I also work shifts & unplanned long hours in a stressful environment. My office is constantly filled with cake & biscuits and various other crap, working overtime or a late shift is always an excuse to eat crap, So I feel your pain! I’m starting today, need to shift my menopausal weight gain which thus far has seemed virtually impossible to budge no matter what I do. So we shall see if 5:2 can get rid of the 10 kg I’ve put on over the last year!

I have been doing the 5:2 with my husband for over 3 years now. We didn’t actually need to lose weight and were doing it in the hope of it helping with general health/longevity as we grow older. We did lose some weight and then levelled off, which was fine, and we have maintained that lower weight ever since. To me it seems an easy way of losing weight as you are only depriving yourself for a day, knowing you can eat normally again the next day. We have found that it is easiest if we go as much of the day as we can without eating, just drinking water or lightly milked tea or coffee (or black) then eating a 300/350 or so cal meal around 6.00 plus some fruit and yogurt. Sometimes my husband likes to have a boiled egg and a half slice of unbuttered, marmite toast part way through the day (he can have more calories than me). You need to take care that you don’t overeat on the other days, though, as a result of feeling virtuous on the two fasting days! I have found that M&S, Waitrose and the Co-op sell ready to cook meals of between 250 and 350 cals if it would help you not to have to count calories all the time. Good luck – I hope you are successful with it and don’t be put off if it seems hard at first as it does get easier.

Good luck Deanery34 and everyone else on this post!

I am re-starting 5:2 today. This is my fast day. I did it a few years ago with good success. Then got sidetracked, tried lots of other diets, nothing worked, gained lots of weight. This is the best diet I’ve found for myself because, like CazT said, you know you are only depriving yourself for one day, then you can go back to normal eating. I also like the approach of delaying eating solid food as long as possible on the fast day. I feel like once I start eating solid food, then the floodgates open and it’s hard to stop! Drinking coffee and herbal tea and lots of water helps.

I didn’t use these forum boards last time, and I am going to do so this time around hoping they’ll provide some additional motivation and support!

Hi. Gd luck everyone starting today. I’m on my 5th week and 10lb down so it really does work. I do struggle sometimes on my fast days but I’ve found as I get peckish in the eve after dinner around 6 so I have a bath instead of a shower on my these days and listen to some relaxation music and before I know it I’m not hungry anymore.brushing teeth after eating helps too!