calorie count for the other 5 days for a week to see what you are actually consuming in calories(don’t forget the alcohol!) and take more exercise-get a pedometer and see how much you are actually walking. Goal is 10,000 each and every day and most of us do 3/4000.

Welcome, Belfastbelle – Wise move, I would say, to study first and then start applying the fasting approach if and when it feels right for you. My guess is that GPs only do blood tests if there is a suspicion of underlying health problems that need further investigation (although some practices and some big chemists do run general health-screening programmes for things like diabetes, etc, so you might want to check out that possibility). If you are healthy, such tests are not necessary – they just provide interesting markers at the start of a new regime like the 5:2 Diet, to enable one to monitor any subsequent changes/benefits later on. Maybe, for the same reason, a simple blood-pressure reading would be good to have at this stage? Most Practice Nurses can easily check this for you, I believe. Best wishes with it all.

Hi Belfastbelle- I am a practice nurse in a large GP practice. if you are over 40 you should be able to request an”NHSHealthcheck” at your surgery.This would usually be with the nurse or healthcare assistant and should consist of at least:- weight/BMI/ blood pressure/ and bloods for blood sugar/lipidprofile/kidney and liver function tests. Some surgeries may offer “well woman/man checks” with similar services. One of our targets is to pickup diabetes and coronary heart disease so you should be able to get these.

if you are under 40 you may have to push a bit more to get them- saying you have a family history of high cholesterol may work!

I have been reading the forum for some time but this is my first post. I particularly enjoy Jeanius’s contributions which seem so sensible and accurate.

I wasn’t very overweight but had an annoying half stone I wanted to shift..I have now lost 8 pounds in 8 weeks and am my lowest weight for 25 years..and feel great!

AKA, unless I’m missing something…I don’t think anyone answered you!

You are probably in a plateau, which is fairly common no matter what diet you follow. Personally, I will never count calories except on my two fast days, but you have to do what you feel is best.

If I plateau down the line, I will just take an honest look at my eating and try to minimize the junk while not overeating on other food. Not sure what you’re eating, but you might to assess your food intake on your “feed” days. Good luck!