Lana86, Dr. Mosely got the health benefits of fasting with his 3 12-hour breaks from eating in a 36-hour period, twice a week. It appears that some of those health benefits are from the calorie restriction and some are from going for a while without eating instead of constantly feeding ourselves.

For example, there are people who refer to themselves as CRONies who restrict calories every day of their lives, for longevity rather than weight loss. They usually have great blood work, although they don’t focus on going for a certain number of hours without eating.

Then there is the fact that, whenever we eat, especially anything with any carbohydrate in it, our bodies must secrete insulin in order to use or store that carbohydrate, and there is evidence that giving our bodies a break from having insulin circulating in the blood allows “repair genes” to get switched on as well as allowing fat to get out of the fat cells and get burned for energy.

There are people who get pretty intense about how long you have to go without eating for the repair genes to get switched on, but to me this is somewhat of a fine point, at least in the beginning. The first thing is just to get used to the two 500-calorie days each week and start to see the weight come off. Fasting gets easier with time; eight months ago I needed to start each fasting day with a 200-calorie breakfast, now I usually wait until the evening and have all my calories at dinner. So now I might be getting a little more benefit of repair genes now than I did before, but the real point is that I’ve been successful with 5:2, losing 40 pounds in 40 weeks, and therefore feel so much better 🙂 In the beginning I think it’s most important to focus on what makes the plan do-able for you in your own life.

Hi all, I’ve got a question as well. My OH has decided to join me in 5:2 diet. He works shifts: 2 twelve hour day shifts followed by 2 twelve hour night shifts. He then has 4 days off (in effect only 3.5 as he sleeps for half a day after the last night shift). The tricky part is to figure out the days he should fast considering he has to consume his 600 kcal in 24 hour period.

Can anyone give us any advice on this please?

alionaear, your husband’s schedule sounds tough. I used to do shift work. A long time ago. If I was in your husband’s situation, I think I would fast my first day shift and then my second day off the same way that other people do: eat my evening meal the day before at my usual time, go to bed, get up, have only 600 calories before going to bed again, wait until my usual breakfast time before eating again (note that this actually covers a 36-hour period of time) and just figure that my weeks are 8 days long instead of 7 days long. I think shift work is hard enough without adding fasting to a shift-change day. Once he gets used to fasting, he may find a way to work it into his work week more and not have to fast on a day off; lots of people find eat easier to fast when busy than when there is a lot of free time. I hope this made sense the way I wrote it.

alionaear, I do wish him luck! Glad it made sense 🙂