Over a fasting day on 5:2 you can have 500-600 calories depending on your gender. Cacao is fine as long as you stay within your daily calorie limit.

Some people won’t allocate calories to drinks on fast days because they want them all for food. However, the only reason I get through fast days easily is because I allow myself enough milk to make cups of tea as I want them. I have no problem sacrificing some food to do this.

This advice is specific to the 5:2 program as written by Michael Mosley. If you are trying to do water fasts and consume zero calories then I don’t know if cacoa is ok, I would imagine not, but I’m not the person to ask as I follow the program mostly as written.

I drink cocoa made with water and it doesn’t seem to have affected my fasting or weight loss. I have 1-2 cups a day. I don’t drink tea so it’s nice to have a variation from coffee and water.

I’ve lost 25+ pounds on 5:2 by just staying under 500 calories with a combination of food and drink 2 days per week over 7 months. I don’t worry about how much of each or what time of day, although I usually skip breakfast so those calories get me through the day. I very occasionally have added a 3rd FD, usually a B2B (back to back) when I can’t get past a plateau for a couple of weeks.

7 months might seem like a long time to lose 25 pounds, but I’ve eaten a lot of fantastic meals on NFDs that I appreciated even more because of days fasted. And I don’t feel like I’m on a diet. I’ve had very few fast days that I’ve actually felt hungry enough to be uncomfortable. My body, and most of all my brain, seem to have adapted. It’s every Monday and Thursday for me. The only time I change those days is when I have a social or business occasion where I’m going out to eat, or to someone’s home. Then I just pick another day in the week. I’ve never missed a FD since early May.

It works! I’m 2-1/2 pounds from my goal, already in size 4 jeans, and plan to stick to this way of eating indefinitely to maintain. It’s not a burden, so why not? If I lose too much I’ll just go to 1 day a week of fasting.

Hi Mory,

The average weight loss for a woman following 5:2 is just under one pound per week so 25 pounds in 28/29 weeks is about right. This isn’t a quick fix.
People who have a lot of weight to lose often lose weight at a faster rate but it slows down with time and of course it all depends on how many FDs one does per week.

A FD period is from after dinner on say Sunday night until breaking the fast on a Tuesday. Within that period of time calories are restricted to 500/600 calories or for those who are unable to cope with so few calories, 800.

There is only one way to lose weight and that is to eat less calories than your body needs so it depends on how much you eat every evening and how many calories you consume during the day with whatever you drink. The fast diet works because it restricts calories not because of the fasting period. There are perceived health benefits from fasting and it does help us get out of the habit of snacking and teaches us to eat only when we are hungry.