I understand this is a very old thread. I’m replying for new reads… I was a new- read. Anyway, I’m combining whole foods plant based McDougall Diet with 5:2. I was losing weight after transitioning to the McDougall diet ,but I was tired and miserable from over eating constantly. Just generally not having the self control to not eat myself asleep is my reason for combining. I need the structure because I can’t say no to food. My fast days are zero calories. Weight loss moved from 3lbs/wk to 7 lbs a week for me. It’s been pretty consistent the last few weeks. I’m fairly lazy as well so I generally make a huge pot of beans and rice. Throw in tumeric and black pepper. After it’s done finely dice garlic- raw and throw it in salsa- grab some tortilla chips. Eat chips and salsa and beans and rice. Lots of taco salads and nachos. Sometimes a couple banana smoothies with a handfull of blueberries thrown in and repeat. That is pretty much all the time. When I crave junk, those days I’ll eat nothing but junk and take a multivitamin. That could be an entire cake or pie and a couple bags of potato chips. I just don’t eat normal food with my junk and do that on a feast day. Two days later in am when I weigh after fasting, I’m pretty consistently 2 or 3 pounds lighter even after entire cake days…

@EIYVR. Do you eat a lot of refined grain based products? Just goes to show that eating vegan doesn’t necessarily mean you are eating healthy. Eat plant based whole foods and you really cant go wrong. Ive found it really hard to get whole turmeric. Has to be a lot better than the powder.

Good luck with the weight loss.