GeorgeA, congratulations on deciding to begin 5:2 🙂

I lost 40 pounds in 40 weeks on 5:2 plus gradually increasing my walking to an average 10,000 steps/day. Some people lose more quickly, others less.

I recommend checking out the ‘how’ and the ‘faq’ tabs at the top of the page, especially if you haven’t read the FastDiet book, but, even if you have.

Sometimes the first fast day is difficult, sometimes not. I do recommend having a plan for what you’re going to eat, including an ’emergency’ snack that you can deduct from the evening meal’s calories, and how to distract yourself from hunger.

Some people do better with a small breakfast and dinner, or a small lunch and dinner, or a small breakfast, snack, and dinner; others find that eating anything makes them feel hungrier, and prefer to save all their calories for their evening meal. A few people prefer to skip even that, going without all calories until the following morning. The point is that you can divide up your 600 calories in whatever way works best for you. Many people find that focusing on getting enough protein and vitamins and minerals, while staying away form carbohydrates, on fast days helps keep hunger at bay. That is true for me, even though I’m mostly vegetarian and usually eat a fair amount of whole grains and legumes, I usually base meals on Greek yogurt or cheese (breakfast) and eggs or fish (dinner) on fast days. If you’re always hungry, you may be very carb-sensitive, so, even though 5:2 is not a low-carb diet, you may want to stay away from carbs, especially refined carbs, on a fast day. Eating carbs makes the pancreas secrete insulin, which keeps the fat in the fat cells instead of letting it get out to get burned for energy, so then you just end up being hungry again once it drives the glucose into the cells. Drinking enough water and/or other non-caloric liquids throughout the day can really help, too. A lot of people find that there first fast day was not as dreadful as they’d feared.

Feel free to read the active threads and join in where you find kindred spirits 🙂