Wow – you must have a will of steel, Goldcrest! Best of luck with it, please let us know how you get on.

Good luck to you, hope you make it. I wouldnt attempt it myself, but I’m sure it can only be good for you.

Hi Goldcrest, well done for starting this if you are healthy enough to do so. As regards the disparity of calories dont beat yourself up or go to deeply into it. If the difference is not too great why not average the readings out or just stick with the cals you started out with. Either way you decide what is good for you to go with and stick with it.
Good luck.

Well done Goldcrest – keep it up you’re half way there 🙂 Just think of a nice meal on Saturday!

Hi. may I ask how you got on with your fast? I also did a 3.5 day fast and it was fantastic, now doing my second one.

I am on my second day of the four day fast. Yesterday, my first day I felt quite hungry in the afternoon and at times wanted to quit and just have a nice big meal. I knew that I needed to keep busy at night so that I would be distracted and as soon as I got home from work, I went for a 45 minute run. During the run, on the uphill part which I always find difficult, I was in deep thought about a work related topic and didn’t even notice the uphill. On the subsequent downhill once I had finished my thought, I realized that I hadn’t even noticed the uphill. I didn’t feel any lack of energy during the run, and my run time was about normal.

However I didn’t have the best night of sleep last night and it took me longer than usual to fall asleep. Overall my energy level has been high.

Today, day 2, I don’t feel hungry. I don’t even think about food. But, I do find it a bit hard to stay focused on work. I don’t feel light headed or dizzy, just a bit distracted … but this happens on normal days as well, so hard to say it’s related to fasting.

In terms of weight, I started with weighing 91.8kgs on Monday night, last night I was 88.8 and this morning I was 87.8. I’m sure it’s mostly water weight, but seeing the numbers go down was good motivation to continue. Will see how it goes for the next two days.

Hey there.

Last week I completed a five day fast consuming between 5 & 600 calories per day and felt great. Surprisingly I felt incredibly alert and my belly went down a treat. Weight is dropping off me on this plan, 12 pounds so far only on week 2 day 2.

Good luck!

It is the afternoon of Day 1 of a 4 day fast. I am hungry water helps a bit, but I need to keep reading about the reasons why fasting is so good for you. Reading the gaian studies website helped a lot, although they do just water. It is mostly mental power, I have asked my husband to hide some snacks I would find difficult to resist. He goes away for work 7 days tomorrow and my son is away at a camp till Friday. I thought days by myself not smelling their food cooking would be the best, I hope I last okay. If you had the spare cash ideally you would hole yourself up in a hotel room, where there was no access to food. Going to the coast would be nice. I decided to do the 4 day fast, because I found doing the twice weekly fasting hard to stick at least this way I will have it over and done with for at least 2 months or the next school holidays.

Agree with Simcoeluv, rxwz.
Michael did a 4 day fast as part of his journey to find a sustainable way to health. He quickly rejected it and alternate day fasting for 2 days a week. It seems to more closely replicate the way humans evolved to eat. We didn’t always have lots of food available, so the rhythm of ups and downs created by 5:2 is more natural and certainly sustainable long term.
Have you considered rethinking how you approach 5:2? There are many different ways to eat 1/4 of your TDEE on a fast day. Experiment to find the one that suits you for a doable long term health regime.
All the best PVE

I’m on Day 2 of a 4 day fast. Not consuming anything but water and tea. 1st day was easy. I thought I would struggle, because I do enjoy a couple of glasses of wine of an evening. But it didn’t bother me. I had no problems cooking for the family, didn’t even lick the spoon. Didn’t sleep very well though – went to bed late, woke up early.

Day 2 – I’ve had a few little hunger pains, but nothing major. Hopefully I will have a better night’s sleep tonight.

I never really had any emotional attachment to food, but do enjoy it. So far the deprivation is not a concern. Let’s see what Day 3 brings.

