Digitalgnome,

Just eat normal with normal size portions on non fast days. Cut out the sweets, fizzy drinks, biscuits, cakes and on the alcohol just drink a few times a week maybe a couple of drinks each time. Start like this and get the healthy eating plan going and the weight loss falling. After a few months add small amounts of treats without going overboard, very occasionally.

There are only two days of strict fasting, porridge or mueslie with fruit for breaskfast, and dinner eating meat or fish with vegetables or salad, keeping off the carbs for these days.

I am sure there are many cook books out there with calories counted, if you need direction. Really just cut all the bad food, and everybody knows what they eat, out of their diet and you are winning! The diet is easy keep it that way you are making it complicated.

Good Luck.

Hi digitalgnome, Jamie Oliver puts the calories per serving on his recipes, and I always find his recipes to work, ie they taste as good as they look and sound. They are are also generally simple and healthy, and use easy to find ingredients, perfect for home cooking. His website could be a good place to look. But I agree with symba7, the reason the 5:2 works is because you only have to strengthen your willpower for 2 days a week, while relaxing for the other 5. This makes it so much easier to sustain as a way of eating. I have been following it since August 2012, and intend to continue indefinitely for the long term health benefits and to control my weight. Good luck 🙂

Hi Kalle, hope it is going well for you. Have been on it since 2012- that’s 16 months altogether! I took up the 5:2 after seeing the ‘Eat, Fast and Live longer’ BBC program, mainly in the hope of improving my longterm health prospects. An added bonus was the weight loss, which was slow, about a pound a week, but I was delighted as I am a bit of a foodie and fully embraced the eating what I like on non-fast days. Luckily i like lots of healthy fruit and vegetables, but i also like wine, choclate and i bake sourdough bread daily 🙂 I found fast days tough to start and can remember being in a bit of a panic over doing even one day. I had headaches and crankiness on fast days, but only in the first few weeks. After that it became automatic, and I shifted the fast days if they coincided with a social event, and took breaks for holidays. After 4 months i went onto 6:1 as i had reached my perfered weight, going back to 5:2 when I needed to. My overall longterm experience has been very good nd I intend to follow this way of eating indefinitely. It really is having your cake and eating it too!

Hi digitalgnome. I use the BBC Goodfood website & their Goodfood books quite a lot as all their recipes tell you the calories per serving. It really helps with the calorie counting.

Hi busybee,

Had to post to say that I love your blog, great recipes and ideas – thank you!

Does anyone know any duck recipes for fast day

Hi kilda, you’ll find my blog at http://www.focusonflavour.com/

Posh212 I have a duck recipe for a fast day in my book 5:2 healthy eating for life – basically lean strips of duck (they call them aiguillettes here in France), marinaded in ginger, garlic, chilli, hoisin sauce, white wine, sesame oil and soy sauce with some ground cumin and coriander. Leave them to marinade for at least 30 minutes, then thread onto skewers and grill or BBQ. Serve with a pile of steamed veg and a leafy salad with a few fresh cherries or orange segments, I figured that 190g of duck fillet was 353 calories, which I shared between 2. With the marinade ingredients it worked out to 236 calories each,

A super easy trick I always use (always did – even before 5:2) is to make use of my mum’s old Weight Watchers recipes. I calorie counted my favourites a few days after starting 5:2 and found that the calorie counts ranged from 300-600 calories (depending on the type of recipe: simple soups vs chicken & veg curry vs tuna lasagna vs risotto etc.). I usually make one of my favourites of these each weekend and because I live on my own I usually have anything from 2-5 portions left over. ***freezer***

Voila, I get home from work late on a drizzly tuesday and no need to bother getting a recipe book out or checking the calorie counts on an expensive readymeal – I’ve got a freezer drawer full of 3 or 4 different choices of yummy homemade meal and if it happens to be a fastday I know I’m still within my count. 5 minutes in the microwave – done!