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Hi minihaha
I began on 500 calories on fasting days and always including some protein. If you are trying to lose weight, as opposed to the health benefits of 5:2, then cut out all wheat, sugars and starchy foods such as potatoes, rice and pasta and reduce your alcohol intake.
Whenever I have weight gain, it is related to wheat and sugar foodstuffs.
I have lost 15 kgs and 3 clothing sizes and maintain by staying on 5:2 and minimising all processed food.
All the best. Bay 🙂
Thanks ihaveawaist for the great tips! I especially like the brushing your teeth one, my teeth are soooo clean on fast days, hahaha. I don’t eat until about 5pm and then I’ll have a carrot just before hubby gets home, just so I don’t have my grumpy pants on too tight by the time he comes through the door. The 5:2 is a lot easier than I thought it be, just hope I can get my husband on board too!
Hi there
I see some reference to low fat. I do NOT believe in low fat. Low carb Yes, low fat No.
I eat normal products such as Greek yogurt, quality olive oil, avocados and I still managed to lose 15 kgs in less than six months. The weight loss was through giving up wheat and sugar and starch and having some alcohol free days.
Cheers, Bay 🙂
I can totally relate bigkahunadad to your pre 5:2 fears. It’s funny cause we think we’re going to get hungrier and hungrier to the point where we just can’t stand it, but I found the hunger just stays the same and subsides when we just get on with it. My husband, who is a third dan black belt, really doesn’t want to do it cause like you he thinks the hunger pains will eat into his brain, lol! Any way keep up the good work and I’ll get my husband to read the forum, see if I can get him inspired by all the kind support everyone shares
G’day bigkahunadad and lizzy3. I too find fasting by eating zero calories during my fasting days not that hard to do. It does come down to individual preferences as many prefer to eat a bit. We are all different. Once you realise there’s no food coming today, you don’t think about it and life goes on.
With the tea, I drink a lot of tea and i also had trouble sleeping – i believe because of the overdose of caffeine. i’ll back off on the tea a couple of hours before bed.
Pattience, ha ha your lucky you’ve got grass. The closest i’ve got, is a front yard of weeds and brown stuff which could possibly be classified grass (i just sprayed it). Generally speaking, for me anyway – any exercise is good exercise.
As far as HIIT goes, we need to listen carefully to our body as your absolutely right, it’s easy to injure yourself if your not vigilant. I have injured myself before doing HIIT.
Time to go pull some weeds out now.
Baz 🙂
I’m doing the 6 week beach fast diet, which I’m finding really easy to follow. I’m wondering if anyone else is doing a food diary? I’m writing down everything that I eat and drink and I think having that accountability is working well. I’m on my 2nd week, feeling very good, not at all hungry – other than my difficult fast day yesterday – and I’ve lost 2 kg and I feel so much less bloated. I think the diary might be the key to sticking to the 6 week hyped up fast plan.
Hi Bazman, just wondering what HIIT you’re following, I remember seeing some info on this site but can’t find it now. I need to get fit, hubby and I are off to the Kimberley’s in April, and I expect there will be a lot of walking/climbing involved. I know I’ll need endurance fitness too, but I’ve heard of the great results you can get from HIIT
Cheers Liz
HI Sarah67 – food diaries can be amazing tools for weight loss. Many studies over the years assessing the effectiveness of various “diets” have found a common denominator – the people who keep food diaries lose more weight, regardless of the regime they are following.
This has been the case for me too. I think it keeps me accountable. If you use an app or website like My Fitness Pal (there are others too) it is also educational. It has helped me know what my regular diet “looks” like energy wise, and I have tweaked some favourite recipes to be lower energy without losing flavour. It’s also a good place to look when you’re not losing the weight.
It’s a tedious process, and sometimes you just have to make your best guess if you’ve been out for a meal, but in general, it’s worth it. I do it periodically now, say one week in 4 or so to keep me honest.
Hi Newbies
Welcome on board the 5:2 way of life WOL. Please keep a diary and Measure, measure , measure. Each and every bit of yourself that you want to know for the future. I only measured my waist, bust and hips. Later on I wished I had measured upper arms and thighs. When I lost the fat from every part of my body, I was thrilled. See me dance a jig 🙂
Sometimes you will find there is no weight loss, but there are cms going from vital stats. For example, I have reduced my waist by 19 cms and have lost fat from my upper arms and thighs, from my back and from around my internal organs.
