I’ve lost a lot of weight Kate. I never eat more than 300 calories on fast days, even though I’m male and 155 pounds at this point, and I fast at least 36 hours and often 40 hours (usually from 8pm the day before until 10 am the day after). I like to make sure that I’ve entered the “fasting state”, whatever that is. I think eating less on fast days gives me more slack on non-fast days. Then I try to eat healthily and moderately on non-fast days, without actually dieting (i.e. I indulge sometimes and I don’t obsess or count and sometimes I don’t lose weight either). I’ve been eating much less meat too, which causes me to eat more fiber. I believe there is evidence that more soluble plant fiber in the diet improves the types of intestinal bacteria and may cause weight loss via a hormonal change. I haven’t quite gone vegetarian but I’m 90% there. I’ve also cut the percentage of fat pretty dramatically. I started at about 210 pounds two years ago but I was at a plateau at 175 pounds when I commenced 5:2 in May and I’ve since lost 20 more. Still need to lose at least 10 more, and If I plateau again, I plan to fast 3 days a week to break the logjam and finally get rid of my old nemesis. This isn’t east at all, but I feel great and many things are so much easier, and all my health numbers are much better, so it is worth it.

However, when Couscous says ‘eat normally’ that means eat normally for a person of your weight. If you are seriously overeating on those days then you’ll not lose weight.

I lost weight to start with, and then hit a plateau. When I looked at what I was eating and my TDEE it was no surprise that I had been gaining weight before I started, and was now stable. I tracked what I was eating for about 3 weeks, and learned where all the traps were. All it took really was a heightened consciousness of what was good and what not, and I was able to eat quite freely, but kept the bad stuff under control.

In the end its the average calories that you eat that count. What you eat and when will make a difference only in preventing you entering starvation mode, and keeping your glucose levels steadier, both of which help the process, and your wellbeing. But they only help so far. If you stick to your TDEE on ‘normal’ days, and eat only a quarter of that on fast days, you will be eating, on average, 75% or so of TDEE. And that is certainly little enough to lose weight.

Its possible to interpret Micheal’s programme as you can eat as much junk food as you like on non fast days, and you’ll lose weight and get healthy. But that is not what he actually did. He ate the occasional bit of ‘junk’ (although I thought that burger looked pretty yummy) but generally improved his diet. That is partly because if you eat optimally on your fast days, you start to lose the taste for junk and yearn for salads on normal days!

I also suspect that if you choose carbs and sugars for your fast day calories you might actually crave more on non fast days. It really is important to eat well on the fast day.