5:2 Fasting Diet

This book is probably the most popular of many. Fast Diet

A simple calorie counter book is useful too. Pocket calorie counter

If you want to find out more about the scientific trials of this diet,
this book is by Michael Mosley who presented the Panorama programme that launched it in Britain. There are loads of recipe books on Amazon.

Plateau broken! Another kilo gone. Worth persevering through 3 weeks of plateau. Good luck everyone! X

Thanks everyone will have a go.

I found a really good fasting cook book on Book People but all the recipes are for 4 people. I do wish they would do these with all single portions. It is much easier to round up for more than round down for one- inevitably you cook it all & probably eat more than 1/4 of it!
I need to 'up' my exercise now too as we lost our beloved 15 year old dog a few weeks ago so I am no longer dog walking twice a day- I haven't got the heart to walk without her.
Can't stand gyms- so boring & I'm not a great swimmer.
The other problem is she is no longer there to clean up leftovers so I have to resist anything DH leaves!!

Fasting can be helpful- but it needs to be done carefully! Especially for hypoglycemics and diabetics- they need to be very careful doing this. A really great article on fasting and weight loss is healthdivas.blogspot.com/2012/10/fasting-growth-hormone-hgh-and-fat-loss.html It has some great tips for how to fast properly and safely for weight loss. I recommend anyone doing the fasting method or thinking about it to check it out!

I'm trying it again, but trying to focus on the reported health benefits rather than the weight loss, as I think this will stop me rebelling down the line!

I've had to give up. I think I've perhaps been overly greedy on non-fasting days and when I've weighed myself after a fasting day, it's not been as encouraging as it was to start with.
I will now go back to what I did before - eating sensibly and not flinging myself into the biscuit tin whenever I wandered into the kitchen - as I was allowing myself to do on non-fasting days .

Fasting today: wish me luck, So far slice seeded toast, spread with laughing cow light cheese triangle and slice lean off the bone ham. Cup of tea and three glasses of water. I plan to have !/2 grapefruit (red) 2 crispbread with sliced boiled egg for lunch and a bowl of Morrisons 2 bean and spicy tomato soup for supper.

I am on fast today as well . I usually do Monday and Thursday but shifted them around to suit me this week.
I have decided I am not feeling hungry as such, but probably just bored and want some tasty savoury flavours.

Lots of hot drinks, ginger & lemon tea and peppermint teas.

For breakfast I had quorn slices 3 x29cals on Ryvita crackerbreads 3x19cals. about 160 cals total. I needed some marmite undeneath though, the crispbreads are too bland for my hyped up taste buds.

I am trying to decide what to do for dinner tonight. Which of course, is why I am browsing GN and not looking in cookery books.

Started 5.2 diet beginning of March. Lost about 8 pound. I am not in a rush to lose loads of weight. On my fast days only eat once a day in the evening. Have so much energy when I am not eating. I am a bit of a foodaholic and on my feast days knowing I can eat more or less what I like, I can cope with not having it.

I am a member of the LDS church and we fast once a month for 24 hours and I have been doing this for about 34 years with no ill affect.

I have done about three different diets during my life and find 5.2 diet is the best one for me.

I thought of what to cook and I am now stuffed full!

I made a two egg omelet. With 1tsp rapeseed oil brushed on the pan. Full of pre-steamed veg. Half an onion, a red pepper, mushrooms. Brocoli and fresh Swiss chard which is negligible calories and bulk. The veg was portioned to come out at about 85cals. I reckoned the meal as as about 305cals.
I could do with charting the cals in different foods by raw weight more easily or it makes getting meal a bit of a fiddle with weighing it.

Very tasty though.

I have just bought the Fast Diet book and am a bit disappointed in that the recipes tend to be either for women or men (500 or 600 cals)
Anybody else doing it with OH/DH? Please could you post a couple or more of typical fast day menus that work for you?
Otherwise, if I do it the book's way, it will become totally impractical and I will have to prepare 2 separate meals each time which sort of defeats the object if you are trying to do it together. Thanks.

redevil Just increase the quantities in the woman's portion by about 100 calories worth of the same food or reduce the mans menu by the same number. Get used to doing the ideas in the book and you can soon get the hang of adapting them. I am having to do it to make the food vegetarian.

