Zittyben, I don’t see how you are getting any nutrition at all. Water is cleansing for sure but not a sustainable way of life. The body needs the nutrients from good food. So many easy low cal, healthy recipes on line, there is no need to be so extreme. The binging on the weekends is a difficult one, it seems to be your way of life, my only suggestion is to try to cut back some and eat healthy food at the same time, who knows, your mates my even follow you…..good luck, but your not doing your body any favours this way…CG

I agree with countrygal. You may lose weight very fast but think about the long term are you not gonna eat on weekdays for the rest of your life? Remember that as soon as you start eating normally again you will put back on all the weight you lose. 5:2 is slow sure but its steady weight loss that is substainable for life.

Hi zitty and welcome:

I’m sorry, but it appears you have both drinking and eating disorders that really can’t be addressed in an internet forum. 5:2 is not recommended for people with eating disorders. I suggest you think about your eating and drinking patterns and try to decide if some professional assistance might be beneficial.

Good Luck!

Zittyben,

In terms of whether or not you would lose weight, you could do a simple calculation based on your TDEE and calories consumed. I don’t know what you eat at weekends, but you say you binge, so I’m guessing you are probably eating over TDEE on those days and possibly not making good food choices? In terms of the alcohol, 30+ pints of lager would be 6000+ calories, so that’s probably over two days worth of calories alone. So you may in fact already be consuming more calories than you need during your weekly weekend binge.

It’s interesting that you ask if you may be harming your body on fast days. It’s not the fast days you need to worry about! Your weekend lifestyle is what’s doing the damage. So the question might rather be, will the fast days be sufficient to repair the damage you are doing at weekends? I suspect not.

One of the problems with alcohol consumption is that it inhibits nutrient absorption. If you are eating only at weekends (and low nutrient food then) and swilling all that down with a firkin of lager every two weeks, you are likely to be malnourished. Not eating during the week will not help with that. I don’t know whether the rest you give your liver during the week offsets the hammering it gets at weekends…

You might not think you have an eating/ drinking disorder, but you certainly don’t appear to have a normal healthy relationship with either food or alcohol. Rather than looking at extreme fasting to lose weight and maintain your extreme weekend lifestyle I think you need to rethink your relationship with food and alcohol before it’s too late!

All the best.

Hello all,

First post here.

zittyben, I can help with your particular question. I am a large bloke who loves a beer himself. And when I say ‘a beer’, 10 pints is a light drink.

ok, this is my third go on a fasting lifestyle in 5 years. The other 2 ended temporarily due to life changing events (a bereavement and a long term relationship break up).

My fist time on fasting lasted nine months, the second 14 months before circumstances ended each one with significant time away from it in between. I am three weeks in on my third attempt.

Both my previous fasting periods followed similar patterns.

I would completely fast two days a week. No food at all, though I allowed myself tea (no sugar). For another three days I opted to do a calorie restriction day. About 1500 calories. And that left me two free days, in which I would indulge in beer, takeaways etc.

Now, as beer and takeaways were common place in my diet, I worked out I had effectively removed about half my calorie intake for the week.

The results were really good. The first attempt was a shock to my system, and worked well. I lost 5 stone.

My second attempt I did things a little different. I introduced exercise into my life. Instead of driving 10 minutes to work, I walked 45 minutes both to and from work. And later in the diet, I took to a treadmill. The second attempt brought better weight loss, 7 stone in 14 months. But please bare in mind I am a big guy now, I was a very big guy before.

You asked if bingeing on the weekend would negate your fasting? I can testify, no it wouldn’t. And I have better news than just weight loss.

I took to fasting (my family call it extreme measures) as I knew in myself I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and border line diabetic. Both previous attempts lowered my cholesterol significantly, brought down my blood pressure into a safe range, and removed all threat of an imminent onset of diabetes.

On a personal note, I wouldn’t recommend you fast for the long period you do too often. Your body will enter ‘shutdown’ mode (from what I have read). Just pick a couple of days to eat sensible small portion meals to prevent that. And try and throw in some exercise if you can. I did that during my second attempt, and doing it on my current attempt, and I can tell you that your general day to day feeling is better. I sleep much better, and my lethargic spells have ended.

Yes you can lose weight and improve your health while having drinking binges. Though, be aware, you will never be ‘a slim Jim’ 😉

I hope this helps.

It is absolutely fine to drink water all week long. For most of history its all that adults drank while getting their nutrients for food, not to mention the calories in other beverages which the body does not register which is why you can drink large amounts soda,juice (sugar water), and not feel satisfied but the calories are there. Nothing wrong with letting loose on the weekend but see if you can moderate just a bit so you arent nullifying most of the effort you put in during the week.