Thanks Helen. I found this on the tv guide.

“In this episode, it’s the no scam, no bull, no fad way to lose weight, live longer and be smarter for just three minutes a week – and it’s free! Ross Coulthart travels to the heart of the English countryside to meet BBC science presenter Michael Mosley, who after finding out he was a diabetic, went in search for answers. What he found and filmed is both astonishing and exciting. ”

Michael isn’t a diabetic but his father was and he was concerned about his own health. Since the show wasn’t mm’s show, you guys who are new might like to watch MM’s show which is Eat Fast and Live Longer. It is the research phase that led to the 5:2 fast. It think its well worth a watch.

Also an extremely important watch for anyone who has a very bad diet and diet related health issues (which includes most chronic health issues) is Catalyst-Gut Reaction. This one is from the science show on abc tv.

both can been seen on you tube.

Hi everyone

I have only just heard about 5:2 after watching a bit of Sunday night. My question is whether it is recommended for people who are already bordering on being too skinny? My bmi is only just in normal range so my interest in 5:2 is purely for the health benefits and not weight loss. Should I still give it a go or would that be crazy… I really don’t want to lose any weight but I feel like I want to be healthier. I’ve always been one of those people who can eat pretty much anything and it just seems to go nowhere. Any advice please….

Fast Day 4 under way here. Strawberries and ricotta are becoming my go-to breakfast on normal days now, after I realised how much my energy levels fluctuate with toast for breakfast last week. Eggs are my friend too.

Does anyone else notice the impact of sleep the night before a fast day? I struggle to get enough sleep some days, and on fast days I notice that I get extra cold in the afternoon if I didn’t get enough sleep the night before.

Thanks for posting the link to the programme Helen – refresher info is always handy. The Catalyst programme was fascinating too and has prompted me to change some of my eating habits in very easy ways (eg. leafy greens with vinegar every day).

WONDERMORE, you don’t say your height and weight so we don’t know what’s right for you. But Michael does say this diet isn’t right for anorexics, diabetics and i think he also says it not recommended for very skinny people. The thing is you will have to eat more to avoid losing more weight and if you try this and find you lose more weight, then you should probably stop or at least talk to your doctor.

You must have a very fast metabolism. My brother in law is like this though although he thinks he’s eating as much as he can, he does not eat that much. He’s always had trouble putting on weight. I think another idea you could try which would give you some benefits of 5:2 is eat your usual calories every day but eat in an 8 hour window and nothing at all with any calories outside this time. It ends being about two meals a day but you can of course eat more inside the 8 hours if you want to. This way you get to fast 16 hours a day which is 4 hours of healing if the theory is right about the gene cutoff and its benefits. Also keep your protein intake up.

I wouldn’t recommend this diet for either my sister or her husband. And as they don’t eat that much and are both fit, i don’t think there’s much to gain for either of them anyway.

HELEN thanks i’ll check it out.

WARHORSE, i have to admit i haven’t noticed any extra energy coming from anything i’ve done with my diet this whole year and i’ve been doing different diets all year. Extra energy may come from just losing weight if you had a lot to lose. But i think the main thing behind lack of energy is mood issues and seratonin. When i first went on antidepressants in 1997, i noticed a significant rise in energy that had a different quality to my usual way of being. I have spoken to others who’ve had the same experience. Of course there have been times since when i’ve still got depressed and lost energy even though still on the meds (i take the minimum dose). So I am adamant that beyond eating healthy food and not being dramatically overweight, its all about mood. I think good mood and stress management is also for successful long term dieting.

MOULIN, I haven’t tried ricotta with strawberries. It might be a much safer option for me than strawberries and marscapone. Incidentally, on that score, I’ve been really good about not gobbling all the sugar free ice-cream i made with it. I’ve still got lots of it left in the freezer. I’m so proud of myself for getting that under control. Ditto the sugar free apple crumble. There’s still lots of it in my fridge.

I know it looks like i haven’t got out of my seat this morning but i have. I’ve been running about in between posts. My pedometer is really giving me a mini workout.

Hi Warhorse

With my weight loss and fasting, I have definitely noticed an increase in energy. To lose the weight, I gave up all sugar, wheat and processed foods. Others who give up wheat and sugar report the same energy boost as well. I find it easy to maintain my new weight by persisting with gluten free products, and minimising my intake of sugar. I have normal fat products, some protein and lots of fresh vegetables.

