I started out by experimenting with what I already had in the cupboards, especially when I was still having 2 small meals rather than the 1 big one at the end of the day. Porridge made with water was handy for lunch and I found some nice low-cal soups in the back of the cupboard. Eventually I moved on to 1 500kcal meal which was much easier to cater for. 500kcal recipes are all over, you’ll find that if you calorie count the ingredients of most other diets (my go-to book was my mum’s old Weight Watchers book) they’ll rarely come in at more than 500kcal per portion. Make a batch of one of those at weekends and fill your freezer with 500kcal readymade meals for your fastdays – easypeasy.

Then I moved on to just having cereal (as I never bothered with breakfast on non-fastdays anymore) and found 500kcal of cereal plus a cuppa more than fine on fastday evenings for over 2 years.

I’m switching it up again now & back to soups (more the homemade variety this time around – search ‘soup’ for threads covering good recipes) but you should find things that you already like for now and just get into the pattern of 5:2. You can branch out & experiment once you’re comfy with the lifestyle.

Hi Terri,

The important thing is to ensure that you aren’t going to wake up hungry in the middlef of the night, so I suggest you either eat after 7pm, or if you need to eat earlier, save some calories for a milky drink or similar at bedtime.

I agree with Tracy about eating what is in the cupboard. We all want to follow a healthier diet, but the last thing we should do at the beginning is change everything. IMO it is important to get used to fasting and eating smaller meals, and familiar food is the way to go. Once the new way of eating is a habit, the experimenting with new or different foods can start.