Must be really tired that was the Orlando shootings, so hard to understand the mindset of these people.
Still really tired and cold, the rain has arrived, so I think I’m going to have a cup of broth and go to bed for an hour.
Good luck all.

Day 2 in California. Today is a FD. I did eat over my TDEE this weekend. Bone broth and broccoli slaw for lunch at work. It’s my signature FD lunch. Fellow staff members recognize it as my FD and it is sparking interest, especially with the weight I have lost. If I can do it, anyone can. I had such a fear of hunger, but now I embrace it, thanks to Coda and everyone who participated in the challenge. Happy Monday to all!!

Coda – 2.5 kg lost in the challenge

Down 3 lbs during challenge. (16 lbs total since March 1 2016.)

Thank you, again and so much, Coda!

13.8 lbs for challenge.

Day 2

I ate too much this weekend. The FD today is welcomed.

Have a nice day everyone !

Hi Coda, lost 2.1 kg. So looking forward to the new start! It is good to have a centre point in this project, and you are it, thank you!

Hi,

Lost 2.5 Kg during the challenge. Thanks!

Thanks for the medal Coda! 4.1 kg lost x

Back2thefuture…wow! What a GREAT story, and you tell it so well. I’m very inspired.

Makes me wonder if the next challenge shouldn’t start off with a “get to know me” post. Being familiar with a person’s context makes following their story even more compelling.

You keep up the good work!!!

Many, many thanks for the medal, inspiration and challenge Coda and to everyone who participated.

6.5kg gone!

Thankyou for kind thoughts. Completed fast day but spent 2hours asleep, soooo needed! Had a brisk walk along the beach which blew away the cobwebs!

Edzko a good idea to have a get to know you post for next challenge.

Thanks coda for posting those who completed the challenge! It’ll be really interesting to have the group loss!

Before the next challenge I have our wedding anniversary and my birthday, both will involve meals out. But I know I wont fall off the horse totally and will get back into the 5.2 routine!

Continued good luck to you all.

I still have 7kg to lose so will be with you all for a while yet!!

8 lbs lost during challenge.

Hello everyone

First of all, enormous thanks to Coda for setting this up, all the steering and the encouragement. And to everyone who shared their stories, their ups and downs – all round the world!

Stats for me: 700g lost since 1 May but also 3cm off waist, same off bust and 1cm off hips. So happy overall. Also makes me realise that I clearly eat far too much on my NFDs. I have 10kgs to go before BMI healthy and another 10kgs to get to my ‘ideal’ weight. 100g per week is a bit slow, but better than gaining!

Big hug to everyone xxx

Once all the weights are added together, can we say the world is that much lighter?

Hi ABC,

No you cant say that. Matter (and strictly speaking energy) can not be created or destroyed. The law of conservation of energy. It can only be converted from one form to another. So all that fat has just been turned into CO2 gas and H2O water. You breathed out the CO2 gas and you peed out the water. So if you ever wondered where the fat disappears to, now you know. Most medical doctors get the answer wrong!!

Coda – 8kg loss for me over the 42 day challenge.
I just noticed that as a group we have posted more than 2000 times during this challenge! Talkative bunch, aren’t we! 🙂
This last weekend was a holiday weekend in Australia and our family went away together. We went to cafes and restaurants for all our meals and had a few drinks each night and for the first time in YEARS I just let myself enjoy the experience entirely and not feel guilty about any of the food or drink. It was such a relief to not worry, to know that 5:2 means that whatever weight I might have put on over the four days will soon come off again. At the same time we did a lot of walking and I made sure my plates were filled with fresh vegetables so I still made some good choices. Well done all on your achievements. You’re an inspiration 🙂

Happy Margo
Thanks for the spiralizer link – just learned new ways to use the one that’s been sitting on my counter top for the last six months! TTL

Hi Coda,

Lost 3.3 kgs or 7 1/4lbs

Thanks for the medal! 🙂
Merry

Hiatus Day 3– Colorado

Leaving on a long-weekend trip in a couple days, heading to Florida.