When I was trying to lose weight, I had no starchy vegetables, rice or pasta or wheat or sugar. I am now in maintenance mode and still fast 5:2 or 6:1 so that on my eating days I can occasionally have bread or cake or chips.

You have to experiment to see what works for you. Try to have two litres of water each day and a small amount of protein.

Cheers, Bay 🙂

Hi there I am on day one as well. In my early 60’s and 10kg overweight. Most people would say not…… I know different:0)
I think there will be a lot of Australians on the site after 7’s airing of the story last night.
As I have said in my profile, I am a bowel cancer survivor, having had to undergo many colonoscopies and the preparation entailed. I know how good I feel after the couple of days fasting one has to do, and of the course the purge….. so it all makes perfect sense to me. If one can lose weight, feel better and up your life expectancy into the bargain. Why wouldn’t you give a go?
I have decided to do the Mon & Thursday as fast days.
I am also an Oneg blood group and we are supposed to be the original hunter and gatherers, don’t know whether this makes any difference?
It was interesting to read on the site that a few people once having reached their goal weight, were maintaining it with 6:1 fasting ratio.
Hopefully I will get there as well, very early days yet, let’s not get ahead of myself, but I think the premise is very sound.
Not in Port Macquarie JaniceDianne, but I have a friend upthere, lovely part of the world. Good Luck. I am from Bowral in the Southern Highlands.

Hey Janice .. I am a virgin dieter also from Tamborine Mountain !! The cheapest one I have found is Angus and Robertson free postage around $12.

https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/the-fast-diet-mimi-spencer-michael-mosley/p/9781780721675

Wow, so many new fasters!! And probably many more just checking the site out.
Welcome all!
We all find our own way of making this WOE work for us. I’m 6 months down the track, and 13kg lighter. It’s the easiest weight loss I’ve ever had. Last year I lost a similar amount on a very strict ketogenic diet, and I was miserable most of the time. I stopped for a little break, which turned into about 8 months as I couldn’t face starting again, even though I knew it worked for me. Enter the BBC Horizons documentary and I just knew this was for me. I downloaded Michael Moseley’s book and a couple of others to get different perspectives, and I haven’t looked back. I have 3 kids to cook for and a husband who is not dieting, and I’m finding it quite easy to slot in to family life.
There have also been some quite profound changes in my behaviour towards food. Just practising saying “no” 2 days a week makes it much easier to say “no” on other days, or to stop after a small portion of a treat, rather than eating the whole packet. My sugar and chocolate cravings are much more manageable.
Planning is important, particularly if you need to feed others on days when you’re not feeding yourself. At the beginning I spent a lot of time checking recipes and ideas for fast days. Now I have an idea of what a 400 Calorie day looks like and I just make my dinner (I find it best for me to just eat one large meal at dinner time) and log it into My Fitness Pal.
So new fasters or people considering it – give it a go. The only thing you have to lose is weight.

Hi Wondermore, I read in Michael Mosely’s article a while ago that once you attain your weight, you can just do a fast once a week, or fortnight. This will keep you healthy & everything working well.

I’m feeling really disappointed.

I did 4 days of fasting last week to break my plateau. I was sure that by doing this I would now be consistently in the 65.x zone but I’m around 67.5 🙁

In addition to the 4 fast days last week I did about 4 hours (or more) of walks. On the fast days I ate between 400-600 cals. On the feed days I ate just under my TDEE on one day and about an extra 1000 cals over the other 2 feed days. I should still be losing some weight. I don’t understand why I’ve put on weight.

I could really do with some encouragement, support & motivation from you guys 🙁

Jane, we are all individuals and you will find you will change how you approach this over time too. That is the brilliance of this. Find a system that works for you, within the guidelines and you will change your life.
We all slip up sometimes. That’s ok if it doesn’t happen too often and steels you to try better next time.
All the best PVE
PS Just watched the Sunday program on youtube. They did a pretty good job in 16.9 minutes to tell the bare bones of the story. I would recommend reading the book and watching the original “Eat Fast and Live Longer” next time it is on SBS.

