Is anybody still doing the 5:2 diet?

So much success here on Gransnet!
My husband and I have been doing this since it first popped up. HE has lost loads of weight and I have pretty much stayed the same (sigh).

We are both careful (religious?) about it and have always eaten well - wholefoods and mainly veggie since about 1976, but I find I an hungry all the time. I do just put up with that - but he never seems bothered.

In the early days I had a boiled egg or banana to keep me going mid-day but now find it easier mostly to soldier on till dinner time. I am still prepared to believe it's good for me in other ways, but the weight-loss thing for me didn't happen.

I just started doing 5:2 on Tuesday on the advice of my doctor. I do find my stomach burns as the day goes on and I get a bad head but I have only done the two days so far so I'm hoping my body gets used to it. I will weigh myself on Tuesday morning so fingers crossed it has been worth it. I too am trying to lose the dreaded menopause weight gain - all 2 stone of it. Nothing else seems to work.

I started the 5:2 nearly 4 years ago and got to my desired weight after 18mths. Since then I have occasionally gone back for a maintenance spell, when waistbands were getting tight.

I have managed to keep the weight off, but allowed a little leeway because what I thought was an ideal weight made me look a bit gaunt.

I no longer have any desire to eat between meals or eat sweets, I have my 3 meals at regular intervals, feel fuller more quickly and don't eat after 8 at night.

I too had headaches when I first started, but they soon passed.

Good luck to everyone who is just starting, it's is worth it for the healthy feeling.

x

I did it last year 8 weeks before Christmas to drop a dress size. I dropped 2 in the end. I felt amazing and it wasn't so hard after a week or two. The strangest difference it made to me was that a wart I'd had since I can remember, on my right index finger (always been aware of the nasty thing!)... disappeared! When I spoke to my GP, she explained that it had gone because doing 5:2 had boosted my immune system and kicked the wart into touch!
I am slowly getting back into it this month. I'm getting back into the right headspace to go to 2 days a week (I don't do well under stress - weak...) not so much because of the weight loss, but more for the health benefits. It makes me feel very energetic when I'm on 5:2 and I have a weak immune system too, which benefits when I fast.
I find big stir-fries with lots of veg very useful, and a salad with lime juice and black pepper as a dressing, helpful. The Facebook group is very friendly and people are always sharing tips and recipes.
There's lots of info out there to research - it's really one of the simplest ways of eating I've found, plus tomorrow's never far away!
Good luck!

Which Facebook group is it Dianic? I need all the help I can get, though I have found already that I'm not constantly hungry like I was before I started the diet.

neversaydie, yes, I have a husband. the first year he did the diet with me and did lose weight, but he found it a struggle. He has mild diabetes and even though he had his extra calories a man is allowed as a small breakfast, he felt faint and ill. He has found it easier to lose weight on a low carb diet.

I prepare diet meals that can be adapted for 2 of us. As I mentioned earlier we are having a chicken curry tonight. I use boned chicken thighs, I got three out of the freexer, weighed the smallest and set it aside for me, he will have the other two. He will have slightly more rice and I have also got a veg curry for him. I had a home-made wrap for lunch because we were both out separately and I needed to eat on the go. usually we have salads for our second meal everyday in the summer and that, again, can be individually sized. on fast days.

But at the end of the day a diet is about keeping the weight off when you reach your desired weight and if your ordinary day to day diet is putting the weight on, you need to deal with that first, adjust how you eat, so that you eat less calorie wise, although not necessarily volume wise. Do not have treats in the house but if a spouse insists develop a state of mind that distances you from them. Do not look at them and salivate. Train your mind to see them as an unnecessary extra that you do not need and will not be good for you.

I am sorry if this upsets people, but will-power to resist comes from self-discipline and lots of practice. Nobody gets there immediately but if you really want it you can develop it. So saying 'I can't resist' is untrue. What you are really saying is 'I do not care enough about my health and well being to train myself to new habits I would rather just eat. A perfectly acceptable attitude, but be honest about it.

JanT2004 it's called the 5.2 Intermittent Fasting Diet, & it's run by someone called Belinda Berry. I have lost 3 stones, very gradually over three years & I find it suits my way of life. I have dropped to size 14 from 18/20. Would like to lose some more before my holiday in 5 weeks time, so will be doing 4.3 .

my sister in law does this diet and has been keeping up with it for years. She is 58 and looks a lot younger for this diet, I would say it works. I would love to be able to keep up a diet, but like many of us start with good intentions and after a few weeks fall off the wagon. Did the same with slimming world, kept it up for 6 months, lost some weight, but gained it again and then I got despondant and stopped going. You just have to maintain the diet what ever it is.