This new shape gives me far greater pleasure than the weight loss. I can now wear clothing in size 11 when I was wearing size 16 over Christmas. Unbelievable for me! I now have a waist and new clothes that I love.
All the best. Enjoy the journey. Feel the support. Bay 🙂
Sarah, keeping a food diary is an excellent idea. I have been doing it all year. If nothing else, and you find you are not losing weight or something happens, you can go back and reassess what you are eating and modify quantities or choices.
For anyone not counting calories, you can also rate your hunger and satiety and use that as a way to moderate your calorific intake. It only works properly with whole foods and if you are eating high fat diet/low carb, then you must accept that you will always be eating at “just satisfied”. that is how you will feel at the end of a meal but you will be fine until the next one without hunger.
This is a system of intuitive eating developed by Dr Amanda Sainsbury Salis – an australian scientists who has been researching some of the nitty gritty factors of weightloss for a long time and has a write a couple of very good books with some excellent advice. Its the don’t go hungry diet and don’t go hungry for life which i came across first in a public library and the second one i found in a second hand book shop. I liked them both a lot. Very useful and applicable to any diet or non-diet.
So to do it, the basics are this: Copy these ratings into your diary. And use them for every meal and every thing that goes into your mouth. e.g. cup of coffee spoonful of peanut butter mid morning.
the idea is you work towards the majority of your ratings being in the +/- 2s and 3s. Do it for about three months to internalise the behaviour. the thing to understand is that eating to fullness is overeating. Waiting till you are famished will cause overeating. Hence aiming for just satisfied and elegantly satisfied and quite hungry and very hungry are the ways to eat what your body needs. But also she doesn’t seem to recommend eating at set meal times. I prefer to eat at set meal times but i can see how if you eat when you need to you might eat even less.
Anyway the ratings are useful.
Hunger Satiety
-4 – ravenously hungry and I could eat anything right now +1 unsatisfied – I still feel a bit hungry and i’d gladly eat something else right now
-3 – very hungry and i’d like to eat something substantial now +2 just satisfied – My body is relaxed and comfortable and if i ate any more, I would still feel comfortable, but i don’t need any more.
-2 – quite hungry and i’d like to eat something now, perhaps a snack or a light meal +3 Elegantly satisfied – My body is relaxed and comfortable and if i ate any more i would begin to feel over full.
-1 – a little bit hungry and i’d be comfortable to wait a while before eating. +4 over satisfied – I know in my heart of hearts that i’ve eaten more than my body wants and i feel uncomfortable.
0 – Not hungry and i’m not hungry at all.
Lizzy i’ve been to the Kimberleys. I did a bike trip up the gib river road and also along the highway. Its not necessary to do a great deal of walking up there, nor climbing. But then if you want to, you can but not sure about the climbing. Usually the car parks are not that far from the site you want to visit. At most you might walk 3kms to get to the main site.
Hi all!
Caught the 5:2 diet on the Sunday Night show and was impressed! Downloaded the book on Kindle and haven’t finished it yet, but so far it’s really interesting. My first fast day was yesterday, and I felt great! I’m only slightly overweight at 188cm tall and 90kg, but I want to lose a bit and also interested in the other health benefits. I was surprised I didn’t really feel that hungry yesterday, and I wasn’t even tempted when workmates sat down and demolished a spread of sausage rolls and cakes whilst I ate a small tin of tuna! I’m very active, walking between 20-30km each day at work (school maintenance at a large college) and thought I may get the wobbles and fall in a heap, but no such issues appeared. The only thing I noticed was feeling cold last night whilst working, as I never feel the cold, but this soon passed when I got active (it was really cold out though). I’m in Epping, Melbourne’s northern suburbs. I felt different, an empty “light” feeling, not bogged down and heavy inside. I was almost disappointed to eat normally again today, but don’t want to overdo it whilst I ease into the diet. I may try zero calorie fast days later and see how that goes. I also slept like a log last night, asleep about 10 seconds after my head hit the pillow.
I am looking forward to seeing how I feel after a few more weeks, the first day has been great. I am using My Fitness Pal to keep track of my intake, and using a Fitbit tracker to follow my exercise and sleep. Will keep in touch!
Best of luck to all!