Hi Simcoeluv – I’ve had a few digestive issues, which I have been working on. Doing some research suggested giving my system a break to “reset” itself was a good idea. My hubby is doing 5:2 (rather loosely). So I decided to help him by doing 5:2 also. So I decided to start this week with a 4 day fast, whilst keeping hubby on track (I’m the one with a little willpower), and then I will continue on with 5:2 Mondays & Thursday starting next week. I’m also an advocate of LCHF – because grains just make me bloated.

I must say I’m rather enjoying not having to think about eating at the moment, but have a work Christmas lunch on Friday, which I am looking forward to.

Hi RosieHB, sounds like you’re doing great! Stay positive 🙂 I’ve been struggling with the sleep thing too, but last night was the first night I slept right through. I think it will get easier. Enjoy your Christmas lunch with work, I’ve managed to avoid them this year! I live out of town, so its not really practical for me to go anyway. Have a great day!

33 hours into my 4-Day fast. How did it work out for everyone? I’m not feeling hungry!

Hi everyone, this sounds intriguing please could someone tell me about this four day fast? I assume it’s different to 4:3? Thanks.

Hi Chaddorama:

The four day fast came from the original life extension program as one of the ways calorie restriction could lead to better blood work (not weight loss). Dr. M decided he could not do periodic four day fasts and abandoned the idea as a life extension strategy. I guess when an abbreviated program was aired in Australia, it came across that a four day water fast was the way to start 5:2, and this site lit up with eager four day water fasters intent on losing weight fast. Never to be heard from again (note the dates on some of the above posts, and lack of follow up).

A four day water fast is not a warm up to 5:2, which is a weight loss diet, not a life extension diet. In my opinion, no one that is inexperienced with fasting should start by attempting a four day water fast. Experience has shown it leads to failure, not success, on 5:2.

Good Luck!

Just a word of encouragement to all of those that may be just starting. My story goes like this. I started my 5:2 fasting in Feb 2015 and never stopped. I do have occasional holidays when I don’t (around Xmas and when on summer vacation) but the rest of the time I fast every Wednesday and Thursday. Yes. Consecutive days. I started my fasting with a 4 day full fast and then continued with 5:2 with 1/4 calories intake. First few weeks I used to weight food and calculate my calories but eventually I stopped doing that as you get the idea and some days I don’t even feel like eating anything altogether on my fast days. In Feb 2016 I repeated my full fasting but instead of doing it for 4 days I continued to 12. So 12 days of full fasting. After a year of 5:2 I found it much easier to do than the initial 4 days a year before.
Maybe a word about my weight. I was always on the lower end of so that wasn’t my main driver for fasting. I wanted to improve my health. I don’t have any direct evidence that my health improved due to fasting but it surely changed after I started doing it. I used to have flu at least 3-4 times a year in autumn, but year 2015 was the first after several when I was going without flu to next spring. I did get occasional runny nose, but I wasn’t ill as to stay in bed for a few days. When I started my initial 4 day fast I weighted about 68.5kg and after initial 4 days I got to 61 although that came up a few pretty quickly after I started properly eating and drinking salty food (because you loose quite a bit of water despite drinking as there’s less salt to keep water in your body). During my 5:2 for the first few weeks my weight was going down, but eventually it settled at about 62/63kg. And it kept at this level since.

If anyone is thinking of starting fasting I highly recommend it. It won’t be easy but in a few months you’ll find it completely natural and will become your diet as it became mine 19 months ago. I hope I’ll be able to do it for the rest of my life. But it’s true I was determined to stick to this regime. My wife on the other hand found it more or less frustrating and is just thinking to reconsider the whole thing once more.

And just FYI. I’m a racing cyclist during summer (hence I like keeping my weight on the lower end) and badminton player during winter. Although I may feel tired a bit quicker on my fast days it hasn’t been an impediment in any significant way. So fasting and sports go very well together. You shouldn’t be afraid. But I did decide for Wed+Thu days because that suits my training as competitions are usually during weekends and I normally don’t train on Thursdays.