I’m a fit 65 year old man, 1.85 m tall and was about 91.5 kg in mid-August. I’ve been following the 5:2 diet since then and have lost about 6 kg (it’s hard to say what my weight is – the morning after a fastday it’s about 1.5 kg lighter than the morning before). My body fat was below 20% (down from about 26%) for the first time this morning. I’ve combined exercise with fasting. Sessions in the weights room and aerobic sessions lasting an hour or less in the mornings of fast days seem to reduce hunger pangs and don’t seem to cause any difficulty. The one time I did a longer cycle ride (about 25 miles – not unusual for me) instead of lunch I did feel a bit peculiar afterwards and felt that when I got home that evening I really had to eat straight away. I’d had no breaxfast or lunch and I think that the fat-burning mechanism couldn’t provide the energy used on a longer ride. I’d been keep my heart-rate below about 75% of maximum which should help with fat-burning but even so the energy demand must have been too much. I was fine on the ride – the energy debt didn’t hit until about 30 minutes after I’d got back.

I have been on the 5/2 since August, and run regularly. If I run on fast days I reduce the distance, (4km instead of 6-10km.) and find this no problem. The main problem is when I have to play chess for my chess team- a 4 or 5 hour chess game is quite a drain, so if I’m fasting I take a snack incase it goes on too long. Interestingly my chess results have improved markedly in the last few months- I am 54 and have not been doing any extra study, so this is unexpected. Am I growing a few more brain cells? Anyone else noticed cognitive improvements?

I have an active outdoors job working as a ranger for The National Trust. Some days I will be working outside all day firewood processing, felling trees, digging ditches or just walking and surveying. I fast Mondays and Thursdays and Thursdays are usually a working outside day. I have not had a problem doing hard physical work on a fasting day since I started the 5:2 diet in August, in fact as time has gone on and I have lost weight I have found it is getting easier. I suppose not carrying a sack of potatoes around with me everywhere I go make a difference ;-D

I have now been doing 5/2 since August. On fast days I exercise like any non fast days. I spin everyday as well as a mixture of other classes like combat, piloxing, body pump, circuit training and some yoga. I exercise in the morning and do not have breakfast. I do drink plenty of water. I feel energised.

38yr old female personal trainer & keen exerciser. Have been following 5:2 since September & am loving it. No change in energy levels on fast days, but do focus on consuming plenty of water based on recommendations.

Exercise is definitely out for me. In contrast to all the other reports I have seen, I wake up on the morning after a fast day having not slept well and feeling as weak and shaky as if I have just got over a fever. Although my strength slowly returns over the next day or two, the shaky, slightly unwell feeling seems to be permanent – it lasts right through to the morning of my next fast day (it is still there on Monday morning having not fasted since the previous Thursday). My whole life I have felt this way if I don’t eat properly – a feeling of only mild hunger which soon passes to be replaced by shakiness and nausea, which I learnt to interpret as ‘better eat something’. (The nausea part goes away if I stay well hydrated). My brother is the same, so perhaps it is genetic? I am a reasonably fit 44 yr old man with a bmi of 24.6 and the classic Thin Outside Fat Inside shape. I’ve only been on the diet for two weeks so far – has anyone else had these symptoms, and do they pass eventually?

I would like to comment on Will’s post.I’m also who has all my life had to eat regularly & not coped with hunger ie go from mildly peckish to sudden hunger which I can’t ignore. This is because I shake, feel faint & wobbly & just have to eat something as I can’t even think straight. I’m tall & have been slim/skinny for all my life until now at age 53. If ever I did gain a few pounds, like after having children I would cut out the cake etc & lose it in a week but not now. I’m not overweight for the health charts but 10LB more than is usual, this has gone on over a 18month period. I’m tackling it as it is mostly on my abdomen which I know is the worst place & I also feel very uncomfortable when I sit down, all my clothes are very tight. I suppose I could just accept it & think middle age spread etc but I don’t want to! i’m an active person even though I work full time, i’ve always walked, cycled & I go to a stretch type gym. I take stairs two at a time & nevr walk slow as I naturally dash about! I decided to try this diet after reading all the scientific evidence & reviews. A colleague of mine has shed 3stones & it’s his first successful diet. Today is my second fast day & so far so good having eaten normally yesterday. I’m finding the hunger pangs harder today than on Tuesday but I won’t give in. I also haven’t felt wobbly which has surpriesd me but I’m spacing my 500 out as I know I couldn’t last all day & trying to eat it as mostly protein & soup both of which shouldn’t give me the dreaded sugar spike/drop & stay in the tum longer. Here’s hoping & good luck to all!

Does anyone know if you can count physical activity towards your calories on a fast day. For example if I went for a run and burned 100 cals could I eat an extra approx 100 cals that evening?

Also – what is the thinking here on the idea of strictly 24hr fasting. eg last meal at lunchtime on Monday at 1pm. Eating nothing or less than 600 cals until 2pm the next day? This seems like cheating to me? Currently I’m in week 3 or 5:2 and doing 600 cals on Tues and Thurs and not eating until Wed and Friday mornings.