Wish I’d lost a bit more weight prior so my cute summer shorts could fit. They are sadly dusty & neglected since I haven’t fit into them in 5 years. (Maybe by the end of the July Challenge I will be bravely heading outdoors in all my shorts!)

But I plan on packing a couple sun-dresses so I’ll have something cute & light-weight to wear in the heat.

Auroramagic,

On the front page of the forum you will see the Fast Diet books advertised. If you haven’t already got one I suggest you get the basic Fast Diet Book and read through that, and it will answer the questions you’re pondering. Also watch the documentary on youtube “eat Fast live Longer” by Dr Michael Mosely.

5:2 is exactly that. 5 days nonfasting keeping at or under your TDEE. 2 non-consecutivedays fasting – and in the 5:2 regime fasting is defined as <500cals for women and <600 cals for men and day is defined as from when you finish eating on a day, through your sleep time, through the next day and night’s sleep and till you start eating again the next day. Technically, a fast has no calories but in the book and documentary Dr Mosely explains why he added the 500 and 600 calories to the fasting days.

*People talk about soup on fast days a lot because it’s very satieting. As long as it’s under 500 or 600 calories it conforms to the 5:2 plan.

* Some people choose to only drink water in their fasts. As it’s under 500-600calories it also conforms to the 5:2 plan and is true fasting.

*. There are no food requirements given in the 5:2 plan other than the calories to keep under for the fast days and non fast days. You can eat what you like. This means you can eat within you national, cultural or religious food styles. You can eat what you choose and what you think is healthy for you, as ling as it conforms to the 5:2 calorie plans for fast days and nonfast days. This gives rise to very different eating plans for people on the 5:2 plan.

*. Remember, there are people with medical reasons for not being able to eat various things eg coeliac, allergies, intolerance, Crohns Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, arthritis etc

* There are people who choose to eat according to their personal belief systems e.g. Vegetarian, vegan, paleo, high fat low carbohydrate, halal, kosher,

* Peoples’ calorie needs vary a lot on nonFDs. The 5:2 plan suits everyone from sedentary to very athletic. There TDEE reflects their age, sex, and level of physical activity.

* 3 aspects of human nature,
1. People overestimate how active they are
2. People under estimate how many calories they are eating
3. People overestimatehow big portions of food are.

*. The simplicity of 5:2 refers to the simplicity of doing 5 days eating normally, and 2 days fasting, no foods designated and no exercise designated. People find it very simple to do this rather than trying to deprive themselves every day. The simplicity makes it available to everyone, everywhere.

* remember that people react to foods in different ways.

On the forum, there are many people trying out what works best for them. They eat different things at different times e.g. I am forced to be sedentary by a nasty disease, therefore my calorie needs are lower than most people’s. I am gluten intolerant and also intolerant or allergic to all grains except a small amount of rice and corn, all fully tested with a dietician, gastroscopy and medical allergy testing etc. Since I have been on 5:2 I have lost 17kgs and am only 4 kgs from my goal weight. I used to eat gluten free bread, rice crackers, corn thins, potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potato, fresh corn. These are all a type of carbohydrate that is starchy. I descovered, in my early weeks on 5:2 that if I ate any of these foods my weight loss would stop, even if the calories I was eating were correct for the 5:2 guidelines. When I stopped eating them, even with the same amount of calories though eating different foods, my weight loss started again. My body is different to yours, to Coda’s or anyone else on here. I am very grateful and happy that someone suggested that I might be someone who cannot lose weight while eating starchy carbohydrates. So yes, for me, I have to rule out 2 types of food groups – all grains, and all starchy carbohydrates. It is unhealthy for me to eat these. I eat plenty of carbohydrates, but they are low calorie, low glycaemic index carbohydrates. For other people they can be healthy but not for me. I am now off all blood pressure medication, and 5:2 has improved my health. I consider it’s a very simple system, and I think it’s easy to do and very healthy.

People on the forum also try out different variations of intermittant fasting. 5:2 is 1 variation of intermittant fasting. So you will come across people doing different things than straight 5:2. That is their choice.