Yes, yes. We now use the 5:2 once a week, usually a Monday as a way to maintain our weight goals achieved last year. It works.

I lost weight on the 5:2 and could wear some rather nice clothes that I hadn't been able to wear for years (and I felt physically better). It's so easy, no faffing around not being able to eat this or that. I need to go back on it as I've slackened off a bit and have about 7 pounds to lose. The two days of feeling a bit hungry weren't a problem. Yes, i'd recommend it.

I tried the 5:2 diet but more recently have been not eating breakfast 3 or 4 times a week. Fasting from 8pm to 1pm the following day is easy to do and I have lost weight slowly and steadily without too many changes to my usual calorie intake.

jamesclear.com/the-beginners-guide-to-intermittent-fasting

My dear lady and I are on the 5:2 diet, and I'm happy to say it works for us. Since I retired, I have taken more of an interest in the meals we eat, cooking more of the meals myself. We have lost about a stone each over the last 16 weeks, using a book we got from Morrisons, titled 500 calorie diet, produced by the Woman magazine. In it there are some great recipes, all with low calorie intake. A typical day would one Weetabix and milk for breakfast, grilled streaky bacon and tomatoes on a slice of toast for lunch, and either chicken or lamb rogan josh for dinner. The recipe is strict in the fact that all ingredients, are weighed out, so that I stick to my 600 calories, and my wife 500 calories, for that day. The other rule to follow, of course, is no alcohol on diet days. Good luck.

I'm not doing 5:2 but calorie-counting on MFP. I lose weight very slowly, and put it back on if I take my eye off the ball.

Does anyone believe that 5:2 works better than calorie-counting and, if so, why?

A male friend of mine has been following it for some time and seems more than happy with his weight loss.

For me 5:2 has worked better than calorie counting. Until the menopause I generally only put on weight after seasonal events; Christmas, holidays etc and a few weeks of calorie counting and more exercise would get me back to my usual weight.

Then I hit the menopause, and the weight just went on, slowly and inexorably, nearly 2 stone in all, despite calorie counting and extra exercise. I was reduced to trying fad diets, like the Atkins, which made me feel very ill - without any weight loss.

I had more or less resigned myself to being a fat old lady, when I saw the Michael Moseley programme about the 5;2 diet and as a last attempt I decided to try it. To my amazement in four months I was two stone lighter, back to my pre-menopausal weight.

Why does it work? I have no idea, and do not really care. It works and thats all I am interested in. Having shrunk an inch or two, as we all do as we get older I am now trying to reduce my weight by another half stone using the 5;2 diet and it looks like working again.

Calorie counting had just stopped working for me. Besides which, it was miserable to have to deny myself something every day of my life. Two days of restraint and five of freedom is something I can easily live with. Also, there appear to be other health benefits with the 5:2. Some dispute this, but as I said, my blood pressure decreased significantly with no other obvious reason. It went down when I'd stopped running regularly and had more stress in my life, and the weight loss alone wasn't significant enough to account for it.

Thanks. Tbh the denial doesn't bother me. I'm used to that. I've been calorie counting for 30 years, so I'm used to it but recently..I dunno....it's getting harder. Maybe it's something to do with the meno.

I haven't read the 5:2 book and frankly I cynically thought that it may be a money-spinner for Dr Mosely. I've always thought about calories in very black and white terms ie calories in=calories out.

Now I'm not so sure. I don't think even the scientists know, really.

I think though there is some evidence to suggest that your body adapts to what it's being fed, and if that food is controlled strictly over a period of time, the benefits are less as time goes on. This could also explain why weight goes back on so easily. .

Another question: when 5:2-ing, can you factor in exercise? (you can on MFP).

Thanks.

To me a fast day is no different to any other day, except that I skip breakfast and count the calories in my two meals. The rest of the day goes on as normal so i go for my usual morning walk, work in the garden, even go swimming.

Of course the Diet books are money earners for the authors, why not, we all have our livings to earn and the authors put a lot of time and effort into researching and writing them. But this is a diet that can be done just as well without necessarily buying the book. I haven't bought it. There is a wealth of information online.Certainly as much as I have required.

