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Hi @craig25 – A few tips..
Read the ‘faq’ link and the ‘how?’ link at the top of the page. In the ‘how?’ link calculate your BMR and TDEE and the explanation of why you should know this.
It’s advised to have 2 non consecutive fasting days. This is just to make it easier and more sustainable.. but if you feel at any time that 2 consecutive days will work for you – go for it.
The main thing about this way of eating is that you fit it in to your lifestyle. You do it the way it works for you. And on non fast days it’s about eating WHAT you want NOT HOW MUCH you want.
Aim to be ABOVE your BMR and UP TO your TDEE on non fast days. It can help to use an app like http://www.myfitnesspal.com to help you track calories for a couple of weeks so you can get an idea of portion sizes etc. It’s only too easy to underestimate calorie values!! 😀
Whether you do 5:2; 4:3; or ADF (alternate day fasting) is entirely up to you. I sometimes set out to do a 4:3 week and something comes up and I end up with a 5:2 or if I have done 2 fast days I’ll add another as the mood take me. If you plan to fast on two particular days and something happens on one of the days – do it another day. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way – just YOUR way.
On fast days, what you might think is hunger is more often thirst so drink lots water, herbal teas, black coffee or tea. If you don’t like your tea or coffee black just make sure you account for any milk or sugar in your 500/600 cals.
Oh and take your measurements…chest/waist/hips. Sometimes when you don’t see a weight loss you see an inch loss!
Don’t look for spectacular weight loss all the time – it’s about fastING not fastER!
Once you get your head round it, it becomes second nature and very easily sustainable.
Good luck
xx
Hey Craig, go for it! I’m in week 2, my second fast yesterday and so much of what I read in the book is starting to make sense. What’s great about this plan is even those tiny 300 cal meals on fast days are looked forward to but no feeling of being left wanting on the other 5. Most diets are 24/7/365 of torture!
May sound daft but it has already taught me to respect my food a little more – no more wedging in food I don’t really need, I appreciate everything I get!!
Be positive and approach each day with excitement, purpose and plenty of humour. You will get hungry, but you are bigger than it. Take a walk or knock out some press-ups or something and it subsides………..for a while. Good luck
This is my response to your request for some tips – you may have run into it before, but in case you have not:
As I have been ‘doing’ 5:2 for almost a year, and have been reviewing 5:2 forums for almost that long, I notice I seem to see many of the same questions and concerns expressed by newbies on every site. I have come to the conclusion that newbies need to be issued several warnings about following 5:2.
WARNING 1: Go to the top of this page, click on “FAQ” and read. Condensed there is a huge amount of valuable information that most people want. Failure to read these FAQs can lead to unnecessary worry, confusion and general uneasiness (and dispel some misconceptions about weight loss).
WARNING 2: 5:2 is not a quick weight loss diet (in fact, it was not designed as a weight loss diet at all). So if you are here to lose enough weight to fit into that (fill in clothing blank) by next month, or expect to lose the weight you have put on over several years as soon as possible, you are probably in the wrong place.
Looking around, you will see that the average weight loss with 5:2 is about one pound a week. As that is an average, it means quite a few people are losing less than one pound a week. It is sad but true that if you are a short woman with only a few pounds to lose, your weight loss may be somewhat less than a pound a week. I guess it is also sad but true that if you are as fat a man as I am, you will lose weight somewhat more quickly. But the fact all of these slowly losing weight people are still here should give you a clue that 5:2 has something going for it that makes it more than your average ‘weight loss diet’.
WARNING 3: Combining WARNING 2 with the fact the body retains water to varying degrees in various amounts at various times, your scales may give you a false reading on how 5:2 is working for you. You can do everything ‘right’, get on your scales, and see you have gained one or two pounds. On the other side, you might see you have lost three pounds (joy), but then go for two or three weeks without further weight loss (depression). If you like to weigh yourself often (more than every other week or so), get used to the weight swings (but don’t give up).
WARNING 4: 5:2 allows you to eat the foods you love, and does not require you to eat foods you do not like. If having the freedom to decide what foods you would actually like to eat today is too difficult to do on an ongoing basis, 5:2 may not be for you.
WARNING 5: You will get hungry on your fast days, but you will not die from that hunger. (The not dying part is a good thing.)
Many people that want/need to lose weight rarely get hungry, and it is a new experience when they do. Be advised that learning what hunger really is has certain long term benefits. On your feast days, you will come to recognize if you are eating because you are hungry, or for some other reason. Over time, you may slow down your eating for ‘other reasons’, and lose weight a little faster than you otherwise would have.
Lest you think only eating 600 cal. or less for a day is somehow ‘dangerous’ or ‘bad for your health’, check out this well written history of fasting:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/95722979/Star … y-to-Vigor
This Forum does not discuss long term fasting (nor, in my opinion, should it), but it is nice to know a guy can not eat a calorie from food or drink for 54 weeks, 3 days (medically supervised, of course), and still be alive and kicking (and 276 pounds lighter). If that can be done, surely eating only a few hundred calories for only one day at a time is a piece of cake!
If I have not scared you away with all of these warnings, please enjoy slowly losing as much weight as you want, all the while knowing that when you reach your goal, you will know how to keep it off forever.
One of my favorite lines I’ve run into is “A year from now, you will wish you started today.”
Enjoy the ride!
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