Help! I'm just hungry.

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  • I’m new to the 5:2 diet and my main problem so far is… hunger.

    It’s 8pm and today I have only had liquids, mainly green tea. But now the hunger pangs are really kicking in. Similar to some of the other posters I’ve read, I find that when I’m restricting my intake, even a small amount of food sets the rumbles off.

    Do you guys have any advice or any tips for staving off the hunger? I think that my main problem in the mental side of hunger because if I can distract my mind from food then I don’t find it as hard. Do you have any advice for avoiding hunger?

    Atlas- you can have 500 calories (women) 600 calories (men) on your fast day. So if you’ve been fasting all day, and haven’t eaten since yesterday evening, now’s the time to eat!!

    hi atlas, i feel your pain. i’ve only made it through a couple of days at 500 cal.
    i’m happy for but extra jealous of those who shrug and say this is just so easy for them. i’m not one of them.
    fortunately there are other posts with suggestions. for me, the only thing that got me through the last fast day is that i ended up so busy at work i couldn’t think about eating.
    good luck. if you find something that works for you, post it – i’ll take any advice you may have!

    hello,
    i was very hungry on my fast days when i first started this plan, it was such a shock to my tummy, i had headaches and hunger prangs, it does get better as you keep at it, i never eat breakfast so just had a light lunch and evening meal, i still have mine at about 4.30 pm and that sees me through to the next day.
    keeping busy has been the key for me. xx

    I am hungry right now (4:06 pm on a fast day). But I find it helps if you remember that hunger pangs seem to come and go. It’s not going to get worse and worse and worse — in a little while, I won’t feel quite as hungry.

    Sometimes hunger pangs come when you are actually thirsty so I always have some water when I feel hungry. I have a flat white coffee for breakfast on my fast days – 86 calories and the remainder of my 500 calories I have in the evening with the family.

    I think the nail was hit on the head “..too busy to think about food”. sometimes we confuse hunger for boredom, and often mindlessly eat when bored (I know I did). Keep busy, read a book, do the ironing, hoover the stairs, sort your sock drawer….whatever it takes to forget about the ‘hunger pangs’. Also, drink lots of water, black tea, soda water with a squeeze lime/lemon,…. hunger will soon pass.

    Altoids!!! When I feel so empty that I can’t get it off my mind I suck on an Altoid and just having a flavor in my mouth helps. At 10 calories for 3 I don’t worry about the few calories involved. I also tell myself the hunger pang will pass and it does and then I remind myself that this is for my own good and that I won’t feel this way tomorrow.

    IM not surprised you are hungry if you have only had green tea all day. Eat! You have 500 calories. You wont maintain a diet where you don’t eat at all on fast days.

    Hi Atlas, I have 200ml of high juice diluted with tap water in a litre bottle that I sip throughout the day as well as water so every now and then I get a little bit of sugar, it’s only 68 cals and keeps me going until my evening meal, but don’t eat so late if your that hungry eat about 6pm.
    Good Luck and remember it is what works for you you can always do all day fasting like some people on the forum when you have been doing it for a while.
    Pally

    On fast days I find a small glass of diet lemonade helps me through the evening till bedtime, just a few sips now and then seems to stave off hunger pangs, which for me are worse at night when I’m relaxing – a real danger period especially when my partner is snacking – lucky him! During the day it’s black tea and water along with my 500 cals, but I seem to have more willpower then and keeping busy stops me thinking about food.

    Ann

    I am amazed at how much you can eat with 500 calories, however I do get hungry still too some days, this after 12+ weeks. I have found for me, splitting up the 500 calories in 3 meals works best, because it feels more like a normal eating day that way. I’ve tried to wait and eat all 500 at dinner, but, boy, howdy….just have a harder time not overeating.