I started 5:2 today. Had a late breakfast of boiled egg, half grapefruit and coffee with dash of skimmed milk – 150 calories. About half my normal breakfast. Expected to feel wobbly and hungry quite soon but it’s now about 5.30pm and I am only just beginning to think about an evening meal. I notice that I have felt more thirsty than usual – drank several glasses of water so just as well I’ve not been stuck in traffic anywhere! Are there any new ‘5:2’ers out there to compare notes on progress? And does anyone have any good 350 calorie evening meal recipes?

Had my last meal at 9 pm on Tuesday and when i got up the next morning……..let’s go for it.

Breakfast was black tea and then nothing but plenty of water & tea/coffee the rest of Wednesday until dinner at 9 pm again (500 CALS).

I had a few hunger pangs but nothing major – i’m a serious grazer – healthy food but grazing is grazing.

Up this morning(Thursday) at 5am (not feeling particular hungry)- LET’S GO AGAIN.
No problem with making my good ladies tea & hot buttered toast in bed (have to drag that one out of bed).

Done about 3 liters of water plus an array of various herb teas (nettle & fennel is just wrong)throughout the day – a few issues re colleges popping in for coffee & biscuits (hey, just smile and think of all the benefits).

Home tonight and dinner again at 9 pm – i will see what happens in the morning….might do another day (i DON’T have too but that is the trick of this lifestyle)

Exercise – twice a week with very hard & intense weight training.

If i fast all day tomorrow i will train in the evening – feeling good but i will get plenty of good food down my neck over the weekend so that i can recover – will keep updating as i go.

I am overweight by about 40lbs but i do have a lot of muscle – the aim is to lose weight while gaining muscle mass.

I haven’t fallen asleep on the tube & train coming home for the last two evenings – much more alert.
No problems sleeping – plenty of water is a must.

Happy to miss breakfast as i feel that this would just increase my hunger pangs….each to their own on this one

Re-watched the original ‘Horizon’ again – nice boost.

Keep going @spindrift – positive thinking.

I have just embarked on the 5:2 diet and find this easier than anything I have done before however reading some of the posts I may be cheating so all advise greatly received.
I read an article in the Times magazine on IF and have copied how the author does the diet. I fast from 1pm-1pm but have no calories other than milk in my tea and plenty of water. I find this very easy but for maximum benefit do I need to be fasting 7am-7am as an example? I do feel like I am losing weight and more energized.
All in all though I think I have found something that suits me! At last 🙂

Thanks for your advise shiningmoogie. I will try your way and compare. What I have been thinking is because I am only having 100 calories or less in the 24 hour period this must equate to the same as if I was fasting for 36 hours with 500 calories. I am up for the challenge and will post again when I fast on Monday.

My understanding is that with intermittent fasting we can lower our IGF-1 to healthier levels.
While anaerobic exercise, (high intensity training) depletes glycogen in the muscles and in general works in a complementary way, it also produces human growth hormone (GH). This GH in turn elevates IFG-1 levels. This begs the question: To what extent does this happen and is it something we need to look into?

@ray Roberts. I to have a higher than desired cholesterol. I cannot remember the numbers off the top of my head, but the LDL was high. This was after I adopted a rather extreme paleo diet. It was extreme as I was trying to overcome Crohn’s disease at the time and this diet was working Anyway, prior to the diet change my LDL was normal and after it was high as a result of the diet This naturally made me worry. The diet I had adopted was controling the Crohn’s but was effecting my LDL adversly. I decided to do some research and came across a book called ‘The Great Cholestorol Con’ by Dr Malcolm Kendrik on kindle. According to the book, it seems that LDL numbers are a very poor indicator of a long healthy life, and worst, they are not even measured at all, but rather estimated through a calculation called the friedewald formula. I also follow Mark’s Daily Apple and The Eating Academy and both have articles that talk in great depth about cholesterol, both of which say the same thing in different ways. So to get to the point, maybe the numbers are nothing to worry about if the rest of your lifestyle is healthy, maybe they are just numbers. That said, I adopted the 5:2 diet out of curiosity to see if it would effect my cholesterol numbers. I have not been on the diet long enough yet to warrent another lipid profile. But whatever the outcome, I’m pretty confident that the numbers I will get back will have very little effect upon my life. Like you, I go to the gym three times a week and engage in a healthy lifestyle and have a healthy diet consisting of unprocessed food, meat and veg mostly and avoid simple carbs such as sugar. These, for me, are the strongest predictors of a health. So, I don’t see you as a failure, if anything, the system has failed us all by fixating on cholesterol numbers and scaring us into taking a drug that does more damage than high cholesterol ever could. I urge all to have a read of Dr Kendrick’s book and read the articles on cholesterol on Marks Daily Apple and The Eating Academy and make up your own mind as to what the numbers actually mean for you.