Coda started this challenge, and the group weight loss is of everyone who joined the challenge and finished it to the end. Just about everyone lost weight on this challenge. Others were not trying to lose weight but to maintain the weight they were at through travelling, celebrations, having visitors long term etc. It doesn’t matter if they were doing just 5:2 or if they added other things to it e.g. A 3rd fast day, or alternate day fasting. It was a time challenge of 42 days. Each person decides for themselves if they met their individual goals for the 42 days.

If you wanted to you could start a challenge, or a new thread on the forum, where people only do the 5:2 guidelines without adding other things.

This is quite long now, but I don’t think there is anything I can add. Only you can decide if you want to use the 5:2 system or not. If you do I suggest you do it according to the book and just be understanding of people’s individual differences. Remember that some people would consider having meal plans 3x a day for 7 days a week as being a simple system. For me that would be a difficult system.

Good luck,
Merry

Hi AM,

I’ll chime in with my 2 cents worth. MM came up with the concept of 5:2 based on the work of Varady and Luongo, two researchers in the USA. It was a compromise that MM thought most people could do. And for the most part it works well. Can you improve on it? Definitely. By how much? That depends on you.

You have to realise that some of the forum members on here carry a wide range of physical and emotional baggage. At the simple end, some people just don’t know what constitutes a healthy diet. For them, some simple eating rules and off they go and success comes easy. I for one had no idea that breads or any grains were inherently bad for you. I had always assumed that the food pyramid was based on good science. IT IS NOT!! At the other end of the scale their are people that used food as an emotional crutch or to hide behind other psychological ills. This brings another dimension of complexity to the table.

5:2 is not a magical bullet. If I were to do my 2 fast days “water only” and eat chocolate and sugar for the other 5 days I doubt Id be successful. So you have to be sensible and realistic about it. I used to do 5:2 water fasts (now in maintenance 6:1 water fast) because I actually found it easier than counting 600 calories. Everyone is different and you need to find a pattern that suits you. Can you still eat “crap” on the other 5 days? Of course you can. Will it be as successful as eating good foods? Of course not. There is no magic involved.

Does it work? ABSOLUTELY IT DOES. How well it works is up to you. The longer you do this diet for the more naturally you will tend to seek healthy foods. Well that has been the case for me. I do not deliberately shun sugary foods, I just no longer want them. I LOVED eating bread, I no longer eat it. It is marginally better for you that sugar. Measure the blood glucose spike you get from eating sugar and eating bread, not a lot of difference. Eating sugar and drinking “healthy” fruit juice. Absolutely no difference in blood glucose spike!! Fruit juice has been a complete con. You want fruit? Have a whole piece of fruit, not fruit juice.

AuroraMagic – This was a 42 day challenge. We are finding out how much weight we have lost combined as a group through supporting each other and following a fasting lifestyle. Most of us have lost weight, others may have not. We haven’t been in a lab, getting our meals delivered with exact calories, and being told when to fast. We took on the challenge and have had to fit it around our lives. While 42 days isn’t that long, it may have been the longest someone had stuck to a diet in a long time, or ever. I have been going for over 6 months. I decided to take up the challenge to keep me motivated, to keep me accountable and to chat to people and get ideas and encouragement. All that I have found here, in this group. I have had people questioning why some of us are doing more days than 5:2, especially at the start – although most of those dropped out. I have found that the version I am doing is perfect for me. Not only am I losing weight, but I am also feeling healthier than I have in years. Even before putting on weight.
The main advice I can give you is to concentrate on yourself and what works for you. I have been doing alternate day water fasting since the start of this and some have just stuck to 5:2, 500 calories and have lost more weight than me. I don’t concentrate on that because what I am doing is working for me, because I am losing. We are all different weights, shapes and sizes, have different family histories, on different medications, have different health problems, have different metabolisms, different life experiences, our bodies react differently. Someone who hasn’t dieted before and just starting out is going to lose a lot more than someone who is a yo-yo dieter and already lost 20 kilos. They haven’t found the diet that works for everyone yet unfortunately.