Hi and welcome.

500 calories is 25% of the “average woman” intake of 2000 calories. It is a good place to start and can be tweaked as you see fit. I’ve stuck to it without any changes and it has worked well for me but those with a very low TDEE often reduce it to 25% of whatever that is.
The key is not over eating on non fast days by remembering you can eat whatever you want but not as much as you want. Staying within your TDEE is essential if you want to lose weight.

Most of those doing 5:2 will tell you it isn’t a diet but a way of life as it enables you to make permanent beneficial changes to your eating habits without feeling deprived. Anything that involves cutting out certain foods completely and reducing calories drastically on a daily basis is unsustainable and does not eliminate bad habits. 5:2 is slow and steady and it works 😛

Good luck.

Yes, I’ve lost nearly five stones. Life gets in the way sometimes but on the whole it is an easy plan to follow as fast days can be moved to accomodate social events. I only eat lunch and dinner and just dinner on fast days which works well for me as once I start eating I want to continue which is a problem that most of us seem to have.
I’ve just had a few days away staying with friends and successfully managed to stick to two meals per day, and lunch was usually cake!

I fail to see how anyone can lose a stone in a week as it takes a deficit of over 3000 calories to lose a pound. Diets like that don’t do us any good and I have tried far too many of them only to regain the weight and more.I’ve finally found a way to lose weight and change my habits and I’ll be following 5:2 forever.

Welcome to fast diet, I have been doing the 5:2 for 3 weeks now, and lost 4 pounds but also inches, feel good about this way of eating, FDs are Monday and Friday, this week I did Wednesday too, feel good about myself, my family is noticing my weight loss, yeah. Good luck and keep fasting!

Hi Realtor and welcome:

The way 5:2 works is by eating only 500 calories twice a week you cut a significant number of calories out of your diet and lose weight as a result. On diet days, many find eating one 500 calorie meal in the evening high in fat/protein works best.

On 5:2 you can eat what ever you want as long as you eat 500 on your diet days and your TDEE or less on your non diet days. The number of calories in the food you choose to eat matters not, as long as the total meets the guidelines.

Here are some tips: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Hi Realtor:

A very common question.

You cannot eat back your exercise calories.

Your TDEE includes exercise, so eating back will cause ‘double eating’.

There are many other reasons why eating back kills this or any other diet, but I guess I would ask myself why I would want to maximize the number of calories I can eat when on a weight loss diet? What is the goal, to lose weight or eat as much as possible while on the diet?

Remember, the more you eat, the less you lose.

Good Luck!

Hello everybody, is the weekend and the weather is great here, I had a hard time yesterday , it was my third FD of this week, and my family decided to go out to eat for dinner, had sushi, no alcohol, but I think, I ate more than my 500 cal allowance, oh well, I did an extra FD, feeling better anyway, looking forward to my weigh in next week. How is everybody else doing today, Poppet-Pandy, you will do it, keep the determination and you will see the weight go down, was nice to connect, take care!
Realtor lady, keep doing it, keep exercising if not for weight loss, for well being, its good for your body, the 5:2 will help with weight loss and health!
Happy to be part of this forum. Have a great day everybody, enjoy your weekend and keep fasting!