    I know diet soda is not the best thing for you, so I have it as a treat on fast days (instead of every day). That way, after the 500 calories are gone, I still feel like I have something to look forward to. Sometimes herb tea with Stevia. Maybe I’ll try the diet lemonade idea. And if someone has any other suggestions……

    Tidychick, diet soda is a very negative ‘treat’. The sweet taste will stimulate insulin release even when there is no sugar for it to control. As a result you get a blood sugar slump – which will just make you crave sugar more and add to your general blood sugar instability. In the long run it can lead to insulin resistance. Is there nothing you could give yourself as a treat that isn’t quite so unhelpful? Even if you went a little over your allowance for a few weeks, breaking the habit would pay dividends in the long run.

    I find there are two things going on both of which we tend to experience as ‘hunger’. One is genuine hunger, a sensation that we seem to fear in modern society, even its just our body reminding us that we haven’t eaten for a while. It fades after a few minutes, and is totally bearable when you know that you can eat what you like tomorrow.

    The other is cravings – almost always for sweet things. I think most of us are addicted to sugar or starchy foods, and the endorphin rush that it brings. My cravings start at 4.pm and they are MUCH harder to resist than genuine hunger. I find that they aren’t relieved by protein or fat – only sugar or starchy foods will help. But every time I give in I delay the time when they will abate. What I did find was that about six weeks into 5:2 my sugar cravings naturally abated and even better, if I did eat something sweet it didn’t start off the craving-satisfaction cycle that is SO hard to break out of.

    Currently I am back in the cycle having stopped fasting while on holiday, and then found myself with this chronic headache. I rather suspect the headache is linked to the non fasting weeks!!!

    @anniew7
    “On fast days I find a small glass of diet lemonade helps me through ”

    I drink water with a splash of concentrated lemon juice, whether fasting or not. At restaurants, I’ll have a slice of lemon with my water. I enjoy it.

    I’ll also have mints & gum to chew on, especially on fast days.

    Works for me.

    Hunger is just toxins leaving the body – this thought confuses others.

    Ruthi,

    You are absolutely right! I am weaning myself of the diet soda. It’s so bad for you in so many areas. Anytime I have artificial sweetener, it seems to play havoc with my memory. Turns out, that is one of the many awful side effects.

    I am very addicted to sugar and carbs, and was able to stay away from the soda in the beginning. I would love to kick the sugar habit as well, man, that is hard! Also, a lot easier in the beginning. Having a harder time lately. My “cravings” are more due to emotional hunger, I think.

    One thing I do sometimes that helps, is suck on one mint tic tac, every hour. It’s only 1.9 calories and the mint helps to get rid of cravings for a bit. Or I’ll brush my teeth and do mouthwash for the same reason.

    The lemon or lime in water sounds like something I want to try. Thanks for the reality check! This forum is very helpful.

    Mmm, I do wonder about weaning off – as a concept if you get me. For me the moment I start I am lost – even a little bit. I used to know a recovering alcoholic who told me that even the tiny amount of alcohol in a homoeopathic tablet could send him off on a bender – and I do wonder if its not that different for me. If you are going to wean off sweeteners you could possibly try honey, which is at least not artificial.

    Do you know, when they launched aspartame they were in such a panic over the fact that cyclamates were carcinogenic that they were allowed to bring it to market before all the testing had been done. When the final research came through it showed that it caused ‘brain disturbance’ in rats. And its been known, but ignored, for years that it can cause symptoms that look very much like MS. I read about it at the time, and won’t touch any artificial sweetener if I know its there. And then I had a colleague who had been diagnosed with MS. He was on crutches, had terrible pains, and was generally a wreck. His wife couldn’t stand it and left him. The he changed doctors and was told to kick his diet cola habit. Guess what? His wife didn’t come back though.

    Have you come across Kathleen Desmaisons – author of Potatoes not Prozac? Her work predates the idea of intermittent fasting, but she has a programme for sugar addicts. For me there were two stumbling blocks – she expects you to eat rather a lot of so-called ‘complex’ carbs. Potatoes, even with their jackets, and wholegrain cereals are still too dense a carb for it to work for me. And I could never do her journal. But it certainly works for some sugar addicts. The book is worth reading just for the explanation of the brain chemistry of sugar, though.