Instead of grilling or frying fish, I wrap it in an aluminium foil parcel with the flavourings (shallots, ginger, slices of a big chilli, leek etc) and either pop it on the bbq, in the oven or in a frying pan, no oil needed. The fish ends up moist and favouresome. Served with a leafy salad. It can even be prepared the day before. I’m a great believer in not having to think about food or spend much time in the kitchen when you are new at 5:2. The advantage of the bbq is less washing up and no residual food smell in the house. Purple
I’m feeling dispirited. I’ve had 8 fast days with no weight loss, in fact a weight gain. My lowest weight was 65.8. And now after 8 fasts I’m hovering at about 67.5. I’m doing 4 fast days a week. I’m generally eating within my TDEE on feed days. Has anyone else plateaued like this and then eventually started losing again?
Hi all, hope you’ve had a great day. I’m on day 3 now, I jumped on the scales this morning and I’ve lost 1.8kg. My first 2 days were 500 calorie days, today I thought I’d just carry on the same way. but keep to those guidelines but not class it as a strict fasting day. I changed my breaky today to a weetbix with milk and a little sugar and I found that after a couple of hours I was having a terrible time concentrating at work. So now I’m going back to having the breaky I had on the first 2 days which was I apple and an orange blended together with some water. I don’t drink it all at once, I drink it in about 4 lots over the space of about an hour and a half. I am enjoying this way of eating so much. It’s taken all the pressure off all the negative thoughts about yourself when you eat the wrong food.
Hello all… I’m in NZ and noticed someone mentioned there’s a forum for NZers somewhere? Does anyone know where that is/how I find that please? Thanks! In case this is it I’ll let you know I’ve got 22kgs to lose, I’m hopeless on fast days, mostly around 600-700cals..I try and have one giant salad on fast days, then a little more protein later in the day. In two weeks lost 1.8kg currently total loss (4 weeks) is 1.5kg I’m a bit up and down! Tried this a few months ago and couldn’t do 36 hours at all then so I went 2pm to 1pm instead which was much easier, this time I’m trying to do it ‘properly’! I used to be really good at fasting -my longest was 2 weeks- but I’m breastfeeding a toddler so my body has other ideas!
Chicita, you’re body could possibly be in starvation mode. It’s really important that you don’t go too far under your calorie needs. I don’t know your height but I’m guessing at 65 kilos you don’t have a lot to lose??? I know myself when I was on a very low calorie diet I stopped losing pretty quickly because my metabolism would slow down. When I started eating more, but not excessive, my metabolism would correct itself and start losing again. 4 days fasting sounds a lot
Hi,
Just finishing my second fast day this week. On Monday I had a headache but tonight I feel much better.
I have read posts about a thread with recipes on them. Can someone say how exactly how I can find them please?
This is my third week on this eating program. Last week it was a failure, I am hoping I can maintain and loose about 5-7 kg. I have been going between 62.2 and 63.5. Am hoping I can get into the 61s soon.
Good luck to all of you.
Jane
Hi Lizzy3, I found a link you may have been looking for and posted it below.
HIIT should be tailored to what you’re comfortable with. It can cause injury or worse if you don’t listen to your body.
Having said that for me I do it for 20 minutes. (it doesn’t need to be that long). Start with what’s comfortable for you. ie 6 min, 12 min whatever.
For me I run (on a treadmill) at 9km/hr for 1min then switch it up to 13km/hr for 1 min then back down to 9km/hr for 1 min and so on.
The idea is to push yourself as hard as you can and then recover at the slower speed. There are many variations with time intervals and different equipment,(bikes, cross trainers etc) but this is what suits me. You need to find what suits you.
http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/forum/fast-exercise/hit-high-intensity-interval-training/
Hope this helps
Baz 🙂
PS… 24th hour now, 12 hrs to go. WoooHooo
Birdlady the recipies link is below.
If you go to the main forum page and scroll down to the heading food you’ll find heaps of great info on………..um food
http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/forum/food/recipes/
enjoy
Baz 🙂
Pattience I’m sorry you are frustrated! I didn’t see your full post but that’s never a good feeling!…I looked at your profile however and seems we are very similar (Same height,weight, nearly age etc) except I am at the start and you are at the end! I hope I can achieve what you have done in the same time frame! I too have tried this and that and this 5:2 seems like a good fit with my generally chaotic eating. I’m also excited by the other health benifits. Atm I think I’m fully compensating over the 5 non fast days, but I know it will get better! And I do find myself looking forward to the fast days even though I find then so hard! I’m looking forward to weighing myself tomorrow morning!
