Hi Wise dieter, I’d like to know why too, and it can be confusing to new people on the forum especially those new to 5:2 and just learning. I think some people want to go faster, some who are a bit perfectionist, and others who are a bit competitive. I sometimes wonder if those who go into it at a much faster rate stay the course or give up, or if it makes no difference to the give-up rate. I think the important thing is to learn 5:2 first, then as you progress on your weight normalisation and health journey, choose if you stay just on that or include something else. 5:2 is 1 version of Intermittant Fasting, and was put forward by Dr Mosely as being more sustainable by more people than some of the other versions. I believe 5:2 is a real breakthrough in the fight against obesity and “Western” illnesses.

Personally, I do the straight 5:2 program i.e. 2 non- consecutive days at <500cals or 1/4 TDEE, except I have added 1 thing extra part way through my journey with 5:2. I added 16:8 because I am forced to be sedentary by chronic ill health caused by a virus. I cannot exercise at all. I am mobile but it is a bit limited and cardiovascular exercise is contra-indicated.

I have been on 5:2 now for over 19months. I lost 16kgs, then maintained at that weight for 8 months and am now losing my last kgs, with 3-4 to go to my goal weight. Because I am largely sedentary my TDEE is quite low, so while I started on 500 cals for my FDs, now I have 1/4 of my TDEE which is currently 370. On my fasting days I discovered I got very hungry after I’d eaten and learnt from others on here about what some call “waking the hunger dragon”. I changed the way I ate on FDs and now have no calories till 6pm then have them all at once.

16:8 is dividing the 24 hrs into 16 hrs without food and eating in the remainng 8hr window. (23:1 is 23 hrs without food, 1 hr with, and would be quite uncommon, but any ratio you see will mean they break their day into non-eating and eating windows)
So…for me, I eat in an 8hr window on my 5 nonfasting days. I eat between 12 noon and 8pm or 1pm to 9pm. This suits me very well, and on this FD and nonFD regime I can lose the weight at a reasonably steady pace. It’s not the fastest loss on here, but I have proven for myself that I can normalise my weight and improve my health on 5:2. I am off some medication and my medical team are very happy with my progress on 5:2. Very happy 5:2er here. I have no inclination at all to do 4:3, alternate day fasting, water fasts, b2b fasts, several consecutive fasting days or whatever.

What it all comes down to is personal choice to fit our own bodies, minds and emotions, and the personal baggage we arrive at 5:2 with. I wish you well on your journey, and you find the right fit for you Wise dieter.

Merry

Wise Dieter,

Many of us considering the “diet” as not a diet but the way of life. The whole point of it is to find the way of life/eating that fits to your life, and if you find it, it could be really sustainable. It is not temporarily solution, but change of style of eating and thinking about food completely. Since we are so different, with different personalities, each of us trying to find a variation of 5:2 that fits the best to us, so we could enjoy of heath benefits, but still don’t feel trapped by something that foreign to us.

I also find out that with time I am adjusting my “diet”. What worked at the beginning for me, not always works at current time. I LOVE the flexibility of the diet, and that we can have so many variations and still lose weight. I started it in January. Already lost 20 lb and get myself in healthy BMI category. I know it works. Listen to your body. Your body will tell you what is the best for you at certain time.

You are right, that it could be a little bit confusing. And it is great that you start with the original diet. If it fits you – perfect! If not – don’t give up, try some variation. Happy losing! 😀

Wise- I think it’s great you started this strand!

Obviously, having a central structure (5:2) has helped illucidate the benefits of fasting in a way that seems sane for people used to eating all day all their lives. So a Thank you MM!!!!

But fasting is such an awesome medicine and everyone has particular health or weight or even just lifestyle differences that, over time, create a natural flow of experimentation.

For example, I have 2 young children to feed 3 times a day, so I can’t just walk away from cooking and food on fasting days. I found it easier to never take a taste of food than to do a little, so I have a protein shake to sip if I start feeling really hungry, but that’s it. It’s just what works for me. Also, I had some major health issues and I was impatient for them to improve more rapidly with more fasts. So I decided to do every other day fasting until my pain was gone and then go to 5:2. One a holiday weekend, I usually fast until the holiday meal so I don’t miss out, even if it happens to be on a fasting day…then I go back to my fast. And we’ll, I found out that if a holiday lands on an eating day, if I do the same, fast until the holiday meal, I tend not to get the increase in pain from festive foods. So you see, just starting with your structure and then, as need arises, working with it, produces what one sees on the forum today – diversity at its finest.

So glad you brought it up and best of fasting to you.

I’ve literally just started fasting this week – I’ve previously tried the 5:2 but found that I would allow myself to eat rubbish on the 5 days and I didn’t really benefit. As I commute to London everyday I wanted to try alternate day fasting as a lifestyle change – we’ll see how it goes!

I started on Tuesday and have decided that I’d quite like to eat everyday so I fast from between 4 and 6pm in the evening to the same time the following evening and then break my fast with a healthy evening meal. And it’s working well at the moment – not feeding hungry or in danger of eating my colleagues! I also decided to cut food out completely and just stick to coffee, tea, water and diet drinks during my fast. Apart from needing the toilet a lot I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how easy it has been and from a very lazy perspective it is great to not have to cook an evening meal every other night!