    Yikes, artificial sweeteners are scary!! I just googled Kathleen Desmaisons, and this looks very intriguing. It would be awesome to kick this sugar addiction once and for all. It truly is the one thing that stands in my way, no matter what endeavor I embark on. Thanks!

    @ruthi
    “The he changed doctors and was told to kick his diet cola habit. Guess what? His wife didn’t come back though.”

    I remember drinking 6 packs of soda, and later beer, on a given day, when in my 20’s. I had no physical problems from that, as I remember.

    I did have emotional issues.

    As a fun experiment, I thought that I would switch from drinking alcohol to just wine & beer consumption for one year. The next year, I switched to just drinking wine for a year. The next year, I switched to just drinking red wine for a year. That lasted 6 months, and havent drank wine since then. The next year, I switched to just drinking coffee for a year. The next year, I switched to just drinking iced coffee for a year. Then just tea.

    Now, I just enjoy my water with lemon. I also enjoy daily fruit juicing on feed days.

    It started as an interesting experiment and it served me well. Along, the way, I stopped eating animal foods also.

    The fasting is a continuum with so many benefits, including delayed gratification.

    ➕➕➕➕➕➖➖

    I saw this today and I think I am hungry my tummy is growling normally I am quite good with this fasting but now I am just feel hungry and irritable I just need vent Im at work and all I want to do is go home and sleep so my stomach stops hurting, I was going to go the gym but now I just want to go home I thought I would look up what hunger was
    This is what I found
    Hunger is the physical sensation of desiring food

    So I ask my self am I really hunger why does my tummy hurt so badddddddd I feel like I am going to die

    Okay I just went and vented to my work mates I think I feel a little better I may even go to the gym still:-) I just need to keep thinking tomorrow

    @memstarina
    “Hunger is the physical sensation of desiring food”

    Yes, that’s one definition.

    I like to think that: Hunger is undesirable fat leaving the body.

    I think it’s the “newness”. I was SOOOOOOOOOOO hungry the first few weeks on 5:2 and then over several weeks later, I don’t seem to feel as bad as I did at the beginning. I’ve noticed that my headaches have gotten better, and I am less irritable (although, I am still more “on edge” when on my ‘fast’ days). I’ve lost 10 pounds (about a pound a week), and I’m loving the results. The reward helps me get through and realizing how temporary it is. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who have these “hunger pains” on a regular basis because they can’t afford food, so I remember just how privileged I am at these times.

    @arielle
    “I don’t seem to feel as bad as I did at the beginning. ”

    It occurred to me that I’ve made hunger a recurring friend to be expected.

    I believe part of the problem is your choices on your fast days. The key is choosing food that are high in fiber (bulk) but lower in calories. In fact Mimi says in the Cookbook that you can eat as many green leafy vegetables as you like on a fast day.

    My favorite is collard greens,

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collard_greens

    my wife makes them with smoked meats to add to the rich flavor of the leaves. I count the protein in the meats as most of my 600 calories on a fast day and load up, trust me you will feel full and you will be regular if you know what I mean, and don’t be alarmed that what you see in the bowl is similar in color to what you ate, it will clean out everything in a much healthier way than those terrible cleanses that people attempt.

    The other problem you may have is lack of hydration, people often confuse the feeling of being thirsty with being hungry, the trigger to your brain that you are full is the volume in your stomach. Keeping track of how much you drink is also paramount, you are probably not drinking as much as you think you are.

    If you have a an iPhone, here is an free app to help you track your hydration

    http://iphone.metricscat.com/get-hydrated/

    Charles

    Within a couple hours of dinner the hunger is the worst for me. That’s when I chew a fibre tab and drink a glass of water. I allow for the calories in the fibre.

    Hi srohman, what time do you eat your dinner maybe you should eat a bit later or have more protein, I always try to have fish on a fast day and I don’t eat until at least 19:30 that way I am going to bed within a couple of hrs of eating and I try to drink lots of fluid before my meal but not much after otherwise I have to get up lots in the night for the loo.

