Hello, Trish T – I feel for you, especially as many people so enthusiastically post about their wonderful early results. I would suggest that you read around the site and look at the various comments about how to deal with lack of weight-loss – there are so many individual factors that effect one’s results. Really, the 5:2 system is best seen as a long-term approach to better health (including reaching/maintaining a healthy body weight) rather than a quick-fix. Give yourself time to settle into the way of 5:2 and look for its benefits over several weeks rather than just one. I wish you good heart and positive results ahead.

Hi Everyone, this is my first comment. Living in Hong Kong, I am a bit isolated and behind the times regarding diet issues and only came across The Fast Diet a few days ago after seeing an article about 5:2 recipes on The Guardian website. That led me to the documentary (downloaded from a pirate site on the internet, sorry) then the book. I also spent several hours reading posts on this page and other forum. This was enlightening but also frustrating. I noticed there are so many questions, and repeated questions, about information that is covered well both in the film and the book and I would appeal to people really to take the time to look at both. I think there must be a number of people who come to the diet and these web pages having just read a newspaper article about the plan, which do not give a complete, or correct, picture of the science and the diet itself. For example, there are many posts along the lines of “I haven’t lost weight, I thought I could eat anything I wanted on non-fast days”. These views are propagated by articles such as the one I read on The Sun, which said “gorge yourself” for 5 days on pizza, chocolate and chips then have scrambled eggs and chicken for 2 days.
Nowhere in the book or film does Michael say you can gorge yourself, and when he does say you can eat whatever you like, he means eat what you normally eat to be the weight you are, without giving up the slice of cake, burger or having to count calories, then have the 2 fast days, and you will reduce your overall calorie intake to lead to weight loss. It doesn’t mean you can gorge on high calorie food — ie eat more burgers and cake than normal; weight loss still is based on the physiological equation of calories taken in vs energy expended. Michael also clearly states that this diet seems to work and seems to give wider health benefits and is based on mainly animal and a few human studies although there is a lot more science that has to be done, yet people are still asking questions about a lot of stuff there is no science on yet. This would be clear if you read the book and updates Michael posts on the website. I don’t want to join this community and start off with a complaint (and I hadn’t intended to write at all until I had something to report) but I think the forums are such a valuable opportunity for all of us to become part of the science. Instead of all the questions, many repeats about “should I eat my 500 calories at one meal or three, should I have split fast days etc”, I would appeal to people to read the book first then just to try different things, what appeals or seems do-able to you, record what happens and use these forums to report back on what happens and exchange ideas on what works and doesn’t (and put in your statistics to the 5:2 fast diet forum). Hopefully we can add to the science so it becomes clear what is really going on with this exciting concept — and help Michael and Mimi with their follow up book! (BTW, sorry for the long post)

Hi, trish.t – I’m really glad your fast day went well yesterday. It looks like you’re finding your way OK, getting a better idea of the calorific values of different foods, etc. Your list of favourites probably do pack quite a punch when all added together: as you say, relatively small portions of each soon add-up to big numbers. Good information to know, though. All best wishes for many more good days ahead.

I’m another one of those who is not loosing weight. After 4 weeks of 5:2 I have lost absolutely nothing.

What’s the problem? I’m sticking to the 500 kalories and find it actually quite easy. If I’m busy I can go all day without food. So I only have a coffee (with a little milk) in the morning and then nothing till an approx 450 kalorie dinner. Initially I felt sometimes a little dizzy but that has passed and now the fasting days are no trouble anymore. I was thinking of introducing a third one but can’t help wondering what the hell the problem is – everyone else seems to lose weight 🙁

I wanted to share my experience for those of you – particularly smaller women – who aren’t losing weight consistently on the 5-2 diet. I’m 5’4″ and not officially overweight, but was a good 15 lbs over my comfortable weight (134 lbs on a small frame when 115 is better for me). I know from previous experience that I just don’t need that many calories to maintain my weight. Before trying this fasting diet, I was on a 1200 calorie regimen and was really pretty good about sticking to it, but wasn’t losing weight. I was so frustrated and chalked it up to middle age and the metabolic rate of a turtle!

When I heard about the fasting diet, I decided to give it a try, but given my previous experience, I doubted that fasting just 2 days a week was going to do it. I decided to fast 3 days a week (which translates to alternate day fasting with an occasional 2-day break), and that’s been working great for me. I’ve been losing about 1 lb a week until just recently. After losing the first 10 lbs, I hit my previous long-term weight (the weight I was at for over 5 years before gaining those awful extra 10 lbs), and now I’ve slowed to losing half a pound a week. I think this is the best I can hope for at this point since I’m at the point where my body is really resisting (I joke that I’ve hit the “marbled” fat now!).

Anyway, I think my experience points to the fact that if you’re a smaller woman, you just aren’t going to achieve the large calorie deficits you need to lose 2 lbs a week on a 5-2 regimen like the big guys do. You might try a 4-3 and also be sure to increase your exercise and avoid pigging out on your non-fast days. And since you don’t have a huge amount to lose, you can still be happy with losing 1/2 to one pound a week. Losing at that rate might also help you keep it off. (At least, that’s my hope!)

Good luck!

hi rachelp240 – 9 lbs in a month and you’re downhearted? That’s really good progress. I suspect it’s because it all happened at the start and not throughout the month. This is common and doesn’t mean you’re ‘stuck’. I see it as the body regrouping and settling itself at a new default weight before pushing on again.

For me (been living this way since the start of this year), I can be the same (lower) weight for 6 weeks at a time and then register a new low 3 times in the same week.

Keep doing what you’re doing, relax, enjoy it even and know that it’s working long term.

Good luck and keep us posted,

Annie x

Not overly familiar with the warrior diet but I thought that you had to basically fast during the day and limit yourself to one meal about 2 hours before bed. From what you have said it doesn’t appear that this is what you are doing? Is it a modified version that you are doing? I would limit the fruit intake as this will cause large glucose spikes which is not good for weight loss. Maybe swap this for veggies and salads. The rice intake is not doing you any favours with respect to glucose spikes either. Glucose spikes cause an insulin response which leads to excess glucose being stored as fat. You need the equivalent of two teaspoons of glucose circulating around in your blood. Any more than this elicits an insulin spike which leads to fat storage.

You may be increasing your lean mass (muscles) with all the training and lean mass weighs more than fat. If you are training 3 x 25 minutes per week then you are slowly increasing your lean mass. Once you reach your desired level then two sessions of the same duration per week is enough to maintain that lean mass. Less you will start to lose lean mass, more and you will increase the lean mass. Increasing lean mass and losing weight involve different exercise regimes. Lean mass involves weight/resistance training. If you want to lose weight then you need to elevate your heat rate to about 50-60% of your maximum effort and keep it there for as long as you are capable of doing. If that’s 30 minutes great. If you can do it for 60 minutes even better.

Hope that helps.

Personally I think 5:2 will produce a better response if your primary goal is weight loss, but good luck with the WD. There is also some benefit in doing cardio training early in the day and resistance late in the day.

Good luck.