I too Carla have had thyroxine problems but have done well on 5:2. After 16 weeks I,ve lost 21lbs and my cholesterol has dropped overall from 5.9 to 4, my triglycerides from 2.5 to 1.5. I’ve had to drop my oroxine from 150 to 125mg as my Free TSH dropped from 2.1 to 0.02 and I’m interested to see if this slows things down.

Yunela
I fast generally Tuesday and Thursday and have done so for almost 5 months. I have just been on holidays and changed my days but never consecutive.
I tend to have egg and mushroom for breakfast, homemade vege soup for lunch and fish and veges for dinner.
Hope that helps.
We are all different and have to find what suits us within the parameters of this way of eating.

I’ve been on fast diet for 16 weeks now and have just found out my serum cholesterol is UP – not only that but HDL is down and LDL up. Sooo disappointed. Why is this happening? Otherwise have lost around 4-5lbs which wasn’t my reason for starting the diet.

Thanks MountainMyst – the test was done after a fasting day but I’ve decided to persevere anyway as so many others seem to get such positive health benefits.

I did Alternate Day Fasting (usually 4 days/week on 400 cals) for 7 months last year mainly to get my cholesterol levels down because I am diabetic and won’t take statins.. However, the level actually went up slightly which disheartened me and I gave up.
I am wondering if the benefits don’t apply if cholesterol is a genetic rather than a food related issue? Mine is about 6.6.

I also didn’t eat as well as I need to on the non-fast days. Tried Intuitive Eating next and out on 2 stone! Am now doing 5:2 on 500 calories which is much more manageable. But I would love to get cholesterol down as well as lose weight.

Hi David,

Statins have some very bad side effects and sometimes they are not reversible. I took statins for a couple of years but then I started waking up in the mornings with my thights aching. My Dr. took me off statins. Another friend starting noticing muscle weakness when skiing and/or doing other activities.

The literature I have read also says that the drugs that are commonly taken for heartburn are also NOT good for you. I have cut mine down from a daily dose to only taking them 5 days a week. I am thinking about dropping down to 4 days a week.

Just as there is no such thing as a free lunch, there is no drug that doesn’t have side effects. They don’t effect everyone but they can be dangerous.

Quick

@lizard4mi
“Cholesterol is not the enemy and statin drugs do people much more harm than good ”

Thanks for these links. They provided me with info that I was not aware of before.

➰

Testimonial – I’m 60 with high cholesterol for the past 15 years (even on a controlled low-fat diet) and successfully kept it in check with simvastatin (Zocor) for most of that time. Two years ago, I experienced muscle cramps in legs and hands, so I stopped the statin immediately and further controlled my diet. A year later my cholesterol returned to 265 (mg/dL) and my doctor put me on another statin – same result with muscle cramps within two months, so I dropped it again back in January. Two months ago I started the 5:2 Fast Diet with no other changes (non-fasting diet or exercise) – Result on this month’s physical was a drop in total cholesterol to 235 (that’s 30 points!) and a 25 point drop in LDL (HDL dropped a small amount to 73, but is still in the good range). Triglycerides also dropped 30 points from borderline high of 129 to 98. For me, this represents tangible change in a relatively short time frame that was never achieved with diet alone. My doctor agreed to test my cholesterol further to determine the makeup of the LDL, not all of which is “bad” – please see this link to “Men’s Health” regarding control of cholesterol and types of LDL: http://www.menshealth.com/health/understanding-cholesterol-and-heart-disease. I’m now on the 6:1 Fast Diet for maintenance (no weight loss is needed) and look forward to rerunning the blood test in 6 months.