    Pally I have two meals on fast day – breakfast about 10ish and dinner about 6ish. I have water with the fibre as that’s what is recommended. My gastroenterologist wants me to have 30 gr fibre daily but of course not possible fast days.

    I think I have a problem with hunger a few hours before dinner as my body is used to it. This is just my 2nd week so hopefully it will get better.

    I don’t know how well it fits into the “black drinks only” pattern, but for those moments when your mind doesn’t want to be distracted, I can heartily recommend Genmaicha (Japanese green tea with toasted rice, a.k.a. “popcorn tea”).

    I started drinking Genmaicha when I started eating to a 5:2 pattern, as a matter of pure serendipity (I’d bought some teabags from Whittard because I was fascinated by the name, and they were the only green tea I had in the cupboard). I promptly discovered for myself something that, I now know, fasting Buddhist monks have known for centuries – namely that it is *excellent* at taking the edge off an appetite. And if people will forgive a plug, I can heartily recommend the Genmaicha from “Char” in Winchester (tea no. 82 – as opposed to their “Char Matcha Genmaicha”, no. 17, which has a powdered leaf, and of which I’m not at all fond. Loose-leaf, so an infuser is most definitely recommended (it doesn’t seem to diffuse well from “fill them yourself” bags, for some reason). Or Whittards also do one (loose leaf only, last time I checked) – I haven’t tried it, but their tea-bag version was quite drinkable as well (if not in quite the same league).

    NB! You’ll find any number of recipes on the net for making Genmaicha at home. I really, *really* don’t suggest you try that until you’ve actually tasted a good quality sample of the real thing, and know what it *ought* to be like – because I haven’t yet found a recipe that is even remotely any good.

    I’ve been doing 5:2 for over a year now (minus breaks at Christmas and when I went on holiday). I eat a single evening meal, when I stuff myself on salad. The first two or three weeks were by far the hardest – that “It’s lunchtime, I ought to be eating!” feeling. Once I got into a routine, it became much, much easier. In all honesty I never feel really ravenous, and when I notice hunger enough to want to do something about it, I just have a cup of green tea and otherwise ignore the feeling – not hard now. And perversely (and I know other people sometimes say this), I also often quite enjoy the “slightly hungry” feeling – it’s a bit like the glow you get after a good session exercising. On non-fast days I don’t so much eat “whatever I want” as “carefully” – I don’t worry about calories too much, but I keep an eye on what I’m eating, and don’t pig out. Biggest challenge now is not allowing myself to over-graze in the evenings before a fast day – part of me still knows it’s about to go hungry for a while, and wants to stock up ahead of time. But it’s definitely been worthwhile. I’m vegetarian, so a nice salad is great (and I’m teetotal now – having admitted I was borderline alcoholic, and I was only ever going to drink either far too much or not at all – so that’s a fair few calories less right away). And I didn’t start it as a diet per se, more for the IGF side – but even so I’ve dropped from a high of 15st a couple of months before I started, to a more-or-less stable (and much fitter and slimmer) 11st 4lbs now. And it’s not something I have ANY plans to stop – the fast days not only help keep my weight down but are also an extremely easy discipline that keeps me permanently focused and not backsliding.

    Hi,

    I’m new to this site. I started the Fast Diet 7 months ago and after spending my whole life dealing with weight issues, I feel like I’ve found a miracle. I have tried every diet under the sun and this is the only thing that has worked for me.

    I just want to add my two cents about diet sodas. I know I’ll get a lot of flack for saying this, but I love diet sodas! It’s the only thing I drink. I don’t drink water, juice, tea, coffee, nothing. But I love my Diet Pepsi. 😉

    Speaking from personal experience, it’s never been an issue for me. A lot of people seem to look at diet sodas as being really bad for you, but I’ve never really been able to understand what exactly is wrong with it. It has no sugar or calories, and it’s my only “vice” in life (I don’t drink alcohol, I don’t smoke, I don’t take drugs). It doesn’t make me crave fast food, or sweets. I enjoy it, and feel not guilt about it.