Wow. I am 70 too. Lost 5lb first week. Hope I can lose 2 or 3lb this coming week.
Bri

Hi, im on day 9 of the 5:2 diet having had 3 fast days in all. unfortunately however, i seem to have put on weight rather than losing it! I have eaten as normal on the on the ‘5’ days and on the ‘2’ have stuck to 500 cals (200 at breakfast & 300 at dinner). Not sure where im going wrong as i find the fast days quite easy and am not gorging myself on the non fast days to make up lost calories. I have around 1st to lose and seem to have gained 2lbs over the last 9 days!! One other thing to note is that i have gone from no exercise to doing some form of exercise each day (sometimes 45 minute walk, or 45 minure Davina workout at home). Not sure if this has an impact? Help!

I too have just been following the 5:2 exactly as it should be (500 cals) and have done 4 fasts in two weeks. Weighed myself for the first time today and have only lost 3/4 of a pound! but 2 inches from my waist…not sure I understand why? I am quite disheartened as I am only aiming to lose 7lbs, but would ideally like to lose a stone. Weighed in at 10 stone and am 5ft 6. I have a small to medium frame and ride regularly for my excersise. The first fast day was hard, but I am suffering no hunger pangs anymore and I do not overeat on non fast days.I am feeling more alert though and less lethargic.Maybe we are just slow losers…

I’m on day 7 and have lost 4lb so really pleased. Eat only one meal on fasting days as find this much easier. Have eaten things like margarine on toast for the first time in 27 years without gaining weight so feel I have my life back with this diet. Thank u thank u thank u 🙂

I’ve been doing 5:2 since the end of december and have lost 5lb which astounds me as I hate dieting and never stick to it. I find I can’t go long stretches without food so I split 500 cals into 4 small meals which I can cope with. I am a bit peckish in the afternoons (just soup for lunch) but otherwise absolutely OK. That may have less health benefits but as the research is incomplete about that I will take my chances on the principle that the diet that works is the one you actually do! I do now feel confident about sticking to it and just love the fact that I can forget aout diets the rest of the time.

If you are interested in monitoring your fitness, I can recommend a book called “Fitness for Geeks” by Bruce W. Perry, published by O’Reilly. It covers fitbit, sleep monitors, and even has a section on intermittent fasting. Geeks are portrayed as being obsessed with gadgets, and this examines the ultimate gadget – one’s own body.

I have been doing the 5:2 since August and lost 3.5 Kg. I am almost 60, averaging 71-72 Kg on non-fast days. My fast days are Monday and Tuesday and I play 2 hours of competitive squash, including a 3 mile walk there and back. What is troubling me is that my waistline is not reducing, so now I am going to increase fast times to 16 hours without calories to see if that helps.
Also and somewhat concerned, I have just read the NHS website http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/01January/Pages/Does-the-5-2-intermittent-fasting-diet-work.aspx
regarding the diet and it is basically stating there is not enough research to support the diet, would appreciate people’s views on this especially a qualified GP?

Currently doing the 4:3 approach to the diet and its working fine. I donate blood and am due to donate tomorrow,which is a fast day. Will it be ok to donate and fast? I currently spread the 500 calories out over 3 meals during the day. I don’t usually over do things after donating blood anyway. Appreciate any thoughts.

I gave blood on Wednesday evening and fasted on Thursday – no food until 7pm, only a couple of cups of normal tea with milk, and some black coffee and peppermint tea – and I felt absolutely fine. I’m 5’4″ and 9st, so not much to lose.

I’ve been doing IF since about August. I am a really active person, I run, cycle or row at least 6 times a week. I even ran a marathon in October whilst practising IF, the only thing I make sure is that I don’t fast immediately before a very active day (I.e before a day with two workouts or a marathon!). I can easily do an hours worth of activity in a fasted state, but any more than that i do feel slower and sluggish, marathon runners would recognise this as ‘bonking’ or the start of ‘the wall’. I’ve read that your body stores enough energy for an hours activity (approximately) without needing to take calories in.
I have lost about 3/4s of a stone, and it’s still gradually coming off. I didn’t have loads to lose but wanted to become a bit leaner. I found that I needed to spread my calories out through the day as I was getting very cold, unusually for me.
I have definitely got leaner and the fat that was around my waist is definitely less. However, the only thing that does not correlate with what research has shown is my body fat percentage, it still shows as around 31-33% – it doesn’t change?! And I’ve tried two sets of scales to see if it was something to do with the machine. BMI has improved, I sit within the healthy range of every other measure but fat% just stands out as pretty high. Anyone else come across this?

After years of ‘carb loading’ it has taken me quite a wrench to train on fast days. Initially I thought they’d only be good for rest days, but after a few weeks I no longer felt drained on fast evenings, and also started to see articles about the benefits of carb depleted training. Google ‘train low, compete high’ for loads of discussion of recent findings. There’s no doubt believing you are maximising the benefits is a big motivator for winter training. Now I feel combining this with 5:2 should really help with cycle sportifives next season.