Lizamor, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of information out there on maintenance. Michael Mosley presumably kept the health benefits of 5:2 as well as the weight loss when he switched to 6:1. I recently reached goal myself, thought I would have to do 5:2 for maintenance at first because the last few pounds came of very slowly and with 4:3, but I suddenly dropped about three pounds and so am having to cut back to 6:1, and it feels really strange to go a whole week without fasting. I also have CFS/ME and don’t feel like IF has made a huge difference with that, but I am super-interested in maintaining the health benefits. There are people in the bodybuilding community who try to fast without losing weight by confining all their eating to an eight-hour period during the day. This pattern is referred to as 16:8. Some people even try to do 20:4. I don’t think I could stuff myself that full in four hours. I am not sure to what extent the health benefits of this have been confirmed with research studies. I think most of the research has been on calorie restriction for longevity in one form or another, but many people who do 5:2 also do some 16:8 days. There is a thread of people who are maintaining, it is called ‘Thank you Dr M for my success!’ Would you like to join us there? We are in the process of figuring out what works for each of us.

Hi Lizamor,

I just posted my story separately. I have been on 6:1 for 8 months after 1 year on 5:2. Beside my cholesterol level, which was excellent on 5:2 but then skipped back to 5.4 (which is still just slightly higher than ideal), my body weight, glucose and IGF1 were all just great on 6:1. My experience is that “maintenance mode” is the right thing to call it – I managed to keep what I built up on 5:2 (well, besides that cholesterol level then :))