Unfortunately I cannot really help you because I never followed a low carb diet. I love my pasta and rice too much and low carb diets are for me not sustainable in the long run.

The beauty of 5:2, 4:3 or ADF is it exactly that you do not have to pay attention to what you eat as long as you are staying with in your TDE.

I am sure 5:2 in combination with low carb might be even more successful.

Re the soups: I agree. I do not like what I read on most content lists of soups you can buy in the supermarket. I make my own. I throw vegetables in the blender with some water and spices and then warm it up on the stove. I usually make enough for a couple of days.

Anyhow I hope somebody else can help you with some more useful information.

Happy fasting and a happy new year!
Stef.

Hello Horsenut, from my own experience I encourage you to go low carb. (Sorry for the long post but it might help you.)

In two days I’ll have been on the 5:2 for six months. I gave up calorie counting years ago in favour of low carb eating and also have had some success with Dr Atkins’ approach, though obviously not long term. Anyway, I’ve continued eating low carbs on the 5:2 without watching calories – and having real food, so no lite, diet or low anything. (Any reduced fat is always replaced by extra sugar, so there’s no point.) That means I have butter, olive oil, real salad dressings, etc. At weekends I have some carbs as I love pasta too Stef and Mrchris. Knowing there’ll be some at the end of the week makes it easy. If there’s a week day of not being able to avoid carbs, which occasionally happens, I’ve then gone to 4:3. I’ve probably had bread a couple of times a month and enjoyed it. However finding the 5:2 has been so inspiring and the belief it will work for life has kept me on track. It’s the longest I’ve ever stuck to anything to lose weight. Except over Christmas of course, when I didn’t attempt restrictions so have loved all the carb treats without worrying. Returned to the 5:2 this week, after New Year.

I chose not to weigh regularly as I tend to obsess over the numbers. As the weight was coming off and smaller clothes were fitting I just trusted it was working. That plus receiving many compliments. (I noticed posts from many about being on a plateau and that kept me off the scales.) I finally did weigh myself on the morning of Christmas Eve and found I had lost 11 kilos since July. Even better than that was fitting into the smaller clothes I’d almost given up on. I felt so slim and happy. I know I definitely want to keep that feeling!!

My goal is to lose another 10 kilos this year and I now believe that by continuing with low carbs on the 5:2 WOL will get me there. Even think I can now trust myself to weigh on a Saturday, which seems to be the popular choice on the Forums.

The best food discovery has been about the versatility of cauliflower. I have cauli “rice” with delicious curries or casseroles and cauli “mash” with other meals. I have to pinch myself sometimes because those meals are so yummy and yet the weight comes off. You can find the recipes by googling – or I can post here if you’d prefer Horsenut. (I’m making a shepherd’s pie with the cauli mash for the first time over the weekend.)

One thing I found was it was best not to talk about any of this too widely. The idea of fasting was too much for some and others I know on 5:2 didn’t believe my adaption was quite right 🙂 Interestingly, even though I’ve lost 11 kilos there’s no saggy skin and something tells me it has to do with eating less wheat and sugar, which is a bonus.

Heather

The low carb version of this is called The 2 day diet – I lost over 2 stone last year with out problems – its very very low carb for 2 days – lots of fruit and veg are banned as well as the normal white carbs – and then it is low carb for the other 5.

I bought the books (called The 2 Day Diet) on Amazon.

Unfortunately this isn’t working for me this time around – been on it for 6 weeks and only lost 2 lbs so i’ve changed this week to this regime but doing 4:3 instead of 5:2 – i’m 61 an think age is slowing down my metabolism somewhat!

On my three fast days i’m eating nothing until a meal in the evening of around 300 calories, then I intend to keep to about 1000 on the other 2 week days and allow myself to eat normally at the weekend. Although I wont go back to eating potato I will allow myself the occasional weekend treat of a piece of toast, butter and marmite!