    On my fast days, I only eat eggs. I’ve tried different things, but I hate counting calories, and it just makes things easier for me to stick to the same diet on all my fast days. Eggs are also very filling, so that has been very helpful too.

    Whenever I feel hunger pangs, I drink diet sodas and I try to think about how wonderful tomorrow will be, because I’ll get to eat whatever I want. They say you should take things one day at a time, well it makes it a lot easier when you literally only have to worry about dieting for only ONE day, tomorrow will come soon enough, and then you won’t be feeling hungry anymore. “Dieting” twice a week sounds too good to be true, but it works. I’ve lost 50 pounds so far.

    I also like to think of those times when I’m feeling hungry as the exact moment I’m actually losing weight. It may not be a fact, but hey, whatever helps me get through it! 🙂

    Diet sodas are terrible for you!! Aspartame and other artificial sweeteners actually increase your appetite, and are pure chemical. Plus the carbonation is bad for your teeth. Try water with a little juice. Great though, that you have lost so much weight!

    Here comes the “avalanche” of flack I was afraid of. 😉

    As I mentioned, I can speak from experience that drinking diet sodas doesn’t increase my appetite. If they did, my fast days spent drinking them would be unbearable.

    I hate water, I don’t even use water when I have to swallow a pill. 🙁

    Coincidentally, I just went to the dentist today and got a clean bill of health. I haven’t had a cavity in 20 years. 😀

    It’s interesting because I remember getting criticized a LOT when I first started on the Fast Diet. Now that I’ve lost a bunch of weight, some of those same people are telling me they want to try it too.

    I think it’s important to know what works for you. As I said, I don’t smoke, or drink, and now I’m losing weight… I think I’m doing pretty good. I drink diet sodas, I’m not perfect. But then again, who is? 🙂

    I find that if I’m craving something sweet – drink licorice tea!!!
    It’s the only herbal/fruit tea I’ve found that tastes sweet without anything added. 🙂

    Cherubs, I don’t think too many people will bother to talk to you about your diet soda, but we do tend to feel that we should warn everyone else. If we say nothing and then someone turns up who IS suffering, I for one would feel a little guilty for not sharing my knowledge.

    Just because you feel you have no problem with the stuff, does not mean that its harmless. Its a bit like a smoker saying, ‘I’ve been smoking man and boy and it never did me any harm’ but the statistics say different, and the harm tends to be hidden for a long time(and often is irreversible).

    I hope you are lucky, and this one vice doesn’t come back to bite you on the bum. Personally I try to avoid as much of the stuff that is known to be harmful as I can.

    Ruthi, this is what I don’t understand, people make it sound like drinking diet soda can KILL you (like cigarettes, or alcohol) but there is absolutely no evidence of that. The worse thing I’ve ever heard anyone (including doctors) say about it, is that it’s an appetite stimulant. Hardly deadly. LOL!

    The day I see warnings on soda bottle like the ones they have on cigarette packs, is the day I’ll stop drinking it. You make it sound like I’m playing Russian roulette with my health by drinking Diet Pepsi, but you fail to mention any of the supposed “risks” involved in drinking it.

    I think I’ll stick to what doctors have to say about it.

    Well, in sufficient excess it probably will kill you, but one or two a week probably won’t. However, if you are overweight then you are probably insulin resistant to some extent, and artificial sweeteners will add to that. Type 2 diabetes most certainly CAN kill. And having witnessed the destruction aspartame wrought on my friend I personally don’t go anywhere near the stuff.

    My question is why are you SO very determined to hang on to it?

    A) Because I LIKE it.

    B) Because I’m not going to stop drinking something I enjoy because a stranger on the internet claims it will kill me without anything to back it up. LOL! Drinking water in excess can kill you, you know?

    I am the voice of experience. I’ve been drinking a litre of diet soda every single day for the last thirty years. I have no health issues and I don’t have Type 2 diabetes (where did that come from?!) so I certainly won’t die from that.

