Hi Boho and welcome:

5:2 is excellent for weight loss. Along with weight loss comes lower cholesterol, triglycerides and blood pressure. However, Dr. M’s one man, 5 week experiment on himself does not constitute a clinical trial.

All trials to date indicate a person needs at least a 4 or 4+ day water fast to get the ‘other health benefits’ from fasting. The initial mouse studies on fasting were on a 16:8 schedule and were used in the 8 Hour Diet book as scientific evidence of ‘other benefits’ from short term fasting. However, 16 hours of not eating for a mouse equals about a 4 day water fast for a human. Although 16:8 had been around on blogs for some time before the book, the 8 Hour Diet book popularized the ‘eating window’ diets. They soon faded as people found there was no weight loss magic in eating during an eating window (it just mattered how much they ate during the window, however long), but have enjoyed a resurgence after the 5:2 success as different forms of intermittent fasting.

Dr. Longo has been marketing ‘fasting mimicking’ diet food for those that don’t believe they can fast for four or more days (his is for five), but a recent newspaper article gave a ‘rough’ five day diet that is supposed to work like Dr. Longo’s. There is a ‘Fast Mimicking Diet’ thread on this site somewhere.

If you ever do a 4 day water fast, you will recognize that the body goes through some very potent ‘changes’ that do not begin to show up until the second or third day – and then get much more noticeable. Nothing like this occurs during a short fast measured in a few hours.

This is a 5:2 intermittent fasting site, but more and more people are starting to take notice of the clinical evidence showing the benefits of longer term fasting. If you look around the site, you will find quite a bit of information.

Here is a thread giving most of the basics of 5:2. In the posts, it also contains some information on longer term fasting: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/. The recent news of the fasting mimicking diet includes a study which will lead to other clinical studies of some importance concerning longer term fasting. A link to that study is on the Mimicking thread mentioned above.

Good Luck!

Hi Boho:

Well, it is up to you , but I would “work up to it” by starting with two non consecutive diet days and seeing how your body responds. Most newbies find it hard to do two days in a row, much less four.

Good Luck!