Why I love the 5:2 diet

FlicketB
Thank you so much, I love Marmite but was not aware of their rice cakes.
I manage a diet day reasonably well with just a chicken salad and a piece of dry toast but although the calorie count is fine I do not lose any weight! My husband does! May be it is just my metabolism? I also eat carefully without dieting on non diet days, however I cannot shift my weight downwards. I cannot exercise as have had an op on my back so am trying to do this by diet alone. Will try your suggestions and report back!

I like the cheese flavoured Snack-a-Jack rice cakes (38 cals) with cottage cheese and a slice of cucumber or beefsteak tomato.

Amenhotep I presume you are the third of your line.
When I saw you in the Cairo museum, you certainly didn't need to diet!

Amenhotep You do not say whether you are struggling with the Fast days or the non Fast days. If you are struggling with the Fast days try jiggling with when you eat, one meal only; lunch or dinner. If you are having two meals try breakfast/supper or lunch/dinner. You could also adjust the hours of your fast day. It doesn't have to be midnight to midnight. It could be lunch time to lunch time or early evening to early evening. Jiggle both until you reach a pattern that works for you.

I find an excellent 'filler' snack on both fast and non fast days is a marmite rice cake. Unlike any other rice cake I have ever tried it has flavour, and a strong one. At 30 calories each, even a couple on a fast day will not be disastrous, always have a drink at the same time, it makes them feel even more filling. On a non-fast day I spread them with Quark soft cheese and put sliced cucumber on them, and their calorie value is still below 50. This does of course, pre-suppose you like marmite!

On non-Fast days, if over-eating is your problem. Decide in advance what your first non-fast day meal will be, make sure it is low calorie, but filling and have everything to hand. Eat it slowly and have a drink of water/tea/coffee with it. This will assuage your hunger and help you keep the calorie count down. After that you should be able to eat normally.

At the end of the day weight loss - and keeping it off happens because we train ourselves not to constantly want to eat or snack. Not easy to begin with, but wonderfully relaxing when you have lost the weight and know that relaxed self-control will keep you where you want to be.

I have been on the 5:2 diet now for eight weeks, one of which I only did one diet day as was looking after my father on the other. I have lost five pounds!! I am delighted, and even more determined to stick to it. I don't know about DH as we have no battery in our bathroom scales at present, I weighed myself on my DD's scales
I found a great website with recipes for a vegetarian 5:2 diet and have been making some meals from there. I've forgotten what it is called but if anyone wants to know I'll try and look for it.

started the diet some months ago and have tried to follow it but keep slipping. My husband has been doing it with me and has lost over a stone so is very happy and gone down a trouser size! I have lost 7lbs but need to lose more and am stuck! Any suggestions out there please?

No, only prominent to me, i.e attached to the chocolate biscuit stash

Blimey marmight does that mean a prominent position where visitors might see yourself in the all together?

I think the 5:2 is good I started it in August as after 1 week I lost a couple of lbs, then DH got ill and I haven't been following it since but now he is recovering I shall put my mind to it perhaps next week and start again.

I too have just returned to the 5:2. I lost a stone on it early last year and it has mostly crept back on (chocolate biscuits and wine - no will power). Anyway, I have until January to lose as much as possible. I really don't want to look like a landed whale on my next trip to Oz. I have put a photo in a prominent position to remind me how awful I look starkers and hopefully it will help me to stick to the straight and narrow.

Recently started this and already feeling better. A couple of pounds lighter in a fortnight and feeling totally relaxed about food. Best of all on the days after a "fast" I end up leaving food on my plate. Feeling fuller quicker.

Between last October and February I lost 12lbs on the 5:2 diet. It wasn't easy, but effective. Christmas was especially good as I could eat what I wanted, I wasn't deprived, and the fasting days felt good.
I kept the weight off till July and since then 5lbs have gone back on.
So tomorrow I'm back on the diet and hope to lose half a stone. I do like feeling slimmer!

This thread is too long to check whether I have posted before but it would have been long enough ago for the results to be unknown. I have put on 21lbs since the menopause despite watching it go on and trying throughout, by a more and more rigorous application my usual method of cutting down calories and upping exercise, to lose it. I would usually lose 5lbs and stick, after sticking for about a month, I would give up, put the 5lbs on and repeat the exercise.

The original basic 5:2 diet was also ineffective but this spring, concerned initially about DH's weight and health problems, I got the book on the Fast Beach Diet. Essentially the usual 5:2 diet but you try to keep within moderate bounds on non-Fast days. For me the limit has been 1000 - 1200 a day except on high days and holidays when I haven't bothered to think about calories at all. These have averaged about 1 every 10 days.

