Started the 5:2 diet yesterday
Discussion
Morning,
Over the last 18 months I have gradually been putting on more and more weight. In July/August 2012 I was weighing around 12.5 stone which was perfect for me. I am about 5ft10. I hadn't really done much to get down to that weight but job stress mixed in with other stuff got me there and I was managing to keep the weight off. Fast forward about 6 months and the weight slowly started to creep back. This then increased even more while Becky was pregnant and still more once my Daughter was born. As of yesterday morning I weighed 14 stone 9 pounds. I am determined to lose at least 2 stone using a mix of the 5:2 diet and gradually getting some exercise into my routine.
So, yesterday I ate healthily with a bit of wholegrain toast for breakfast, a bowl of spicy rice for lunch and 3 sausages, boiled potatoes and veg for dinner. Today is my first fast day. I decided to go with the 1 meal for the day idea and that meal is going to be lunch! I don't fell quite as starving as I thought I would but my body definitely doesn't feel normal! Hopefully my lunch will calm it down a bit and I won't be too grumpy by the time I get home this evening!
I will try and keep this updated as I go along.
Wish me luck!
Over the last 18 months I have gradually been putting on more and more weight. In July/August 2012 I was weighing around 12.5 stone which was perfect for me. I am about 5ft10. I hadn't really done much to get down to that weight but job stress mixed in with other stuff got me there and I was managing to keep the weight off. Fast forward about 6 months and the weight slowly started to creep back. This then increased even more while Becky was pregnant and still more once my Daughter was born. As of yesterday morning I weighed 14 stone 9 pounds. I am determined to lose at least 2 stone using a mix of the 5:2 diet and gradually getting some exercise into my routine.
So, yesterday I ate healthily with a bit of wholegrain toast for breakfast, a bowl of spicy rice for lunch and 3 sausages, boiled potatoes and veg for dinner. Today is my first fast day. I decided to go with the 1 meal for the day idea and that meal is going to be lunch! I don't fell quite as starving as I thought I would but my body definitely doesn't feel normal! Hopefully my lunch will calm it down a bit and I won't be too grumpy by the time I get home this evening!
I will try and keep this updated as I go along.
Wish me luck!
Good luck.
Is this something your just muddling along with yourself or are you following a plan?
I cant really offer any advice as ive not done 5:2 but ive just gone through a similar amount of weight loss that your aiming for and thought id offer some support
once you get into the swing of it you'll do great, but keep it steady don't try to lose too much too quick (ok I offered some advice)
Is this something your just muddling along with yourself or are you following a plan?
I cant really offer any advice as ive not done 5:2 but ive just gone through a similar amount of weight loss that your aiming for and thought id offer some support
once you get into the swing of it you'll do great, but keep it steady don't try to lose too much too quick (ok I offered some advice)Foliage said:
Is this something your just muddling along with yourself or are you following a plan?
I bought the 5:2 diet book but having scanned through it a lot of it seems like utter nonsense! So I will probably end up just muddling through it myself. The concept is good so as long as I follow that I can't really go wrong.Just remember that the idea of 5:2 (and then perhaps 6:1) is that you do it indefinitely. That is how you maintain weight loss and derive long term health benefits.
Not that it matters, but there is nothing "healthy" IMO about toast for breakfast then rice for lunch. Not if you're worried about gut health/inflammation/insulin sensitivity anyway.
Longer term you should (being male) adapt very easily to your fast days, although I'd suggest it's worth holding out till late evening for your one meal. Food right before bed (well carbs rather) will trigger serotonin release and aid restful sleep. Poor sleep is a common complaint of the 5:2 diet and this strategy alleviates it somewhat.
All the best!
Not that it matters, but there is nothing "healthy" IMO about toast for breakfast then rice for lunch. Not if you're worried about gut health/inflammation/insulin sensitivity anyway.
Longer term you should (being male) adapt very easily to your fast days, although I'd suggest it's worth holding out till late evening for your one meal. Food right before bed (well carbs rather) will trigger serotonin release and aid restful sleep. Poor sleep is a common complaint of the 5:2 diet and this strategy alleviates it somewhat.
All the best!
HonestIago said:
Just curious as to why one would subscribe to the concept whilst thinking a lot of it is rubbish, that's all.