I will only weigh myself once a week (slimming world style) so looking forward to seeing what happens next week. Currently 9st 11 – which I’ve never been unless I was pregnant and I’m 5’2 so officially overweight according to my BMI 🙁

Great thread and interesting to see what everyone else does 🙂

I started on this diet a few weeks ago, and have already lost 2 kilos, and quite a bit of visible signs of being overweight. The one thing I changed, if that should even count as a change, is that I make my fasting period (in which I take nothing but water, tea and coffee, without milk or sugar) last at least 18 hours, but usually 21 or so. This is because research suggests the fasting benefits are to be had only when fasting for >18 hours. Of course, without that, the twice a week calorie restriction is still going to help a lot with weight loss, for most people, but to me, that’s reaping just half of the benefits this diet offers. I find that a couple of hours of ‘autophagy’, when the body starts ‘eating’ old cells and making emergency repairs in preparation for what it ‘thinks’ is a famine, are really invigorating, and I trust that the health benefits will ensue.

Like many others 5:2 worked fine for me at first and I managed to get to my goal weight within 1 or 2 years. But then I got cocky and was not as strict as I was at first. I have done various forms of the diet. You do what works at the time and change it accordingly. I am now doing Every Other Day. It would not make sense to stick with a formula when it is no longer working for you. It also makes sense to experiment a bit as you get to realize how your own body (and mind) works.

Hi fatrabbit. There was another key difference between the alternate day fasting that Dr Varaday was researching and the 5:2 program that Dr Moseley proposed. Alternate day fasting has no calorie restriction on the “feed” days, whereas 5:2 does specify that you need to stick close to your TDEE if you expect to lose weight.

I think, which one works well for an individual depends partly on how much of a binge eater they are – and I’m sure there are other factors that also have an impact. I’m glad that alternate day fasting works for you, if you are able to not go overboard with eating on the “feed” days than you should get good weight loss results.

I tried alternate day fasting a while ago and although Dr Varaday said that in her study people only overate their TDEE by 10% on “feed” days, that was not my experience. I managed to eat so much on the “feed” days that I wiped out any benefit from from all those fast days, and my diet became less healthy than it had been because of the bingeing. For me the very act of restricting food on a fast day is a trigger for bingeing. I am finding on 5:2 that I average 1 binge day per week, although the level of overeating is relatively moderate (about 1500 kilojoules (350calorires) over my TDEE).

One tool that I adopted over a year ago (long before I started 5:2) is an eating window. I came across the concept when looking at UK research into using calorie restriction and an eating window to reduce side effects in chemotherapy patients. As I receive immune suppressant therapy for rheumatoid arthritis I get similar side effects to chemo, so if something could reduce those I was interested. After some experimentation, I found that most of the benefit for me, came from the eating window and little from the calorie restriction – providing I wasn’t bingeing and was just eating a normal healthy diet within an eating window I have a dramatic reduction in side effects of treatment (it reduced nausea, vomiting and headaches to almost nil). Initially I was using the eating window only in the weeks that I was having treatment, but I noticed that it was much easier to control my binge eating on those days so I decided to try doing it full time. My window is roughly 12:30-8:30, give or take an hour. On occasion I will eat something during the morning (usually if there is a family brunch), but I never eat after my absolute cut-off point of 9pm regardless of how late in the day I started to eat. This is because late night eating is my worst danger zone for overeating. I can eat my TDEE up to dinner time and then eat another days calories from 8pm to 2am, just from grazing. The more trouble I have sleeping the worse the overeating gets (I think my ability to say no diminishes with tiredness). Having an endpoint that I never ever break really helps me with this – in fact I think it’s the only thing that has ever helped when it comes to bingeing. I also found that it was important to never break that 9pm curfew as if you are willing to break a rule once, the voice in your head tempting you to do it again gets much stronger

When I started the 5:2 diet 3 weeks ago I kept my normal eating window pattern for food consumption – I do this every day regardless of whether it’s a FD or a non-FD. I actually find it helps on a FD as my hunger doesn’t kick in until I start eating (and then it doesn’t shut off all day). So a limited window for eating does make it easier to stick to the 500 calories. I often don’t start eating until mid-afternoon on a FD, so that the length of time that I have to deal with a persistent appetite is limited. I routinely have afternoon tea (fruit or raw veg and a legume dip or a salad usually) and dinner (veg and a little protein) on a fast day. I do however have some cups of tea outside of my eating window.

I plan to stick to an eating window of roughly 16:8 indefinitely. The 5:2 program is currently temporary for me, until I reach my weight loss goal. Then I’ll need to experiment to see what’s required to maintain my weight. It might be 6:1, or 5:2 might still be required if I’m having binge days too often.

I guess what I’m trying to convey, is that each of us have different health issues and obesity related behaviour patterns that will require different choices when it comes to dieting or weight maintenance. I think the fact that there are a number of options out there which all offer the health benefits of a period of fasting is a good thing, as hopefully most people can find an option that works for them. One thing I’ve learned over many decades of dieting, is that one solution does definitely not fit all overweight people, we are different and require solutions that suit us as individuals. In this instance choice is not a bad thing.