Chicita , i hit 63.2kg on 16 August and only in the last couple of days have i really gone below 63 and then it was a with a big bang. So that’s taken about a month. I started the fasting diet on 6 August (and just to repeat for anyone new reading this, i’d already lost most of the weight i needed to lose since the beginning of the year). so i dropped quickly in the first couple of weeks of the fast diet and then sort of didn’t seem to achieve much until now. I think the initial losses were mainly water.

I was writing another long convoluted post but i think instead, I will just to refer you to Dr Amanda Sainsbury Salis’s book The Don’t Go Hungry Diet. You might find it in the library (the same as all these newbies might find Mosley’s book in the library too). Its not because i think you should go on the diet she recommends which is an intuitive eating approach. Although there’s nothing wrong with it and lots of aspects are applicable to any diet. Instead its because she talks about plateaus really well and she’s a scientist who has worked on the subject. She might say your body has gone into a famine reaction state or true starvation mode (not the one that everyone keeps saying is a myth). That is your body is trying to prevent you from losing weight by drawing calories away from less critical functions.

Anyway, I think you just need to be patient but don’t keep upping the ante because this will only cause more frustration and knock you off the plan. And Dr Amanda would tell you to eat more not less.

Its really difficult to give you an answer with any particular confidence because we just don’t have all the facts to hand. But i strongly recommend that book because it has some key concepts about the way the body works, that i think all of us dieters need to understand if we want to have long term easy to sustain weight loss.

Other than if you are not weighing daily but only weekly, then i would recommend daily weighing and observing anything that contribute to water retention. Not that water retention is bad but at least you will know why your weight is not going down if it going up due to water.

Thank you Pattience & MelbMum

I’ve been walking around my lounge room while watching TV tonight & just hit my 10,000 steps for the day 🙂

I’m wondering whether having my period may be contributing to my apparent weight gain. I’m pretty much finished now so it’ll be interesting to see. I do know that if I just stick with it I’ll get there but it can be disheartening. I’ll keep moving onwards & downwards 😉

Hi all, watched the Mosley segment on Sunday Night and just did my first fast day today. Went well and I’m not feeling as “hangry” as I thought I would. Had 2 scrambled eggs at about 10 a.m. and then a leftover beef sausage and some roasted sweet potatoes and carrots at about 6:30 pm. I’ve been drinking water and black coffee throughout the day. Total cals: 410. Kept myself busy downtown today; lots of walking. Got hubby on board also. Had to laugh though when he asked me how many calories in a shot of bourbon tonight. I’m 50, live in Adelaide and need to do something about my high blood pressure. Must say it’s nice knowing that I can eat tomorrow — made today easier. Hope everyone’s had a good day. 🙂

Thanks, IHAW. Will rewatch the video. 🙂 Bay

Oh and i’m fasting again this morning because i want to get some blood tests done to check all my stuff out. If i ever get fat again, i am definitely going to get them all done at the beginning of my diet. I just wish i could do a proper glucose fasting like they do on the tv shows.

Last night my polenta dish was fabulous. I adapted a recipe which was just plain polenta and cheese to include a lot of vegetables. Its a very simple flavour but surprisingly good.

This will serve 4. Calories for big plateful are about 400. This will just about give you your daily requirement for vegetables. If you’ve got any strong flavour leaves like rocket or mustard greens. Put a small bed of them under the polenta on your plate.

125g polenta
25g butter
750ml water
salt
125g fontina cheese but i used mozzarella. sliced thinly or grated
5 different types of vegetables. (used onion, cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, zucchini)

Stirring constantly, cooked the polenta in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes. Turn the heat down to very low, cover and let cook 30 minutes. It should just start pulling away from the sides to be ready. And might warrant the occasional stir to stop it from burning. Stir in the butter. Test the taste for salt. Add more if necessary but it doesn’t need to be salty. Meanwhile steam the vegetables. Don’t over cook. Rinse a large casserole or pie dish and shake the excess out. Don’t wipe it dry. (no need to grease pot). Spread some polenta on the bottom. Your going to layer it up with vegetables, polenta and cheese. Keep some cheese for the top if you are going to looks. Top layer being polenta if not. Cover with lid or alfoil and bake at 200C for 20-30 minutes. Less if vegetables are well cooked.