I never expected it to work, but it has. In three months I have lost the 21lbs that have doggedly refused to go for about 15 years and because I have shrunk about an inch in height, which one does, I have decided to aim at losing 28 lbs and feel absolutely confident of hitting target in the next month.

What is more DH has also lost weight, more than me and his health and fitness are visibly better.

I join the disciples of the 5:2 diet.

I lost two stone last year, but backslid on holiday and since then I have ballooned. I really must get back on the programme, but my will power has gone right out the door. Help!

Forgot to say OH has rather more cals. than me, being a man and still working hard in the Co-op (for how long, remains to be seen, as they are paring down the workforce).

I've put on at least ten pounds since retiring,so have persuaded OH to try the 5:2 diet with me. We are in to our third week now and it's getting easier to count the calories. We have 500 cals. on Tuesday and Saturday and eat normally for the rest of the week. So far, so good but I need some new batteries for the bathroom scales

This is the main thread I think. I fell off the "wagon"on holiday and I am going to have to work hard to get back to where I was. I did do very well on it and was able to stick to it.

Is there a current support thread for the fast diet? I am another evangelist, having started it at the big inning of June and lost 18 lbs so far, feeling great! It works, it really does. Don't be scared of being hungry, it comes and goes and gets easier the more you do it. As with all diets perseverance is the key word.

With him indoors, we started this 'Eating Plan' last month. The word diet did not go down well, hence 'Plan'. It works, we are both loosing weight, have more energy and feel great. When we reach our chosen 'weights' I assume we will adopt a watchful approach to the scales or at least go to a 6:1. I propose this to be our new 'eating life style'. To go with the original book I also bought 'the fast diet recipe book' by Mimi Spencer and Sarah Schenker. This has many super tasty recipes that add variety to our calorie counting eating plan.

Welcome Nanalogue, it is good to hear from another Fast Diet evangelist! You will have noticed my name popping up throughout this thread, I can't praise the regime enough. I have managed to maintain for the last 18 months by eating between 500 and 1000 cals on alternate days, but have just kick started the diet again as I feel ready to lose a bit more. Sticking rigidly to 500 cals only has already got rid of 6lb in a week, so easy!
I look forward to reading your future contributions on other subjects, but be warned - Gransnet can be addictive!

New to gransnet and SO wish I had found it and this thread earlier. However, I could be an intermittent fasting evangelist! I have been dieting on and off for 50 years (ish) and would never do any other 'diet' again. I watched the programme and read the book and actually started 5:2 for the health benefits (not that I think I was particularly unhealthy, and others would say didn't need to lose weight, size 12). I lost so much so fast (haha) that I had to stop... can't afford a whole new wardrobe!. All I can say is that if the health benefits are as compelling as the weight loss then wow! I now do 6:1 if I put on a few pounds (such as on recent holiday) and in a couple of weeks (i.e. 2 fast days) it's gone and some. I have read all 8 pages of this thread, anyone thinking of doing it but daunted, don't do 2 fast days, just do 1 a week. Don't worry about what you eat/drink, it isn't for ever! Look forward to the next day, keep busy, go to bed early. Do it however works for you, what you like to eat, your lifestyle and your mood. I've had days (well 1) when dinner was a glass of Shiraz and a kitkat, ok, not healthy and not recommended but it got me to bedtime! My standard easy fallback is a banana, a cereal bar and a bag of rocket, spinach and watercress with some lean chicken, fish or grated Parmesan over the course of the fast day. It's not like you have to do it the next day. Give it a go. Wish my OH would!

I started 5:2 in January 2013 after putting weight on following giving up smoking and then discovering I had an underactive thyroid. It worked for me and I now do 6:1 just to maintain my weight without missing out on treats and also to continue to get the health benefits associated with fasting. If it's not convenient to fast I don't get stressed about it because I can always make up for it the following week if necessary. I don't see it as a diet, it's just what I do!

I tend to do
Monday 1000
Tuesday normal
Wednesday 500
Thursday normal
Friday 1000

Which means weekend eat normally. But it's not set in stone.

That makes sense. Might give it a go. Thanks.

It's my version of the 5:2

1 day fast (500 kcals)
2 days with 1000 kcals
The other 4 days eat as normal

If you count normal as 2000 the on the 5:2 you have
2000 x 5 = 10,000 plus
500 x 2 = 1000
Giving a total of 11,000 kcals a week

On 4:2:1
2000 x 4 = 8000
1000 x 2 = 2000
1 x 500 = 500
Giving a weekly total of 10,500

And it's much easier to stick to!

Aka, what's the 4:2:1 diet?