Because it is a way of losing weight that I can stick to without too much hassle. I'm not overly fussed by the ins and outs of the whole idea. Just the basics is all I need and I am happy with that.Steve H said:
I would think that anyone wishing to write anything longer than a pamphlet on an idea as simple as the 5:2 diet would have to pad it out with a lot of bumf just to fill the pages.
It is not just about losing weight, the actual 5:2 protocol is simple but the reasoning behind it is anything but. He goes into considerable depth about the physiological effects of fasting which I for one found very interesting. The book is very readable and can be done and dusted in an afternoon, not exactly a huge ordeal to read it all. Well, when you do lose weight, we won't know if it's down to 5:2, healthy eating or exercise. 
In any case, there's a trick to make 5:2 a lot easier:
As you know it's 5 "days" eating normally (as in normally not lettuce and chicken breast) and 2 days eating 600 cals (men). But a day is define as a 24 hour period. Which means you can have lunch at midday, finish by 1pm, start your fast at 1pm, eat a light dinner, then have your next lunch at 1pm. Thus you've had 600 cals in a "day". You will also know that you don't fast on consecutive days so this fiddle is valid.
Whether 5:2 works because of all the hormone/insulin stuff that people describe is true or not (well, it works for rats but I don't squeak), ultimately, over a week, if you normally eat 3,000 cals a day, that's 21,000 a week. So on a 5:2 diet, you're eating 16,200 a week which is ~2,300 a day. You can't help but lose weight even if you eat Twinkies on your diet.
In any case, there's a trick to make 5:2 a lot easier:
As you know it's 5 "days" eating normally (as in normally not lettuce and chicken breast) and 2 days eating 600 cals (men). But a day is define as a 24 hour period. Which means you can have lunch at midday, finish by 1pm, start your fast at 1pm, eat a light dinner, then have your next lunch at 1pm. Thus you've had 600 cals in a "day". You will also know that you don't fast on consecutive days so this fiddle is valid.
Whether 5:2 works because of all the hormone/insulin stuff that people describe is true or not (well, it works for rats but I don't squeak), ultimately, over a week, if you normally eat 3,000 cals a day, that's 21,000 a week. So on a 5:2 diet, you're eating 16,200 a week which is ~2,300 a day. You can't help but lose weight even if you eat Twinkies on your diet.
BoRED S2upid said:
If your starve day is 600 cals why not do some excercise on that day burn off 300 and then you can eat 900. It doesn't have to be 600 just because someone wrote a book telling you your starve day is 600 cals it can be whatever you want it to be.
Or turn the 600 into only 300 BoRED S2upid said:
If your starve day is 600 cals why not do some excercise on that day burn off 300 and then you can eat 900. It doesn't have to be 600 just because someone wrote a book telling you your starve day is 600 cals it can be whatever you want it to be.
For some reason he said it was 600 for men, 500 for women. It's down to digestion so your exercise idea might defeat the whole point of fasting.Hoofy said:
BoRED S2upid said:
If your starve day is 600 cals why not do some excercise on that day burn off 300 and then you can eat 900. It doesn't have to be 600 just because someone wrote a book telling you your starve day is 600 cals it can be whatever you want it to be.
For some reason he said it was 600 for men, 500 for women. It's down to digestion so your exercise idea might defeat the whole point of fasting.Oh and to the person that said fasting goes against clinical advice... such "accepted wisdom" on nutrition is mostly utter horse-sh!t.
My father, a diagnosed type-2 diabetic, now has perfectly non-diabetic blood glucose readings and drastically reduced symptoms. This has been a result of intermittent fasting whilst eating/drinking WHATEVER he wants a LOT of the time. His GP's advice of cutting out anything remotely enjoyable and eating 3 square meals with snacks did NOTHING for his condition and made him miserable!
That is but one such case of conventional medical advice being useless. Try researching and trying things for yourself. Doctors, generally, are the last people one should take dietary advice from.
HonestIago said:
Doctors, generally, are the last people one should take dietary advice from.
Utter nonsense. http://rt.com/uk/176700-obese-nhs-staff-patients/
Hoofy said:
hman said:
someone put to the market for financial gain.
Who also happens to be a medical professional.Medical professionals are generally clever people who know an awful lot - but they certainly don't know everything about how the body works.
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