Hello Newbies and welcome!
Somehow, you have run across 5:2 and this site. Many of you come with questions, doubts and skepticism. Most of your questions have been asked and answered many times by many people, but they are new to you. You may ask a question on this site and not get an answer, depending on the thread you choose to use or create.
So this thread is for you. Ask and wonder, and we will try to get an answer for you.
To start out, the way 5:2 works is you go to bed, get up, eat 5/600 or fewer calories during your waking hours, go to bed, get up and eat to your TDEE or less – twice a week. On all 7 days of the week you can eat foods you want to eat – there are no forbidden foods, or foods you have to eat. For the first month or so focus on doing your diet days correctly (5/600 calories or less) and most everything else will fall into place.
That is 5:2, pure and simple. Anything more is not 5:2, and is not necessary to get started and succeed.
There are several posts that answer your most common questions. You can read them now, or when the question comes up. But in the following posts, well over 95% of the common questions are addressed. Here goes:
(1) The basics: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/warnings-to-newbies/ Two additional warnings that I would add to the post if I could are these: (a) You might get cold. About 10% of your body energy is used to digest food. Digesting food creates heat. If you don’t eat because it is one of your diet days, you are not digesting food and heat is not created. Some, but not all, people on their diet days report they feel cold. I put on socks and add a blanket at night. (b) You might get a headache. Your body gets up to 40% of its daily water needs from the food it eats. If you don’t eat, you are shorting your body of water. Most headaches can be prevented by drinking additional water on your diet days. If that does not work, a shortage of salt is a secondary cause. Drinking some bouillon, which is mostly salt, or putting some salt on the food you are eating will usually do the trick.
(2) You are not losing weight consistently: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/really-no-weight-loss/ This is for people that either start out OK and then stall, or don’t lose weight right away at the start.
(3) You have not lost any weight for a month or more (if your timeframe is less, see 2, above): http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/on-plateaus/ This will show you what you need to do to resume your weight loss.
(4) You are not losing weight fast enough – this will explain why, and how much weight you can reasonable expect to lose over time: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/tdee-for-the-curious-or-why-dont-i-lose-weight-faster/ Unreasonable expectations of how much you will lose on 5:2 (or 4:3 or ADF) can cause you to quit for no good reason.
(5) You have started your diet and started exercising, too, and your results are not very good: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/exercise-is-dangerous-for-your-diet/ It turns out that while exercise is the single best thing you can do to improve your health (unless you are a smoker – quit), it does not really help you lose weight faster. If you think it will, and you are not losing, you might quit when you should really keep on the diet.
(6) You are confused about how much time should pass between meals: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/52-calorie-restriction-v-fasting-for-newbies/ Bottom line, this is a weight loss diet and time between meals is irrelevant.
(7) You go off 5:2 because of a great weekend or holiday and come back having gained quite a bit of weight: http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/easy-on-easy-off/ Just keep doing 5:2 and don’t worry about it.
The above address most of what comes up. Many people have many personal answers that work for them but not necessarily for everyone else. I believe you should start with the basics, and worry about other things only after you have done the basics correctly and they don’t seem to be working for you.
Good Luck!
1:58 am
26 Aug 14