    As far as my weight issues are concerned, they certainly weren’t caused by drinking diet sodas. I have lost 50 lbs so far, and I drink more than ever, especially on my fast days.

    The irony of all this is that, when I first started doing the Fast Diet, there’s was also a bunch of people telling me NOT to do it then. That it wasn’t going to work. That fasting isn’t good for you. That skipping meals was a sure way to GAIN weight. And yes, someone even said that fasting was going to kill me. 🙂

    My point is, there is always someone to tell you what you’re doing is wrong, or dangerous, whether they have proof or not. They rely on old ideas, gossip, internet hoaxes. Like I said, I have doctors in my family, and they all said the same thing; Sugar-free drinks being bad for you is a myth.

    We know for a fact that things like drinking too much alcohol, smoking, and eating sugar ARE indeed bad for you. There is no research that shows aspartame is an issue.

    It’s just the facts.

    http://www.joslin.org/info/correcting_internet_myths_about_aspartame.html

    http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/othercarcinogens/athome/aspartame

    http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/aspartame.asp

    @chuckscherubs. Good on you for sticking to up for what you believe in! Just goes to show that there are exceptions. We can make informed choices that work for our own individual circumstances.

    Thanks for your support @jenibe 🙂 I was expecting to get flak.

    But hey, The proof is in the pudding… Pudding, yumm! Thankfully, today is not Fast Day. 😉

    I agree with you Chucks! We are all different and if your Diet Pepsi keeps you going, good for you!!! I also love my DP!! I allow myself one per day on my fasting days. I also do lots of water, tea and coffee! I look at my DP as a treat during the fast. It settles my stomach and satisfies me! I feel less hungry after a DP. If you have lost weight doing this, I would keep doing it! We diet soda lovers will be criticized right and left, but do what works for you!!! The weight loss proves it’s working!!!

    Whatever works – people have to find their own ways of doing 5:2. If diet Pepsi helps you, good for you.

    I can’t be doing with any kind of diet drinks myself, if I want a coke I have a proper coke (on non-fastdays). Aspartame does give me THE WORST stomach pains and other side-effects you don’t want to know about. So I’m lucky to live in the UK, where it’s not often used as a sweetener. If I drink it by accident on holiday or in an imported drink I soon know about it but others feel no effect whatsoever, so it’s obviously an allergy.

    @chuckscherubs You drink exactly what you like, if it makes you feel satiated then good, some people really are far too opinionated.

    I’m Vegan and personally wouldn’t drink Diet sodas, but that’s me, if it floats your boat, great!

    As we are discussing hunger pangs, have any of you tried Glucomannan powder, simply add to water with lemon juice to taste to make those hunger pangs disappear ? try it! It works, keeps the pangs at bay and at only 5 calories per teaspoon, it’s great, totally natural too; it’s also used to make skinny noodles (Shirataki).

    Basically its the composite of Slim sip but half the price, it thickens when added to water, soup anything! and continues to expand in your stomach, thus creating fullness. Buy it here

    http://www.bulkpowders.co.uk/glucomannan-konjac-powder.html

    or here

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xglucomannan+powder.TRS0&_nkw=glucomannan+powder&_sacat=0

    T.b.h., Cosmos, if you’re adding lemon juice yourself anyway, I rather wonder how much the commercial product is actually contributing beyond the psychological. A few drops of lemon juice (and/or lime juice – I like the taste of a 50/50 mix) in cheap carbonated water works very well for me as it is. It’s been one of my “go-to”‘s for a couple of years now.

    I’m in the middle of my 8th (non-consecutive) day of fasting and really hit a wall at about 16 hours. So last ate a little before 8 PM last night. Started a very important 7 AM meeting that lasted 3 hours and required a great deal of mental energy. I got back to the office about 11:30 and went totally fuzzy headed. I ate one hard-boiled egg and was able to lay down for about 20 minutes. Then my brain kicked back into gear, but my feet are very cold.

