Hi, I’ve been doing the 5:2 for one month, 4 weeks now. I’ve never had to diet before in my life (I’m 63, male). I always ate what I wanted, drank a bit too 😉
But my healthy job meant I didn’t put any weight on (I walked about 6-8 miles per day). An injury put paid to that and the job and the weight piled on. I was 15st 9lb when I decided to follow 5:2 and here I am 4 weeks later and my weight? 14st 9lb, that’s right, lost one stone in one month. 500-600 calories is easy imho. I get it that some will struggle but to me the biggest battle is in your head. If you sit there dreaming of that pork pie/mars bar/packet of crisps in your fridge you’ll crumble. Once I decide I’m eating nothing else that day that’s it full stop, finished. The one thing that hasn’t changed for me though is the waist measurement is still the same as the day I started? Hey ho, the scales don’t lie. The weight is coming off and hopefully will continue until I get to about 13 st then I’ll change to 6:1. Keep at it folks, it works 😉

Update…. 2 months (8 weeks) in and after the first month of losing a whole stone it slowed down to 2 lb following week, then 2 lb again, then I put 1 lb on?!! So, I was determined this week so I did 3 days of 500-600 cal fast days and lost 5 lb. 3 days was quite tough to be fair but doable. So total loss now is 22 lb in about 2 months, very pleased with that. Stick at it folks it works but please be honest with yourself, eat normally on your non fast days but don’t go mad 😉