(Hi Birdlady,I’m just up the road in Wollongong).
Did my first fast day today and went really pretty well. Probably not the smartest move though, spending all day looking at prospective recipes!!! Found a lot of our usual meals will be useful on fast days.
I didn’t find it hard to fast, and I usually drink about 8-10 glasses of water anyway, so that was fine, too. I found the hardest thing was restricting the amount of tea I drink. I have skim in it, but do drink quite a lot. After today I reckon I’ll be a brunch and dinner kinda gal.
It’s great being ‘here’ and reading all the supportive comments. Thanks everyone.
Hello, I am in Canberra and started my diet journey yesterday! I heard about the diet from a friend, but she could not remember the details. So I goggled it … and I also came across the show with Michael on Fox – BBC Knowledge channel just a few days ago, but when I found it while flicking through the menu, I had missed most of it. I did some further digging and finally was able to watch his show for free via the SBS website on my iPad yesterday. streaming was not a problem for all of the 50 min the show lasted 🙂
I downloaded the book and the recipe book. Both really good. i tried to buy the hardcopy and was told that it was sold out. Now I have it in electronic form, its great because it contains links and I can go straight to web from the book. Prizes are same as for hardcopy. I tried every diet on the planet, and I could never stick to any of them. This one feels right and I like that it has some scientific credibility unlike so many others.
I am also looking forward to becoming more active as my weight drops :-))
Hi all, and welcome to all the newbies, so many ‘new recruits’.
Good luck all. I’m a convert after just 4 weeks!
Just finished (or should I say survived!) my first 2 day fast (more for organisational reasons than cause I was dying to try it!).
I was a bit scared, but it was totally doable apart from a few weak moments at work. I didn’t sleep well last night, but hope tonight will be different (still got to get through till tomorrow), so maybe getting a bit ahead of myself!
Thanks for the recipe Lizzie, sounds yum.
Thanks also everyone for all the informative posts re exercise, low fat-vs low carbs, fibre…So much to learn, and I thought I was pretty well-informed healthwise!
I will look into the food diary idea too, as I have wondered if I have issues with something (+++bloating some days).
Chichita, that sounds really hard, and not easy to understand. Try not to get dispirited and think outside the box for another cause…When was your last general checkup? (BTW, you can imagine what I think of as a midwife!;-).
Happy 5:2ing everyone, it’s great to know you’re all out there and to have this forum.
Sue
Hi fast family,
Wow there are so many excited and anxious lovely new people……don’t panic, keep calm. Alway remember this is a slow steady return to good health, not a race to see how quickly you can get there!
Chichita, sue is correct, please please go get a full checkup, something could be up that you hadn’t expected. And also please try and not be so hard on yourself. Four fast days in a week is way way too much for anyone. There’s a good reason for eating on both your fast and non-fast days, that is to remain sustainable practice, but also let your body gently repair and slowly reconfigure itself away from inflammatory reactionary swings….take me as an example….away from 145/90 blood pressure to 110/60…. or from 30 years of IBS to none!
So as of this morning, I’m even closer to my goal of 65kg, at a lovely 66.8! Working while fasting is a great thing for me, as I’m so busy on my feet, that I barely have time to think about food.
The other thing I’ve noticed, is that suddenly since Sunday, everyone is asking me about 5:2 and I’m having to give me opinions. Sadly some of them are under the misunderstanding that it’s a fast without food, and you have to excerice at the same time. I say no to both, as I’ve gone the slow and conservative route, eating 2 small meals on fast days and dancing when I feel like it, instead of running/cycling on the HIIT.
Well that’s all from me, please be kind and gentle with yourselves, good results are possible without thrashing yourselves!!
Cheers.
Sorry Lizzy3. The disadvantage of reading posts on the phone means it is very hard to go back and forth. We have had other’s pushing the starvation mode before and scaring off newbies. This is why Michael wrote the article, however, I totally agree. This system works by having periods of definite ups and downs in order to allow the body to heal itself. As ihaveawaist says, it is all about the healing long term.
Two, occasionally three, fasts a week is the way to go. We took a whole year to reach our goals and for my husband to be off all diabetes drugs. For me to get off BP drugs has taken longer, but it has happened. Eat sensibly on feast days and do two good fasts a week.