I have also enjoyed the challenge of developing the range of recipes that form part of my personal 5;2 recipe book. I have taken recipes I already had and re-hashed them in a low cal version and I am always reading any recipes I see online or in newspapers magazines etc and thinking 'Ah, this could be reformulated into a 250 calories dish '. It is quite good fun.

For me this has been the non-diet diet. Although I have two preferred days each week when I do it, I will switch the days around when it is necessary. However you do need to eat sensibly the rest of the week.

Weight goes back on people after a diet because they revert to the eating patterns that put the weight on in the first place. If your normal diet is ready meals and take-aways, which you continue to eat on the other five days, you will not lose weight on the 5;2. Eat sensibly on the other five days and keep doing so once the weight goes off and it should stay off.

Several people on this thread, including me, once we lost the weight have kept it off without effort, because what we eat on a normal day roughly equals our daily needs and no more.

monica your last sentence is particularly interesting. I think for most people "needs" are impossible to judge in terms of food. I have absolutely no idea at all of what I need, as opposed to what I'd like, and this is probably the case for most of us. It would be good if, instead of beating us round the head, the experts could actually work with us on an individual basis to determine what we actually need to be eating.

I guess the advantage of the 5:2 is that the fasting days compensate for the more generous days, resulting in a balanced, sensible eating pattern.

However I'd be interested to know if the 5:2 enables greater weight loss.

Perhaps I'd better read that book after all...

I would disagree with you gettingonabit I think what we don't need is more involvement in exactly what each individual needs and separating needs and wants.

My last sentence meant very simply that if your usual eating pattern ends up in you putting on weight you are consuming too much and you need to change your eating pattern and food choices so that the food you put in yourself is sufficient for your needs and no more and your weight remains stable.

I have quoted in more threads than a care to think the quotation that I use to guide me in what I eat and that is 'Eat well, not too much, most of it plants' It is a broad brush approach that doesn't analyse one's food intake in any detail.

We may have an obesity epedemic at the moment, but we also have an epidemic of food related disorders,not just anorexia and bulimia but millions of people who are unable to just enjoy good food and leave it that. There are those going gluten free, lactose free, for no good medical reason, then there are movements like the 'clean' eating gurus who have regular television programmes and those eliminating all carbs from their diet or all sugar, sugar in excess is harmful, so is water in excess, but a modicum of sugar does no one except those with specific medical problems any harm.

What is needed is a simple broad guide to a balanced diet and then leave it to people's common sense as to how they adapt it to their own eating patterns.

I would be interested to know why the 5:2 works because when I average my week's calorie consumption on the 5;2 diet, my daily consumption is no lower than when on a straight forward calorie restricted diet. Yet 5;2 works and staright forward calorie counting no longer does.

I like that saying "eat well...", but the trouble is that many people have no idea what eating well means, and we've certainly lost any sense of proportion about how much we should be eating.

As regards the fasting element of the 5:2, I think there MAY be benefits, but I don't think enough research has been done from which we can draw any meaningful conclusions.

I suppose, though, if you're disciplined enough to take in so few calories on two days of the week, then you're probably not going to overdo it on the other days either.

I think there's so much research yet to be done (or to be made public). The dangers of sugar have been known for 40 years and are only now becoming known to the wider public.

I think the future lies in the part gut microbes play in health and weight management, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

Over the years when we are in Asia for four months I lose weight because the food is mainly eggs, veg, rice and chicken and fish. No cheese, no biscuits or ice cream and just a bit of cake now and then so over the years I have dropped from a size 18 to 10 or 12. I use to put some back on when I got back to this country but now I have adapted my eating to the Adrian and kept it off . So really my advice is just keep your meals simple, leave off the processed and sweet food.

Is it suitable for diabetics? I worry about having a hypo although I could fast from meds too ...maybe.

Caramac I use the 5:2 and I am diabetic. But I am not on any medication

I found the 5:2 worked provided I stuck to under 1000 calories on the 'non-fast' days. I did loose nearly a stone in six months, but then my weight plateaued (I still had 3/4 stone to go) and I got thoroughly depressed and gave up. Of course the weight has now slipped back. I rarely eat more than 1200 calories a day and sticking to that can maintain my level of being nearly two stone overweight (Apparently I should be under 11.4 and I'm around 12.10.) Should I stay fat and happy?