You could both eat the same meals, but slightly adjust the quantities to reach the required calorie count. I find this book useful, it lists all foods in alphabetical order. pocket calorie counter

Thankyou nellie and shysal. What an idiot I am- should have thought of that! Next job is to go through the 11 pages of messages on this diet and copy down some of the excellent menu plans and ideas.
My DH won't read the book and wants to leave it to me. (Easy option, eh?)
He has an enormous appetite so I am frightened that he is going to overeat on the non- fasting days, because even though he will eat everything I put in front of him, he tends to 'snack' at 11pm or any other time he feels hunger pangs. Is it possible that his 'full' switch doesn't work?

After a week with Greatnan in the French Alps, I now need to get back on track, though I am pleased (relieved) to find that I haven't put on weight. Two nights in a small hotel in the Aosta Valley in North Italy should have been disastrous in view of the excellence of the food - we couldn't resist the tiramisu on both evenings! Today, however, is a fasting day and now I need to go out for some salad ingredients.

Today is first fasting day- just had scrambled eggs with smoked salmon @ 256 calories- seems a lot, but there you go. Having roast veg. later (courtesy of Mr Tesco) @ 150 cals each. Leaving me a satsuma perhaps?
Must go and buy a squash- any tips about peeling btw? (Aren't they b....ers?) And do those amazing chip things for 9 cals. DH says he is happy to live on black coffee till 6pm.
If we get on OK with this today, I am tempted just to repeat the formula for the second fasting day- anybody else doing that?

I find it easy to peel butternut squash with my swivel peeler. The shavings can then be roasted with a little spray oil, makes a crisp-like snack (thank you Nigel Slater!).The seeds can also be done in the same way. For roasting pieces of squash though, there is no need to remove skin. I have a huge plate full sometimes for dinner, adding a sliced onion and mushrooms for the final 15 minutes.
Good luck!

shysal Thanks for squash tip. You have done brilliantly- what a great advertisement for this diet!
We started last Saturday and had 2nd fasting day yesterday. Weighed this morning- have lost 4 pounds! Roll on the next 2 fasting days!

DH is being very good and is sticking to it- he is weighing in on Sunday.
As he always loses quicker than I do, I hope these first results will spur him on.

We find that the scrambled eggs with smoked salmon breakfasts are brilliant as they keep us going all day, or at least until about 2pm, and then fruit teas keep us going until 6.30 or 7. Sainsburys do trays of veg to roast- 244 cals each tray. We have one each which provides a huge plateful. He then has a couple of pieces of fruit.

Onwards and downwards!

In case this helps anybody- take a pack of turkey mince (800gms) , about 800 cals, brown it all, drain thoroughly. Fry a couple of chopped onions, spoonful cornflour stirred in, add 1 pint stock made from 2 Oxo cubes, add to pan and stir till mixed and a bit thicker. Add mince. Add seasoning, BUT I added too many chilli flakes so had to cool it down with a tin of tomatoes, 2 spoons low fat fromage frais, and some lemon juice.
This of course made enough for 3 meals for the 2 of us. The extra bits I added came to much less than 200 cals so including the topping of mashed carrot and parsnip, came to about 1000 cals in total. Ate one portion, froze the other 2, a yummy meal for about 150 cals each.

Reddevil3 This recipe sounds lovely and I have just copied it into my cookery book and will use it at the week-end (for my DD and SiL who are doing the 5:2 ).My daughter is vegetarian so will do a quorn one for her. I haven't started the diet myself yet but need to so am pondering it.

I think I will find it far easier to try once my son has left home. I shan't have leftovers calling to me in the fridge for a start, or requests for meals that I am trying to avoid.

gorki Why don't you use Quorn mince for all of you? I used turkey mince because my local Sainsburys was out of that type of Quorn.
It is very low fat (even lower than turkey mince) and normally you have to add loads of flavour to make it appetising, but with my 'mistake' recipe above, there's no fear of that!

OK will do. Do you think I will need more liquid ? I love your "mistake" recipe as I bought some chilli flakes last week and put far too many in. I generally use real chillies or sometimes the powder and was unaware of how strong the flakes were.