    I was planning to go out snowshoeing the afternoon, which is quite strenuous, but the temperature with the wind is 2 F which is about -16 C. I simply can’t face it!

    I almost threw in the towel (a boxing metaphor) and grabbed that bar of dark chocolate on my desk. On my previous days I’ve been able to get through 16 hours without any side effects, but not today. It could be that I hadn’t had my normal dose of caffeine. I’m 100% Swede so caffeine is an essential nutrient!

    In any case, this forum is where I come for motivation, inspiration and whining (or whingeing as some of us say.) I think I’m through my little “crisis” but I still won’t go snowshoeing.

    An extra pair of socks and out the door and go snowshoeing. The fresh air will keep you going and you’ll feel better I promise. -27C with the windchill -19C without. I walked the dogs at lunch not much fun into the wind but the rest was enjoyable.

    13 months in on 5:2 and I think I’ve about encountered all the known side effects. I’ve gotten in the habit of doing an extended fast the first week of the month. After my last meal on the first Tuesday I’ll fast until Sunday evening and before bed I’ll have a couple water melon slices and a glass of blended watermelon. My normal fast days are 45-47 hours long. I don’t eat breakfast or lunch on the day after my “fast” day. That’s how I’d been doing it for 10 months. This month I’m doing strict 5:2 as written and it’s ….. different.

    I get a little chilly on fast days that’s pretty normal I think. But on one fast day last month I was so cold I was wearing a sweater and a hooded sweatshirt inside and extra socks with my boots inside at home. Don’t have a clue why I got that cold. It was down right miserable and the temp in the house was 22C and that’s was my 12th month on 5:2 so I guess there are new things to be encountered all the time.

    Don’t be blase’ about 5:2. Be mindful and conscious of what you’re doing and why. Stay busy. Use the time wisely. Do a personal inventory, write out your thoughts and reasons for doing 5:2 get right down to the core of yourself. Find yourself, dig the “me” that is you out of yourself if that makes any sense. If you know yourself and you know the reasons why you are doing 5:2 the basic core self of you. Then you will succeed at 5:2 Knowing where you are going and knowing why, not deviating from that which leads to your goals means you will not get “lost”.

    Laugh more. Love more. Fast more. Eat less. Giggle just because it is funny. Feed your inner self with good thoughts. Drink more pure water, distilled or filtered at least 3 liters a day. Be around great people. Don’t talk negatively about anything or anyone. Don’t associate with negative people. Pet your dog or your cat. Hug those you love and let them know they are loved. If you are emotionally filled and basking in a good glo then fast days are no big deal.

    The first 3 days of fasting are all a mental thing after that it gets easier. Though I’ve been given to understand around day 21 things can be a little difficult too. me I’ve only gone to 6.

    Two weeks in and I find using my warning mantra helpful in overcoming hunger pangs. It’s “1743” which is the place I don’t want to be ie 17 stone and 43 inch waist. Eventually I expect to change this to where I want to be and “1435” is looking good but it’s early days yet and I want to see how things pan out. By the way and this may not be new, but I call my approach the “Fast Med” diet based on the book recommendations ie 5:2 and Mediterranean style.

    Hi
    I find for me the best way to cope with hunger is to save all my fast day calories and have in one meal at the end of the day, and this meal is made up of Huel a meal replacement that has all the essentials a human body needs, it is filling and seems to prevent my cravings.

    Hi
    I find that on Fast days I eat three meals spread through the day. I eat mainly low fat protein food like skinned chicken, white fish and boiled eggs. I make a salad and I also often eat berries. Some mornings I have oats with water for breakfast. I eat 500 cals of great food twice a week. Each fast lasts 36 hours. I drink hot water with a splash of milk or excellent black coffee or water.I avoid anything with carbs or sugar because they make me feel hungry and want to eat more.I don’t find fasting too hard and I also find black coffee reduces physical hunger pains. I have been on 5:2 for 6 months, lost 15 kilos and think it is amazing.

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