Hi Orion, welcome.

As bigbooty said, finding a fasting method that suits you personally is very important to making this a long term way of eating. I tried a variety of options, including water fast and found that I need one meal to stick with this. For me that is dinner on the fast days. I usually make a meal on fast days that contains lots of veg and some solid protein. I also allow myself 1 cup of milk so that I can make cups of tea the way I like them – they make it easy for me to get through to dinner time on fast days.

Some people find they need to change the way they eat every day, not just fast days. I suspect this depends how unhealthy your diet is when you start 5:2. For me this came slowly as I made changes that felt healthier. I didn’t cut out all forms of sugar. I eat about 7-10 serves of veg and fruit most days (and these are largely carbohydrates including sugars). I eat a lot of dairy which contains lactose (milk sugars). A lot of my protein choices are legumes which contain fat and carbs along with the protein. I also eat some whole grains, but in pretty modest quantities and I’m very selective – I mostly choose those with at least 10% fibre – choices are limited to things like freehak, kasha and barley. Fibre is key for me maintaining good intenstinal health, so it’s more of a deciding factor than carb content when I’m choosing foods to eat regularly. I eat very few processed foods and I rarely add sugar/honey/syrup etc to anything. I haven’t banned anything and there is a difference between what I cook at home and what I may eat occasionally at social occasions. For me this is necessary as I have a history of binge eating and banning things completely is a trigger for me to want to binge on them. Some things I never buy – they just aren’t in my pantry. This means that they have to be “sometimes” foods that I eat when I’m out. That doesn’t mean I will always choose to eat them when I’m eating out, just that it’s an option that I haven’t ruled out. I know that Michael Mosely, who originally put this 5:2 program together now recommends following a mediterranean diet every day, whether fasting or not. I think that the advice for the non-fast days is probably the same as the fast days – find what works for you long time and keeps you feeling healthy.

Like you, my weight has been a life long issue. At my heaviest in the 1990s I was 147kg (323 pounds) I lost 52 kg (114 pounds) in 2013-15 (not on 5:2), but I struggled to maintain the weight loss. I’ve tried to maintain my weight in the mid-high 70s (165-172 pounds) since then. I came to 5:2 after regaining 9kg and over 3 months I lost that weight and for the last 5 months I’ve been using 5:2 to maintain. I feel a lot more in control of that process than I ever did before. I still fast 2 days per week as I have a very low TDEE (1400 calories), so the two fast days help me balance out any calories I eat above 1400 on the other days. I still use 500 calories as a guide on my fast days but my intake isn’t always that high – it depends what I cook for that one dinner meal.

I hope you find that this is a sustainable way of eating for you.

Hi Orion, it sounds like I am very similar to yourself, though a little older and a little heavier. I was over 300 pounds when I started about 3 months ago.

I’ve been finding it easier to allow myself 600 calories per day rather than zero. I’ve still been losing about 6 kilos, or 13 pounds, per month. I’ve been fasting at least 2, but often 3, days per week, usually with consecutive days. You’ve still got that up your sleeve, you can give the 600 calorie version of the fast a try if you are struggling on zero calories.

I’ve always struggled to maintain motivation about this far into a diet, and this one is no exception. The good thing is that I can go completely off the rails for a couple of days, then just “hit the reset button”. And that’s just as simple as waking up in the morning, packing myself a big, healthy, low-calorie lunch, and getting right back into it. 

Hi Orion,

For me it varies. Some post fast days I have no hunger until mid afternoon, but not always. I’ve given up second guessing my body – every time I think I have it figured out my body does something unpredictable just to show me who’s boss! I have become much better at eating only when hungry than I used to be – this has been quite helpful at letting me distinguish between genuine hunger and other things that drive the desire to eat. I found that 5:2 was the first diet that helped me sort through these signals.