[Closed] The 2 day/5-2 diet - anyone tried it?

A mate at work did that for a while. He said he felt a bit better, but I don't think he lost that much weight as he made up for the two days on the remaining five. He was also very short-tempered during his fasting days.

I'm in my 4th week of it. The horizon programme from 2012 "eat, sleep and live longer" always stuck in my mind, finally plucked up the courage to try it.
I've lost half a stone, but feel a lot better. The fast days consist of a small bowl of porridge in the morning and that's it until the next day. Easy. Didn't realise how much crap I ate between meals until now! 🙂

Unlike a lot of the fad diets mentioned on here, the 5:2 has a lot going for it.

I've done the Fast Diet, that's the wrong book. It's a looky-likey by some people rehashing different stuff and jumping on the 5:2 bandwagon. This is the real one by the guys who originated it.

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The one you've posted is pushing a change of eating style to Mediterranean whereas the one I've linked to is much more open on what and when you eat, just reduce it to small numbers of calories 2 days a week. Oh, and it works.

Yep. Lost best part of 3 stone on it over the course of about 9 months, going from 38W to 34W, even 32 in some jeans, and BMI from 30.8 to 25.6

Have subsequently relaxed my regime somewhat and gained maybe 6-8lbs back, 0.8 of a BMI, but that's probably all higher muscle mass having been doing a lot of singlespeeding this year 😉

In reality it's mainly caused by not being so strict on the 2 days and a few too many cakes on the 5 days. It fits my lifestyle far better than calorie counting for 7 days a week, particularly as i travel with work, but it isn't a licence to eat anything that doesn't move in compensation, and anyone that thinks it is is destined to fail. I started in Jan 2013 actually doing proper MFP calorie counting trying to do 1500 cals / day every day, and while I'd never have kept that up, either physically or psychologically (because every day you exceed your limit there's a big F next to your name and a voice saying 'you screwed up! Might as well quit now!') - it did give me a decent introduction into which foods are calorie rich, which fill you up, and what a proper portion looks like. So even if you do go 5:2 my advice to start with is to use MFP or similar for your 5 days to make sure you know what 2400 or 2500 cals is.

Yep, did the Michael Mosley version and lost about 3 stone. It is basically eat less move more, it's just a different way of distributing the calories you do eat.

Give it a go. It's not faddy or dangerous so you've nothing to lose (except weight). Doing it may or may not suit your left. I also found it easier to skip breakfast and lunch and save my 600 calories for dinner.

Yes, I've done it a few times, for a month or so each time, just to lose a few pounds. It worked for me, but I wouldn't want to do it continuously as a lifestyle choice because after a fast day I get so ravenously hungry in the early hours of the morning that it disturbs my sleep!

Yup Started the day after I saw that episode of Horizon early Aug 12
It's a way of life now.I do skip it here and there and I have learnt a few tricks to make it easier but it's become normal. I'm in it for the long term health benefits I didn't/don't really have any weight to lose.

Very hard this time of year if you work outside.

Leegee - what are your tricks to make it easier. Easier in what way?

It's one of those things that you can make work around you, Taylor it to your situation. I couldn't get in a routine, due to me and mrs nobeer working shifts that were irregular. I've since started a dayshift job, and for the last few weeks have been having tea at night, then nothing until lunch the next day, bar coffee and water. For lunch, I don't have carbs, I have soup, fruit, maybe a couple of babybel, a descent low carb lunch basically.

Then normal dinner with the family at night. I do this mon-fri, it's dead easy, even the 14k commute doesn't make me hungry, i don't miss breakfast at all. In fact, most of the time I'm not even hungry for lunch.

I've lost weight, I don't know how much, but there's defo a shift.

easier as in feel less hungry.

1. no booze the night before
2. eat some extra the night before
3. omega 3 capsules in the morning, this plus a cup of tea gets me through to evening most of the time
4. High Five zero extreme. no calories but the caffiene helps a lot.
5. I keep a many calories as possible in hand for the evening,
6. i try to stick to week days when I'm active, sitting about at home makes it really hard you need to be occupied.

My wife lost a lot of weight on the "original" 5:2 diet. The trick is not to treat the "5" days as "eat what you like days".

She has 3 meals a day on the "2" days, but v low calorie meals.

'2 - eat some extra the night before'

Doesn't work for me, if I have food the night before, I'm hungrier in the morning, strangely.

So you go from evening to evening on water and o-3 capsules? I used to do about 200 cals am (porridge, or a couple of poached / boiled / scrambled eggs) and then 400 cals evening (lean meat / fish and veg). But I used to get hungry around midday. Now I tend to go without in the am but have a low cal omelette (mushroom, or plain usually) at lunch and then dinner as before. I find it easier going without in the morning, so will have to try going without right through next week.

But like I said above, the reason I've put weight on since summer isn't really the '2' days but a combo of less time to ride and being a bit too easy on the '5' days.

Done it for about a year now. As others have said is easier to be strict for 2 days rather than calorie count for 7.
I've gone from just shy of 14st to just over 12st. Weight loss is very slow for me but I'll admit I was swimming quite a few miles per week whilst training for a long distance open water event so that helped! It's flexible, if I'm feeling weak and wobbly I just eat and do the fasting day the next day.
I also skip breakfast and eat an egg for lunch and save the calories for the evening meal... If I'm busy in work it's easier it's when I'm home and bored/alone that I struggle but I'm a person who loves to graze on crisps and chocolates!

Nobeer - food cravings are normally due to insulin spikes from eating too many carbs. Try eating high protein/green veg the night before rather than rice/pasta/sugary foods.

Been doing it for over 2 years now. Dropped from 15.5st to just under 13st.

I save my calories for the evening and just have a stir fry.

I had hit a plateau but I think I'd been larging it a bit too much on the 5 days. I used to avoid exercise on fast days, but have recently changed that and it's helped. I do see it as a long term thing

I normally have fruit for breakfast ,then toast at work,then bit of a mid morning snack, then lunch.
However if I just have a fried egg and bacon sandwich in the morning I can go til about 3pm before I get peckish.
So by eating crap I eat less.