I’m about to enter my 4th week of the 5:2 diet, I estimate I’ve lost 2-3 lbs so far. I can deal with the hunger on fast days, but what is driving me a little crazy is the excessive urination I experience at night on fast days. I am waking up with a full bladder every 1-1.5 hours, all night. I do not drink extra fluids in the daytime, I just don’t enjoy drinking lots of water even though everyone seems to recommend it. So that’s not the cause. I usually eat some chicken and fruit/vegetables on my fast days, after 8 PM. Around 3 PM I have some protein powder mixed with almond milk. I have some tea in the morning and maybe again in late afternoon, but again, not drinking a lot of fluid. Anyone else experiencing this? Did not find much information with google searches.

I’ve seen this explanation before, but what I don’t understand is why it doesn’t affect urination until night time on fast day. There should be some glycogen depletion from the previous night’s sleep, which I would think would continue during the fast day, as I work out on fast days, strength training and cardio, and don’t take in any calories until after 3 PM. But urination is normal until I want to sleep, then the dam opens up.

The nocturia is one of the reasons I gave up on 5:2, literally up half the night needing to urinate. I switched to the “Fast 5” method of only eating within a 5 hour window (every day) without strict calorie counting and lost more weight and no nocturia. I like the consistency better also. As a bonus my blood pressure dropped into normal range, below 120/80, and got off my high blood pressure meds. Good luck.

I eat b/w 5pm and 10pm. But there’s research now saying that eating earlier in the day and fasting for the rest is actually slightly better for your overall health. I’m sticking with what I’m doing because I like to eat dinner and I’m used to it.