I had them with the delicious idea given someone else here of ricotta and strawberries. I love it. Its my new favourite strawberry thing. 😀

Hi all Southern Hemispherians! Yet another newbie after watching the show on Sunday. I’m 41yo and 97kg wanting the get back to my 65kg of 4 years ago. Working a 65 hour week makes it hard to exercise like I used to so am hoping 5-2 will help me along. Fast day 1 today and a bit nervous as I love my food which has become more of habit at work than anything.
I recently purchased a Ninja Mega Kitchn System and I’m hooked on my morning fruit and vegie smoothies. So today I started my day with a banana, orange, strawberry, kale, green been, cucumber, walnut, almond and Chai seed smoothie at 165 cal, and I still have the other half (another 165 cal) to have for lunch. I plan on drinking lots of water and a few black teas and coffees then maybe 2 boiled eggs for dinner. If all goes well I may do day 2 tomorrow.
I’m very motivated and love reading all of the other posts its so encouraging to hear of everyone elses ups, downs and great weight loss achievments. I’m fairly lucky as my BF is doing it with me too so I have great support. My biggest problem will be cutting out my wine on the weekends as I feel this is a big contributor to my weight and I would like to cut it out for my health too.
Keep on posting fellow 5-2ers and I will try to stay posting too, hopefully to report my massive weight loss!!! :-))

Well done Nanna…now for Thursday 🙂 PVE

No. I’m famous for weighing myself whenever I’m naked in the bathroom! I record the lowest weight each week.
As I reached my goal, under 60 kg, in April, I now weigh just as often to ensure I keep an eye on what I’m doing. This is for life for us…no going back…The new clothes have to fit. 🙂 P

Oh Purple, I can’t wait for the day when I go under 60k. You must feel so great. I went down a kilo from yesterday morning, but I know weight fluctuates daily, so I’ll do as I’ve always done, look daily without disappointment as I know I’m on my way.

Purple, 400 cals on 2 fast days. God, I struggled with the 503 I did yesterday, but I suppose you adjust as you don’t focus on food so much. To have those great results, why wouldn’t you be sold on the 5:2. The Diabetes results are phenomenal. The hard work paid off. Just fabulous.

Hi everyone, yes yet another newbie here. I’ve been struggling with my weight for a very, VERY long time. I’ve tried just about every diet known to man (or woman) that are recognised. I’ve been to WW, tried hypnotherapy, VLCD and other extremes with at most a 4 to 5 kg loss over one to 5 months.

I’ve been researching this eating plan, or lifestyle if you prefer, and have watched the original documentary (I didn’t see this on Sunday night but had heard of it before and then when I saw an excerpt of it on Sunrise yesterday I researched about it all day and half the night yesterday).

The plan resonates with me, is ticking all my boxes (so to speak) … I have a large amount of weight to get rid of and have started today with a fasting day (only two 8oz glasses or water and one mug of black coffee, no sugar, so far today).

I’m not one for asking many questions, but I do read the posts as often my queries or concerns are answered there.

I hope to get to know you all over time.

Hi Aussie Oma

Welcome to your new way of life. Like you this 5:2 really suits me. Over six months I have lost 15 kgs and 3 dress sizes. Don’t forget to measure your upper arms, thighs, hips, waist, bust, and anywhere else you like. It is very rewarding to see yourself change shape, even when you’re sitting on a weight loss plateau.

May I encourage you to drink 2 litres a day. It helps with the hunger and it’s good for your kidneys. Normally we get more liquid from our food. We need to compensate by drinking lots of water.

As this is a healthy WOL, it was not set up to lose weight. The reason I lost so much weight was that I gave up all sugar, starches and processed foods during the early times.

All the best. Bay 🙂

Hi MissMe, I’m on day 2. I made it thru the hardest day, so we are all on our way. Good luck to you & your Husband.

Hi to all the newbies! I am a relative newbie myself as I’ve only been following this fast for 4 weeks but already I have lost 2.7kg. Yesterday I managed to last all day until dinner time, I couldn’t have done that a few weeks ago. It gets easier every single time. I don’t eat at 500cal on fast days, I found that I wasn’t getting any real results so I adjusted it to 1/4 of my TDEE, which makes more sense to me anyway, and now the weight has been dropping steadily. The first couple of weeks were difficult, I never realised just how much I want to snack throughout the day. Starting this was the best thing I ever did.
HB