars then do it. If you have special days, like I have today enjoy them, you are not 'breaking' your diet. You just incorporate them.

Like kalexie I have found that after being on the diet my food intake is more controllable, I can walk away from those last few spoonsful of rice or that last slice of quiche, last portions have always been my downfall.

Again I intend to go onto the 6:1 diet when I reach my final weight and loose the restrictions I have chosen to follow on the non-fast days.

whitewave google 5:2 diet and 5;2 diet recipes, I have found tem invaluable.

Yes, me too! I don't like cooking or planning meals (how lucky that Mr When does) and so find it easy to live off fruit, salad, sardines, muesli and bread in small quantities on our 2 low-calorie days. I decided to go for up to 800 calories on those days when we started in March, but having given myself that freedom, have found that I have had less than 600 every time. Mr When has more, usually, but then he is training for another marathon... It's interesting how the effect on other days seems to be common to everyone, that you lose the urge to eat quite as much, even when you are allowed to do so. So far I've lost about 12lb, but my target is a full stone, and to keep it off convincingly.

Good luck, whitewave - I hope you find it as helpful as kalexie, FlicketyB and I have.

I think it is too much to expect people to fast on 2 days a week. I fast on one day but I begin the fast at 2pm. On the day the fast begins I have fruit for breakfast and a substantial lunch, but nothing sweet of too unhealthy. A roast dinner or the like is absolutely fine. I then drink lots of fluid, but not tea or coffee and go to bed very early. The next day I have my first meal at 2pm. It is no good fasting and then eating unhealthily as this does not help. Gradually lengthen the time between meals and eat from a tea plate rather than a dinner plate. Even if you have to refill the plate I think you eat less this way. Biggest no no for me is bread, which was hard to do without at first, but now I rarely buy bread at all. Good luck

I have finally decided to give this a go as I am finding it so difficult to lose weight. My problem is that I am very successful on "normal" days but for e.g. the past week or so I have been out to lunch with one set of friends , dinner last night with another. Lunch with Mum who had made me a nice dessert and then a piece of cake with a cup of tea pm.

I feel life is too short not to enjoy good food - I don't go berserk - but do have wine and a desert so think that maybe the 5;2 is the way to go.

Start the first 500 day tomorrow so fingers crossed

I went to dinner last night where somebody mentioned they were on the 5:2 diet. I had always assumed it was 5 days on a reduced calorie diet and 2 days normal eating. I couldn't believe it was only 2 days cutting down!

I have had absolutely no problems with the two fasting days. I skip breakfast have half my calories at lunch and the rest in the evening. I have developed and/or researched a whole range of recipes which are low calorie and not too far different from our usual eating pattern. Our lunchtime main meal is usually based on chicken/fish/eggs and vegetables and we have salad/soup and crackers/vegetable omelette in the evening.

Tomorrow is a fast day. We will be having a chapatti and vegetable curry for lunch and a tomato omelette in the evening. My two food staples that I have found essential to the success of the diet for me have been Quark, the low fat soft cheese and Fry-lite, the low calorie spray that you use instead of cooking oil. I use Quark as a spread, as the basis of sauces and to make fish pate/spreads to put on crackers or bread as par of fast day meals.

I would love to eat less but I get unwell if I don't eat I feel weak and angry, is that just me?

I think tcherry it depends how much and what you are eating normally, whether you are eating a balanced diet and whether you eat for emotional reasons. If you do not eat much and are quite slim, cutting down may well make you ill, because you are already only eating just enough. If you are overweight the causes may be psychological and it could also be because you have a medical problem like problems on the diabetic spectrum. Only you can really know.

Having said that I have found that the 5.2 diet has somehow reprogrammed my mental and physical attitudes to food. I can now eye food with detachment, even when feeling hungry, and eating out last night I found my inclination was to choose the lighter items on the menu, where as in the past I would have chosen much stodgier food.

I couldn't do this diet, I cant stop eating for more than 2 hours, Im pacing the floor looking for food. Ive shopped today, no sweeties, no desserts just proper food, salads, veg fruit and bread. I have been scraping the jar of an out of date jar of choc spread jus to taste something sweet. My pre diabetes must be full blown now. I just cant help it. Im joining the NHS diet club in 2 weeks and I have to lose 2 stones to get a gastric band but I can still put on weight with one of those according to the nurse. I couldn't fast as my blood sugar would plummet and I would feel faint. Have been like this for 30 years. No doc or nurse can help me.

True. You can only help yourself.

Just as an alcoholic has to admit that there is a problem and take steps to do something about it, someone with a food addiction has to admit to themselves that SOMETHING MUST CHANGE and realise that they are the one who must change it.

Doctors are not magicians. There is no magic pill. The gastric band goes some way to assist, but it is still possible to continue wrecking your health and happiness if you don't take control of your own eating - and also your own life. It is not anyone else's life. It is yours. You run it or ruin it as you choose. The choice of over-eating to the point of illness or not is yours.

ethel I know how difficult it is but would you find it too difficult to try and take tiny steps like initially going for 21/2 hrs between eating and then after a week or two 3 hrs and other such steps?

whitewave, I think you are so right. I often think that doctors and dieticians expecting people like ethel to go 'cold turkey' and just wake up one morning and eat a strict restricted diet to loose weight is utterly counter productive and that the best way to help people like her is to encourage them to lose weight by gradually make small changes to diet and lifestyle like you suggest. I also think that psychological support and counselling alongside gently change is important - another aspect doctors and dieticians seem to ignore. Most people with serious overeating problems usually have emotional issues behind their weight problems.

Lets face it, even those of us whose weight problems and eating patterns are far less problematic still find staying on any diet that restricts what or how we eat for long periods very difficult to stick to, which of course is why the 5;2 is proving so popular with so many of us. 24 hours twice a week is challenging but do-able.

I am currently on the 5:2 diet, and have lost 1st 7lbs, in 12 weeks. Its my first time on a diet, and I'm enjoying it.

berdie There are so many of us, gransnetters, like you (and me and kalexie and wheniwasyourage and many others)I think we should form a club. Do Gransnet host special interest groups!?!?

When is the best time of day to begin the fast day? I think I read somewhere that it can begin late on in the day (say, after the main meal) then not have anything until lunchtime the next day? Anyone do this?

Hi Marelli, Yes I do this. It is much easier to eat a good healthy and filling lunch at 1 or 2 pm then not eat again until 2pm the next day. The reason is because the Lunch will give you enough energy for that afternoon. If you get the munchie desire in the evening drink lots of water or fruit tea and go early to bed. Next morning have a protein breakfast, Boiled eggs or the like, but no carbohydrate. Plan a really nice meal for when you next eat. I am sure you will be surprised how easy it is. Also I really enjoy that first meal after fasting. I do this only one day a week and I would recommend this to begin with. Just don't be tempted to think that you dont have to be sensible the rest of the time.

Another point that I think is often overlooked, is that: To become overweight we have gained weight steadily probably over many years. Then suddenly we expect to loose weight. I think this is unrealistic and just puts extra pressure on ourselves. If you can be satisfied in the first two weeks of maintaining weight without gaining, this is an achievement in itself. I agree with the people who say doctors can be a bit harsh. It probably took years to become overweight, so logically it should take just as long to loose it again. It would be good to have a Gransnet club where we could all encourage one another.