On a happy note, I reached a new PB today..57.5 kg. And this is after 3 weeks away and another quick trip this week. This WOL becomes natural after a while. It is not an urgent weight loss program, it is a gentle, controlled way of resetting your system to a healthier way of living.
All the best SHs. P 🙂
Well Purple Vegie Eater, I am on to my 5th day. 2 Fast days on 503 & 509 calories. As I’m still housebound (Moon Boot on) I am so excited to say I’ve lost 2 kilos. I’m 63, so as you can imagine, (with an under active Thyroid), I have tried every diet out there. Dr. Michael has done all the hard work, so I’m doing what he says. I am eating well (the Normal eating days are sometimes difficult to eat the full calorie amount probably because I’m housebound & can’t get out to do other things) & keeping a diary on myfitnesspal.com which I need. I find anything that keeps you on the straight & narrow is so helpful. I love reading these Forums but I can’t figure out why some people change the formula. Stop being so impatient & enjoy the journey. Purple, you must be so proud of your progress. I love reading the Success stories. It brings a smile to your face knowing that your own story will be entered one day. It is hard work, but prevention is better than cure for the ailments that can happen as you get older. As I’ve failed so many times regarding weight loss in the past, I’m going slow & really planning really yummy meals. I’m loving this site. Chat soon.
HI Bayleafoz..
I’ve been doing paleo for over 2 yrs so I haven’t had grains etc in ages. The one area I don’t follow paleo is for dairy and I do have a little rice. I rarely have potatoes also and when I do it’s only a very small amount. I’m pretty much 90/10 with that part of my diet. I’ve also cut sugar which made making my salad last night interesting since I couldn’t add beetroot or gherkins to add flavour since both have sugar added. Thank goodness my home made pickled onions don’t!!
Since I got my new phone with the app. I’ve been very good at logging food intake and adding up calories etc I always add any glasses of wine to my calorie count and haven’t been drinking lately.
I’m pretty sure I am doing everything right diet wise so hopefully the weight loss will start with fasting as well. Looking forward to not worrying about having too many cals today..yay..and not sure if I’ll do two days of fast in a row next time. I’m going to play it by ear.
Hi Purple Vegie Eater, couldn’t agree more. That’s why I love this new way of eating cause it’s long term, and a life change. I’m guessing there would be a few new people who expect a quick fix and not realise how much they can now enjoy the freedom from dieting. Congratulations on what you’ve achieved, it must feel amazing to not only see your weight results, but also your health results too! I don’t have a weight goal, mines more a cm off the belly which I’m hoping will equate to fat off the internal organs too.
Happy fasting everyone!
Good morning fellow SH fasting mates.
Wow! Have a couple of busy days and the site is bursting with new recruits. Welcome everyone – please forgive me if I don’t mention you all by name. Lots of experience on this site and we’re happy to share. Congratulations on choosing this way of living (WOL).
A couple of posts caught my eye ….
BigDAD and Sarah, regarding feeding a family fitting in with your fasting, I’m now far from a large family (just OH and me at home now) but what I eat on fast days fits into our routine. I still work 3 days/week and definitely don’t have time or energy to faff around in the kitchen on fast days (Mon-Tu). On Wednesdays I do a heavy weights session after work and am usually so stuffed it has to be easy anyway.
I devise a weekly menu in which my FDs are accommodated with simple meals that suit me and can be supplemented with extra whatever for my husband (tall, skinny, fit 70yo) e.g., if we have steak and salad, his steak is much bigger than mine and I also put sliced potato on the grill for him. Oddly enough I now don’t have any feelings of being ‘hard done by’ or not being able to resist the yummy spud when serving. If we have Italian then the sauce is very veg-heavy and I don’t have the pasta. If stir-fry then no noodles for me. Planning is the key to success.
Hi Cheeky, another SA recruit! At last count I think about six have identified themselves.
Well done everyone reporting success. It’s encouraging to see a rapid initial response. Don’t forget to measure yourself in lots of different ways at the start because even if the scales apparently don’t budge for a while, you will almost certainly notice that your clothes are looser. After about 3 weeks of nothing much for me the scales have finally (grudgingly?) yielded net loss of 0.4kg but in that interval my silhouette has diminished by a total of 11.5cm overall from waist, hips, bust, thighs.
Happy Friday all.
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