Well, never mind Michael I think we all did that so, onward and downward. Good luck all post Easter losers and shrinkers. Keep going.

I have been on this diet for 7weeks now and have lost 8lbs. This is remarkable as I really do only diet on the two fast days, on my normal days I eat quite well, still enjoying a glass of wine and some extra treats. Thank you Michael I am so thrilled with the results. One of my tips is to wear something that is a bit tight on the fast days, it reminds me why I am doing it!!

Well here we go. We are 2 NH Heavies that are going to become NH Fasters. Just watched the piece on PBS and it makes sense and feels like it could be a new path to better health. One comment I read on the blog noted the guilty feeling around food for years and now this will remove all the guilt in 2 “hopefully simple” fasting days. We really think that we can do this with good success. We will officially begin on our first fast day, Monday 4-8, as we want to prepare to have some of the fast menu food ready and waiting. We will let you know how we are doing!

Hi Pinkyj, IMHO it’s better to view the feed days (non fast days) as ‘eat what you normally would’ days ‘instead of eat what you want’ days. And now I will totally contradict that by saying it’s still fine to eat what you want on your feed days!!!

What I mean is that it’s important not to hit a feed day and go absolutely nuts and stuff down lots of takeaways & cakes because of the perception of being immune to calories, one can still eat takeaways, sweets, fry-ups etc on feed days but not an infinite amount. I found that I had to rewire my brain a bit on the 5:2 diet, and the psychology of having “eat normally days” worked better for me than “eat what you want days”.

Or I suppose another way of looking at a feed day is that it can be an “eat what you want” day but not an “eat as much as you can” day. HTH

I’m finding this diet incredibly interesting so far, 3 weeks in and my tolerance for sweet food has rapidly decreased and my tolerance for hunger has increased a lot. I’d like to think of myself as someone who is fairly informed on food and I do make good food decisions 90% of the time – my biggest problem was never being able to guage fullness and I was following the ‘little and often’ approach to eating. SO, basically eating when I wasn’t hungry, to stave off hunger – that’s the proper way to do it, right?! Hmph!! My 500kcal days are a big eye opener, I’m finding it convenient to fast all day and eat 1 evening meal, because I like to eat with my Husband. 500kcal on a plate isn’t actually that much to look at unless it’s a massive pile of vegetables – it’s now obvious where I was going wrong before! This easter wasn’t the usual chocolate fest, I just couldn’t stomach my usual quantity! I’m not measuring or weighing regularly (for my own good), but my was-tight trousers are now comfortable and the scales noted an 8lb drop after 2 weeks. Partly from fasting, but partly because the fasting is having a huge affect on my appetite and I’m not eating as much, I can tell when I’m full and I’m fuller for longer between meals!! Day 1 might have been one of my toughest challenges in a while but I’m so glad I stuck with it and didn’t cave.

I was wondering on a fast day when drinking herbal tea or black coffee, is it ok to add stevia as a sweetener????

Oh dear post Easter egg guilt setting in. On my first fast day again after 2 weeks off. Very hard!! Any encouragement out there for me? 🙁

Thanks Gillian. I am going to do that ! Just come back from a morning run too which always helps

I put on 2lbs over Easter but wasn’t fasting at all and did in fact over-indulge in the chocolate, although I don’t think I over ate generally otherwise, probably due to a change in the way I think about food now. Back to a regular 5:2 fasting week now and hopefully back on a downward trend this week. There’s a friendly and helpful forum with lots of good information available at fasting-forward dot com if anyone’s interested in joining us.

Dear People,

A few weeks ago I listed the program in NPR about Dr. Mosley and I bought the book right away and I started the diet on March 18.

I am not really overweigh person only 9 kg up my regular weigh. so I start the diet with a 4 weeks regimen of exercise (Yoga, weigh lift, cardio) after 4 weeks I have lost 2.30 kg, so far so good.

Because I live in Arlington, VA and my family and friends are in Mexico, I asked them to joint me in this diet, so many friends were interested so I decided to start a blog in Spanish, with some recipes and my own experience.

http://micincodosdieta.wordpress.com

The recipes was the hardest part because I had to change some ingredients because some of them are hard to find in Mexico, but it has been a really nice experience, and be one of the first to do this for the latin america community is something that I enjoy.

I hope you can share my blog now that you will come out with the book in Spanish.

I will let you know if I reach my gold.

Antonio Santiago

OH NOOOO!!!!! Just wrapping up our second fast day during our first week and we used a recipe from your book on page 134. The tuna bean and garlic salad. Upon finishing our dinner we could barely eat our entire meal. I was suspicious that we somehow ate too much. We looked at the can of the beans and realized that the recipe, which states 1 1/2 cups canned cannellini beans must mean just a half cup not one and one-half cups. We have overdone it on our beans!!! Drats! I suppose we could have still done much worse and eaten a pint of ice-cream! Your recipes should be reviewed to assure the measures are accurate and the language is appropriate for your US release. Hopefully we do not find any other such issues with the recipes. All in all so far so good. Great first week!

Hi Antonio – yes, the Fast Diet book will soon be available in Spanish – and it is also set to be published in 25 other territories too, including a version in Arabic, Hebrew, Polish, Korean, Japanese, Swedish… very exciting. Would love to know how the translations will read, and how the Fast Diet will be adapted to different culinary cultures. Keep those stories coming in!

Let’s talk about . . . CONSTIPATION. Any ideas? I eat whole grains, beans, fruits, vegies and every time I reduce calories/up exercise, . . . . HELP!!!! And yes, i’m adding ground flaxseed to my oatmeal.

MM – re the “fidget pants” — why not use a tracking device like FitBit? I loved the PANTS, though. And Levine. Keep it up — this is much needed and appreciated . . . from your friend in the USA.

Hello sphynx – no foods are off-limits on the 5:2 system but it is true to say that if too many calories are going in every week, overall, then there will be weight gain rather than loss. That is a law of physics, I’m afraid, whatever programme one adopts.
‘A little of what you fancy does you good’ is also true but, for weight loss, one does have to discover the calorific truths underlying this saying and work out how best to balance one’s eating habits between fasting and non-fasting days.
If you can, have a look back at the comments about ‘normal’ eating in the ‘Different ways of managing your fasting days’ section over the recent few weeks and also, perhaps click on the ‘In Depth’ – ‘q and a’- heading on the homepage : there are numerous comments there, in two separate postings, about what to do if one is not losing weight when using 5:2. I hope, like so many of us, you do find the right balance for you and can thrive on this system.

Peggy S – you might just find that your desire for chocolate and sweet things reduces as you get further along in this diet. I love chocolate and treats too, but 5 weeks in am finding that I often can’t manage to eat as much as I used to. It’s like for the first time in my life I’m doing moderation in sweet things – without even trying! So keep going and don’t worry too much – you might just be surprised by how your body starts telling you to behave in a few weeks’ time! Good luck.

Hi, Rosie5 – yes, I am in the centre of a currently very windy and rather cool England in Springtime. As I start to think about preparing my evening meal, it pleases me to imagine you as I write, facing your breakfast, half-way round the world from here and in such a different setting. Enjoy your day – I hope it goes well.

This diet is a breeze, I’ve been following it now for a few weeks now and lost 14lbs, I did have some chocolate over Easter and totally enjoyed it and still got good results on the scales at the end of the week – the following is just my opinion and not scientific in any way, but before I started the diet I suffered from joint inflamation in my hands and feet that I took daily anti inflammatory medication for, I’d started to notice a week or so into the diet that the inflamation was reducing and that I needed to take less and less medication, I’ve not need to take any medication for a whole week and my joints aren’t troubling me at all, in addition following the diet has given me the energy to go back to the gym and I’m happily completing two, hour long gym sessions a week, something I wouldn’t have dreamed of trying a few weeks ago. Persevere even if you are having a ‘wobble’ on your ‘fasting’ day the food you are craving is only a few hours away. About time the NHS caught onto this and GPs promoted it to their patients – we’d all be a lot healthier as a result!

Into diet 8th week.
Total loss 20lbs.
Start weight 13 stone 10 lbs.
Today 12 stone 4 lbs.
Did start walking exercise (not drastic) at same time
and now on maintenance regime adding a little on 600k days.
I am a COPD and now breath much better, peak flow up, and manage steep hills down here in Devon without distress.
Often forget my morning inhalers before setting out with no problems.
Like my glass of wine and like my food plus chocolate
!!
Do find fast days difficult by late afternoon but benefits outweigh this 100%.
Totally recommend.

Thanks Mimmi for letting us know you had a week off the diet and put four pounds on. I too had last week off the diet because I was on holiday and it was Scottish breakfasts, chippy lunches and hotel dinners that caused me to put on four pounds. I’m back on the diet today and hopefully won’t take too long to get back to the 10 stone I was before the trip. And then downwards to my goal.

Begining the 5:2 this week with hubby, ( I will break the news to him today over lunch :-0 ) we have always “started” some kind of weight loss plan at one point or another and it takes over your life !!! you get so fed up watching the calories and measuring everything to drop a pound, we are no good at the counting and when you come home from work quick and eay is the key for us no willpower !! One question I have my friend has started and found it great but the only comment was “Dont go to the gym on a fast day” she suffered headaches and felt faint anyone else found this or if you excercise on a fast day how have you found it? Thanks

Will be going to gym with friend on my 1st fasting day this week, am going to tell her how great she looks being on the fast diet, after that and plenty fluids before and after should do the trick. Thanks